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CHAPTER FOURTEEN. know it's for the better
( tw! suicide & mentions of r@pe )
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VIENNA WINDSOR felt disoriented. Not because she was in a life or death situation, nor was it because she felt responsible for the lives of the people in her care. But because Joel Miller had thrown himself into the line of fire to save them. To save her.
It made the woman feel sick to her stomach. Each time she heard the violent sound of gunshots in the distance, she found herself flinching. Not enough to alarm the others. But enough to make her aware of how scared she was. Vienna was rarely ever scared. She has lived in a cruel and cutthroat world long enough to diminish even the smallest sprinkle of fear that resided in her bones. At least she was never scared when it came to her own survival. If she died, even if it was a death so violent, she wouldn't be scared for herself because she didn't value her life enough to believe it was something she should've been worried about.
However, when it came to the lives of the people she cared about most, Vienna would find herself trembling in fear, concern and panic flooding her eyes at every twist and turn that put the lives of her loved ones at risk. She felt it when her son was born. There was agonising fear that lingered whenever they were close to danger, whether it was the infected, bandits or his own father, it was a feeling the woman simply couldn't shake. She started to feel that fear with Ellie. At first it was her duty to protect her for the Fireflies. But now Vienna would do it regardless of her task from Marlene. It was like Ellie had become her family in just a short amount of time.
And then there was Joel. There was a time when Vienna Windsor would've once died for Joel Miller. Then twenty years went by and when they found each other again, they weren't the same people. They had both been battered and bruised by the harrowing conditions of the new world. And Vienna hated the man he had become. If it came down to it he would've left them all in a heartbeat if it meant he would survive. That was the kind of man Joel Miller let himself become. Selfish. Cold. Violent.
