Firefly

Thirty

A/N: I know I said there would be drama, and I promise there will be. I just got carried away with wanting to add more person stuff in. Sorry it took so long. I wasn't feeling too well, and I've been distracted playing Sims 4 lmao

Four Hours Later

Ellie had fallen asleep in the back seat, not even an hour, into our road trip. I had my head tilted back, one leg bent up with the bottom of my boot against the dash, and my right elbow propped near the window, and my eyes closed. I wasn't sleeping, just relaxing for once.

"What I said that day..." My eyes slowly opened, and my head fell to the side to look at Joel. "You were never a burden. You were never in the way. I know I already told you that I didn't mean them but...look, you're all I had, and I wanted to protect you at all cause. When I got back and you were gone...we could have talked about it."

"Thing is, Joel, we might have been able to talk about it, but we both know it would have just led to another fight. You weren't the only one at fault. I was...I was insecure. Tess-she was a force to reckoned with. She knew how to handle herself and how to survive. She was pretty and closer to your age. You had more in common with her. You both both lost-"

I turned to look at Ellie for a second before turning around. "And she lost her husband and your wife fucked off shortly after..." I cleared my throat. It was hard to talk about her without thinking about that first day. "I don't know. You cared about her too, but yet you never had a problem when someone messed with her. Like you knew she could take care of herself. But when it was me...I felt like you didn't think I could. Like I was some dumb kid who didn't know what they were doing or talking about."

"I never thought that. I didn't know being protector of the one person you love the most in the world was a fucking crime." I sighed and watched his hands tighten on the steering wheel. "It's not. I'm just trying to tell you how I felt and you're getting pissed!" There was hiss from the backseat and inturned my head. "Have you been listening this whole time?" I asked. Joel's eyes flicked to the rearview mirror. "What happened to sleeping?"

"I did sleep. But then I woke up and started to read my comic and you were talking. I didn't want to interrupt you two finally talking it out, but maybe I should have because it's not going so well." Ellie sat up and showed her comic book. "And look at this! TO BE CONTINUED!" She shoved the comic in my face and I pushed it away. "Where did you get that?" I asked.

"Bill and Frank's. I found it while you two were upstairs." Joel and I both sighed. She sat back and I looked out the window. "What the hell is that?" Joel asked. "I also found this! It's, uh... light on the reading, but it has some interesting pictures." I turned my head to see Ellie holding a certain kind of men's magazine. "Oh, my god!" I laughed. "Give that here! . No, no, no. Put that back. That's not for kids. Ellie." Joel told her.

She pulled it away from him, "How would he even walk around with that thing?" She said. Joel looked at me, "Please get rid of it." I turned and tried to grab it. "Give me that." She pulled away from me "Hold your horses. I wanna see what all the fuss is about. I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing at Joel's face. Ellie loved fucking with him. "Why are all these pages stuck together?" This time I couldn't help but laugh with how pale Joel got, and him trying to come up with a way to explain it to her.

"Ellie," I said and looked at her. She laughed, "I'm just fucking with you!" She moved over to the window, opened it, and threw the magazine out. "Bye-bye dude!" I laughed and looked back at her, "Hey, I wanted to see that!" Joel's head turned to look at me with wide eyes. And that only made me and Ellie laugh harder.

I got somethin' else, "Ellie reached into her bag and pulled something out. "Here. This make you all nostalgic?" She asked, ganging Joel a cassette tape. He looked at it, "This is actually before my time," he told her. She rolled her eyes, "Great." He pushed it into the cassette player and pressed play. "It's a winner, though."

Two hours later Joel was pulling off the road and into a clearing in the woods. "What're you doing? We only have maybe two more hours until we hit Pittsburg." Once he felt like he was a good distance from the road he stopped. "I know. Thought we could stop and eat something. Maybe rest up a bit, too." My eyebrows shot up and then I was squinting at him. "What?" He asked.

I shook my head, "nothin'. Just...Mr. "We keep going until we can't no more." Is actually taking a break to rest. It's shocking!" Ellie pretended to look around, trying hard not to laugh at my attempt at sounding like Joel. She made a noise with her throat from holding it in and Joel turned to look at her. "Shut it. Both of you!" Me and Ellie both started laughing and Joel sighed and turned his back to us.

He fixed us with a look that said to knock it off. I cleared my throat and nudged Ellie. "Yeah, Ellie, don't laugh, it hurts his feelings." Joel groaned and walked away. I looked at Ellie and smiled. "He's so grumpy," she said. I nodded in agreement, "yeah. He wasn't always like that though." She gave me a look like she didn't believe that and I shrugged.

We took out the little gas stove and whatever else we needed to cook. "Slow down," Joel said to Ellie as she shoveled the food into her mouth. "This is slow. What am I even eating?" Ellie asked. We were sitting on the ground, sleeping bags under us. "That is twenty-year-old Chef Boyardee ravioli," he told her. "That guy was good," she said with her mouth full. Joel nodded, "I actually agree."

After we ate and cleaned up everything, we just sat back. Joel laid down on top of one of the sleeping bags and closed his eyes. "How long are we going to stay out here? Can we start a fire if we stay the night?" Joel peaked and eyes opened to look at her. "Just until we rest up," I told her. "And why am I going to tell you no on the fire?" Joel asked. Ellie looked between us. "Because the infected will see the smoke?"

"No fungus isn't that smart. Plus this is too remote for them," I told her. "So what people? What're they going to do? Rob us?" She asked. Joel looked at her, "oh, they'll have more in mind than that." Ellie's eyes widened and she moved closer to me. "Don't worry. We're not staying too long. Let the old man rest and then we'll be back on the road." Joel gave a look that I knew all too well. That look that said, "I'll show you old."

Ellie laid down, resting her head on my lap. "Is there anything about the old world you miss?" She asked quietly. I was silent for a few minutes as I thought about it. "Hmm...besides my Nonna, no." I think the worst part was not knowing what happened to her that bothered me the most. "There's absolutely nothing. What was your life like before all this?"

"Well, I guess I do miss my car," I said. She looked up at me. "What kind of car did you have?" She asked, curiosity lightening her eyes up. "A 1965 Mustang, originally poppy red, convertible. It was fucking beautiful. Belonged to my dad and when I turned sixteen Nonna gave it to me."

When I thought about it, me and Ellie were more alike than you would think. My parents died when I was very young and her mother died right after she was born. We've only had other people taking care of us our whole lives. "Do you remember your parents?" She asked. I shook my head. "No. All I have is stories I was told. I got lucky though. And you won't ever be alone in this world. Not as long as you have me. Now get some rest."