Pedro's characters one shots

Ellie calls Joel "dad"

Joel was almost asleep when he heard the bedroom door creak open. "Joel?" Said a very quiet and tentative voice belonging to Ellie. Joel rolled to face her quickly, his eyes flew open- a response that might not ever wear off. Tommy called it PTSD. "Sorry I didn't think you were asleep!" Ellie said quickly. "I wasn't. What's going on?" Ellie fidgeted with her fingers. "I don't know I just don't feel good." "Cmere" Joel said, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and holding out a hand to her. Ellie did and Joel put a palm to her forehead. "What feels bad?" He asked. "Like my stomach feels sick and my chest feels like right I guess and it hurts too. It feels a little bit like I can't even catch my breath. Like something is wrong with my breathing." Joel moved his hand from Ellie's forehead to cup her cheek. " I think I know what this is baby." Ellie looked surprised "you do?" Joel nodded and swung his legs into the bed again allowing space for Ellie. She understood the non verbal invitation and climbed in next to him. "Sometimes when our bodies have been through a lot of stressful things like you and I have, our brain gets kinda stuck in that survival mode and we feel on earth guard all the time even though right now in Jackson we're safe and we don't need to be. But it's like our brain doesn't know that and can't turn off the survival mode so we feel these things and it's just our bodies way of coping." Joel explained. Ellie's eyes were wide. "They never taught us that in FEDRA school. "No I bet they didn't. They were too focused on churning out FEDRA soldiers" Joel said with a tone of disgust. "Well how do I fix it? How do I make the feelings go away?" Joel laughed dryly. "Well that's the tricky thing kid, everyone is different and what works for one person might not work for another and it might take a while of you doing one thing before you even notice it's helping" Ellie frowned. "Well that fucking sucks.." "yeah it does" Joel agreed, lifting his arm up to allow Ellie to snuggle up to him. She held tight to a stuffed dragon that Joel had found and cleaned for her on one of his scavenger hunts for supplies. "Can I sleep here tonight?" Ellie asked. "Sure." Joel replied with eyes already closing. Ellie leaned over to turn off the lamp. Joel lay on his back slightly propped up and the girl wrapping his arms around one of his. She intertwined his fingers with hers. "Goodnight Joel, thanks for being a good dad or whatever." In the darkness Joels eyes shot open. Did she just call him dad? His insides felt warm. He gave Ellie's hand a squeeze. "I'll always be here baby"