Silver ||Joel Miller||

does she look like my kid?

JOEL

Joel didn't sleep. After they found a safe location and locked themselves in, he'd sat up for the rest of the night with the guard's rifle in his hands, watching Ellie. The kid was infected, and someone had to keep an eye on her.

The kid slept, tucked into foetal position on the grass that grew inside the building. Tess slept, albeit uncomfortably, on a chair. And Laura? Well, Laura had stayed awake the entire night as well, observing him as carefully as he watched the kid, with one hand on her bow and the other on her bag, where her arrows were.

The threat was blatantly clear; if he went to shoot the kid, she would shoot him. Throughout the darkness, all they did was watch each other. Not a word passed between them. What could he say? Nothing. And all she could say were apologies she would never let cross her lips.

So they said nothing, instead they sat in a silence that was broken only by the screeches of infected out in the city. That silence ceased only after the sun rose and the kid woke up—only after she moved and Joel pointed his gun at her.

"Stop pointing the god damned gun at her." Laura's tone was almost bored, and if Joel didn't know any better, he would have said it showed she didn't care about the kid. But he knew better.

"I will when she shows us her arm," Joel replied, and Ellie pulled the sleeve of her jumper up once again. In the daylight, Joel could easily see that the bite wound had healed, that it had scarred over and that the kid was showing no signs of infection. It didn't make sense. None of it made sense.

"Gun." The bored tone had evaporated from Laura's voice, which meant she'd fabricated it before. Laura cared about the kid just as he expected, proven by the fact she moved to stand between him and the kid, so he lowered the gun. He didn't like the venom that was sitting in her hazel eyes—the venom that didn't leave as he removed the weapon from the equation.

"Like I said last night, I was bitten weeks ago, and I'm fine," Ellie said, pulling down her sleeve as Laura took a step away again. "But I have to pee if I'm allowed to do that."

"In a second." Tess spoke, and Joel had to ignore the sigh that came from Laura. "How do you know Marlene?"

"She found me after I was bitten, then locked me up and tested me every day."

"What tests?"

"I had to hold my hand steady and count slowly and clearly up to ten, but I think what really impressed them was the fact I didn't turn into a fucking monster." Well, the kid had a point, as much as he didn't want to admit it. "Can I go now?"

"Yes, this interrogation is over." Laura cut in, and Ellie walked towards the door that the group had elected would lead to the bathroom.

"Is there anything bad in there?" Ellie asked before she walked in.

"Just you." Joel replied.

"Oh, funny." The kid walked through the doorway and Joel risked looking at Laura once more. She was pissed.

"And how do you know the kid?" He asked, which earned a sigh from her.

"I don't see why that matters-"

"Is she yours?" Tess asked, and Joel froze at the question. It wasn't hers. He knew that wasn't possible, although knowing exactly why felt wrong. It felt like an invasion of privacy, but she was the one who told him so it couldn't possibly be. Well, he guessed Quebec was the one that told him, and not Laura.

"Does she look like my kid?" Laura asked rhetorically. Her deep bronze skin was enough of a reason to second guess that theory. "If it's really that important, she's the daughter of a long dead Firefly. Marlene got her to Boston and tasked me with getting Ellie into the school and to watch over her."