Silver ||Joel Miller||

the chance of a lethal heartbreak

LAURA

"Hey," Laura walked up to Tommy after he came back to the movie screening.

"Hey," he responded a little too bluntly than what she'd expected. Something was wrong, she could easily tell that much. Aside from that tone, there was the fact he wasn't standing with his wife and the fact that Ellie had left while Laura had run to the bathroom. There was something going on, and maybe Tommy was a good target to start questioning, mainly because he was the only one she knew the whereabouts of.

"Do you know where Joel is? I haven't seen him since we split up, and I assume that you just came back from talking to him. I need to know what the fuck we're doing from here..." She asked and said. He looked over his shoulder to Maria, who also had a questioning look on her face, before he looked back to Laura.

"We can talk outside." Well, that was unexpected but she would go along with it. She nodded and then followed him into the snow, her jacket zipped up and her hands in her pockets.

"What the fuck is going on?" She asked, and he took a deep breath.

"He didn't talk to you?" What kind of fucking question was that?

"Would I be asking you what's going on if I'd spoken to him?" She asked, and he nodded slowly.

"Tomorrow morning I'm taking you and Ellie to Colorado. The Fireflies have a base at a University there, so..." Laura processed exactly what Tommy had said.

"You're taking us?" She asked. He took a shaky breath and nodded. "What the fuck is Joel doing?"

"Staying here, I guess."

Laura blinked fast a few times to stop her eyes from stinging. It didn't help. It kind of made it worse.

"He's leaving us..." she trailed off.

"He wants you to be safe-"

"Bullshit. He's doing this to protect himself." She didn't know what else to say. She knew this would happen, and yet it stung all the same.

"He told me he's terrified he's going to get you and Ellie killed, that he thinks he's failing her and you. He told me everything, from what you've done the last three months to what Ellie is." Tommy whispered the last part, just in case of prying ears. "You didn't see him when he told me, he cried, Laura. He cares about you and the kid."

"If he cared, he wouldn't abandon us," Laura whispered. "He wouldn't abandon me."

"No, you don't..." Tommy trailed off. "That bracelet you've got stuck on you, I told him we could take his off if he wanted. While he didn't explicitly say no, I could see it on his face that he wants to keep it. He does care about you." Laura shook her head.

"Would you make a decision like this about someone you care about without speaking to that person?" Laura asked, and she saw the hesitation on his face. "Oh for fuck's sake, you were going to go without fucking telling Maria weren't you?"

"It's what's best-"

"God, all men are fucking morons." Laura rubbed her forehead. "No, I'm not giving Maria another reason to hate Joel. The plan had always been to part after we found you, so... I'll take Ellie by myself. There's no need to drag you into this shit."

"The way there is dangerous," Tommy said as if it could change her mind. He was about to learn how stubborn she was.

"Well if it's anything like what I've gone through in the last few months, I think I'll be okay," she told him. "How long does it take to get there?"