Don't let go: Joel Miller x OC

Not Without Her ⚠️

It had been seven long hours of walking the perimeter line, the rain hadn't let up since from around one. It lashed down continuously, drenching himself and the rest of his group through to the skin, a bitter yet forceful breeze pushing it sideways as they trudged through the marsh like terrain. He usually quite enjoyed watching the sun rise over the mountains but not today, not when it was obscured by cloud cover and not when he had barely slept a wink in over a week. It was six o'clock in the morning and all he wanted to do was go home, change into something dry and collapse into bed with his Ava; knowing that he could wrap himself around her form, stealing her body heat whilst allowing his guard to come down and drift off.

It was his only motive as he rushed through his write up of the night, before heading home. There wasn't all that much to note. No infected, no sightings of raiders, the transmitters had been quiet and the weather was shit. That was about it, really, apart from a rough scribbled note on how Angus thought he had heard a faint scream but he was the only one and so after a brief glance about, it was decided that it must have been the wind carrying the noise of an animal...

He finally made it through the front door, weary legs kicking his shoes off in the hallway. He knew that Ava would have something to say about the muddy prints he had traipsed in but he'd deal with that when they woke up. Right now, the only thing he cared about was falling asleep in the comfort of his own bed with his woman wrapped in his arms.

He quietly moved up the stairs, being conscious not to set foot on the creaky floor board on the second from top step and carefully made his way into their bedroom, trying his hardest not to stir her. His body hadn't even fully entered the room before his stomach sank like it was full of lead, his eyes urgently searching the vacant sheets in the dim early morning light. He all but fisted the switch on the wall, allowing the artificial yellow glow to illuminate the room. Why was the bed empty? Not just empty but still neat and made as they had left it that morning.

"Ave, darlin'?" He called out with an edge to his tone, expecting her to respond maybe from the en-suite.

A sickening feeling appeared in his gut when he didn't get a response, his hand slipping around to the pistol that he still had shoved in his waistband. He hastily walked towards the en-suite, shoving the door open with his firearm bared just in case of an unlikely intruder, hoping to find her in there. The light was off, no steam or condensation on either window or mirror. He snatched back the curtain on the shower just in case but it was just as uninhabited as the main bedroom. He could feel his heart rate rapidly rising upon realising that he was in the house alone. Her shift was meant to have finished over two hours ago, why wasn't she home? There was  not a single reason for her to not have come straight home after her shift that he could fathom... not without reaching out to him first at least.

All of a sudden the tiredness that was once ensuing him dissipated as he rushed around checking each room of the home, "Ava?"

The nursery. The main bathroom. The kitchen. Had she fallen asleep on the couch? She wasn't in any of them. He may not show it in the ways that others did but he was not immune to fear, not at all. It was very quickly becoming all consuming as he burst into the back yard, beating his fist against the entrance of the shed. Maybe Ellie had a nightmare? Maybe Ava went out to try and settle her- it wouldn't be the first time. That idea soothed him for all of thirty seconds before the teen opened up, stood in her nightwear whilst rubbing the sleep from her eyes. There was no pale skin or redness around her irises, no indication of a terror at all. Something that would usually fill him with relief but this morning just had him further on edge. He asked anyway- calmly as to not worry the girl, just in case there was another reason the blonde may have opted to stay with Ellie but she only shook her head. She hadn't come home.