Firefly

Forty-Six

Jackson, Wyoming

We sat in the dining hall where the three of us were given a plate of food. I sat in the middle of Joel and Ellie. I looked over at Ellie to see her shoveling the food into her mouth. "There's more if you need it," Maria said. "Ellie, slow down, please." She paused, swallowing the food in her mouth, and looked at me. Joel looked at Maria. "Thank you, ma'am. It's been a while since we had a proper meal," he said. He moved his hand, reached under the table, and laid it on my thigh.

"Actually, I don't think I've ever had a proper meal," Ellie said. "This is fucking amazing." Joel and I looked at her and back at Maria and Tommy. "Sorry," Joel said. "Ellie, language, please," I told her. She looked up at me and mouthed sorry then looked ahead of her. A girl stood behind a beam staring at Ellie. "What?" Ellie asked and the girl walked off. "What's wrong with you?" Joel asked her. She looked at us and shrugged. "What about her manners?"

"She was just curious," Maria said. We turned our heads to look at her as she continued. "Kids around here don't usually look or talk like you," she told Ellie. Ellie looked her up and down before saying, "Right… well, maybe I'll teach them." I cleared my throat and her eyes snapped to mine. "And I want my gun back," she said, looking back at Maria. "They also aren't armed," Maria said. Ellie glared at her and I nudged her, making her look back at me. "Knock it off. Be nice," I told her. She rolled her eyes and looked away.

"You know what? Uh…I think maybe y'all got a little off on the wrong foot," Tommy said. Ellie leaned forward, directed her hand towards Maria and said, "She was going to have her guys kill us." Joel and I looked at her in disbelief. Well, it was too off. She was being herself…outspoken. She didn't give a shit who you were. "Well, we gotta be real careful about who we let into this place. But it's all bark. We're just tryna scare off those who might wanna try us is all," Tommy said.

Joel squeezed my leg and went back to eating. "Well, you got a couple of 90-year-olds sitting themselves out there," Ellie said, going back to her food. "Ellie," Joel warned. "They say that you leave dead bodies around?" She looked at Maria. "Those are the people who tried us," Maria said. "A bad reputation doesn't mean you're bad," Tommy said. Joel looked at him with a side eye. "Not always at least," Maria said, looking at Joel. That bothered me…a lot."

"Right. Well, we've all done things to survive." She looked at me and I raised an eyebrow. "I mean, I've done things I'm not proud of and to be honest, I probably would be dead because of those things if it wasn't for Joel." He looked over at me and I brought my hand up to the back of his neck, leaned into him and gave him a quick kiss. Then Maria and I had a stare down before Joel spoke up. "Ma'am…we're grateful for your hospitality and all. But It'd be nice to have a moment here, just for family." He looked over at Tommy.

Tommy looked over at Maria, took a breath, and leaned forward, taking Maria's hand. "Well, uh…Maria is family, actually." Joel and I were silent, looking at them in shock. "Oh shit! Congrats," Ellie said. She nudged me and I cleared my throat. "That's…wow…congrats, Tommy," I said. Joel stared at their hands until Ellie spoke up. "Joel, say congrats," she said. He looked over at us, and I took his hand. "Congrats," he said. There was a few seconds of silence and Joel squeezed my hand. "How about a tour?" Tommy asked. "Yeah," Ellie said.

Flashback
spring 2011

I was packing our bags for a weekend trip to Bill and Frank's. It took some convincing on my part to get Joel to agree, but he caved after bugging him for a few days. I don't want to say it was an easy task, but it wasn't too hard either.

"Come on, Joel, we need time together." I followed him back to our apartment after a long day of work. "We spend time together every day," he said, opening our door and letting me walk in first. "Yeah, but this would be like a little vacation. Frank even convinced Bill to let him clean up one of the other houses so we would have privacy. We would be stress free for a weekend. No work. No infected to deal with. No assholes who want to kill you. No FEDRA. No Tess." I mumbled the last part. Of course Joel heard me though, even with not being able to hear very well out of his right ear.