sunshine // joel miller

TWENTY THREE

Chapter Twenty Three
Orlando Bloom and Jennifer Aniston

Months had gone by since the night of Joel, Fran and Ellie's embrace. Winter had slowly but surely turned into spring - a time for new life, new beginnings, new stories to start and old ones to end.

The physical recovery of Fran's wounds had been slow, the three continuing on to where the fireflies were all heading. Joel had wanted to go back to Jackson first to get Fran the help she needed, and in turn leave her there to recover while he and Ellie made their way to the final destination. It was in good heart, but Ellie was quick to shut it down. She needed Fran, and she wanted her there.

Fran was understanding of Ellie wanting her there. Ever since Ellie had seen Fran so close to the end, she always wanted her near. Ellie looked at her differently now, Fran knew that. Ellie saw the beaten and bruised version of her, and wanted her close to ensure her safety.

The same could be said for Joel. Anything that the two needed and he was on it. He was still recovering from his own wound, but had pushed it to the back of his mind when finding the two in the states that they were.

The journey to the fireflies had been longer than they had expected. Fran couldn't walk very far in the beginning, and needed a lot of rest when they did travel.

She noticed that Joel was always right there next to her, hand hovering behind her back ready to catch her if she fell, or hold her if she got dizzy.

They were on an old highway right by Salt Lake City, a hospital not too far from them. Fran would be lying if she said she wasn't purposefully delaying the journey. She didn't want to say goodbye to Ellie, not even for a couple of days.

She had forced them to stop and look for any supplies they could find, a couple old RV's still on the road. Ellie hadn't put up a fight, or said anything, deciding to sit on the back of an old truck. Joel had tried to get her to join them, but Fran had lightly grabbed his arm and guided him away, telling him Ellie needed some time to herself.

When they got inside of the RV, it was pretty smashed up. The air smelt damp and nature had started to reclaim it. Fran had moved forward first, Joel behind her as he looked around himself.

She went to where an old couch wrapped around the end of the RV, old magazines messed up on top of the once clean sitting area. She picked them up, shuffling through them to see if any were of interest. Joel was behind her, head leaning over her shoulder to look too.

There was a gardening magazine that she looked through slowly, seeing all the tips and tricks for how to keep flowers alive longer, how to grow sweeter tomato's.

"I always wanted a little garden," She said to Joel with a small smile, "full of flowers, and a little greenhouse for tomato's."

"Housewife and a gardener?" Joel said to her, chin resting on her shoulder now, "that might be overdoing it."

"I could manage." Fran giggled at the sarcastic comment. She passed the magazine to Joel, purposefully hitting him lightly in the face as he spluttered, wiping the dust from his face.

He rolled his eyes as she laughed at him, "real comedian." He told her, going to put the magazine down.

"Ah, ah," she stopped him, "I want to keep it."