Don't Let Go: Deleted scenes & Extra's

Fish Are Friends, Not Food

Set just before chapter 67:To Feel...

"Joel?" Ava called out whilst crouched down on her hands and knees, rummaging through the kitchen cupboards. It was getting to that time of the month again when all the food in the house had been whittled down to just a slightly precarious looking can of beefaroni- that definitely looked a little bit swollen, a half eaten pack of now most likely stale crackers and one sealed packet of dehydrated eggs. They could rely on eating at the mess hall, yes but she would much rather make home cooked meals and know exactly what her young daughter was consuming. She waited a beat until she heard his hum of acknowledgment from the living room before continuing, "I've gotta run to the market! Cupboards are empty. Can you watch Lily for a bit?- I'll be back in... maybe just over an hour!"

She could hear movement from the room across the entryway. The living room light had been on the blink for the past few days, the subtle flickering had gotten the best of Joel the previous night as he stomped up the stairs cursing beneath his breath before disappearing into the attic in search for a spare bulb- she'd assumed that is what he was busying himself with currently whilst their almost three year old was sat up watching 'Help! I'm a fish' for what felt like the one hundredth time on the television. What was it with kids and them wanting to watch the same damn movies over and over again? She was sure that she could recite the entire script word for word by this point.

"I can't, Ave! M'headin' out myself in about half an hour. Tommy's rota'd me down to help fix up the breach on the west side of the wall."

She huffed, whilst scrambling for items to trade with. Fantastic. "Thought it was your day off?"

"I don't get days off... should know that by now... Besides the— fuck..." A delicate shatter sounded from the room she was calling out to. Clearly he had dropped one of the bulbs...

She stopped what she was doing, placing the few tradable items scrounged onto the table before wandering across the entryway. She wasn't entirely sure why they were both yelling out to one another when they could simply have this conversation in a lower volume whilst in the same room. She was surprised he was even able to hear her over the TV considering how shit his hearing was.

"Ffffack!" A little voice beamed out from the couch.

Great. Ava swanned around the archway, a finger pointed towards her young daughter and a serious expression to her face, "No, Lils. We don't say that word."

The toddlers face pouted whilst pointing her own little digit towards Joel, "Daddy said it."

Joel glanced up from his knelt position on the floorboards, plucking each shard of glass from the floor and placing it into his palm, he was faced with a rather pointed look from his wife, her hands firmly on her hips.

"Okay, new rule." She started with a sigh, "Don't copy your father. He has a potty mouth and is a bad influence."

He slammed his eyes whilst straightening back to his feet, depositing the handful of crushed glass onto the mantle, "Right, I forgot. Only rainbows and fu-" he caught himself, "damn sunshine comes out of Mommy's mouth..."

"Point proven..." Ava mumbled smugly.

"Almost." He snorted with a wink, "Anyway, as I was sayin', they need all the help they can get at the minute- won't take much for infected or raiders to get through as it stands."

"Ah I see. Only a job that Joel Miller and his construction expertise can handle..." She mocked, wandering over to wipe her sleeve across Lily's cheeks that were stained with god knows what.

He offered her an incredulous look, "There's a few of us workin' on it, actually." He paused for a beat, "Could just eat at the mess tonight?"

Ava's brows furrowed with a shake of the head as she turned to face him, "No. Not doing that, not after half the community ended up with the shi-" she glanced back to toddler who was glued back to the television screen and then back to Joel who was sporting a rather smug smirk, "Upset stomachs last week..."