Reason to live (Ellie x OC/Female reader)

Chapter 16 - Epilog

Andrea's P. O. V

It was a silent ride. Joel was driving and I sat in the back with Ellie's head in my lap. And watched her sleep. Joel didn't say a word. I didn't say a word to him either. He fucking murdered Fireflies. And Marlene....... she raised me and Ellie when our mothers died. Shit, what am I suppose to tell her? That I didn't do anything to protect her from dying. How do I tell her that? Guess I'll know when the time comes. -"Huh? What the fuck am I wearing?" Sounded from my lap. -"Well, good morning." I forced a smile. -"Take it easy, the drugs are still wearing off." Joel said. -"What happened?" She asked and in that moment I knew that what I'm about to say will brake her hearth. But it has to be done. -"We found the Fireflies." I started. -"And Joel and I-" I wanted to tell her the truth but Joel interupted me. -"We went to talk with them and it turned out there are more people like you. You know, people that are immune. And they didn't do a good damn either. They actually.......they've stopped looking for the cure. I'm taking us home." I just watched Joel not believing what he's doing right now. He's lying. Not a bit of truth in his words. I looked in the rearview mirror. His eyes were locked onto mine and they were screaming for me to just shut up and go with the lie. But I don't think I can lie to Ellie, not for long anyway. -"Andrea....." Ellie's sad voice said. I hummed in response. -"I.....think a hug." I smirked and gave her a tight hug. Wasn't really natural given that Ellie was still laying in my lap. But a hug nonetheles. Her shoulders started shaking. She was crying. -"Shhh. It's okay." I tried calming her down. And then I looked back to the rearview mirror, met Joel's eyes and gave him a look of dissapointment, anger, saddnes, whatever you wanna call it. Don't get me wrong I wanted to tell Ellie the truth but what kind of a friend would I be to throw Joel under the bus like that? We traveled together for almost a year now. But I've known Ellie since we were born. Fuck. What should I do? 

Anyway, few hours has passed and Ellie fell asleep again. Joel stopped the car and motioned for me to get out. I nodded and gently slipped out from under Ellie's head. I got out and slowly closed the door again. Ellie hasn't woken up, the drugs sure did theirs on her. Joel walked a few meters away from the car. All around us were just fields with golden grass, we weren't nowhere near the city. And nowhere near Jackson either. Right now we are in safe distance for me to yell. He stopped and turned to me. I didn't hesitate and pushed him back. -"What the fuck?!! Why did you lie to her like that?! Did it even cross your mind that maybe I want to have a say in all this? I wanted to tell her the truth!" He didn't waste a second when answering. -"If we would tell her the truth it would destroy her!" He yelled at me aswell. -"And keeping it from her isn't hurting her?! Imagine what she'll do once she finds out!" I pointed towards the car. -"That's why she won't find out! I will lie to her my whole life just to keep her from the truth! Because I care about her." He said the last sentance calmly. -"You think I don't?" I asked him also calmly. -"I think we shouldn't tell her. To keep her from the pain." -"Her pain will only be greater! The best time to tell her is now, otherwise-" Joel the punched me in the shoulder lightly and stared at something behind me. So I turned around and saw Ellie standing there. Fuck. Did she hear us? -"Hey. What are you two arguing about?" She asked with a tired voice. -"Nothing Ellie. Just what city it is batter to go through." Joel told her. Really? You pull up that lie before and now this. Jessus. Of course she doesn't look like she believes him. -"We were just about to go back anyway." He said and put his hands around my shoulders and we started walking back. -"Okay." Ellie said and turned around. When she did I imidietly shoved Joel's arm of me and without looking back I got in the car with Ellie. After few seconds Joel joined us and we rode away once more.

—The next day—

Our way to Jackson took us longer then Joel thought and to our luck the car broke down near Jackson. I then sit to Ellie who was looking at her bite mark and gently touched the bite mark too. -"Hmm. That's really disgusting." I chuckled and she hit me with her elbow. -"Shut up." She chuckled too. -"Yep, looks like we're walking." Joel said when he closed the car's hood. -"Guessed as much." I said and Ellie stopped looking at her bite mark. I then waited for her to get up and we followed Joel to a wire fence. -"Alright. Come on through I'll hold it for you." He held the wires far from each other so we got through. Then we held it for him and he squeezed through aswell. -"Damn. Starting to feel my age now." He chuckled. -"Yeah? Just now? Damn you're slow." I chuckled back. We walked through a small forest. -"Damn, it's nice here today. Sarah would definitely drag me out to the forest in this weather." Joel said. -"I even bet you would be friends with her." He continued and Ellie just nod. -"Yeah, I would love to meet her. She sounds nice." She answered him. -"Yeah." Joel just replied and jumped at some big log to get up on a hill. I did the same and the log broke. -"Shit. Sorry. I didn't know I'm so heavy." I said and streched my hand out for Ellie. -"Come on." She jumped and I catched her hand and pulled her up. -"See? It's all muscles." I chuckled once she was up. -"I never doupted that." She smiled back. -"Okay. Let's continue." Joel said but Ellie didn't start walking. Instead she started talking.  -"Hey wait. Um.......Back in Boston. Back when I was bitten. We weren't alone." She pointed at me besides me. -"My other best friend was there and she got bit too." -"So that's what happened....." I whispered to myself. -"We didn't know what to do and so she said. 'Let's just wait it out. You know we can be all poetic and just loose our mind together.' I'm still waiting for my turn." Joel answered almost imidietly. -"Ellie, none of that is on you. Listen I've been strugling for a long time with surviving. And no matter what, you keep finding something to fight for." She singed and looked away. -"Now I know that's not what you wanna hear but-" -"Swear to me!" She said quickly. -"Swear to me that everything you said about the Fireflies is true." Come on Joel. Now's your last chance. Just tell her the truth. Joel's eyes flicked between me and Ellie. I could see that Ellie didn't take her eyes from him. -"I swear." He said finally. Oh are you fucking kidding me?!! I threw my hands in the air like I really said that out loud. Ellie's confused look was enaugh to tell me that I didn't. -"Um......Sorry......I just......Nothing." I stuttered out. -"Let's get to Jackson. My little brother must miss me already." Joel said and we got walking down the hill.

-"Stop! Who are you?" A guard on the tower asked once we were approaching the gate. -"Send for Tommy! He knows who I am!" Joel yelled at him and not long after the gate opened and Tommy walked out of Jackson. -"Well. Haven't thought I'd see you again so soon. You missed me or sometin'? Tommy asked and hugged Joel. -"You wish." Joel answered him and pulled away from the hug. -"So I'm guessing you're here about that place I offered?" Tommy continued and walked us to the city. Wow. I know I said that the power plant was impressive. But if you'd seen the city. Man, that's something. Tommy was talking with Joel about some stuff about the house. And Ellie came to me. -"Are you seeing this? Can't believe we're going to live here." She said. -"Yeah. It's.......really something." I put my hand into hers, she looked at me and I could see how her cheeks got red. -"Ellie I think I'm i-" I didn't finish my sentance as I saw somebody over Ellie's shoulder. A girl with dirty blonde hair that I imidietly recognized. -"Hannah?" I said and walked towards her to make sure it's really her. It was. -"Hannah!" I yelled to get her attention. The girl turned to me upon hearing hear name and when she saw me running to her she firstly put her hands to her mouth in shock and then streched her out for a hug. I crashed straight to her and she didn't mind. -"Andrea. Oh my God....." I could hear her cry. I could even feel it because of how taller she was. -"God, I thought you were dead for sure." I said to her. -"Yeah. I thought that too at some point. But then a group patrol found me and brought me here. They saved my life and now, I'm helping by saving theirs." She said and pulled away from our hug. -"You've grown up. And your hair is longer then I remeber. Luckily we have a barber here too so that wouldn't be a problem." She added. -"Yeah. That'd be great." I replied.

-"Hi. Care if I join? I'm Ellie by the way." Ellie walked to us. Hannah shaked her hand and introduced hereself. -"Hello, my name's Hannah. So you're Ellie, huh? Andrea was talking about you all the time while we were in camp." -"What? No I wasn't. Not all the time." I defended myself. -"Oh yeah. All the fucking time! It was always Ellie this. Ellie that. And mostly it was 'Oh how I want to see Ellie again.' And of course we can't forget the-" I punched her in her shoulder. -"That's enaugh Hannah." -"Ow! Shit you're stronger then I remember." She laughed. I looked at Ellie and she was just smiling at me. -"Hannah! Can you come to the stables? I know it's under your level but.." Someone called at Hannah. -"I'll be there in a minute!" She yelled back and then put her hand down on my shoulder. -"Catch you later. You gotta tell me about your journey." I nodded and she ran of. A silence came between me and Ellie. -"So. What was that you were saying before?" She pushed me gently with her shoulder. I blushed as I remembered. -"Girls! Let's go!" Joel yelled at us. -"Uh. It can wait." I told her. -"Okay." She said and ran off. Once more I looked around my future home and then ran to catch up with Joel and Ellie.

Hi! Thank you so much for finishing my story, it means a world to me! So as I said before there's a sequel to this story called: The Last Of Us part 2 - Broken. Hope you'll read that one too! Then again please feel free to write anything in the comments. Because I'll greatly apriciate any type of feedback. You're the best! This is the last story chapter the one that's left is just Names, Nicknames and Explonation as I said. You can skip that if you want. It's just for people who doesn't know the game or forgot what something means. But don't worry, the story of Andrea and Ellie is far from over. Love you and keep reading!

Edit: Thank you for 1K everybody! You're the best!

-By Cotudelam