"Ellie!" Joel yelled as me and him rode our horses up to the old Firefly hospital. We stopped our horses in front of Ellie and Joel got off his out of breath and went to hug her. "Come here. The hell where you thinkin'? Running off in the middle of the night like that. You talk to me or (Y/n). You don't just leave us a goddamn note--" Ellie pushed away from the hug and let out a shaky breath before looking at Joel and glancing at me as I got off my horse. "Tell me... what happened here." It was a while before anyone spoke.

I couldn't help but look at anything but the two. "If you lie to me one more time, I'm gone." That made my eyes snap to look at Ellie. "You will never see me again. But if you tell me the truth, I'll go back to Jackson." She blinked a bit as her voice started to crack. "No matter what it is." It was silent as we all waited for Joel to say something. "Just say it... Joel."

Joel didn't look at her as he started talking. "Making a vaccine... would have killed you." He finally looked at her. Tears filled Ellie's eyes. "So I stopped them." Ellie looked over to me. "Did you..." She didn't have to continue for me to understand. I just looked at the ground with a sigh. "I helped... but that was only because I couldn't lose you." I looked back up.

Ellie sat back down in the spot she was before we showed up as she started crying. "Elle." I said before stepping forward as the same guilt, from all these years, rose up inside me. We stood there as she cried harder. It was hard for me to watch so I tried to put my hand on her shoulder to comfort her. "Don't you fucking touch me!" She yelled, slapping my hand away and standing up.

"I'll go back." Ellie said to Joel but then she looked at me. "But we're done."

"Elle." I said as she grabbed her stuff and started walking away. "Don't!" She snapped as I tried to grab her arm. "Don't call me that." She turned again and I had to watch her get on her horse and leave as tears fell.

------------------------------------

I let out a sigh as I rubbed the stubble on my face that was slowly growing. Ellie came back all bloody with Jesse trailing behind. He said that he found her making her way back to the theater so he doesn't know exactly what happened but as I was helping Ellie clean up the blood she told me a bit of what happened.

I glanced over at the door as it opened to see Ellie walking out. Jesse stood from his chair and Dina was fast asleep on one of the couches while I leaned on the counter. It was silent as Ellie followed Jesse up to the second floor. "She had a rough night." Jesse said as he started talking. "Barely could get her to keep water down."

"You should've woken me up."

"Is she pregnant?"

"Yeah."

"I get why you and (Y/n) came out here, but we gotta take her back. She needs real care and she's not gonna get that--"

"Yeah, I know. I know. But I can't just leave Tommy. He's out here because of me. Maybe you could take her back."

"She's not gonna leave without you."

"Yeah..."

"Screw it. Let's get Tommy. This aquarium that girl told you about... Tommy hasn't found Abby yet. We'll post up there until he does."

"And you're good with leaving Dina by herself?"

"She's not gonna be alone. (Y/n)'s staying behind because of his eye."

"Did he really agree to that?"

"Not at first, but with a little talk we got through our disagreement."

"I still think I should come with you guys but this loser won't let me." I said making my way towards them and standing between the two. "Your eye's infected, it needs to heal up." Jesse said as I glared at him with my one eye. "Okay." Ellie said as she pat my shoulder. "Let's go tell Dina we're leaving, then."

"Nah." I spoke up. "Let her sleep, I'll tell her where you two are going." Jesse nodded. "Good idea." He looked to Ellie. "I'll see you out front."

"Yeah." Ellie said before Jesse walked off. I turned towards Ellie and carefully placed my hands on her shoulders. "If you die, I'm going to kill you." I looked her in the eyes being completely serious. "Then I'll kill myself." She cracked a smile and playfully punched me before pulling me into a hug. "Shut up." I smiled and wrapped my arms around her, placing my chin on top of her head. "I'm serious though, be safe, as safe as you can be."

"You be safe too, and take care of Dina, Jesse would probably kill you if anything happens to her." I chuckled. "He already told me that."