UNITED IN BLOOD
CHAPTER NINETEEN !
A RUSH OF SADNESS passed through Danielle Linden as she stood in front of the long mirror that sat in the corner of the room. Clothed only in her polkadot underwear and a plain, black bra, the brunette intently stared at the deep scar that ran across her lower abdomen as a dull ache flared deep down. Her left hand rose up from by her side and began to lightly trail over the raised flesh. Thought it was a sign she was still alive, that she was able to breathe in the fresh morning air and feel the heat of the summer sun upon her shoulders, all of the good things that came with being alive, Danielle couldn't brush off away the ache that raged a war in her chest every time she laid eyes upon the scar.
Only a few months had passed since that day in Seattle. Their final day. They had desperately patched themselves up with whatever they could. She could remember how happy both Dina and Ellie were to see that Jesse and Tommy were still alive and kicking.
Dina had stayed behind in the theatre to watch over the two men, both of whom weren't able to be jostled around very much and therefore had to remain resting inside the building and out of sight. Though Ellie and Danielle were incredibly injured, they had no other choice but to go out and search.
Danielle hadn't been sure that Jesse or Tommy would have survived the trip back. Though she had tried her best to patch them up, with such little supplies and no antibiotics to stave off infection, she had been certain that the two men would have passed away. However, with the grace of whichever entity that chose to look down upon them, both men survived throughout the whole ordeal.
In some act of foolish bravery, Danielle had refused to tell anyone about the knife wound on her abdomen. She had been losing blood fast as they left the theatre but what could they have done? Most of their supplies had been used to treat Jesse and Tommy and the rest for Dina. She felt stupid...she knew she should have told someone but she hadn't wanted to be a burden on them.
The Linden girl could still remember how she stumbled out of the theatre, hands secretly clutching at her lower stomach so as to not alert Ellie to how injured she really was. Fingers were stained crimson with her own blood and her head was quickly becoming incredibly light.
They had a plan. Return to the Serevena Base that hopefully still had all of that gas stocked up and find a vehicle that could get them back to Jackson. They had all been far too injured to walk back. It had taken them all over a month to get to Seattle when they were healthy and not profusely bleeding from their war wounds which meant it would have taken them twice as long attempting to return.
After retrieving the gas and lugging them back to the theatre, they had then went on a search for a working vehicle. Nearly every car was either completely destroyed beyond repair or didn't have enough room for them all. Finally, after what had seemed like a lifetime spent searching, they had come across a former WLF vehicle.
The entire back of the truck had just been an open space, which had been perfect for their situation as Jesse and Tommy would need to continue to recuperate as they traveled. Danielle had severely overestimated how strong she was, as no sooner had she and Ellie pulled the truck up outside the theatre until her knees began to buckle.
The brunette could remember having an almost outer-body experience. As she had been laid out in the back of the truck, still bleeding profusely while the vehicle crashed over the rough terrain on the way out of Seattle, she had the clearest overhead view of Dina hovering over her, desperately trying to slow the blood that continued to spill.
The sight of the scar that she always knew was there, taunting her, mocking her as the result of her own stupidity, caused the brunette to feel like an idiot. With a deep and heavy sigh, her chest falling up and down, Danielle turned away form the mirror and towards the clothes she had previously laid out on the bed for herself.
"You can do this." She whispered to the empty room.
One article of clothing after another was placed on her body until she was fully dressed and ready to go about her day. Like every other day, she would press forward despite how much it hurt. Her lower abdomen had continued to hurt even after she healed.
Today was her day off, courtesy of Maria, who had seen had hard she had been working with all of her patients. The leader of Jackson had basically threatened her to take a break which while Danielle appreciated it, the time alone allowed her to get lost in her thoughts.
The brunette slid open her bedroom door and headed down the hallway to the wooden staircase. As she placed her weight on the top step, suddenly the frustrated groans of someone clearly struggling reached her ears.
She slowly began to descend down the stairs as look of pure confusion graced the features of her face. Her voice was filled with curiosity. "Ellie?"
"I'm in here." Called out the auburn-haired girl from down the hallway. Her voice bounced off of the walls of the small home.
Danielle moved through the hallway, passing by the pinned up paintings that Ellie had done to help decorate the place better and make it feel more comfortable.
Ellie had moved out of her garage soon after they returned to Jackson. She hadn't explained why, choosing to simply shrug her shoulders when someone questioned her about it, but everyone knew. She couldn't handle being so close to the home that Joel once resided in. The thought of knowing that she'd never hear him playing his guitar or drinking his god-awful coffee on his porch, just caused an abundance of grief to overwhelm her.
So, without much thought, one night as the dark hues of the night sky began to appear, Ellie just packed up whatever she needed and travelled across the community until she stood outside the house that had been given to Danielle, which had been Eugene's home only a few months prior.
The two girls settled into a routine with one another fairly quickly until they moved like a well oiled machine. It was as if they had lived together their entire lives.
"What the hell are you doing?" Danielle laughed out as her eyes fell upon the giggle worthy sight of Ellie, pinching up bunches of her auburn locks and attempting to cut them while she looked in the bathroom mirror.
The Linden girl tilted her body to the side, leaning her weight against the doorframe as she spoke with a soft smile. "I thought you had patrol today?"
Ellie glanced back at the brunette in the mirror as she continued to tried and failed to chop at her hair. "Yeah I did, but I asked Maria for the day off. Figured you'd appreciate the company."
Ellie knew that Danielle wasn't stupid. If she had lied and said, 'oh, I just wanted the day off.' Danielle would have seen right through her words thus why she spoke honestly in that moment. She knew that Danielle had been down recently, the crestfallen look that the brunette constantly tried to keep from her face as every day passed was slowly becoming more powerful.
Moments in which Danielle thought she had it under control, whether she was reading a book or cooking dinner for her and Ellie, the redhead had noticed how upset she looked, how sad she always seemed.
"That's so sweet." Danielle appreciatively muttered with a soft and sweet smile, her eyes following along with Ellie's every movement. "You didn't answer my first question though. Why are you trying to cut your hair?"
"I need to cut it. It keeps getting in my face and it keeps itching my nose. I've nearly been ambushed by infected like three times this week because I've had to stop to scratch it."
Excited for the chance of a distraction from her thoughts, Danielle was quick to voice an offer. "You want some help?"
"You can cut hair?" Ellie inquisitively asked, though she sounded slightly sceptical, as her scar burdened eyebrow rose unintentionally.
The smile on Danielle's lips dropped instantaneously as her expression became playfully stoic. She wasn't afraid to leave the redhead to her own devices. "You wanna do it alone?"
"No, okay sorry. Please, help." Ellie quickly conceded as her need for help overcame any possible
"That's better." Danielle cheekily stately with a grin, holding out her hand for the pair of scissors that Ellie clutched tightly in her grip. "Give those to me before you stab yourself in the eye."
As the brunette stood behind Ellie, scissors in hand, she suddenly realised that after all this time that the redhead was a couple inches taller than her, leaving her unable to properly cut away at her hair without it ending up completely uneven.
With a faint sigh, Danielle reached forward to set the scissors on the sink. "Give me a minute."
"Everything good?" Ellie asked as she watched Danielle leave the bathroom and head down the hall towards the front of the house. What she could possibly need from there that could help with a haircut however, Ellie had no clue.
Her feet carried her forward to their quaint little dining room, which was still a little bare of their own personal affects, and headed straight for one of the chairs that sat around the dining table. "Yep, just needed to get a chair. You're taller than me. Don't want your hair to end up totally wrecked."
The Linden girl hurled the chair up in her arms, using whatever strength her biceps held and began to lug the wooden object back in the direction of the bathroom where Ellie awaited her return.
Ellie swiped a strand of free-falling hair back from her eyes as a laugh fell past her lips. "I probably wouldn't have noticed, to be honest."
"Yeah, well, I would've." Danielle quipped back with a laugh of her own grabbing hold of the scissors with one hand and with her free one, lightly tapping the back of the chair. "Sit."
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THE SOFT, GENTLE AND sweet tune from the record player filled the otherwise silent home. The sound caught her off guard as Ellie had assumed that Danielle would have been fast asleep in her bed by this point of the night.
Unable to help herself and squash down the curiosity that had begun to bloom within, Ellie descended the stairs, her hand trailing down the banister as the sultry voice of the singer upon the record rose in volume, the closer to the source she got.
As her barefoot hit the bottom step, she was greeted by the sight of Danielle Linden hidden away in the corner of the couch, her plaid pyjama bottom clad legs curled up under her and a book in her hand.
Scratch that, a comic book. More specifically one of Ellie's favourite comics.
To Ellie's recollection, not once had Danielle expressed any
interest in her comics or in the Savage Starlight series and yet there she was, her eyes drinking in every word that was printed across the pages.
"Hey, why are you not sleeping?"
"Jesus!" Danielle cried out in shock, her hand flying to her chest and landing just above her heart, the organ beating a mile a minute just beneath the flesh. "Ellie, my god. You scared the hell out of me."
Her gaze flew up to land upon Ellie Williams who stood off by the entryway to the living room, clad in her pyjamas which only consisted of a loose fitting, white top and a pair of boxer shorts. The now blazing heat of the summer sun allowed for little clothing to be worn while asleep in bed.
Oh, and her new haircut that just so happened to frame her face so nicely.
The sight of Ellie's bare legs caused Danielle to avert her gaze back down to the comic book in her hand. As long as her eyes looked literally anywhere but there then she would be fine. Suddenly the racing of her heart wasn't due to the unexpected scare anymore.
A cheeky grin appeared on Ellie's lips as she inched closer to the couch, finally taking a seat on the opposite side. Her bare legs got pulled under her, mirroring Danielle. "Sorry, sorry. Didn't want to scare you, just didn't know how else to get your attention."
Heat began to rise throughout Danielle's body as the feeling of Ellie's leg touching her own on the small couch sent her head spinning. In an attempt to keep her cool, Danielle tried to play off the way her breathing still faltered. "And once my heart doesn't feel like it's gonna burst from my chest, I'll forgive you."
"That's so sweet. I'm so lucky." The redhead sarcastically replied before a playful smile graced her lips. With a nod of the head, Ellie pointed at the comic that was gripped in Danielle's hand. "What ya got there?"
The realisation that she hadn't asked Ellie if she could even read the comics hit her like a brick, which coincidentally had become quite the popular weapon amongst the duo, and a pit of fear settled down deep in her stomach.
Should she had touched it? Should she had asked first? Would Ellie have agreed or turned down her request with a tone of indifference?
Deciding to just be honest, no matter the response from the redhead, Danielle quickly began muttering out, "Oh sorry, I've been needing something new to read. I figured it couldn't hurt to try one of your comics."
Her nimble fingers began closing up the comic, the girl ready to hand it over should Ellie demand it back. It was silly, Danielle knew that. Ellie wasn't a bitch and she hadn't been nasty or cruel to her since Seattle. That was over four months ago now and nary a negative word was thrown in her direction.
If anything, Ellie had been kinda sweet. Though her sentences only became ever so slightly more playful, Danielle hadn't minded much. She knew it wasn't her but just how Ellie was. The auburn-haired girl was more of an 'acts of service' type of person. Instead of verbally expressing her feelings, Ellie tended to do little things that showed how much she cared.
Like just last month, when she had remembered the little berries Danielle had enjoyed so much that one time they went gathering together and so, had picked them up on her way home from patrol as a little gift.
It was little things like that that made Danielle so appreciative of Ellie. Her fear of Ellie's potential rejection unfortunately only fuelled the fire of her growing insecurities plus she was still coming to terms with everything that had gone down in Seattle as she was sure Ellie was too.
"That's issue #15, though. Why start on this one? I have them all."
Danielle sheepishly smiled over at the redhead. She had inadvertently outed herself as a nighttime peruser of the comic book. "I've actually been reading them for the last few nights, you just happened to catch me while I was reading this one."
"Oh, have you now?" Ellie playfully nudged the blushing girl in the side. "Well, what do you think?"
Time seemed to slip away from the pair as they discussed the comic series. From their opinions of certain characters to their favourite plot points, Danielle and Ellie happily chatted away, the thought of returning to sleep a distant, uninteresting thought.
It was moments like this that reminded Danielle exactly why she first developed romantic feelings for Ellie. The light of childish joy that filled Ellie's forest green eyes just warmed the brunettes heart. When she wasn't running around covered in her enemies blood, slaughtering anyone who dared cross her path, Ellie Williams was just...so adorable.
There was so many features of Ellie that Danielle attributed to the warmth that bloomed within. The smattering of freckles that graced her face were like Danielle's own personal constellation. Despite living in a safe community, with a wide open night sky just right outside, never had Ellie's freckles looked so inviting then in that moment.
Ellie was just it for Danielle. No one, not that she was looking of course, beat or even beat Ellie in that department. Ellie Williams so obliviously held ownership over Danielle's heart and it ached oh-so desperately for the redheaded girl.
Though their friendship had begun on quite possibly the rockiest of terms ever, Ellie couldn't help but scold herself for ever believing that Danielle had been to blame for Joel's death. No, Danielle had been there for her even when she hadn't deserved it, risked her life when she returned to Seattle, all to assuage guilt that she should never have had racking her entire being, to begin with.
The moment that truly cemented Ellie's feelings for the brunette, feelings she didn't believe would ever be returned nor did she deserve them to be, was when Danielle had been laying on her back, sprawled across that godforsaken theatre floor. Thick, crimson red blood had begun to pool around her as a result of the arrow through her leg courtesy of that scar faced kid and the deep, knife wound that was thanks to her own stupidity.
Ellie, who at the time had been harbouring a broken nose, multiple fractures and a dislocated shoulder, had watched as a deeply wounded Danielle crawled her way over to the unconscious Dina. Her fingernails had scrapped harshly against wooden floor, tiny pieces of splintered wood becoming embedded into her skin and all the while, she had been slowly but surely bleeding from the wounds that littered her body.
Ever the doctor, ever the good person one whom Ellie didn't believe she deserved, not after all she had done, Danielle had put Dina and her unborn child first. In that moment, when she could have let go, could have stopped fighting and accepted the temptingly sweet release of death, the Linden girl had fought to remain alive to help out a friend.
The first true feeling Ellie had for Danielle had been admiration.
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jamielee's thoughts.
chapter nineteen dudes. not proofread and so this is maybe a few months after Seattle and I also tried to add a bit of explanation on how they got back to Jackson which the game never bothered to do. also tried to add in a cute little moment and let Danielle be the one to cut Ellie's hair and a cute little bonding moment. hope you enjoyed :)