Summary: Ellie being sick and some backstory to how she is allergic to some medicines.

Some temperature things for the people who don't use degrees:
37 = 98/99
38 = 100/101
39 = 102/103
40 = 104/105
41 = 105/106
42 = 107/108
43 = 109
And yes I've searched it for some reason 43 degrees life - threatening and not earlier

Amount of words: 2345

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It had been almost spring when Joel and Ellie got back from the fireflies with loads of vaccines. and more medicine. They hadn't trusted the fireflies to not follow them so they had walked a bit around.

Because of this they had to walk through a lot of different weather types. Some were incredibly cold and some were somewhat warmer. However, their bodies got used to it. But the moment they got back to Jackson they felt like things would change.

And change it did. They stayed together but they also had to stay with Mariah and Tommy because the town didn't trust Joel being alone with Ellie. Ellie was somewhat relieved that the town thought of that but she had also been incredibly annoyed when after a week they still couldn't go to a new home.

apparently she had to still get sick or show some signs that Joel wasn't the one that should be there for her. However they both knew it was just to see their reactions to it all.

It had been a month of staying with Tommy and Mariah when Ellie got sick. She had picked up the sickness from some kids she had been playing with. It had been Mariah's orders to go outside and play with the kids because that way the town could see that she wasn't only cooped into with Joel but also was somewhat social.

However her system wasn't really used to being around kids just yet and so she picked up the common flu. But it hit her hard because she never really had the flu and her body wasn't used to it at all.

Joel had woken up that morning feeling somewhat good for the day. But he also felt like something was wrong. So instead of going down to the kitchen to make some food he first checked on Ellie. When he walked in however his worries were correct.

She probably hadn't been awake when the fever really hit her but he also wanted to be sure that she was somewhat alright. So he sat down beside her on the edge of the bed and placed his hand on her shoulder that was under the duvet. When he touched her shoulder she opened her eyes and looked at him for a moment before letting out a groan and turning away.

Well that was at least somewhat normal for her. He was happy that she felt safe enough to be annoyed at him and turn away. He nodded a little. "Alright, baby. Try to sleep some more. I will go to Tommy to get some medicine for you." She didn't reply but he did place a kiss on the top of her crown before standing up.

He walked out of the door after putting on his shoes. He didn't really wanna leave her alone but at the same time he needed the medicine. He wanted to be sure she got the right medicine and not the medicine she was allergic to. They both knew that it would end up bad.

This happened when they were at the hospital and the 'doctors' there tried to use some medicine to help her but at the same time she would react badly to some of them sometimes. So because of that they began to test them. They were small amounts because they didn't want to lose their... 'test subject' when Joel had heard that the first time he had been angry that they didn't see a little girl. And yes even Marlene had been angry at first until she got the explanation and she had been sort of okay with it. Joel never had been okay with it at all.

When they finally had the vaccine Marlene had given them loads of medicine but also a list with the medicine Ellie had been allergic too. She somehow knew that they would be somewhere safe when they would leave and that the doctors would need to know more about Ellie being allergic to some shit. And when they got back that had been one of the first things he had done. Besides seeing his new niece. He had gone to the clinic to let them see the list and he had to also explain that Ellie had been immune.

Because of this he now had a doctor on his hands that he could trust. The doctor was a she and she would always joke with Ellie when they first got there to help her get used to some things.

Now back to the task at hand. He knocks on Tommy's door and shuffles a little bit. Tommy opens the door while wringing his hand through his eyes. "Joel? What's the matter?" Tommy somehow always knew when something was somewhat wrong. So Joel began to explain why he was there at like 6 in the morning. Tommy had nodded and walked back inside to get the medicine Ellie would need.

However before Joel could grab it Mariah walked up to him with some more stuff. And honestly? He hadn't expected that a thermometer would still work in this time and age. Mariah had just shrugged and said. "Luck I guess." She then had given some more stuff before declaring that she would come to check on the both of them somewhere in the midday.

Joel walked inside their home and took a deep breath willing to calm his racing heart somewhat down. He had been trying to prevent himself from panicking for a little bit now. Mostly because he had never really seen Ellie being sick but also because he knew that her immune system has been off the charts for a while now. And he had been wanting to tell Mariah this. But Ellie had stopped him from doing that because she wanted to know the town some more and begin to explore.

So he hadn't told Mariah this but he had been trying to keep their home clean so that she wouldn't get sick that easily. However now that she was sick he knew that she would need some supervision because he didn't know what would happen to her right now.

He walked up the stairs and opened the door to the bathroom and grabbed the bucket that was under the washtable. He had put it there when he had first found it because at that time Ellie had been sick for a while and hadn't been able to keep down some food for a while at the time. So he had migrated the bucket to the upstairs bathroom. He had been lucky that she hadn't needed it then. But now he wasn't so sure yet so he picked that but also grabbed a washcloth and made it wet.

It had been something that would help Sarah a lot when she had been younger and would get headaches. He walked back into Ellie's room and grabbed the duvet a little and let it slide down a bit. That way he could see his baby's face a bit but he would also have some more room to help her. She groaned and turned around to face him.

He nodded a little to the medicine he has in his hands. "It's to bring down the fever a bit. It will taste gross but it will hopefully help you." He had learned early on in the hospital but also on the road that it would help Ellie a lot if you would explain what would happen if you did something so that she wouldn't be surprised when it happened. He couldn't also do that because of some surprises along the way but when he could he would always explain some things.

He helps Ellie sit up a little bit and spoon feeds her the medicine. She shudders at the taste and he nods. "Yeah they will always say it tastes a certain way but I can tell you when this stuff was still fresh it would not taste that way." She nods a little and leans back against the pillows there.

She closes her eyes against the lights and he clicks on the light beside her bed and places it in a way it faces away from her but still lets her see some stuff before clicking out the big light. She nods at that. And relaxes some more. He grabs the washcloth and places it on her forehead. He lets his hand slide over her forehead before resting it against her cheek. He can feel the heath but he can also feel that it wasn't so bad as in the morning he checked on her.

He grabs the thermometer to be sure. He turns back to her and nods at it. "This is a thermometer and it reads a number after a few seconds. This will tell me what temperature you have. And it will also determine how bad it is. Or if it's getting better. It will go under your tongue. She nods but doesn't open her eyes. He puts the thing in her mouth and waits for a moment. "So like. 37 to 38 degrees are somewhat normal temperatures. 36 and 35 is somewhat low. But it can also be normal. 39 to 40 is feverish and kinda high. But not that bad. From 41 to 42 it will be getting too high and it can go bad. However when it hits 43 then we will have to go to the clinic because that's really bad. So I kinda expect it will be between 39 and 40."

She nods at that and when the thermometer beeps he grabs it before she can attempt to do it. He looks at the reading and signs in relief. "It says 39,3. So that is a fever level but not that bad." She lazily puts her thumb up before laying down again and taking a deep breath and then letting it loose. He looks at her lovingly. Before standing up and taking a seat in the chair that had been there for a while but could still hold his weight for some reason.

She had been sleeping for a little while and he had been reading when he heard the door open downstairs. She makes a little jump in bed and he places his hand on her ankle. "It's the door downstairs. I will go and look. But it's probably Mariah coming to check on us." She nods a little. He walks downstairs and indeed it's Mariah but Tommy is also with her.

He looks a bit surprised but he quickly schools it. He is happy that they are here but he is also kinda surprised they are both here. He looks up at the stairs for a moment before walking into the room. "Not that I'm happy that you guys are here but I thought only Mariah would come to check on us." Mariah looks a bit surprised before nodding. "Yeah sorry. He wanted to come with me. He wanted to see how his niece was doing."

Joel smiles at that. He is happy that Tommy accepted Ellie into the family. And was also okay that he had found his happiness again. "She is doing alright. Her fever is in the 39's so that means it's alright. But I think that she needs to stay home for a while because her body isn't that happy with her right now.

Tommy nods. And only Tommy because Joel has told him about Ellie, her immune system not being up to par yet. However Mariah looks a bit surprised but also worried. "Why does she need to stay here longer? What aren't you telling me, Joel?"

Joel looks at Tommy who nods before turning to Mariah. Joel walks to the stairs to listen there for a moment while Tommy explains the rundown version of why Joel didn't want Ellie to be around kids just yet. But Ellie was stubborn as hell and she did get her way. When Mariah hears this she turns to Joel with a raised eyebrow. "Tell me would you tell Ellie to not do something when she doesn't want something?" Mariah shakes her head after a moment of thought. Because they all know how Ellie would use her doe eyes to get her way.

However before they can talk some more Joel hears something upstairs and he goes there to see Ellie being sick. He helps her to get better after that and in the end when Ellie feels somewhat better she stays inside because she feels like she needs to get better.

She does go to the clinic with Joel however to ask what she can do in order to get better and they advice her to take it easier and just wait until her immune system gets better. What they do advice though is that she can try and go to the stables to get out some more but also avoid some people. And in the end this helps Ellie and Joel a lot because they can talk there to each other and how to help some more people. But it also helps them a lot with getting to know other people without getting close to them.

When Ellie finally gets a clean bill of health she begins to meet more people slowly but surely. Mostly because she doesn't want to get sick again. However whenever she hears that people are sick in the town she will avoid a lot of people or stay home mostly because she and Joel are kinda afraid that she will get sick again.

She slowly heals and sometimes healing will take more time than one is willing to. But sometimes they need to take that time.