(A/N: So I want to make some announcements on this story. In this story, Mel is NOT pregnant and Lev and Yara DON'T exist. Even though I did like Yara and Lev, the reason they won't be seen or mentioned in this story is that they were basically used as part of Abby's redemption arc in the game. Since Joel is not dead and Abby is dead set on killing him and (y/n), they won't be in here. So I hope you guys understand.)

*2 Years Earlier*

"Joel! Joel, honey, wake up!" I said, frantically, as I shake him awake. It was the middle of the night and we were on one of our patrols out with Ellie. I woke up just a few moments ago when I noticed that Shimmer and Ellie were gone. This worried me and I got up and saw a note from Ellie.

"(Y/n), what's wrong?" He asked me once he starts to wake up. "It's Ellie." I said and Joel sits up, quickly. "What happened?" He asked and I hand him the note I found. He reads it then his eyes widen and he looks up at me.

"She's gone." I said and we exchange a worried look before we got up, got dressed, mount our horse and head off after Ellie.

As the dark night sky started to turn a pink hue, we made our way back to that old familiar hospital and see Ellie sitting down on a crate. She looks up and sees us coming before she stands up as we get closer to her. "Ellie!" Joel and I call out and our horse stops then we dismount the horse and walk over to her.

"Come here." Joel whispers as he goes to hug her and I stand next to them and placed a hand on her shoulder. "The hell were you thinking? Running off in the middle of the night like that?" I asked her, worriedly, while I noticed she has this blank, disinterested look on her face. 

"You talk to us. You don't just leave us a damn note--" Joel said to her, his voice full of worry as well, when Ellie shoves him off of her then she slaps my hand off of her shoulder. She let's out a shaky breath then she looks up at us.

"Tell me...what happened here." She said, firmly, to us. Joel and I exchange looks before we look back at her, my heart pounding in my throat as I knew that this would happen. "If you two lie to me one more time...I'm gone. Both of you will never see me again. But if you guys tell me the truth...I'll go back to Jackson. No matter what it is." She said.

I look back over to the hospital and all the haunting memories of that night came flooding back into my mind. I look over at Joel as he looks at the building then he looks down at the ground. "Just say it." Ellie whispers to us and I bite my lips at this while I could tell by Joel's face that he was fighting the urge to say the truth.

"Guys..." Ellie pleads to us and I take a deep breath as I continue to stare at Joel. "Making a vaccine...would've killed you." I replied and Joel's face relaxed a bit as he turns to look at me and a tear runs down my face then we look over at Ellie, who looked shocked and disbelief. "So we stopped them." Joel finished and then the hurt and sadness hit Ellie as she looks down.

Then she sits down and starts to sob. "Oh my God!" She cries then she bends forward and starts to cry, her left hand over her face then she lowers it and places it over her heart as she continues to cry. Joel and I go to reach out to her, trying to comfort her, but she stands up and yells. "Don't you fucking touch me!"

She looks at us angrily while I tried to give the best I'm sorry look to her. "I'll go back. But we're done." She said, angrily, then she bends down, grabs her backpack and stomps away from us.

At that moment, I began to sob then I full on cried as I place my hands over my face, the tears running down my face. I felt Joel's hands on my shoulders as he turns me to face him and I bury my face into his chest while he holds me close.

"I...told...you. I...fuckin'...told you." I whispered, in between tears, to him as he holds me tighter and I hear him sniffling and his breathing shaking. "I know..." he whispers back, his voice full of tears, as we stay like this for a few moments just as we hear a horse start to gallop away.

Present Day

*3rd Person POV*

Joel groans as he wakes up in the same spot he always does since he was captured. Tied up to this damn chair. "Aiden and Ethan." A voice said and Joel jerks his head over to see Owen was sitting near him.

"Who's Aiden and Ethan?" He asked and Joel glares at him, confused. "You mumble in your sleep. Awhile ago you muttered those names. I mean, they must be important to you." Owen said. "That's none of your concern." Joel growls and Owen chuckles a bit. "Oh, they must be really important if you're being this tight lipped about it. Who are they, hmm? Friends? Cousins?" Owen asked.

"Why do you care?" Joel asked him, with a growl. "Just curious." Owen said  Joel scoffs and turns his head away from him. "Okay, fine. You don't have to tell me. I'm just here trying to make friendly conversations." Owen said and Joel rolls his eyes and scoffs at this again.

"But I would like to know...who's Sarah?" Owen asked and anger flared in Joel's chest as he slowly turns his head to Owen, if looks could kill...Owen would be dead a thousand times right now. "Oh I must've hit a nerve with that one." Owen said, curiously, when there was a knock at the door.

Owen gets up and heads to the door, opens it to reveal Mel standing there. "Hey, Mel." Owen said her. "Can I talk to you?" Mel asked him just as Joel let's out a loud cough. Owen looks over at him then back at Mel. "Sure. What's up?" He asked her. "I need to talk to you, privately." She said and Owen sighs then he walks out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

Joel watches and listens as their voices and footsteps fade away before he looks down and raises his foot, revealing a knife. When Owen got up to the door and talked to Mel, the knife fell off the tray of food Owen had brought earlier. Once the knife hit the floor, Joel quickly fake coughed to disguise the noise as he used his foot to hide the blade.

Once Owen and Mel were far enough away, Joel manages to get the knife up to his hand and begins to cut the rope, freeing himself.

*(y/n)'s POV*

I wake up from sleeping on the floor of the backstage room and started to grab my backpack and head back towards the lobby. I'd hope to find Ellie alone and maybe talk to her about last night; but once I got to the doors that lead to the lobby, I found Jesse and Ellie sitting in a chair while Dina was curled up in a couch.

I look over at her and see that she looked pale and she was sweating. I frown over at her then at the other two before Jesse gestures for me to follow him. The three of us head up the stairs and we walk up to the top balcony, Jesse leans against the barrister before he speaks. 

"She had a rough night. Barely could get her to keep water down." Jesse said and I look over at them and could see that Ellie was barely looking at me. "Should've woken me up." I said to them as Ellie rubs the back of her neck while Jesse looks out towards the theater.

"Is she pregnant?" He asked us and Ellie and I look over at him, shocked that he figured it out. Course he is a smart guy, he would've figured it out. "Yeah." We said. "We've got to take her back. She needs real care and she's not gonna get it while she's here." Jesse said and I nod.

"I know. And that's why I think you two should go and take her back to Jackson. I'll get Tommy and Joel." I said and Ellie finally looks up at me. "What? No, I'm not leaving you here alone!" She said, quickly. "And if she stays here, Dina will stay too." Jesse said and I stare at them and smile a bit at them.

"Screw it. Let's go get them." Jesse said then he turns to me, goes into his pocket and pulls out the map. "This aquarium that girl told you guys about. Tommy hasn't found Abby or Joel yet. We'll post up there 'til he does." Jesse said as he hands me the map.
I take it and look it over before I look up at them. "And you two are good with leaving Dina by herself?" I asked them. "Her orders." Ellie said. "Okay." I muttered. "I'll tell her we're heading out." Jesse said and Ellie started to leave but I placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Ellie, can I talk to you?" I asked her. She looks at me then at Jesse before I look over at him and said. "It won't be long..." he nods and he walks down the stairs. Ellie folds her arms across her chest, still not looking at me. "(Y/n), we have to..." she started to say but I interrupt her.

"You don't have to say anything, just listen..." I said and she slowly looks back at me. "I just want to say, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that...what I did to Nora last night scared you..." I said. "You didn't scare me." Ellie said, trying to act tough, and I raised an eyebrow at her. "Oh come on, Ellie. Ever since last night, you've barely looked at me. It's almost like you're...scared or afraid of what I'll do next." I said and she sighs before she looks down.

"I know you and Joel have said you've done some fucked up shit...but...I guess...just seeing it in person...was different than being told about it. I was just in shock." She replied and I frown a bit. "I did warn you." I said, softly. "I know, you did. I just...I thought I could handle it..." she said.

I frown at her again then placed my hands on her shoulders. "I've done even worse things to people. Things I'm not proud of. But that was under the guide of survival. Now I'm doing it for my family. For Joel, for Tommy, for Aiden and Ethan...and...for you." I said and Ellie's eyes widen in shock. "You guys are all the family I've got and have."

Tears start to fill Ellie's eyes then she goes and hugs me. I let out a small sob and hug her back then kissed the top of her head. We pull back from the embrace and I give her a smile as she stares into my eyes. "Okay...enough of this mushy shit...let's go get Joel and Tommy." I said and she nods and I walk over to the stairs and walk down them.

After waking Dina up and having her get the door for us, Jesse, Ellie and I head out into the rainy streets of Seattle. "Okay, the map showed the aquarium along the shore. Should be down this way." Jesse said and we make our way through the downtown area of the city.

"Did that girl ever tell you why they're doing this? Why they want you and Joel so badly?" Jesse asked and I could see Ellie giving me a worried look, I couldn't tell Jesse the real truth...at least not now. Hell, I'm still in disbelief on the truth as well.

"Yeah...they were part of the Fireflies. And Joel and I had some fallen out with them years ago." I replied. "What kind've fallen out?" Jesse asked.

"Joel and I were smugglers and we had some disagreements about some cargo. A fight broke out and some of their people died. And now they're wanting payback." I replied. "Damn. Seems a bit...I don't know...a lot of work for something pretty small." Jesse said. "Yeah, well, when you want revenge it can make you do some crazy stuff." I said and Jesse and Ellie nod.

"All I care about is to get to Tommy and Joel and bring them and Dina home." I said. "But that means leaving some of these assholes alive, including Abby." Ellie said. "Most of her friends are dead anyway. And as long as she or any of her living friends don't get in my way, then yes...we'll leave them alive. But if they do or try to come back to Jackson, we'll be ready." I said and they nod.

After making through some more collapsed buildings and large ponds and fighting through some WLF, we make it on top of a truck and I could see a ferris wheel off into the distance. "Hey, that aquarium. It's right next to that ferris wheel." Ellie said as she pulls put the map and shows it to me. "Good. Hopefully, Tommy has the same info." I said and we jumped down and started to swim through the collapsed area of the city.

We came up to an old bookstore and I started to look around when I hear Jesse and Ellie talking. "You know, I would've come with you guys. If you told me." He said. "I-I didn't think you'd want to or thought that it be a good idea." Ellie said as I look through some shelves. "I look up to Joel and (y/n). I would've come." Jesse said and I smiled at this.

Then I found some children's books that seemed to be intact. I wipe of the dust and look them over to see that they were, indeed, in great condition. "Yes." I muttered and I take off my backpack and put these books in my bag. 

"Whatcha got there?" Ellie asked me. "Some books for Aiden and Ethan." I said as I put my backpack back on. "Oh, cool." Ellie said then she looks around and smiles. "Here some more." She said as she pulls out more books out of the shelves.

She goes to hand them to me but I stopped her. "Why don't you say that those are from you. They would love it." I said to her. "Really?" She asked, shocked. "Of course." I said and she smirks a bit as she puts the books in her bag. "You know, they missed you." I said and she nods. "I missed them too." She said and we share a smile before we head out.

"Done with the shopping?" Jesse asked us. "Yep. Maybe you should look for some books for...y'know..." I said and Jesse shrugs. "Or I can borrow your books." He said and Ellie and I laugh. "Yeah, okay." I said and we head out.

"You think Abby picked the aquarium because it's so damn hard to get to?" Jesse asked us as we climb though some buildings. "Probably." Ellie said as we walk through this hole and walk along this walkway and look out towards the downtown area, where there was a highway off to the side and where the roads should be was replaced with a river. But the Ferris Wheel did look a bit closer now.

"Jesus. How the hell are we crossing this?" Jesse asked as I looked around. "We could us that road." Ellie said as she points out the highway. "It's pretty fuckin' far." I said then Jesse looks down. "Or we use that." He said and we look down to see one of the soldiers using a boat.

"Yeah. That's better." I said. "Okay, this way." Jesse said and we go through another building, climb down the floors until we reach the bottom area to see it was flooded.

We swim through it then ended up at looked like the main area of a mall, but it was crawling with WLF soldiers walking around. "Sniper spotted in 12. I repeat, sniper sighted at the marina. Likely a trespasser. Any nearby units report. Over." We hear a woman's voice say over the radio.

The three of us exchange a look as one of the soldiers ordered some of his man to head to the marina. Sniper. That's got to be Tommy. I thought as we swim over to a rope and we start to climb up.

We get to the top floor and I could see a soldier trying to start up a boat. Then I walk over to Jesse and Ellie as they stand next to a large hole of the building on the side. "Okay, here's the plan. You two head to the marina and help Tommy, I'll go to the aquarium." I said. "Are you crazy?" Ellie asked me. "Maybe." I said, shrugging.

"You can't go by yourself." Jesse said to me. "I can and I will. Plus, if Abby is there..." I started to say but Ellie shakes her head. "I'm not letting you go alone. I'm not turning my back on you and Joel again." She said and I give her a look. "I'm sticking with you. No matter what." Ellie said, her eyes full of tears. I stare at her for a moment then looked over at Jesse.

"You think you can handle getting Tommy on your own?" I asked him. "Yeah, I can do that. I've handled a bunch of WLF before, what's a few more gonna do." He said and I smiled. "Okay...good luck." I said and Jesse looks between us. "I really hope you guys make it." He said and he walks one way and Ellie and I walk another way.