𝕺𝖜𝖓 𝖂𝖔𝖗𝖘𝖙 𝕰𝖓𝖊𝖒𝖞

- CHAPTER TWENTY NINE -
COMING TO LIGHT

"JOEL, IN HERE!" Ellie hollered the older man over to the garage door she was holding open. After Kathy had passed out, Joel had sent Ellie off to find a safe place that they could fix her up.

It was snowing heavily, a few inches now settled on the ground. To make travel easier, they'd tied Kathy onto a makeshift sled that they pulled along with Callus. Ellie had found a neighbourhood and led Joel to a house that was easy to get into.

Joel detached the sled that Kathy was led on and pulled Kathy's unconscious body inside the sheltered garage while Ellie tied up Callus. Once Ellie had shut the garage door, Joel found a mattress in one of the rooms in the house and dragged it into the garage, laying Kathy carefully onto it. Kathy groaned in pain with the movement, but she didn't wake. Blood was still leaking from the wound, but it wasn't as heavy as before.

"Ellie, search the house for anything we can use to stop the bleeding and sew up the wound. She's still losing blood." Joel demanded.

"Okay." Ellie nodded and quickly ran of to gather supplied to fix up her aunt.

Joel kneeled down over Kathy and began lifting up her shirt, her hand twitched, but nothing else happened so he lifted it up higher. He could see the wound, but part of it was hidden under the top section of her jeans. He cautiously unbuttoned the the top buttons, glancing up at her face to see if she would protest, but she was out like a light and he needed to get to the wound.

His eyes widened when he was able to shift her trousers down a little, he could now see the wound fully, but that wasn't what caught his eye. There was a long scar under her navel, almost from one hip to the other and he knew what it was. Sarah's mother had one just like it.

It was a C-section scar. Kathy had once had a baby. Why hadn't she told him? Was that why she didn't want to go further back at the radio tower?

"I got the stuff." Ellie ran into the room with a bundle of things in her arms. She'd managed to find a first aid kit in the upstairs bathroom that still had some thread for stitches and a needle in the master bedroom. "There wasn't much, but I managed to find some bandages and stuff. No pain relief though, just a bottle of vodka in one of the cupboards."

"It'll do." Joel said, reaching for the alcohol, needle and thread. "You got any matches or a lighter?"

"Yeah." She handed him her matches and he lit one, holding the needle over it to sterilize it. He then looped the thread into the needle, soaked his hands and Kathy's wound in the vodka and pushed the needle into her flesh.

Kathy screamed in agony, her eyes scrunching up as she reached for the closest thing - Ellie's hand. She clutched it hard as Joel proceeded to stitch her up and Ellie winced at her strength, but she wouldn't let go. Kathy needed her.

Joel sighed when he was finished, grimacing at the sight of his sloppy stitched, but they would have to do. He then struggled to wrap a bandage around her waist. Ellie released Kathy's hand, placing it gently on the floor before standing up and saying, I'll go and find her a blanket."

She then left the garage, leaving a barely conscious Kathy and a quiet Joel to talk. Kathy's hand reached down to feel the material that covered the freshly stitched wound, she knew it would scar. She then realised that her jeans were pulled down past her belly button and she gasped, trying to sit up, but Joel pushed her back down.

"Lay down. You need to rest." He told her sternly, pulling her shirt down over the bandages.

"You saw it, didn't you?" She asked tiredly as he slowly pulled her jeans back up and buttoned them for her.

"Yeah, I did." Joel admitted quietly, "Ellie's not your niece, is she?" He asked, but it sounded more like a statement than a question.

"No." Kathy sighed in defeat, locking eyes with him, her fourteen year secret was now coming to light, "She's my daughter."

"Why didn't you tell me?" He asked softly, she had expected him to be angry with her.

"I tried to back at the radio tower, but then she walked in. I can't tell her, Joel. She looked up to Mark and Anne. If I tell her they weren't her parents, then it'll tear apart everything she's ever known about them."

"Why does she think they're her parents?"

"Anne always wanted a baby, but she couldn't get pregnant. Then the apocalypse happened and they gave up hope, but then I fell pregnant and I knew I wasn't ready to have a kid, it was five years into this shitty world and I was in a really dark place, I killed a lot of good people and I knew Ellie would have a better life with them." She explained to him, "I knew I made the right choice when I watched her grow up, pretending to be her aunt Kathy, they loved her so much. But when they died, it broke her and I had to pick up the pieces. If I were to tell her, she'd think they're love for her was fake, she'd think I gave her up because I didn't want her. But, I did. I wanted her so much. I hated myself everyday for giving her up, but she wouldn't be who she is now if I didn't."

Joel let her explanation sink in and then asked, "If you don't mind me asking, who was the father?"

"Some guy I met on a run, we'd been blocked in by a hoard of infected and one thing led to another. He died the next day when we tried to escape and then I discovered I was pregnant a few weeks later."

"You need to tell her." Joel said, "The longer you wait, the worse her reaction will be."

"I already knew." Ellie told them, standing in the doorway with the blanket she had gone to find. "And I don't hate you for not telling me."

Kathy's eyes widened at the realisation that Ellie had been there the whole time and she tried to sit up again but Joel pushed her down, "Ellie, I'm so sorry!"

Ellie stepped closer and pulled the blanket over her mother, "You don't need to apologise, I heard everything and I understand why you did it. Mark and Anne told me the truth years back, I've always known you were my mom. You think you've been acting like my aunt my whole life, but the truth is you've been more of a parent than they ever were. You taught me how to shoot, you took me to my first day of school, you were there when I got my shots. Honestly, before I knew, I thought of you as my mom anyway and I always will."

"Oh my fucking christ, I love you so much, come here!" Kathy pulled Ellie to her into a hug that was fairly uncomfortable due to her lying down and Ellie having to couch over. Now, Kathy had never been a very emotional woman, but learning that her daughter had always thought of her so highly had brought a fountain of tears to her eyes. Ellie was crying too, finally able to delve into the love she was recieving from her birth-mother, a love she hadn't ever been able to truly feel.

Joel watched them with a loving smile, the revelation had shocked him, but now he could see it. Kathy's protectiveness of Ellie, Ellie's immunity - it had been inherited from her mother.

Kathy peeked at him from Ellie's shoulder and held out her hand to him. He grabbed it, grunting in surprise when she yanked him into the hug - they were careful to avoid touching her stitches.

Ellie finally felt complete as she was embraced by Kathy and Joel. She had her mother and she had Joel - who was becoming a father-figure, she felt like they were a real family.

"Hey," Ellie mumbled into Kathy's shoulder, "Does this make Joel my step-dad now?"

❝IT'S NO SURPRISE TO ME, I AM MY OWN WORST ENEMY❞