(no subject)

[vaccination]

The sun hasn't been up for an hour before the daylight sees Ellie pounding her fist on Joel and Tess' door. She knows it'll only be Tess in. She saw Jesse speaking to Tommy and Joel by the stables. They'll be out for hours, and Ellie imagines this conversation will only take minutes.

When the door doesn't immediately open, Ellie knocks louder and calls up towards the upstairs windows.

"Tess! Tess, get up!"

She doesn't give a fuck if it sounds like something's wrong because something is wrong. She's known it since they returned to Jackson. It's been eating at her, always in the back of her mind, and that last outing with Joel has lit a fire. She hasn't been sleeping. Last night, she couldn't manage more than a few minutes at a time before the conversation would replay in her mind, over and over and over.

Not so much the words, but the look in his eyes as he said them.

She's always been able to tell when Joel is lying to her even before she realized it.

Comments

[vaccination]

She gets what Tess is saying. Ellie nods. Maybe if she didn't feel so raw, she'd step in for a hug, but she thinks if she does that she'll never have it in her to leave.

"Okay. I'll see you around, Tess."

[dog_eat_dog]

Tess smiles a little tersely. She wants that hug, admittedly, but she doesn't push for it. She just puts a hand between Ellie's shoulder blades to walk her to the door.

"See you soon, sweetheart," she says, and that's as tender as it is firm.

[vaccination]

Shit. There's that knot in her throat. Ellie clears it, stepping outside, food awkwardly in her hands. She should say something. Thanks? But in the end, all she does is nod and head out to the street.

[dog_eat_dog]

Tess lets her go, and silently watches her walk down the street. It’s okay. She gets it.