video

[shivving]

public

[ When Joel's face appears on the screen, he's not screaming. He's not stalking the room in rage or setting the library on fire.

He is calm. Eerily so. He glares unblinking into the camera, brow furrowed, silent just long enough to become unsettling.

He has the look of a man who hasn't slept in the last twenty-four hours. ]

I know it's probably the mansion what took Ellie. That more'n likely, none of you had anything to do with it.

If I find out otherwise, I will kill whoever's responsible.

[ end feed. ]


private to tess

Tess.

Comments

[thesamurai]

You can sit and wait for a week for her to come back. I won't try to convince you not to.

[ Michonne's actually serious; she's done it, she sat in one spot until it was clear Rick wasn't coming back a couple years ago. She didn't do that this time around when he left. He's just gone. ]

Or you can drink and damn this place, damn home, be with people who know what she went back to and why it's got you fucked up.

[ Her, Simon, Jo, Andrea, Sam. They all know, and they'd all be there because that's what the bar is for, let's be honest. ]

[shivving]

[ He pauses for a moment, considering it, and then shakes his head. ]

I can't.

[ Can't stop worrying long enough to sit and enjoy a drink. Can't let his guard down and risk getting drunk when Ellie could show up needing him any second. Can't bring himself to accept her offer, to go and have a beer with her as if they're friends - as if they're anything other than two people who both happen to come from similar shitty places.

Pick a reason, any reason. ]

[thesamurai]

You don't have to sit alone. Drinking or not.

[ She pauses, pursing her lips before continuing. ]

Lot of people here care about Ellie.

[shivving]

[ Joel presses his lips together in a thin line.

You have no idea what loss is. As always, he's convinced that no one else's pain could be as terrible as his own. ]

I ain't interested in sittin' around cryin' into my beer.

[thesamurai]

[ He has no idea. Everyone's lost something. She might understand him more than he thinks. ]

No one said anything about crying.

[shivving]

[ Oh, he knows. He just doesn't care. ]

I said no.

[ And now he's starting to get irritated. He just wants to be left alone, far from anyone else's pitying looks. ]

[thesamurai]

[ If he thinks she pities him, then he mistook her offer. She wants Ellie to come back, needs her to. Maybe not as much as he does, but still fiercely. ]

Then I'll do my own waiting. Because it's not just you who doesn't want to think about her not coming back.

[shivving]

[ How dare you care about Ellie. That's his job. ]

Fine.

[ It's not as if she needs his permission. ]

[thesamurai]

Good luck, Joel.

[ She means that. No matter what happens. And that's it. She'll wait for Ellie on her own. ]