Joel knows he did the right thing. He doesnāt need convincing. He doesnāt need to sift through any guilt within the gray. He did his job. Ellie is safe. Ellie is alive. Ellie is breathing and within reach. Unlike Sarah. Unlike Tess. He still has Ellie.Ā
As they descend on the village, the commune, he knows heāll be faced with questions from his brother and Maria. Heāll tell Tommy the same thing he told Ellie. There were others. Thereās nothing more they can do. A cure doesnāt exist.Ā
Joel hasnāt thought about the future in over two decades. But a part of him is now. Now that he isnāt alone. Now that he has something worth living for. The gaping hole in his heart and the nearly blown through hole in his brain where a scar resides instead are closing.Ā
Joel never wanted to save the world. Never had hope that the world could even be saved. But he did save her. And if the only world where Ellie is still here, still his, is one that is ravaged by violence and decay, he has no desire to reform or restore it.Ā
She is his world now, his baby girl.Ā
Ellie has trusted her intuition since birth. Always seeing through the bullshit, the games people play. Recognizing early that she was on her own and seen as both a beacon of hope and collateral. She knows when something is off and when someone is lying. But this time, love throws a tantrum inside of her, strangling and stomping on that intuition, that gut feeling thatās telling her Joel is lying.Ā
For the first time in her existence, Ellie has someone. Sheās had somethingsāa night of first love with Riley, supposed purpose, a book of puns weighing down her packābut sheās never truly had someone. Someone sturdy and unwavering in their presence, in their determination to protect her. To give to her and not take. Joel is a fixture. Two souls, one still soft, one hard, pushed together by a fucked up world. And now theyāre tangled together.Ā
And while the loss of supposedly glorious and divine purpose churns with the chewed up Chef Boyardee in the pit of her stomach, Ellie lets the love she feels for Joel stand at the summit and declare victory. And even if she didnāt get to heal the world, she did heal Joel.
She isnāt cargo to him. He isnāt a vehicle to her. She has someone. She matters to someone. Ellie matters to Joel.Ā
vaporwave
2087
stormborns
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
germansingergirl
romaincrisis
