ah!!! it actually depends!!some debt aus have aus where Ellie takes the fall into the rebar instead, and David tracks her down when Bill finally has to leave because the need for food is that desperate. that’s pretty much exactly why bill was so reluctant to leave her alone lmao he didn’t want to lose her. and then he does.regardless of who gets impaled, it goes a little bit better for them, because bill is less battleminded and more ‘what worse case scenario things do i need’, and has taught ellie more about wound care(which he learned from Frank, who had been going to school to be a vet)because of his cautiousness, there’s actually countless ways debt au could diverge from canon(not the least of which is how non-murderous bill is), but when things end up with ellie killing david- bill is there to comfort her. he’s a victim(doesn’t consider himself much of a survivor) of abuse and assault himself, and has been forced into similar situations. not specifically psycho cannibals, but similar stuff none the less. he avoids phrases like ‘its over now’- over 20 years down the line and hes still struggling with stuff he should ‘be over’- in favor of reassurances that he’s got her, that david is gonein the time after, he’s a lot more quiet and respectful. by the time they arrived at the university, they’d finally formed a friendship, but after the david ordeal he drops a lot of the bitter sarcasm he still kept up. he tries to help her deal with what’s happened, tries to get her to talk about it….. probably opens up about his own experiences to try and get her talking
