UNITED IN BLOOD
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE !

   THE WOODEN STAIRCASE FLOORBOARDS creaked under her weight as the exhausted brunette descended. As she moved, Danielle desperately hoped that she was wrong. That her assumptions would be proven false.

The closer to the kitchen she got, the more her heart began to harshly beat against her chest. Surely Ellie was just unable to sleep. That was why her side of the bed had been empty, not because Tommy's words had somehow convinced her that she needed to find and murder Abby.

She would go downstairs and find Ellie on the couch with her guitar or curled up with a comic. There was no way that she would be preparing to take off in the middle of the night.

And yet that was exactly what she happened upon.

There Ellie stood, completely oblivious to her girlfriends presence, dressed and readying up her backpack. Item after item was placed into the bag, everything she would need to trek all the way to Santa Barbara. Everything she would need to find and kill Abby.

"You weren't planning on leaving without a goodbye, were you?" Her voice caused Ellie to halt all movement.

The auburn-haired girl slowly spun around, her eyes falling upon her pyjama clad girlfriend in an instant. Had she been planning on leaving with a goodbye? Yes. If she had awoke the brunette, Ellie knew without a doubt that Danielle would have managed to convince her to stay. Hell, she probably would have jumped at the chance to fall back into bed with her.

But in Ellie's mind, she had to finish it. Finish what she had started all those months ago.

"Woke up and noticed you were gone. Your side of the bed was ice cold." She continued to speak but to no avail. Ellie refused to reply, instead choosing to just stand there staring.

"Is there any chance I can convince you to stay?" Danielle knew it was useless. Ellie was far too hardheaded to veer off from her path. It was something she both admired and hated about Ellie.

Ellie's eyes shimmered as she held back the tears that so desperately wished to fall. "I love you."

"Please don't." At the admission of the auburn-haired girls feelings, what should have been a joyous occasion instead was cloaked in nothing but despair. Danielle could swear she felt her heart ache. "Ellie, please don't have the first time you say that to me potentially be the last time I ever see you."

Her head shook from side to side, her low hanging curls brushing against the base of her neck as the nip of the spring morning began to seep through her clothes, sending a chill down her spine and causing goosebumps to built along her skin. "Just don't."

Ellie took a step towards her girlfriend, with one of the most earnest expressions she had ever worn. "Dani, I don't plan on dying."

"Well, nobody ever really plans on it, do they?" The Linden girl questioned. She knew Ellie meant well but how could she just accept that the girl she loved, the one who had turned her life upside in the worst and best ways possible was going to be gone for god knows how long. "They just do."

Danielle blinked away the tears that began to force their way to the surface. Her voice was weak as she spoke. "What if you don't come back? What if I never see you again? We're happy here, Ellie. Or at least I thought we were. Thought you were."

A heavy sigh escaped from the Williams girl as she absentmindedly ran a hand over the corduroy jacket she had donned. Joel's jacket. "I am happy but—"

The brunette swiftly cut her off. "Then just stay. Abby isn't worth it, okay? What Tommy said doesn't matter. You don't owe him anything."

Danielle took multiple steps forward until she stood right before the short haired Ellie. Her hands slowly reached out and lightly gripped the sides of Ellie's face, forcing her girlfriend to look at her. "Joel wouldn't have wanted this for you."

"You didn't know him though, did you?" The words tasted like poison upon her taste buds as she spoke. Though her voice remained steady, her eyes told a completely different story. Behind the pain and anger than blazed in those hunter green eyes of hers, lurked an impaired psyche.

The instant look of hurt that crossed Danielle's face as her hands slipped away from Ellie's face and she stepped back confirmed just how much Ellie hated herself in that moment. She knew that Danielle would never let her go if she didn't hate her.

She needed Danielle to hate her.

"Don't throw that in my face, Ellie. I have apologised for that more times than I can count. I fucking risked my life returning to Seattle but I did it because I needed to prove how sorry I was."

Ellie's words had damaged the progress that Danielle had accomplished in her journey to freeing herself of guilt. Seven words from the mouth of the girl she loved had Danielle right back where she started.

In that godforsaken cabin, desperate to shield an unknown redhead from witnessing the death of a loved one as metal collided with flesh over and over.

"You don't get to use that against me." Danielle croaked out, wrapping her arms around herself. Suddenly she felt so incredibly cold. It felt as though the blood that rushed through her veins had stopped altogether.

"I have to finish it."

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, Ellie." The brunette practically snarled at the Williams girl. She understood exactly why Ellie needed to finish it, she just wished that it wasn't up to Ellie to finish it. "If you do this, if you walk out that door and leave me, I will never forgive you."

"Do what you gotta do." Ellie simply shrugged her shoulders, an air of indifference surrounding her, though in reality those words that Danielle had spewed out broke her.

   When neither girl made any move to speak again, both completely at a loss for words, Ellie reached down and grabbed hold of her backpack, swinging it over her shoulder. With one last look at the brunette, drinking in the sight quite possibly for the last time, Ellie then swiftly spun on her heel and healed for the front door.

   Danielle remained where she stood, almost as though her feet had been glued to the floorboards. With each fading footstep, a twinge of pain bloomed in her chest continuing until the sound no longer remained. As Ellie went out the front door and descended the porch steps, her boot clad feet carrying her to danger, Danielle stood still just listening, hoping and praying that the redhead would return.

   Though that wasn't to be. And so there she remained, until the morning sun rose and until all she could hear was the hubbub of passing Jackson citizens, all of them completely oblivious to what had just gone down.

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DANI, THIS ISN'T EASY for me. You
should know that. Leaving was never how I wanted
this relationship to go but I have no other choice.
I don't sleep and I don't eat and I can't keep
pretending that I'm fine. You were there for me
when I couldn't be there for myself, when I
couldn't handle everything around me and I
will always love you for that.

This was never and has never been about you.
Everyone I've ever loved has either died or
left me and I fucking hate myself for being the
one to leave this time around.

When I come back, which I will, I hope you
can forgive me someday.

-Ellie.

Those very words haunted Danielle Linden as she sat on the couch, staring down at the letter in her hands. A part of her felt empty, as if the moment Ellie stepped past the front door, she took a massive part of Danielle with her.

"Danielle?" She suddenly heard the voice of Maria echoing through her now empty home. The woman's voice grew louder as her feet carried her further into the house. "The front door was unlocked."

She hadn't even heard the front door open, far too focused on the letter that now lay flat against the coffee table.

   The brunette slowly looked up, tears clinging desperately to her eyelashes, to see Maria standing before her, the woman dressed in her usual attire and an annoyed expression. "Hey, where's Ellie? She didn't show up for patrol this morning."

"She's gone." Danielle simply replied. Her voice cracked as it pushed past the lump in her throat.

   The Miller woman, if she even considered herself that at this point, stared down at the girl, confusion embedded in her face features. "Gone where?"

   "California." Danielle sniffed as she ran the sleeve of her pyjama shirt under her nose. Her gaze fell down to the letter once again, the words just taunting her. "She's gone to find Abby. She left in the middle of the night."

The blonde stared down at Danielle, not entirely sure of what to say. "Are you doin' okay?"

If Maria had to guess, the reason for Ellie's departure most likely had something to do with her estranged husband. His innate desire to seek out the Anderson girl for revenge had essentially put their entire marriage on pause. No doubt, the many conversations that Tommy had with traders that passed through Jackson had something to do with this.

   "I'm fine." Danielle's head nodded up and down, clearly attempting to convince herself. She sure as hell wasn't fine. "I'm good. You wanna know why?"

Maria hesitated with her answer. "Do I?"

"Cause fuck her!" Danielle exclaimed hitting her closed fist against the table, slamming it down hard upon the letter. "She wants to run off to fucking California and look for Abby, she can be my guest."

"Danielle..." Maria stared over at the clearly grieving girl, feeling an immense amount of pity for the brunette. Maria wasn't blind. She knew the signs of repressed emotion and Danielle was presenting them all.

As she took in a breath, Danielle realised that she was right where she hoped she'd never be.

Alone.

   The tears that she had held back, the emotions she had pushed down suddenly flooded her entire being. Her eyes stung as tear after tear fell down her cheeks. "How could she do this to me? I love her so much and she leaves me a fucking letter?"

   Maria didn't hesitate to run forward and pull the now sobbing girl into her arms, holding her close. Gasps for air broke through her cries as Danielle broke down. The girl she adored, the girl she'd gone through hell and back with and the girl who had clawed her way into Danielle's heart, had just took off and left her behind.

Abandoned her for the sake of revenge.

Danielle loved Ellie, so much so that when she woke up in the morning, she longed for the night to come so she could be wrapped up in the redheads arms once more. She loved Ellie more than she ever thought possible but the moment Ellie walked out the front door, it confirmed one single fact for Danielle.

She loved Ellie so much more than Ellie loved her.

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jamielee's thoughts.
chapter twenty five. not proofread. shes gone dudes. we all knew it was coming but I'm honestly pissed off at her even though it was inevitable. also sorry for the short chapter and the next chapter won't be out for like a week and a half cause I'm writing chapters for a different fic. Anyway hope you enjoyed :)