THE NEXT MORNING, Joel had followed through with his threat. Tommy was the one to come knocking on Ellie's door at the crack of dawn, giving her a small nod of the head and not bothering to speak to her because there was a high likelihood he wouldn't get a response that was more than an angered grumble.

They shuffled through the town in silence, snow crunching under their feet and sighs leaving their noses until they reached the stables. Tommy led her to the end of the row of horses where only two of the stalls were occupied— Shimmer and Geronimo. Ellie expected to stop in front of the first option but tilted her head when she was brought to stand in front of the second choice.

Her eyebrows raised when she saw Ralph and Joel catering to the black stallion in front of them. Joel was making sure the saddle was secure while Ralph was giving Geronimo pets and scratching his face lovingly. 'Did you two come here to say goodbye or something?'

'No.' Joel sighed, securing the buckle of the saddle with a clink. 'We came here to steal a horse and go.'

'Woulda gave you one.' Tommy told his brother, hand on the strap of his backpack.

'I know. Anyway, that was thirty minutes ago, and I guess...' Joel sighed, pausing and peering over the top of the horse to look at Ralph, a silent prompt for him to take over the emotional conversation.

'You deserve a choice, Ellie.' Ralph gently steered Geronimo's face away from him when the horse attempted to leech some more pats off of him, stepping forward and starting to get serious. 'Joel still thinks you'd be better off with Tommy, but I think that we can kick ass just fine by ourselves.'

'Then, let's go.' Ralph was barely able to catch the duffle bag that Ellie launched at him in time, catching it by one of the straps before pulling it up into his arms fully. She turned around and walked towards Shimmer, hopefully able to hide the relieved smile on her face. Tommy and Joel shared a look with each other while Ralph shrugged and went along with it, happily waddling over to Geronimo and finding a place to store Ellie's belongings.

It took a couple of minutes until Ralph was leading the horse out of the stable, Ellie taking care of Shimmer while Joel and Tommy shared a sad look and Lou was off by the stables speaking with Bowie. Probably thanking him for donating a horse to their dysfunctional cause.

'Lou, let's go!' Ralph called out, half wanting to break up their conversation and half wanting to get out of there before Tommy made any more passive-aggressive remarks. He hadn't yet, but Ralph could sense that one was coming.

She turned around and gave a thumbs up, then veered around and still kept speaking to Bowie. He seemed very sad to see her go, even though they had been here for less than a day, and she was just as upset. Ralph was too busy boosting Ellie up onto Shimmer to see the quick hug that she had given him, and that was probably for the better.

Eventually, she said her goodbyes, and headed over to the three of them. She grinned at Ellie and accepted Ralph's hand as he hauled her up onto the horse, his limbs beginning to get tired with all the assisting. Stretching his right arm across his chest, he stared at Joel with a smile. 'Don't tell me that you need help too.'

Joel laughed and shook his head, and with a fake sigh of relief, Ralph waved for Lou to make room and grabbed onto the saddle, tugging himself up. Joel continued to stare over his shoulder at the man, smiling to himself, and he dragged that out because he knew he would be met with one of Tommy's disapproving frowns when he turned back around.

'General direction?' He asked, ignoring his younger brother and his glaring.

'Head southeast till you hit I-25. It's right off the interstate, shouldn't be hard to miss.' Tommy sighed, looking Joel up and down worriedly. Biting the inside of his cheek, he let out another unnecessary sigh and held out his arms. Joel hugged him without a moment of hesitation.

He felt bad about leaving Tommy not even a day after he had found him, but he had other people now. He had Maria, and the baby, and the town to take care of, so, he would be alright. And, in a way, Joel had other people too, now. He had Ralph, and the girls, and the fireflies to go track down. So, maybe he would be alright too.

'There's a place for you here.' Tommy said quietly, pulling away from his brother and holding him at arms length. After a moment of silence, he looked over to the trio on the horses, his gaze softening at Lou and Ellie. 'For all of you.'

'Counting on it.' Joel nodded, watching as Tommy tugged on the strap of his backpack, his rifle jostling with it. Awkwardly, Joel nodded at it. '...Can I borrow that?'

'Yeah.' Tommy said without a second to think, shrugging it off of his shoulders and carrying it by the strap to give to him.

'Just 'cause Maria took mine, you know?' He added on quietly, staring at the snow and accepting it meekly when it was gifted to him.

'Already said yes, Joel.' Tommy laughed as Joel swung it over his shoulder, shifting around for a moment to get it comfortable and leaving Tommy to stand there in a weird sort of silence. That pause led him to do the unthinkable. He looked at Ralph and started to speak to him. '...What about you? I can walk into town and get you something if you need it.'

Ralph pursed his lips and pushed his shirt up, taking his hand out from under it with a pistol in his fist. He didn't bother to say anything, just waved it back and forth and put it back under his belt when Tommy nodded one of understanding.

'Don't you think he'll need a lil' more than that?' Tommy questioned Joel.

'You'd be surprised.' Joel shrugged. He was hoping to be met with a laugh or a smile or something light-hearted, but Tommy was giving Joel one of those looks again— Eyebrows turned up, mouth turned down, eyes squinted in protest.

It was to Tommy's understanding that Joel had gone home that night and berated Ralph for keeping secrets from him, screamed at him in angry Joel tradition, and warned him that Joel wanted nothing to do with him once they had delivered Ellie to her destination. So, he had no idea why they were still joking with each other and laughing and smiling like two teenagers in love.

Tommy couldn't care less if they were in love, he had bigger concerns than his brother being into dudes, but he could care less about Joel being a pussy and not facing this issue head-on.

'I know.' Joel sighed, dropping his voice and leaning forward, reading Tommy's mind. 'I'll... I'll speak to him about it soon. I just... I will, I promise.'

Tommy nodded, satisfied with that.

'Well, I guess in that case... Adios, big brother.'

...

'WIDE RIGHT.' Joel grinned to himself when Ellie missed their make-shift target for the third time in a row, instead firing at a patch of snow behind it. 'You're flinching.'

'The target's too small!' Ellie complained, looking adorably tiny with that big ass gun on her shoulder.

On their way to Colorado, Ellie had been continuously whining about learning how to hunt and how to shoot a gun. Then, she had somehow gotten Lou to get involved in the begging. And then they started to bug Ralph about it. And then Ralph started to bug Joel about it. And now they all were crouched behind a log in the middle of nowhere, aiming at a bag of dirt on a stick— Joel with Ellie manning the rifle, and Ralph with Lou as he taught her the ins and outs of a pistol. A little less complex than Ellie's lesson.

'I made it bigger than I should've. Eject the cartridge.' Joel said, and Ellie tugged the leaver up and back, then forward and down again.

'And I am not flinching. This rifle just suuucks.' She ducked her head down to aim again, squinting one eye shut and then bringing her head back up to complain again. 'And, for the record, a pistol is way easier to work than a friggin' rifle.'

'Easier to work, harder to aim.' Ralph said to her with a shrug, repositioning Lou's fingers around the handle. Joel looked at them for a moment in silence, and then waved for Lou to come and join him behind the bigger firearm.

Ralph was about to request another minute or two of teaching his daughter until he realized that Joel had turned his back on him. It wouldn't have been a very big deal if it was anyone apart from Joel. But because it was Joel, who normally spent every waking moment staring at or trying to speak to Ralph, it was a little bit odd.

'Good luck with that thing.' Ellie raised her hands by her shoulders as she shuffled past Lou to kneel next to Ralph. Lou nudged her in the ribcage. 'It doesn't aim right, Joel. I'm telling you!'

'You're a sore loser, y'know that?' Joel rebuked with a small smirk, shifting over to make room for Lou as she sat next to him. He handed her the pair of binoculars the four of them were sharing and shifted the gun onto his own shoulder instead of helping her with it first. 'Alright, kid. Deep breath in, slow breath out. You squeeze the trigger like you love it. Gentle, steady, nice and slow—'

'You gonna shoot that thing or get it pregnant?' Ellie grinned at him, laughing at the scowl she got over the top of the eyepiece. Ralph nudged her, bringing her attention back to the pistol in his hands, and just as he began to explain the mechanics of it, she spoke. 'Hey, what's going on with Joel? Did you put a stick up his butt during hokey-pokey time or something?'

'No.' Ralph fought back a smile, bringing her hand forward to wrap around the gun. Joel fired the gun and Ralph didn't look over to see where the shot had hit. He reached across her chest and grabbed her other one, placing it on top firmly. 'Hands together, thumb under thumb.'

'Oh, so the two of you did have hokey-pokey time?' Ellie grinned when she noticed he wasn't denying the question to the extent she had expected. Ralph sent her a glare and she stopped speaking, but a taunting smile rested on her face. Until he shoved her in the shoulder and almost sent her sprawling to the snow. She got that message. 'You want me to hit that target with this?'

'Nah. How about you, uhm...' He looked around for a moment, trying to find something to throw out in front of him or some sort of landmark that was already there. 'You see that rock?'

'The one with the twig on it?'

'Yeah, go for that.' At the command, Ellie raised the pistol up by her relaxed shoulders, only for Ralph to reach behind her and push them upwards, talking about squaring them. With her shoulders squared, Ellie fired the pistol. She missed terribly.

'I think you shot further than me, El.' Lou squinted her eyes and nodded at her friend, laughing when Ellie stuck her tongue out at her. Lou hadn't done very well, she had completely missed her target too.

'Shut up, it's not fair. Nobody can shoot that far with a pistol in the first pla... How the fuck did you do that!?'

'You'd be surprised.'

...

'SO... YOU TOLD BOWIE WE WERE LEAVING?' Ralph questioned, looking over his shoulder at Lou as she slumped against his back with her arms around his waist. She groaned when he brought it up, and he expected that reaction. 'I'm not mad! I just— You didn't tell him about, like, Ellie and shit, right?'

'Well, I kind of had to. Otherwise, the four of us would be animal abusing some poor horse trying to fit on top of it.' Lou retorted, holding her hands out in an obvious kind of shrug and then quickly hanging onto him again when they walked over a rock and it spooked her.

With a huff, she raised her voice to be dramatic in typical Lou fashion. 'No, dad. I didn't tell Bowie about Ellie being immune and I also didn't tell him about the big, bad cult of terrorists that want to put her blood in little test tubes like vampires.'

'I don't like that word, don't call them that.' Ralph shook his head briskly.

'What, a cult?' Lou furrowed her eyebrows.

'No, terrorists.' He scratched the bridge of his nose. On the horse in front of him, Ellie whirred around the best she could to face him.

'Isn't that what they are, though? Terrorists?' She questioned, seeming intrigued by his input.

'...Technically, yeah. But, I just don't think that we should be taught to hate the Fireflies when FEDRA do way worse every day.'

'Two wrongs don't make a right.'

'Yeah, but two wrongs even the playing field, y'know?' Ralph looked at the trees surrounding them, stumped for an example. 'Like, say you knew this girl. And this girl was really mean to you, for, like, no reason. And one day, she hits you. Are you gonna hit her back, or are you gonna sit there and take it?'

Ellie nodded her head slowly, beginning to understand what he was talking about, when Joel stepped in.

'Why are you defending the Fireflies?' Joel knew exactly why he was defending the Fireflies.

'...I'm not.' Ralph shrugged, voice cracking a little like he had just been caught doing something he shouldn't have been. He cleared his throat. 'I just... I don't really think the world's like that, man. There's always three sides to the story, there's always grey in the black and white. You know. Morals and shit.'

'Fireflies don't have morals.' Joel said. Ralph stopped talking.

...

NOTES!
im sure that u all have figured it out by now,
but i wont spoil it for the...... stupider folks that may be present with us during this chapter. (looking at u october x)

also my mum got me one of those little diamond painting thingies and it is the most fun i have had in years its so entertaining im living my life to the fullest