ALTHOUGH THE COMMOTION FOLLOWING HIS ARRIVAL, Ralph had made it to floor six and was now staggering through darkness and looking at signs that meant nothing to him, his bleeding hand pressed tightly against his jeans to try and stifle the flow.

He ducked his head into every room he passed, all of the doors left open carelessly in what were probably states of panic, in sight of the two girls and the people trying to chop them up into little pieces, but was useless in his attempts as he walked down the main corridor.

He took a right down another hallway, peering around the corner and finding a room at the end of it with a light shining through fuzzy glass. Along the wall of this corridor, there were illustrations of elephants and monkeys and rainbows. Perhaps he would've paid far more attention to the artwork if he wasn't feeling lightheaded and wasn't so determined to get the kids back.

After what felt to be an eternity, Ralph was shoving his shoulder against the door with the light behind it and found himself in a viewing room. One man and two women in medical scrubs crowded around a hospital bed, a different woman seated next to Lou in the far corner.

His daughter looked completely out of it, staring across the room at the doctors through half-lidded eyes and a slack jaw. She was slumped against the nurse, and the woman had an arm around her side comfortingly. It was nice to know that Marlene had called off Lou's brain inspection, only took a few damaged vocal cords to get his message across, but the trio at the far side of the room were still looking at Ellie as though they were about to eat her alive.

In the blink of an eye, Ralph was shoving the door open with his okay hand and watching every head in the room turn his way. He stood there, narrow-eyed and panting, as the doctors shared a look and the male one spoke up.

'Jesus Christ, who— What're you doing in here?' The man questioned, stepping back from the table and away from Ralph in general. 'Who are you?'

Ralph didn't offer him a reply, he only glared at the women that were handling Ellie, enough to make them ease away from the table as well. The surgeon made the connection, understanding what he was here for in an instant.

'I won't let you take her.' The surgeon rebutted, a shaky hand reaching for the medical tray by his side and raising a scalpel that was no bigger than Ellie's switchblade. Ralph began to reach for his back pocket in search of the weapon, although he was certain a gun would've been more efficient. 'This is our future. Think about it—Think of all the lives we could save!'

He was beginning to get a little tired of thinking about it, flicking the blade open and stepping forward towards the surgeon with confidence in his step. The doctor staggered away, colliding with a shelf far behind him and swinging the scalpel uselessly.

'Don't come any closer. I mean it!' Ralph ignored him, bringing his arm back and then driving it forward, knife aimed for the bottom of the man's stomach. After a surprising amount of fighting from such a skinny-seeming man, it broke skin.

Before Ralph could drag it upwards and do the honors of putting this fella out of his misery, a bullet was fired from over his shoulder and it got the doctor right in between the eyes. He dropped like a fly, blood pooling from his head and his blue uniform becoming purple as Ralph dragged his knife up anyways, gutting the guy.

'I had him.' Ralph scoffed at Joel, swiping the sides of Ellie's blade off on the bottom of his shirt, making sure it was clean upon return. He slipped it into his pocket and turned to face the man standing behind him. He had never been so grateful to see a pistol in all his life.

'Unhook her.' Joel demanded the two nurses, traumatized and shaking as they stood at the head of the bed next to Ellie's unconscious body, light shining down on her pale skin. The two women turned to each, frightened and squealing and whispering. The red-haired one made the mistake of looking at Ralph.

'You heard him, you fucking morons. Move it!' He screamed, flailing his gun around just to instill a bit of fear in the two of them. They began to scramble, unbalanced on wobbly legs, and Ralph took that opportunity to turn on his heel and face the woman seated next to Lou.

She was horrified as well, as anyone would've been. Her previously calm face had been stricken with terror, arms retracted from Lou to make sure she wouldn't be the slightest inconvenience as he kneeled in front of his daughter.

The nurse watched everything within him shift, like he hadn't just killed at least a third of the people in this hospital, like he hadn't sliced Jerry right down the middle, like he wasn't gushing from a dark-red coated hand. All that mattered to him was the kid in front of him.

He cradled her face with his cleaner hand, gently pulling the skin underneath her eyes to inspect them, all dilated and shiny. He then pulled her towards him, head against his chest as he kissed the top of her head briefly, and got to his feet. He ducked forward, hooking his hands under her arms and lifting her to stand, testing her stability.

She balanced for a little while, croaked a sound of nothingness, and shuffled forward to bury her face against his ribs. He wrapped an arm around her, the clean one to make sure she wasn't going to come back to full consciousness with questions or concerns, and turned away from the woman seated in the corner as if she had never even been there.

Standing across from him, Joel was cradling Ellie in his arms, staring down at the girl with worry plastered across his face. The man holding her looked up and shifted his attention over Ralph's shoulder, watching the nurse that had been caring for Lou as she dug around in the drawer next to her.

He nodded, and Ralph raised his pistol in his aching hand with little hesitation, only to find the woman with a roll of bandages in her open palm. Frozen, she watched him step forward and retrieve them from her.

With a small nod, Ralph lowered his gun and stuck it in his pocket, opening the door and leaning against it so it would stay open for Joel and Ellie as he wrapped the cloth around his palm, in between his thumb and index, expertly, as if he had done it a hundred times over.

In less than two minutes, Ralph was done with fixing himself up and swapped the bandages in his hand for his pistol, ushering a dazed daughter in front of him so he could make sure nobody crept up on them.

As the little girl shuffled ahead of him, surely not going to be free from his loving hold anytime soon, Ralph looked over his shoulder and smiled at the nurse before hurrying after Lou.

...

WANDERING THROUGH THE HOSPITAL IN SILENCE WAS AN EASY TASK, given that Ralph and Joel had killed nearly every single human being in sight. Those who hadn't been killed had ran far and fast in the directions of the exits, probably one of the only smart ideas the Fireflies had ever made to date.

Squinting through the darkness of the parking garage, Ralph on his tiptoes to try and seek out their truck amongst all of the similar-looking vehicles. In the almost pitch black, he had missed the person hiding behind the pillar to his right, stepping backwards instinctively.

'You can't keep her safe forever.' Marlene warned, holding Ralph's pistol out in front of her, hands tight around the handle. She looked over her shoulder, back at Joel who was frozen to the spot and watching everything unfold in front of him with wide eyes, Ellie limp in his arms. 'Neither of you can.'

Marlene shook her head, turning back to Ralph, aiming the firearm at him like she was planning on using it. 'No matter how hard you try, no matter how many people you kill, no matter whether you stay with the Fireflies or not. She's gonna grow up, Ralph. The both of them are. And then you'll both die. And then they'll both leave.'

'Screw you.' Ralph glared. He looked past her, over her shoulder to Joel. 'Get to the car.'

Determinedly, looking back at Ralph only once to see if he meant it, Joel stayed exactly where he was, furrowing his eyebrows and shaking his head left and right at him, not thinking for a second about leaving him.

'How long till Ellie's torn apart by Infected or murdered by raiders?' Marlene questioned him, jaw clenched as she nodded her head toward the confused little girl at her dad's side. 'How long until your little girl gets raped and murdered by some sick fuck because she happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?'

Lou's tired face scrunched up at such a statement, pressing her cheek into his torso and doing her best to try and ignore Marlene. That sentence made her think of David. She didn't want to think of David— Ever again.

'You watch your fucking mouth.' Ralph snapped at her, hand moving towards his pocket until Marlene waved the gun in front of his face and he relaxed ever so slightly, arm dangling by his side. 'You don't know shit. We'd never let that happen to them and you know that.'

'Don't tell me what I know.' Marlene tilted her head. '...I bet a bunch of other dads thought that before you did, and now look where they've ended up: With their kid in a grave. All because they live in a broken world that you could have saved.'

'They're only kids!' He exclaimed, daring to take a step towards her, one arm tucked around the child at his side to ensure she was safe, that nobody was going to get to her. Not over his dead body. 'They shouldn't have to save the world, they're only fucking kids!'

'You're right. They shouldn't, but they do.' She shrugged at him. 'That's just the way the world works, Ralph, I dunno what to tell you. Maybe if you hadn't spent so much time in your shitty little apartment and mopping floors for FEDRA, you would understand that by now. We could've shown you the way. Shown you the light.'

'Yeah, fuck you and your goddamn light, you sadistic prick.' Ralph spat.

'If I'm a sadistic prick, you're no better, Zhenya.' Marlene said. 'You think having an adopted kid and some sort of boyfriend makes you any better than the rest of us? Undoes everything? You're still a murderer, Ralph. Far before you met Joel, before you chose to head out on this suicide mission and act like a victim about it. You've got to live with that guilt for the rest of your life... But, it's not too late. Even now... even after what you've done. We can still find a way.'

Ralph looked at Joel.

Joel looked at Ralph.

...

NOTES!
next chapter last chapter im gonna collapse guys
someone hold me

also stan random unnamed nurse she ate it up fr