CHAPTER THREE.
old friends become old strangers

( tw! contains mentions of abuse )

THEN.

     A MAN'S TOUCH. It was meant to hold a million little promises in the palm of his hand; to be noble, and to be kind. To love, and to protect. They were suppose to provide comfort with even the slightest touch.

Vienna Windsor never knew what those things felt like. Not like most people. She never knew love, or comfort from the person who swore their undying fidelity towards. She never even knew what it felt like to feel protected. She only knew pain, cruelty, violence and wrath wrapped in a pair of bloody knuckles. Her husband was suppose to protect her from all of the awful things the world tried to throw her way and implode her life into ash and dust. But what was she suppose to do if those painful, ugly things lived within the man she loved all along?

One too many drinks mixed with pent up emotions laced with anger, hatred, and blazing fury led to an all out war. However, Vienna was the one to emerge defeated, bloodied and bruised. She was stupid to think she could win, but once he overpowered her, she was a goner. She couldn't forget the feeling of his knuckles colliding with cheek, or the familiar sound of his sinister laughter. She hated that he got his kicks out of causing her harm. But if there was one thing Vienna Windsor hated more than anything, it was the aftermath of her altercations with Jack Lawson.

Vienna was always left with one or two options. She could run out of the house, or stay long enough for her husband to prepare himself for round two. Scared for her own life, Vienna ran away in the middle of the night, jumping in her car and driving to the one place she always knew she could go in her search for peace, safety, and solitude. And so, the woman continued to drive through the dark and vacant streets in the midst of the hot Texas weather until she arrived at her destination, parking her car on the sidewalk outside of her home away from home.

Vienna was quick to jump out of the car, salty tears streaming down her face as she walked up to the front door, curling her trembling hand into a delicate fist before she knocked three times against the wood of the door. The woman waited, and waited, trying her best to put an end to the tears that continued to fall. And when she thought she couldn't cry anymore, the door opened, and when she came face to face with her best friend, Joel Miller, she crumbled apart into a million tiny pieces all over again.

     "I'm sorry..." She apologised, wiping away the tears from her eyes while she continued to look up at the tired man standing in the doorway. "It's just...I had nowhere else to go."

     When Joel got a closer look at the woman standing in front of him, he noticed her swollen cheek, the bruising around her right eye, and the small cut on her bottom lip. It was a clear indication that something horrible had happened. Joel was aware of the real Jack Lawson. To others, he was a generous man. The good husband. But behind closed doors, Joel knew the full extent of the monster hidden underneath a kind face and charismatic smile. He was there for Vienna Windsor during every hospital trip. Every time she needed a place to stay until the heat died down. He was even there to stop a fight before it went too far and Vienna got hurt.

Joel had even begged Vienna to leave him. They were best friends, and have been for years. The last thing he wanted to see was the woman hurt. He would even go as far as to admit he was scared that if she didn't leave Jack soon, he would put her into an early grave. Once again, one of his many fears regarding Vienna came true.

"Come in." Joel moved aside to let Vienna inside his home, closing the door shut behind him.

Vienna took a seat down on the couch while Joel went into the kitchen to grab the first aid kit. The woman scanned her eyes over her familiar surroundings, sighing in relief to be in a place of safety instead of the middle of her kitchen, screaming back and forth with her husband. Her eyes then flickered over to where the television stood. She noticed a framed picture of Joel and Sarah placed on the unit. Vienna was the one who took the photo that day after Sarah's soccer match. The familiar memory was enough to bring a ghost of a smile to the woman's lips.

However, when Joel entered the room again, first aid kit in one hand and a wet cloth in the other, her smile quickly faded when she remembered why she was there in the first place. Joel took a seat on the couch next to her, placing the tips of his fingers gently underneath Vienna's jaw, tilting her head up ever-so-slightly before he dabbed the wet cloth against her cut lip. This caused for Vienna to let out a quiet wince. After years of being used as a human punching bag, she really believed she would've grown used to the pain at this point in her life. But another night of terror was a reminder that this was something she would never grow used to.

     "Do you want to talk about what happened?" Joel asked, his voice breaking through the uncomfortable silence, slicing into it like a sharp knife.

     Vienna let out a shaky breath past her quivering lips, holding back the tears that threatened to fall. "I just finished a shift. Came back home, and Jack was drunk. He wanted to have sex. I refused him. Then he got angry and forced himself onto me—"

"He's never done that before." Joel interrupted, pulling the cloth away from the woman's lips. For the first time in a long time, Joel seemed genuinely shocked when it came to Jack's abuse. And although he hated the thought of thinking it, he had to ask, "Vienna, did he..."

"No." Vienna shook her head in response to Joel's insinuation, easing his worries, and his own anger. Vienna knew that if Jack had taken it too far, Joel would've left his own house in seconds to kill him with his bare hands. Vienna didn't want her friend doing that. Even if Jack did deserve it. The woman then sighed again. "I managed to fight him off, which is why we actually ended up arguing in the first place." She elaborated further.

     Joel spared the woman a quick glance before he dabbed the damp cloth against her cut lip again. "Is that his new thing now?" He questioned. "He doesn't get what he wants so he hurts you?" He pressed further. Vienna could sense the anger laced in his voice.

     "Not exactly..." Vienna trailed off, pausing for a moment. "He got angry when I refused him because he thinks I'm cheating on him, and that's why I don't want to sleep with him, and why I do long hours almost every day of the week."

     Joel let out a quiet chuckle, pulling back the damp cloth again. "Yeah? With who?" He inquired curiously, amusement twinkling in his dark eyes.

     "You're never going to believe this. But he thinks there's something going on between us." Vienna informed, causing for Joel to stare back at her surprised, allowing the woman to continue. "See? I thought it was crazy too. I get that we spend a lot of time together, but that's only because we're friends. And I help you out with Sarah when needed. There's nothing wrong with that." She explained, a small smile of her own forming across her lips.

     "Yeah, I think I'd be hopeless without you. I don't get teenage girls at all." Joel admitted, earning another smile from the woman, causing for him to smile back at her in return.

     "I just can't believe he thought there was something going on between us." Vienna breathed out, shaking her head before she lifted her gaze to meet Joel's, her lips parting to speak once again. "I mean, it's crazy, right? You and me, together?"

Joel let out another laugh, nodding his head in agreement for a moment while he stared into Vienna's eyes. "Yeah. It's definitely crazy." He replied, his voice getting quieter with each word that left his lips, his small and gentle smile fading while he continued to stare at the woman sitting next to him.

Vienna stared deeply into Joel's eyes, getting lost in the midst of his mesmerising gaze for a moment, her own smile quickly disappearing from her face while she swallowed thickly. It was strange. Vienna had never once felt anything remotely romantic towards Joel Miller. They met when they were young. They was there for each other through every major change and milestone in each other's life. She always saw him as a friend, or had she just been lying to herself to spare them from the difficult truth?

     In that moment, Vienna looked down at the man's lips, inhaling sharply in the process while she lifted her gaze to meet his gaze once again. Then, without giving it a second thought, she leaned forward and pressed her lips against his own, a feeling of ecstatic electricity igniting in her bones the second her and Joel closed the space between them.

Vienna lifted her hand, her fingers moving from the man's jawline to the nape of his neck while Joel caressed her cheek with a comforting touch, deepening the kiss. Vienna then crawled on top of him, straddling his waist while Joel placed his free hand on the dip of her back, his fingers searing through her clothing, their lips continuing to move together in perfect sync. It was almost like they were meant to be.

Joel was the first to break away from the kiss, allowing Vienna to pull off his shirt, leaving his chest bare before she reconnected their lips for a moment. Joel then placed one last kiss to the woman's lips before he littered a series of kisses from her lips, all the way down to her neck, biting down on her skin in the process. Vienna let out a quiet moan, and Joel couldn't help but smile before he pressed another short, but passionate kiss to the woman's lips, tucking her soft brown hair behind her ear, his rough fingers grazing against her porcelain skin.

     Vienna pulled away this time around, staring deeply into Joel's gaze for a moment, watching as he parted his lips so he could speak. "Are you sure you want to do this?" He whispered, sounding almost breathless.

     There was a single moment where Vienna was tempted to put an end to it there and then. She knew it was wrong. She was married. Her husband was already convinced there was something there between her and Joel, and she had told him continuously that he was crazy. However, after tonight, Vienna knew deep down that maybe her husband was right this whole time, and she was the one lying to herself about her real feelings. And although her husband was a terrible man, who hurt her relentlessly, would it be right for her to give into what her heart truly wanted in that very moment?

However, the longer she stared into Joel's dark brown eyes, the sooner she realised what she truly wanted had been in front of her this entire time — to feel alive again.

So, Vienna nodded her head, a ghost of a smile tugging at the corners of her lips again while she cupped Joel's face in her small and delicate hands. "I want this more than anything." She whispered back to him.

That was all Joel needed to hear before he stood back up onto his feet, holding onto Vienna while she wrapped her legs around the man's torso. The woman then pressed her lips against his own, reigniting that familiar flame once again, while he carried her to his bedroom, where their night filled with passion and unrequited desire continued to blossom from underneath the bedsheets.

And it was in that moment Vienna Windsor finally learned what the comfort of a man's touch truly felt like.

NOW.

     "Joel?" Vienna Windsor repeated, a look of disbelief plastered across her face while she continued to stare at the man standing only a few feet away from her. "Is that really you?" She asked, lowering her gun slightly in the process.

Vienna almost couldn't believe it. Joel looked a lot older. She even spotted the gray tones withering in his brown hair. But it was definitely him. Her best friend. The same one she hasn't seen since that morning in the aftermath of their long night tangled in the sheets. Twenty years have passed, and although she noticed the darkness in his eyes, and the cold stare shot in her direction where she stood proudly with Marlene and Kim, proving to her that he wasn't the same man she once knew, it was still him — Joel Miller — a man she once believed to be dead along with what remained of her life before the outbreak.

Before Joel could answer Vienna, another voice piped up. "You two know each other?" Marlene questioned in a rhetorical manner, her eyes flickering between the pair with a puzzled look glazed over her dark eyes as she continued to clutch her side, doing her best to stay upright while she slowly lowered her gun, realising Joel wouldn't be a threat to her. At least, that's what she hoped.

Vienna hesitated at first, lowering her gun back down to her side with a shaky breath tumbling out of her throat. "Yeah, something like that. We, uh, we were friends before the outbreak happened." She confessed, her gaze drifting from Marlene, to her former companion, swallowing thickly when her eyes met Joel's once again.

Every bone in her body wanted to give into old desires and run to Joel. To throw her arms around him in relief, happy to be reunited with a familiar face again. But Vienna wasn't too sure if she could call this a happy reunion. Joel was different. She saw it in his eyes the second she came face to face with him again. Even if he was her best friend twenty years ago, she wasn't too sure if the fact still remained. He had changed. Something had changed him. He was more like a stranger than a friend, and until she knew the truth, she knew it was for the best to remain where she stood until she knew she could trust him again.

Marlene let out a sigh, nodding her head. "Well, at least we know he ain't gonna shoot us." She muttered quietly underneath her breath.

"So this is who Robert screwed us over with?" An unfamiliar voice called out, causing for Vienna to lift her gaze away from Joel before she peered behind him to see a woman walking towards them. "The Che Guevara of Boston?"

But that wasn't what caught Vienna off guard. She was more surprised by the person following the woman. If reuniting with her former friend wasn't a surprise enough, Vienna Windsor was left in a state of shock when she saw the one person she had been hoping to find for the last couple of years. Her son — Ezra Windsor. He was a lot more different than Vienna originally remembered. Before he was a scared and naive sixteen year old boy, who could barely hold a gun, let alone fire it. And now, judging by the looks of him, he was stronger. He was brave. He could actually hold a weapon without his hand shaking in the process. And more importantly, he was alive. He was actually alive.

"Ezra?" Vienna called out his name, a small smile ghosting across her lips when he lifted his gaze to meet her own.

Ezra felt his entire body tense upon realising that his mom was standing in front of him, however, instead of relief and delight, he felt nothing more than hate and distain for the woman. He wished it didn't have to be that way, but after everything he witnessed as a child, from losing his dad, to everything up to the moment he left his mom alone in the midst of a cold and lonesome night, whatever love a child should have for their parent no longer existed within him. Not for her at least.

"Mom." Ezra replied sternly, causing for Vienna's smile to vanish within seconds of hearing her son's blunt tone.

     Vienna's eyes then found Joel's once again, who stared between her and Ezra with a confused look. It quickly became clear that her son failed to mention to him who his parents were, meaning Joel never once knew she was alive either. Vienna was almost hurt by the sudden realisation. Not because Joel believed she was dead. But because her own son never once breathed even her name to a single soul because he was clearly ashamed to have her as a mother. That part hurt most of all.

     "So this is a the son?" Marlene spoke up once again, cutting through the awkward silence like a knife.

     "Yeah, I am." Ezra piped up, holding his gun tightly in his hand. Vienna could tell her son didn't trust the Fireflies. She couldn't help but wonder why. "But it's clear the deal with Robert went south. You should know better than to trust lowlifes like him. You must be desperate." He added, changing the subject.

     Marlene chuckled bitterly, wincing while she tried her best to stand up on her own two feet. "Yeah, it kinda has been. The merch was bad, and he obviously didn't take 'fuck off' for an answer." She answered, sounding breathless with each word that trembled past her lips.

     "What do you need the car battery for?" Joel asked, suspicion laced in his voice.

     All of a sudden, Vienna noticed Ellie reach for her knife that Joel had his foot on from the corner of her eye. She wasn't the only one either. Joel was quick to raise his gun again, but this time he was pointing directly at Ellie's head. Vienna didn't know what surprised her more. The fact that Joel had a gun pointed at a kid, or despite her hesitation, she quickly aimed her own gun straight back at him. It was even more proof that they had both changed because Vienna never wanted to hurt Joel. But it was her duty to protect Ellie from harm, and she couldn't let her past with Joel jeopardise that.

     "Not her. Point it at me." Marlene instructed abruptly, causing for Joel to hesitate before he pointed the gun directly at the woman, but his eyes remained on Vienna who kept the barrel of her gun trained on him. "And to answer your question, I need it for a better reason than you do. No offense, but Tommy's just one man. It's our business to know things."

     Vienna glanced over at Marlene for a moment, surprised to learn Tommy was out there somewhere too. He was alive. Which meant by some chance that Sarah was okay too. Maybe she was with him, or remained in the QZ, safe and sound. She knew nothing would've happened to that girl with Joel and Tommy around. But before she could question it further, Joel's voice quickly flooded her ears once again.

     "To know things?" Joel scoffed, shaking his head. "You're the cause of it. You turned my own brother against me." He then accused.

Vienna furrowed her brows together, wondering what the man meant. But she had better things to worry about. Especially with FEDRA on the way, causing for the woman to glance over at Marlene once again. "Marlene. FEDRA surely heard the gunfire. We can't stay here for much longer. Especially with you and Kim in this condition." She informed.

"I know." Marlene nodded, looking down at the ground for a moment, almost like she was thinking quietly to herself before she lifted her gaze again. "We were gonna move Ellie outta the zone tonight. But we won't make it anywhere like this. Not for a while anyway. So now I'm thinking, you're gonna do it."

Both Joel and Ellie instantly created an uproar, followed by Ezra and the woman standing next to him who seemed hesitant on the idea. "Who is she?" The woman asked.

"To you?" Marlene paused. "She's cargo."

"We don't smuggle people. Sorry." Joel deadpanned.

Vienna turned to Marlene. "This is too important to let smugglers deal with her." She reminded the woman. She trusted Joel, and she trusted her son. But not with something as important as the potential cure for a disease that's ravaged the world for two decades.

"And I can do it." Kim added, sounding sure.

"Kim, you don't have a fucking ear on your fucking head. Could you please?" Marlene snapped, raising her voice towards the woman before silence quickly swarmed the hallway. Marlene then let out a sigh. "If anyone is going to go, it's Vienna. I want her to accompany the rest of you. I know you guys, but I need to be sure you don't abandon Ellie when it gets too difficult. At least with Vienna there I know she'll be safe."

"Whoa..." Vienna breathed out, sounding almost surprised by Marlene's instructions. "Are you sure about this?" She then asked.

"You want to prove yourself to me and our cause?" Marlene inquired, earning a small nod from Vienna in response. "Then you make sure they get her to where she needs to be."

Vienna nodded, swallowing thickly while she listened to Marlene as she continued to speak, diverting her attention back to the group of smugglers in front of her. "There's a team of Fireflies waiting for her at the old State House. I know what's out there. We were going with an entire squadron for that very reason. But now I don't have a truck, I don't have a squadron, FEDRA's five minutes away. What I do have is you. And I know what all of you are capable of. For better or worst." She explained.

"What are they capable of?" Ellie asked curiously, sounding uncertain.

"You get her there safely, and they'll give you what you need. Not just a battery. The whole thing. Fuelled-up trucks, guns, supplies, all of it. I swear." Marlene promised, a serious and sincere look plastered across her face.

     In that moment, Joel, Ezra and the woman turned their backs on the rest of them, talking amongst themselves in the process. This caused for Vienna to turn her attention back to Marlene. "Marlene, are you sure about this?" She asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

     "I trust you enough that together, you and the smugglers can get Ellie to the old State House. Besides, in the meantime, you can catch up with your son." Marlene replied before she glanced over at the smugglers once again, a frustrated sigh leaving her lips. "Y'all talk it through but just remember that I'm bleeding out." She called out to them.

     The woman in the group was quick to approach them. It was clear she was the ringleader of their smuggling operation. "Okay. Here's the deal. We'll get her to the old State House. But before we hand her over, they give us everything that we want. If not, we kill her, there and then." She explained.

     "Deal." Marlene spoke up without hesitation.

     "Really?" Ellie turned around to face Marlene, a nervous chuckle leaving her lips. "That fast?"

     "You are all that matters. My team will not jeopardise that." Marlene reassured the young girl. "Remember what I told you? Now go get your backpack."

     Ellie let out a loud huff before she stood up and walked back into the room she originally came running out from. Vienna then walked away from the direction she came from, grabbing her own bag that she previously dropped when their deal with Robert went south. She threw it over her back, letting out a sigh as she looked ahead once again, watching as Ezra shook his head, sparing her one last glare filled with hate and spite before she turned the corner he previously appeared from. It didn't take a genius to know he wasn't happy to be spending more time with his mom after running away years ago.

     Once Ellie stepped back out into the hallway, Vienna walked over towards the girl, offering her a small smile. "Let's go." She told her.

     "Hey, Vienna." The woman turned back around, coming face to face with Marlene again, watching as she parted her lips to speak once again. "Don't fuck this up."

     Vienna nodded her head before she turned her back on Marlene and walked away into the opposite direction alongside the group of smugglers, Marlene's words echoing in the back of her mind; don't fuck this up. And she wouldn't.

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authors note.
So this chapter was going to have the rest of episode 1 in it but I got kinda carried away with the flashback that there wasn't much room to include the whole thing. So the rest of episode 1 is going to be in the next chapter, which is going to include a lot of catching up and angsty chats.
But, on the other hand, how are we feeling about that Vienna and Joel flashback? I don't condone cheating, but when it's them I can overlook it bye!

Anyways I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and I'll update again very soon!