UNITED IN BLOOD
CHAPTER THREE !

    "HOW IS SHE?" THOSE were the first words out of Danielle's mouth when she woke up. The environment she was currently in, was extremely unfamiliar. She could only assume it was the town of Jackson. Why they brought her back with them and didn't just leave her unconscious in that room for the infected to feast upon, Danielle had no fucking clue but she wasn't about to complain.

   The back of her head was still throbbing, the pain being just that bit more bearable than when she had initially been hit. Her vision was still a little blurry, her throat dry. From where she lay, she could trail her eyes over the battered face of Tommy Miller. His long blond hair was pulled back with a hair tie, allowing Danielle a clearer view of the black and blue bruises that were painted across the expanse of his face.

   "How are you?" Danielle then asked in concern. She had no idea who this man was, knew nothing about him and had barely even spoken to him other than their brief conversation when he was practically comatose, but for some reason the young girl couldn't help but feel an immense height of worry for him.

   Tommy stood stoically at the foot of the bed. He looked better than the last time Danielle saw him though there was an air of understandable misery that emanated from him. "As expected."

   "I'm so sorry." The young girl earnestly proclaimed and though an aching pain enveloped her body, she forced herself to sit up. "You don't have to be believe me or anything, but I am. Your brother didn't deserve what happened to him."

   "Can I ask you somethin'?" The Miller man waited until a small nod was sent his way before continuing. "Why were you the only one who didn't know about anything that was going down?"

   A deep sigh was pulled from Danielle, her chest heaving up and down. "I wasn't supposed to go with them. The leader of the WLF, Isaac, he suggested I go along. Provide medical assistance when necessary."

   Danielle was so fucking angry. She had been mislead by them and it made her so mad. Her eyes stung as tears of frustration threatened to fall. "They uh— they told me we were scouting out an old firefly outpost. Clearly that wasn't actually the case."

   "Yeah clearly." The blond man lifted up his hand to wave a small med kit around before gesturing towards Danielle. "Your head needs stitching."

   "Let me get a look at ya." Tommy made his way to the bed, taking a seat just behind the young girl, his eyes scanning the back of her head.

   There was deep gaping wound across the back of her head, which begged the question. What the fuck had she been hit with? The butt of a gun wouldn't do that type of damage. Tommy could only assume that Danielle was attacked using the very same golf club used to murder his brother.

   Tommy cleared his throat, desperate to rid himself of the lump of emotion that had formed. "They got you good. There's a thick gash back here."

   "Thank you for this. You know you don't have to." Danielle thanked the man. She meant what she said, he didn't have to help her. She was medically inclined meaning that while stitching up the back of her head would be difficult, she could do it.

   The young girl just couldn't wrap her head around it. Why was Tommy being nice to her? Sure she didn't kill his brother and she had actively attempted to stop the brutal beating but still, she had been with them. She knew the ones that had murdered Joel. They had been her friends once. Surely, that girl Ellie hated her and Danielle wouldn't blame her one bit.

   "Yeah I know. But you ain't the reason my brothers dead." Tommy simply replied, the man sounding slightly distracted as he focused on stitching up her wound. He didn't want to accidentally stab her in the head with a needle. "I know that too."

   "What was he like?" Danielle plucked up the courage to ask though immediately regretted the decision as Tommy's hands suddenly stopped moving. "Sorry. I shouldn't have asked that."

   A brief silence filled the room before Tommy resumed his task. "Joel... he was a stupid son of a bitch. He's my brother and I love him but god, did he make some insane choices these last few years."

   A hearty laugh fell past the man's lips as he reminisced. "Course if he hadn't of made 'em, I might never have seen him again. See, he and I had this big fallen out about ten or so years back. Big fight. I admittedly made some errors in judgment and boy, did we clash."

   "But he was my brother at the end of the day. Would do anything for me. He was nice like that." The blond man talked up his brother which caused a slight ache to fill the young girls chest.

   She had never had that, —someone that would boast about her to others. Someone who loved her so much they would do anything for her. Sure she had had friends but would they have been willing to die for her as Tommy had been for his brother? No chance in hell.

   She didn't even have a family nor a last name. No one claimed her as their own. She was only ten or eleven when Isaac's men had brought her to the WLF stadium. According to Isaac, she had been found curled up against a tree clutching a small knife in the freezing cold as a dead body lay beside her, though she had no memory of this. Her subconscious had suppressed anything related to that day.

   Despite everything that caused her sadness, a small smile pulled at Danielle's lips. "He sounds like he was really cool."

   "Yeah he was." With a final tie of the thread, Tommy pulled his hands away and took a look at his handy work. It was a good stitch job if you asked him. "All done back here."

   "That's great, thank you." Danielle stood up just as Tommy had mere seconds before. With a tilt of her head, she glanced up at the man who much taller than her. "I'm sure you want me gone so I'll be out of your hair in a few minutes. I promise, you won't see me again."

   "Hey... why don't you stick around for a while?"

   "Really?" Danielle couldn't help but feel a little sceptical. Why would he want her staying around? Surely, he'd want to see the back of her. That girl most certainly would.

   Tommy scratched at the scruff that grew around his neck, something Danielle had noticed him do just minutes before the attack had began. It seemed to be a nervous habit. "Yeah. You ain't exactly got anywhere to go. They won't take you back obviously."

   "I wouldn't go back even if they would." This was a fact. She wouldn't go back. She also couldn't go back but that didn't matter. She made her choice when she decided to stand up for herself against the Salt Lake Crew. No doubt, word of her desertion would be the talk of the base when they returned to Seattle. She only hopes to never see their faces, ever again.

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   TIME SEEMED TO MOVE oh so fucking slowly as Danielle sat in that room. Tommy had left her maybe an hour ago and yet it felt as though he had been gone for half a day. That was how slow the day was moving and it was driving the young girl absolutely insane. The incessant, irritating ticking of the clock mounted upon the wall, taunting her as she sat with her legs crossed on the bed.

   Tommy was a nice man. Despite everything, he had been kind enough to offer her a place to stay. Insisted she remain in Jackson indefinitely, practically begged her really. He had been smart to mention his wife Maria, the leader of Jackson. 'I wouldn't hear the end of it from my wife if I sent a young girl out alone and defenceless.'

   Of course, with nowhere to go and no real way of defending herself save for her hunting knife, Danielle had agreed to stay almost immediately. Before he left, the Miller man had informed her that she was currently residing in a small house near the walls of the community. Danielle was sure she was alone in the house but had yet to venture outside the bedroom. Even though she had jumped at the chance to stay, the idea of speaking to anyone, looking them in the eye, absolutely terrified her.

   Apparently, no one other than those who had been present when Joel died knew of Danielle's affiliation with the WLF, which the young girl was grateful for. A deep sigh was pulled from the girl just as the unmistakable sound of footsteps making their way up the stairs caught her attention. The wooden floorboards creaked under the weight of whoever it was.

   The door to the room had been left wide open by Tommy before he left, forcing Danielle to sit completely still in suspense, watching and waiting. The hope that it was the Miller man was quickly squashed as the body of a girl, most likely similar in age to Danielle, stepped into the room.

   "Danielle right?" In her hands, the girl held a plate of food. There was a little bit of everything available which the young girl appreciated. "I'm Dina."

    "It's nice to meet you." The girl, now known as Dina, continued to speak as she moved further into the room, placing the plate on the top of a set of drawers.

   Danielle's eyes followed and watched Dina. The way she walked with ease, a confidence that exuded from her that Danielle could never even imagine possessing. She was incredibly pretty too, another thing Danielle couldn't help but notice. Dina's hair was pulled back into a ponytail, though a few strands of hair had fallen out, framing Dina's face perfectly. This girl was incredibly beautiful and she seemed to know it.

   Subconsciously, Danielle had begun to nervously massage the back of her hands. "You too. Even under these circumstances."

   "I was there that day. I almost shot you." Dina said this with complete and utter nonchalance, as if what she had just uttered couldn't be perceived as a threat.

   A slight nervous laugh fell past Danielle's lips, her eyes widening in a mix of shock and fear. "Kinda glad you didn't, I'm not gonna lie to you."

   "Well, we'll see." Dina shrugged her shoulders as a slight smirk graced her lips. Her body leaned against the frame of the door with ease. "Might still happen."

   Danielle couldn't help the laugh she let out. It had been the first time she'd laughed in quite some time. Even before Joel's death, Danielle had struggled to find anything to make her feel whole again. To make her laugh with childlike innocence. Far too much time had passed since she last felt joyful. "You're quite blunt. I like that."

"Thank you."

   After maybe thirty seconds of silence, apart from the ticking of the clock, Danielle spoke up once again. "Can I ask you something?"

   "You can. I mightn't answer but you can still ask." Dina was still a little on the fence about Danielle despite what Tommy said. She was a stranger after all. For all she knew, the WLF had planned this. Planned to infiltrate Jackson to gain more information and destroy them from the inside.

   Of course, that wasn't the case at all but Dina didn't know that.

   "Is she okay?" Danielle hadn't gotten an answer from Tommy earlier, on the well-being of Ellie. The last Danielle could remember was the young freckled girl getting kicked upside the head. "Ellie. Is she okay?"

   Dina briefly remained silent. She wondered whether to tell her or not. Wondered if how Ellie was doing was any of Danielle's business. "Not really, no. But would you be if you watched your dad get murdered right in front of you?"

   "Oh god." Danielle's hands immediately clasped over her mouth. Tears had begun to sting at her eyes, as her vision started to blur. She felt like had couldn't breathe. "I feel sick," she muttered to herself.

   She had guessed that Joel had meant something to Ellie but knowing he was her dad? That fact forced all of the oxygen out of her lungs. She had sat by and allowed for a man, a father, to die all because she had been too big of a coward to intervene.

   Dina watched on as the girl in front of her looked ready to fall apart. The guilt Danielle felt enveloped her as she struggled to catch her breath. Dina couldn't help but wonder if she had been wrong about the stranger as she made her way towards the bed. "Hey look. Tommy told us what happened. How you tried to help, how you stopped Ellie from seeing Joel die. This wasn't your fault."

   "Kind of hard to not feel guilty when I could have done more. I could have maybe saved him. If I had just been braver or helped when Tommy begged me to." An ache filled Danielle's chest. It felt as though her insides were going to explode.

"She won't talk to anyone." Dina admitted to the girl.

   A sigh escaped Dina as she continued to speak. "She won't eat, she won't sleep. She just sits in that fucking garage shutting everyone away."

   As Dina spoke, the horrible pain that had spread across Danielle's chest calmed down into a dull ache. Her breathing had slowly begun to level until she could breathe without worrying about potentially passing out from lack of oxygen.

   "This might sound like a crazy idea but what if I spoke to her?" Danielle could sense the immediate hesitation that Dina felt. The young girl was quick to turn slightly on the bed to face Dina, looking her in the eyes with a look of sincerity. "Maybe she needs someone to yell at. You know, someone to blame."

   Dina's mind appeared to waver. "I don't know if that's such a good idea."

   "Can you bring me to her?" Danielle asked the brunette. Maybe she could clear her guilty conscience if she allowed Ellie to use her as an outlet for her grief. Maybe.

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jamielee's thoughts.
so no ellie in this chapter but we got to see danielle interacting with both Tommy and dina. we also found out a little bit about her past. also she does have a last name but she just can't remember it. anyway i hoped you enjoyed and we will be seeing ellie in the next chapter so be prepared :)