UNITED IN BLOOD
CHAPTER TWELVE  !

THE SMELL OF COLD and damp assaulted their senses, the moment they set foot inside the theatre. Their new environment was dark and dreary, though it was a prize in comparison to the dangerous situation they had just escaped. The building was silent, potentially completely free of infected. The only noise that filled the air alongside the gasping breaths of the three girls was the creaking of wooden panels that acted as the theatre's foundation.

"How you doing? You okay?" Danielle inquired in deep concern as she sat down on the musty couch next to a worn out, exhausted looking Dina.

With a hand placed upon her chest, the fast paced thumping of her heart just below, the dark haired girl haggardly breathed out, "I'm just really tired."

The fall Dina had taken only moments ago as her knees buckled before she plummeted to the ground had really unsettled Danielle. Yes, she was a doctor but pregnancy and all it entailed had never really been her forte nor did she have the necessary medical supplies on hand should the pregnancy take a more somber turn.

With only the comforting act of words and the gentle rubbing of her hand alongside the dark haired girls back, Danielle just nodded her head. "I know. This place seems safe though. You should be able to rest soon."

Ellie had returned from her quick sweep of the perimeter and now stood in front of the pair, her hunter green eyes observing them as the conversed. She cleared her thought, though her voice remained a little ragged. "You want to tell me what's going on with you?"

"What's going on with me?" The question had been aimed at Dina who wasted absolutely no time in answering back, a trembling bottom lip appearing as she vocalised her thoughts. "Ellie... we just saw you breath spores."

The redheads pupils shook, her voice quieting down to a softer tone. "I told you. I'm immune."

Immunity had only ever been theorised and it hadn't lasted long. Danielle could remember the times she would eavesdrop upon the conversations of the old timers of the WLF, each one filled with the sordid details of their previous transgressions. They would chatter amongst themselves of the experiments on the infected the government had done not long after the outbreak, that had amounted to absolutely nothing.

No cure had been found, no reason to believe these people could ever return to their previous selves. They were just gone. That had been the case for every single victim of infection since the outbreak began twenty five years ago.

So the idea that the girl that stood in front of her now, the girl who had dragged her to Seattle as she reluctantly followed in some vain attempt to ease the gnawing guilt that was burrowed deep within, the girl who had unknowingly become one of Danielle's favourite people whether she knew it or not, —the idea that she was immune to infection was positively absurd and yet there she stood, unaffected by the spores that had invaded her lungs.

"Okay, you're immune?" Dina glanced up at her friend, not wanting to believe the admittedly bizarre admission. "Come on."

"I was bitten a long time ago..."

Even the notion of immunity caused Dina to scoff. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

A irritated sigh fell past Ellie's lips. How could she possibly explain this? It was practically the work of science fiction writers. Immunity from a life altering infection? Of course, Dina didn't believe her. "I was bitten and nothing happened."

The dark haired girls eyes trailed down from Ellie's face to her clothed forearm. Suddenly, it all seemed to make sense. "The chemical burn."

"Maria and Tommy..." Ellie now held her arm, which undoubtedly held her bite mark just below the fabric, as her voice croaked. "And Joel were the only ones who know."

"Knew." She corrected herself the moment she realised. Joel was no longer of this world and so he couldn't be considered someone who knew of Ellie's affliction. "Now you two know."

Not wasting a minute, Ellie continued to explain everything. "I can't infected anyone if that's what you're worried about. I can't make you immune either."

Silence befell the room, the only sound being the patter of rainfall from just beyond the closed off doors. Danielle truly didn't know what to say nor did she know if she should say anything at all. This information had only been divulged to her because of her presence, —Ellie would never had told her otherwise.

"Can either of you just say something?" The Williams girl pleaded weakly, nervously playing with her fingers to avoid looking at the two girls, fearful of the potential expressions upon their faces.

"Ellie..." Dina sounded positively exhausted as she let out a whimper, her hand clutching her stomach to ground herself. "Ellie, I'm pregnant."

The redhead stood frozen in place while the colour drained from her face. "What?"

Freaked out was an acceptable response to finding out that your best friend was pregnant though 'freaked out' didn't even begin g describe how Ellie Williams felt in that moment. She was beyond understanding, her frustration on their entire journey that she had bottled up was coming to a boil, threatening to overflow and spill out.

What are we sup—" Ellie seemed to stumble back in shock. Pregnant? "What are we supposed to do now?"

"Nothing. I just need to rest for a second."

"Are you fucking kidding me? How long have you know?" Questions that just begged to answered raced around Ellie's brain as her gaze fixed up her friend.

Dina released a heavy sigh. "I was late a few weeks ago."

"A few weeks? We could've... we could've still turned back." It would have been hard but she would have done it. Joel wouldn't have wanted her risking Dina and her unborn baby's life, no matter the reason.

"I didn't know for sure. Okay, I didn't want to be a burden." Dina offered up excuses to assuage Ellie's rising temper. She had known but had been too afraid of upsetting her best friend.

"Well, you're a burden now, aren't you?" Her harsh words were definitely not warranted, though Ellie was far to revved up to care in that moment. Her sharp gaze shifted from the crestfallen Dina to the brunette that sat beside her. "And you!"

Danielle looked up at the redhead, who appeared ready to fly off the handle. If this had been a cartoon, steam would have been coming out of her ears.

"You've known whole time, haven't you?" Ellie accused the Linden girl. Though was it truly an accusation if it was the truth? "That's why you asked if it was a good idea for Dina to come along. You've known since Jackson and didn't say anything."

"It wasn't for me to tell. It's Dina's secret and I kept it for her." While Danielle could understand why Ellie was upset, she refused to back down from her stance on the subject. It was similar to that of Doctor/Patient confidentiality. Morally, she was obliged to keep the secret even if she hadn't agreed with the potential risk factors that Dina was prepared to face.

A scorned laughter emitted from the brunette. "You can't seriously be pissed at me for this."

"I asked you so many times and you said nothing." Though Ellie's voice was dripping with anger, her words filled with accusation, her eyes bore her true feelings.

Betrayed.

Why couldn't Dani have just told her? Ellie would have understood. She had had many opportunities to tell her, to trust her with that information and not once had Danielle done so. The Linden girl seemed to trust Dina with her life and yet she couldn't trust Ellie with a secret. It wasn't fair how differently she was treated.

The redhead was blind to the effect of her treatment of Danielle and the toll it had taken on the brunettes well being. Every minute of every day, despite the still confusing romantic feelings that Danielle had developed for the freckled girl, she was on the verge of a breakdown. Every snide remark that had been sent her way had chipped away at the weak foundation that she resided upon, sending her plummeting further down to the cesspool of guilt that had taken up residence deep within.

"I'm gonna... make sure this place is secure. You just rest." Ellie backpedaled away, her legs carrying her further within the theatre.

Danielle turned to face the girl beside her quickly, helping to make her more comfortable to allow for an easier slumber. "Take off your backpack and lay up here. I'll be back."

Dina shook her head, not wanting the two to start arguing. "No, Danielle don't."

"I'll be fine. Just relax, okay?" The brunette brushed aside the hair that had fallen in Dina's face before taking off after Ellie.

It hadn't taken long to find her. She had been walking down the aisle of the theatre gallery, the bottoms of her black and white sneakers scraping against the carpeted floors when Danielle located her. "Ellie!"

Ellie rolled her eyes at the brunette, quickly attempting to turn and walk away. "Don't follow me, Dani. Just go back to Dina."

"No, hey!" Danielle grabbed hold of the redheads arm, effectively stopping Ellie from walking away from her. "Look, you can say whatever you want to me, god knows you already have. But calling her a burden? That's just a dick move. She doesn't deserve that."

"You know what, Danielle? Let's get one thing straight here." The Williams girl shook her arm free of Danielle's grasp. She sounded on edge, and in some ways she was. Extremely on edge. She had to avenge Joel's murder. She didn't have time to deal with useless things such as feelings.

In the past five minutes, it felt as though her entire world had been flipped on its side. Not only had her best friend been pregnant the entire time they had been travelling but that Danielle had known about it all along and hadn't said a word, even though Ellie had asked her multiple times if something had been going on with Dina.

"You are only here to help me find Abby. This doesn't make us friends. I have enough friends. Okay, me and Dina are friends. When this is done, we go our separate ways."

Each word said hit the target that was painted across Danielle's chest. Each harsh syllable felt like a pin prick to the heart. Though she had just given Ellie the go ahead to say whatever she wanted, a part of the brunette had hoped Ellie would refrain from spitting cruel words her way.

"Yeah, okay. Sorry." Danielle's voice trailed off, fading out until complete silence overtook the room. It was silly of her to think that Ellie actually wanted to be her friend, to be in her life. She had been deluding herself into believing that once Ellie saw just how truly hard she had been working to help, the redhead would finally see her for her and not as a companion of Joel's murderer.

A revelation, practically open-palm slapping her across the face, reached the girl. No matter what she did, that gnawing guilt would never truly vanish. The burning embers of the desire for friendship and love was extinguished within a few short seconds. The redheads words burned. It felt as though she had been branded as a throwaway. Only useful when needed but easily thrown aside once she was no longer of use.

Those moments of understanding that had been shared between the two girls, the moments one had saved the other from imminent death, had meant absolutely nothing in regards to their slowly building relationship. Ellie saw her as a means to an end and nothing more. Danielle saw that now.

Ellie stepped off to the side, hunter green eyes scanning her surroundings once more, when a faint sniffle could be heard. Down by her side, her hand clenched tightly into a fist. Hurting Danielle, who had been incredibly helpful the entire time they were in Seattle, was not exactly something Ellie wanted to do. But it was something she had to do. If things went south during their search for Abby, Ellie couldn't afford to have either herself nor Danielle squabbling over saving one another.

If god forbid, Abby somehow gained the upper hand and threatened Danielle to lure out Ellie, the auburn haired girl would leave her behind. Should choosing between avenging Joel or saving Danielle was an ultimatum laid upon her, she would choose Joel every time.

The soft clicking of a door closing echoed throughout the empty theatre gallery, caused the freckled girl to glance back, the space behind her now empty, void of Danielle Linden.

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HER EYES STUNG AS they adjusted the lighting within the room. The guitar she had been playing lay resting against the nearby chair. A sigh fell past Ellie's lips as she internally questioned how long she had been asleep. She couldn't even remember her eyes closing.

With a heavy sigh, the redhead pushed herself up from the maroon coloured, velour covered theatre chair she had been lounging in. The theatre was silent as she exited the auditorium before making her way up the nearby stairs. The further she ascended, the louder the crackling of a radio got.

As she reached the landing, her eyes scanned the surrounding area. To her right was a half opened window, the glass pane fogged up and wet as droplets of rain trickled down. To her left lay an ajar door. Through the crack she was able to see the warm glow of a lamp that filled the room.

Ellie stepped towards the room, using her hand to push open the door, the girl half expecting to see Dina and Danielle's figures lit up by the orange hue that filled the room though when her foot broke past the barrier of the door, all she saw was Dina. The dark haired girl was bent over a map that was spread out against the floor, staring intently.

The map was flattened out, the Polaroid photos they had collected from Leah's belongings strewn about, and red and blue markers used to jot down the locations of every WLF outpost or soldier that came over the CB radio. While Ellie had been passed out asleep, Dina had been busy.

"Where is she?" Ellie asked her best friend, her curiosity getting the better of her.

Dina refused to look up at the redhead, instead keeping her unwavering gaze fixed upon the map. "She's outside on the roof. She hasn't come back in since she went out earlier on. I only know she's still out there cause I heard her sneeze about an hour ago."

"The roof?" Ellie lifted her head slightly to glance at the ceiling, as if she would be able to magically be able to see Danielle. She quietly muttered to herself, "What the hell?"

"You probably couldn't have been more of an asshole if you tried."

"Tell me how you really feel." Ellie sarcastically quipped back at her friend. She leaned back against the nearby desk with her arms folded across her chest.

"Ellie." Dina's head lifted to reveal a fury in her eyes that the redhead had only ever seen once before and that was when Dina spoke of her family and their deaths. "Danielle does whatever you say, even if it means risking herself, because she thinks she owes you."

"We both know she was just as much a victim of that day as anyone else."

Not allowing Ellie to speak, though she wasn't planning it, Dina continued to defend her newest friend. "The people she considered friends betrayed her. She was attacked and abandoned. Then she had to face the friends and family of the man who had been killed as she watched. I've never met someone more filled with guilt than Danielle."

"You know this and that's why you took advantage of it and dragged her here even though she has a target on her back." And with that, the dark haired girl fell quiet, having made her point.

"Are you done?" Ellie boldly asked the dark haired girl. Her sharp words had felt a punch to the gut for the auburn-haired girl as the real truth of their situation hit her. She had been a controlling, borderline mentally harassing, tyrant that had used a guilt ridden girl for her own advantage.

"Are you?"

An exhausted breath exhaled past Ellie's lips as she stood up straight, beginning to make her way towards the door. "Stay here."

"Are you gonna say sorry?" Dina called out to her friend, knowing exactly how much Ellie struggled with verbally acknowledging the regret she felt when she had wronged someone.

"Dina please." Ellie stopped in her tracks with a sigh, her hand clutching the doorknob. The young girl couldn't find it in herself to look back at her friend. "Just...stay here."

Ellie immediately headed for the window once she left the room, stepping out into the cold air. The sun was almost completely set, now only providing a faint splash of light to guide the redhead up the ladder that led to the rooftop. It didn't take her long to find the medic once she reached the roof.

There she was. Danielle Linden. Curled in on herself, her gaze staring down at her lap. She had yet to notice Ellie's presence which allowed the young auburn-haired girl to survey her. Despite the chill that filled the air, Danielle sat with only a thin black t-shirt on. Goosebumps were littered across the exposed flesh of her arms though the brunette seemed completely unfazed.

Her fingers seemed to be moving in a hurry. As Ellie took a step closer she noticed that Danielle's hands were covered in her own blood. Her nails had been aggressively ripping away at the remaining skin that surrounded the beds of her fingernails, digging deep until the flesh below became exposed.

The brunette didn't appear to notice the blood nor the pain that came along with the attack on her hands. Instead, she had continued to peel away at the skin despite the crimson liquid that had become caked in the creases of her hands. Ellie had noticed during her many interactions with the brunette, that this was something Danielle did whenever she was uneasy though why she did it, the redhead wasn't sure.

"You do that a lot, you know." Ellie weakly spoke up as she stepped closer to the brunette, whose once distracted figure became startled by the sound of the unexpected voice.

"Oh yeah. I've been doing it as long as I can remember." Danielle now stared down at her fingers, the reality of what she had been doing setting in. Her nails had become stained, the flesh that surrounded her fingertips now fully mangled. As she intently studied her fingers, the pain that had been nonexistent suddenly arrived in spades. A hiss fell past her lips as she now clutched her hands tightly to her chest, willing the pain to vanish.

Her eyes flitted up to see the auburn haired girl taking a seat on the ground in front of her. Ellie was no longer wearing her thick jacket that she had donned during the majority of their journey. Her tattoo was now on full display as was the chemical burn that it helped to cover up. From Dina's words earlier in the day, Danielle now knew that just below the surface of the burn lay a bite mark that should have sealed Ellie's fate long ago.

This was the first time she was getting a proper look at the tattoo that almost entirely wrapped around Ellie's right forearm. The tattoo itself was very pretty and while the concept of tattoos wasn't lost on Danielle, she had never felt the desire to obtain one herself. How Ellie managed to get such a thing, twenty five years after the art of tattooing had become obsolete, Danielle couldn't even begin to guess.

"Whenever I'm stressed or scared, I start pulling at the skin. It isn't ideal but it helps to relieve some of the pressure." The brunette attempted to explain the habit that she had developed over the years. She could imagine it was quite jarring to see someone purposely hurting themselves to alleviate stress.

Danielle eyed up the redhead before her, watching as Ellie absentmindedly tapped her fingers upon her tattooed arm, brushing over the tattoo covered chemical burn that acted as camouflage for the bite mark below. "You wanna talk about it?"

The auburn-haired girl looked downright perplexed. "About what?"

With her hands still cupped against her chest, the medic nodded her head in the direction of Ellie's right forearm. "Your bite. You seem burdened by it. Perhaps talking about it and maybe getting an outsiders view would clear some things up."

When Ellie didn't respond immediately after, Danielle began to panic as the fear that she had overstepped invaded her mind. "It's just a suggestion, I promise. You don't have to if you don't want to."

The Williams girl almost looked quite sad. Her gaze had fallen to the small cracks that covered the ground beneath them as if it caused her actual pain to look at the curly-haired brunette.

"You're not..." Ellie struggled to find her voice. Is this truly how she had made Danielle feel? Like she was unwanted? "You're not an outsider."

A faint ache bloomed within Danielle's chest as she weakly smiled over at the redhead. "I am though. You said it yourself, once we find Abby we'll go our separate ways."

A fragile sounding breath escaped from her as Danielle desperately tried to contain her emotions. The way she had felt earlier as Ellie had yelled at her came flooding backing, no matter how hard she tried to compress them. "Y-You'll go back to Jackson with Dina and uh— I'll go far away in the opposite direction."

"Dani." A whisper of her name caused the medic to return her gaze to the redhead in front of her, who now stared at her with a distressed expression. "I didn't mean what I said. It was in the heat of the moment. I was angry and you were an easy target but I didn't mean it. You aren't an outsider."

"Thank you for saying that." Though the words were appreciated greatly by Danielle, even more so as they came from the who had unwittingly captured her attention romantically, the idea that Ellie could just blow up at her again did scare her. She wasn't sure how many more times she could truly handle it before she simply couldn't anymore.

"You got it. Now come on." Ellie pushed herself from the ground, sticking her hand out for the brunette to grasp onto. "It's fucking freezing out here and you need to take care of those hands."

Danielle accepted to help, allowing Ellie to aid in pulling herself up from the ground. Once standing, the brunette dusted off any remaining debris from her cargo pants before following behind Ellie, stepping foot back inside the theatre that welcomed her with a warmth that encompassed her with ease, driving away the chill in her bones from the cruel weather of Seattle.

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author's thoughts.
this chapter is honestly a favourite of mine. it has one of the first moments between ellie and danielle that doesn't involve either feeling like completely shit after they talk so they're making progress. I hope you liked it! :)