UNITED IN BLOOD
CHAPTER FIFTEEN !

   HER BODY FELT INCREDIBLY heavy when she woke up a few hours after having laid down. The once beautiful dressing room that she had been relaxing in, that had been lit up by the prettiest of lights and decorated with the most beautiful shades of red and white now was enveloped by the smell of dampness in the air accompanied by the growing mildew that spread across the walls.

   The entire theatre was quiet which Danielle hoped and prayed was a good thing and was in fact not the result of everyone having been slain while she slept. She softly tiptoed across the wooden stage, gripping tightly to her knife in one hand and her fingers crossed on the other. The carpeted floor helped to suffocate any noises her feet made as she ventured closer to the front of the building.

   The door let out a creak, the brunette internally cursing before carrying on, hoping no one had heard it. A sigh of relief escaped past her lips as her eyes fell upon the figures of a sleeping Jesse and an exhausted but alive Dina. Her hunched over body straightened up as she slipped her knife back into her back pocket.

   "How is he?" The medic nodded her head in Jesse's direction as she stepped closer to Dina, watching on as his chest rose and fell with each breathe he took as he slept.

   Dina shifted in the chair to look up at Danielle. After a moment, the dark haired girl shrugged her shoulders. "He's alright. A little bruised but he'll live."

   "I'm glad." Danielle smiled before turning her gaze to Dina, her eyes scanning the dark haired girl for any sign of injury or illness. "Are you alright? How's your nausea?"

   Dina's hand subconsciously moved to rest upon her stomach. Her thumb moved slightly, stroking back and forth. "Comes and go. Thankfully, it seems to have stopped for the time being."

   "That's good. If it does come back..." Danielle shoved her hand into the pocket of her jeans, her fingers gripping tightly to the small packet and pulling it out. In the palm of her hand lay a unopened packet of salt covered crackers. "You should eat these. They're supposedly good for nausea."

A flabbergasted laugh escaped from Dina who happily accepted the crackers. "Where the hell did you find these?"

   The Linden girl glanced around at her surroundings, gesturing with her dominant left hand towards the open space behind them. "I was looking around earlier and this place apparently sold food. It'll probably be really soft but hopefully they'll settle your stomach."

   "Thanks Dani." Dina was continuously grateful for Danielle's presence. Had it not been for the brunette medical expertise and ability to keep a secret, Dina was sure she would have broken down long before they reached Seattle.

   "No worries." A smile graced Danielle's lips. It remained there until the brunette noticed the absence of a particular auburn-haired girl. "Hey, where's Ellie? I didn't see her on my way down."

   Dina absentmindedly scratched at the nape of her neck. "We heard on the radio that that girl Nora was at the hospital so she's gonna after her."

   "Alone?" Danielle couldn't believe what she was hearing. Ellie had gone off to find Nora alone? Did the redhead have a death sentence? "Dina, what the hell? This city is crawling with WLF and Seraphites. She has no idea what she is walking into."

   "Danielle, she'll be fine. She's Ellie. She's basically resilient to anything bad." Dina tried to calm the brunette down, throwing in a little joke to break the tension though it did little to quell the worry that had begun bubbling within Danielle's chest.

   Initially Dina was quite sure that Ellie would make her way back to the theatre in no time, though now as she watched Danielle freak out about the Williams girl's safety, suddenly the confidence that Dina had was dwindling rapidly.

   Danielle wasn't for letting up, determined to make Dina realise just how dangerous it was for Ellie to be off on her own. "So she can't be shot? Can't be maimed? Can't be killed?"

   Shuffling from Jesse, who still slept soundly, caused both girls to quiet down. Dina swiftly ushered Danielle over to a small couch that sat closer to the entrance. "Alright calm down. You're worried and I get it, so am I. But there's nothing we can do now anyway. She's been gone for a few hours now."

   "Just sit down, Dani. Just relax." Dina practically pushed the young medic down into the couch. Dust particles flew into the air as Danielle's sat down upon the cushions.

Danielle rolled her eyes at the dark haired girl. "I should be saying that to you."

   A breathy giggle filled the air as Dina sat down next to the medic. "We can swap roles for a little while. You've been worrying about us this entire time that you've barely taken any time for yourself."

"I've needed the distraction."

   "From the guilt?" Dina said without thinking. It wasn't until she noticed the hurt look that had become plastered across Danielle's face that she realised what she had said. "Sorry. I know you don't like talking about it but you need to know one thing."

Dina made sure Danielle was really listening before she uttered the words, "You didn't do anything wrong."

Danielle's eyes glinted with tears she refused to let fall. "Then why does it feel like I did?"

   "I can't answer that. Only you know the answer to that question. Danielle, you can't let this guilt control you. It shouldn't be your main driving force."

   Danielle didn't know what to say. Dina was right, she couldn't let her guilt control her but how could she possibly stop it? This gnawing guilt had consumed her for far too long, invading her every waking thought. Joel's death may not have been her fault but his blood was on her hands.

   No matter how hard she tried to convince herself otherwise, the words, 'you could have helped him.' flooded her brain. Unable to reply, Danielle chose to remain silent. The fear of breaking out into uncontrollable sobbing stopped the brunette from opening her mouth. So the pair just sat in silence, both content with listening to the light breathing of Jesse as he slept.

"Can I ask why you haven't told him yet?" Danielle spoke up after a while.

   Dina knew what Danielle meant. That very question had been on her mind ever since she saw the Jeon man standing before her. His arrival in Seattle had thrown her for a loop. She truly wasn't sure why she hadn't told him bur just knew she couldn't yet. "It isn't the right time."

   "I know. Hey." Danielle reached out, taking hold of Dina's hand. She firmly held onto the dark haired girls hand, softly stroking the back of her hand with her thumb. "I'll be there for you when you do get around to telling him. I'm not gonna leave you to do it alone."

   Dina smiled over at her friend. A mischievous glint, that Danielle missed, filled her eyes. "And I'll be there when you finally tell Ellie how you feel."

   A laugh of frustration fell past the Linden girls lips as she playfully threw Dina's hand away. "Fuck you. This was a heartfelt moment and you ruined it."

"That's why I ruined it." Dina heartily laughed, something she hadn't done in such a long time.

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   "DANIELLE HERE, IS ACTUALLY Eugene's kid." Dina playfully patted Danielle on her knee, the dark haired girl happy to reveal the information they had found out to Jesse, who had awoken to the sight of Dina retelling a story from when they were younger.

   "Shut the fuck up." The Jeon man practically jumped in his seat from surprise. His eyes bounced back and forth between Dina and Danielle as a smile grew upon his face. "Our Eugene? How'd you figure that out?"

   "Ellie and I found this photo of him a while back and he was with his family." The dark haired Dina explained before she turned to face the medic sat beside her. "Do you have the photo?"

Danielle nodded her head as she sat up. "Yeah hang on."

   The brunette reached forward to her backpack that had been tossed against the side of the couch. She carefully began rummaging through it, searching for the small inner pocket where she had placed the photo. Though, she hadn't seen Eugene, or should she say her dad, in years, the sight of the smiling faces of her mother and father filled Danielle with comfort. She could rest easy knowing that at one point, they had been a happy family and this photo, which she wished to keep protected, was proof of that.

After securing the photo, Danielle handed it over to the raven-haired man sat on the opposite couch. "Here you go."

"You were a cute kid." Jesse complimented the brunette as he handed back the photo.

   Unaware of how to reply, the brunette proceeded to awkwardly smile over at Jesse, as she placed the photo back into her backpack. "Thanks?"

A soft laugh fell past Dina's lips as she playfully nudged Danielle in the side with her elbow. "She's still pretty cute."

   "Dina." Heat blossomed upon Danielle's cheeks. Though it was only Jesse and Dina before her, the brunette still felt so embarrassed. Never had someone gushed over her before, whether  it was a joke or not.

   Unwilling to stop due to the enjoyment she received from watching Danielle blush, Dina continued to tease the medic. "What? It's true. You're a cutie."

   As they cracked jokes and retold stories from their past, mainly Jesse and Dina told the stories, the darkness from the night sky began creeping in through the cracks under the front door. What once was light, now had been shrouded completely in the dead of night. "It's dark outside."

   "Ellie will be fine." Jesse replied to the worried Danielle. Though the duo didn't actually know each other that well, seeing her upset bothered him. "She's probably on her way back now."

   "Hope so. If she ran into the Seraphites then she's fucked." Danielle ominously admitted. Throughout the entirely of their journey, she had not let up on how aggressive the Seraphites could truly be. Her words seemed to go in one ear and out the other as clearly Ellie thought herself tough enough to go against them on her own.

   Danielle could only hope that the Seraphites had chosen to remain on their island on that very day, so that the Williams girl didn't run into them. The thought of Ellie meeting her end at the hands of religious fanatics scared the fuck out of her. But Ellie was tough, right? She could withstand their dangerous advances, right?

   Dina shifted in her seat, pulling her legs under herself in an attempt to become more comfortable. "What's so scary about these Seraphites? What are they so violent?"

   Though Danielle had been lucky enough to never come into contact with the Seraphites, as one of the stadiums main doctors, she had seen the aftermath of crossing them in the numerous injuries that WLF soldiers would be plagued with when they returned back to base, if they returned at all.

   "They- they have an old way of thinking. You saw what they did to the soldiers that were stationed at the radio tower." The brunette explained to the duo, referencing one of their past interactions.

   She turned to face Jesse, a expression upon her face that one could only describe as serious dialled up to a thousand. "They had strung them up by their necks. Left them to choke to death so they could repent or some bullshit like that. The Seraphites are dangerous people. I mean, they actually cut themselves across their faces to acknowledge how 'imperfect' mankind is."

   "They will disembowel people they considered enemies because they believe they're 'nested with sin.' Save for the children who don't know any better, the Seraphites aren't good people."

   Before a single syllable could slip past either Dina or Jesse's lips, a loud bang resonated throughout the empty theatre, the sound bouncing off the walls. The three outwardly gasped in fear before it registered with the trio that it was in fact a knock upon the closed front door.

While Dina ran to open the door, Jesse playfully smirked over at the brunette. "See, I told you she'd be fine."

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jamielee's thoughts.
sorry for the delay. I've been busy preparing my other tlou fics :) anyway this chapter is just a little dina&danielle moment cause we love them. i actually love their friendship so much. anyway we all know what's coming in the next chapter :( hope you enjoyed.