UNITED IN BLOOD
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX !

   FORTY-SEVEN DAYS. THATS HOW long it had been since Danielle had seen Ellie. Forty-seven days since the Williams girl walked out the front door of their shared home, the place they had made their own, —decorated with Ellie's paintings, books and comics, the things that made them them. Forty-seven days since Ellie walked out and didn't look back.

The house had never felt so empty.

Danielle had gone past the point of anger and had instead fallen into a state of fear. She no longer felt mad at Ellie's choices but instead was scared of never seeing the redhead again because of said choices.

It had been hard at first. Actually it had been incredibly hard. So unbelievably fucking hard. Every little creak of the floorboards, ever single set of footsteps she could hear outside the house, Danielle had spent far too much time believing that it was Ellie. That the Williams girl would come walking back in through the front door. Of course this never happened though.

The brunette attempted to distract herself with her responsibilities. She would take up more days of working in the medical centre and even volunteer to help with whatever Maria was willing to let her do. Her plan to bury herself into her work hadn't last long however as if hadn't taken long for Maria to figure her out.

Apparently, she needed to 'come to terms' with Ellie's departure. In her mind she knew that Maria was right, she did need to deal with what had happened, but a bigger part of her wanted to just ignore everything. Pretend that everything was okay but it was becoming harder and harder the firm had spent alone in that house.

   Even now, despite her home being occupied by both Dina and Jesse, both of whom were back in Jackson so that Dina could give birth in a safe environment, each little creak under their weight as they traversed the house had Danielle praying it was Ellie.

   In those forty-seven days, not once had Danielle spoken to Tommy. Though she didn't really blame him, Ellie had basically confirmed for her that she'd been struggling ever since Seattle, Danielle still found it so incredibly difficult to look at the man. How he had spoken to her and Ellie that day had been unacceptable and the way he had attempted to make both of them feel guilty for not wanting to rush into another potentially life threatening situation, had been utterly pathetic.

Part of her still loved the Miller man and viewed him as family but it would take a long time for her to forgive him even if she could understand why he had acted that way. She would always consider Tommy family but until the man at least feigned regret, she couldn't look at him the same way.

His words had hurt more than she had thought possible.

"If I don't give birth in the next day, I will actually cry." Dina complained in a whiny voice as she entered the room, one hand on her protruding stomach and the other supporting her back.

Danielle glanced up from her place on the couch, watching as the girl sat down next to her. With a slight laugh, the brunette spoke. "Dina, he'll be here when he's ready. You can't rush it."

"Says you." The upcoming mother muttered as she leaned back into the couch cushions. "I read in a book that said that spicy foods would induce labour."

   Danielle knew that exactly what book Dina was talking about. She'd given that book to the dark-haired girl so the fact that Dina tried to play it off as if she'd found the pregnancy book herself was quite humorous to Danielle. "Sex can as well, have you tried that?"

"With Jesse? Gross." The look of disgust that Dina threw her way had the Linden girl stifling a roar of laughter that threatened to burst from her.

"Dina!" Danielle couldn't believe how brazen Dina was being about her boyfriend.

   "What? His face is bothering me right now." The girl replied, completely unaware as to how funnily harsh her words were as they left her lips

   Dina was such a comfort to the brunette. No matter what, from the very beginning of their friendship, Dina had always been there to support Danielle, to make her laugh. She was the greatest friend that Danielle could have ever asked for. "It's just your hormones. He hasn't done anything wrong."

"Last I checked, he got me pregnant." Dina pointed out with a smirk. "I consider that something wrong."

A smile pulled at the brunettes lips as she rested her head upon her open palm. "Stop. You'll regret saying that once the baby's here."

"We'll see." Dina replied with a light giggle. Suddenly her body language took on a more somber note. Her gaze softened as she stared across the couch at Danielle. "You doing okay, sweetie?"

   "Yeah I'm fine." Danielle shrugged her shoulders. In her mind, she was holding herself up quite well but each time someone asked her if she was okay, she knew the facade she had built had more than a few cracks.

   Her hazel eyes glanced her best friends way to see Dina simply staring at her. Dina probably knew Danielle better than she knew herself and she knew immediately that the Linden girl was not fine.

Danielle let out a heavy sigh. "I will be fine. I'm getting there. You know, slowly but surely."

   Dina hummed back in reply, knowing no words that she could possibly say would help her friend. Time was Danielle's only option at this point. After all, time healed all wounds, right?

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TWO WHOLE MONTHS HAD now passed. Danielle had slowly begun to accept everything. She knew that the likelihood of Ellie ever returning was incredibly low. The girl may have been immune but that didn't mean she was an impenetrable force. She could be shot, she could be stabbed. Ellie wasn't invincible, no matter how much she masqueraded herself out to be.

Dina had given birth. Now, Danielle wasn't gonna say that he was the cutest baby she'd ever seen, but he was definitely the cutest baby she'd ever seen. Little JJ, named after Jesse and Joel but mostly Joel which Dina had been adamant about, that baby boy had been the most welcomed distraction that Danielle could have ever asked for.

   Being up close and personal with her best friend's private parts hasn't been enjoyable for the medic but any negative thoughts about that disappeared the minute that JJ first arrived. Right away, he had captured her attention and first the first time since Ellie had left, her thoughts weren't constantly clouded by the redhead.

Even now, as the crisp morning air brushed against her body and invaded her clothes, all of that seemed nonexistent while she held JJ in her arms. The fussy baby boy brought a smile to her face. He was just so adorable and she'd seen many children before, the WLF stadium had been filled with them but JJ, he was the cutest ever.

"You're just the cutest baby ever." The Linden girl cooed down at little JJ, looking at him as if he had arranged the stars in the sky or something. The newborn just slowly blinked up at her. "Yes you are."

As she held the baby firmly in her arms, clutching him tightly to her chest, Danielle gently swayed her body from side to side. "Your auntie Ellie would've loved you. She would've probably pretended that you were just 'okay' and that'd she'd 'seen cuter' but believe me, she would've absolutely adored you."

"Maybe one day you'll meet her. I hope so." Danielle knew she sounded insane. She was actually discussing her missing girlfriend with an infant.

"She's gotta come back, right?" Happy sounding babbles left the baby's mouth which caused a small grin to grace Danielle's lips as she laughed at the scrunched up expression on JJ's face. "See. I knew you'd agree."

"You're talking to a baby, Dani." The brunettes head shot up, her eyes landing Dina as she tiptoed into the living room, the tired expression on her face being lit up by the morning sun that crept in through the open curtains. "I think it's safe to say you've gone crazy. Scoot over."

"Am I crazy or are you just so dumb to believe that baby's can't understand us?" Danielle playfully quipped at her friend, smiling at the dark haired girl as she relaxed into the couch, throwing the blanket that usually lay along the back of the couch across her lap. "Think about that."

   "Yeah, yeah. Is my son giving you a hard time?" Dina questioned. She couldn't help but notice the deep, dark circles that had developed under Danielle's eyes.

The brunette stifled a laugh. "As if. I'm not even kidding, you're so beautiful and Jesse's just meh to me but my god, Dina this is the most adorable child I've ever seen."

   "Yeah, he got his mothers genes." Dina joyfully laughed as she reached forward to give JJ's tiny, sock covered foot a squeeze. "I'm telling Jesse that you called him meh."

"I have no interest in men so of course he's just alright in my eyes. I stand by my opinion." Danielle shrugged her shoulders as she shot her best friend a smile before turning her gaze back to the baby in her arms.

"Somewhere outside of Jackson, Jesse's heart is breaking." Dina humorously quipped. She watched on as Danielle doted on JJ bringing a soft, endearing smile to her face. "You heading to work later?"

"Yeah. Maria's bound to let me go back now, right?" Danielle questioned as she leaned forward, carefully cradling the back of JJ's head as she handed him over to Dina.

"You'd be surprised. She's worried about you." The dark-haired girl muttered back in reply. "We all are."

Danielle couldn't stop the scoff that passed her lips as she stared back at Dina, trying desperately to not glare at her. "Why, cause the girl I love left me in the early morning hours and now I'm on suicide watch?"

   The atmosphere turned tense in an instant. Dina didn't know what to say. She didn't want to upset her friend but she had to be honest. They were worried about her.

Danielle released a heavy sigh, her shoulders falling as her body began to shrink in on itself. "Sorry. I'm still a little on edge."

"You miss her. You have a right to be upset. I won't hold it against you." Dina's voice was low, soothing. She didn't want to upset Danielle, she never wanted to upset her.

"I'm not gonna work myself into an early grave, you know? I just like having something to do." Danielle timidly spoke, her voice quiet as the words fell from her lips.

From an outsider looking in perspective, Danielle could totally understand why they were worried but she really was fine. Was she still heartbroken over Ellie? Yeah, she was but was she gonna let it ruin her and everything she had fought so hard to get? No fucking way.

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FOUR MONTHS. FOUR WHOLE months and not once in that entire time had Tommy Miller made an effort to speak to her. In fact, he had barely even glanced in her direction. The more and more that Danielle observed the Miller man, the more she felt such immense pity for him. Ever since the events of Seattle, he had become a shell of his former self, a lesser man than he was before.

This was exactly the reason as to why the Linden girl was traversing throughout Jackson, winding down the footpaths and sidestepping the numerous people that flooded the streets that day. She needed to go and see him. Talk to him.

Be the bigger person.

   Dina and Jesse had long since returned to the farm house, taking JJ along with them, leaving Danielle behind to return to her cycle of working herself until she was so exhausted that she passed out at night. The minute her head hit the pillow, she was out like a light. She preferred this to being awake, alone with her thoughts.

   She was trying. Truly. Danielle didn't want to be some loner who cut themselves off from everyone else. Hence why, when she had spare time, she would invite over Maria for dinner. The two would chat away with Maria spilling all of her pre-outbreak secrets which Danielle found so interesting. Life before the outbreak seemed so surreal to the brunette.

   Jesse's parents, who still thanked her for saving their sons life every time they saw her, had even invited her over for lunch a couple of times ever since Ellie's departure. Everyone in that community had treated her so kindly, even when she was probably a bit of a bitch to them.

   The only person who had not attempted to reach out, to mend their relationship, was Tommy Miller. No, he had chosen to remain tight-lipped and closed off anytime the two shared the same space.

Frankly, Danielle was fucking sick of it.

   "Tommy, open the door." Danielle called out, feigning ignorance to the people that passed by and gawked at her knocking at the Miller man's door. "I wanna talk to you."

   Her knuckles rapped against the wooden door, the thud of the knocks resounding against the walls inside the home. Before Danielle could slam her fist against the door once more, it swung open, revealing Tommy as he stood with one hand on the door and the other on his hip.

"What do you want?" Tommy questioned the young girl, staring down at her, or through her. Danielle wasn't sure which it was.

   Her hazel eyes landed upon the blond man's face, squinting at him in frustration. A scoff drew itself from her throat. "Are you deaf? I just said I wanted to talk to you."

   As she stood there, Danielle was able to peak in behind the man. She immediately noticed that nothing had changed since the last time she'd been there. The interior was still the exact same. Tommy had changed absolutely nothing. If the Linden girl didn't know better, she'd assume Joel was still alive. That was how unchanged the home was.

Tommy shifted his weight from foot to foot. "Look, if you're here to give me grief then I—"

   "I'm not." Danielle cut him off. She took a moment for herself, building up her confidence before finally opening her mouth and saying what she'd been dying to say to the Miller man for so long now. "Listen, I'm not gonna lie to you. I'm still really fucking pissed at you for how you acted. But..."

Her heart raced like crazy in her chest, pounding so loudly that she could hear her blood pumping in her ears. "But I think of you as family and we need family. I'd rather have you in my life and not like you sometimes then for you to just not be in my life at all."

The chatter of passer-by's filled the silence as the two fell quiet as the last word fell past the brunettes lips. Though after a few seconds, the ache of discomfort began to creep into Danielle's system. "Now would be a great time for you to say something."

   Tommy let out a sigh. His eyes, which had been staring out at the Jackson citizen filled street, fell back to Danielle and took her in as she stood before him. "You wanna come in for some tea?"

"Tea?" Danielle genuinely couldn't believe what she was hearing. "I come to you, extending an olive branch and you ask me if I want tea?"

The medic stared up at the man for a brief moment. "You know what I'd really appreciate, Tommy?"

"What's that?" The southern twang clung to his every word.

With a heavy sigh that drew straight from her chest, Danielle uttered, "An apology. You made me feel like shit that day and you've barely even looked at me since then. An apology was feel pretty fucking good right about now."

For a good thirty seconds, the man just looked at Danielle, simply taking her in. From the tinge of anger that continued to blaze in her gaze to the furrow brows and thinned lips, Tommy could tell just how upset he had made her all of those months ago.

Tommy removed his hand from the door, reaching up to scratch at the back of his neck. "Look ki-, Danielle. You gotta understand that my emotions were runnin' high that day. I was overrun with so many different emotions. I'd finally found her and then I was shot down. So, of course I was—"

"That's not an apology, Tommy." Her head slightly shook from side to side, her gaze filled with growing disappointment. "Just tell me that you're sorry. Not about the Ellie stuff, she would have left at some point anyway. I want you to just tell me that you're sorry for how you spoke to me."

"I am sorry."

"Thank you." A short smile grew on her lips as she spun around on her heel and began to walk away in the direction she came from.

From behind her, the brunette could hear Tommy's voice carry throughout the street. "You ain't gonna come in?"

"No, I have to get to work. See ya later though." As she sauntered to the medical clinic, the Linden girl felt a sense of accomplishment. She's gotten exactly what she'd wanted from the man. A simple apology and god, did it feel fucking good to hear those words leave the Miller man's lips.

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   IT WAS AT THE six month mark that Danielle finally accepted that Ellie was never going to come home. She had resigned herself to the fact that she would never see the redhead walk through that front door, never would she lay up next to Ellie in bed and never would they share laughter at the dumbest of moments.

Ellie had left and she was most definitely not coming back. Though she had accepted this, even the notion of thinking about what Ellie was going through as she fended for herself terrified the brunette and so she simply chose to not acknowledge it at all. She pushed away those thoughts far into the back of her mind, locking them up in metaphorically chest and threw away the key.

With the help of Maria, who had been willing to do just about anything to help Danielle move on, Danielle had slowly but surely collected every little item that belonged to the auburn-haired girl and packed it away into Ellie's room of extracurriculars. From her collection of movies to her clothes, every single thing was placed into the room right alongside her paint supplies, guitar and records.

'Out of sight, out of mind' Maria had stated once everything had been cleared away.

The decision to rid her living space of Ellie's things had been really fucking difficult. One of the hardest things Danielle had ever had to do and she'd done some difficult shit in her life. But if she was to ever begin the process of moving on, she needed to free herself of any and all obstacles that could derail that which unfortunately meant Ellie's belongings.

Throwing them away obviously hadn't been an option, not that she would have ever taken it even if it had been, so her best option had been to hide them away in that room. Thankfully, Ellie had insisted on a room where she could paint, having not wanted to get random splatters of paint anywhere in the house, so that room had been exactly what was needed.

Maria had suggested placing Ellie's stuff back into her garage but Danielle couldn't bring herself to do that. It wasn't exactly the best decision in regards to the long term but on the off chance that Ellie did ever return to Jackson, Danielle refused to allow her stuff to become covered in dust cause she sure as hell knew that Tommy wouldn't have cleaned it.

   The house now felt so empty. It wasn't until all of her 'girlfriends' stuff was gone did the Linden girl realise just how little belongings they had that she actually owned.

   The walls had become bare, now completely free of the paintings that once graced the hallway. Her bedroom had gone from comforting and cozy to a vessel used simply to sleep. Danielle knew the decision she'd made had been the right one but god, it really fucking sucked.

   She lived like this for a few weeks, drifting in and out of the house she once called home, coming and going to eat and sleep. Any spare time she had was now spent down in the local centre, gathered round all of the Jackson residents for the weekly movie showing.

   It had been Maria's idea. The woman had hoped that a movie would bring everyone together in times of difficulty. It definitely wasn't anything to do with Tommy and his inability to turn down a good movie.

   Of course, Danielle had been wise to the true nature of Maria's decision right from the start. The woman wanted to attempt to mend her marriage, not wanting to throw away everything she had worked for hard for. Though she tried to appear strong, Danielle could see how the end of her relationship with Tommy had wrecked the blonde.

As the evening came around and the sky began to descend into darkness, a chill caressed over the exposed flesh of her arms, sending a shiver up her spine and causing Danielle to regret deciding to forgo a sweater.

   With a sigh, Danielle pushed herself up from the chair she had been perched upon and made her way to the far left corner of the room in search of Maria, all the while the hustle and bustle from the movie played on behind her.

   "Maria, hey." Danielle greeted the blonde who smiled back warmly. "I'm gonna go grab a sweater from the house but I'll be back in five minutes. Please tell me what happens when I get back."

   "Yeah, yeah. Just hurry back." Maria waved the brunette off with a laugh, shifting her gaze back and forth between the large projector and the Linden girl. Danielle spun round on her heel, heading right for the exit.

"Okay, go in, grab the sweater and get back." Danielle quietly muttered to herself as she left the centre. The loose soil of the path crumbled beneath her boots as she walked. "Why do I have to live so far from the centre?"

   A dull ache flared up in her calf muscles as she ascended up her porch steps, swinging open the door but barely being able to take a single step inside the home before she got halted in her tracks.

   "Oh my god." The words were so faint as they brushed past her lips. Danielle couldn't believe what she was seeing. For a brief moment, she honestly believed that her eyes had been playing tricks on her.

   Standing before her was someone Danielle believed she would never see again. Right there, mere feet away stood Ellie Williams. Her appearance had become gaunt since the last they seen each other. Her clothes hung off of her slender frame more than they did before. Her hair had become extremely dull, lacking the shine that came from eating proper meals.

In a nutshell, Ellie looked well and truly haggard.

Brown met green as the two girls' eyes met. Ellie's once rigged posture collapsed with a wavering sigh.

The brunette stared over at the redhead, all thoughts of retrieving a sweater and returning to the centre had vacated her mind. All she could think was one thing as she took in the fatigued figure of the girl before her. "What the fuck happened to you?"

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author's thoughts.
chapter twenty six. not proofread. so this is mainly just a collection of moments of Danielle's life after Ellie left. this chapter was just to show the time passing instead of writing multiple chapters and prolonging Ellie's return. also I know I said this would be longer, but it ended up being shorter than I expected. anyway hope you enjoyed :)