A/N

I just wanted to write this as a way to show Ellie and Joel's lives as they settle down after the events of Last of Us. It's actually kind of a precursor to a story I'm thinking of doing that's set a couple of years after. Tell me what you think!

A mighty sneeze forced her eyes open. Eliie coughed and spluttered as she bolted upright, clamping a hand over her nose. "Damn flowers. Agh." she muttered with a throaty voice. Since Tommy gave them the old postmaster office to settle down in as soon as they showed up, she'd been sneezing and coughing all over the place, amusing Joel to no end.

The lights seemed to hold meetings among themselves about whether to turn on or not, the floorboards squeaked like no tomorrow and smelt something bad if you were close enough to smell them, and not to mention the fact that Joel's little brother seemed to think he was a comedian by sticking them in the postmaster's office.

After another cough she glanced over at the bedside table near and the brown little book on top of it. "You got nothing on me, Tommy. Livingston's on my side." she muttered. She blew a raspberry as she picked up the little book, holding it in her palm while she flipped through the pages. Nothing really got any chuckles from her after the one with the green grape and blue grape. She also didn't really want to admit that the ones after it were simply too hard to get.

She blamed Livingston for not catering to his intended audience.

Ellie placed the book back on the bedstand, looking down at it for a few seconds before dropping her arms with a sigh and heading through the open door and leaving her makeshift office/bedroom behind. She had to hand it to Joel, his handiwork had managed to completely change the room.

She stopped for a moment and stared down at the slightly greened carpet. She... actually had a lot to thank him for. She shook her head and continued forwards along the creaky floorboards, into the center of a the large room at the front of the little building where all the mail would have been received back then. The wall units and lockboxes they went into were gone, dragged out to make more room for anyone who needed the space. Joel protested, but Tommy and his men were happy to take the trouble of doing so.

In fact, she was kind of wondering where Joel was. He wasn't nearby and this place wasn't that big. She listened for the deep booming catastrophe of noise that his old-man snoring for several seconds, only for her shoulders to sag a little when she couldn't hear anything. Nothing in her but her.

Thick rays assaulted her eyes, filtering in from the gap underneath the planks covering the front windows. She took in a deep breath of the cool breeze coming in as well as she made her way across the sun-dappled floorboards, and had nearly passed by a raggedy and half-sagging armchair sitting in view of the doorway. She rubbed a hand over the faded crimson fabric, recalling that she caught a vague glimpse of it while practically asleep from exhaustion.

It was only a day ago that she had been on that hilltop with Joel, looking down at the town his brother had told them about. And she still couldn't stop herself from focusing on what Joel had told her about the Firefly's.

He lied to her. Okay, she knew that. Expected he would. She could deal with that. And it was possible that she wasn't the only kid around immune to the infected. For all she knew she could have just been the most accessible.

But she needed to talk to him about it. A real heart-to-heart. She couldn't let something like this slide or it would just fester for forever.

Ellie closed her eyes and took another breath of the cool breeze softly blowing through the boarded windows, her eyes falling on a coffee table in front of the armchair and the sheet of paper on the scratched and marked pinewood. She raised a eyebrow and went over, picking it up and unfolding it.

I'll be back soon. Just at a meet up with Tommy and Maria. Good chance for you to have something normal to do for once. You need it. - Joel

"Uh huh." Ellie sighed as she scrunched up the paper, dropping it in front of her and catching it with the side of her foot, sending it into the corner with a nice sweep.

Blowing out another raspberry she stopped in front of the armchair, folding her arms and already thinking of just curling up into the chair and having another nap. She didn't need to head outside just yet. She could stay in... look at sprucing up the place a little-

Ellie sighed and conceded defeat. Dropping her arms to her sides she turned and made her way towards the rickety front door, a thick old thing with two glass windows situated above and below one another. There were big block letters on them, from her side spelling 'eciffo stop'. She sniggered at the random thought as she came to a stop.

Placing her hand on the rusty old doorknob, she gave it a ginger twist and pushed the door open, resisting the urge to hiss like a vampire caught out of its lair as she caught the sun's full barrage. The street the little building opened up must have been the most intact she had ever seen. Apart from the strips of lush green grass poking out of cracks in the pavement and tangles of weed and flower growth chocking some of the lampposts it pretty much looked exactly like the old pictures she had seen of places before the outbreak hit.

It could nearly be called pristine.

She nearly managed four steps out onto the front porch before catching sight of some big brown blur barreling straight for her from the side. Ellie yelped before clamping down on it, fumbling for her switch-knife and desperately hoping to find it before whatever it was managed to get a good hold on her and-

It barked.

"Duster! Get back here!" a voice shouted. She opened her eyes, blinking furiously as a stinky wave of breath charged up her nostrils, almost making her gag in response. She went to push the big brute off of her when it began lathering licks all over her cheeks and chin, all the while barking in her ears.

The big brute yelped as its owner pulled back on its leash. The huge brown dog understood and sat down on its haunches immediately, at the feet of a red-faced boy, his hands on his knees as he sucked in great gulps of air.

He turned a stern eye to the dog, getting a whimper from a creature that stood up to both his and Ellie's shoulders in full height. The kid sighed and shook his head, She got up, brushing herself down and checking for bruises. "You mind stopping him from jumping people?"

"He is as big as I am."

Ellie leveled a scowl at him before she looked at the dog across from her, its tongue hanging out of the side of its mouth and and constant panting giving it the goofiest look possible. She sighed. "That's okay. I'm cool with you." The big lug barked in reply as she straightened and looked straight at the boy, or would have if the massive mopfest of brown hair on his head wasn't in the way. "Who are you?"

"I was gonna ask first. I haven't seen you around here before..."

She sighed at the obvious bait he left for her. "Ellie. I came with Joel?"

"The scary old guy? That's, uh-" he trailed off once he saw the scowl back on her features. "- he's a great guy, Tommy trusts him, so I trust him and-"

"Of course he trusts him. Joel's his big brother, stupid." Ellie drummed her fingers, finding she was losing patience with the kid. And she still hadn't caught his name.

"So... you and the old guy live in the postman's office?"

Ellie narrowed her eyes and nodded. "Mhm." Now that she heard the kid's voice clearly, she noticed how much of a accent he had. "You've got a strange voice."

"You've got a strange way of asking questions nicely." the boy scowled at her before shaking his head and looking down at his feet. "And... maybe its because I'm not from around here."

"Where are you from? Boston?"

"Nope. Australia."

She dropped her arms to her sides, remembering a few geography lessons back in the boarding school and a few basic points on some dirty great big continent in the pacific somewhere, about the size of the United States but filled with almost a fraction of the people. "Australia? Like... g'day mate Australia?"

The boy chuckled. "Sure... the one and only. Mate." he held onto Duster's leash with a firm grip. "Look, Ellie. I've got to take you up to the town doctor. That's actually why I'm here."

"Uh. I don't need to see the doctor. Perfectly fine." Unconsciously she moved her right arm behind her back a little. "No bites."

"Everyone has to do it when they get here. It only takes a few minutes. Tommy's rules. And if you don't..." The boy's blue eyes took on a wicked gleam as he grinned, loosening his grip on Duster's leash. "You'll get body-slammed by Duster until I tell him not to. What'll it be?"

"... Extortionist." Ellie conceded. "Lead the way to... wherever this 'doctor' is."

"Okay. Cool!" The boy beamed at her and started off down the pavement, straining a little as he battled to stay in control of duster. "So as you probably guessed, its pretty safe here. Not at like the outside, that I can tell you."

"Stating the obvious much?" she muttered under her breath, getting the idea that this kid, still without a name she might add, was either pulling her leg, or very painstakingly optimistic.

"Huh?"

"Never mind!" Ellie stuck her hands in her pockets and stared down at her feet, only looking up every once in a while whenever the kid took a turn into a different street or sped up. "So... how did you wind up in America if you're from Down Under?"

The kid sighed and rubbed a hand down his face. "Dude, nobody calls it that. Anyway," he swept a hand towards the modest looking cabin sitting on top of one of the town's rises. ", we're here. Just head on inside."

He left on the weed-choked stone path going down the rise, dragging Duster with him. A question still burned on Ellie's mind. "Still haven't caught your name, kid!" she shouted after him with her hands cupped around her mouth.

"And don't touch the stack of comics in the living room! They're mine!" He shouted up to her as he departed.

She narrowed her eyes in a scowl as he disappeared around the street corner at the base of the rise. Ellie heaved a sigh and turned to face the front porch of the house, immediately noticing that it looked much more intact than many of the ones she had passed along the way.

The first step squeaked underneath her weight and she winced as the wood's moan carried out astoundingly far. Ellie stopped in front of the simply screen door, hoping she hadn't disturbed the occupant of the house. Was not the best way to make a first impression.

Forming her hand into a fist she rapped on the door twice, clearing her throat and humming to herself to calm her nerves as she heard footsteps within the house. Suddenly she paled, realizing the last time she had any meaningful contact with people was back before winter, with Tommy and Maria, and before them Henry and Sam- she closed her eyes, so not liking where this train of thought was going.

Ellie took a deep breath to steady herself as the footsteps stopped just on the other side of the door. "You can do this, Ellie..."

The door opened with a loud squeak, almost making her jump. A old man was standing on the other side with his hand resting on the handle. Looking down at her with vivid blue eyes and a gentle smile. In a instant she thought those were the kindest eyes anyone could have. "Afternoon. The name's Doc Winters." He held out his hand.

"Uh... Ellie. I'm Ellie." She shook his hand carefully. He looked like the grandfatherly type of guy like she had read in a few of her books, but that didn't mean he meant well. David was a clear reminder of that. "You're the town's Doctor?"

He answered her with a laugh. "Closest we've got. I've run a few clinics in my time and slapped on a few band-aids. That's a nice name you have, if you don't mind me saying." The old man stepped back a bit into the hallway. "Come on in."

"Thanks. I gotta say-" As she followed down the hallway, she caught a glimpse of one of the house's sitting rooms, seeing a IV drip-stand connected to a bed inside. She continued after him as he turned into the house's main lounge, stopping to turn a lamp on next to the couch. In front of it was a bed, more or less a giant metal trolley than anything. Brightly covered blankets covered the top of it.

She looked around the room as he turned on a few more lamps to see by, before taking a perch on the couch. "So this place looks pretty much intact compared to the others, I've noticed."

"Eh, Tommy and his folk keep saying that as the town's Doctor I should get the cleanest place." The old man straightened with a sigh and stepped away from the mantle above the empty fireplace, snapping shut another lamp's clear casing. He shrugged as he turned to face her. "Its one of the only places that has its own running generator. Although now that we've got that dam working, a lot more folk will be getting electricity once we scrounge up more generators."

Ellie nodded, her hands clasped together as she watched him move towards one of the wall units to grab a thick brown satchel with a red cross on its front. Her eyes wandered, settling on a messily-placed stack of comics on a little table near the arm of the couch. Her eyes lit up as she recognized the thick squat letters of Savage Starlight on the topmost one. She took one look at Doc Winters before shifting onto her knees and shuffling across, leaning over the arm of the couch to peer at the stack of comics.

"You can go ahead and read one. My grandson leaves them all over the place."

"Grandson? I think he brought me over here. That dog of his jumped me."

"Duster was just excited to meet you." Doc Winters chuckled as he turned around, stopping in front of the couch and placing the satchel on the coffee table.

Ellie folded her arms and tilted her head, looking up at him as he rummaged through the satchel. "He said he was from Australia... except he lives here. How old is he?"

"Fourteen, going on fifteen soon enough. His parents were visiting just before the outbreak... so here he is." Ellie looked down at her lap and nodded after seeing the slightly sunken look appear on the old man as he finished. It disappeared as he straightened and turned to her with his stethoscope in hand. "Alright, ready to begin?"

Ellie nodded, sitting back on the couch and unknowingly keeping a hand over her right arm. She had to be careful about what he saw. Unless he had already been told by Joel or Tommy.

"Okay, then. Can you roll up your sleeve? Either one." She nodded, moving her hand over to her left sleeve. Then she stopped. Maybe she should just show him now. Get it over with no lies involved. He was a doctor after all. Doctor-patient confidentiality and all that? Ellie sighed and moved her hand back over her right arm, and closed her eyes as she worked up her sleeve up to her elbow, revealing a slim white arm marred by a series of glossy scabs and healed-over puncture marks.

A low surprised whistle came from Doc Winters as he looked at her arm, easily recognizing the human-teeth marks. "How long ago?" he gently asked Ellie.

"About... just about a year, actually." Ellie chuckled nervously. "Heh. Still haven't turned." she scratched a itch on the back of her head. "And, uh, I'd be the first to tell you that I had turned into a freaky fungus monster. No worries about that."

"Well, there's no way I'm giving you anti-biotics for that." He clucked his tongue and nodded, standing up. "Seems to me you're as healthy as a young girl should be. No need for me to do anything. You're good to go."

"You're... not going to tell anyone?" Ellie ventured as she rolled her sleeve back down.

"Not unless you want me to. I can go find a loudspeaker."

The old man chuckled as she directed a glare at him. The glare drained away and her eyes softened. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it. I'm here to help. Although I wouldn't mind asking if you'd like to visit some time. Its just me and Jack living here, and it'd be nice to have the company."

"Sure." Ellie shrugged. "I'm cool with that."

The old man smiled. "Great!" he moved over to the stack of comics, poring over them for a bit before slipping one out from the middle of the stack. He held it out to her. "Don't have any lollipops so this should do."

"Woah. I've never seen this issue before!" Ellie grabbed the comic from Doc Winters and stared at the front cover, which showed the Von Neumann engulfed in flames as it began to fall into the event horizon of a black hole in the process of swallowing a star.

"One of the latest Jack tells me. He's already read it so you're welcome to it."

"Oh, man. Appreciate it, thanks!" Ellie smiled up at the old man, beginning to think that living here wasn't such a bad idea.

Joel sighed as he stepped onto the front porch carrying a guitar in both hands, its body was a warm reddish brown, with the neck made of a light pine, carved on the bottom and flat on the top where the guitar's strings were fastened and threaded to. He spotted a pair of rusty old lawn chairs nearby, still in the same place as they were when he had arrived with Ellie just the day before.

"Better than nothing." he muttered, moving forward and standing the guitar up against one of the building's windowsills and dragging the chairs over to sit side by side, facing out to the street.

He dropped into one of them, getting a creaky squeak and groan from the chair but ignoring it. He filled his lungs with a deep breath as he quietly watched a couple of pink clouds gently hanging in the orange-streaked sky, remembering how he actually liked spending some time just watching the sun go down.

Joel rubbed his eyes and took a glance at the old building behind him, at half a mind to just cut down a few logs and build a completely new one elsewhere in town. He resolved to ask Tommy about it tomorrow. He went to close his eyes, feeling a bit of his age when he heard someone going up the steps to the deck. He cracked one eye open. "Hey, kiddo." Joel spotted the rolled up comic clutched by her side. "What you got there?"

"Eh, got suckered into meeting the town's doctor. But at least I got a comic out of it." Ellie beamed as she sat down in the other lawn chair, leaving the comic in her lap as she propped her elbow on one of the chair's thin arms, resting her cheek on her hand. Without even ten seconds passing by, she blew a raspberry, disturbing the quite contemplation Joel had going on. The girl found herself following a few of the clouds as they lazily wafted away. "Pretty nice place here."

"Sure is."

Ellie pressed her lips together in agreement. "Ten times nicer than the places we've been."

"Huh. Definitely."

"So what's the plan?"

"Plan? Getting a bit of shut-eye sounds about good right now."

"Uh huh. That's the old man talking."

"48. Sure am getting on in the years a bit, ain't I?" He leveled a smirk across at her.

"Sure am."

Joel shook his head as he glanced over at the guitar standing nearby. "Got you something while up at Tommy's."

"Yeah?" Ellie yawned and stretched, seeing the guitar as well. "I can't play. Just a heads up."

"It's pretty easy to get the hang of. Just need to be good with your hands."

Ellie shrugged her shoulders and nodded. "I'm game." Joel chuckled as he handed her the guitar, making sure she had a firm grip on it before letting go. He dug in the pocket of his pants for a moment. "Here," he dragged out a curved triangular pick and tossed it over.

Of course it slipped right through her fingers and bounced down onto the deck. Ellie held out her arms and directed a dirty look at him. "Hey, how could you expect me to catch that?"

Joel shrugged. "Don't know, Butterfingers." she rolled her eyes as she grabbed the pick and hefted the guitar up, the neck resting just on the arm of the chair and the body balanced on her lap. "Now, you gotta be gentle with it."

She fought the urge to roll her eyes at him. "Believe me, I won't be throwing something like this around. Honest, Joel."

"Just making sure. Now, strum a few chords. Get a feel for it."

Ellie nodded, shifting her grip on the neck a little and keeping her eyes on the aperture in the middle of the instrument's body the chords passed over. Slowly, almost gingerly, she flicked the tip of the pick against one of the strings. A high-pitched sound lifted into the air. Ellie smiled and adjusted her left hand to get more grip-

"You're holding the nuts wrong."

She blinked twice, then burst out laughing. "I - I didn't catch that? Joel, what?!" she sniggered, Joel rolled his eyes as he grabbed her hand and guided it to a position halfway down the neck.

"The nuts. The little studs on the headstock? The thick part at the end of the neck. You had your hand covering them."

With a intake of breath and a little giggle, she nodded. "Sure. Whatever, Joel... Nuts." she sniggered again. "Ah, that was great." she turned the guitar over in her hands as she looked down at it, before shaking her head and glancing up at Joel. "You know, I might learn better if I heard a pro play."

Joel mulled it over, stroking the greyish-black bristles on his jaw. Seeing the expectant look on Ellie quickly brought him to a decision. "Can't hurt I s'pose. Pass her over."

Gladly Ellie lifted the guitar up and handed it over to Joel. "Her?"

"Guitar are she's. Just like, y'know, ships and cars."

"People back then were weird."

He grinned with a chuckle. "Sometimes. People kinda got attached to stuff they used a lot. This here? I lent it to Tommy way back... before we... uh... before we parted ways." Joel didn't let those memories go any further. He hefted the guitar. "Any choice selections, audience?"

"Umm... oh! How about 'Will the Circle be Unbroken'?"

"Interesting choice. That's a pretty old song."

"Yeah, actually I kinda first heard it while living in Boston. Sounds kinda stupid but my friend managed to get some game console working, and found this game with the song in it. Pretty good gameplay but the story was the real winner."

"Uh huh.I reckon Sarah had the same game. Set on some kind of floating city?"

"That's the one. Now go on, get playing!"

"Hold onto your horses, I'm getting there." Joel's fingers strummed a few notes out at first as a test, and before Ellie could guess, he immediately started a series of low soft notes, each one slightly higher than the last but still soft to the ear.

The tune went on, and Ellie couldn't help releasing a satisfied sigh and let herself sink into the chair a little, watching the fiery clouds slowly drift apart with Joel and his guitar being the only thing cutting through the silent air.

She looked sidelong at Joel as his fingers flicked the chords to release their notes, a utterly peaceful expression on him and a look of content in his grey eyes. Ellie couldn't help being surprised at the sight, unable to think of any time he ever had the same expression. Not even when watching the Giraffes back at Salt Lake City.

A little sigh escaped his lips as the tune dampened somewhat even though the notes stayed exactly the same pitch and tone. Ellie found herself drawing her legs up close and hugging her arms around them, lowering her head and resting her cheek on the tops of her knees as the song went on.

It reminded her of Riley way too much. Tess too. And Sam and Henry, not to mention Marlene.

Slowly the song began to wind down as she chewed on the inside of her cheek, lost in her thoughts and finding it hard to get out.

With a final string of low notes, Joel sighed and moved his hand away from the guitar, placing it facedown on his lap as he looked sidelong at Ellie. "I was being selfish, you know."

Ellie looked up at him, having a idea he was gonna start talking about it.

"I didn't want to let the Fireflies take you away so I-" Joel closed his eyes before heaving a quite breath and opening them again, looking straight at her. "They were gonna cut that cure out of you while you were sleeping. Marlene told it would be quick and painless. And I almost believed her."

She paled a little, thoughts whirling but nothing getting her to open her mouth and stop him.

"It weren't easy. But I grabbed you. And walked out of there."

Finally, she found what she wanted to say. "Truth. Joel?"

"Yeah. Truth."

Ellie smiled at him, pretending she didn't see the brief flicker of doubt someone got in their eye when they still had a lie to tell.