Untold
By: esmtz
After a few minutes of sitting there Nick finally started to stand up and without letting go of Ellis he put his left arm under Ellis's legs and lifted him up so he was in his arms. Nick looked at Ellis's face as he started walking (eyes were red and puffy from crying). He hadn't noticed that the helicopter had gotten closer to them so that Nick didn't have to walk up the bleachers. Nick only figured that out when he felt someone's hand on his shoulder which he assumed was Coach and was leading him towards the helicopter. He couldn't hear what he was saying as he was too busy thinking that this was his fault.
"You have no fucking right to say that Ellis. You weren't there in the first place and second you never cared about Rochelle so once again it's all about you. Here's something you might have heard before; I hate you, Ellis!"
Nick's eyes moved to the spot where he hit him as he felt his heart tighten in his chest. He felt himself sit down against the wall of the helicopter and winced when he realized that they were in the same helicopter that had taken them to New Orleans.
"Nick?"
Nick looked at Coach who was sitting right in front of him on the other side of the helicopter.
"Yer head is bleedin pretty bad there, boy. Let me have a look at it." Coach said as he stood and made his way over to him and nodded looking at the gash on the side of Nick's head, "I can tell already that you need stitches. Sorry this is gunna sting a bit." He said as he brought out his health kit.
Nick swallowed as he shook his head.
"Let me take care of Ellis first." Nick said quietly.
Coach sighed.
"Boy…"
"Please, Coach." Nick begged.
Coach didn't say anything as he watched Nick move Ellis to where he was in a sitting position right next to him.
"Coach, I need your health kit." Nick said.
"Nick, it's the only we have left seein as Francis is helpin Zoey with her wounds." Coach told him.
"I can wait."
Coach shook his head as he handed it over.
"Boy, you helpin him now isn't gunna bring him back."
Nick didn't respond as he rolled up Ellis's pants and saw the damage that was done to his leg.
'It must have happened when I heard him scream. I should of just ran towards him the moment I heard him that way none of this would've happened and he wouldn't have had to...' Nick thought sadly.
"She wasn't bleedin out like I am, Nick! She would have been fine waitin for someone to heal her! You know what this means? It means you would have left me to die if it would save her life! I don't even know why the hell you would heal me at all if you were only goin to make sure Rochelle would make it." Ellis said before looking away again.
'He was right. All I thought about was Rochelle's safety that I forgot that he relied on me to help him. She wasn't even in danger of dying and I still chose to help her first before him.' Nick bit his lip as he started stitching up Ellis's wound, 'What's worse is that I chose her over him even now that she's gone and because of that Ellis…'
Nick shook slightly as he glanced up at Ellis and in his mind saw the same hurt look that Ellis had years ago. He looked back down at Ellis's leg and continued to stitch it up. As soon as he was done he moved so he could sit next to Ellis and wrapped his arms around him.
"I'm never going to forgive myself for getting you killed, Ellis." Nick whispered; tears fell down his face as he leaned his head against Ellis's, "I shouldn't have left you alone. I knew you needed me, but I was still so mad that I didn't care about what was going to happen. I never should've blamed you for what happened before. I didn't…I never wanted you to die, Overalls I just…" Nick swallowed as he looked at him, "I really need you to be here. I don't know if I'll be ok without you."
Nick raised his right hand and gently put it on the bruised spot on Ellis's face. He waited a few minutes before speaking again.
"After Rochelle died, I asked Coach if we could go look for you and he said yeah. I never told him that it was because that I was worried that something might have happened to you because of how much infected had attacked us. To be honest, Ellis, we've been looking for you all this time and it took this whole time to figure out where you were. We found you a few days ago sitting at the bar with that new friend of yours. I was relived when I saw you that I wanted to say something to you, but I was afraid that you probably didn't want to see me so I kept an eye on you from a distance. You have no idea how much I wanted to just go up to you and apologize about before and I really wish that I could take everything back now, but because of me you're…" Nick's bottom lip quivered as he forced himself to accept that Ellis was now gone.
Nick pulled Ellis towards him and hugged him tightly as he placed a soft kiss on his lips.
"You always helped me before, Ellis and I'm sorry that I didn't always help you. I really hope that you can hear me because I need you to know that if it weren't for you and all those times you've helped me I don't think I would be here right now. You're the reason I'm still alive so what I'm saying is, is that you saved me way before Rochelle did." Nick told him as he looked at him, "I love you even though I know its too late to tell you that."
A few more tears began to fall from his face as he shut his eyes tightly from the pain that he was feeling in his chest. Few seconds later his eyes shot open in surprise as he looked at Ellis.
"Ellis?" Nick asked.
"Everythin alright there, boy?" Coach asked having been talking to Francis and Zoey and was now looking at him.
Nick put two fingers against Ellis's neck; barely able to feel a pulse.
"He's got a pulse…He's got a pulse!" Nick yelled as he laid Ellis on the ground.
Nick did CPR twice before Ellis finally started coughing out the water. Nick turned him on his side so it could make it easier for him to get out all the water that was in his body. As soon as he was done Ellis turned back over so he could lie on his back and tried opening his eyes.
"Ellis?" Nick said smiling slightly as he saw the younger man's eyes slowly open.
Ellis's vision was very blurry so he rubbed his eyes hoping that it would help clear his vision. The moment it was clear he saw that Nick was looking down at him and smiling.
"Nick?" Ellis asked.
Nick sighed with relief as he lifted Ellis's upper body and once again held him in his arms.
"Thank god. You scared the shit out of me, Overalls. For a while there I thought you were…"
Ellis swallowed as he hugged him tightly. Nick frowned slightly as he looked at him.
"Ellis, what?"
"What were you thinkin, Nick? You could have gotten yerself killed tryin to help me!" Ellis said looking at him wide eyed.
"How did you…?"
"I saw and heard everythin that happened. Please don't think like that, Nick! 'Not forgivin yerself' it ain't yer fault!" Ellis told him as he looked at him pleadingly.
"Ellis, you almost got yourself killed saving my ass! You shouldn't have done that! I really don't know what I would have done if you had died!"
"I couldn't just leave you there! I didn't want you to die neither!" Ellis replied.
Nick was about to say something but Ellis interrupted him.
"You don't have to say it, Nick. You never had to say it cause I already know that yer sorry. The look on yer face when you ran towards me and the tank was what gave it away. I'm not mad at you ok? I don't hate you for what you said to me. I was actually kinda hopin that you would leave me there and then get on the helicopter. At least then I would know that you were gunna be ok."
Nick looked at him horrified.
"Are you fucking crazy? I wasn't going to just let you die!"
Ellis looked at him sadly.
"Nick, I didn't want you to get killed cause of me and I figured it might be easier for you if you didn't have to deal with me."
"Ellis, I don't hate you. I really don't ok. What I really wanted was for you to still be here with me." Nick told him.
"I know that now! I just thought that you were gettin sick and tired of me bein selfish all the time."
"Overalls, when I said I didn't mean any of it, it did include that. You're not selfish. In fact all you've done was help me out back then remember?"
"I could have done better if I had just stayed with y'all."
"Actually I'm grateful that you weren't with us at the time otherwise for all I know you could be the one dead right now not Rochelle."
They both stayed quite for a few seconds before Ellis spoke up again.
"Nick, would me bein gone really effect you that much?" Ellis asked worriedly.
"After what I've said and done to you yeah it would have even if I hadn't said anything to you it still would have effected me bad." Nick replied.
"Why?"
"Why? Because, Overalls you were the only one who really cared about what happened to me. I didn't have a lot of friends and I haven't spoken to my family in years so for you to be as worried for me as you were it meant a lot to me especially since I care the same way about you."
"But, it didn't seem that way before. You usually helped out Rochelle first if she was also hurt." Ellis said looking at him confused.
"That was because I was in denial. I kept thinking that if I helped her out more the feelings that I had for you would vanish, but they didn't. It wasn't until after you left and Rochelle died did I figure out that I really needed you to be with me because if you weren't all I would be able to think about was if you were ok. No matter what I did whether it was thinking about someone or something else or trying to forget about you it just didn't work. I know that I was an ass to you the last time we were on this stupid helicopter and I'm sorry that I can't take everything back that I've said and done…"
"Nick, if all it takes to get you to stop apologizin is 'it's ok' then it's ok. I'm just glad to see that yer ok." Ellis said smiling slightly at him, "How's yer head?"
"It's fine, Overalls."
Ellis took a closer look at the wound.
"You really should have let Coach stitch it up instead of stitchin up my leg wound, Nick." Ellis said looking at him worriedly.
"I did say that I was going to take care of you first even before me so that's what I did and will continue to do."
Ellis shook his head.
"I don't want you to be in pain though."
"It's fine. I can handle it besides I don't really feel any pain right now anyway." Nick told him.
"Well ok." Ellis replied.
"Of course once we get to wherever it is we're goin yer gunna have to let me stitch that wound back up, Nick and no sayin sumethin like you need to look after Ellis cause we all know now that he's fine." Coach told him and then looked at Ellis and smiled, "It's great to see that yer ok, Ellis. You really had Nick worried sick as he couldn't stop cryin."
Nick blushed slightly as he looked away.
"You too, Coach." Ellis said before turning his attention to Francis and Zoey, "Sorry about yer teammate."
"We're ok. Only thing we can do now is to continue to look for the island that we were supposed to all go to together." Francis replied.
"Think of it this way. Yer teammates are in a much better place now." Coach told them.
Nick hugged Ellis tighter.
"There's no way that you're going there." Nick told him making Ellis blush.
"Yeah I guess. I just hope that someday we can meet up with them again." Zoey said.
"Well for now it's just us people so until we get to the island I say we kick some ass!" Coach said.
Ellis yawned as he snuggled in Nick's arms.
"You tired?" Nick asked.
"Yeah. Nick?"
"Yeah?"
"I love you too." Ellis said as he kissed him.
Both of them smiled as Ellis closed his eyes and Nick watched him as he slept until he too fell asleep.
THE END
Author's notes: Finally I finished the story. Sorry if this chapter and the last chapter kinda sucked because lately I haven't really been in the NickxEllis mood. I was also hoping for more reviews on the last chapter, but seeing as I posted it before Christmas I can see why I didn't get that many. Ok for future reference if I make another l4d story my author notes will more then likely contain spoilers and the warning for this is posted on my profile. Anyway I guess this is another goodbye for now. Im not sure if im going to make a new l4d story so if I don't it was great writing stuff for you guys to read. See ya.
esmtz aka Sarah