UNITED IN BLOOD
CHAPTER SEVEN !

   THEY HAD BEEN TRAVELLING for around fifteen or sixteen days, though Danielle couldn't be sure. She'd already lost count as the day blending into night far too easily. The weather had changed practically overnight. Danielle could remember falling asleep in her sleeping bag, pressed up against Dina as the two girls had huddled together for warmth, then the next morning feeling as though she couldn't breathe as the muggy air invaded her throat.

   Their food supply had dwindled down until they had practically nothing remaining. Out of all three of the girls, not one of them had made the executive decision to pack a substantial amount of food for their journey. Despite the constant rumble of her stomach, Danielle had been giving the majority of her food to Dina, who had yet to tell Ellie of her pregnancy.

   The dark haired girl had been incredibly grateful to the medic, thankful that she had yet to spill her secret. The two girls had built a mutual respect of one another, something that had happened almost entirely overnight. No matter how tough she was, Dina felt herself becoming more and more uneasy, the close to Seattle they got. Ellie was her best friend and Joel had been a good man, but she had more than just herself to worry about now.

   If things went wrong, it wouldn't just be herself she'd lose. Despite her initial response to the brunette, Dina found herself caring for the young girl. If something were to happen to her, Dina would have probably cried which was something she wouldn't be able to blame on hormones this early into her pregnancy.

   "So Danielle. Tell us about yourself." Dina asked of the girl that evening, after they had all settled down inside yet another rundown home.

   The horses were off to the side, shielded from the chill of the night time air courtesy of the albeit, quite musty blanket Danielle had found inside one of the upstairs bedrooms. All three of the girls were chewing on the assortment of berries and nuts they had been lucky enough to collect during the day.

   "There isn't really much to tell honestly." Danielle responded after she swallowed down the last of her water. With a shrug of the shoulders she said, "You already know about my life."

   "We don't actually." Ellie shook her head as she plucked up a small berry from the pile on her lap. "No, we know about the WLF. You however, we know almost nothing about."

   "Parents?" Dina suggested as a talking point. Maybe if she gave Danielle something in her past to focus on, they'd learn more about the girl whose life story continued to elude them.

   "Oh they're both dead." The brunette admitted with ease. With how easy the words fell past her lips, you'd had thought she was chatting about a book that she'd enjoyed reading. Not acknowledging that your parents were deceased. "Well, my Mom is anyway. My Dad left us when I was a kid to join the Firefly's."

"Isaac, he uh-" when the brunette noticed the looks of confusion shot her way, she was quick to clarify, "The leader of the WLF."

   When she knew both Ellie and Dina understood where she was going with her story, the young girl continued on. "He told me I was found on the outskirts of Seattle. Apparently I was curled up next to the base of a tree, with a knife in my hand and a dead body not that far away."

"Apparently?" The Williams girl quirked her scar burdened eyebrow.

   Danielle glanced up briefly at the forest green eyes that stared back at her before swiftly dropping her gaze back to her hands, the girl content with watching her fingers rip away at the skin surrounding her cuticles. While they had been traversing throughout the state of Idaho, Danielle had caught herself gazing the freckled redheads way, far too many times to count. Luckily she had yet to be caught which saved her from the mortifying accusations that would no doubt be sent her way.

   She wasn't sure what was going on with her. She'd never been interested in women before, not that there was anything wrong with that, but it wasn't just that. She'd never been interested in anyone before. In the past, if a fellow WLF had approached her in what appeared to be a romantic way, the curly haired brunette had always been quite to shut that down. The idea of a relationship had always sent a shiver up her spine. Even the thought of someone invading her personal space or their skin touching hers made her teeth grind.

   And yet, here she was. Fawning over quite possibly the prettiest girl she had ever seen, a fact she hadn't realised while in Jackson. Not only that, the one time in her entire life that her heart raced for someone, the one time her palms clammed up and her gaze softened, it just happened to be with Ellie Williams. A girl who absolutely detested her.

   Danielle let out a sigh, grateful for the droplet of blood that fell from her fingertip, providing a distraction from the curious looks of the two other girls. "I don't actually remember it. Whatever happened must have been tragic since my body refuses to let me remember it."

"Shit. Nothing at all?"

   "Well I do remember one thing. The dead body was actually my Mom. I never told Isaac that though." The curly haired girl admitted. She'd never told anyone that before and it actually felt quite nice to reveal it, almost as though a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

   "I assume she got bit during an ambush of runners but I don't actually know. She never told me she was infected since I guess she wanted to shield me from the pain." Danielle couldn't help the scoff that escaped her. What a joke. Shielding her from the pain when in reality it had caused her more fucking pain than anything else in her life. "I remember waking up and her being gone...I thought she'd left me but she'd actually already turned."

   "Damn, that sucks." Dina muttered, her gaze lifting up to see a look of sadness for Danielle, briefly appear upon Ellie's features before vanishing soon after.

   The medic shrugged her shoulders. She seemed to be that a lot lately. Using a shrug of the shoulders to mask her true feelings. "Yeah but it was years ago now. I've come to terms with it."

   Silence feel across the room, save for the crackling of the fire that was beginning to fade. Curiosity got the best of her as Dina asked, "Did one of the soldiers, you know?"

   "No I did. I couldn't let someone else do it. It had to be me." Danielle simply replied with a tone of nonchalance, though her mist filled eyes told a different story. Discussing the final moments of her mothers infected corpse wasn't exactly a welcomed talking point with the brunette.

   With a sniff, Danielle brushed her lap free of any crumbs before beginning to make herself as comfortable as possible on the hardwood floors beneath her. "I'm gonna try and get some sleep."

"Yeah okay, good night." Dina softly muttered, a growing ache for the girl in front of her filling her chest.

"Good night." Danielle responded while Ellie chose to remain quiet.

   Later that night after sleep had claimed Danielle, the two Jackson citizens sat side by side, staring into the dwindling embers of the slowly extinguishing fire. Dina couldn't help the questions about the brunette that flooded her mind. Her curiosity regarding Danielle had caused Dina to momentarily forget about the growing foetus that inhabited her womb.

"Ellie?"

"What?" The redhead replied, pulling her gaze away from the fire to glance up at Dina.

   Using her arms to lift herself up from the ground slightly, Dina turned to face her friend. "Do you still have that photo of Eugene in your backpack?"

   "The one of him and Tommy?" Ellie questioned as she began to ransack through her bag, brushing past the ammo and smoke bomb supplies that clanged loudly with each hand swipe. "Yeah, I should have it in here somewhere."

The dark haired girl shook her head. "No the other one. The one with him and his family."

"Uh yeah. Here you go. Why?" Ellie questioned while handing over the slightly crumpled photo.

Dina didn't answer, instead choosing the examine the photo closely. "Tell me that kid doesn't look exactly like Danielle."

   "Dina, are you crazy?" Ellie sent her friend a perplexed look before tugging through photo from Dina's fingertips, allowing herself to look at the image.

   As her eyes flitted back and forth between the photo and Danielle's resting figure, the tattooed redhead could admit there was a slight resemblance but so what? All kids look basically the same at that age anyways.

   "I'm serious." Dina insisted as she gestured to the sleeping brunette. "She looks exactly the same. Her dad left to join the Firefly's-Eugene left his family to join the Firefly's. That can't be a coincidence."

Ellie exhaled in frustration. "Or it could be. Eugene wasn't the only person to abandon their family for the Firefly's."

   "What if it is her, though?" Dina whispered harshly to her friend, her voice catching in her throat as Danielle shuffled around in her sleep. Once the brunette settled once more, Dina continued speaking. "Shouldn't we at least tell her?"

   "What if you're wrong? What if that isn't her and we just drum up old thoughts and feelings that she's clearly spent a long time repressing?" In some ways, Ellie was both right and wrong. Danielle deserved to know the truth but what if they were wrong and Danielle suffered a mental breakdown or something. Ellie couldn't deal with the brunettes emotions and find Abby all at the same time. "No. I don't need her and her emotions getting in the way once we get to Seattle."

   When the redhead noticed the crestfallen expression marred on her best friends face, a heavy sigh fell past her lips. "When we get this done, if you still want to tell her I won't stop you."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

jamielee's thoughts.
here comes act two which is comprised completely with the events that take place in Seattle plus a few more obviously to fit Danielle in. also we learned a little more about her past. is she or isn't she eugenes daughter? if you've seen a recent edit on my tiktok then you already know the answer. Anyway I hope you enjoyed :)