UNITED IN BLOOD
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT !

THE ROUTINE OF SNEAKING into Danielle's room in the dark of the night and then sneaking out the next morning before she got caught, carried on for the new couple of days. Every morning, just as the sun began to rise above the horizon, as if her internal clock had a constant alarm set, Ellie would waken and head back to her room.

   Little did she know, that on her first night back in Jackson, first night back in the home and the first night that she'd snuck into Danielle's room, that though her breathing had fallen even and steady, the brunette had been wide awake the entire time. Her heart had been racing, pounding wildly against her chest while she feigned being asleep, all to avoid talking to Ellie. Being with her earlier in the day had worn Danielle out.

   So instead of confronting the redhead about invading her personal space, Danielle chose to remain quiet on the subject, allowing Ellie to continue believing that she was being covert. Danielle couldn't lie that having Ellie back had both stressed her out and made her feel content all at the same time.

   As the days passed by, Danielle grew apprehensive on how to breach the topic of Abby. All Ellie had told her was that she'd let the blonde live but had refused to go into much detail. Maybe she should have just accepted Ellie's words for what they were and not attempt to read further into them but Danielle couldn't help it.

   At one point, she and Abby had been friends. At one point, the blonde had been her closest confidant in the WLF and so of course, she would be curious on the girl's whereabouts. It was only natural despite how the two had parted ways.

"Ellie?" The Linden girl called out as she descended down the stairs. Her voice resounded off of the walls, carrying through the home and to the redhead who was walking out of the kitchen, holding onto a warm cup of tea. The pair met each other halfway. "Why didn't you go through with it? Killing Abby?"

Her curiosity had gotten the better of her.

   "Just couldn't." Ellie's slender figure shook slightly as she shrugged her shoulders. Her arm stretched out, holding out the mug for Danielle to take.

   The brunette took the mug with a mix of shock and appreciation. Never once had she asked Ellie to make her anything. In fact, since Ellie's return, their conversations had been few and far between. Only chatting when it was necessary. Neither girl knew how to spark up a proper conversation, both fearing that it would be riddled with awkwardness that they would much rather avoid.

"Why?" Danielle questioned just before she raised the cup to her lips, sipping away at the warm tea.

The room fell silent with only the sound of a sigh coming from Ellie to break through. She backed herself away from the brunette opposite her, walking away in the direction of the couch.

"She had that kid with her. You know, the one with scars on his face?" Ellie questioned, unconsciously gesturing to her face with her hand. The very same hand that was now down two fingers.

The redhead kept her gaze locked on Danielle as the Linden girl made her way over to the couch, immediately curling up on the opposite side, legs pulled under herself all the while she handled the cup of tea with great care.

As she got comfortable, Danielle nodded her head to let Ellie know she was still listening. "The Seraphite kid, yeah."

"They both looked horrible. They were thin, exhausted. Her hair had been cut off, that fuckin' braid of hers just gone. The kid could barely lift his head." Ellie explained as a look of discomfort came over her face. It was as if even thinking about the events of Santa Barbara brought a grimace to the redheads face.

Almost as if it hurt to think about.

   A twinge of sympathy bloomed inside of Danielle as she looked on at the pain that was clear on Ellie's face. "Did they look as bad as you did?"

"Worse." Was all Ellie could herself to mutter, keeping her gaze low and her voice slightly raspy.

   "Fuck." Danielle mumbled. She could only imagine what Abby and the kid had looked like and if Ellie's appearance when she first returned was anything to go on, she knew that it couldn't have been good. "And you just let them go? You didn't fight her?"

"I nearly had her. I could have killed her. You know, if I had held her under that water just a bit longer, she'd be dead." Her voice trailed off and her gaze turned downcast.

"Why didn't you?"

"Honestly, I'm not sure. It's mostly a blur. All I can really remember is Joel." Ellie explained, shuffling about the couch and avoiding eye contact.

Some part of her, buried deep inside, refused to let her look over at Danielle as she spoke, as if admitting that she'd failed to complete the one thing she had abandoned her to do ached her very soul. She'd left the brunette for nothing and Ellie despised herself for that.

"Joel?" Danielle hoped that Ellie hadn't been hallucinating Joel. Missing someone was one thing but hallucinating them was something else entirely.

"Yeah. Kept thinking how what I was doing wasn't what he wanted for me. Joel never wanted me to live that life. The life of killing anyone and everyone. He knew what that was like and he'd wanted better for me, I guess." The auburn haired Williams girl muttered, her shoulders shrugging with nonchalance though it was clear as day that she missed the Miller man terribly.

"That makes sense." Danielle felt kinda shitty for having breached the topic now. She hadn't wanted to drum up the grief that Ellie had spent so long trying to rid herself of. With what she hoped with a reassuring smile, Danielle used her sock clad foot to lightly tap the redhead on the leg. "I'm proud of you."

   At those words, Ellie's breath caught in her throat almost causing her to cough. Those words had more of an effect on her than she could have ever thought possible. Trying to play it cool, attempting to not let Danielle know how she had Ellie's heart soaring, Ellie glanced over with feigned composure. "Yeah?"

Danielle's head nodded. "Yeah, I am. You could have killed her and you chose not to. That takes guts. So yeah, I'm really fucking proud of you." She firmly spoke, a slight glisten within her gaze.

Danielle had meant every word. The girl opposite her would forever hold a piece of her heart and even if they never found their way back to a relationship as strong as before, even if they never got back together, that would never changed how much she admired Ellie and how much she had grown.

"Thanks, Dani." Ellie muttered, unconsciously caressing at the stubs where her ring and pinky fingers used to be. Due to how often she forgot that they were gone, 'phantom limbs' Danielle had called it, Ellie had to constantly remind herself of what she now lacked.

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   THE NIGHT HAD ARRIVED in no time at all. Darkness swept through the home, shrouding every corner is shadow. The two girls had parted ways about an hour ago at that point and so now Danielle lay in her bed, lying in wait, —anticipating the creak of the hallway floors, the slight breeze of cold air that came as a result of Ellie's opening up her bedroom door and the inevitable sigh of relief from the redhead when she sat herself down upon the carpet.

   This had been happening for days now and Danielle had feigned oblivion throughout it all. Part of her didn't want to bring attention to it, fearing it would drive a wedge between herself and Ellie. Another part however was screaming at her, demanding that she keep her eyes open and finally speak to Ellie about her actions.

   It was an invasion of privacy, Danielle knew that. But they had once slept in the same bed, held each other close during the night. Ellie had seen parts of her body that only she had seen before. How big of an invasion could it truly be if Ellie already knew more about her than anyone else?

   Of course, the brunette knew that everything she told herself was just bullshit. The only reason she had yet to tell Ellie that she knew everything was fear. Danielle was fearful, terrified that she'd allow the redhead back and have it thrown back in her face. That she'd fall into a false sense of security only for Ellie to leave again. Danielle didn't think she had it in her to deal with that again.

As the brunette wracked her brain for an answer to her dilemma, the all too usual sounds of Ellie sneaking out of her room and creeping down the hallway filled her ears, the sounds breaking through the still silence that accompanied the home at night. The door before her slowly opened up, revealing the pyjama clad Ellie tiptoeing in.

Danielle observed the redhead, who was oblivious to the fact that Danielle was awake, watching as she made her way to the bottom of her bed in record time, crouching down low.

Danielle knew this couldn't go on. No matter how hurt, how betrayed and abandoned she had felt when Ellie left, it hurt her so much more to pretend she didn't want the girl back. To have Ellie in arms length and not being able to pull her into an embrace pained the brunette. "Ellie."

"Shit." The sound of her voice sent the redhead in a frantic state, nearly tripping over herself as she pushed herself back up from the floor. Her gaze landed upon the awake Danielle, her eyes wide and filled with distress. "I-I wasn't doing anything weird, I swear."

   Danielle shuffled around the bed, moving further to the far side and pulling back the comforter. "Sleeping down there is gonna hurt your back. Just get into the bed."

   Her movements surprised Ellie greatly. She thought for sure that Danielle would kick her out, maybe even yell at her. Certainly not invite her into bed. Ellie hesitantly stepped forward. "Are you sure? I can leave you alone until you're ready."

The brunette quickly shot Ellie an extremely unamused look. "Lay in the bed before I get mad and kick you out."

"Got it." Ellie muttered in reply as she dipped down into the bed, her body laying flat against the mattress, basking in the warmth that had been left behind from Danielle's body. She couldn't help the laugh that escaped her. "You're a little scary sometimes."

The two lay in silence for a few moments, simply enjoying one another's company. Danielle however, found herself teetering on the edge of fear once again. She was comfortable, more so than she had been in months. All of that time Ellie spent away had truly opened Danielle's eyes. She had become reliant on Ellie to provide her with a sense of security and comfort.

She was now faced with the possibility of regaining exactly that, comfort. Their relationship had almost been about providing comfort to one another in times of hardship. When one of them was down and unable to pick themselves back up, the other would be there to lend a helping hand.

Danielle wanted that feeling back desperately.

With a deep and heavy sigh, the Linden girl shifted about in the bed, moving from laying on her back to her side. "Ellie, I need you to promise me something."

"Anything." The redhead muttered, mirroring Danielle's prior movements until she too lay on her side.

   "You can't leave again." Her head shook against the pillow beneath her and her gaze turned sharp. "I mean it. If you ever get that urge to find Abby again, that urge to hunt her down and kill her. You tell me. Cause I love you, Ellie. I really do but I can't handle you leaving again. I don't want to start over."

A look of hurt overtook Ellie's expression. "Start over?" She stuttered out.

The Williams girl knew she had hurt Danielle but to think that she'd damaged the brunette so badly to the point that she's completely start her life over? As she heard the words hiccup free from Danielle's lips, Ellie swore to never reduce her to tears again.

It broke her to see Danielle sob so openly. It also made her realise just how little negative emotion she had seen from the Linden girl in all the time they'd known each other.

"If you ever take off again, I can tell you now. I would never take you back and I mean that." A sharp sting filled Danielle's eyes as the flow of tears began to pour down her face. Air became trapped in her chest as her breathing pattern shifted, her words becoming muffled as she sobbed.

"Jackson is your place, of course so I'd pack my things and leave. I swear to G-God, Ellie. I will leave this place and make it as if I was never here. I can't handle you leaving again. I just can't." The girl all but broke down into a fit of emotions, unable to hold herself back any longer.

   "Dani, hey look at me." Ellie immediately reached out, cupping Danielle's cheeks in her hands, brushing away the tears that continued to trickled down with her thumbs. "Babe, what I did was so fuckin' dumb. But it'll never happen again. I was an idiot for leaving you."

   Danielle's body trembled in Ellie's arms, her echoing cries gradually shifting into a mix of shuddered breaths and a few stray tears as the redhead rocked her back and forth. A hand rubbed a comforting pattern of circles into her back.

As the night went on, the sky becoming darker and the moon brighter, slowly but surely the two girls drifted off into a deep sleep, laying next to one another for the first time in over six months.

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jamielee's thoughts.
chapter twenty eight. not proofread. the ending is shitty, I know but I suck at writing the closings to chapters. So they're kinda back together but honestly they're still quite rocky. only a few more chapters and this fic is officially over. anyway hope you enjoyed :)