Epilogue
Jesse Joel Williams is twelve years old to the day when he tells his little sister Anna Talia Williams all about the Lady Who Lived Outside Of Town.
She’s only four years old, far too little to hear tales of the infected and death and what happened to her namesakes… but JJ is her very favourite storyteller (even more than Mommy), and he always knows where to stop his stories before they go too far.
It’s in the middle of the night when she comes to find him; Mommy is on a scavenging hunt with Tommy, and Mama is not-quite surprisingly still patrolling the walls. He knows that when Mommy’s out, Mama refuses to go to sleep until they’re reunited safely.
That leaves him alone with the two girls, after Granny and Pop-Pop retire to their small home next door, and normally he hardly notices. His grandparents make sure Anna is fast asleep before they leave, and Baby Sarah hardly makes a fuss other than waking up every few hours for a bottle of milk or for a little reassurance that someone is still there with her.
He supposes that even for a baby, being the sole survivor of your camp having been ravaged by Infected leaves a lasting impact or fear of loneliness.
It’s a routine he knows though, it’s one he can follow in his sleep… and most of the time, he does. Just watch after the girls until the Mom’s are back, keep them safe in case anything should happen.
His father’s gun sits on the top shelf of his bookcase for just the occasion. High enough up that Anna can’t get a hold of it, but in the open enough to be grabbed and used in an emergency if need be.
He’s been gun-trained since he was ten, when Anna was brought home and his Mama had drilled into him the real importance of protecting your sister.
At first Granny was worried about his training in guns, but Jesse Joel has just the right amount of patience and discipline to handle such a big responsibility. He knows when to focus, and isn’t easily jarred into making a rash decision. He knows how to evaluate.
When Anna comes to wake him, he isn’t phased. He’s used to his little sister jumping on him or shaking him awake, so when a small hand pokes his face, all he does is crack an eye open and grumble. “Wussrong?”
“I had a bad dream.” A tiny voice replies. He opens his arms wordlessly so his sister can dive into them.
She does just that and settles against her big brother, curled up against his side. He can feel her tremble in his arms and he knows that it was a really bad one. Anna is infamous for her ‘bad dreams’… most of the time they’re an excuse so she can snuggle with someone. Rarely though, she’ll have a real one, a reminder of the horrors she saw in the two years before Ellie found her and they gave her a family.
This time was obviously a real nightmare.
“Do you want to talk about it?” JJ finds his voice through the grog of sleep, his baby sister the one thing that can wake him. He’s fiercely protective.
The little girl shakes her head, but then relents with a whisper of. “People were screaming, the monsters were loud… Daddy made me hide so I wouldn’t see.”
JJ feels his heart break. Sometimes he misses never knowing his own Dad, but then sometimes he realizes he’s lucky not to have ever known him… At least he doesn’t have to grow up like Anna, passing day by day with her Father’s face slowly fading from her memory. He has pictures of his Dad. She doesn’t.
“Tell me a story, JJ, please?” She begs him.
He can’t refuse her, especially not right now.
“Have I told you about the Lady Who Lived Outside of Town?” He asks, a smile comes over his face as her eyes light up at the prospect of a ‘new story’.
She shakes her head, her stuffed dog pulling in closer to her face as she listens to JJ as he starts his story.
“No? Well, I better start from the beginning… Once upon a time, there was a Mommy, a Mama and a little tiny baby named JJ who lived on a beautiful farm.”
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He tells her everything, though edits it in a really kid-friendly way. His version has their Mommy going on an adventure and not being able to find their home again. It has the tiny baby JJ growing into a big boy, finding Mommy and bringing her home. It has Mama and Mommy reuniting, then finding another baby.
He leaves out the part where Ellie comes back home right away, and is far too scared to fight to prove to Dina and JJ that she’s worth another chance, only to leave again (even though she didn’t really leave) and sit outside of town for another five years, always watching out for them but never finding her brave.
He leaves out the part that once he did find her and bring her back home, Ellie and Dina still needed time to heal from five and a half years of hurt before they could even try once more to be a family again.
He leaves out the fighting, the screaming and the crying. Or how even six months down the line, he’d sometimes find Ellie on the couch instead of in bed with his Mama. How she’d have night terrors, and sometimes Dina couldn’t even bring her out of them.
He leaves out the time, a year in, when Ellie took him hunting and he got hurt and he had to drag her back home. That he had to stop her from leaving again.
Anna doesn’t need to know all that.
She’s four years old, and all she needs to know is that her Mama and Mommy love her, her sister and her big brother more than anything. He tells her as much.
Anna listens to him attentively, staring at him like Jesse Joel is the only storyteller in her world, at first his story is way too exciting to fall asleep too.
So he continues talking, and then he gets her some water. Then halfway through his story, he has to go to her room to collect a few more of her teddy bears.
A little bit after that, Sarah starts fussing and Jesse Joel has to pause the story to go get her and bring the baby back to his room for a bottle and cuddles.
By the time he’s reaching the end of his story, Anna has gone through every excuse in the book to stay up a little longer and is finally beginning to nod off, curled up in the crook of his arm, snug as a bug.
Baby Sarah is in his other arm, the one year old’s hands curled up in his shirt, head resting on his chest.
Jesse Joel is exhausted as well, a night time emergency avoiding without guns or fighting, just big brother to the rescue. Normally he would try to move them both back to their beds, but he can’t open his eyes, much less move off of the bed at all.
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By the time Ellie returns from patrol with Tommy, and she returns home with Dina, it’s late enough in the morning that they expect JJ to be up and making himself some breakfast, if not one or two of the girls to be up with him as well. Their kids are early risers.
Surprised that none were awake, Ellie is checking in on the girls when a panic catches up to her as she sees that her daughter’s beds are both empty.
It’s been almost a year since her last panic attack, but Ellie slips right back into it, her mind going wild with what ifs as she tries to reminder herself that Abby is long gone. They are tit for tat, agreed to stay away from each other, their feud is done and over with.
But still, she fears for the idea that it’s not.
She’s brought back to with the soft whisper of Dina calling for her, and she follows down the hallway until she’s brought in front of JJ’s open bedroom door.
Relief floods Ellie as she spots their girls snuggled up with the not-quite teenage boy. He is everything she ever thought he would be and just so much more.
Dina meets Ellie’s eye and wraps her arm around her, leaning against the other woman, her heart beaming with pride. “They’re lucky to have each other.”
Ellie nods. “I’m lucky to have them.” She pauses for a moment, kissing Dina’s cheek gently. “And you.”
Dina blushes bright red, stepping out of the room and bringing Ellie with her by the hand down the hall. “We’re lucky to have you.” She admits, pushing the brunette towards their bedroom door. “Now let’s get to bed, before the potatoes wake up for the day.”
Ellie laughs for a moment before fixing Dina with a smile, her eyes bright and bold compared to the hollow ones that left her over a decade ago.
“Thanks for not giving up on me.”
“Thank JJ for not letting me give up.”
“I love you, Dina Williams.”
“I love you too, Ellie Williams.”