We fought until the sun rose. And I still ain't been to bed.
Dina wakes up from unconsciousness slowly. The first thing she see’s is the illumination of red light. There’s a dull ache in her head and she feels blood dripping from her forehead. She doesn’t know if it’s hers or not. Not that she wants to. She’s laid out on the ground and struggling to remember how she got there. A pool of blood gradually increasing below her
She looks to her right and she sees Ellie failing to get on her feet. She would call it adorable if they were in different circumstances. Her nose is severely bleeding and her face looks extremely messed up. Her favorite light blue shirt is stained with blood and Dina wants nothing but to clean it for her right now.
“Ellie,” Dina says, trying to reach for her but then feeling immense pain in her shoulder.
Ellie jumps back a bit but then rushes over to Dina. Dina goes to feel her shoulder only to be met with more pain as she feels an arrow.
“Don’t try to mess with it, I know it hurts but you might bleed out” Ellie says while grabbing her hand.
Memories come back to Dina and her head starts to ache more. She reaches out for Ellie’s face as silent tears start to form.
Ellie starts shaking her head and Dina can see she’s crying as well. “I’m fine. we’re gonna be fine” She reassures her
“Were gonna get out of here and we’re gonna live on a farm like you wanted. Were both gonna be fine.”
Dina doesn’t know if Ellie is trying to convince her or herself but the words do give her some comfort. She feels a sudden wave of tiredness and her eyes start to shut but Ellie shakes her awake.
“No Dina you can’t fall asleep right now”
“Mm tired” Dina tries to say but it comes out an incoherent mumble.
“I know but I have to go get Tommy first and I can’t have you drifting off. Please stay awake”
Dina doesn’t say anything back. She just nods her head and leans into Ellie. Ellie struggles a bit but successfully lifts Dina up and takes her to where Tommy is. Dina lays comfortably in her arms and relaxes in the embrace. At that moment Dina knew for sure Ellie was her forever.
And while you got your eyes closed The devil wakes up in my head.
She always dreams about it. Honestly, it’s hard to imagine a night where she doesn’t. It starts off with her and Ellie like it always does. Maybe Ellie is playing guitar. Maybe they’re both just laying down enjoying each other’s company. It always starts off with peace but gets interrupted
She also sees her in her dreams a lot. She dreams about Her killing Ellie and would wake up screaming.
The main thing that scares her is watching Ellie die in her dreams. It didn’t always happen but when it did it took a big mental toll on her. Flooding her mind with thoughts like what if she didn’t wake up and Ellie was still down there. Like this whole thing was a dream.
She knows that Ellie also had dreams about it. She knows that she sometimes gets out of bed and takes a walk outside. Or she would go check on J.J even if he was sound asleep. She was restless and Dina just wanted to help her.
Anytime Dina tried to bring it up Ellie just deflected it with a sarcastic remark.
“Oh, so you’re watching me in my sleep now?”
Or she would just push it to the side and reassure her.
“I’m fine Dina, go back to bed and get some sleep”
Dina always wanted to call her out on her responses but then that would be a little hypocritical. She sometimes did the same things that Ellie did but she was just better at hiding it.
So until she could find a permanent solution she let it go.
He told me that you hate me And you blame me
And you said that you wish that you were dead
Tommy came to visit sometimes. Dina usually stepped outside when he did. It not because she didn’t like or respect him. She did, just not this version of him. He’s changed alot but Dina can’t blame him. She’s changed a lot as well.
He would always come in, hold the baby, then talk to Ellie. Sometimes Dina came in to see what they were talking about. Its usually harmless stuff like her teaching him guitar or reminiscing about Joel.
Then one day it wasn’t harmless
She was out on the porch when she heard yelling and screaming. Knowing that Ellie was holding J.J at the time she went inside to check on them.
There she was met with a sobbing Ellie and a distraught Tommy. His face was all red indicating that he was upset at something. He was trying to calm Ellie down but Dina moved him aside.
“What the fuck did you do Tommy” Dina tried to console Ellie and J.J at the same time. Ellie looked like she had seen a ghost so she took J.J away to console him first.
“Here let me take him” Tommy tried reaching out for him but Dina refused.
“Tell me what you did Tommy”
“I didn’t do nothing Dina, we were just talking and-
“That doesn’t look like nothing to me.”
“Guys I’m fine!” Ellie tried to Interrupt but she was crying uncontrollably so it didn’t come out as forceful as she wanted to.
“Ellie I’m sorry-” I think that you should leave.” Dina says interrupting him.
Tommy stands there silent for a second then walks out the door quietly saying bye.
Dina pushed all her anger down and focused on calming down Ellie. She placed J.J in his crib and made her way over to her. She wrapped her arms around her and whispered comforting words to her. Ellie buried her face into her shoulder and started crying even harder. They both sat there like that till what felt like hours. Ellie started calming down and her cries turned into sniffles.
Dina slowly pulls away and looks at her. Ellie refuses to look into her eyes so Dina gently caresses her face. Once Ellie finally looks at her she gives her a gentle smile. Ellie tries to reciprocate it but it still looks sad.
“You don’t have to tell me what he said right now, we can talk later if you want.” Dina says carefully trying not to set her off.
Ellie looks like she contemplating it then nods gently.
Dina finds out that it was related to Joel and surprisingly her. How they should still be looking for Abby and her just sitting comfortably in the house is disappointing Joel. Also, he apparently told her that settling down with her has changed her for the worst. Dina vowed to have a little “chat” with Tommy when she gets the chance. But then before she could plan the murder Ellie says something way more concerning.
“If I had died with Riley and never met Joel none of this would have happened”
They were cuddling in the bed at night during a rare sense of peace from J.J finally sleeping. It was silent until Ellie admitted that. Dina had to take a second to process what she just said but when she did she looked at her with a serious expression.
“Ellie please tell me you don’t think that” She says her voice cracking a bit. Ellie just looks at her guilty not saying anything.
Dina rolls on top of her pinning her down and see’s that Ellie was silently crying not looking at her like she did earlier.
“Ellie look at me, you are loved. I honestly don’t know what would I have done if I didn’t ever meet you. Please don’t ever talk like that it scares me”
“You wanna know what scares me? Knowing that someday I might hurt you or even J.J because of a random flashback. I’m a mess Dina, you don’t deserve this” Ellie was full-on sobbing now and so was Dina. It was dead silent and all you could hear was them crying.
Dina grabs Ellies’ arm with the chemical burn.
“You see this, this is the best thing that ever happened to me. I think about it all the time. If this never happened then I wouldn’t have met you. Ellie, you mean so much to me and I can’t imagine a life like this with no one else.” Dina says while sobbing.
Dina goes in to hug Ellie and they both lay there crying together. Ellie mumbling out apologizes while Dina just holds her. Ellie drops the subject for now but they have a civil discussion about it in the morning. They both ended up crying about it but with a better understanding of each other.
You make me wanna jump off the roof.
'Cause I love you to death. Just like a fool.
Ellie left.
A part of Dina left with her.
Tommy came back with a map and Dina knew deep down that she would. She had hope, but it was broken in a matter of seconds.
“I have to finish it.”
She said like her mind was already made up. Like she didn’t want Dina to argue against her and even if she did she would leave anyway. That doesn’t mean she didn’t try. Nothing could get past Ellie’s stubborn mindset though. Once she has her mind on something she will go through with it. Dangerous or not. And Dina knew this already, its one of the many things she loves about. But after today it became one of the things she hates about her.
Moving on was just something she wasn’t able to do. She gave it a few days. She waited outside on the porch expecting Ellie to show up. When she didn’t she fed J.J., held him, then cried herself to sleep.
J.J took it hard as well. He cried all the time and harder then he did before. Dina went through many sleepless nights holding him. Most of the time she would cry with him, telling him it will be ok and that she’s coming back.
She then realized she couldn’t stay inside that house. Everything she looked at reminded her of Ellie. When she showed up at the gates of Jackson she was met with Maria. She told her everything and Maria gave her a look of pity as she let her in.
From there Dina learned to cope with it better. Not move on. Moving on implied that she was dead and she didn’t wanna think about that. She just learned how to deal with it better.
J.J was a good distraction. Watching him grow up. She also buried herself in work. Always asking Maria if there was an extra shift for her to take over. She desperately needed a distraction and Maria saw that so she provided her with some extra shifts. Sometimes denying her so she doesn’t overwork herself.
Things were getting better.
Until she saw her.
She thought she was dreaming. Dina was doing her shift until she saw maria talking to someone. She thought it was a newcomer so she came up to them to introduce herself but then she recognized her.
Ellie looked right at her too with a shocked expression. They both stood there for what felt like forever until Maria awkwardly excused herself saying she has some work to do. Dina knew that was bull because she was just talking to her about how happy she was that she had a free day.
Ellie hesitated but finally said something.
“I’m sorry”
Dina gave her one more hard look.
“So am i”
Then she went back on her shift. She would talk with her later. She’s glad that she’s alive but that doesn’t make up for anything. Ellie jogging after her and Dina sigh’s in annoyance..
“Dina wait!”
Dina turns around abruptly with a murderous glare.
“I’ve been waiting Ellie! I sat on that damn porch and waited for you to come home. You don’t get to tell me to wait.” Dina yells.
Ellie looks at her guiltily and quietly whispers “I know”
Dina calms down a bit and goes to hug Ellie. Ellie is shocked but reciprocates the hug.
“I don’t know if I can ever forgive you Ellie”
Ellie carefully thinks about her answer.
“Take all the time you need love”