Joel continued to hold onto his daughter as tight as he could. God, he forgot how pure she was. She hadn't had time to be corrupted by the new world. It was like looking into the last bit of flickering light in a world full of darkness. That same bit of shimmering pureness he'd seen in Ellie, when he'd held her in his arms. That was all he could see in Sarah as he held her again.
"It's alright, baby girl..." Joel reassured her as he continued to slowly rock back and forth, burying her face as close to his chest as he could.
"It weren't your fault... ain't none of it..." Joel continued to reassure her of this as he continued to hold onto her. He loved her so much. Already, he'd gotten her back, and he knew right now that he wouldn't let anything else happen to her. He
couldn't let anything else happen to her. They were both gonna make it out of this. They had to.
They continued like this for a while, just Joel relishing in seeing his daughter again after these twenty long years. All those Goddamn years without Sarah in his life. He was already forgetting how he'd managed to do it for so long. He supposed that a good part of it was losing what had made him human. It was how a lot of people in their world coped, after all.
But the sudden rattling of the glass cage had been enough to pull them back into reality. Some... well, Joel didn't know what to call it. Some damn robot
thing had punched the case, causing the glass to violently trash and shake all around. It instinctively made him grab onto Sarah, holding her close to his shoulder and patting the back of her hair to calm her down. Even if she wasn't worried by it - Joel was. For her sake entirely. The robot seemed pretty pissed, too. What kind of shit had they been locked in here with?
Once the robot seemed to calm down, though, Joel turned back to his daughter. Once more, he cupped her face in both his palms.
"Sarah," Joel said, his tone gruff yet obviously caring and soft. Old habits died hard - and now, those conflicting habits were showing themselves at full force. On the one hand, he had his overbearing sense of protectiveness of his daughter. And on the other? Well, the other was that jaded, cynical old man that twenty years without her had built.
"I want you to listen to me, okay?" he gave her a moment to reply, before continuing.
"No matter what happens, you stay by my side. Got it?"Once she gave her reply, Joel would nod, before finally standing up. It was then that the man turned to face the many, many denizens of the cage. He scanned around the area with his eyes, until they finally settled on the one he'd seen. It was the one he'd seen before Sarah. The other one who didn't make it.
Tess.
"C'mon," Joel said to Sarah as he offered her his hand. He'd managed a smile, too. Aside from his times with Ellie and his brief time with Tommy, Joel couldn't name the last time he'd smiled at all.
"There's someone I want ya to meet." And then, he guided her over to where Tessa was. She seemed to be talking to some frail, shorter man. He had sunken in eyes and skin. The guy looked like he hadn't eaten in days. He'd have been mistaken for infected by someone less attuned. Joel just thought he looked sick.
"Hey, Tess." Joel said to the woman, still managing his smile all the while. Judging by the girl that was with him, it was probably easy to see why. Joel had told her about Sarah, of course. They were partners for so long... how couldn't he, right? They never brought it up, and she never saw any pictures, but Tess knew about her. She was a smart girl, so she could figure it out. But one question did remain... Did she remember what happened? Getting bit? Getting shot? Joel figured that it wasn't best to question her on it. It was best to just leave her be for now.
"I see you've been makin' friends." Joel mused, gesturing to All Might.
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