PetrA

Chapter fifty-nine: Ellie/Timothy

"Ellie do you have any 4's." Stella asked. Ellie looked at her cards for a moment, "Go fish." She said annoyed. Her jaw still hurt from when Joachim hit her. She did give him a split lip before Kim charged in. "You're lying." Stella said. Ellie scowled at her, "You want to see my cards?" She asked. Kim glanced over at her and put a hand on her thigh. "Don't bite her head off." He said making Ellie grumble some choice words under her breath. "I know you have a four." Stella said. Ellie narrowed her eyes, "I gave my four's to Kim." She said. It wasn't a lie; she had given him her four two rounds ago. "Oh." Stella picked up a card and scowled. "Kim all your 3s." Ellie said. Kim sighed and gave her three cards. She picked them up and laid down the pair, "Gordon all of your kings." She said. Looking at the three kings, she already had. Gordon gave her the last King and she laid down another pair. "Thank you." She said scanning over her cards for a moment trying to remember who had the Knights. "Stella all your knights." She said Stella grumbled and handed over two Knights. Ellie laid down another pair and turned to Kim again, "All of your two's." Kim looked at his cards. "Go fish." Ellie shrugged and picked up a card.

A slow grin spread over her face, it was the second last card, "Stella all of your fours." Kim said. Stella grumbled again and handed him the card. He put down his pair and turned to Ellie. "Fives." He said. "Go fish." He picked up a card and Ellie turned to Stella again. "All of your six." Stella gave a grunt and threw her cards at Ellie, who laid down the pair. She then turned to Gordon and said. "Ladies." He gave her one card, "Ladies Kim." He rolled his eyes and gave her the card he'd just picked up. Ellie laid down another pair and looked at the last three cards in her hands. "Eights Stella." Stella grinned. "Go fish." She said. Ellie picked up the last card. "Yes!" She put down the pair of eights and the rest groaned. Ellie won the game, with Gordon on a close second place, Kim in third and Stella last. "No more card games." She grumbled crossing her arms. "How on earth do you manage to win constantly?" Ellie shrugged. "I don't know. I have just always loved to play cards." Joachim emerged from his bed and a scowl took over Ellie's face.

She kept her eyes trained purposely on stocking the cards ignoring him. She then looked out of the small window, it was dark and it looked like it was snowing? Ellie shook her head and faked a yawn, "I think I'll go to bed." She slipped out of her seat and crawled into the bed. Luckily, it wasn't her night to keep guard. She pulled a book that was hidden just beneath the mattress. She sighed and leaned against the wall opening the book where she had marked it. Not long after Kim appeared and the lights in the auto camper turned off. Ellie marked the page and stuffed it back. "You okay?" He whispered. Ellie couldn't see more than the outline of Kim in the darkness as her eyes hadn't quite yet adjusted. "I'm fine." She said her fingers finding his face. She felt around carefully until he took a sharp intake of breath. "How's your head? You hit it pretty hard when you lounged at him." she made a point of saying him, but didn't say anything else. "He hit you Ellie." Kim growled back. "You know that I can..." he cut her off. "Handle it." He finished. "I know, but I'm not going to stand back and watch him hit you." Ellie pursed her lips. "But you could've been hurt worse than hitting your head and getting a fist in the face." Ellie didn't sound happy.

They continued their bickering, "Look I know he's your friend, don't even try to deny it." Ellie warned as she saw Kim open his mouth. "And however little I like him; I'm not throwing him to the dogs." She said. She hated that she was saying it, "I dislike Joachim, but I also trust him. There's probably going to be many fights, not just this one, and I would hate if you got hurt because of me. I don't think I would be able to live with myself if something happened to you because of me." Ellie said. "Ellie... I wouldn't be able to that either." Kim said quietly. "But he still hit you, and that's not okay." Ellie pursed her lips. "I know, but things like this will happen, maybe not just Joachim, but it is times like these that brings out the best and worst in people." She said honestly looking into his eyes. "I can deal with Joachim myself; you don't need to get into fights because of me." She said. Kim looked at her for a long time. Then he kissed her, Ellie's mind went completely blank as she tangled her fingers in his hair pulling him closer.