PetrA

Chapter seventy-five: Timothy

Timothy watched as Ellie looked at the wound on Nigel's ankle. At first, she seemed mildly confused until Stella had said that Nigel might've been immune. Her face turned from confusion to shock and then her face contorted weirdly. He couldn't read her face, her eyes were unfocused and her facial features blank and unreadable. Then as if a light switch was flipped, her eyes flashed, and a series of wild and raw emotions ran across her face. "Ellie?" He asked as she lost her balance and fell to the floor, she didn't move, she didn't even blink. He could see the thoughts racing in her mind as if she was putting together a puzzle or just received some impossibly annoying pieces she couldn't fit.

It wasn't just Timothy who noticed the sudden change, Kim rushed forwards just in time to catch her as her eyes rolled up in her head and she slumped. Stella was working on getting the stick out of Nigel's leg, and hardly noticed anything around them. Lewis was already a lost cause, and Anthony knew that as he sobbed over his brother's body. "Get her onto a bed." Timothy said instantly. He helped lift Ellie onto a bed. Kim opened her jacket and set his ear over the spot where her heart would be. "She's breathing." He said relieved. Then he noticed Joachim and the rest staring at Ellie's stomach. Joachim's face was slack, and Timothy was sure he saw jealousy in his eyes. "She's pregnant?" Desiree asked shocked. "I just thought she was like asthmatic or something like that." Kim pulled a face. "She is asthmatic." Timothy said. "But it's a mild form. We both have it, comes from our mother Bernadette." Joachim, Kim and Henrik looked at him confusion on their faces. "But... I though your mother's name was Joanna." Kim said.

Timothy's face darkened, "Joanna is our mum." He said. Kim frowned, "But you just said that Bernadette is your mother." Timothy hated discussing his biological mother, a woman who had left when he was only 4 years old, and later come back thinking everything would be fine. "Joanna is not our biological mother. However, she is the one who raised us. Our dad married her when Ellie was only five and I almost eight." He said stiffly. Joachim frowned, "Ellie did mention an absent mother." He said. Kim looked down at Ellie brushing some strands of hair out of her face. "She did say mum and mother as if they were two different persons." Timothy pursed his lips trying not to let his emotions run wild, he was very aware of Mary being there. He had never told anyone about this. "It's because they were." Mary said quietly putting a hand on Timothy's shoulder. "Ellie had problems with her mother, although, I never quite understood it all, but from what Ellie have told me, she was torn between what to feel about her, resentment or love... she did love her in a strange way." Timothy looked down at Mary shocked. Mary sighed and scowled at them, "I am Ellie's best friend. She has confided things in me and Marlene that most people do not know." She mentioned to Marlene who was standing over Anthony and Lewis waiting for Lewis to change. "I know that her relationship with her mother was strained and complicated, as well as the problems she had with Danielle her sister... I've known about her crush on you Kim since the beginning." Mary pointed out, "Oh don't look so surprised." She said.

"Ellie have her fair share of problems she has to fight." Timothy said quietly. "Life's not been easy, for neither of us." He remembered his school days. How horrendous they were... just as Ellie he'd spent his days at school isolated, bullied and ignored by mostly everyone. Back then, he'd silently feared that he was the reason behind why Ellie was exposed to the same things as he, but it was difficult to tell. Timothy still felt responsible for it. He should have protected her, made sure she didn't have to suffer the way he did, but instead he'd shut himself down and pretended that nothing was wrong. "How have she not cracked?" Henrik asked frowning. "She have, several times." Marlene said suddenly joining the conversation. "You people just never saw." She glared at Joachim. "There was days when she could hardly even get out of bed, where she hardly could function. Most often when it all became too much for her to handle." Timothy sat down in a chair and ran his hands over his face. It was all becoming too much, too fast for him to handle. "She even turned to snus just to relax a little." Mary said a disapproving look on her face.

Timothy's head snapped up at that piece of information. "What?" He asked shocked. Mary raised an eyebrow, "You didn't know?" He looked over at Ellie and shook his head. "She never told me." Marlene chuckled. "She didn't exactly tell anyone." Timothy's mind was working too fast at that moment, what else hadn't Ellie mentioned? Did she do other things? Drugs? Did she smoke? The questions built up in his mind, and he had to force himself into not thinking about it as Ellie groaned. How much time had passed? An hour? Maybe two? It was dark outside and he couldn't see a clock anywhere in the room. "Dad, immune!" Ellie sat bolt-upright startling Kim so bad he scrambled backwards. Timothy blinked as Ellie fixed her wide eyes on him, "What are you talking about?" He asked slowly. He was quite sure she'd just said, dad and immune. "Timothy. Dad was immune!"

Timothy couldn't understand what she was talking about. "Ellie..." She shook her head a mixture of fright and something that looked disturbingly like excitement on her face. "Timothy he was immune!" He scowled at her. Had she lost it? "Ellie I don't think..." she cut him off again. Ignoring that everybody was staring at her as if she'd gone mad. "Think about it Timmy. You said it yourself, well not directly, but you said that dad didn't turn. No, he didn't, I misjudged my aim and hit through the heart after they bit him, but he didn't change..." she repeated his words from months earlier. He was surprised that she remembered it at all. Then he frowned, "Did you find dad after you shot him?" Ellie asked her eyes wider than before as colour rose in her cheeks. "We did, but he was dead, not walking dead, but dead. His insides eaten and torn." Ellie didn't flinch, "Did he have a wound through the head?" She asked. Timothy looked at his sister for a moment, "No, he did not." he said slowly. Then it dawned upon him what Ellie was fishing for, everybody else looked confused.

Could it be possible? "Timmy think about it, I didn't realise until... well I saw Nigel's wound, how the infection wasn't spreading but rather running from his body." Nigel gave a loud cry and Stella looked up in mild surprise as everybody stared at her, she was holding a bloody stick in her hands. "Sorry, continue your conversation." She said throwing the stick on the floor. "Ellie you don't think?" She nodded. "It makes sense Timothy. Bloody hell... this could mean..." She trailed off her eyes becoming unfocused again as her mind raced once again. "I think she need to rest." Henrik said uncertain looking at Ellie. No one argued, and Timothy was too preoccupied in his own head to notice Mary pulling him along.