The snow was coming down heavy that night. Abby trudged through it on patrol, bow gripped in her hands, eyes scanning for infected. She wasn’t supposed to be near Jackson—she knew that. But something kept drawing her back.

That’s when she saw her.

Ellie.

She was sitting against a tree trunk near the edge of a frozen clearing, her mask pulled down, her arms wrapped around her knees. Her body was trembling—not from the cold, but from something deeper. Her skin was pale, her frame thinner than Abby remembered. Her eyes were hollow, staring into nothing, lost somewhere miles away.

Abby’s chest constricted.

Slowly, carefully, she approached. “Ellie?” Her voice cracked against the quiet.

Ellie blinked, startled, then tried to stand, but her legs wavered beneath her. She wasn’t ready to fight—she wasn’t even steady enough to speak.

Abby knelt in the snow a few feet away, her hands shaking. “You’re… you’re not okay,” she whispered, more to herself than to Ellie.

Ellie’s lip quivered. She looked down, as if ashamed to be seen so fragile. “Don’t—” she muttered weakly. “Don’t look at me like that.”

That broke Abby.

The guilt of Joel’s death, the image of Ellie screaming and thrashing that night, the thought of her wasting away now—it all came crashing down. Abby’s vision blurred with tears she had fought for weeks to keep back.

“I’m sorry,” Abby choked, pressing her hands to her face. “God, Ellie, I’m so sorry.”

Ellie flinched at her words, but didn’t move. Her own breathing was shallow, jagged.

Abby dropped her hands and looked at her through wet lashes. “I didn’t… I didn’t think about what it would do to you. About how much you’d lose. I thought I was ending my pain, but—” Her voice cracked as a sob ripped out of her. “I just gave it to you.”

Ellie swallowed hard, her chest tight. She wanted to hate her. To turn away. But Abby’s tears, her rawness, were too real to ignore.

Abby crawled closer through the snow, stopping just short of touching her. “I see you,” she whispered, trembling. “The nightmares in your eyes, the way you can’t even eat or sleep… and it kills me. Because I—” She broke off, her body shaking as she pressed a fist to her mouth. “Because I love you, Ellie. And I don’t want you to think you’re alone in this. Not anymore.”