sunshine // joel miller

SIX

Chapter Six
A good person

The first breath of fresh air was a saving grace as Fran climbed onto the roof of the museum. The calm breeze making her take a deep breath and close her eyes for a moment.

Her back was stinging and likely bruised from being thrown into the ground, twice, and it hurt to stretch out her arms.

Tess was sat by the window, Joel quickly moving past fran to be next to her as Fran moved a little away; eyes on Ellie as the girl checked over her arm.

"Put this around your arm," Joel's voice broke through the silence as he handed Ellie a bandage, the girl thanking him quietly.

"And for your face," Joel continued, passing fran some ripped up paper from a magazine, the closest thing to tissue that wasn't a necessity. She send him a thankful half smile before beginning to rub her face with it, hoping to get as much of the blood off as possible. All while thanking the high heavens that the blood wasn't her own.

"Over there?" Ellie asked after watching Fran for a moment, pointing to a nearby building with a plank of wood leading to it.

"Yeah, I know. It looks scary." Joel said quietly as he got some tape out to deal with Tess' ankle.

"That was scary. This is wood." Ellie responded, hands in her pockets as she began to walk across. Fran had to disagree, it was still scary, everything out there was now scary.

"Just wait there. Give us a minute." Joel said to her, earning a nod. Fran stayed silent, wanting her legs to stop shaking before she even attempted to walk over the bridge.

"There's probably more ahead." Joel's voice rang out after a moment, helping tess to tape up her foot.

"So, we'll deal with it then." Tess was simple in her response, seemingly unbothered by the information. Fran stared down at her shoes at that. Going through that once was enough, all the adrenaline now gone for her body and in need of a rest.

"I got it. I got it." Tess' words bit through the wind, a clear annoyance in her tone that made Fran's eyebrows furrow, but still, she kept quiet.

Joel sent a look over to Fran for a moment, watching her for a second before speaking to Tess in a low voice, in hopes Fran wouldn't hear.

"What about the kid?" He asked quietly, "I mean, maybe the first bite didn't take, but what about the second?"

"How 'bout you just take the good news?" Tess snapped at him, clearly at her wits end. Fran understood, a problem with your ankle could be the difference between life or death out here, "Can you do that? Like to think, for once, maybe we could actually win?"

Joel was silent at that, Fran copying the silence, as Tess shook her head, taking the tape off of him, "Just go, go and watch her."

Joel hesitated for a moment, before doing as told and heading across the bridge, leaving just Tess and Fran there. Tess glanced at the girl for a moment, before shaking her head and continuing to wrap her foot.

Fran wanted to say something, anything, but it was clear Tess was pissed off as it was, and she didn't want to make anything worse.

"You did good in there," Tess was the first to speak, and the compliment made Fran look over to her in surprise, "He won't say it but you saved Joel's ass."