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Joel threw down his bags, swearing a blue streak. The apartment was empty, save for himself and Ellie. Whoever broke the downstairs window was long, long gone.
He instinctively checked every room, sealing doors and windows, and began to calculate supplies. He could barely look in Ellie’s direction.
The girl sat on the living room couch, white-knuckling her sleeves. She curled in on herself with guilt written across her face. Joel would never admit it out loud, but he was secretly pleased. He’d wondered if the girl was even capable of remorse. She certainly hadn’t seemed remorseful for running off until…
Joel shook his head.
Death was something he’d seen time and time again, but it never got any easier to watch. The woman who saved Ellie had an injured leg. She wouldn’t have made it, anyway. But the fact that she spent her last breath pushing Ellie to safety didn’t sit right. He had given her instructions, and she didn’t fucking listen.
Again.
“Get up,” Joel said gruffly, jerking his thumb at the pantry. “Sort out the canned shit. I’ll drag a mattress into the living room.”
“No,” Ellie said, her voice quiet.
“No?” Joel arched his brow. “Cut the shit, kid.”
“I fucking said no!” Ellie snapped, balling her fists. “What part of no did you not understand? Leave me the fuck alone!”
“Watch your fucking mouth,” Joel snapped. “Have your tantrum if you want, but you need to pull your weight. Sort the pantry and pick us something to eat.”
“Fuck you,” Ellie said through gritted teeth. “Don’t just stand there and act like… like…”
Joel let out a long, low sigh.
“What do you need from me, kid?” he asked, his voice gentle yet firm. He had an idea where this was going.
“Don’t… don’t make me ask,” Ellie grumbled, a sour look on her face. “I fucked up, all right? I fucked up and someone… and you… ugh!”
He easily stepped to the side, dodging the couch cushion that she threw against the wall behind him. She leaned over and punched the seat cushion, letting out a frustrated noise.
“Ellie,” he said, no-nonsense. “You wanna handle it like we did in El Paso?”
The El Paso Motel. The first time he’d punished her. He still remembered the vulnerable look on her stubborn face as she bent across his knee, sobbing against her fist as he spanked her hard and fast until her ass was viciously red and her tears were 90% remorse and only 10% pain.
“Weren’t you planning on it anyway?” Ellie muttered, glaring up at him. “I broke the fucking rule. I got myself into danger, after not listening to you, deliberately disobeying you, and I got… I got someone…”
“Go sort out the pantry,” Joel said calmly. “We’ll handle it when you’re done.”
Ellie froze, her eyes searching his for answers. Slowly, she nodded.
“What you say goes.”
She stood, keeping her back to the wall as she minced her way to the kitchen. The sound of tin cans clinking on the tile countertop filled the air as Joel wandered back into the master bedroom. He hauled the full-sized mattress by one corner, groaning as the sheets tangled on the door frame. He found clean linens that only smelled a little like moth balls and dust, and he made up a bed right in the middle of the floor.
His task done, he focused on the more unpleasant task at hand. He returned to the master bedroom, sighing grimly as he dug through the drawers of an old-fashioned vanity. He closed his eyes, his fingers wrapping around the handle of a wooden hairbrush with a hard, flat back. The kid would learn a lesson tonight, one way or another.
“All sorted?” he asked, returning to the kitchen. Her eyes immediately focused on the brush in his hand. She grimaced, nodding crisply. He jerked his head toward the living room, the instruction unspoken but clear.
“With that?” Ellie asked, eyeing the wooden hairbrush.
“Yep,” Joel said, smacking the brush against his palm. The girl flinched at the noise. “You need something stronger than my hand. I don’t want to use the belt on you if I don’t have to.”
“Fine,” Ellie said, frozen in place. “Get it over with.”
Joel turned his head to give her a little privacy as she unzipped her jeans and pushed them to her ankles, along with her underwear. She quickly threw herself across his knees, groaning at the intimacy of the position. She reached for a throw pillow, holding it tightly to her chest.
“Why’re we here, El?” Joel asked quietly, wrapping his arm around her waist to hold her steady.
“Because I fucked up,” Ellie spat. “Because I fucked up and didn’t fucking listen and someone fucking died and now I… I…”
He brought his hand down sharply against her ass, watching as the girl’s body tensed all at once. She pushed her fist against her mouth, exhaling slowly as his palm beat a pattern into her rapidly-pinkening skin. When she finally began to squirm at the growing heat, he decided that her warm-up was over. It was time to get it over with.
“Why are we here, Ellie?” he asked again, tapping the brush against her thigh.
“I fucked up and someone died and I feel guilty as fuck about it,” Ellie said, her voice strained. “I can’t fucking live with myself. I’m so fucking stupid.”
“You aren’t stupid,” Joel scolded. “You made a big mistake with a big consequence. Next time I tell you to stay put, you’re going to think a little harder about the cost of disobeying.”
Ellie arched back, shocked at how much that little brush hurt . It cracked down with a sharpness that Joel’s calloused hand could never match. By the sixth swat, she kicked her legs furiously against the couch, desperate whines pushing past her lips. She tried to muffle herself with her fist, but it didn’t make a difference; as the spanking went on, her cries became more and more desperate until the first full-blown sob lurched out of her chest.
Joel paused, rubbing her back as she regained her composure. He wasn’t looking forward to the next part.
“Are you listening, kid?” he asked, waiting for her nod of affirmation before continuing. “Good. Ellie, tell me why we’re here.”
“I disobeyed a direct order,” she said, her voice a murmur interspersed with hiccupping sobs. “She saved my life. I should have been the one torn apart. Not her. She… she didn’t even hesitate. I couldn’t do anything. It’s all my fault. I can’t stop seeing her face.”
“I know,” Joel said, his voice calm and even. “That’s a lot of guilt to hold onto, kiddo. We can’t afford to feel guilty about every single mistake we make out here. Guilt leads to distractions and bad decisions. Trust me on that.”
Ellie put her head down on the couch cushion, clutching the pillow to her chest. She sniffed back snot and nodded. She felt Joel move, felt him tilt his leg to raise her up enough to reach the areas she hated being spanked the most. She pushed her feet against the end of the couch, struggling to keep from kicking or writhing away from the pain.
“You fuck up, you get your ass blistered, and you move on,” Joel said, giving her a little squeeze before raising the brush again. “Endure and survive.”
This time, there was no fight left in the scrappy teen. She jolted with every burning swat, but she lay still across his lap, crying wholeheartedly into the couch. He finished up the paddling with a round of hard swats to the thighs and tossed the brush over his shoulder, scooping her up to sit halfway on his lap with her well-whipped ass hanging off the edge of the sofa.
She didn’t accept much comfort, and he didn’t offer much in return. He held her until her sobs lessened to miserable cries and then to quiet groans. She stood when she was ready, and he turned away while she adjusted her pants and underwear. He didn’t miss the hiss of pain as the denim chafed against her swollen bum. She wouldn’t sit comfortably tonight, and walking tomorrow would be a hell of a reminder.
“Thanks,” she said, unable to look him in the eye. “I’ll uh… dinner.”
“Of course,” he nodded, letting her run off to the kitchen to lick her wounds in private. “I’ll be there soon. Just gonna raid the closets and see if we can replace some stuff. Wouldn’t kill us to get fresh socks after wading through that flooded hall.”
“Good idea,” Ellie swallowed, subtly using a kitchen towel to wipe away her tears and snot.
Joel turned away, searching through the bedrooms one more time - even though he’d already found all the stuff there was to find. He added fresh bandages and antiseptic to his kit, throwing in a few pairs of socks and men’s briefs that looked roughly his size. The master bedroom had nothing but thin, delicate underwear that would last all of two hours on the road. But there was a warm sweatshirt that would only be a little big on Ellie. He added it to his bag, hesitating only briefly before adding the wooden hairbrush as well.
He hoped he wouldn’t need it again. But with the foul-mouthed brat by his side, he had a sneaking suspicion that it wouldn’t be long.