[Tess reels in his grip, pushing forward until it's clear that his resistance will overpower her forward momentum, and then she's giving up and pulling away again, snapping:]
Of all the things I've seen you do, you draw the line there?! I just––
[And then the exhaustion is digging in hard and fast. It's too much, and this is the grain that tips the scale. She's been awake for twenty-four hours now, maybe even thirty-six. She made the drop alone, she fought off an assassination attempt, she dealt with Robert, she dealt with Marlene, she trekked across Clicker-infested, bombed-out ruins, she got mauled and infected and now kidnapped by a magic castle, and here she is being walked to her death and being told none of it would matter.
No contraband empire in Boston's underground.
No cure for humanity, of which she would play a small part in.
No future for her at all, life ended by a reckless mistake and too-slow reflexes when once-human teeth drove into her skin.
She swings with her free hand to pound a fist against Joel's chest, some grown-up attempt at a temper tantrum, but it comes up weak.
Tess feels her eyes well up and her face contort in some effort to maintain her composure, but it doesn't work. It's not going to work anymore. She held it together well enough with guns trained on her from the other side of the Firefly meeting place, she held it together well enough to agree to die at Joel's hands, but that's all gone. The tears are rolling and her throat's closing up and her shoulder has a pulse and a life of its own, beating so hard in her shoulder that she can feel it reverberating through the rest of her.
And all she can do is choke in a breath and plead:]
no subject
Of all the things I've seen you do, you draw the line there?! I just––
[And then the exhaustion is digging in hard and fast. It's too much, and this is the grain that tips the scale. She's been awake for twenty-four hours now, maybe even thirty-six. She made the drop alone, she fought off an assassination attempt, she dealt with Robert, she dealt with Marlene, she trekked across Clicker-infested, bombed-out ruins, she got mauled and infected and now kidnapped by a magic castle, and here she is being walked to her death and being told none of it would matter.
No contraband empire in Boston's underground.
No cure for humanity, of which she would play a small part in.
No future for her at all, life ended by a reckless mistake and too-slow reflexes when once-human teeth drove into her skin.
She swings with her free hand to pound a fist against Joel's chest, some grown-up attempt at a temper tantrum, but it comes up weak.
Tess feels her eyes well up and her face contort in some effort to maintain her composure, but it doesn't work. It's not going to work anymore. She held it together well enough with guns trained on her from the other side of the Firefly meeting place, she held it together well enough to agree to die at Joel's hands, but that's all gone. The tears are rolling and her throat's closing up and her shoulder has a pulse and a life of its own, beating so hard in her shoulder that she can feel it reverberating through the rest of her.
And all she can do is choke in a breath and plead:]
Joel. Please. This hurts.