Greetings, Fanfiction! This is my first ever attempt at writing a story for the site, so don't be surprised if it doesn't turn out perfect! This takes place approximately a month and a half after Pahkitew Island's finale.

It was a partly cloudy and mild day in the area that surrounded Dave's home. The temperature was around the high 60's to low 70's. It was around a month and a half after participating in the finale of Total Drama: Pahkitew Island. Dave was currently alone in his room, where he would normally either watch something on his TV, listen to his music playlists, which contained a decent amount of genre variety, or play a game that he downloaded onto his computer. Throughout all of his time spent alone, he couldn't help but lament about his time spent on Total Drama and how his reputation with the other contestants took a massive blow once the season was finished airing.

To top things off, many people on the Internet were not kind towards the germaphobe. He received tons of backlash, hate messages and many other negative things for his behavior and actions, especially in later parts of the season. It seemed like there was only one defender for every one hundred haters. How did this all happen? For those who aren't in the know, here's a brief recap of his time spent on Total Drama…

During his time on the show, Dave met and developed a crush on a certain aspiring athlete on his team named Sky. She had feelings for him in return, but tried her best not to focus on that, and instead focus on her ultimate goal of winning the competition.

Dave never hid his feelings for Sky, trying many different ways to win her over, despite not knowing about the gymnast's biggest priority. They admittedly have had plenty of nice moments together, but then the team swap came. They both missed being with each other, but Dave was led into an intense state of depression after this happened. His friend and fellow teammate, Shawn, gave him some words of encouragement during this period, which seemed to have worked for him, as his levels of confidence rose and his efforts in the game were a lot stronger. He even was able to push his mysophobia aside. However, he also started to act rather arrogant and cocky at times in an attempt to show Sky he's worthy of being her boyfriend. The athlete, already infuriated about losing a challenge that involved drinking decade-long expired chunks, then proceeded to cruelly reject Dave right then and there. Chris, the host, then proceeded to rub salt in his wound by reminding him of everything that made him upset in the first place. As a result, Dave felt he had no purpose being on the show anymore and voted himself off, even making buttons for others to do the same.

Several days later came the season finale between Shawn and Sky. They each selected a helper at random. Sky ended up getting Dave, even after trying twice. Dave was happy to see her again, but Sky was hesitant given previous events. In order to make sure Dave would be the best helper he could be, Sky kissed him on the lips for motivation. Other than Dave losing his hair, things seemed to be going well for the two of them, until the last leg. Chris, adding fuel to the fire once again, played Sky's audition tape in front of him and everyone else. In it, the gymnast stated that if she got on the show, she'd really miss her boyfriend, Keith. After hearing those last three words, Dave literally froze in utter shock for a while as the words kept replaying in his head, before suddenly flipping out at Sky in sheer anger due to her never telling him about her boyfriend prior. He felt like she had played with his heart the whole time and got his hopes up all for nothing. Dave was so enraged that even when a guilty Sky tried her best to apologize and explain how she was meaning to break up with Keith prior to joining the show, it was too little, too late for Dave. He denied even hearing her side of the story and simply didn't want to hear another word come out of her mouth.

Chris then assigned Dave as a hinderer for Sky and Shawn, with a chance of stealing half of the million bucks from the finalists. Dave, who originally didn't have a plan with the money, revealed in the confessional that he planned to burn his share of the money to ashes right in front of Sky's face, out of pure spite. He showed immense enjoyment with every second of hurting and hindering Sky and her chances at winning. But in the end, after he found out that a winner had already been crowned, he was left in a state of incredible disappointment. To make matters worse, Chris and the others ended up leaving him behind on the island, with a Scuba Bear who was prepared to maul the everliving crap out of him. Fortunately, he was brought back onto the helicopter several minutes after the gang realized they forgot somebody and barely escaped any serious injury. Unfortunately, though, no one on the copter seemed at ease around him anymore, not even Shawn, who was one of the only friends he managed to make during his time on the show.

And now, as a result of all of this, it's no surprise that Dave has been feeling quite down on himself over the past month and a half. He hasn't even seen his parents very often, which isn't all that surprising given they weren't very happy with how he acted in the finale either. Dave knew deep down that he overreacted to Sky. He knew deep down that he should have listened to her better. He knew deep down that he basically ruined his reputation with both his fellow contestants and the viewing world. This became even clearer after he watched himself when the episodes started to air. He started out as "The Normal Guy" during his earlier run on the show. However, it became more and more apparent to him that with each passing episode, he started to act less and less normal and more insanely over-the-top. He has hardly ever maintained contact with anyone from his season, even the very few people he was closer with.

He couldn't take the negative backlash anymore. He just couldn't. He wanted to do whatever he could to redeem himself and his image. How was he going to do it though? He knew it wasn't going to be easy for anyone to forgive him that easily or be willing enough to give him the benefit of the doubt or hear him out. He tried hard to think of ways he could possibly try and make amends with the others, but so far nothing was coming to mind. He didn't want his already sensitive emotions to get the better of him, so he decided to open up his laptop and play a game in an attempt to distract himself for the time being.

Almost an hour later, Dave heard a vibration coming from his phone. "Huh?" he could only wonder. It felt like no one had ever reached out to him in what had to have been at least a week, including family. Out of curiosity, he went over to pick up his phone to see who the message was from. When he opened up his phone, it was revealed that the message was from Ella.

He started to read the message to himself, "Hi Dave, it's Ella! It has been quite a long while since I last saw you. How are you doing today?"

Dave was shocked. He was genuinely shocked beyond belief that anyone from his season would actually go out of their way to reach out and check in on him after what happened the season's finale. He then reflected on what he remembered about Ella. He remembered her constant singing getting on his nerves at times, but then he also remembered that moment in the jousting stick challenge where she was electrocuted by Max, and he was the one to save her from drowning and even put her shoe back on. Then came the picnic that he had planned for Sky.

What Dave was unaware of at the time, however, was how much genuine affection Ella had for him after he saved her in the previous challenge. She was absolutely devastated to find out that the germaphobe didn't reciprocate her affections for him.

There was one final thing he did recall, though. It was during her elimination, where she sang to him something along the lines of, "you made my heart wince." Dave was at a loss for words at this very moment. It was at this point that he started to wonder to himself, "Did she really have feelings for me all this time?" Even if he didn't in return, it must have felt pretty devastating for her to find out that he was into someone else when she had thought he liked her.

Regardless, he decided to put all that thought aside and answer to Ella's question. He then started to write, "Oh, hi Ella. It has indeed been a while. I'm gonna be honest, I'm really stressed out right now. For the past month and a half, I've been feeling pretty down on myself after our season of Total Drama."

He then waited for a bit before the fairytale princess replied back, "Oh dear, I'm so terribly sorry to hear you're feeling that way. What has you so down? Do you want to talk to me about it?"

Dave, once again, was at a loss for what to say. Did Ella actually just express that she's open to hearing his side of the story? This was a big opportunity for him to actually explain himself for once. However, he was currently not in the mood to be thinking about it all again and would have rather waited for a better time.

So, he responded politely, "Thanks for the offer, but I'm not really up for it right now. Maybe another time, though."

Ella didn't hesitate to answer back in understanding, "Very well, then. I understand. Would you be open to maybe visiting my apartment sometime? Do you think that would make it easier for you to talk about your feelings?"

Dave actually didn't think of that, but she made a very solid point. He always felt that talking in person was a lot more effective and helpful than doing it through texts or even through FaceTime. He started to become more open to this idea and thought that it would probably benefit him the most if he were to get his emotions out this way.

Dave then wrote back, "Actually, I like that idea. I think it would be the best way to properly get all of my feelings out to you. Does tomorrow sound good?"

Ella was very excited when she saw his answer. She hasn't seen her 'prince' in person ever since she got eliminated. She quickly responded, "Yes, that works for me! I'm really delighted and looking forward to seeing you again!"

She then sent him her address as well, which Dave then proceeded to open up. Thankfully, she didn't live that far from his house, only about a half-hour drive. Dave was still quite bewildered as to why anyone would actually be looking forward to seeing his face again after all that went down in his season. It could be a possibility that she may not have known about everything that happened with him after her elimination sendoff. That thought in particular had him feeling a bit worried.

But he brushed those thoughts aside once again and wrote, "Same here. See you then!"

To which, Ella responded similarly in return. Afterwards, some of his nervous emotions briefly came rushing back, as he started to fear how Ella would react to everything he had to say. Thankfully, those feelings didn't last too long as he progressed with the rest of his day.

As he ate dinner, Dave briefly told his parents about his little chat with Ella and wanted to check with them for permission if they were okay with letting him drive over to her apartment tomorrow. Understandably, they were quite surprised themselves to know about Ella reaching out to him. After a little bit of persuasion, Dave finally got their seal of approval and walked back up to his room in relief after he finished his final meal.

The rest of the night was pretty normal for Dave. He showered, brushed his teeth, and played a bit more of his game before getting ready to go to bed. He would occasionally put on a playlist of soft, relaxing tunes prior to going to sleep. An hour later, he was fast asleep close to 11:00 PM.

The next morning, he woke up at around 8:30 AM with ease. He didn't have many standout dreams, but he thankfully didn't have any troublesome thoughts in his head either. He felt prepared to finally see and talk to Ella.

The two never had a specific meet-up time in mind, but Dave pretty much assumed any time after noon felt like a pretty safe bet. At around 1:30 PM, he gave his mom and dad a heads-up that he was planning to head over to Ella's. They told him to be safe and careful since he just recently got his driver's license and to make the most of his time there. He took the keys and started up the Jeep that his parents let him borrow.

The drive over was nothing out of the ordinary. The weather was similar to that of yesterday's, what with the mildly warm temperature and partly cloudy skies. He passed through several different neighborhoods, strip malls and other typical buildings before finally arriving at Ella's place at around 2 PM.

Dave, understandably, was feeling a bit nervous once again, but he stepped foot out of the car and walked up to her apartment door. Several thoughts were still swirling in his head as he gave the door a good, loud knock.

From the other side, Ella happily contained a squeal as she joyfully skipped over to answer the door. She opened it and, surely enough, there she saw Dave. He was sporting a plain black tee, as opposed to his usual cyan vest and yellow shirt combo. Most of his hair has fully grown back too.

"Dave!" She cheered upon seeing him. "You're here! Please, come right on in and make yourself at home!" Ella greeted the 'normal' guy sweetly, with a big smile on her face. She was still dressed in all of her usual pink attire. It felt like a real treat for the princess to see an old face from Total Drama, but for Dave, it felt a little more awkward. For him, it brought back some really bad memories for what was to come in that season. Nevertheless, Dave couldn't help but give a slight smile back and thank her for the warm welcome.

The germaphobe did indeed feel comfortable around Ella's home. It was a much cleaner setting than what he was normally used to. Like, much, much cleaner. Even cleaner than his own home.

"This is one of the cleanest places I've ever been to in my life. I'm quite impressed, actually." Dave was still getting used to the exceptionally clean and tidy environment, but he knew he was loving it.

Ella appreciated Dave's compliment, "Oh, thank you very much for noticing! I always love to do anything I can to help keep our home looking good as new!"

Another thing he was impressed by was how happy and optimistic the princess seemed to be under nearly any circumstance, almost opposite that of Dave. She loved to help people in any way she could and she always expressed joy with every footstep, singing and humming about. There seemed to be only one exception to this, though; her feelings of heartbreak after being unintentionally rejected by Dave himself. He had a feeling this would come up eventually, but in the meantime, he decided to take a seat on the couch to recline and relax. Ella kindly offered him a glass of water as he settled in.

Dave let out a sigh of mixed emotions after he took his first sip. Part of it was from comfort, but another obvious part of it was from his current wave of stress from the memories that were brought back due to seeing Ella. Thankfully, she was able to take notice of his feelings immediately. "Something wrong, Dave?"

The princess then went over to see him on the couch with a distraught look on his face. She took a seat across from him. He then spoke up after letting out another sigh, "Remember our little chat from yesterday and how I'm still feeling down about everything that happened with me on the show? Yeah, none of those emotions have exactly gone away."

"Oh, right, I remember now," Ella said sympathetically. "Mind if you tell me exactly what happened that has you feeling this way?"

Dave knew he should have seen this coming. This was exactly what he had tried to prepare himself for. He was still a pretty nervous wreck about speaking up, but at the end of the day, he knew it was what he had to do. "Have you by any chance watched the rest of the season after you got eliminated?" he timidly asked her.

"I believe so, but I think I might need a bit of a refresher since it has been awhile," she said.

Dave took a nervous inhale and began to speak, "Well, after you left, the teams got swapped and me and Sky were separated. I was really depressed because I missed her so much. I didn't even want to compete anymore at that point. Shawn tried to help me work through it and encouraged me to show her how strong a competitor I could be."

His voice started to sound a tad bit shaky as he continued, "In the next challenge, I completely downed a decade-long-expired jug of chunks before she did and tried to show off, to show her I was worthy. But then, she got right up in my face and rejected me right then and there." Dave's eyes began to water up a bit as the level of shakiness in his voice started to rise, "Once I realized I couldn't bother trying anymore, I was done with the show for good. I even made buttons for people to vote for me."

At that point, after taking in every word the germaphobe had said so far, Ella's look became increasingly sympathetic. Seeing anyone sad would always make her feel sad too. Her heart went out to Dave as he took another sip of his water before continuing.

"But wait, it gets worse. I then got brought back in the finale to help Sky. I was so glad to finally see her face again. She even gave me a kiss on the lips and I thought we maybe, just maybe, might have had a chance. Things actually weren't too bad for the most part, even though I lost my hair in the process. That was until Chris…" He sniffled and started to tear up even more before saying it, "played Sky's audition tape, and in it, she said that she already had a boyfriend in the first place!" His tone sounded considerably angrier as he went on with his explanation/rant.

"I was shocked beyond all belief that she would just cheat on me, play me for a fool and get my hopes up all for nothing! I was so furious, that I didn't even want to hear another word from her ever again! Chris then had me and Jasmine hinder her and Shawn's chances of winning. And I loved every second of it. I wanted to get back at her so badly, I didn't even mind seeing her get hurt. I literally wanted to take half of the prize money just so I could light it all on fire right in front of her face! But just when I thought I had gotten all my wanted revenge on her, I then found out I lost."

Now that his ranting on Sky was done, the anger in his tone of voice died down and the sadness came flooding back. "And just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, I was left stranded on the island with the scuba bear, eyes fully red, prepared to attack me. Thankfully, I wasn't stranded for too long, but I did get a few minor scratches before I was brought back onto the helicopter."

Ella couldn't believe all of what she had just heard. Even she didn't remember things taking this bad a turn for the germaphobe. "Oh my…" was all she could quietly utter in her most sympathetic tone yet. Both of her hands were covering her mouth as she continued to watch Dave weep and mourn from his time spent on the show. Even she started to tear up a little bit as well.

"Then, around a month later, I watched all of the episodes on TV," he went on. "I looked back on myself during all of those moments, and I've never felt more embarrassed about myself in my life. I realized that I was so wrong in every way. I took my obsession with Sky way too far, I let my emotions get the better of me way too many times, and I acted like a completely mental lunatic after finding out about Sky's boyfriend! I didn't even know she was meaning to break up with him before getting on the show. I'm still kind of mad she never told me beforehand, but it has now made me realize how much I overreacted and how much of a fool I have made of myself. Now, as a result, everyone on the internet hates my guts and thinks of me as some sort of evil, deranged psycho. Not even my parents want to see me as much anymore, now. I pretty much let everyone in the world down… I'm such a terrible person…"

Dave just sat there, quietly crying and sniffling away with his hands covering his face. He finally let it all out. At the very least, he didn't have to worry about holding anything back anymore. However, he was also dreading what Ella was going to say in response. He had this exact same fear the previous night, and could only pray to God that it doesn't come true now. Before the princess could say anything, there was another knock on the door, loud enough for her to hear. She went over to answer it, and it was revealed to be a very aggravated Mr. McGillis. It felt like he had been waiting several minutes for an answer.

"How many times must I have to remind you to stop making all that noise?! I swear to God, I can never get enough headaches from you!"

"Oh goodness, I'm so sorry, Mr. McGillis," Ella apologized. "I invited my friend Dave over to help him since he's currently having a really rough time. He's been feeling intense emotions for the past month and a half. My sincerest apologies if he was too loud for you to handle."

"Well, tell him to try and keep it down!" The old man then slammed the door shut and went back up to his room. Now that he was gone, Ella turned around to check on a certain someone.

"Dave? Dave?" She saw that he was in the same spot, still quietly sobbing to himself. He was too wrapped up in his emotions to even hear the exchange between Ella and Mr. McGillis. His water glass was also empty. Her sympathy came rushing back as she approached the germaphobe, sat down next to him and put her hand lightly on his shoulder in an attempt to both comfort him and grab his attention. "Dave?"

"What?" The 'normal' guy asked with a sniffle.

"…You're not a terrible person at all," the princess told him soothingly.

Dave wasn't buying it, though. "Yes I am, Ella," he lamented, his voice coming out muffled. "I totally messed up. I messed everything up. I feel like a complete disgrace to humanity. Everybody in the world hates me now…"

It proved to be very challenging for Ella to stomach hearing Dave talk down on himself so intensely, but she was never one to give up on making people who are sad or depressed feel better. In one of her few confessionals during her time on Total Drama, she remembered saying that "part of being a good friend is knowing when someone is in need of cheering up." She would always try her absolute best to help those in need. She put both of her hands on his shoulders to get her point across. "Dave, I think you're a great person. I know that deep down inside, you have a very good heart," she consoled him.

Dave, slowly but surely, started to look up at Ella with a pair of watery eyes. "You really think so?"

"Yes, I know so! I remember the fifth challenge very well because it was truly a special moment for me. When I got electrocuted and almost drowned, you were the one who came to my rescue. You were the one who saved my life! You were my savior, my prince," she recalled vividly. That was the first time in a while Dave had heard her call him that. For the longest period of time, when he was on the show, he never understood it. But now, after rewatching the whole season, he finally started to understand it a bit more.

When he saved Ella from drowning and put her shoe back on her foot, she considered that to be a "true fairytale moment". She then fell in love with the 'normal' guy, referring to him as "Prince David", even though he was fine with just being called Dave. When he had set up that picnic for Sky, he had no idea that Ella had thought it was for her. When Dave told her to leave before Sky showed up, she tried her best to hide her sadness, but she realized deep down that she just couldn't. It wasn't until she sang her farewell song during that elimination ceremony that Dave started to take notice of this.

"Yeah, but I also had no idea that you ever developed feelings for me. I was so distracted by the feelings I had for Sky at the time that I didn't realize I was also the one who broke your heart. In fact, during your elimination, didn't you sing to me that I 'made your heart wince' or something? If that's the case, then I'm really, really sorry for not noticing sooner," he apologized the best he could, hoping that the princess would understand. Thankfully, he was in luck.

"You have absolutely nothing to apologize for, Dave. It's okay, I promise," she kindly forgave him. "Even though, yes, I may have felt heartbroken that you didn't like me back, I couldn't hold a thing against you just because someone else captured your heart. I still love and appreciate having you as a friend, Dave," she spoke to him with genuine honesty.

The germaphobe was very relieved to hear that she had no hard feelings against him, whatsoever. Even after all that went down on Pahkitew Island, he was still thankful to hear that he at the very least had one person who still considered him a friend. Dave's sadness started to fade slowly, but it wasn't fully gone yet. "So, you don't think I'm a bad person?" he double-checked, just to make sure.

"Not at all," Ella simply responded, without hesitation. She got a good grasp on Dave's shoulders as she continued to console him. "Listen… nobody in this world is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. Even I do sometimes. Just because you acted a certain way at one point does not make you a bad person in the slightest. You just had an overreaction, is all."

"I know," Dave told Ella. "I just don't want to be known to the world as the person who flipped out and completely lost it on Total Drama. I still wish there was a possibility for me to make things right with the others, but I just don't know how anyone will feel."

"It may seem like a challenge, but I know that it's possible for you to make your needed amends," Ella said. "Trust me, it just requires a good amount of patience. If you have the patience to push through and give everyone enough time to settle down, then you won't have to worry about a thing. Just try for me, please," she requested.

This was quite a lot for Dave to take in. However, he started to gain trust in Ella after all of the nice things she has done to help him deal and cope with his intense emotions. He gave a slight smile before answering. "Okay. I'll give it a try," he finally said, with a trace of confidence in his voice.

Seeing Dave finally smile again warmed Ella's heart so much, that she went in and gave the normal guy a big hug, which he may have initially been taken slightly aback by, but nonetheless slowly reciprocated. "There, there, my prince. You're going to be okay. I just know it," she said comfortingly, giving him a gentle back rub. The feeling of a nice, warm embrace was a feeling that Dave has missed for far too long, so it felt quite refreshing for him.

"Thanks Ella. Thank you so much for everything. I'm definitely starting to feel better now, and it's all thanks to you," Dave thanked her.

"You're very welcome, Dave. Anything I can do to help a friend!"

The two let go of their hug and finally stood up. Ella couldn't feel any happier to see Dave finally smile again and feel better about himself. Likewise, Dave couldn't feel any more relieved that he actually had a chance to make things better after all. That and he at least still had one person he could always look up to and still consider a friend. The fact that Ella managed to help an old, familiar face from Total Drama push through and move past his big funk made her entire day.

"Oh, um, Ella?" Dave was hoping to ask her one more thing before leaving.

"Yes, Dave?"

"I forgot to ask you something… how many people from the show would you say you still keep in touch with?" Dave was super curious to hear her answer.

"Oh, well I still try to reach out to most of them. I think the ones I've talked to the most were people on our team like Shawn, Sky…"

"That's perfect!" Dave excitedly interrupted her. "Ella, do you think you could maybe reach out to Shawn and Sky and tell them how incredibly sorry I am for all my actions and that I wish to make things better with them? I think it would be easier if you told them since I'm still a little nervous and it would probably be easier for them to believe it coming from you."

Ella, once again, would never hesitate to do anything if it meant helping her friend. "Of course, my dear! Honestly, I bet Sky probably feels just as guilty about what she did in the finale as you and hopes to make changes too. She and Shawn are both very kind people and I definitely think they would be very much open to making things better with you!"

"Well, I can only hope and pray that that ends up being the case! But really, thanks again, Ella. This means a lot to me," the normal guy expressed his gratitude once again as he gave the fairytale princess one last goodbye hug. "I think it's about time for me to head on home, but please keep me updated on Sky and Shawn for me!"

"I will, Dave. Thank you so much for coming!"

"Thank you for inviting me and helping me with everything! Bye, Ella!"

"Farewell, my prince! I believe in you! Make me proud!"

"I will!" Dave yelled with confidence as he walked out the door.

As the two waved their goodbyes, Dave started the car as he began to drive home. For the first day in his life, Dave actually took that name as a genuine compliment. He couldn't believe for a second what he had just went through. If you had told him that a singing princess who looked like she jumped straight out of Disney World would be the one to help Dave through a depressing period and cure his feelings of guilt, then he would have just called you insane. But Ella just seemed to have that very special magic touch that would work on nearly anyone.

As Dave finally arrived home, he immediately went back up to his room with a much more optimistic mindset. He conquered his previous fears of speaking up towards Ella and now has a very good chance of having his wish of making reconciliations come true… all thanks to getting by with a little help from the princess.

THE END

End Note: I honestly would have never expected myself to make a submission for this site, especially not one of this length, but here we are. I highly doubt I'll make many more of these in the future, but I will admit this was pretty fun for me to write!

This admittedly did take quite a bit of time to finish and polish up since writing in this style isn't something that comes naturally to me (and I personally don't aspire to be a professional writer), but I really wanted to expand on the plot involving these two, since it kind of got cut short after Ella's elimination and I saw a lot more potential in there for further development. I also wanted to highlight what is quite possibly my favorite trait about Ella; her extremely compassionate and idealistic nature. She always felt like the one character from the season who would easily be the most open and willing to give Dave the benefit of the doubt and hear his side of the story after all that he went through. She was also one of the few people who left on somewhat good terms with Dave (his TD Wiki article actually lists Ella as his only friend by the end of the season). There have been a few other stories I have read on this site that involved the two interacting in some way, shape or form post-PI (or is at least implied), but there haven't been too many that focus on those interactions as heavily. I'm not a full-on shipper of the two since Dave clearly favors the more normal type and Ella doesn't really feel like his type to form a relationship, but I still appreciate seeing them interact with each other regardless, which was what inspired me to make this in the first place.

One of the biggest challenges for me when writing this was coming up with original dialogue that still felt in-character for both Dave and Ella. That might have been part of the reason for the first half of this story not relying as heavily on dialogue as the second. I'm also still working on grammar and word variety as well. I need to thank many great authors on this site for influencing my writing style here and for inspiring me to finally make a submission of my own. Thanks for reading, and reviews are always welcome!

~Rockin' D-99