"Hurt me-- no, no, Evandau, the guy you probably met-- he's cool. I mean, he acts like an asshole, but he's cool," she shakes her head to emphasize the point. Joel didn't need to know about Kithika, or the battle with the giant dragon. Those were entirely different points.

Points of complete recklessness.

"Shit, Joel, you were here, and then you left, I didn't know what the fuck to think. I thought you went back home and..." Exhale, Ellie, breathe.

I didn't want us to get separated again. But she had to keep her cool, it would be a crying shame to go through everything they'd been though, and then to lose it in the safest place they'd been, so far.