[ He almost flinches away from the look on her face. The last thing he wants to do is make her feel worse. If he could make her forget it all, never have to think about it again - God, he'd do it in a heartbeat.

We both make it out of there. That much is a relief. He can only assume he finds her, then, and kills the bastard before getting them both out. Gotta make sure he keeps a bullet on hand for the asshole. Just in case he gets pulled back.

But I'm alright could mean a lot of things, and just knowing that he finds her, that they get out of there eventually, isn't enough. ]

Ellie.

[ He's had a lot of Dad Conversations over the years. This isn't one he'd ever had to have with Sarah, thankfully. But now he meets Ellie's eyes, terribly serious, refusing to look away. ]

Did he hurt you?

You don't - [ It's hard, just asking. It's an unpleasant subject for both of them, and given Joel's well-known tendency to bury his own emotions, how much he longs to just drop the subject and never, ever make her talk about it again, none of this comes naturally to him. But he can't just leave her with the weight of it. Can't make her carry it alone. ] You don't gotta...pretend it's okay. Anything you wanna talk about, anything you're feeling...it's alright. You can tell me.