The scariest part had been his face. That mixture of anger, fear, and sadness as he told me I was on some "mighty thin ice here" for mentioning Sarah.

It became immediately obvious that even though she had died twenty years ago, Joel still hadn't gotten over the little girl's death. Stupidly I had pressed on. "I'm sorry about your daughter Joel, but I have lost people too."

"You have not idea what loss is." he had said to that.

That stupid, bullheaded man. Who in this world hadn't lost some one? He had his daughter die in his arms. I watched my more than a best friend go insane and turn.

It had been hell to watch Riley deal with it. Her anger surfacing in random ways over nothing. A fallen brick in her way, walking too slow, chucking her pendant across the room before retrieving it. And doing it again until she finally left it alone.

When she felt it was close she tried to send me away. I stayed and watched. The fungus sprouting across her face, her clear eyes clouding over and reddening... God it was awful. Hopefully some soldier by now has put her out of her misery. The fact that she could be dead by now didn't help though.

I changed tactics with him. Saying how everyone had always died or left me alone. He hadn't and now he was. I hadn't felt safe with any one in long time and now he wanted to take that away. If Joel left, I would lose that feeling. Not quite safety, but something close to it.

It didn't work. I could see his jaw working before the words fell like anvils from his mouth. "You're right. You're not my daughter, and I sure as hell ain't you're dad. And we are going our separate ways." His voice scraped along, like the words were being dragged out by force.

I was saved by Tommy bursting through the door announcing bandits had followed us. The brothers quickly stood on each side of the open door. I stood on Tommy's side. Might as well get used to that as soon as I could.

Joel crept out of the room, quietly padding along, Tommy following close behind. I sighed and got up after them.

The final gunshot rang out from Joel's pistol, the bullet striking the man in the head before he finally rag dolled and fell to the floor. My ears pricked up, listening for any more snippets of conversation or footsteps. Silence. Finally.

"Alright... house is clear," Joel announced to us.

"Let's get back to the horses," Tommy said.

My gut wrenched. In less than an hour I would be saying good-bye, or try to at least. Or not at all, I don't know if he deserves one.

Joel carefully opened the door, lifting up his shotgun and sweeping the area before giving us the all clear. Joel stopped just before the steps while Tommy went down and to the horse next to mine. Going down the steps I had to walk by him, and I made a point to not look at him. Bounding down, I looped around the horse Tommy was using to get to the one I'd stolen.

"You want a hand up?" he offered from behind.

"I got it."

I'm pretty sure I know how to mount a horse. I mean I got here myself thank you very much. But I didn't say that out loud, I knew he was only trying to help.

Tommy lead the way the way out while his brother fell into step behind me. Neither one of them said anything which was fine by me because I wanted to think.

The conversation we had in that girl's room kept floating around, the way he said some things and how I might have been able to have changed his mind if I had said something different.

Two things kept coming around. You have no idea what loss is. It had probably been a spur of the moment thing to say, but it still hurt.

I trust him better than I trust myself. I may be thinking too deep into this, but maybe that's the reason why. Joel simply doesn't want another dead girl on his hands if I do die. By then I was in Depressing-Thoughts Town and there was no going back for a while.

Eventually the trail widened out and Joel went up ahead on my left and we reached a place over looking where Tommy's settlement. I was struck by how pretty the sunset made everything, giving everything a soft red glow. We all stopped our horses at the edge and just took in the scene for a few moments.

"There she is. Kids'll be watching movies tonight." Tommy said. I shifted forward in my saddle and looked down. Wonder what it's like to be able to do that, I thought.

"Where is this lab of theirs?" Joel asked after a few seconds of silence.

"All the way out- University of Eastern Colorado," replied Tommy.

"Go Big Horns."

This seemed to be a little funny to Tommy since he gave snort of amusement.

Then came the words I'd been hoping he'd say in some form. "Ellie, get off your horse, give it on back to Tommy. I'm gonna hang on to this fella, if that's all right with you." When I had moved he looked back and gestured for me to move while saying, "Go on, don't make me repeat myself."

While I hopped off, Tommy asked Joel what he was doing, to which he said that he was scared of Maria and didn't want her coming after him. The note of humor in his voice belied that though.

When I handed him the reins, I apologized for stealing one of his horses. All he asked was at least we went back to Jackson to discuss it at least.

"Eh, you know me. My minds all made up," was all Joel said to that as he helped me up. I settled behind him as he asked Tommy how to find the lab.

"It's in the science building, looks like a giant mirror, you can't miss it."

How does a building look a mirror? My imagination conjured up a block of glass that reflected everything around. It was a bit amusing, but I forced my mind back to the current conversation.

"You take care of that wife of yours," Joel was telling Tommy.

He seemed to consider that for a second before saying, "There's a place for you here, you know."

Joel hadn't been clear about what went down between them, only that they hated each other when they saw. Maybe it was starting to mend a bit.

"You good?" Joel asked, turning to look at me.

"I'm good," I said back with a faint smile. More than good really.

Joel faced his brother and with a sense of some finality he said, "Adios little brother." And before Tommy could say anything else to deter him, Joel turned the horse away and egged him forward.

I couldn't be happier to be leaving with Joel.

AN: Sorry to rob you of an action sequence, but it sucked so I cut it out.

I was originally going to write something else but I came upon the disease of Writer's Block so I knocked this out instead. Don't worry, I'll put that out at some point.

This is one of my favorite scenes and it turned a bit fluffy in my opinion at the end. Oh well.

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