Joel's feet hit the ground briskly on the way back to the house. He was eager to get back home and just try to relax for the night. He was really starting to feel his age, and the current events of these previous months were in no way helping him.

One thing that kept him awake at night was his lie to Ellie two weeks ago.

Now, Joel was a survivor, but for some reason he just couldn't put this out of his head. He'd killed more people than he can count, infected and human alike. So why couldn't he just get this shit out of his head and move on? It wasn't like him to dwell on the past.

'I've never lied to her before.' he thought. 'But I had to do this. I just wanted her to live. Why the fuck should she have to give up her life for a cure? She's got her whole life ahead of her, she's too young to be making a decision like that. And besides...' he assured himself, 'who would she be saving at this point? Let's face it, humanity has gone to shit. Pillagers, rapists, selfish people like myself. The DAVIDS of the world. It ain't worth your life, Ellie. Your life is so much more than just a cure...'

These thoughts would haunt him every night and every day. He would think about his lie to her, the fake mask he put on when he swore to her. Her tear-threatening eyes staring straight into his soul.

Her one word response.

Joel knew that she saw right through his words. He could tell right away, just from looking in her eyes. He often wondered to himself when she would confront him about it. He had no defense at this point. Ellie's bullshit detector had always been through the roof and he just couldn't get around it. So if she knew, why did she go along with it? Why did she say okay?

'I can't do this anymore.' he thought to himself as he climbs the steps of the porch. 'I have to tell her the truth.'

He went to open the door, but it was locked. 'That's odd' he thought to himself. 'Coulda' sworn I left the door unlocked since Ellie was home. Maybe she locked it on purpose?'

He pulled out his house keys and unlocked the door, and stepped inside quietly. Sometimes Ellie would sleep downstairs on the couch so he didn't want to wake her up. But, as he walked in he noticed an empty couch.

'Probably sleeping upstairs. Better check and make sure she didn't leave her reading lamp on again.' he chuckled to himself.

Joel made his way up the stairs to her room, and took a peak inside. But again, the bed was empty. Ellie wasn't there, and the room was pitch black.

"Ellie?" he called out.

No response.

"Ellie?!" he tried again, this time in the hallway. But still, there was no response. The house was eerily quiet.

An unsettling feeling made its way into his chest and his mind started to race. What if somebody tried to kidnap her? Is she hurt? Maybe she decided to leave because of the lie. Where was she going? Would she really just up and leave without saying anything?

Joel moved through every room in the house, swiftly turning on every light he could find. The damn house looked like it was having a Halloween party in the middle of the night by the time he had finished. He looked in Ellie's room and noticed that her backpack was missing.

He couldn't find her. He HAD to look for her, to at least know she was okay. He decided to go back to Tommy and have him ask around on his walkie talkie if anybody has seen her. But as soon as he was about to leave, he heard the front door open. He quickly made his way down the stairs and into the front hallway, and what he saw felt like a weight being lifted from his shoulders.

"Joel?" Ellie called, after closing the door and locking it shut. "What's with all the damn lights? The place is lit up like the sun in here!"

She turned around to see Joel standing there, an intense mixture of emotions written all over his face.

Ellie looked at him and knew something was wrong. "Joel, are you okay? I thought you were on guard duty tonight. What happened?"

Joel took a second to make sure he had his voice back, before responding. "Tommy let me off early tonight. Turns out there's new guards joinin' the ranks over there. Just didn't need the manpower tonight. Ellie... where were you?"

Ellie was about to respond, but then she studied the look on his face and instantly felt a slight feeling of guilt.

"Oh... I.. I mean, I was bored so I decided to take a walk on the forest trail back there for awhile. I didn't mean to be out so long, I was just thinking about a lot of stuff and I must of lost track of time. I didn't know you would be back so soon." she said.

Joel felt relieved at this, but still a little shaken up from his previous thoughts, prompting Ellie to ask him again. "Joel, what's wrong? You're kinda freekin' me out."

"I'm fine, Ellie. Don't worry about it, it's nothing. Was just testin' out the lights in the rest of the rooms... Tommy said he never checked em' so he just reminded me tonight to make sure they were all workin' is all." 'Smooth one, dumb ass.' he scolded himself.

Ellie wasn't really buying it, but she didn't push the issue.

"You said you went for a walk in the woods, but how did you get passed the back gate without any of the guards seein' you?" Joel inquired.

"Seriously Joel? After all the bullshit we've been through, you're wondering how I got passed a stupid gate guard?." she said jokingly. "I just sneaked out the back while the guy was snorin' his ass off. There's only one guard stationed down there, you know. Now that I think about it, it was kinda fun." she giggled to herself. "Doesn't really make me feel safe though, if you know what I mean."

Joel sighed to himself. 'It figures. Tommy thinks hes got the man power, but really it's just a bunch of incompetent idiots sleepin' on the job.'

"I'll have to tell him about that tomorrow. Here he is sendin' me home early, and we got clueless guards sleepin' on the job."

Ellie nodded in agreement, understanding the importance of a good night watch team. When you sleep at night, you're basically putting your life in their hands until you wake up so the least they can do is stay awake and do their job.

"Well, it's pretty late, and I'm pretty tired from this morning. Those horses take a lot more work to take care of than I thought." she said. Ellie immediately jumped on that job as soon as they arrived from Salt Lake City, but she didn't really understand the amount of work involved in maintaining horses until actually doing it.

"Yeah, I reckon' I'm gonna crash for the night soon too. Wanna watch a movie in the meantime?" he asked.

Ellie's face lit up at this. "That sounds great! What movie? And don't even think about putting on any of that old timer cowboy crap... it's so cheesy." she teased.

Joel shrugged. "Yeah, but deep down you know you love it." he teased.

"Pssh, yeah you wish old man" Ellie mocked, with a smirk on her face.

The two made their way over to the small family room couch and watched a movie. It didn't take Ellie long to drift into a peaceful sleep, her head slowly but surely falling into place on Joel's shoulder. Joel put his arm around her protectively and quietly reached for the remote, shutting the TV off. Joel thought about what happened before, remembering the terrible feeling he experienced when he thought he lost her for good. As he closed his eyes, he could feel Ellie shifting in her sleep, snuggling up closer to his side. A smile formed on his face as he let sleep overtake his thoughts. 'I'll never let anything happen to you, baby girl.'