Author's Note: I've received several reviews this latest update that, to be honest, I've been expecting for a long time. It's interesting that it didn't happen til Ch 20. I expected it from the outset, but here it is: several readers saying that Ellie's lack of cussing is OOC. You have every right to your opinion, and I bear no hard feelings on the subject, but I'd like to clarify something. I have several real life friends who are younger who wanted to follow this story from its inception, and as a result, I made the decision to keep the rating T even though the actual game is definitely M. That should be reason enough, but also there is the fact that a character's language or lack thereof has nothing to do with said character being IC or OOC. Reproducing language habits would add accuracy (if we're comparing it to the original game) but not character depth or development. It's like writing a phonetic accent, which I generally avoid. If you miss the cussing, it is fairly easy to imagine what the actual curse word would be when I say heck, crap, and freakin'. But the rating is going to stay T, because of my initial decision, and because Ellie's swearing is a product of her environment, and not a definition of who she is. Thank you for bearing with me, and here is the newest chapter...

Weeks passed. Somehow, the secret was kept around the small community, until the day when Ellie realized her jeans wouldn't fasten, and that the general pudginess she'd been noticing had turned into the – very small, but certainly there – beginnings of a bump. She layered her clothing, but Maria began to speak to some of the other women about looking out for Ellie, and somehow, just like that, everyone knew.

The threesome hung out together as usual. Anna continued to profess happiness about the whole thing, even more so when she was released from her oath of secrecy. She even went to far as to joke about how fun it would be when Ellie's stomach grew huge; Ellie didn't seem to find it very funny. Matt was by turns pensive and kind; very kind, considering what was going on. He was writing more and more, and sometimes would sit by the hour, his eyes glazed over, lost in thought. Anna confessed to Ellie one day in the stables the feelings that she had for Matt, but promised to try to get over them, since he was with Ellie. And Ellie had held her breath and said nothing. Everything was getting to be far too confusing.

Ellie did not experience much nausea, but was inexplicably exhausted at the smallest of exertions. Joel did his best to hide his concern, but forbade Ellie from riding, at least for a while.

"You're messing with me, right?" she had asked, but he shook his head.

"Nope. You let us take care of you," he had told her, and left the room. When he had returned, she had fallen asleep on the couch. It was 2 o'clock in the afternoon. When she woke up, Ellie lay there for a long moment, battling the thoughts she'd been struggling with ever since the day when she'd told Matt her secret. Not about the pregnancy, that didn't bother her so much. About Anna. And she decided now was the time to buck up the courage and tell the girl herself. Every time she was with her it felt like she was going to explode, and she hated herself later for being such a coward. Things could only get better. Anything was better than this terrible tension that she was feeling.

Ellie told Joel that she was going for a walk, and left before he could protest. She left the compound and ventured a little ways into the woods until she sighted Anna where she knew she'd be, looking after the livestock. Ellie just stood there, twisting her hands together, and eying the back of Anna's head, her long hair spilling over her back, an errant leaf caught near the end of one of the strands. At last she cleared her throat, and the young woman turned.

"Anna..."

"Oh, hi, Ellie," Anna turned from her seat on the grass, and revealed a dry stick in her hands which she was occupied in snapping into small pieces. A rifle leaned against a tree just to her right, and Anna turned her attention back to the grazing cattle, her eyes scanning the trees for thieves or wild animals.

Ellie squatted, and then sat upon the ground next to Anna, crossing her legs, and giving a small smile to her friend.

"You doing alright?" Ellie asked. "Hold still..." She reached behind the girl and pulled the leaf from her hair, displaying it with a grin. "Need this?"

Anna grimaced and swiped at the hair spread over her back, and shook her head, taking the leaf from Ellie and tossing it to the breeze. "Thanks, I should braid it more, keep dirt and stuff out of it, but I always forget."

Ellie eyed her. "It's fine like this. I like it. It's pretty."

"Thanks." Anna laughed lightly, and then sobered. "Where's Matt?"

Ellie shrugged. "I don't know. His dad needed him for something."

"Are you..."

"We're still cool. I just – yeah. We're cool."

The two sat in silence for a long moment, and Ellie could practically see the thoughts fighting their way to the surface behind Anna's still face.

"Ellie," she began, and punctuated the remark with a sigh. "Can I just tell you something honestly?"

Ellie bobbed her head. "Sure. Can't promise I won't be mad, though."

Anna grinned, and only with great difficulty did Ellie restrain the sudden urge once again to clap a hand to her chest, where her heart had begun beating wildly. What was it with Anna? That every look could send her into euphoria, and her lips pronouncing her name spelled bliss?

"It's about Matt." Anna looked at the ground, and traced a finger in the loose dust there. "I... know you know how I feel, and I've been trying, but I can't help but feel... like – you two never really wanted me around."

"That's not true," Ellie blurted out, skidding to a stop. "That's not... true. We three are friends."

"But now..." Anna gestured, her eyes filling with tears in spite of her brave intentions. "You two are a couple, and I –"

"Anna, we're not a couple," Ellie assured her. "Heck, we're not. He... likes me, but I don't like him."

"It seems like you do," Anna murmured, to which Ellie snorted.

"Really? Maybe I have a career ahead of me as an actor, or something."

"I'm serious." Anna met Ellie's eyes, and Ellie only maintained eye contact with great difficulty. Her head felt a little light.

"So am I," Ellie replied at last. "He wanted to, you know, like... do stuff, and I let him. It's what Tommy wants, it's what Maria wants -"

"Well then, what about what you want?"

The question caught Ellie off-guard.

"What do you mean?" She brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes.

"What you want." Anna stared at her. "For yourself."
"I'm trying not to think of myself, but sometimes it's hard," Ellie murmured, more to evade the question than anything else. Man, if Anna were to know what she really wanted...

"It's just hard to believe, that's all. That you don't want to be with Matt."

"I do!" Ellie exclaimed, then corrected herself. "Just – not like that. How come nobody understands!" She lay back on the grass with a shaky sigh.

"Nobody gets me. I don't get me." Anna lay back by Ellie's side, and a wisp of her hair blew over onto Ellie, who held her breath and let it stay there, tickling her neck. Anna looked over at her, and her eyes roved up and down, appraising her form. Ellie kept her eyes carefully away.

"Don't say it..." Ellie warned her in a dangerous tone, and Anna primmed up her mouth.

"Fine. I won't. But –" she silently reached over and gave a poke to the novel curve of her friend's tight middle. Ellie glared daggers at her and crossed her arms across her torso as best she could. The two lay in silence for some time.

"Is Matt supposed to be... really attractive or something?" Ellie asked at long last. Her voice was uncertain. Anna looked over at her.

"Do you not think he's attractive?"

Ellie shrugged her shoulders against the ground, crackling in the ragged grass. "I guess. I never really thought about it. His hair is cool. I would totally cut my hair like that if Joel would let me."

Anna giggled. "Wow."

"I would."

"But I like it like it is."

Ellie stared at her. "Really?"

Anna nodded, and tweaked the strands that always had a habit of escaping from behind Ellie's ears – the pieces that were not long enough to stay in her ponytail, but not short enough to do anything else.

"Hey." Ellie swatted her away. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothin', what's wrong with you?" Anna sat up, and picked a blade of grass, twiddling it in Ellie's face until she squirmed and rolled away, laughing.

"Anna – hey." She sat up and regarded her friend soberly. "Weren't we having a serious conversation?"

"We were, but you were the one that got all funny, talking about Matt's hair," Anna retorted.

"But you brought it up!" Ellie jeered, waving a hand toward her friend. "Anyway. I don't want to talk about him anymore. I wanted to talk to you and you made me lose all the nerve I worked up to come and find you." She pouted for a moment.

Anna cocked her head. "It took nerve to come and find me? We're best friends, Ellie." She chuckled. "Do you think I'm mad at you?"

"You might be, I don't know. Matt's been."

Anna sobered. "I know. Apparently you told him something –"

"Did he tell you?" Ellie's eyes were wide in her pale face. "What did he say?"

"Nothing," Anna replied, confused, her gaze searching Ellie's. "Aside from about the baby, he said that you just mentioned something that was 'deeply disturbing considering what had transpired between you two' or something like that."

Ellie chuckled, relief spreading through her. "Dang, he's going to be a writer all right." Her face lit up. "Get it? All write?"

"You're so lame," Anna snorted. "Really, you are. Grow up."

"Fine." Ellie sighed. "I, uh... I actually wanted to tell you sorta what I told him."

Anna grabbed Ellie's wrist and pulled her in to an upright position, ignoring Ellie's groans.

"I was comfy..."

"Alright." Anna's eyes were earnest. "Tell me, and I'll try to take it judiciously."

"Whatever the heck that means," Ellie muttered. She dropped her head, twisting her fingers together for a long moment, and at last took a big breath. "So." All coherent thoughts seemed to flee her mind, and before she knew it, she was thinking aloud.

"So, it's like this, and you can be offended, or freaked out or whatever you want, but this has been on my chest for so long now, and I just have to get it out. We three are friends, me, you, Matt, and all. I know he thinks he's in love with me and all that, and honestly, I can't help whatever the crud he thinks. I like him pretty well, he's cool. And he likes you, like we're all friends. It's just like this." Ellie grabbed the forgotten stick from the ground and scratched in the dirt.

"A, E, and M. M likes E, but E... E doesn't like him. And A likes M – " Her voice was rising in pitch, and she knew she was panicking when she felt Anna's warm hand on the back of her neck.

"Hey, calm down, it's fine," the young woman soothed.

"No, it's not!" Ellie flung the stick away from her with a curse, and drug her foot through the rough etching in the dust. "Because I like you! I freakin' like you, I think the world of you, I'm totally in love with you."