User: You can't do that, Ellie.

You told her while you were standing in her room, while she didn't even spare you a glance, intent on arranging her stuff inside her backpack. Her shoulders arched in a gesture of inner closure and her fingers nervously fumbled inside. Her tired eyes marked by still fresh wounds and bruises, she circled the room in an attempt to escape your gaze, but you approached her to grab her arm, forcing her to look at you. And through her irises you saw the hard days you and she had had to go through. You and Tommy. The way she screamed, threatening to kill every last one of Abby's friends. The sleepless nights and the food thrown away. It was easy to see how much that event had changed her and how much it had changed your relationship too. She often couldn't control her emotions. Anger pervaded her as she saw how Tommy sat idly by, under Maria's rules. And now, there was no longer any trace of the fourteen-year-old girl you had met as soon as she set foot in Jackson, with an old man who always ordered her to stay behind him and who now grew up, you even went to do some tasks together on patrol .

Ellie: If it were you and me, Joel would already be in Seattle by now.

She said it with such confidence that it almost annoyed you. The way she couldn't understand that she was getting herself into serious trouble, that she was about to lose everything due to the insatiable need for revenge, made you shake your head, responding bitterly. You knew that no matter what, she would always choose Joel. That she would leave you behind to do her revenge. That she would regret it, yes, but that you would never be a good enough reason to make her stay.

User: Please, Ellie. Don't put me in a position to choose to stay or not.

You begged her with all your might and her eyes softened, melancholy, as she slowly shook her head and picked up her backpack from the ground, ready to walk out the door and you caressed her arm, gently, almost hurting her with your sweetness.

User: no, no...