Joel hates this. He hates being a burden, he hates not being able to go out and actively protect the people he needs to protect. He hates being dependent on Ellie for basic necessities - again. And this time while conscious.

But the fact of the matter is, Ellie, Riley and Clementine are all in much better shape than him. They're fast, smart, largely know how to take care of themselves, and he knows Ellie's skills as well as his own - he taught many of them to her himself.

He, on the other hand, is seriously injured, his broken ribs bound, his ankle twisted and throbbing, the knot on his head a constant low-level headache. He can't always think straight, or move as fast as he would need to if someone attacked him. So he mostly stays behind, in the old house they've made as defensible as possible. The girls alternate - a pair will go out scavenging, and he'll stay behind with the third. Supply gathering, scouting the area, and every time Ellie goes he just imagines that this will be the time she won't come back. That this will be the time her face will appear up in the sky, and it'll be because he wasn't there to help her, because he's too goddamn injured to go anywhere.

When he hears movement at the back of the house, he's almost glad of it. It's not the girls - they make their presence known immediately, it's far too quiet to be the girls. So it's someone else - a stranger. Maybe the stranger thinks the building is empty, or maybe they're here knowing - knowing there are people with supplies, people who might be easy to get rid of.

Well fuck that - no way in hell is Joel letting anyone get their supplies or do any harm to these kids. No way in hell. Clutching his wrench in his hands, he slips around to the back, keeping low and out of sight, ignoring the sharp jabs of pain as his ribs shift in ways they probably shouldn't.

As always, his instincts war with each other - he wants to just attack, take the stranger out before they can do any harm. Back home, in his own world? He would do just that. Here, though - Ellie would be upset with him if he killed someone "needlessly".

So here he is, like a dumbass, crouching around a corner with a wrench in his hand, about to announce himself. "You'd better move right the hell along," he calls, keeping his voice low so that it won't carry beyond the house. "Unless you're lookin' for trouble, in which case, you've found it."

That's what Ellie always says - you should trust people more. Give them a chance. Maybe. Maybe some of the people here are okay, but he's got kids. Kids, multiple, now. Ellie, and Riley because she's Ellie's friend, and Clem because she's even younger and she has no one.

It's so easy to lie, though, and Joel would rather kill an innocent person by mistake than trust where he shouldn't, and lose these kids. Lose any of them, but especially Ellie.

Carefully, he pokes his head around the corner to get a look at the guy, trying not to reveal too much of himself in the process, because he's not actually in very good shape right now. Normally, if he was uninjured, he'd use his size to his advantage in the hopes of intimidating whoever this is, but he's too obviously hurt to pose much of a threat right now.

"That better be the truth, son, or you're gettin' it between the eyes," he says, almost wearily. And by it, he means the big wrench he's holding. His stance and body language indicates that he has no hesitation - he holds the thing like he knows exactly how to make it a deadly weapon.