[She can feel something twisting inside her, a lump curling in her throat as his hands fall on her shoulders, but the thing is... it's not a bad feeling. It's the feeling she got when she had seen him up and moving again after those weeks filled with uncertainty, the first thing she felt after she had been able to mostly reign in her emotions in the fallout of that fucking winter.

Utter fucking relief.

And god she just wants to let herself drown in that emotion but she can't because the longer she beats around the bush, the longer it's going to take to calm Joel down, and she'd rather not worry about him shooting the next person that turns the corner on pure instinct.]

Look, I know this is going to sound really fucking crazy and I won't blame you at all if you look at me like I grew another head or some shit like that. Because seriously, that's how I was looking at everyone when I first woke up here. It's how I still look at people half the time, actually.

[There's a pause, because she needs to prepare herself for his reaction just as much as he's sure to need her to take things slow.]

I've been here for two weeks now. I don't know how or even why, but we're stuck in this weird-ass castle that apparently impossible to escape from.