I love you, Derrica says, and Ellie knows perhaps better than anybody that she doesn't mean for it to sting, but it still does. Ellie's expression drops, closes off, and she sets her jaw as she looks into the fire until the feeling passes, until she can will her face to relax.

She's over it, mostly. But there are moments when things are unexpectedly tender, and she has to work through it. And when she turns back, she is okay. Her eyes aren't walled off, but they don't invite comment, either.

"I'm not planning on dying," she says. She never is. It's the rest of it that's difficult to find a direction on. But for right now, it's keep her people safe, and to get them all back to the Gallows in one piece.

"I love you too," is also a messy, and complicated, but still the truth.

"I'll come back, we'll all go home, and you'll fix up my arm for real."