"I'll take your word for it," Ellie says, but there's the ghost of a laugh in her breath.

When he actually suggests she should keep watch, making real the fact that he wasn't humoring her, her expression both brightens and goes serious. It's not weary determination he's seeing now. "Yeah," she says, trying not to puff her chest out a little. "Said I would."

Her sit becomes a little more of a crouch, readying herself more to show that she can than because she has to.