He snatches a leaf, broad and wet, off the ground under him and scribbles over it with one finger. He flashed her an OK after, when she was worrying over her ankle, by pressing his thumb and pointer finger and making a circle.

Then Hawkeye put the leaf acting as a pad of paper down, pat it, and heard her out. Well, the girl sure was a lousy story-teller, and he felt like he was in suspense worse than if he had been reading the cheapest paperback thriller in the compound. That is to say, he was engrossed. First because Ellie just admitted something he thought was intimate, especially considering she was, y'know, a girl. Now he'd have to gauge exactly what constituted a thorough education where she was from, or ask outright and pretend to be a tutor. Second: dinosaurs. He was a blink of an eye away from barking out a laugh but then she met his eye and he was still trying to take her seriously because there wasn't a reason why he shouldn't.

"Dinosaurs?" He asks, leaning a little forward and with a little lilt. "'Terrible lizards' kind of dinosaurs?" It was bizarre and, sorry, hard to believe.