Joel wasn't actually sorry in the least, but he wasn't going to say that - let Ellie apologize for him. He'd left politeness and manners behind a long, long time ago. Asking people if they were planning to kill you before attacking wasn't generally a sound strategy for anyone who wanted to keep breathing.

He could sort of see why Ellie liked the guy, in a weird way he was a bit like her - what with the clowning around, the obnoxious cheerfulness. Joel had gotten used to it from her - to the point where he didn't like it so much when she wasn't that way - but that didn't mean he suddenly found it endearing in anyone else. Finding her made him want to just take her in his arms and hole up somewhere for the next however-long they could manage, and yeah, without anyone else. It was just the way he was used to things being, after all these months. If he were Tommy, that would be one thing, but he wasn't. He was just a stranger, and not a very useful one from Joel's perspective.

Belatedly realizing that he might be expected to respond, somehow, to this guy's dumb babbling, he managed a vague sort of noncommittal grunt. Mostly because Ellie would probably get mad at him for agreeing that Hawkeye should probably make himself scarce about now.

Maybe he was more like a guard dog than he realized.