Humans ate slowly from what he could tell. He'd shared a lunch or two with some of the human constables, and endless chatting or not, he still finished long minutes ahead of them. Ellen proved no exception; she chewed away several minutes after he and Father had finished, including second helpings for each of them. Father tried to slow his chewing pace to match hers, but he still couldn't quite manage, even after a plate or two of keasha eggs. She swallowed faster and chewed with renewed vigor once Father finished his last egg and leaned back in his chair.

"Sorry," she muttered.

"Tell me, why Father?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're a galactic hero. Don't you have other options? Why Father, of all people?"

"Siha, this question seems to be a common one." Father raised an eyebrow and his lips twitched.

"Too common," she said. "Not that I'm saying anything about you asking. Really."

She flushed again, and he stammered, "I didn't m-mean to…"

"Gotcha." Her skin faded to its deep tan. "You probably don't want to hear this."

"I asked."

"I would be curious to know the reason myself, Siha, though I believe I know what you're about to say."

"I mean, you're going to hear something that'll bug you, and I don't want you to think that I don't understand your feelings."

"Just spit it out!" Worse than Father. Much worse than Father at just saying what she wants to.

"I… All right. I admire him. A lot. He's a hero."

"What?" He didn't expect the sudden flush of heat deep in his gut. "You know what he did! You know he let Mother die!"

She reached out for his hand, but he couldn't take even the idea of her touch.

"Look, Kolyat, I'm sorry. I knew you would…"

"You're defending him!"

"No." He could feel the pain in those words.

"Kolyat, Ellen doesn't…"

"Don't you say anything, Father! Don't you say a damned word!"

Father twitched but his face remained almost studiously impassive.

"He doesn't share my opinion, you know," she said. "He'll spend the rest of his life regretting what happened to you and your mother."

He glared at her and Father each in turn, but he couldn't hold the anger as his curiosity got the better of him. Ellen was definitely stranger than many of the humans he'd met, and he got the impression that most humans wouldn't exactly agree with her on most of the things she'd said. Most of the human constables secretly hailed her for her role in getting humanity a central role in galactic government, though they didn't dare say it around any of their asari, salarian or turian coworkers. He wasn't going to be the one to leak their secret feelings, either. She stared back at him and didn't falter from his glare.

"Fine, Ellen. Explain yourself."

"Did you ever ask your father who his targets were? Most, from what he told me, were slavers. The kind of disgusting scum that destroys families, destroys lives… destroys everything that matters. The kind of fucking slime that killed Sil, killed my parents, and then laughed about it in their disgusting gargling language as we bled, as we ran, as we died. The Council didn't do shit for us even when they pushed us to colonize the Traverse. But Thane did. He saved families. I don't know how many hanar he saved, or how many humans by wiping out slaver rings, but it's a hell of a lot more than the old Council did to help us." The longer she spoke, the louder her voice became. She sounded almost angry when she finished. "He did what I wish I could have kept doing if not for all this Spectre bullshit, and what I prayed every day the damned Council would do. He took life away from those who wanted to destroy and control innocents only for their fucking caste status."

"Siha, you needn't have been quite so…"

"Vehement. Yeah, sorry… Guess I got a little carried away."

"Hm."

Suddenly his ass felt like it prickled; sitting was the worst thing he could do. Or maybe not. Worse than that was meeting those brutally frank eyes of hers, the half-quirked, but trembling lips that seemed to say, I went too far. Please forgive me. The simple white roundness of his second-hand plates soothed him in this alien territory of partial forgiveness, partial hatred, partial loyalty… Everything partial, nothing solid. He stacked his and Father's plates together, and arranging the empty bowls on top in a small tower soothed him like a balm. Mother would forgive her, maybe. You'd think you could be half of what she was, but you're part of him too. Still, Mother would do a little yelling first, before the tears would start. I still don't understand why she loved him.

"Can I help you with anything?" She still hadn't finished her food.

"No."

"Right. Sorry. I mean it."

"Not now."

"I… Oh."

"Just eat. You humans take forever."

He turned away, but not before he saw Father's arms around her, his lips against her cheek.

"This was a bad idea," she said, her voice little more than a whisper. "I'm not diplomatic enough to do this right."

"Siha, the gods will what they may, and Arashu would not leave you stranded."

"Really? She did a pretty good job washing me up on my island of stupid."

He rinsed the bowls and shoved them into the washer. He didn't bother to lay them in carefully, and he didn't care if they ended up chipped or scratched. The plates followed behind with two crashes that made him wince even as he secretly enjoyed making Father flinch. And Father did flinch; he could hear the chair's faint creak. Father had always loathed sharp noises—probably a side effect of his occupation—and he'd always retreated to his study when Mother got too sick of his crap and let loose. He'd been on the receiving end more than one of Father's disapproving stares when he'd gotten a little too shrill playing with a toy, or reading one of his children's legends to Mother. The only time Father seemed to relax was during the rare moments that he'd take to "dance crazy." Those seemed to be the only times that he'd ease up and just relax.

"Perhaps you should ease up, Siha. You crusade well, but this may not be the best place for it."

Father telling Ellen to relax? He tried not to snicker as he eyed her plate over her head. She still hadn't finished eating. How long does it take a human to eat?

"I know, I know. Son of a bitch, I know how to make an idiot of myself, don't I?"

"Eat," Father whispered. "Kolyat will be offended if you don't finish."

"Not that I have much appetite anymore…" She likely didn't know how sensitive drell hearing was, but he had no trouble hearing her whisper.

He settled back down in front of her, but he didn't have the faintest clue what to say to her. She met his eyes, and though he saw the apology in them, she didn't back down or avert her gaze.

"Well, even if you don't think your father's a hero for what he did in the past, he helped me take down a Reaper with only a sniper rifle."

"And with the aid of biotics," Father said.

"Whatever. It may have been a baby Reaper, but considering it took a whole freaking armada to take Sovereign out, I still think it's pretty impressive." She smiled as she took a final bite. "So, there's the rest of the why."

At least she was through eating. Finally.