Considering what was said was the last thing he was in the mood to do. He'd already done too much thinking and his hands itched to sketch the outlines of a new project, to envision the play of a thin strand of wire against a thicker frame. A spiral, maybe, or the hint of a nebula in the larger galaxy. Kahje, or maybe some other planet, one he'd never heard of. A little extranet research couldn't hurt… Maybe a hanging sculpture, though his ceiling was too low for that to be practical. Or a wall piece—the walls were too damned bare and grey for his tastes. With the last of his creds gone, he'd have to wait for next month's stipend.

Ellen watched him as he emerged from his thoughts, but Father wore a knowing grin. Why does he always seem to know everything?

"Sorry," she said.

"Why?"

"I just thought, well… I'm not the best at this, so I figured I offended you again."

"Kolyat was in a sort of a meditation, Siha. Irikah called it his 'art trance.'"

He expected her to flinch, not to smile at the mention of Mother's name.

"You really love it, don't you?"

"Love what?"

"Creating things. I thought I felt something more than just skill in your table."

He nodded, but had no idea what to say to the rest of her comment.

"I know I asked earlier, but have you ever thought of starting a business?"

"Selling what I make?"

"Yeah."

"I haven't really been thinking about art, or business. Just trying to get through."

Her lips twitched a little. "I think we all are. How long do you have left with Bailey?"

"A year."

"That's a long time."

"Far less than prison would have been, Siha."

Right, the debt thing. Just what he needed to think of right then. Ellen shifted and stared down at Father's hands, her cheeks flushed. She tapped one foot and shifted while Father still kept her prisoner. She doesn't want to think of it either. A blip and she covered her ear. A call. Now. She's a Commander of something or other, but couldn't it wait?

"The Council, Kelly? Now? They always had the gift of timing, hunh?"

"Is there news, Siha? Have they reviewed your evidence?"

She shook her head. "Tell the Commander to meet Garrus at… He's busy with Tali?... Well, finally, damn! … Hey, have Kasumi meet Kaidan at the Normandy, and Kaidan can pick me up… Right, thanks, Kelly."

"Chambers, and the thief," Father said. His voice dripped as much disapproval as he'd ever allow himself to show.

"I had an idea. So sue me."

"Of what possible use is the thief, Siha?"

"As an escort, of course. Garrus is busy—he and Tali are actually spending a little time in the Dark Star. Alone." She grinned. "I always knew they'd eventually hook up."

Father smiled. "And so your endless prodding brought forth fruit. There is no greater force to be reckoned with than my Siha."

"Well, we'll see how the meal turns out. There'd better be some dirt when I get back, though."

"And nothing about the Council?" He'd heard enough stories of sentient machines and their insectoid, mutated servants to fuel his nightmares for years.

"Not yet. They want to see both me and Kaidan, so, who knows? Anderson can play things close to the vest when he really wants to. Whatever it is, it has to be big for the Council to still be in session."

He half-laughed but he didn't feel any more at ease. He'd only slowly gotten used to the idea that Father was telling him the truth about the Reapers and the Protheans and oceans-only-knew what else lay out there waiting to prey on the galaxy. Maybe it was better to deny Father's reality—and Ellen's—if only to sleep at night. Father seemed more or less all right with it, so he might as well adjust too. But he won't be alive when they come. And that was something else he damned well didn't want to think about, either.

"Why a thief?" Easier to ask that question than all the others that plagued him.

"You'll see." It was that damned infuriating tone that Father frequently used. Birds of a feather flock together. A human truth, evidently.

"It will be pleasant to see Kaidan again," Father said and Ellen grinned.

"Father?"

"Later, Kolyat. Siha, I won't be accompanying you to the Council session. I have much to discuss with Kolyat."

"Gossip, querido?"

The door chimed just as he was starting to process these new people and their entanglements. Father had never mentioned this "Kasumi" and from his tone it was fairly clear why. Father only allows lawbreaking when he does it. Woe to anyone else who dares. When he opened the door, the Alliance soldier wasn't the one who took him by surprise.

"So, you're the illusive Kolyat," the hooded woman said, her asari-inspired lip stripe twitching. "He doesn't look anything like you, Thane."

"I… No. He resembles Irikah more."

"Anyway, nice to meet you." The woman stuck her hand out without even the faintest hint of hesitation. "I'm Kasumi Goto."

"A thief?" He shook her hand anyway, as human manners would dictate.

"Well, I was. I'm off the grid now."

The soldier stood still and looked over everything as this Kasumi bubbled and gushed over the pillows, the kitchen, the "cuteness" of his rooms, until she stopped dead still in front of Mother's sculpture. While she babbled, he watched the this Kaidan as his otherwise unremarkable eyes settled on Ellen and Father. But mostly Ellen as she stood.

"Ell…"

"Hey, Kaidan! Kolyat, this is the man I turned to most on the original Normandy."

The man's eyes raked her from top to bottom and though they remained almost unfocused and half-dreaming, the lips underneath curled into a scowl.

"You're wearing that."

"What?" Ellen seemed honestly mystified.

"A Cerberus dress uniform. To talk to the Council. Are you crazy?"

Ellen shook her head. "I don't see why they'd be scared of a tail-less cartoon sperm."

Father slipped his arm around her and smiled. "I thought it seemed more a virus than a sperm, Siha."

"You know, you're right. And it's a lot more a propos too. Anyway, Kaidan, this is Kolyat."

"You're ducking, Ell."

"Fuck's sake," she muttered.

"I think Shep needs to wear that little party number I got her." The thief crouched down next to the sculpture and stared at it. "I think this is the first drell art I've ever seen."

"Take a look at what it's sitting on for a sec, hunh? I'd like to get your appraisal on it."

The table? Why? Was the thief some kind of art critic or something? Or was she going to take it?

"It's nothing. Just something I put together from scraps."

"Wait, you made this? Shep, you didn't tell me I was going to meet an artist!"

"Not the sculpture. Just the table-thing."

"Eh. The sculpture I can take or leave, but this… If I had to guess, I'd put it about 1500 credits. If it was made out of something sturdier, probably two to three thousand. At least."

Fifteen hundred credits for some wire and metal scraps? Goddess of oceans!

"Right, gotcha. Get me your PDA, Kolyat."

"What? Why?"

"Ell, the Council's waiting."

"Yeah, and they can wait a little longer. I want you to make me something, Kolyat. Two thousand credits enough? I want that table. Or if not the table, whatever you feel like making."

Huh? Two thousand credits? Six months' rent?

"It's just a bunch of scrap. I can't afford anything else."

"Right, a bunch of scrap. Well, then give me the table, and make something sturdier, if you really want. And do what you want with the rest. If you want to start a business, invest it, otherwise spend it on whatever the hell you want."

"I…"

He stood slack-jawed at the rest of the madness that swirled around him. Debates about contacts and whatever, potential markets, endless complaining about Cerberus uniforms, Father's own disbelief as she transferred the credits…

"You're changing once we get back to the Normandy, aren't you Ell?"

"Why bother?"

"You'll look great in that little cocktail number, Shep. Do it! You know you want to."

"She looks like nothing more than shadow in that dress, though she is quite spectacular where the dress leaves her bare," Father said.

"Tell me you have other clothes, Ell. For God's sake, tell me you do."

"Right. First thing when we docked, I went clothes shopping just to make you feel better. Not negotiating new fuel contracts, or preparing a report for the Council, or juggling a ship's worth of shore leaves, or replenishing our food stocks, or…"

"This is important."

The Alliance soldier was really starting to get on his nerves and he wondered why Ellen didn't just hit him upside the head.

"Whatever. Are you going to say hello to Kolyat or not?"

"Right, right. I… um… I'm sorry." The man fumbled and looked a little perplexed once. He put out a hand. "You're Kolyat? I'm Kaidan Alenko."

"Nice to meet you," he said, even if he didn't really mean it.

"Just a little stressed out with the Council waiting. I thought Ell would be ready by now."

"Dios mio, you come in here, spewing like a thresher maw, and you expect… Never mind. Just forget it."

"Because you're wearing that. You know that any association with Cerberus is considered treason."

She knelt in front of the statue and did her weird human prayer thing again.

"We don't have time for stupid prayers, Ell."

"Do me a favor, Kolyat: make me something new. This table… Well, you can tell it was made with love."

"You should still go for the dress. It's so much more feminine than those stupid overalls you've been wearing."

"I will," he said as she stood. She saw him too clearly, maybe.

Father beamed at her and then at him. He wasn't expecting that look of pride to do anything at all to him—he'd thought he was far beyond wanting Father's approval—but he still felt a flush of warmth at the base of his spine that radiated slowly through him. The soldier stared at all of them in turn and muttered something under his breath, but his gaze never broke for long from Ellen. Only as she grinned, did he finally realize what all the idiocy was around him. Whatever was wrong with Kaidan, it was the same thing that had made losing Father so hard all those years ago. The thief's endless hints, Father's smile when he looked on Ellen, all of those things were reflections of that same thread that bound them all. The same thread he wove into those waves, and that remained in memory. Love, in all its ridiculous forms.

"Siha," Father said, and she went right to him, even as the thief advised wardrobe changes and the Alliance soldier tapped his foot.

Father took her in his arms and stared into her eyes as she slid her arms around his waist. "Siha, maybe your hardsuit might be a better choice."

"I… um…" She flushed bright red. "Maybe…"

Father lifted her and kissed her in ways he'd never seen him kiss Mother. She seemed to go soft and limp in his arms and when Father let her down, she tottered.

"Right… Hardsuit…"

"How the hell did you do that?" Kaidan asked.

"Persuasion often accomplishes what more combative means cannot. Consider it a lesson in true diplomacy." Father raised a brow. "A pleasurable lesson."

She stumbled toward the door and reached for her weapons. "Right, well… I guess I'll see you all later."

"Ellen?"

"Yeah?"

He put an arm around her shoulders, and then, as the impulse took him, hugged her outright. She stared up at him, her eyes wide, but then she smiled and squeezed him back.

"Thanks," she said.

"You're thanking me? You're the one who just bought some wire for six months of rent."

"For putting up with me, especially with all this bullshit. For welcoming me. I'm glad I got the chance to actually meet you. Sucks it got cut short, though."

"It actually does. But isn't family supposed to put up with this stuff?"

She grinned and patted him on the back. "Pretty much."

She holstered her weapons.

"An assault rifle, Ell? Overkill much?"

"Is that rat bastard Udina going to be there?"

"Probably."

"Then, no. I'm also taking the particle beam."

"Ellen!"

She raised an eyebrow.

"See you later."

Father smiled fully as she grinned. "Yeah, later then."