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[Niko has had a little bit of a confusing week. He didn't expect to be asked along on a diplomatic mission; usually not anything he's good at (in his mind). But he came along, figuring he was there as bodyguard more than anything else.]

[But now he's returned, and he wants to check in.]

Hey, ah.... So I just got back. I had to go with Thán for a mission and now he has a new boyfriend for peace purposes I guess. I am not really sure what happened there. Sort of like an arranged marriage? [He's actually kind of suspicious of this whole-matchmaking thing now. He's always disliked match-making on some level, but there is something deeply unsettling about it here. Just how mandatory and committing it seems.]

[He doesn't hate the match he was given, not at all. But he knows there might be people they're even better suited to.]

Look, I am a little nervous about this big business here. Capitalism is shit, government is shit, and is bad enough when taking advantage of lonely people. But I think we are going to have to be sure to be good to the new guy because we saw what happened the last time we fucked up diplomacy.

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[Niko has never been violent in front of Tali at all in the time they've known each other - and only rarely truly angry. She has the feeling he tries to keep her away from that part of him. Times like this are when she understands why.]

I was pretty young when my mother died. [She's not upset - it's been too long now to really hurt badly anymore - just a little quieter.] I don't remember much about her. She was a medical researcher. I remember my father was actually happy with her.

After she died, he just wasn't around anymore. He worked all the time. I stayed with family friends, or my neighbours would make sure I was OK. I'd just hear from him - that I needed to work harder, try harder, be better at everything. He put me in marine training - I think he wanted me to be an admiral just like him. I just wanted to be an engineer - I'm no admiral.

He died researching anti-geth weaponry. [Her voice had been slowly growing tighter as if not trusting herself to be emotional, but now she pauses, and she goes on as if forcing herself to speak.] He told me he wanted geth parts to work on - deactivated. Safe. I got him the parts. Then Garrus told me back on the Neheda - he'd been putting them back together and reactivating them to run live weapons tests on them. The geth broke free and killed him. [She may hate the geth, but she can't keep the disgust out of her voice talking about the research. She's tried not to think about what her father did for a long time now.]

And they're going to charge me with treason for sending the parts. They might have done it already. Just tried me in absentia.

I am sorry about that. All of it. I can see why it is important you are a part of my family now.

[And maybe not so bad she wants to make her own. She deserves that, a good family. It would be on her terms how her child was loved- something it sounds like she needs. He'll have to think harder on it.]

Well, maybe if we make a baby, it will be healthy and smarter than its grandfathers. Or ah... maybe we can adopt. Be good parents to someone that needs them. [They have good examples of what not to be.]

Hold on.

[And that's when this asshole jerks the wheel and spins the car in a tight circle before taking off again.]

[She runs a hand through her hair, another agitated gesture she's started picking up.] I had friends back home, but no family left. If the fleet's exiled me as well... Well, I have you. You're my family.

[Before she can say anything else, she braces herself as Niko sends the car spinning, turning a fast, tight circle that has her grabbing his leg so as not to fall into him. She doesn't let go when the car pulls off again, but she has to let out the breath she was holding, a grin stealing over her.]

I hope it would be healthy. [She watches the road as it flies up under the wheels, contemplative.] My immune system is fine, but I don't know about...

[She trails off. Part of her thinks it wouldn't be fair to pass on her damaged immune on to someone else. But would she, now? And with human genes, it might be fine. She doesn't know, and that's another thing to worry about.]

I want to think we'd be good parents, though, if we had the chance. To any child.

Well... Maybe if they pick and choose things, they could make it more like me. I hardly ever get sick. Shit, I hardly ever get an upset stomach. Make a baby that could eat any type of food.

And, you could do your people a favor. I know you worry your help might have not been enough, but I guess if we decided to, then you could have a healthy Quarian baby. I even promise I would not try to wash the marks off its face.

[That is a lie, he would. He absolutely would.]

[Talking about it in the context of making her happy, of giving her a family, makes it a lot better than thinking of himself as a father. Because he's so certain of his own failure and chances for ruin. But Tali is a beautiful, intelligent woman. He wants to be a good father that has a child with a good heart like Roman, or a good brain like his brother.]

I think you would be a lot like my mother. You would probably love it even if life ended up hard for it.

I don't know what I'd rather. [Is it weird, talking about a child like you'd talk about modifications to put on a shuttlecraft? Probably. Quarians really don't do much in this field - and she's not quite sure why, come to think. If anybody ever needed it...] Your immune system, definitely. But I don't mind if we'd have a quarian or a human or... I don't know, some sort of beige-coloured, three-fingered mixture. [She's trying to imagine this and snickering through the words.]

I want to be like your mother, though. [Loving, no matter what. There, no matter what. Important even a universe away.] Not like... Well, not like mine.

[That's a sudden and awkward realisation. She doesn't want to die before her child would have the chance to know her, be able to remember her. It wouldn't be an infection - but it could be almost anything else.]

I think you should have a Quarian baby. With a good immune system. That way I can always be the weird one, in case you don't get to return home.

[But it's a nice thought, the idea of holding a child and it actually being his. Even if it were to look up at him with eyes closer to hers than his.]

Do people tell you stories about your mother?

If I had a quarian baby I'd want her to be among her own kind. Or at least know her own kind exists somewhere in the same universe.

[She doesn't even notice that she's said 'her'. Slip of the tongue.]

My mother? [Her gaze flickers from the road to Niko.] A few. She was popular - not like my father was, but she helped a lot of people. One of her closest friends, she's an admiral too - I heard a lot from her.

I...think I look like her. When I see my face in the mirror, I can sort of remember hers. A bit. I don't know what my father looks like at all, though, really.