Tali looked at him, and for a second she was really tempted to stop. Because she'd seen that look before on Ben, and it was usually before something bad happened. But a part of her wanted to keep going, so she fidgeted with her lab coat and stared at the floor while she talked.
"It's just...I've seen Ben in all kinds of states. He's...a trip, to say the least, but he's one of the only constant things in my life. And that's all I care about. Maybe that's why I like science, I can find patterns in everything. But he was the only thing I knew after mum died. He'd roam the halls, holding the hand of her ghost. Nothing could bring him out."
She shifted her weight from foot to foot and twisted her rings.
"He'd say her name, waking and sleeping. His eyes were fixated so deeply on a world far from here, so far, and we couldn't do anything to pull him back. Then he started working closely with you...and everything changed. He stopped talking to the walls. He seemed...alive...for the first time since everything happened. Now it's your name he says in his sleep, when his eyes gloss over, it's because he's looking at you. And I see the way you look back at him. Don't sit here and tell me that it's strictly professional. I don't buy into that, Nathanial."
