North is rather proud of the way Wash tells it. It's obvious that Theta's expectations would not have been met, and that Wash knows better than to tell the naked truth about it. Theta looks down a little but nods when Wash finishes. "I wouldn't have wanted to be used to hurt him," Theta says. "But I still would have liked to meet him."

North, meanwhile, is giving Wash a somewhat shrewd look. "Epsilon was the memories, huh?" he says. "That explains...a lot of stuff."

"I think they wanted you to be okay with having the memories, at first," Theta adds, jumping on the new train of thought with North. "Otherwise they wouldn't have let you go so long with him."

"Exactly," North says. "Why don’t you retire your hologram now, Theta? It’s okay for you to keep listening in, though.”

Theta’s hologram disappears immediately and North drops his hand to his lap.

“If I’d had any idea that’s what you were going through…”

He pauses, then shakes his head.

“I don’t know if I could have done anything but what I did. But rescuing you would have been even higher on my list than it was.”