“Outside the Weirwall, Jack could hear the thud of bodies colliding and the cries of the wounded. It seemed like a lot of noise. Even given the fact that Ellen was involved."Why'd she go out there?" Jack demanded. "Why didn't you stop her?"Brooks spat on the ground. "Have you ever tried to stop Captain Stephenson from anythin'?”

“Ellen could have killed me," Jack said quietly, "but she didn't. She saved my life.""How come?" Fitch demanded. "After all this?"Ellen turned scarlet and stared at the ground. "Maybe none of my opponents ever gave me flowers before," she mumbled.”

“Ellen rose to her feet. Jack thought for a moment she was going to storm out. Instead, she picked up the pitcher of hot fudge and poured the contents onto Leesha Middleton's pink jeans and fuzzy white sweater."Oops." Ellen sat down again and went back to eating her ice cream.Leesha screamed, a sound that could be heard in Canada. Every eye in Corcoran's was on her. She slid out of the booth and swiped ineffectually at her jeans with a napkin.Then she plucked at her ruined sweater with her thumb and forefinger. "You...you...I can't believe you did that!"Ellen licked whipped cream from the back of her spoon and looked at Leesha calmly.Leesha was tiny, but she seemed to expand, like an amphibian taking on air, then she drew herself up and retrieved her pink leather purse from the bench next to Jack. It was smeared with fudge too. "You'll pay for that, I promise you," she said to Ellen in a voice that raised the gooseflesh on Jack's neck. Then she turned and left.For a moment, Corcoran's was totally silent.Ellen looked across the table at Jack's sundae. "Are you going to finish that?”

“Why? (Lorelei)Because I…(Jack)You? (Lorelei)I…(Jack)For an eloquent man, Captain Rhys, you seem to be stymied for an answer. (Lorelei)Lorelei, I don’t want any other man to ever touch you. (Jack)”

“She cried a little, but only inside, because long ago she had decided she didn't like crying because if you ever started to cry it seemed as if there was so much to cry about you almost couldn't stop, and she didn't like that at all.”

“She's forgetting,' Ellen said to Jack, plumping herself down on a chair. 'All of her life is leaking out of her. Soon there will be nothing left.”