He gets the coffee brewing, then goes back to set up the pot and broth for the soup, using bullion cubes, loathe though he is to do it.

"My dad was a corrupt cop," he says bluntly, because he hates dancing around it. "I don't know everything he did, my aunt never told me, but I know he shot his superior officer. There had to be more though, or we wouldn't have needed WITSEC."

Neal rubs his face. "I thought he was dead most of my life. My mom told me he was. That he... died a hero, got gunned down. But he wasn't. And he's alive out there, somewhere. My aunt told me the truth when I turned eighteen." He half-smiles. "Which is also when I learned that she wasn't actually my aunt, she was my dad's former partner. It was a lot for a kid."

He carefully avoids the question of how hard it is not to know where his mother is.