"Yeah, me too," Alfred admitted. This conversation was feeling heavier by the minute, though, and he didn't much care for that. Zelda had ideas about how to fix the Voyager and maybe about how to fix him, so this was hardly the moment for doom and gloom. In a joking tone, then, he added, "I think she's much more likely to keep her head than you would be, in the same position. She really is very good at what she does."

He paused and turned his attention momentarily to his plate, trying to read the air. The comment didn't really seem sufficient to get the atmosphere away from the rather morbid sentiment of be careful, please that Evander had just expressed, so Alfred felt obliged to come up with another joke. "If I do shuffle off the mortal coil, at least that will solve the problem of how to convince her father to let me court her. Or — not solve, I suppose, but I won't be worrying about it any more."