His gift for command was in full evidence as he spoke with various tech crew and junior officers, delegating jobs and taking their reports. Then his eyes lifted and he saw her watching him. His mouth curled a little and he said something to the people in front of him before he bent to a much smaller someone at his side and then both of them approached Sola.
She pulled back into the shadows under the catwalk so they could have some margin of privacy, sadly not enough to snog him unconscious, but she wrapped her arms around him, the hard surface of the dented cuirass digging into her.
“Firmus,” she murmured. “My darling…”
“I know,” he replied, burying his face into her shoulder for all too brief seconds. She could see the flecks of dirt in his hair and the back of his neck.
And that was all they would get for the moment. He lifted his head, ghosting his lips across her cheek as he did so and turned to draw the wide eyed child close to himself.
“This is Matt. Matthew, this is my wife…” he hesitated, hazel eyes a little uncertain as he looked at her.
“Miss Sola works for now,” she told the boy. He was dressed in clothes that were clean but too big for him, and it was clear from his far too solemn expression that he had seen things a child should never have to. She started to piece some things together about her husband’s damaged cuirass and the way this child was clearly quite attached to Firmus.