[That explained some things, her reaction to seeing Jim Kirk and the entire history between them that only La’an knew. It has to be like losing him all over again every time he looked at her without that recognition.

Pike didn’t know what to say. Actually, he knew that there was nothing he could say in this moment. This was likely the first time she’d told anyone about this, the first time she’d voiced any of this out loud, and no combination of words, regardless of how true they might be, would change what she was feeling in this moment. And maybe she didn’t need to have her feelings changed right now. Later they could work on the way she thought about herself and the situation but Pike had a sense that right now she needed to feel all of this.

So he did the only thing that he could think of, the only thing that he thought might give her any sort of comfort, and leaned forward to wrap and arm around her and pull her close for a hug. She was hanging on by a thread emotionally but she didn’t need to keep hanging on. Like was here, he had her, and he wasn’t going to let go of her because they were in this moment together.]