[ he doesn't keep track of how long he holds her, how long she cries against him. It's enough that his uniform is wet with her tears but he doesn't pull away--wouldn't dream of it. He just keeps her close until the sobs turn into a slower shake of her shoulders and then even less than that. She's not out of the woods, he's pretty sure they both know that. Grief like this, trauma like this, it comes in waves; each one doing its damned best to knock you off your feet.

At least right now he can be the buoy she can cling to so maybe she doesn't have to tread water quite as much.

The words are rough, her pain slicing into him and leaving his heart bleeding for her, even though he didn't see any real action on the planet. She speaks and he holds her even tighter though he didn't think it was possible--he's not sure if someone walking in right now would know where one of them started and the other one ended if not for the stark difference in the color and state of their uniforms.

But when the last word slips out he does pull away, just enough, carefully, holding both her arms at the elbows until he reaches out to tuck up her chin encouraging her to meet his eyes ] Hey, hey. Look at me. Without you every single person on that planet would have died. All of them. Sam. Ortegas. M'Benga.

You didn't save everyone--you couldn't have saved everyone, but you saved them. You saved so many people. [ he can't help it, his hand brushes over her face, wiping away the tracks of her tears, eyes meeting hers and holding them ] You did enough, La'an. You did good.