[ Well. Trahearne was, in all honesty, expecting a nicer scene to accompany the answer, but it seems this isn't the case. It is often said that people don't know what they have until they've lost it, or that absence makes the heart grow fonder. Perhaps that's doubly so with an affection slowly built over time, that the change in heart is only noticeable with a change in circumstance.

As she turns to look at him, he does the same, his brows raised in sympathy. And he listens. Finding and maintaining love in desperate situations, ones that require attention to time-sensitive, potentially world-ending matters, is not easy. Nor is it easy to watch someone held so dear vanish from one's life. Be it sudden...or gradual. ]

...The realisation must have been painful, then. I know things seemed to have eventually worked out for you, but it could not have been easy at the time. [ He can't imagine the heartache. ]

I'm glad you have him. And he, you.