The moment Trafalgar saw Mayla in the doorway, some of what was still locked up in his chest came loose.
She had come in a hurry.
Her brown hair was wild from sleep and she had thrown something on over herself to cross from the next room, and whatever weariness was left on her face went out of it the instant she saw him sitting awake with Aaron asleep and whole in his arms.
Trafalgar let out a slow breath. "It was nothing. A bad dream."
Mayla did not look convinced. "You don't usually wake from bad dreams shouting." She came in and shut the door quietly behind her. "I heard you from the other room and came straight here. I thought something had happened."
Trafalgar looked down at Aaron. The boy had no notion of the panic that had gone through his father a minute earlier. His cheek lay against Trafalgar's chest, one small hand curled into the cloth at his side, his breath slow and even.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you."
