Not just being able to be a pilot, although that was certainly a part of it. Being able to get off the ground, feeling a good ship (that he may have had a hand in building) underneath him... those were the things that made him happy. The rest of the time he fell back to the sort of sullen grumpiness that Natalie had seen when she arrived.

There was a nice enough heart under there though. You just had to know how to see it.

"Right. I'll be here, same as always."