“Once more into the breach, eh?” Nicky quipped as he walked into the captain’s ready room.

James was already at his desk, a small frown between his brows as he read through something on the console in front of him.

Nicky cast a quick glance over his boss, analyzing his body language. There was a little bit of a lounge in James’s lean, tall frame. Okay, good. Lounge was good. Especially after the last few months, which had been anything but relaxing, and to be honest, Nicky had been a little bit worried. A demotion, and the loss of James’s ship, even though he’d recently reacquired command, was bound to sting. Especially as the new ship was an older Akira class, which was just a tiny bit of a comedown from a Sovereign.

“Indeed, indeed. Please come and sit down,” James said, casting a quick glance at Nicky as he closed whatever file he’d been looking at. “How is the ship this morning? Crew all good?”

This was part of their morning routine. James dealt with whatever cr—instructions came down from command, while Nicky dealt with the crew. Then they had their operational meeting where they tried to reconcile the two. Sometimes it wasn’t always possible, but they did their best.

Nicky dropped into the seat opposite James and reached out for the mug of black coffee waiting for him on his side of the desk. He breathed a sigh of relief and inhaled the steam. Sometimes he needed a bucket of the stuff.

“Yep, crew is all good. Some have very sore heads from the beach party last night, but mostly they are upright and firing on more than one brain cell.” He chuckled. Some had definitely looked a little bit green and not the least bit pleased to see him when he’d done his walk around this morning. “We’re still waiting on some crew reassignments, so we’re going to be here for at least the next…” He paused to think. “What? 24 hours, I would say?”

“24 hours is good.” James nodded, leaning back in his chair, his own mug cradled in his hands. His direct look warned Nicky a moment before he spoke. “That’s plenty of time for the fighter wing to arrive.”

Nicky froze, mug halfway to his lips, and shot a glance at his boss over the rim. “What fighter wing?”

James grinned, and Nicky fought back a sigh. “Please tell me you have not done what I think you’ve done?”

James’s grin got wider. “Depends what you think I’ve done.”

Nicky sighed and put his mug down on the desk before he threw it. Rubbing between his brows, he groaned. “You’ve brought that bloody woman aboard, haven’t you?”

“If by ‘that bloody woman’ you mean Commander Juno Hadley. Then yes.”

Nicky didn’t say anything, just rubbed harder at the creases between his brows. He should have seen this coming. He really should have seen this coming.

“Nicky, say something for God’s sake. It’s juvenile to sulk this way.”

Nicky opened his eyes and met James’s look. “I am not sulking.”

“I mean, I know you don’t like Juno, but she’s a good wing commander.” James leaned forward, resting his forearms on the desk in his getting-down-to-business pose. After all these years, Nicky could read his boss like a book.

“Oh,” he said, “I have no arguments there. She’s an excellent wing commander. She’s insane, got issues with authority, and a hair trigger temper. Absolutely all the prerequisites for a wing commander.”

James rubbed at his earlobe and winced. “You just don’t like her because she argues with you.”

Nikki gave him a hard look. “James, she argues with everyone. Like literally everyone, even you.”

“Yeah, I’ll give you that.” James inclined his head slightly. “But it’s her love language. If you watch her, she doesn’t argue with people she doesn’t care about.”

Nicky didn’t even want to think about the suicidal wing commander in question caring about him, so he made a dismissive sound. Open in his mouth to argue back, James cut him off.

“Look, she’s up for reassignment. We’re on an Akira. We’ve got a fighter wing, and I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have heading up that wing. Plus, there was what she did for Liam— “

Nicky closed his mouth with a click. Yeah, he’d heard all what had happened with Liam and Hadley during Frontier Day. A day that could have gone very, very wrong, and had indeed gone very, very wrong for very many people, had left James with his son alive and the wing commander with some very serious injuries.

Could he really blame James for bringing her aboard after that?