It was starting to get dark. Mind you, it got dark so early in London.
Especially on rainy, dreary days like this which seemed to involve nothing more than paperwork and claps of thunder.
Captain Harmon Rabb stretched his back for the umpteenth time. He really wasn't suited to being hunched over a tiny desk. Maybe by the end of next week, HR would be able to get him a decent-sized one.
Other than that, and the reams of paperwork that seemed to grow while he wasn't looking, he was enjoying his new command. As someone who had spent his whole life in determined pursuit of career success, he should be perfectly happy.
And he was.
Except for when his eyes fell on the framed photo on his desk and he was transported back to the happiest six weeks of his life.
The six weeks that only happened two months ago, and yet sometimes felt like a decade ago.
It was a wedding photo. Flowy calligraphy etched into the wooden frame held snippets of the famous Bible verse about love. How love was patient, and kind, and did not boast, and was not self-seeking.
Virtues he hadn't always displayed over the last two months.
The bride in the photo wore her hair tied up and had her veil pinned beneath the twisted knot. She obviously had makeup on, but she looked glamorous and natural at the same time, somehow. Simple but sparkling drop earrings caught both the eye and the camera lens. But most beautifully of all, she was laughing, looking up at her groom with a happiness on her face that could not be wrought by beauty products.
Looking up at him.
And, yes, Harm was looking down at her, with her happiness reflected in his own eyes.
It had been a candid snap, but it was his favorite of all the wedding photos. It summed them up, he thought - happiness in the little things, if they could just get out of their own way.
But now, the picture came with an ache - an ache of not having slept in the same house for eight weeks. In fact, not having slept on the same continent in eight weeks. They'd now been apart longer than they had been properly together, pulled by the same forces that had always come between the two of them.
The chime of the elderly clock in the corner of his office made Harm jump. Another thing he'd have to get HR onto. With a sigh, he turned his attention back to the paperwork. Yes, it was getting late - later than an officer with a command should have to be on duty on a regular day.
But there was no one waiting for him at home. No one to give him a soft kiss and ask how his day was. No one had left the towels in the dryer so he could have a warm one when he came out of the shower. No one to rest on his shoulder as they watched TV. No one to agree to watch a documentary just because it made him happy.
No one to say I love you as the lamps got switched off and sleep came.
He brushed a hand over his face, the cool metal of his wedding ring reminding him of how it had been for those six weeks before, as usual, duty called - and this time called them so far apart.
Harm glanced at the paperwork. At an estimate, he shouldn't have to be here more than another 30 minutes to get through it.
A knock on the door broke the monotony of one signature after another. He called 'enter' - and then wondered who was here so late. His eyebrows rose even further at the sight of his yeoman. 'Phipps, what are you still doing here?'
'Also catching up on paperwork, sir.' Phipps stood ramrod straight.
'At ease. But only if you go home as soon as you tell me what you want to tell me.'
'It's an unusual time for this, sir, but there's a Colonel Mackenzie here to see you.'