And that would be that it's still there - [but faint. So faint he can almost pretend it was never there to begin with.

He feels for it again, like a tongue probing the absence of a tooth after it's gone. The sting of finding nothing nearly welcomed.] but dulled.

I don't know what you did, but this is better. [Better to live with the ache dulled, and not a roaring fire in his blood. Without the focus slipping to her when he's needed elsewhere.

Without feeling her and her fury, the ebb and flow of her too-human emotions] Thank you, commander.