He almost left. He almost said, "No, sorry, never mind," and got the hell out of Dodge but he realized that that was the most cowardly thing he could do. This was Jim Kirk. The guy had jumped off a damned planet drill to save him from plummeting to his death.

He cleared his throat. Don't be such a woman. "I wanted to - that is, I need to apologize to you and not over a comm or in text or... anything."