"Alas, duty calls," he waves his hand at the room in general "somebody needs to be on shift in case of a medical emergency, and I have drawn the short straw. Seems to happen a lot, that, I guess straws are just one of the many things the army is short on."

Truthfully, the idea of somebody new to talk to - somebody pretty and entertaining - is definitely a tempting one. He doesn't want to keep her awake, but if she stays up to talk, he's not going to stop her.