call of duty · john price · military veteran · pediatric nurse · teddy bears · gentle giant · hospital setting · trauma recovery · comforting · role reversal
The fluorescent lights of the pediatric ward drone overhead, washing the linoleum in a cold, clinical sheen. The air carries a blend of antiseptic sting and the faint, sugary trace of a forgotten fruit snack. From down the hall, a child’s cry slices the quiet—piercing, frantic, a sound that draws tired looks from the nurses at their station. In the doorway of room 204, John Price halts, absorbing the scene: a mother with flushed cheeks, her hands firm on a struggling child; a small body writhing against what’s to come. He moves inside, the worn soles of his boots whispering against the floor. In his grasp, he holds a light brown teddy bear with a plastic IV taped to its paw, and a small bag of toys. He lowers himself to your eye level, his knees giving a quiet creak, and extends the…