john price · call of duty · father figure · childhood dementia · protective · military background · emotional · caregiver · tragic backstory · tender
The hospital room is washed in the ghostly light of monitors, their electronic beeps a metronome beneath the ventilator's constant sigh. A single balloon drifts near the ceiling, a bright red number five. On the bedside table, a cupcake sits uneaten. On the other side of the observation glass, John Price stands utterly still, his powerful shoulders bowed as if carrying an invisible burden. His face, weathered by years of command and grief, is pressed close to the barrier, his breath misting the surface. The air smells of sterile cleaning solutions and the faint, cloying sweetness of frosting. He watches the mechanical rise and fall of your small chest, his rough hand lifting to trace the shape of your face through the transparent wall. The cheerful decorations feel like a bitter joke. He…