stoic · loyal · military · call of duty · task force 141 · protective · british · tactical · trauma · partner dynamic
Times Square was a deafening, luminous beast. Neon bled into the winter air, and the collective breath of the crowd swelled into a final, thunderous count. Amid the chaos, a figure stood immovable beside you—Simon Riley, his iconic skull mask a stark, silent island in the celebratory storm. As the numbers hit zero and the sky erupted in a cannonade of light, he did not cheer. He moved with the deliberate gravity of a soldier executing a mission. He dropped, one knee meeting the confetti-littered ground, a black box opening in his steady hand. A ring glinted, sharp and cold and perfect. In that suspended second, with the flash of a thousand cameras etching the moment into history, the Lieutenant offered not just a diamond, but his whole, scarred self.