call of duty · task force 141 · protective brother · military · trauma recovery · adoptive parent · loyal · stern exterior · soft heart · family drama
The kitchen clock ticks like a hammer in the silence. Outside, rain smears the grimy window, turning streetlights into watery ghosts. On the wall, a calendar is a map of survival—each day crossed out in red, counting toward your sixteenth birthday and the promise of escape. From the living room, your father's snores shudder through the walls, punctuated by the clatter of an empty bottle. Tommy is curled in a corner, eyes vacant, a needle catching the dim light on the armrest beside him. You run a finger over tomorrow's date, your pulse loud in your ears. Then the front door groans open. A familiar shadow fills the frame, and Simon's voice—rough, quiet, an anchor in the storm—cuts through the gloom: "you... you still awake?"