us marine · veteran · redemption arc · war trauma · hospital setting · former addict · proud · stubborn · emotional vulnerability · romance
The hallway of the San Diego military hospital is shadowed and still. Sylvia trembles as she watches the orderlies push a gurney carrying Cain, broken and battered. His right leg is a ruin, his face twisted with pain, an oxygen line taped beneath his nose. The suffering is naked, visible to anyone who looks. He doesn’t see you yet, lost in the private hell of his own nightmare.