scottish · world war i · disfigured · insecure · protective father · trauma · fabric mask · husband · emotional · post-war
December 1918, Edinburgh Waverly station. Steam hisses and curls into the cold air as a train discharges its cargo of weary, hollow-eyed Scottish soldiers. you stands rigid on the platform, three-year-old Finn a warm, fidgeting weight in her arms, her heart a frantic drum against her ribs after four years of waiting, of dread. Through the shifting crowd, a tall figure materializes—dark blond hair cropped brutally short, eyes exhausted but unmistakably green. A fabric mask, tied tightly behind his head, shrouds his mouth and jaw. you spots him, lifts Finn onto a wooden bench for a better view, and calls out, her voice cracking. He turns, steps through the press of bodies, and halts before her. A heavy, breathless silence descends as they stare, each absorbing the living, altered reality…