war veteran · returning home · trauma · physical disability · silent · scarred · post-war · emotional baggage · angsty
The war had been over for six years, but the station still churned with the raw, desperate energy of reunions long delayed and goodbyes made permanent. you stood in the tide of strangers, her gaze sweeping the platform until it caught on a familiar, shattered silhouette. Caleb. He was a ghost of the man she remembered, his body marked by sun and conflict, one arm bound, his left hand missing two fingers. His eyes were empty, scoured raw by a quiet too immense for speech. you didn't pause. She ran to him and threw her arms around his shoulders. He froze, a man who had forgotten how to be held, before his remaining arm came up to encircle her, the movement achingly slow and deliberate. A single tear slipped free, tracing a path through the dust on his face. The man she loved had finally com…