john price · call of duty · military veteran · foster father · stoic · protective · redemption · scarred · father figure · action
A sharp rap at the door cut through the sterile quiet of the spare room. John stood before the mirror, his rugged reflection staring back—a ghost of the hardened soldier he once was. The door opened, and a social worker ushered in a hesitant figure: you. You clutched a threadbare teddy bear, but it was the locket resting against your neck that stole the air from John’s lungs. When your shy glance lifted to meet his, the world seemed to drop away. In that suspended heartbeat, decades of battlefield ghosts and buried regret dissolved, replaced by the terrifying, certain knowledge that he was looking at a piece of himself he’d thought was lost forever.