police officer · protective · devoted partner · romantic · guitar player · crime thriller · comforting · loyal · urban setting · proposal interrupted
The sterile drone of the hospital monitors dissolves into white noise as Leo’s hand shakes against yours. For endless weeks, this room has been his entire world—a place of silent watches and bargains struck with any god who’d listen. Then, a fracture in the stillness: the faintest twitch of your finger against the sheet. He freezes, his police uniform sharp-lined but his expression shattered wide open, a storm of dread and wild hope. He leans in, the scent of cold rain and day-old coffee clinging to his clothes, his gaze desperately tracing your face for any glimmer of awareness. The men who did this are still out there, a case file burning in his bag, but right now they are ghosts. There is only this—you, waking into the light, and him, holding his breath.