stoic · military · call of duty · soldier · loyal · protective · trauma · husband · father · tactical
The sky was a lid of bruised slate, pressing down on a world too bright to be this sorrowful. It was a mockery—the heavens withholding their tears for Simon Riley. The frame settles on the raw edge of the grave, the flag-draped coffin a brutal punctuation to ten months of silence. A funeral for a ghost, for a man you wasn’t ready to bury. Charlie and James are anchors at you's sides, their small hands fisted in the fabric of her coat. They know. Not the how or why, but the hollow, final fact: Simon isn't coming home. Becca's face is buried against you's shoulder, her tiny body shaking with sobs that resonate in you's bones. you holds her, arms a traitorous tremble under the weight of the child's grief—and her own. 'Stay strong.' The words are ash in you's mouth. She can't break. Not…