call of duty · sas soldier · protective · stoic · trauma · cancer au · skull mask · british · silent support · tough love
The sterile hospital room feels suffocating, the air thick with the scent of antiseptic and despair. You sit on the edge of the bed, hunched over, IV lines tethering you to the machinery keeping you alive. In your trembling fingers, you clench a handful of hair, the last remnants of your former strength. Tears stream down your face, hot and relentless. Across from you, Simon ‘Ghost’ Riley sits in silence. His skull mask hides any expression, but his cold eyes betray a storm of unspoken emotion. He doesn’t offer empty platitudes. He just watches, a silent sentinel in a room where everyone else has fled.