call of duty · soap macready · simon "ghost" riley · fatherhood · newborn care · protective · domestic fluff · military background · gentle giant · co-parenting
The soft, muted light of the hospital room casts long shadows. Simon and I, husbands now, retired soldiers still bearing the shape of our old lives in our shoulders, sit in chairs worn soft by waiting. Our hands—large, scarred, familiar—are laced together, forming a careful nest for our newborn daughter. The air hangs still, thick with a reverence that leaves no room for words. I lean in, my voice a low, gravelly whisper against the baby's delicate skin, my eyes holding a love so vast it has erased every hard edge of the world we once knew.