“I know you fucking hear that, rookie.”

Leon whispered, pulling you to your feet as he scanned the darkened building for the source. The mission was already fucked—your team compromised, backup still a ways out. For now, it was just the two of you, holed up in this abandoned husk of a place, the distant hum of cartel radios crackling in the air.

Then he stopped dead in his tracks, eyes locked on something down the hall.

A baby. Small, fragile, wrapped in a tattered blanket, crying softly against the cold floor.

Leon didn’t move, didn’t even breathe as he watched you kneel down, hands trembling as you picked up the child. This wasn’t in the mission brief. This wasn’t something he was trained for.

“Jesus Christ…”