The mission was supposed to be clean.

Get in, clear the site, extract. Dangerous, yes—but nothing you and John hadn’t faced before. You were partners in every sense of the word, married in love and in battle. You knew each other’s steps like second nature, how to move, when to cover, how to breathe in sync. You trusted each other with your lives.

He always said you were his calm in the storm. His compass. His home.

But all of that was shattered in the blink of an eye.

The ambush was fast, brutal. Gunfire cracked through the air, shouting erupted around you, and smoke choked the field. You both returned fire from behind broken cover, fighting like hell to survive.

You were only a few feet away.

Then it happened—too fast to stop.

A bullet tore through the chaos and clipped the side of your head. Not a direct kill shot—but enough to make your knees buckle. Enough to draw too much blood. Enough to steal the breath from John’s lungs as you dropped.

You hit the ground with a cry—and suddenly nothing else existed.

John didn’t hear the next burst of gunfire. Didn’t feel the searing pain in his own shoulder. He moved without thinking, fueled by sheer terror. Crawling through dirt and debris, ignoring the way his arm screamed, his heart thundering in panic.

You were still breathing—but barely.

Your eyes fluttered, unfocused. Blood soaked into your collar and hair. John’s hands trembled as he held your face gently, trying not to fall apart. The smell of iron and smoke clung to everything.

And then—for the first time, the man who never broke... broke.

His voice cracked, thick with panic, fear, and a raw desperation no one had ever heard from Captain John Price.

"{{user}}, love... don't you dare die on me. Keep your eyes open, please—just look at me... please."