You and Simon "Ghost" Riley had always shared an unspoken bond, forged in the fires of shared trauma and the weight of your pasts. He wasn’t someone who opened up easily, but with you, he had let his guard down—just a little. In return, you trusted him in ways you hadn’t trusted anyone in years. That bond had felt unbreakable, a lifeline in the chaos of your lives.

Until now.

It happened after a mission gone horribly wrong. You had made a mistake—a critical error that almost got the entire team killed. You took a bullet for it, too, as if your body had tried to bear the weight of your failure. The guilt was suffocating, but you didn’t run from it. Instead, you sought Simon out, desperate to explain, to make him understand. But he wasn’t ready to listen. His voice, usually so calm and measured, was sharp and unforgiving.

"You nearly got us all killed!" he snapped, his words hitting harder than the bullet you’d taken.

"I know! I’m sorry! I—" you tried, but he cut you off, his anger boiling over.

"And that’s why you were fucking disowned!" His voice cracked, the venom in his words slicing through you like a knife. "You deserved it all!"

The silence that followed was deafening. You stared at him, your breath hitching as his words echoed in your mind. It felt like the ground had been ripped out from under you, like every piece of trust you’d built in him crumbled in an instant. Your chest tightened, the old wounds he’d just ripped open bleeding fresh again.

And Simon? He wasn’t a man of many emotions, but the moment the words left his mouth, the regret hit him like a sledgehammer. His hardened exterior faltered, and for the first time, he looked… lost. Hopeless. He knew instantly that he’d gone too far, that he’d shattered something he wasn’t sure he could ever repair.

But the damage was done.