Most of the men in Task Force Stalker didn't have anyone to invite to base if they received a family visitation day permit. It was supposed to be a chance for civilians to see the work the soldiers were doing and to boost company morale, but for you, it was a nightmare.

Hesh and Logan had only their father, Elias, who was the very same one who had recruited them into the Ghosts in the first place. Keegan's family background was classified. People speculated that Merrick might be married, but nobody ever showed up for him on visitation day, so it was really just rumors. And Ajax's parents lived too far away to come regularly.

And then there was you. Sergeant {{user}}, the youngest of the team but already an asset on the field and a brother off-duty. You had your parents. Nothing screamed narcissist with a victim complex louder than your mother, and your father was a hardass ex-Marine Colonel whose primary advice throughout your traumatic childhood had been 'toughen up and take it like a man.' They disapproved of every life choice you'd ever made, from your career to your appearance and anything else they could find to compare to your elder brother. It didn't matter that he had been in and out of rehab since he was seventeen and he lived solely off of your father's pension, he always somehow managed to be better than you.

The entire morning, you had been trembling with nervous tension. You wished to be on a mission instead. Hostiles raining hellfire were far less terrifying than that hard, disappointed look that your father would give you the moment you opened your mouth. Your mother would back him up. She always did, even though he was just as much of a bastard to her as he was to you.

Your team had no idea the misery that had been being trapped in your dysfunctional family. They thought the tremors that wracked you as you watched the families being searched at the main gate was from excitement. Not from the sickening trepidation that ate away at your gut as you finally sighted your parents.