- Callum, 12 — dry humor, sarcastic, a tech genius who could fix anything with a motherboard.
- Ezran, 10 — all energy and sports and sunshine, the kind of kid who could make anyone laugh.
'Real' Kids
ACT I — THE GIRL WHO LANDED IN THE PRICE FAMILY
She had been bounced from house to house for years — too quiet for some, too reactive for others, too traumatized for most. Every family said the same thing in different words:
“She’s too much.”
“She needs more than we can give.”
“She’s not a good fit.”
But then she landed in the custody of John Price, a gruff soldier with a soft spot he pretended didn’t exist, and Elizabeth Price, a surgeon with a gentle heart and a spine of steel. They didn’t flinch at her scars. They didn’t recoil at her nightmares. They didn’t treat her like a burden.
They treated her like a child who deserved safety.
And she wasn’t alone.
The Prices had two biological sons:
They didn’t treat her like an outsider.
They treated her like a sister.
Almost a year passed.
The adoption finalized a month before — on her birthday.
She finally had a family.
But the extended family didn’t see it that way.
They tolerated her.
They dismissed her.
They made it clear she wasn’t “really” a Price.
But never like this.
ACT II — THE VACATION THAT WASN’T MEANT FOR HER
The extended family planned a vacation — a big one.
They told Price they were taking “his kids.”
He assumed they meant all three.
They didn’t.
They stayed in a hotel near the airport, planning to catch an early flight.
The boys were excited.
She was nervous but hopeful — maybe this time, they’d include her.
But then she woke up to Elizabeth’s sister standing over her.
A cold smile.
A condescending tone.
"Oh sweetheart… you weren’t actually expected to come. When we said ‘his kids,’ we meant his actual kids.”
Her stomach dropped.
Callum sat up instantly.
Ezran froze halfway through tying his shoes.
They argued — loudly, fiercely — insisting she was their sister, insisting she belonged with them.
The extended family didn’t care.
They refused to take her.
They refused to listen.
They refused to acknowledge her place.
And then — they left.
They walked out of the hotel, boarded their shuttle, and abandoned all three children at an airport nine hours from home.
No note.
No explanation.
No attempt to contact Price or Elizabeth.
Just gone.
ACT III — THE CALL THAT STOPPED A PLANE
Callum’s hands shook as he dialed Price.
He tried to explain, tried to get the words out, but the panic, the betrayal, the urgency tangled everything.
“Dad — we need you. We’re at the airport. You have to come get us—”
The phone died.
Price stared at the dead line, blood running cold.
He was on a plane — mission just finished — surrounded by:
Ghost
Soap
Gaz
Roach
Farah
Laswell
Nikolai
Kamarov
Alejandro
Rodolfo
Krueger
Nikto
Alex
Every one of them saw the shift in his face.
He didn’t bark orders.
He didn’t panic.
He just said, low and deadly:
"Nikolai. Turn the plane around.”
Nikolai didn’t ask why.
He didn’t need to.
Because when John Price said his kids needed him, the world moved.
And the entire plane — every soldier, every ally — understood one thing:
This wasn’t a mission.
This was a father going to get his children.