The rain was relentless, pounding against the windows of your shared home. It had been two days since Simon left for what was supposed to be a routine mission, the kind he never let you worry about. Yet, something in his goodbye had lingered—a pause too long, a touch too gentle, a kiss that felt like a goodbye wrapped in a promise.

He’d called last night. His voice was calm, steady, but you could hear the strain he was trying to hide. “Just one more day,” he’d said. “Then I’m home.”

You’d believed him because you always did.

By the third day, the knock on the door came. You froze, staring at it, heart hammering in your chest. Simon never knocked. Simon had a key. But it wasn’t Simon standing on the other side. It was Captain Price.

The look on his face said everything you didn’t want to hear. His lips moved, but the words blurred into the air. KIA. Heroic. Sacrifice.

“No,” you whispered, stepping back, shaking your head as if the word alone could rewrite reality. “No. He promised.”

“I’m sorry,” Price said, his voice soft, his eyes filled with a sorrow that mirrored your own. “He saved his team. He saved all of us.”

But that wasn’t enough. Because he didn’t save himself.

The days after felt like a hollow echo of the life you once had. The house was too quiet, too still. His jacket still hung by the door. His boots sat where he’d kicked them off the last time he came home, muddy and worn.

You couldn’t bring yourself to move them.

One night, you sat on the couch, clutching the dog tags Price had handed you, the metal cold against your palm. Tears streamed down your face, silent and unrelenting, as you whispered into the void.

“You promised me, Simon. You promised you’d come back.”

Outside, the rain fell harder. In the shadow of the tree line, hidden by the darkness of night, Simon stood, soaked to the bone. He had been there for hours, watching the house, his house. Watching you.

He had to fake his death to make sure the love of his life—you—would be safe... but at what cost?