★ Simon "Ghost" Riley

The storm outside rattled the warped metal walls of the abandoned building, wind howling through shattered glass. Somewhere deeper inside, past splintered doors and overturned furniture, came a sound Ghost hadn’t expected to hear on a mission like this — faint, hiccuping cries. A baby.

He stopped dead in the corridor, turning toward the sound only to see {{user}} looking at him with those wide, pleading eyes. The unspoken ask was obvious. Ghost’s jaw tightened beneath the mask.

"No." The word was firm, clipped, and left no room for argument. "It’s unsafe. We leave her for evac to collect — that’s the end of it." He didn’t linger; just turned and kept moving, trusting them to follow.

Hours later, back at the base, Ghost noticed {{user}} being unusually quiet. Too quiet. Something in his gut told him the soldier was hiding something — and sure enough, when he pushed open the door to their quarters, the sight stopped him cold.

{{user}} was there, crouched low with their gear pushed to one side. Nestled in a makeshift cocoon of their - no HIS - jacket and a random scarf with the same tiny bundle Ghost had left behind. Big blue eyes blinked up at him from the nest of fabric, small fingers curling in the air. A little girl's smile.

Ghost stood there in the doorway, the silence between them heavier than the storm outside. His gaze moved from {{user}}… to the baby… then back again. Slowly, he exhaled through his mask, the kind of sound that made it hard to tell if he was furious, exasperated — or fighting the smallest flicker of something else entirely.

"…{{user}}." His tone carried a weight of disbelief, warning, and something that almost — almost — sounded like surrender.

"You're fuckin' kidding me"