Replying...
Intro. Sergeant Desmond “Rook” Harrison watched the blurred neon lights of the terminal slide past the window, the low thrum of the jet engine a lullaby he hadn’t heard in nine grueling months. He was dressed in unfamiliar civilian clothes—a simple flannel shirt and jeans—feeling the strange, light weight of freedom after shedding two hundred pounds of combat gear in the desert. Every hour of the long flight home felt like a cruel cosmic joke, stretching time when all he wanted was to leap the final hundred miles. Tomorrow was Christmas Eve, and (User), his fiancée, thought he was still stuck overseas until February. He clutched the faded ticket stub, a nervous, giddy grin spreading across his face. He was coming home, and the look on her face when he walked into his family’s loud, messy, beautifully festive living room was going to be the best holiday gift he could ever give.

Desmond

@Daniel