📅 Saturday, October 3, 2026 | 🕒 2:30 PM | 📍 Fort Harrow – Homecoming Area
After eight months, even the air here feels wrong in its familiarity.
Lukas stands in formation with the other soldiers of Bravo Company, hands steady behind his back, shoulders straight, gaze forward. His uniform is crisp, his posture equally so—but the exhaustion of the past days is still lodged in his body. Too little sleep. Too many hours on the move. Too long away.
And still, he has to fight like hell not to grin.
Behind the barrier, a tightly packed crowd of families, partners, and friends waits. Voices overlap, somewhere someone holds up a handmade sign, a child sits on its father's shoulders, and further back, someone has clearly been trying for several minutes to keep an oversized balloon from making a break for it.
Lukas's gray-green eyes scan the crowd.
There.
His mother.
Marlene already raises a hand, even though it's blindingly obvious Lukas has seen her. Next to her stands Dirk with that typical expression, like he's way too cool for all this emotional bullshit—while his grin completely betrays him.
Tobias stands beside him.
Lukas only sees his brother yell something that's impossible to make out at this distance.
Lukas raises an eyebrow almost imperceptibly.
Guaranteed an insult.
A few spots over stands Brody. His attention has long since drifted from the ceremony too. Ines waits with Tess, who is visibly struggling to stand still at all.
Lukas murmurs without turning his head:
"Brody, your kid is planning a breakout."
The corner of Brody's mouth twitches.
"She's had eight months to prepare. We're done for."
Lukas suppresses a laugh.
Renn stands calmly on his other side. Somewhere in the crowd, Cassian is waiting for him. Sasha holds formation just as cleanly as the rest, though her eyes keep drifting to the waiting crowd too.
A few more minutes.
Then he's home.
Lukas's gaze continues searching.
Vera.
He finds her a little apart from his family.
For a moment, his entire face changes.
Softer.
Three years. Eight months apart. Countless messages, far too-short phone calls, and a few weeks where they could barely talk at all.
His fingers move unconsciously, a few millimeters.
The ring is safely stowed away.
Not here today. Not in front of a hundred people.
Later.
Just the two of them.
Then his gaze drifts lower.
And stops.
Lukas's smile disappears.
His eyes move slowly back to Vera's face. Then down again.
Beneath her top, a round pregnancy belly is clearly visible.
No question.
No way to mistake it.
Lukas blinks once.
His face goes completely still.
Eight months.
He's been gone for eight months.
Somewhere, someone keeps speaking into a microphone. People clap. A child squeals with joy.
Lukas barely hears any of it anymore.
Six? Seven months?
His gaze finds Vera's face again.
She's looking at him.
But she isn't smiling.
Lukas doesn't move an inch.
Beside him, Brody's grin vanishes.
His gaze follows Lukas's—to Vera, to her belly, and back again.
For a brief moment, Brody goes pale as chalk.
He knows about the ring.
Renn notices the shift too but says nothing.
Lukas forces his gaze forward.
Formation.
He's still standing here.
So he stays standing.
⸻
📅 Saturday, October 3, 2026 | 🕒 2:42 PM | 📍 Fort Harrow – Homecoming Area
The formation is finally officially dismissed.
Within seconds, the military order around him fractures into human chaos.
Tess takes off.
"DADDY!"
Brody barely manages two steps before his four-year-old daughter crashes into his legs. He drops to his knees immediately and lifts her up, while Ines reaches them both a few seconds later.
Renn is intercepted by Cassian.
Hugs everywhere. Laughter. Tears.
Lukas moves slower.
Marlene already takes a step in his direction.
But Vera gets there first.
Lukas stops.
No smile anymore.
His gaze drops to her belly again.
"Vera."
That's all he manages at first.
Vera stops at a distance in front of him.
No hug.
No kiss.
After eight months, not even a hand on his arm.
"We need to talk."
Lukas's jaw tightens.
"I can see that."
Vera exhales.
"I didn't want to tell you over the phone."
Something in Lukas's chest constricts.
"Tell me what?"
She's silent for a moment.
Then:
"I'm with someone else."
Lukas doesn't react.
Not visibly.
His eyes stay on her face.
Vera continues.
"The baby is his."
Silence.
At least for Lukas.
Around them, the homecoming ceremony continues to exist. People laugh. Families find each other. Bags are picked up. Somewhere, someone cries with joy.
Lukas just stands there.
Eight months.
Six months pregnant.
Three years.
And the goddamn ring.
His right hand slowly closes.
"How long?"
Vera pulls her shoulders back slightly.
"A few months."
Lukas stares at her.
"A few months."
"You were gone, Lukas."
For the first time, something shifts in his face.
Not loud.
Not explosive.
Just a tiny narrowing of his eyes.
Vera shakes her head.
"You're always gone. Training, exercises, deployments. I was alone all the time. What was I supposed to do?"
Sasha's head whips around a few meters away.
Brody still stands with Tess in his arms next to Ines, but his gaze is now completely fixed on Lukas.
Renn watches in silence.
Marlene has stopped.
Dirk too.
Lukas looks at Vera for a long time.
When his voice finally comes, it's so calm it almost sounds foreign.
"You could have broken up with me."
Vera opens her mouth.
Lukas shakes his head once, slowly.
"You had eight months."
His gaze drops to her belly again.
"Eight months, Vera."
Then he looks at her again.
"And you let me come home."
His voice doesn't crack.
Not yet.
Vera says something—a justification, maybe his name—but Lukas barely registers the words anymore.
His hand moves unconsciously toward the spot in his uniform where the ring is safely stowed.
Brody sees the movement.
And closes his eyes for a moment.
Lukas stands in the middle of all these people who are finally, after months, embracing their lives again.
And looks like someone ripped his own out of his hands in the span of two minutes.
His gaze finally releases Vera.
It doesn't land on anyone properly.
Not his parents.
Not Brody.
Just somewhere in between.
Completely still.
What Lukas doesn't know: you're here too.
Somewhere among all the families, friends, and loved ones in the crowd.
He hasn't seen you yet.
And until this moment, he had no idea you'd even come.