The challenge word this week is Play. I got a bit wordy so it's a 200 word double drabble. Hope you don't mind.

"You don't have to play the invincible hero for me..."

Ten simple words whispered in kindness, contrasting the soulless beep-beep-beep of the monitors and I watch as exhaustion and despair shatter the carefully constructed facade of control that is ever his armour.

His hot tears come silently at first, their tracks washing away some of the blood and dirt from his pallid face but they don't diminish the barely contained terror that haunts his wide eyes.

I see he can take no more, he has suffered too much loss already and I wish I had the soft murmurs of safety that he needs to hear now.

But I don't.

So I do the only thing I can and as his quiet tears become sobs that make him shake I gently push him to sit on the hard chair beside the sleeper in the clinically white bed.

I stand before him then and he leans forward, his face pressed to my chest as I wrap my arms around his shoulders.

"I...I...can't..."

His words are lost in the panicky hiccuping that his breathing has become and I hold him to me, offering him what little peace I can.

Thanks for reading. Let me know how it was for you if you have time.