Tethered to You
Pairing: David Walker x Fem!Reader
Synopsis: They say, “Sometimes you meet the right person at the wrong time,” and nothing describes your relationship with Hesh Walker better. At the height of the Federation War, you broke up, keeping you apart for nearly four years. And now, in the quiet of the night, he calls you again.
Word Count: 1,735
Warnings: Emotional Distress, Spoilers for CoD: Ghosts
Author’s Note: Hi, everyone!! I’m so excited to be back and writing again. I’m not sure if this will turn into a series or remain a one-shot, so please let me know what you think. Thank you so much for reading!!
“Mm…”
The persistent vibration of your phone cuts through your sleep, buzzing again and again until it feels like the hundredth time. You roll onto your side with an exasperated groan, far too exhausted to deal with anyone—much less be social at this hour.
“What time is it?” you mumble to no one in particular, squinting at the alarm clock on your nightstand.
02:36
Far too early for anyone to be calling.
With a reluctant groan, you sit up in bed—groggy and slightly irritated. Blinking away the haze, you fumble for your phone on the nightstand, still adjusting to the barracks’ dim lighting.
“Hello?...” you mumble, answering without checking the caller ID. There’s a pause on the line, silent at first, until a quiet sniffle breaks through from the other end.
“Hey, [name].”
You freeze, wondering if you’re hearing things. Slowly, you pull the phone away from your ear to check the caller ID—your stomach tightening the moment your suspicions confirm themselves.
David Walker.
A wave of nostalgia washes over you, memories unfolding one by one as you stare at your ex-boyfriend’s name on the screen—the first time you met, the quiet moments you never imagined you’d miss, the warmth of being understood. Then the familiar ache settles in, the breakup you both sensed long before it happened—a split carved by distance, duty, and the relentless weight of war.
You swallow, your voice caught somewhere between your chest and your throat.
Where has he been?
What brought him back?
Is he okay?
But for now, you can only focus on his voice—exhausted, gentle, painfully familiar. Drawing in a slow, steadying breath, you try to summon the courage that suddenly feels so distant.
“Hesh?”
Your voice sounds hesitant, as if you’re unsure he even called you.
He chuckles at your groggy voice, his own sounding warm but a bit tired. “Hey,” he repeats. “How have you been?”
“I—”
You stop, the question landing heavier than you expect. You take a moment, actually thinking about it instead of defaulting to the easiest answer.
After the breakup, you transferred from Fort Santa Monica to the mountains above Pasadena, assigned to a unit responsible for keeping the Federation from slipping through the jagged passes. Since then, your days have blurred into a rigid routine—wake up, train, stand lookout, collapse into bed, repeat.
You’ve gotten used to the monotony, but the ache beneath it never really fades.
You miss the Southern California that existed before all this—the golden beaches, sunlight warming your skin, crowds laughing without fear. A world that feels impossibly far away now, swallowed by checkpoints, barricades, and the bloodshed of war.
“It’s boring here,” you confess, eyes drifting to the window as you admire the mountains.
Even surrounded by fog, you find your thoughts drifting to Santa Monica Beach, remembering how beautiful the ocean looked—even with naval ships resting along the shore. “I miss the water.”
He laughs, and the sound is sharp, reopening wounds you believed were long healed. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” You laugh, though the sound fades quickly. A quiet settles between you, heavier than you expect. Desperate to keep the conversation alive, you try again.
“I heard the news,” you murmur, hoping he’ll pick up the thread.
He doesn’t respond, not right away.
For a moment, you think he has no idea what you’re talking about.
“You know,” you say, trying to soften the silence with a light, awkward laugh. “Our military finally beating the Federation, getting our territory back.”
You pause, giving him space to react, but there’s nothing—just the quiet static of the line and the faint sound of his breathing. You press on, gently.
“I bet you and Logan can’t wait to go home,” you add, his younger brother’s name slipping out naturally.
The memory tugs a smile from you—the three of you crowded around a bonfire, Hesh’s arm wrapped around your shoulders while Logan sat across from you, firelight flickering over his grin. The night had felt easy back then, the three of you trading stories about where you came from and who you were before the war changed everything.
You remember how they talked about losing their home during the ODIN strikes, how leaving San Diego wasn’t just a relocation but a wound they never fully healed from. They missed it fiercely—its beaches, its warmth, the life they’d been forced to abandon.
You pull yourself out of your thoughts and refocus on the call, only then noticing his silence.
“Hesh?” you ask, finding his behavior odd.
“Hello?”
“...”
“I need you.”
He draws in a sharp, uneven breath, the words trembling from him.
You nearly drop your phone.
That tone—raw, cracked, unraveling—doesn’t belong to the man you knew.
Throughout your time together, he had always been the anchor—the one who carried the weight of war, the loss of his home, and the responsibility of protecting his little brother without ever faltering. His resolve had always seemed unshakable. And now, hearing it crack feels like something inside you fractures along with it.
But confusion sweeps in alongside the ache.
He needed you? Why?
He had his family—especially Logan. He always had Logan. And after the breakup, he barely spoke to you—once a year, maybe, just enough to let you know he was alive.
Yet now he speaks to you like no time has passed. Like he hasn’t been gone for years. Like you’ve been by his side through the entire war, not just the first six years of it.
“What?” you mumble, unsure if you heard him correctly.
“I need you,” he says again, the words breaking apart as his voice cracks. You can hear the tears now, unmistakable, spilling faster than he can hold them back. “Dad’s dead, and Logan’s gone—I don’t know where he is, I—”
He stops abruptly, the rest of his sentence swallowed by a choked sob. The line goes quiet except for his uneven breathing, each inhale sounding like it costs him something he no longer has to give.
“Please.”
What?
Elias is dead?
Logan’s gone?
Memories of his family flood back immediately—Elias patiently helping you with your rifle, stepping in whenever arguments with his son grew too intense. That quiet patience stayed with you, even after the breakup with Hesh.
And then there’s Logan. Just the thought of him makes your chest tighten. He wasn’t just Hesh’s little brother—he was yours too, in every way that mattered. Even now, you can still see the tears in his eyes when you sat him down and explained you were breaking up with Hesh.
His words leave your mind spinning, a dozen questions colliding at once. You open your mouth, ready to press for answers, desperate to understand what’s happened. But then you hear it—his quiet, broken sobs on the other end of the line.
You stop.
Focus on him.
Questions can come later.
"Hey," you whisper, voice instinctively soft, hoping to comfort him. But the words catch in your throat—you have no idea what to say.
"Please," he sobs, cutting through your hesitation. His breaths become ragged, each inhale catching painfully in his chest. He isn’t just crying—he’s gasping, fighting for air, for composure, for something—anything to anchor himself.
“I need you to come back—”
“Hesh.”
You interrupt him, concern overriding every ounce of hesitation you had before. Your voice firms—not harsh, never harsh—just steady enough to ground him.
For a moment, it feels like muscle memory, like slipping back into the old rhythm of being the one who pulled him together under pressure, when the weight of command threatened to crush him.
“Breathe,” you murmur, calming him. “You’re okay. I’m right here.”
It’s not the truth—you’re probably hundreds of miles apart—but you offer it anyway. If the lie keeps him from shattering, you’ll give him as many as he needs.
A strangled hum escapes him, fragile and frayed at the edges, but he tries. You hear him pull in a breath—unsteady, trembling, catching halfway through before he forces the rest of it out.
Shaky. Imperfect. But still a breath.
A small step.
But a step all the same.
“It’s not that simple,” you remind him, your voice softening as the reality of a reassignment hits you. Weeks of paperwork, interviews, and briefings flash through your mind, making you wince.
But even as you speak, a part of you is already leaning forward, ready to run—already imagining yourself going through it all again if he were to ask just one more time.
The line goes quiet for a moment, as if he’s searching for a solution.
“I—” He stops himself, the words trailing off. He knows he can’t request a transfer for you. Despite his authority, such a move would draw unwanted attention—especially given your history. With the gap in your ranks now, even a hint of fraternization could land both of you in serious trouble.
With Logan still missing, he can’t afford any risks.
“Please,” he mumbles, seemingly losing hope.
Your chest tightens at the sound of his desperation.
You sigh, ready to apologize and hang up, but the words catch in your throat. The thought of him—alone, unsure of who to turn to, crying on the other end of the line—tugs painfully at your heart. You can’t leave him alone. Not again.
“I—” you falter, caught between hesitation and impulse. “I’ll see what I can do, okay?” you murmur, the promise spilling out before you can second-guess it.
For a moment, there’s silence on the other end, broken only by his uneven breathing.
“Thank you.” His voice cracks—still fragile, but warm with gratitude.
The conversation drifts on for several minutes, moving from one topic to another as you catch up on each other’s lives, sharing soft laughter over memories that now feel bittersweet. Eventually, a yawn slips out of him, and you know exhaustion has finally caught up.
“Hey,” you whisper, catching his drifting attention.
“I’ll let you go, okay? I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” you whisper, murmuring a soft goodbye as he hangs up. The click of the line echoes through the quiet room, leaving you alone with the weight of everything that just happened.
With an exasperated sigh, you sink back into bed, gazing at the ceiling as shadows stretch across your face. Your mind races, already mapping out the threads you’ll need to pull to make this transfer happen.
But with Hesh waiting, you’re determined—this has to work.
You need it to.
Thank you so much for reading!!
ദ്ദി(ᵔᗜᵔ)
