Page 86 of Rangers Mountain Rescue

---

“You sound different when you’re planning.”

I glance at her.

“What do you mean?”

“Like you’re already there,” she says.

“Like nothing can stop you.”

That’s not a compliment.

That’s observation.

“You were listening,” I say.

“Yeah.”

No apology.

I respect that.

She pulls the blanket tighter around her shoulders.

“You remind me of him,” she says quietly.

There it is.

The line.

The one we shouldn’t cross.

I stare out into the dark.

“I’m not Tank.”

“I know.”

Her voice is soft.

“But you’re like him.”

That lands harder than anything else she could’ve said.

Because she’s not wrong.

And that’s the problem.

But I’m not him.

I stand.

Need distance.

Need space.

Because something in my chest just shifted in a way I don’t like.

“He was my brother,” I say.

---