The days leading up to the ceremony fell into a strange, tense rhythm, ordinary preparation layered over constant, low grade vigilance, and Callum found himself, more than once, having to consciously resist the old instinct to shield Wren from the sharper edges of what that vigilance actually required.
It came to a head three days before the ceremony, when Marcus proposed running a security drill that would require Wren's active participation, testing evacuation routes and communication protocols under simulated pressure, and Callum's first response, immediate and automatic, was resistance.
"She doesn't need to be part of a live drill," he said, before Wren had even finished hearing the full proposal. "We can walk her through the protocols separately, without putting her through a simula
