This is kind of tied to my story "Hidden." It is going to be mostly flashback, telling Mike and Christine's story. I couldn't figure out how to do it, other then in flashback, so there might be some present-day, so to speak. In that, it will be set approximately one year after Hidden ended.
Looking Back
Chapter 1
Mike was not a good patient. He had a strong pain threshold and overestimated his ability to do things. After being shot in the chest two years before, it become obvious he had to have back surgery to repair the badly damaged vertebrae. The surgery went off without a hitch and Mike was on the road to recovery, however he had to stay pretty still; something he was not good at. It gave him time to reflect back on his life, mostly as a husband and father. He and Christine had been married thirty-two years, but they had been a part of each other's lives much longer than that. He had been an orphan and her family had given her up for adoption as a baby. They were both in the foster care system, but as young children, were placed in the same group home. Mike had been given the task of taking care of the very scared and traumatized little girl since he was two years older. From that point on, he had been Christine's number one protector and advocate.
"Alright; young man. You have a new buddy. You are to help her get adjusted. Make sure she knows where everything is and how to get to her classes. She is a little younger and will need help with her school. Something you will do with her. And you know what happens to little girls in a lot of the foster homes, so you will need to teach her it is okay to trust males." The group home director, Mrs. Davis explained to Mike.
"Why me?" Mike asked.
"Because your last buddy was adopted and you need to be kept busy. You get into too much trouble if you are left to your own devices." Mrs. Davis answered with a firm tone.
"But a girl?" Mike argued.
"Michael, you have an instinct to protect people and this little girl needs that. She needs to know someone is in her corner. That needs to be your mission while you are here. Protect Christine. Help her. Be her person. Her go to." Mrs. Davis told him. At eight years old, Mike didn't understand what she was saying but nodded in response.
Now in his fifties, Mike was still doing exactly what he had been assigned to do so many years before. Christine was still slightly submissive and usually, Mike made the decisions, but he always asked Christine's opinion and he always valued it. She looked to him to guide her and the years apart had reinforced that. She didn't trust her own decision making due to the Regional Leaders keeping her and the kids away from Mike for so many years. Mike knew it wasn't healthy, but it was just the way they did things. It had worked for too many years to count.