#(( left it vague / verseless so you could have more freedom!!!! ))

[runelocked]

Human shield (feardrummed. Idk what's going on but-)

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A LONG TIME, William is not the one in control of this situation. It’s pathetic (to his own mind), how quickly he jumps to instinct and panic when he’s not the one carefully puppeteering every little part of an event, but he is, despite everything, only human. What can he say? Sometimes it can be rewarding. Sometimes it can save lives.

Like now: a robbery gone wrong, and a gun aimed at his little girl. It’s been a long time since he’d thought of Ollie that way — as his daughter — and maybe it’s the protective fatherly feelings he’d felt in excess at her birth finally coming out to play, or maybe it’s the fact he hasn’t slept in a few days, or shit, maybe it’s just insanity finally catching up with him. But the moment that pistol turns in her direction, William is moving too: the steady, protective hand he’d kept on Ollie’s shoulder during the encounter tightening, tugging her back while dragging himself forward, planting himself firmly in front of her, and then—

There is a bullet in his side. He thinks it’s supposed to hurt, and he thinks he’s supposed to cry out, but the coursing adrenaline masks it all. He’s only aware of three things, really: the first is that his daughter is safe. The second is that the man with the gun has turned and run. And the third is that he’s shaking, uncontrolled tremors running through his hands as he tugs Ollie closer to him, checks her over briskly, methodically, for any injuries.

“He didn’t hit you, did he?” Distantly, like he’s outside his own body, William hears himself speak in a voice that isn’t quite his. It sounds wild, but alarmed; like he’s shaken, like he’s well and truly been rattled by what’s happened. “Fucker— attacking a child, daring to— Olivia, are you alright?”