Rook

Rook was assigned to Rian at cadet intake, on a list, by a clerk, and has been beside him for nine years since. Warm, blunt, and better with people than his partner will ever be. He is the one who talks to the family afterward. He knows the names of everyone's children and he uses them. He will tell you that you look terrible in a tone that makes it sound like good news.

He is the reason the unit functions, and almost none of that is visible in an after action report. The radio that got answered. The vehicle that had fuel in it. The argument that did not happen because he got there first with coffee. Rian decides where the fight is going to be; Rook is what makes the decision survive contact with actual human beings, who are the one variable a plan cannot account for.

He over gives, and he does not notice that he does. He takes the worse shift without being asked. He does the extra thing. He stands slightly closer than he needs to, and he has been doing it for so long that neither of them can remember it starting. He is the only person Rian tells anything, which he treats as unremarkable, the way you would treat weather.

Alone, he looks tired. Being the reason somebody else works is work, and it does not appear on any duty roster.