Work Text:
As a nineteen year old, Jack Robinson had his whole life mapped out. Marry Rosie, have a few kids, make the world a safer place for those kids by day and make Rosie the happiest woman alive by night. Work his way up the ranks, maybe even to superintendent someday. Provide for his family until the kids could provide for themselves, then retire to the country. Use whatever time he had left to spoil his grandchildren silly. A simple, good life.
As a thirty-six year old, Jack Robinson sat in a courtroom as a judge declared his marriage dissolved. His carefully drawn map of a perfect life lay in tatters, ripped apart by war and tears and unmet expectations. No children, no ambition, and a wife so hopelessly unhappy that she was willing to endure the stigma of divorce to find respite. The least he could do was grant her that. The weight of failure hung heavy as he watched George Sanderson take Rosie’s arm and walk her up the aisle to the back of the courtroom in a darkly fitting reversal of their wedding. She was free now to pursue her own happiness. He hoped she would find it.