Borrowed Hours

[ Verse 1 – Mark:]
Smoke on the horizon, steel in the rain
Another line of boys I can’t save
Maps full of arrows, none of them pray
Just different ways to send them to graves
I hear your boots in the dead of night
No rank, no orders in your eyes
For a second the weight don’t feel the same
Like I ain’t the man they all gotta blame

[Verse 2 – Elizabeth:]
I’ve seen the wounded call your name
Like you’re the answer to all this pain
But you don’t look like a savior to me
Just a man who don’t get to sleep
You don’t have to say a word
I can read the lines you never let heard
Out there you carry the whole damn war
In here… you don’t have to anymore

[Pre-Chorus – Both, soft overlap:]
We don’t talk about tomorrow
We don’t say what this might be
We just hold on to the silence
Like it’s something we can keep

[Chorus – Both:]
These are borrowed hours in a burning world
Hands that shake still reach and hold
No promises, no saving grace
Just your breath against my face
When the dawn comes, we let it go
Back to the fire, back to the roles
But in the dark where the truth gets loud
We’re just two souls not wearing crowns

[Verse 3 – Mark:]
Jackson’d laugh if he saw me now
Say “Captain, I’m not gonna like this, how—”
You break the rules I built so tight
And somehow that feels more right
I don’t deserve the peace you bring
Not with the blood on everything
But you don’t flinch, you don’t turn away
You just stay… you just stay

[Verse 4 – Elizabeth:]
I’ve patched up men you couldn’t save
Heard their last words, watched them fade
You carry ghosts like second skin
I see the cracks you’re hiding in
I’m not here for a hero’s name
Or medals forged in grief and flame
Just someone who can finally breathe
Before the war comes back to take him from me

[Bridge – alternating lines]
[Mark:] If I don’t wake, don’t wait for me
[Elizabeth:] Don’t you dare talk like that to me
[Mark:] This war don’t spare the ones who lead
[Elizabeth:] Then take this night, that’s all we need
[Mark:] No vows, no ring, no future plans
[Elizabeth:] Just your heartbeat in my hands
[Both:] If this is all we ever get
We make it something we won’t regret

[Final Chorus – Both, fuller]
These are borrowed hours in a broken land
No one here will understand
How a moment can feel this true
With the world falling out of view
When the bugles cry, we’ll turn away
Put back on who we have to play
But in the dark where the truth gets loud
We’re just two souls not wearing crowns

[Outro – soft, almost spoken]
[Elizabeth:] Stay… just until the light
[Mark:] Just until the light
[Both:]
Borrowed hours…
…in the hell we fight

Outlaw male + refined British female duet, acoustic guitar, piano, strings, light snare, raw + elegant vocals, war roman