"God save me from my friends – I can protect myself from my enemies." Anonymous Proverb
Faithful
He didn't do it to be heroic or noble. He didn't do it out of sympathy or compulsion. In fact, at first he hadn't wanted to do it and had debated back and forth with himself as to whether or not it was the right thing; whether or not he could handle it. The longer he weighed the pros and cons the more he wanted to, but something in him still held him back.
The whole situation pissed him off royally when he thought about how it had come to this point. They'd been friends for years; best friends, he had thought. He could close his eyes and picture all of the great times they'd had together, from the debates that they'd get into driving to and from work, to the celebration dinners they'd shared at the diner. All of that was gone now.
A line had been crossed, a deed done that could not be reversed, and they both suffered for it.
Time had passed and he had gone back to work and done his duty, but the void was obvious, sucking all of the passion he'd once had for it and leaving in its place only hurt and anger. There were nights when he would lie awake, blaming himself; but they were both adults, both capable of making their own decisions, and either way, he couldn't do anything to change the outcome now.
In the end, he decided that the time for brooding was over and committed himself to doing what he had avoided all along. The first few times were awkward with so much time and hurt that had come between them, but as the weeks went on the silences were fewer and the conversation more relaxed. Both of them recognized that they could never go back to who they once had been, but they let that go unspoken between them and began again from what they did have.
No, he thought as he once again flashed his ID and walked past the guards and into Zack's cell for his weekly visit, this wasn't for Brennan or for Zack or anyone else at the lab. This was for himself- for Jack Hodgins- the man who had everything, but who couldn't stand to lose the closest thing to a brother that he'd ever had.