Thank you for reading, and thank you to Jaudreylover24, helenawrites, and amacma for the reviews!

...

"Jack, I understand your anger–"

"SHUT UP!" Jack's gun hand flew up, seemingly of its own accord, as another burst of lava launched itself through his body. "You don't understand a thing about me," he growled, lowering his gun and leaning closer so Heller could better see his eyes. His haunted, anguished eyes that had seen things that would make Heller want to crawl into a corner and cry like a baby. The arrogance of this man, that he presumed to understand what it was like to be locked in a box for almost two years with a group of men whose job was to do whatever it took to break you into a million pieces. To rely on someone to rescue you, someone who was supposedly close to you, only to find out that person couldn't be bothered. Heller couldn't be expected to fully understand how Jack felt without sharing his experiences, but if he'd had even a shred of empathy, he would have shown it by getting Jack released.

"But I know you," Jack continued. Now that he realized James Heller and Phillip Bauer were two sides of the same coin, he could see more clearly into both their minds, and what he saw made him sick. "I know why you're angry at me. And it wasn't because Audrey went to China to save me. It was because when you told her not to, she did it anyway." A tinge of melancholy crept into Jack's voice as he thought of the chasm that had opened between him and Heller, one of the few people in this world who had seemed to understand Jack. "You'll never understand that kind of commitment," Jack observed, almost finding it in himself to pity the man in between waves of hot rage. "That kind of loyalty."

…

"You know, you can still back out of this if you want to," Teri assured Jack, placing a hand on his arm.

"I was going to say the same to you," Jack replied, his eyes darting over at Teri for a second before returning to the road. Teri was the one who had convinced him to do this in the first place, so he must have really looked tense if she was dialing back. He made an effort to relax his shoulders and slacken his iron grip on the steering wheel.

"I'm going to be there to support you. That's non-negotiable." There was absolute confidence in Teri's voice.

"I just don't want you to get caught in the middle of anything. My dad cares a lot about looking like a perfect family, so he's usually polite in public, but… please don't listen to a word he says. And if he says anything about you, anything at all, we're leaving." Jack met Teri's eyes for a moment, hoping the intensity in his gaze would convey how serious he was about this.

Then there was the awkwardness of watching his ex-girlfriend marry his brother. Jack didn't bring it up now, because he and Teri had already discussed everything there was to discuss on the subject, but the circumstances of the marriage gave him a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. Even after he'd moved on from Marilyn, he continued to care about her happiness, just as he did about Graem's. The timing of the wedding, as well as the identities of the bride and groom, reeked of Phillip Bauer's manipulative touch.

"Don't worry, Jack. It'll be okay," Teri promised, squeezing his shoulder gently.

The ceremony passed without incident. Jack and Teri sat near the back to avoid uncomfortable eye contact with Jack's family before he'd had the chance to greet them formally. As soon as they filed into the hall for the reception, Jack saw a tall figure strolling his way and braced for the worst.

"Jack." Phillip's tone was neutral, and he didn't try to hide the once-over he gave first to Jack and then to Teri.

"Hi, Dad." Jack still had no idea what to expect from the conversation, and he instinctively took a half step forward, as though getting ready to shield Teri if any danger arose. "This is my girlfriend, Teri."

"Nice to meet you, Teri," Phillip said with cheeriness that might have passed as genuine to someone who didn't know him as well as Jack did. "Would you allow me a quick drink with my son?"

Jack had suspected this might happen, and he and Teri had agreed beforehand that a short private conversation was acceptable, considering father and son hadn't spoken in more than two years. Jack was still uneasy, wondering what his father wanted to say to him that he wouldn't say in front of Teri. He hoped any criticism would be directed at him and him alone.

"So, Jack," Phillip began after the two had sat down at the bar and ordered their drinks. "I heard you left the army to go to college. What are you studying?"

"English literature." Jack fought the smile that pulled at the corners of his mouth as he saw his father's expression – Phillip looked as though he had swallowed a lemon.

"And what do you plan to do after you graduate?"

"I'm going back to the army as an officer."

Phillip let out a long sigh. "Jack… don't you ever think you deserve better than being used as cannon fodder in some foreign war? I mean" – he gestured around the excessively opulent reception hall – "you could have had everything Graem has, and more. You were always the smarter one."

"I don't want what Graem has." Has he learned nothing about me in all these years? "Money doesn't give me purpose. I want to do what's meaningful to me."

"It's all about you, isn't it, Jack?" Phillip's voice lowered to a hiss as he tried to get his cheap shots in without the wedding guests overhearing him. "This isn't how I raised you."

It was Jack's turn to sigh. He'd always had a hard time explaining his choice to join the army. He knew, now, that it had been right for him, but any time he tried to put his reasoning into words, he ended up sounding selfish to his own ears. He'd thought in advance about what he wanted to say to his father, but the minute they'd come face-to-face, all his preparations had gone out the window as he'd forgotten everything he'd planned to say.

"Let me ask you a question, Dad," he said finally. "If I switched my major to business and went to work for BXJ after I graduated… would you accept me back into the family?"

Phillip's eyes glinted greedily. "Well, obviously it would take some time to rebuild the bridges you burned. But, yes, I would."

"And if I didn't?"

Phillip's face fell into a scowl. "Don't make me out to be the bad guy here just because I think anyone who doesn't show loyalty to the family should be kept at arm's length."

Jack bristled at his father's use of the word loyalty, and suddenly, he had his starting point. "Dad," he began, "in the past few years I've learned a lot about loyalty. And I don't think my definition is the same as yours.

"It seems like your idea of loyalty is blind obedience. You told me to join BXJ, so if I don't, I'm disloyal. It doesn't matter that I would never fit in at BXJ, that I belong in the army. You want someone who will tell you what you want to hear instead of what you need to hear. But the most loyal men I met in the army weren't the ones who obeyed every order unquestioningly. They were the ones who questioned bad orders, maybe even disobeyed them. They risked being court-martialed, and sometimes they even risked their lives, because they prioritized results over obedience, and ultimately, it's the results that matter.

"Here's another thing I learned. People can have multiple loyalties, and it's not fair to try to force them to pick just one. I served with a man whose wife told him he had to choose between her and the army. Well, he picked the army. He told me later that if his wife had really loved him, she wouldn't have given him that ultimatum. And loyalty is earned, not given, and it goes both ways. You can't expect someone to be loyal to you without giving something back.

"So if you go by your definition of loyalty, then sure, maybe I'm disloyal and I deserve to be ostracized. But I think my kind of loyalty is much more valuable, and much more meaningful – and I have to say, I found a lot more of it in the army than I ever did in this family."

Phillip was silent for a few seconds, chewing on Jack's words. When he finally spoke, he said the last thing Jack had ever expected to hear from him: "you're right, Jack." Jack could barely keep his jaw from dropping; he didn't think he'd ever heard those words out of his father's mouth in his entire life. "See," Phillip continued, "this is exactly why you would fit in perfectly running BXJ. That's exactly what you should demand from your employees; that's exactly the kind of speech you'll give in a boardroom one day to close an important contract. But that is not the way to speak to your father.

"You may think you saw a lot in the army, but trust me, there are things you still don't understand. And one of them is how hard it is to run a family, to be a father. How many things I've done for you, starting with the fact that I'm the one who put you on this earth so you could stand here talking smack to me. How many sacrifices I've had to make for you. Being a father is the hardest job out there. So while your grand ideas about loyalty might apply to others, they don't apply to me. I don't need to earn your loyalty, and I don't need to listen to your opinions about how I can improve myself. You think you have a duty to the army, well, guess what, you had a duty to me before you'd ever even heard the word army.

"So here's what you're going to do, Jack. You're going to go and celebrate your brother's wedding – your brother, who, by the way, doesn't seem to have the same issues you do with understanding his duty as a son. And then you're going to find yourself a wife and have kids, and then we'll see if you learn as much about gratitude as you apparently have about loyalty.

"I want you to rejoin the family, Jack. I really do. I want to celebrate your wedding one day, just like I'm doing with Graem. But we have got to be clear on the nature of our relationship, and I don't think you're there yet.

"Enjoy the wedding, Jack," Phillip concluded, pushing up from his barstool and disappearing into the crowd.

As Jack turned his head to watch his father go, he caught a glimpse of Teri, talking animatedly with a man Jack recognized as part of BXJ's board of directors. She really can start a conversation with anyone, can't she? In the coming weeks, months, years even, Jack would think a lot about the things his father had said to him that day. But at that moment, the words I want to celebrate your wedding were the ones that stood out in his mind. Well, he thought with a sardonic smile, at least we found one thing we can both agree on.