Tuesday evening
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Jack exhaled in relief when the front door clicked shut behind Kim and Chase. He'd been waiting for this moment all day, fabricating the perfect excuse to have a few hours to himself. He'd told them they deserved a night out, an evening to themselves as a couple, and promised he could take care of Angela. Kim had smiled at him, and they trusted him with Angela, even if she still worried about him. They appreciated his offer. But truth was, Jack had been desperate for the house to be empty.
He waited another ten minutes after they left, just to be sure. Finally, Jack pulled out the phone and set the baby monitor next to him on the floor. He left Angela's bedroom door cracked open, making sure he could hear any sound she might make, and positioned himself in the hallway, just outside her room. From there, he had a clear view of the street through the window. If Kim and Chase returned early, he'd see them.
His heart beat a little faster as he dialed. After two rings, she picked up.
"Hey," Audrey's voice was soft, familiar. It sent a warmth through him he hadn't expected to feel.
"Hey, too," Jack responded. He smiled, though he wasn't sure how to start. The words seemed stuck, like the connection between his mind and his mouth was slower than usual.
"Where are Kim and Chase?" Audrey asked.
"I guess they're out for a romantic dinner," Jack replied, leaning back against the wall, the phone in his hand. "At least, that's what they said."
"I see." Audrey's voice carried the sound of someone settling in, relaxing. Jack pictured her in bed, unwinding at the end of her day, just listening to him. It felt oddly intimate, and for a moment, it eased the tension in his chest.
"But it's a little early for Valentine's Day, isn't it?" Audrey remarked, breaking the brief silence. Jack could hear the hint of irony in her tone. He hadn't even realized the date was creeping up again, the second year in a row she'd be spending it alone.
"Really? When?" Jack asked, genuinely caught off guard. He hadn't been keeping track of time, the days blurring together as they always did.
"Thursday," Audrey answered softly. "Day after tomorrow."
"Okay." Jack's response was short, almost indifferent, though not intentionally. Valentine's Day hadn't meant much to him in years. Even in the later years with Teri, they'd barely acknowledged it. He hadn't cared for that kind of thing in what felt like a lifetime. "Got plans?" He asked, trying to sound casual, though he regretted it immediately. His mind flashed to Paul—what if she planned to spend it with him? Or worse, someone else.
"Not really." Audrey's voice was calm, but there was an undercurrent of something Jack couldn't quite place. She didn't mention the three invitations from Paul. Ever since Saturday, he'd been persistent, insisting she shouldn't spend the day alone. "Technically we're still married," Paul had said, "let's just do something as friends." Audrey had declined every time. She knew where it would lead—Paul would push to open the door wider and slide back into her life, a place she wasn't ready for him to be.
For the first time in all the conversations they'd shared, Jack found himself at a loss. Their talks had always flowed so easily, the rhythm between them so natural, but tonight, he hesitated. There was so much he wanted to say, but he wasn't sure where to start.
He thought about telling her how he was staying at Kim's, about being surrounded by something that resembled a family. It was comforting in a way he hadn't experienced in years, but then, Audrey's story hovered in the back of his mind. The pain of what she'd been through, the loss that had defined so much of her life. He couldn't talk about Angela, not like this. It would feel wrong, almost cruel, to bring up a child when he knew what Audrey had been through.
"How is staying with Kim?" Audrey asked him, her voice gentle but curious. Jack felt his tangled thoughts straighten out all at once, as if her question had cut through the fog in his mind.
"You really want me to tell you?" he asked, almost incredulous, taken aback by her openness. He had assumed this was territory they'd avoid, thinking it might be too painful for her.
"Yes, why not?" Audrey's voice mirrored his surprise. And then, in a moment of clarity, she realized why he hadn't mentioned Angela before. He was holding back, not wanting to hurt her by talking about a child, by reminding her of her own painful losses. Her heart softened, touched by his consideration. "I can handle it," she said quietly, her voice full of warmth and understanding. She didn't want him to feel like he had to keep parts of his life hidden from her. „Don't worry."
"Okay," Jack replied simply, though his mind scrambled for a way to start. He shifted slightly, still seated on the hallway floor. "It's… somehow great."
"Just 'somehow'?" Audrey teased gently, her voice coaxing him to open up.
Jack chuckled, though it was a soft, conflicted sound. "Yeah, somehow." He leaned back against the wall, his eyes scanning the neighborhood outside. The complexities of staying with Kim and Chase swirled in his mind, but the words were hard to shape. How could he explain the strange mix of warmth in that house and tension it was giving him? The joy of seeing Angela's innocent smile, or living next to his daughter knowing what she had said to him earlier – about not ever wanting him near her again.
They talked, but never talked about the real problems—the heavy things. His drug abuse. Chase's injury. Their past at CTU. Mexico. The way flipping through the later pages of the photo album. No one mentioned any of it, and yet it hung in the air, always present.
Audrey sensed something was off, something deeper beneath his words. But she decided to focus on the positive, wanting to ease him into the conversation. "Tell me what's good about it," she encouraged softly.
Jack didn't need to think long. "Just… being here," he began, his voice softening. "Having them around. Seeing how they care for each other and for Angela." There was something almost healing about it, about watching the way Kim and Chase navigated the rhythms of family life. It gave him a sense of peace he hadn't realized he needed. "Talking about normal problems."
"Normal problems?" Audrey echoed, a smile tugging at her lips. She could almost picture the scene—Jack surrounded by the simple, everyday concerns of family life, so far removed from the darkness that usually followed him.
"Yeah," Jack said, his voice warming. "Like, who's going to do the grocery shopping. Or what for dinner. Little things, things that seem trivial compared to…" He trailed off, the unspoken words hanging in the air. Compared to the things he usually dealt with—guns, violence, death, drugs. Murders. The unnamed graves he'd left behind in the Mexican desert.
Audrey heard his words and what he left unsaid. She understood that those "normal problems" were like an oasis for him, a break from the chaos of his life. For once, he wasn't running from something, wasn't tangled in the aftermath of missions and mistakes.
"It sounds… peaceful," Audrey said, her voice soft, filled with understanding. She could sense the tension he felt, the push and pull of wanting to be part of that normalcy, but also knowing how far removed he was from it. She remembered the pages about PTSD she'd read last week. Jack wasn't just a man who had lived through trauma—he was still carrying it with him, always.
"It is," Jack admitted, almost reluctantly. He liked being here, more than he thought he would. But even now, there was a part of him that felt like he didn't quite belong, like an outsider looking in on a life that wasn't really his anymore.
"But?" Audrey prompted gently, sensing there was more he wasn't saying.
Jack exhaled slowly, his breath steadying him. "But there's so much we don't talk about," he finally said. His voice was low, almost a whisper, as if admitting it out loud would make it too real. "Everything between us… there's so much unsaid. Things I know I should bring up, but I just can't."
Audrey's heart tightened. She could hear the burden he carried, the burden of everything left unresolved. "You're there now, that's a start."
Jack leaned his head back against the wall, his eyes closed for a moment. He hesitated, unsure if he should say it. But if there was anyone he could be honest with, it was Audrey. The truth was bubbling to the surface, boiling over, and he couldn't hold it back any longer. "Sometimes, I'd just like to run far, far away," he confessed, his voice rough. "Start all over again."
Audrey felt something warm stir inside her, picturing him coming to Washington D.C. for a moment—far away from everything. That would be far enough away, right?
But his next words shattered her fleeting daydreams.
"Somewhere nobody knows me. Start all over again, far from everything, where nobody knows about my past." His tone was weary, almost defeated. He wasn't just longing for family. He longed for something simpler, a place where he could be just Jack—like when he was young. Back then, no one knew his troubled family history, his violent father, his own violent past with the Army, the CIA, CTU, or how many people he had killed. He didn't have to carry the weight of all that. Worse than carrying that weight was looking into the eyes of someone else who knew about that all – that look in Kim's eyes, sometimes, when she pretended to be a happy family, but couldn't shake the memories herself. "With somebody who doesn't look at me and sees a monster."
"You're not a monster," Audrey said quickly, her voice soft but firm. She was shocked by his words, shaken by the depth of his self-loathing. Did he really believe that about himself? Did that mean he wanted to distance himself from her, too, because she knew more about him than most people? "Knowing you is not so bad, Jack," she added, trying to cheer him up, trying to reach him.
"You don't know me at all, Audrey," he said, the tension thick in his voice. His thoughts were spiraling back to the last few nights, all those hours he had spent alone, reflecting on his past and every mistake he had made.
"You've told me a lot."
"The wrong things, maybe." His body was rigid, muscles tight with frustration. He wanted to tell her everything, to finally let someone know the whole truth. No, not just someone—he needed her to know. But the thought scared him. He had admitted to himself that he felt something for Audrey (‚something' was still a lot better than the dreaded l-word), and he was certain she felt something for him, too. But she shouldn't. If she truly knew him, if she knew all of it, she would look at him the way Kim sometimes did. That look of quiet judgment, tinged with pity. He could sense it, how people tiptoed around certain subjects, how they avoided anything that might make him explode or cause a rift. Audrey wasn't one of them – because she didn't know enough about him, he was sure.
Audrey leaned back, feeling his self-hate almost pulse through the phone. She knew how much he blamed himself for everything. "Your life is shaped by your decisions, Jack. You can't erase them, but you can learn to live with them," she said gently, trying to anchor him, to give him something to hold onto.
Jack let out a harsh, bitter laugh. Learn to live with them. It sounded like advice plucked from a fortune cookie. "Right," he sneered, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Why do you think I drove a needle into my arm?"
"Is that your solution? You want to go back to that, to just forget everything?" Her voice was steady, but there was a hard edge to her words, almost daring him to say that was what he wanted.
"No," he shot back quickly. That wasn't what he meant. He wasn't going back to the drugs. He was done with that. But he had said it to make a point—she didn't understand how impossible it was to "learn" to live with what he had done. "What would you do if you woke up one day and realized you'd been running in the wrong direction your whole life?" It was rhetorical, a question filled with regret, he wasn't expecting an answer.
"Turn around," she replied, without missing a beat.
"Right," he said, his voice laced with defeat. Turn around. As if it were that simple. He had known, years ago, that his life was heading off a cliff. He couldn't even remember the exact moment he first realized it. Was it when Teri died? No, it was before that. When their marriage started to crumble. No, it was even before that—back when the cracks first started forming. He had known then, deep down, that he had made choices that could eventually destroy everything he cared about. "I didn't," he finally admitted to Audrey, his voice raw. "I just ran even faster."
"That doesn't make you a bad person, Jack," she said softly, trying to pull him back from the brink. "When did you first realize your life was going down the wrong road?"
"1988," Jack said, his tone cold, almost detached. He took a deep breath, feeling the memories flood back.
He didn't know why, but he needed to tell Audrey. Something deep inside him craved it—the release, the unburdening of everything he had been holding inside for so many years. He had never said it out loud, hat never had the chance to talk to someone about this all.
But with Audrey, it was different. He had shown her so many sides of himself, but there were parts of his life she still didn't know, the darkest parts, the ones that weighed on his soul. And somehow, he wanted her to know.
Maybe it was because she already knew too much. Maybe because he felt, on some level, that she deserved the whole truth—not the half-truths or the good parts he had shared with others. He wanted her to see him, to see the real him.
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1988
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Jack's eyes drifted toward the book again: Italian for Beginners. It had been sitting on the table for weeks, silently following him around the house. He had glanced through it once, recognizing how much Italian resembled Spanish, which gave him some comfort. If he needed to learn a few sentences, he could manage. But spending time on language books wasn't a priority, not when he had more important things to focus on—like Kim.
The exhaustion from last night's shift clung to him. Teri was still at work, holding a summer job she had taken after her graduation to help ease their financial strain. Things weren't as tight as before, not since he'd become a second lieutenant, but Teri still insisted on contributing. Jack admired her for that. She'd always been determined, never one to sit back when she could do more.
Jack didn't mind the night shifts he needed to do to be at home watching Kim while Teri was at work. He actually preferred them in a way. They were silent, uneventful. They didn't come with the drill and the useless protocols that haunted everyone during daylight, when all superiors were awake and watching. They gave him time with Kim in the mornings, something he treasured more than anything. He would watch over her until Teri came home around one in the afternoon. Then he'd grab a few hours of sleep before heading out again for the next shift. It wasn't ideal, and sometimes it felt like he and Teri only saw each other in passing, but he was okay with that. They still loved each other—there was no doubt about that. Their relationship had cooled, sure, but it wasn't because of a lack of love. Life had just shifted. The fire that used to pull them into each other's arms wasn't as fierce as it once had been, but the bond between them remained. Solid. Unspoken, but still there.
Things had changed between him and Teri over the years, they had shifted. Away from the fire and not being able to keep their hands off each other towards something else. He couldn't name it, but some might call it love. Now it was more about partnership and support. Jack knew Teri was just as tired as he was, juggling Kim and work, but they both tried to make it work. Even in the midst of exhaustion, they had an unspoken understanding, a quiet connection that came from years of being together. Their relationship had cooled, sure, but it wasn't because of a lack of love. Life had just shifted. The fire that used to pull them into each other's arms wasn't as fierce as it once had been, but the bond between them remained. Solid. Unspoken, but still there.
Today was like any other morning. Yawning, Jack fought back his exhaustion as he went about the usual morning routine with Kim. She didn't need to know how tired her father was. They headed to the playground at the end of the road, made a quick trip to the grocery store, and then returned home, where Jack heated some leftovers for lunch. Kim's laughter filled the small house. Still, no matter how hard he tried to focus on the present, Italy lingered in the back of his mind.
It was the topic he and Teri avoided, but it was always there, waiting to be addressed. Three months ago, Teri had graduated from a program in Rhode Island, transferring credits from UCLA, and one of her professors had been so impressed with her work that he had set her up with an opportunity at a prestigious art gallery in Florence. Even Jack, who had never fully understood Teri's world of art, knew this was a big deal. It was the kind of opportunity people like her dreamed of. The chance to work with ancient pieces, to be part of something bigger.
But the problem was Kim. Teri couldn't just take Kim along and move across the world with an 18-month-old. Jack didn't want her to put Kim in some daycare in a foreign country, surrounded by people she wouldn't know. It didn't feel right. So, he had taken action the only way he knew how—he applied for a transfer to Vicenza or Livorno, hoping to be stationed at a U.S. Army base in Italy. If the transfer went through, they could be together. Somehow, they'd make it, while Teri pursued her dream. It was the only solution that made sense.
His superior officer, Major Robert Hendricks, had been optimistic, assuring him that the transfer would likely be approved by the end of the month. Hendricks, a seasoned major in his fifties (Jack sometimes wondered why he hadn't climbed the ladder any higher), had become a mentor to Jack, offering guidance and support as he navigated his career. Hendricks believed in him, and that meant a lot. Jack should have been relieved, but the truth was, he wasn't sure how he felt about it.
He couldn't shake the feeling that once the transfer came through, everything would change. Teri had already started packing up a few things in anticipation of the move, eager for the next chapter of their lives. Jack, on the other hand, had been reluctant. He hadn't packed a single box yet. He didn't know why, but something in him resisted the idea of leaving everything behind. They'd only been at Fort Devens for six months. Garrison duty was boring, sure, but it gave him something he had never had before—time with his family. Time with Kim. If they moved to Italy, everything would change. Teri would be in Florence every day, and Kim would be in an Army daycare. Jack would be stuck in some foreign base, far away from everything familiar. It wasn't what he had envisioned for their family.
But he loved Teri. He would go to Italy for her. He would support her dreams, just like he had always done. Even though he hated the uncertainty of waiting for the military to make the final decision, he knew he couldn't let her down. She had dreamed of seeing the world for as long as he had known her. Now, she had the chance to make that dream come true. He wasn't going to be the one to stand in her way. Jack glanced at the Italian book again, feeling a sense of reluctance. He knew he should dive into it, start preparing himself for the possibility of moving.
They didn't talk about Italy much anymore. There wasn't anything left to say. But as the days passed, the tension grew. Jack could feel it, even if Teri didn't say anything. The waiting was getting to both of them. They didn't share fiery passion they had once had, but it was a deep, steady love. The kind that made him willing to uproot his entire life for her, if that's what it took.
And he would do it. For her. For Kim.
The day unfolded in the usual pattern. Teri returned home from her job, greeted him with a brief kiss, and without much conversation, he headed off to bed. He had to catch a few hours of sleep before the night shift began. Kim was already tucked in as he got up again.
By 10:00 p.m., he was back at the base, ready for another night of garrison duty. The hours ahead promised to be as monotonous as ever. Garrison duty was mind-numbing work most of the time—routine patrols, equipment checks, and paperwork. On slow nights, Jack would help inventory weapons, supervise the enlisted men, or stand in the control room watching the silent radar screens. The most exciting part of the job was usually making sure everything was running smoothly, a far cry from what he had trained for.
It was nearing midnight when the phone rang. It was the Colonel.
Jack straightened immediately. Calls from the Colonel at this hour meant one thing: something serious was happening. His mind raced for a moment, wondering if it was another training mission—a mock exercise meant to keep them sharp and ready. They had done plenty of those, playing out scenarios in the woods, simulating attacks or reconnaissance. He half expected it to be another drill.
But as he and Reilly were summoned into the command office, the atmosphere was different. The Colonel's face was earnest, his voice low and steady.
"Take 16 men, three trucks, fully armed. You're heading out on a rescue support mission. Expect to meet a special forces team at the site. Leave immediately," the Colonel ordered, passing them a folder containing minimal details. Strictly confidential. Absolute radio silence, except for the scrambled device the Captain would carry.
Jack nodded, his mind already switching into operational mode. There was no time to ask questions, and even if there were, he knew the Colonel wouldn't tell him anything beyond what was necessary. They were to secure the site of an aircraft crash. Nothing more, nothing less. Though Jack had the feeling that there had to be something sensitive.
Within thirty minutes, Jack and Reilly were leading a convoy of three trucks. As the trucks drove through the night, Jack sat in the back of the third vehicle, eyes fixed on the scenery but his thoughts miles away.
It was nearly 6:30 a.m. when his thoughts returned to Teri. He imagined her waking up, expecting him coming home any minute. By then, she'd be confused, wondering where he was. By 7:00 a.m., maybe she'd reach out to Major Hendricks, but he wouldn't tell her anything either. She'd have to deal with the frustration of being left in the dark, knowing he was on a mission but having no details about when he would return—or if he would return at all.
By 7:30, she'd be wrestling with the problem of how to take care of Kim while still going to work. Jack's heart clenched at the thought, guilt creeping in. He hadn't been able to say anything to her before leaving, not even a goodbye. Their orders were confidential, their schedules unpredictable.
By 8:00 a.m., they had reached the outskirts of Slide Mountain. And then it happened.
An explosion ripped through the air. The first truck was destroyed, thrown into the air by the blast, while the second was heavily damaged. Jack barely had time to process what had happened before they were under fire. In an instant, all thoughts of Teri and Kim evaporated from his mind. There was no room for them now. The only thing that mattered was staying alive, keeping his men alive, and completing the mission.
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Audrey listened intently as Jack recounted the mission. She was glad she had read the mission protocol beforehand because Jack had a habit of glossing over the grittier details—especially when it involved violence, survival, or the fact that the mission had dealt with nuclear triggers and targeting devices. Perhaps it was his well-trained sense of confidentiality, or maybe after twenty years of always having to sugarcoat the horror he had lived through, he no longer knew how to express the truth fully. His words were carefully chosen, always downplaying the bloodshed, the losses, and the severity of what had transpired.
She knew, though. The report had laid everything bare. For a short moment, she was even glad about the clinical, factual report. No sugarcoating. It had clearly listed the men who had died, the chaos, and the danger they had faced. When he casually said, "I got hurt a little," Audrey knew exactly what that meant. It wasn't a small injury, and it certainly wasn't something minor. She could see through his words, but she needed him to realize how far removed from the truth his words were.
"What do you mean by saying you got 'hurt a little'?" Audrey asked, pressing gently. She already knew the answer but wanted him to stop pretending, to stop softening the reality.
Jack hesitated for a moment before finally giving in. He hated talking about his injuries, as if admitting them meant accepting some form of defeat. But he had promised himself to be truthful with Audrey. He had to be.
"I broke my right thigh bone," he said, his voice reluctant. "Right above the knee. And I got another bullet in my left arm." He paused, the memories weighing heavily on him. "I was in the river for hours, trying to evade the enemy. The water was freezing. Every move hurt."
"Oh," Audrey responded, her voice feigning surprise, though she already knew the truth. "So that's what you mean by a 'little'." At least he had said 'for hours' now. Not mentioning the 36 hours he'd probably spent between being drowning and being fired at, but at least he had said something that was closer to the truth.
Jack couldn't help but smile, despite the memories. "Yeah."
Audrey didn't want to dwell on the technicalities of the mission. She understood that wasn't the point of his story. This wasn't about military strategies or battle scars. This was about him and Teri, and about how his life had gone off course.
"When did you get home?" she asked, allowing him to just jump over past the painful specifics of the mission.
"Two days later. I ended up at the base hospital," Jack said, his tone growing quieter. He left out the agonizing details, the exhaustion, his first kills, and the haze of confusion that filled those days. "Teri was beyond angry. They told her it was a training mission that had gone horribly wrong. Somehow, everyone bought that story. Teri believed it. Even Vicky, Tom Reilly's wife, she believed it too. Reilly had been killed, and everyone thought it was just a bad training accident."
"What was so bad about the lie?" Audrey asked, her voice soft but curious. She didn't fully understand. What difference did it make whether Jack had been hurt in a training mission or in real combat? The outcome was the same, wasn't it?
Jack let out a sad laugh, the kind that carried years of regret. "Everything," he said. "It was the first big lie between us."
Audrey paused, thinking back to an earlier story he had shared. "No, it wasn't. You already told her your name was Bender," she reminded him gently, teasing a little, trying to lighten the mood.
Jack chuckled briefly. "The first lie that mattered," he clarified, though the amusement faded from his voice. "She was furious. Furious that I didn't tell her about the mission, about where I was going. And she lost her job because of it. She had no one to watch Kim, so she missed two days of work." He sighed, the weight of that moment still heavy on his shoulders. "But more than that, she was mad because she never wanted me to see real action. She thought... she hoped I'd just do my four years and never get deployed."
"That's naïve," Audrey remarked, though not without empathy. She could understand Teri's fear, but the reality was different.
"It was the '80s," Jack said, defending Teri. "It was a more peaceful time, relatively speaking. And she was a pacifist. She couldn't stand the idea of me seeing combat. She always hoped that I'd just stick to garrison duty, come home every night, and never have to deal with anything like this."
Jack shook his head, thinking back to that time. Back then, he hadn't been in the mood to defend her. He had been angry, tired, frustrated. He had come home, had barely survived and ended up being yelled at. But now, looking back, he could see her perspective more clearly. She hadn't signed up for the life they ended up living.
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As Jack glanced down at the thick bandage wrapped around his leg, a mix of emotions swirled inside him. Should he be grateful for surviving, or angry at the universe for making his jump from that waterfall just a few feet off? His leg had slammed into a rock instead of clean water. He had never jumped from that high before. The 30-foot diving platform, sure, but 45 feet? Never. The impact felt like hitting concrete.
But none of that compared to the blow Teri's words had delivered.
When she had stormed into his hospital room, he had been so relieved to see her, so happy to have made it out alive. But instead of relief or concern, her face was twisted in fury. She didn't hold back. The rage and resentment poured out of her like a dam breaking.
"What the hell, Jack?" she had started, her voice trembling with anger. "You just go off on some training mission and don't even say a word? I lost my job because of you!" Her words were like daggers, each one sharper than the last. "I didn't even know you were going anywhere! Training mission, my ass. You couldn't even tell me?"
Jack tried to speak, but she didn't give him the chance. At the end of her rant, she delivered the hardest blow of all.
"You got yourself hurt on purpose, didn't you?!" Her accusation made his heart skip. "Just so we won't go to Italy!" Her voice rose, full of venom. "Come on, admit it! You never wanted to go! So, what? You thought breaking your leg was the perfect excuse?"
Jack stared at her, speechless. He had expected some anger, sure. But not this. Not this complete lack of sympathy, this unfounded accusation that he had deliberately gotten himself injured to sabotage her dreams. His mind raced, trying to make sense of what she was saying.
The doctors had told her about his broken leg, but they hadn't mentioned much about the gunshot wound. They had downplayed it, calling it a flesh wound, not telling her that he had seen actual combat. Jack had hardly mentioned it either—it wasn't what bothered him. The bullet had gone clean through. But he hadn't expected Teri's words to hit him harder than any wound ever could.
Teri wasn't the first to be angry with him. Earlier, the Colonel and Major Hendricks had been here. The Colonel had given him hell for not following orders and chewed him out for breaking radio silence, for not taking defensive positions at the site of the explosion. The Colonel was concerned about protocol, about making sure the Special Forces team didn't blame his unit for the mess.
But Jack hadn't cared about protocol in that moment. Eight men were dead, his commanders gone, and the enemy was closing in. He had made a call to save the lives of those who were left. He'd do it again if he had to.
But before he could say that, Major Hendricks had stepped in, taking the blame, saying he had miscommunicated the orders. Jack didn't understand why Hendricks did it, but it got the Colonel off his back.
None of that mattered now, though. Jack could take the military heat. But Teri's anger cut deeper than any reprimand. She had thrown everything at him—her job, his lie, her dreams, their plans for Italy. She was furious that he hadn't told her about the mission as it was only a training mission – something he should have known about. Furious she had been left alone with Kim, missing work, ultimately losing her job. She even said she didn't want Kim to see him in the hospital, not like this. Jack's heart sank as he realized his face was bruised and battered, his eye swollen, scratches from branches lining his cheek.
That's when he knew—he was truly alone. For the first time, he doubted the strength of their love.
The next day, Teri came back, but there was no apology. Just more bad news. She handed him the letter with the transfer decision. Vicenza. The move to Italy had been approved. His heart sank further as he realized what that meant. They were supposed to go by the end of the month. Teri had already accepted her dream job in Florence. But now, with him in the hospital, they wouldn't make it.
Jack swallowed hard, knowing how much it meant to her. He struggled to find a way to fix things. "You know…" he started, unsure if what he was about to offer would help or hurt. "I'll be off duty for at least three months." His voice was tentative. The doctors had already told him that his broken thigh would take months to heal. He wasn't going anywhere.
Teri didn't respond immediately, not understanding what he was getting at.
"By the end of the month, I'll be able to walk again," he continued. "I could take care of Kim."
Her face flickered with confusion, then guilt. Was she really going to leave her injured husband and their daughter behind to chase a job? The position in Florence was temporary, just three months as a restauration assistant. But now, with Jack offering to stay home, it felt like the decision had been tossed back into her hands.
She didn't accept his offer right away. But she didn't cancel the job either.
By the end of the week, after Jack's surgery to stabilize his leg, she reluctantly agreed. She didn't want to, but it seemed like the only option. Still, she was angry—angry at the situation, angry at him, and maybe even angry at herself for feeling like the bad guy. The tension between them lingered, unspoken and even growing.
For the next ten days, they barely spoke. Jack remained in the hospital, and when his face looked somewhat normal again, Teri finally let Kim visit him. The little girl had missed her father.
When Jack finally returned home, he found Teri's things already packed up. Her suitcases were by the door, ready for Italy. The Italian for Beginners book was tucked away somewhere in her luggage.
Their goodbye was awkward. There was so much that needed to be said, but neither of them could find the words. Actually, it would have just been a simple 'sorry', but neither of them wanted to say it. And they both knew that a simple 'sorry' would be a start, but nowhere near enough. They exchanged a brief, almost mechanical hug, both knowing things had changed but unable to address it.
"Take care," Jack whispered into her ear as they embraced. He meant it. He hadn't wanted any of this to happen. He knew if he told her the truth about everything – about this not being a training mission, about having killed people, about having been shot at, about nuclear triggers, she'd see things differently. But he couldn't. So to her, it was still just a senseless night, which he hadn't told her about and even got himself injured so close before going off to Italy.
Teri's goodbye to Kim was much longer, full of tears.
Jack held their daughter in his arms as they both waved, watching the cab take her away.
It would be a while until he'd see her again.