you never asked if I had something to hide

JACK

"Yeah, it really does," Jack says through a scoff, raking his fingers back through his hair and, now that they're finally out of the masquerade properly, tying it into a loose knot with a band around his wrist. "I learned early that I preferred the... all of it, than wanderin' around blind. Well - not blind, but y'know." And that's the thing. Vesper does know, of all the people in the world.

"She wanted to see you too. Surprise, though - s'hard to find a specific Ludo in a crowd of Ludos, I guess." Raising an eyebrow at Vesper, though, Jack has indeed been able to piece enough (and plenty more) about the rancher during his meetings with her, let alone the things he's picking up on now. "You sweet on her, kid?" he asks with a smirk.

But then Vesper says he's tired, and it's a mirror that Jack avoids looking into on the best of days, and especially not now, when their shared weaknesses spill out into the open through a younger version of himself. But liquor has eroded more than one of the high walls around him, and he reaches out to clap the boy on the shoulder, squeezing. "There'll be other times. C'mon. I got the Ark out with the other skyships - you can sleep there."

believer, believe it or not you'll know
when it ends and how it goes