Thank you! One of the things I really wanted to show in this was how much Jake has changed and how much he understands that change and doesn't want to slip back.

And it's great to hear you particularly appreciated his conversations with Johnston. Those were fun to write, because Johnston has such a distinctive voice, and because I really enjoy working with the notion that he loves Jake and it's frustration rather than anger driving the conversation. And that Jake has eventually figured that out. (I really, really want, in this 'verse, to some day write the conversation Johnston offered at the end of "Heart of Winter" where he said Jake could come and talk to him about what had happened in Afghanistan and Iraq.)

Thanks again for reading and commenting!