Lily points to the envelope.

LILY: "What's that?"

Jack carefully takes it out.

The paper is worn at the edges.

JACK: "I wrote this before I came home."

LILY: "Why didn't you mail it?"

JACK: "Because I wanted to give it to you myself."

He offers the envelope.

Lily does not take it.

Sarah sits beside her daughter.

SARAH: "Would you like me to read it?"

Lily nods.

Sarah opens the envelope.

Inside is a letter written several months earlier, during Jack's rehabilitation.

SARAH (reading):

"My sweet Lily,

I don't know what I'll look like when you see me again.

I might seem different from the daddy in your photographs.

There are things I used to do that I will have to learn to do another way.

But there is one thing I want you to know.

I have never stopped being your daddy.

Not for one day.

Love, Dad."

Sarah's voice breaks.

Lily stares at Jack.

LILY: "Did it hurt?"

Jack looks at his shoulder.

JACK: "Yes, sweetheart. It did."

LILY: "Does it hurt now?"

JACK: "Sometimes. But I'm safe now."

Lily studies his face.

LILY: "Were you scared?"

Jack looks directly at her.

JACK: "Very scared."

LILY: "Soldiers aren't supposed to be scared."

JACK: "Everybody gets scared, Lily. Even soldiers."

A long silence.

JACK: "You know what scared me the most?"

LILY: "What?"

Jack's voice trembles.

JACK: "Coming home and not knowing if you'd want to hug me."

Lily looks down at her shoes.

She doesn't know what to say.

Then a voice comes from behind them.

ROBERT: "Sometimes the bravest thing a soldier can do is tell the truth."

An elderly man stands nearby, holding a folded airport volunteer jacket.

His name is Robert Miller.

And he is missing his left leg.

CHAPTER END HOOK: Robert looks toward Lily.

ROBERT: "Young lady, would you like to hear what my granddaughter said when she first saw me like this?"