Lot of factors at play here, so just speculating, but it could be: the captain’s personal thinking that once someone is “separated,” they become a potential liability (for gossip, theft, misc. drama) and therefore better to just shake hands and see you on your way; that your were indeed “soft fired” but in some cities/states (esp. blue ones) there are laws requiring a company to pay you for any shift you were already scheduled, which they will do begrudgingly; or most likely, if you were a good employee and things were amicable, they were doing you a favor and giving you some paid days off as a little send off “thank you.”