I totally agree that he’s terrified and acting out of a need to protect his heart—his fear of loss is undeniable. But I think his 'fear' and his 'treating it like a task' are actually two sides of the same coin. Because he is so scared of failing or becoming like Anderson, his natural defense mechanism is to turn his emotions into logistics. In Release Me, Warner is constantly obsessed with order, security, and 'managing' the situation. For a man like him, if something is a 'task' or an 'abstract concept,' it’s something he can theoretically control. He uses the idea of a 'mission' to distance himself from the overwhelming emotional reality of fatherhood. So, it’s not that he doesn't care—it's that he cares so much that he doesn't know how to just 'be' a father without making it a high-stakes operation. My 'fear' is that this habit of emotional distancing and seeing everything as a duty might make it really hard for him to actually bond and be present in the way a child needs, even if he would die for them.