Taking Early Termination Flight Halfway

Hello all,

I am getting an early termination due to the USAID situation and will be flown to my home of record. I'm curious if anyone has ever taken the flight to their home of record but stayed at a layover destination instead?

If so, what are the consequences of doing this? I don't want to return to my home of record yet and would prefer to visit friends near the layover, but I also don't want to forfeit the ticket from my host country to the layover and pay $1,000 to travel there myself.

And just for clarification you can not get cash in lieu of ticket if you are ETing according to my cd