This time Nina is Mad Madam Beth and NCCJFAN. This story is the product of a lot of "What ifs…." What if Woody would have followed Jordan? What if the search had taken more than a day or so…What if, what if, what if…..

And as usual…we don't own a darn thing.

Chapter 1: Three Days and One Long Night

He was chasing her down a long alley, seemingly getting further away from her with each step.

"Jordan!" he called but she only looked back sadly over her shoulder and kept on walking. She moved slowly in contrast to his stride -- his feet slapping the pavement beneath them, his legs burning with the effort to catch up to her.

But he never got any closer.

With a start Woody woke and immediately covered his eyes from the sunlight streaming in from the window on the other side of the bed. He sat up slowly amidst the rumpled covers with a deep, tired sigh and a shaky yawn. He was tired. He was always tired after that dream he had of chasing Jordan through an alley way, down a path, across a crowded city street. The scenery of the dream changed often but the end was always the same and he'd awaken emotionally exhausted like now.

He looked around the room getting his bearings before he slid off of the bed scratching under an armpit gently.

It had been three days since Jordan took off for D.C. Three days since he'd gone to the bank, cleaned out the little account he kept for saving money to buy his antique robots and gone to Jordan's apartment stuffing a big sweaty, handful of money into her hand and a throw away phone which he had the twin to.

With another long look around the room Woody sighed and decided that he was finally at peace with what he had done. Jordan was innocent and there wasn't a person on this earth that was going to convince him otherwise. So he had had no other choice but to help her to get out of Boston, to get to DC and find the answers to why J.D. had been killed and why she had been framed for his murder.

Standing from the bed made Woody realize he needed to pee and he fixed the waist of his boxers as he walked toward the bathroom door and slipped in to use the toilet, passing the shower door filling steadily with steam from the hot water running inside.

It had been one night. One long night since he'd gone to the bank and pulled another large chunk of money from his main savings, paid his rent a month in advance and bought an AMTRAK ticket to Washington D.C. where he had called Jordan from the station to see where she was staying.

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"Hey…" he'd said tentatively when she opened the door to the motel slowly to make sure he was alone. When she was sure the coast was clear and she'd taken in the slump of his shoulders under the weight of the duffle he held on one side as well as the weight of the decision that had led him to this moment standing in front of her motel room, Jordan stepped aside to let him in.

"Hey…" Jordan echoed with a nervous smile and then quickly ushered him in further. "I'm…I just wanted to uh…" She watched him set down his bag and suddenly her arms were around him, holding him tight in a hug. "Thank you…thank you for coming down here.." she whispered meekly and Woody slowly brought his arms up to wrap around her.

With a typical Woody smile he pulled back and held her face in his hands. "Well, you know, I DID offer to take some time off and stay with you so.." he said and gestured a hand around the room.

"That was at my apartment, IN Boston where everything about this situation right now wouldn't be illegal.." she said sadly, ignoring the teasing tone of his voice. "But we're not in Boston, Woody, we're in D.C., I'm a fugitive…" she stammered out quickly and then looked up straight into his eyes. "You'll go to prison for this Woody, this isn't one of those things where you'll just get a slap on the wrists.." she said pulling back from his touch.

Woody watched her face for a long few moments, seeing the wall she kept around her heart rebuilding and knowing that if he didn't get through to her soon he might lose the last good chance he had at proving to Jordan that it didn't matter what happened to him because of this whole situation. She couldn't, wouldn't, didn't do this and he had to prove that for the sole selfish reason that he couldn't imagine his life without her.

"You think I don't know that Jordan?" he asked softly and stepped back towards her again. "You think I don't know that there's a very real possibility of going to jail MYSELF wh…wh…when." He stammered and ran a hand through his hair, laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation he'd put himself in for Jordan. "IF we go back to Boston?" he asked and took her by the shoulders when she stepped further away from him and shook her head.

"I'm…I'm sorry Woody." She said looking off across the room over his broad shoulder. "I didn't mean for any of this to happen…" she said on the verge of tears and Woody shook his head but she kept talking, her voice breaking with emotion and tears racing town her cheeks. "I…I…my relationship with J.D." she said looking away from Woody ashamed. "I cared for him..it might have started out being to..I dunno, get back at you in some way for the way you were treating me…but I DID care for him…hell, maybe I even loved him but…I…and we….I don't regret what happened at that Inn between us…but I wish that it hadn't been while I was with someone…and I wish it hadn't been…well, whatever it was.." she rambled and Woody took her cheek and made her look up into his eyes.

She took a deep breath, looked up at him for a long moment. "I wish J.D. hadn't been killed because of it…because I had to tell him the truth about what happened between us and he went to Washington and caught this story and…and…and then you were with Lu…and now…now he's dead.." she said with the last bit of breath in her lungs.

Woody looked at her for a long moment before nodding slowly and looking down at her. She'd just summed up the last six months to a year of their lives in one mother of a sentence.

"What do you mean you had to tell him the truth about what…what happened between us at the Inn?" Woody asked softly, his brow furrowed in confusion as he looked down into her eyes. "I thought you said Pollack had figured it out on his own," he whispered.

Jordan groaned the groan of a woman on the verge of one grand admission too many for one night.

"He…did." She sighed covering her eyes with both hands and rubbing them hard a few times. When she opened them again Woody was still looking at her in genuine confusion.

"But.." Woody started and Jordan shook her head.

"He did know…he said he could just tell from our body language, but he said he…that he thought we could.." She sighed again, knowing she eventually should tell him anyway and now was as good a time as any. "That it would be okay, he could forget it as…as long as it didn't mean anything." She said quietly and cast her eyes nervously towards the corner of the room.

There were a thousand things running through Woody's head as she spoke, wondering what it could be that had brought Jordan and Pollack's relationship to make or break. Admittedly, he was stunned when she said Pollack had been willing to overlook her little indiscretion but that shock had nothing on the shock that came next.

"But..he left…you admitted we'd slept together, he told you he'd forgive you Jordan…he gave you a second chance.." she cut him off again.

"Yeah, and I couldn't lie like a normal person." She said finally meeting his eyes. "I couldn't lie…not about that Woody," she said with a softness that made him go weak in the knees.

"About what?" he asked because he had to hear it from her lips.

It was Jordan's turn to invade Woody's personal space now and she reached out to hold one of his hands gently in hers. "I couldn't tell him that it didn't mean anything, Woody. I couldn't lie.." she said softly and he nodded slowly. "No, I don't mean like I couldn't tell him that because I didn't want to lie to him…I COULDN'T even say the words." She whispered. "I couldn't make myself say the words and he knew it…"

A half hour later Woody sat on the end of the queen bed in the middle of the motel room shaking his head at all Jordan had just told him.

"Malaria? Really?" he asked with an inkling of a smile. When Jordan just nodded and wiped away a few stray tears. Woody chuckled softly and shook his head.

"Jeez Jordan..this guy was in the wrong business, he should have been writing greeting cards." He said with raised eyebrows and a little smirk that made Jordan smile and cry at the same time. "Come here..it's okay." Woody whispered and held her when she slumped into his arms without a fight.

It was in the first few moments of really holding her and being aware of her body that Woody realized she was exhausted. He kissed the top of her head and smoothed back her hair gently. "Come on, you're beat. Let's get you to bed," he said standing and shrugging off his coat gently as Jordan crawled up towards the pillows fully dressed and Woody smiled. "Here…" he said giving her some pajamas that he found in a drawer. "I need to pee and my teeth haven't felt the healing touch of a toothbrush since yesterday morning," he whispered and headed for the bathroom.

"Hey Woody?" Jordan said meekly as she sat up on the bed. When he turned and looked at her through the dark she smiled slowly. "Thanks…you know for…everything," she whispered and he smiled back finally.

"You're welcome." He replied simply and continued into the bathroom.

Jordan watched him go, staring at the closed door long after he'd gone in and even after she heard him change and the electric toothbrush he'd brought with him turn on and off.

She was sure the morgue staff, her friends, were covering for she and Woody probably at that exact same moment. They always said they hated when she got on her tangents, whether it be about her mother or the price of gas but they'd lay down in front of a bus for her any day.

And knowing Lu Simmons and Rene Walcott were manning the controls to said bus, Jordan was sure that her friends were all feeling the heat for her.

After staring at the door and then the pajamas in her shaky hands for a few minutes Jordan finally began to pull off her clothes to change for bed. Woody was right, she was exhausted but it was nice to just be tired for the first time in a few days instead of tired and lonely.

She had just tossed her bra and panties towards the still open duffle bag she'd brought with her to D.C. when the door to the bathroom opened and an unwitting Woody stepped out in an undershirt and boxers. He was rubbing one eye and as his hand came down he glanced towards the bed to see if Jordan was settled in as he prepared to sleep on the little motel room couch by the door.

Jordan couldn't help but smile softly as his ears immediately turned deep red. "Oh..oh..I..I'm sorry, I'll just wait till you're.." he stammered backing towards the bathroom as Jordan was reaching for the big t-shirt and panties she was preparing to put on for the night.

"It's okay Woody.." she said with a calm, easy smile. "You've seen what I've got." She said trying to laugh and pulled the t-shirt over her head with a shrug. "And don't even LOOK at that couch, we can share the bed, we've done it before.." She murmured and slid into the double, looking more comfy with Jordan swaddled between its sheets than even the best bed Woody had ever slept in.

"Jordan.." Came his warning voice from his spot stuck to the generic Berber carpet beneath his bare feet.

With an annoyed sigh Jordan turned over, flipping her long hair out of her face and looked at him.

"Woody…I'm exhausted, you're exhausted and neither of us is in any shape to take advantage of the other tonight so…rest easy…and get the Hell in this bed before I have to throw one of my shoes at your head.

"Okay." He said quickly and took two long strides across the tiny room and climbed in on the left side of the bed. He knew it might mean another threat of footwear in his face but Woody leaned over in bed and placed a warm, loving, gentle kiss to Jordan's cheek.

"Good night Jordan," He whispered and turned back over onto his side facing away from her after tossing off his undershirt.

"Good night, Woody," she whispered back after a stunned moment of being overtaken by the familiar warmth that only spread through her heart when this man was near.

He had come to help her. Against all reasonable thought he had offered, without a moment's hesitation, to help her and here he was. Three days from the time she'd left Boston to seek the truth about her former lover's murder another truth had up and followed her down to help find a way to bring her home.

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With a few quick shakes and a flush of the toilet Woody turned to shuffle back out of the bathroom and prepare for the first of many long days of searching for answers.

As he passed the steam-filled shower once more a dark wet head peeked out of the curtain and smiled softly at him.

"Hey, mind handing me a towel?" Jordan asked pushing the curtain back a little more as she turned off the water.

With a playful but attentively long look over her trim, wet, naked figure Woody nodded slowly and handed her a thin white motel room towel which she quietly thanked him for and wrapped around herself before she climbed out to let him have his turn.

"No problem at all," he whispered as she slipped past him to go back into the room, speaking for more than just the courtesy of handing her a towel in the shower. He was letting her know that he was going to be there to help her in whatever way she needed him to help. The truth was, he'd do anything for her.

Hell, he thought with a wry laugh as he climbed in the shower himself a minute later. Lu was right after all.