When Everything Changed
Disclaimer: I am not at all affiliated with Crossing Jordan or its characters. I'm just a fan who misses the show so I'm giving it my own little spin to keep it alive!
This is set after the season 4 finale (Jump, Fall, Push) when Woody was shot and turned Jordan away from his hospital room.
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Jordan stared out her office window, deep in thought as she absent mindedly tugged at the sleeves of her suit. She hated wearing these things but it was all a part of Slokum's new dress code. It had been a week since everything change with that one phone call.
"Jordan, it's Matt" the voice belonging to detective Matt Seely had said. "Listen, Woody's been shot."
"Where? What hospital?" Jordan had asked, panic stricken.
"Boston General. It's bad, Jordan. Really bad."
Those words were etched in Jordan's mind, as was the image of seeing Woody Hoyt wheeled into the hospital room, drenched in his own blood. She has Woody had been through a lot together in the few years since he came to town. Their relationship was a complicated one, but through it all, they were friends. Close friends. She could not imagine her life without him. He survived the shooting and Jordan thought everything would be fine, but when she went into his hospital room the look in his eyes was one she had never seen before. He was hurt, scared, and angry at the world, but he took it out on her. He basically kicked her out of his room. She assumed that when he found out that he would be okay and there was no permanent damage aside from having his spleen removed that all would be fine so she went back to see him the next morning. He no longer looked angry or empty, but he still did not want her there and she didn't know why.
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Woody Hoyt had just been released from the hospital hours before and arrived at his apartment with a little help from Nigel and Bug. They helped him settle in on the couch before he convinced him that he was okay and that they could leave. He was still in a lot of pain and getting around was no easy task, but he was happy to be home. He was anxious to get healed enough to go back to work as he wanted to help catch his shooter, but the captain had already told him he would be on desk duty for awhile why he continued to recover. Woody was angry about being shot, and he was angry that Riggs got away, and he was angry that Jordan was going on dates with other guys, and he was angry that it took getting shot for her to open up to him, but most of all, although he would never admit to it, he was angry at himself for lashing out at her at the hospital. The look in her eyes as she fought back tears and left his side was etched into his mind. He felt guilty, but still too angry to just pick up the phone and call her. He was tired of being used by everyone because he was the "happy-go-lucky" Woody. He loved Jordan and felt he made it clear to her, but never got anything in return so he had had enough. He tried to convince himself that he did not need her, but as he glanced down at the end table next to him and caught sight of a picture of him and Jordan that was taken at a Christmas party, his arms tightly wrapped around her in a beat hug, he felt a pain deep in the pit of his stomach, not caused by the bullet, but by his own guilt, anger and sadness over a friendship lost.
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Jordan traced the outline of Woody's face in the photograph with her finger. She did not know what hurt worse, almost losing him to that bullet before being banished from his room, or the thought that the days, such as the ones in this photograph taken at a Christmas party, were probably over. He meant so much to her. He made her laugh. She loved to go jogging with him, dancing with him, or just sitting quietly next to him on a couch. She was just comfortable with him. She missed that. She was filled with regrets. She regretted not telling him how she felt back on her birthday when he gave her the "friendship" ring, she regretted the argument they had while out jogging just prior to his being shot, and she regretted the fact that she still was not ready to admit to him, or to herself yet, that she was in fact in love with him.
Jordan looked at the photo one more time before placing it inside her desk drawer.
A few miles away at his apartment, Woody took one final look at his own copy of the same photograph, and he too put it inside the drawer of the end table.