I decided to take a stab at writing again. I had posted this earlier, but took it down. I have other stories, but I didn't want to leave this one unfinished. It's NOT Jordan/Woody (throw things if you must), but hopefully enjoyable anyway. I'll get to Jordan/Woody stories afterwards, I promise. So, here are the 3 chapters I had written (with some minor changes), and a new chapter.

Summary: After coming home from being on the lam in DC, Jordan is finding it difficult to adjust. Then someone comes back into her life, throwing her for another loop. Who returns, and why is this person so important in Jordan's search for normalcy?

Chapter One: Heavy Burdens

Sighing heavily, Jordan sank down into the soft cushions of her couch. It had been a hard night. Two double shifts in as many days, and Jordan was wiped out. She tried to muster enough energy to move to her bed, but the couch was too comfortable. As she pulled the afghan over her body, Jordan thought that tonight she might just be tired enough to sleep without the dreams.

They were more like nightmares, really. The five months Jordan spent on the run haunted her. She would dream about everything from finding Pollack dead that awful morning, to the final moment when the Judge confessed.

Washington DC had been nothing short of terrifying. Though Jordan would never admit that to another living soul, she spent most of her nights there too afraid to sleep. Fear that the police or a hit man would find her, that she'd never be able to clear her name…or find Pollack's killer shook her to her bones. She hadn't been able to shake the feeling after returning to Boston.

Her friends had been great when she came back. They were supportive, but not pushy or overbearing. Jordan just wasn't the same, even a month afterwards. Her friends couldn't understand what she went through…much of the time, Jordan herself didn't understand. So while she tried to fit back in her old life, it just wasn't working. Jordan felt out of place, and out of sink with the rest of the world.

Jordan missed JD… she ached for him. Lily had said it was delayed grief, or something like that. Jordan's mind had been so preoccupied that it didn't process his death until after she came home. The fact that she couldn't sort out her feelings for the man didn't help. She knew that she cared deeply for JD…but she didn't love him. Or maybe she did. Jordan had called him hoping to start over in the relationship—to see if she could love him. Now that he had been murdered, she was second guessing herself…maybe she loved him, or maybe she just wanted to love him because she thought she owed it to him.

She dreamed about him. And the stupid, idiotic things she did to get justice for him. She remembered the long weeks digging for evidence while struggling to keep hidden. What she didn't remember was confronting the Judge face to face….

She remembered deciding, in a moment of pure desperation, to put a tape recorder in her purse and see if she could get a confession out of him. After that, the details were fuzzy. Jordan knew he had confessed because she had heard the tape later, back in Boston. She didn't remember much else because the Judge's right hand men had taken her to an ally and attempted to beat her to death.

Somehow, she survived and woke up a week later in the hospital. The police had found the tape, she had been cleared, and Garret was there to take her home.

At home, Jordan was relieved but shell shocked. She remembered little of the beating, but it shook her to the core. It had been hard for her to trust people in the past, but it was even more so now. She tried…but at the last second she'd always pull back into herself where she felt safer….

As the thoughts swirled around her, Jordan's head drooped lower and lower. The bed now seemed impossibly far away. Succumbing to her tiredness, Jordan's eyes shut and she fell into a deep, though not entirely peaceful, slumber.