Disclaimer: I don't own them, I jut borrow them for a little while.
Love Takes Time
Jordan was laying down on the couch in her office. She'd slept there again. With Max gone and Woody becoming more and more distant, Jordan just didn't know what to do or who to turn to when she needed to talk. Garrett was the only one who had stood by her lately, but even he had his limits. Jordan sighed and pulled her blanket closer around her body as she looked up at the clock. It was 6:30. Most of the people she worked with wouldn't be in for another hour and a half, so she went back to sleep. Garrett found her there around 8:15, when he came to see if she had finished all her back logged paperwork. She looked so peaceful sleeping there, even with the dark circles under he eyes, that he couldn't wake her. Garrett noticed she was wearing the same clothes she had been wearing the day before and frowned. She had slept there. He glanced over at her desk and noticed that all but three of the files were finished. Garrett bent down and recovered her with the blanket and kissed her forehead.
"You wanted me to finish the paperwork, so I staid to get them done. I hadn't meant to stay all night, but I fell asleep." Jordan replied trying to cover up the fact that she was avoiding her lonely apartment, her dad's house and the bar. "Besides, the quicker I finish the paperwork, the quicker I can get back to being an ME."
"I'm glad that you finished most of the paperwork, but you've been avoiding going home. Ever since Max left, you haven't been the same. You've been pulling away from Woody too. Everyone's noticed it. You need to talk to someone. I don't care if it's the plant in your office, you need to get it off your chest, or it will eat away at you. I'm worried about you, Jordan." Garrett lectured. If Jordan hadn't been so tired she might have been mad, instead she was close to tears.
"I just don't know what to do or who to turn to, Garrett. After this thing with James and then Dad leaving, I don't know what to do. I find out I have a brother, only to think he murdered my mother and then realize he's innocent and lose him. Then Dad left, and I have so many questions, but I cant ask them because I don't want to make things worse between us, not to mention he's gone. As for Woody, he's seeing Devan. That's why we don't hang out. He's more interested in her, and I'm just the ex girlfriend, which I wasn't really in the first place but he doesn't want to be around me because of some seemed sexual tension that only exists for him. I'm so frustrated and so lost and alone, and not to mention screwed up royally. I didn't mean to push this all on you, because I do that a lot and I take advantage of our friendship." Jordan finished with a huff that turned into silent tears. Garrett got up and pulled her into a hug. Jordan held onto him for dear life, her sobs audible now.
"Jordan, you can always talk to me. I'll always be here for you. You are my best friend and that will never change." Garrett hugged her tighter until Jordan stopped crying.
"Thank you Garrett, for always being there for me. You're my best friend too." Jordan said feeling better.
"Now all we need to do to get you to smile is to grab Nigel and Bug and lock Woody in the trunk of his stupid car." Garrett said with a smirk.
"You've noticed that he drives a granny car too?" Jordan asked with a grin."Yeah. Real men drive sports cars and trucks." Garrett answered and Jordan laughed."Or ride motorcycles." She added."Are you implying Nigel's a real man?" Garrett asked."Are you implying I'm not?" Nigel asked from the doorway with a smile."Just the opposite. We said tat real men drive sports cars and trucks or ride motorcycles." Jordan said covering their asses."Damn straight." Nigel agreed before hugging Jordan. "Its good to see you smile, love. We were starting to get worried about you."
"Does everyone worry about me?" Jordan asked with mock anger.
"Of course. Where would we be without hurricane Jordan to keep our lives interesting?" Lily said coming up behind Nigel, with Bug.
"Hurricane Jordan, huh? Well if I'd known that you enjoyed my presence that much, I would have just moved into the morgue." Jordan said sarcastically and everyone laughed.
"You know what would be great right now? Pizza!" Lily said. Every one agreed and fished out money for five small pizzas, so everyone could have what they wanted and Lily went to order. Bug and Nigel wandered back to their lab to finish the tests they were running while they waited for the pizza. Jordan sat on the edge of Garrett's desk.
"Feel better now? Do you see how much we need 'Hurricane' Jordan in our lives to keep us on our toes. We all love you." Garrett said, hoping to make her see how much she was needed. Jordan looked like she might cry again. "No more tears, my shirts already soaked." Garrett joked."Yeah, I see. You guys are all to good to me. Thank you." Jordan answered. She and Garrett talked until Lily came in with the pizza. Nigel and Bug were right behind her, having smelled it from down the hall. They camped out on the floor in Garrett's office, each of the with a pizza, occasionally stealing a slice from someone else's. They talked and laughed until DA Rene Walcot walked in during one of Nigel's lame jokes.
"A man walks into a bar, what does he say?" Nigel asked.
"Ouch" Bug answers. "We've all heard that one Nig."
"So, it's a good one, Sir Buggles." Nigel retorted. Rene cleared her throat and everyone looked up at her.
"Nice to see that everyone is enjoying themselves. Aren't you supposed to be working on the Weston case?" She asked Nigel and Bug.
"We are, but there's nothing we can do until we get the results of our test back which wont be done for another 10 minutes, but we'll go check them now just in case." Nigel said giving Bug a meaningful glance. Lily followed them out.
"That's my cue to go finish up those last few reports I didn't finish. I'll talk to you later Garrett. Rene, nice to see you again." Jordan said as she walked out the door, closing it softly behind her. She ducked into her office and shut the door before anyone could say anything, hoping to sneak into the lab when Rene was looking again.
"What is going on in this office? Is that all you have to do all day is sit around on your collective asses and have a pizza party?" Rene asked once she had refocused her attention on Garrett.
"That's not fair Rene. It was for Jordan. We were trying to cheer her up…" Garrett started.
"It always comes back to Jordan. You always let her get away with everything. You fired her only to take her back. You allow her to go off on her little escapades that get her into trouble and interfere with my cases and put my detectives and herself at risk. That woman is a loose canon and one of these days its going to come back to bite you in the ass…." Rene paused for a breath and was about to start in on Jordan again but Garrett stopped her with a question.
"What is your real problem with Jordan? She hasn't done anything to you personally. She does her job. What she does on her own time is her business. If she has something that overlaps her job, so be it. I'm willing to deal with that as it comes. I wont fire her again. She is a good ME and a good friend." Garrett watched Rene's face as her said the last thing. "You're jealous of her aren't you?"
"I'm not jealous. That has nothing to do with anything. She is unprofessional." Rene said flustered.
"Why are you jealous of Jordan?" Garrett said simply holding her stare. Rene looked away first.
"Because she has something with you that I cant have. She is your best friend and you'd have to be blind to not see the chemistry between you. She's half way in love with you and you're the same way with her, and I want that from you."
"We were together and you broke it off after that day in court. You want a secret relationship and I don't I have no problem being seen with you but you were always worried about it. That was your problem not mine."
"She already has your heart even if you don't realize it. I may have had your body for a little while but she has your heart and that's why I hate her. She has you and doesn't even know it." With that Rene left. Garrett sat and thought about what Rene had said. It was true Jordan did have his heart and there was nothing that would change that. She had seen him at his worst and hadn't looked away and he had seen her at her worst and loved her anyway. Garrett staid in his office the rest of the day and Jordan figured that she would be safe in hers or in the lab. After she finished her last three files, she wandered into the lab to see what Nigel and Bug were up too. Jordan was the first to leave that night.
As soon as she got home, Jordan dropped her stuff on the couch and surveyed her apartment. It was a mess. There was a massive pile of dishes in the sink, and an even bigger pile of clothes in the middle of her bedroom floor. Her bathroom wasn't much better. Jordan cleaned her bathroom first so that she could take a shower. After she got out, she had to dig around for some clean clothes, at last finding a pair of faded jeans with holes in the knees and sweater that James had left when he had asked to stay with her, she dressed quickly and pulled her hair back with a clip. Jordan attacked her dirty laundry next, separating them and dumping the whites into the wash. Once that was done, she wandered into her kitchen to survey the damage. Seeing the mess all over she just started at one end and worked her way to the other doing dishes and cleaning out her refrigerator in the process, stopping half way so she could put a new load of laundry in the washer and put the wet ones in the dryer. She quickly finished up the kitchen then stripped the sheets off her bed so that they could be washed too. When she was done with that she collected her now dry whites and sat on the couch to fold them. She took her folded clothes and put them away and picked up her living room. Since that lasted only long enough for her to get another set of laundry to fold, Jordan did that quickly and ordered some Chinese food for dinner. Looking around, she noticed how much better he apartment looked.
"This is so much nicer." She said to herself. "Great I'm talking to my self now." Shaking her head she turned on the TV to see what was on. There was a knock on her door 45 minutes later, as she was picking out a movie to watch. It was Garrett holding her Chinese.
"I believe that this belongs to you." Garrett said handing her the bag.
"Did you pay for it too?" Jordan asked looking for any trailing delivery boys.
"No, I just pinched it off the kid and gave him a tip for nothing." Garrett joked. " I looked for you at the 'Pogue' but the bartender said that you hadn't been in for the last couple of days."
"Yeah, I just haven't felt like going in. Plus I had a previous appointment with my maid. O had to fire her, she just wasn't doing her job." Jordan cracked.
"Looks pretty clean here to me."
"It does now. I just finished cleaning it up. It looked like 'Hurricane' Jordan landed in the middle of my apartment. Anyway, do you want some Chinese, I always order enough for two?"
"If you don't mind sharing." They settled themselves on Jordan's couch and ate the first minutes in silence.
"So what crawled up Rene's ass, that had her so crabby today? She looked mad enough to spit fire." Jordan asked casually.
"She's jealous of you, Jordan, so she came in there and saw all of us sitting around laughing and carrying on and figured you instigated it. Then she blamed me for letting it slide. And I had to mention that it was to cheer you up and that set her off on you again."
"What is her problem? I know you just said that jealous of me, but if she wants my problems and insecurities, then she can have them."
"That's not what makes her jealous. She says I let you have full reign and do nothing to control you. She's also envious of our friendship. I think she sees you as competition, even though Rene and I haven't been together since that day in court."
"Why would she see me as competition?" "She knows that my heart belongs to you Jordan. It has for a long time. I believe she put it as, her having my body but knowing she could never have my heart. She wanted me to love her but I cant. When I got back together with Maggie, it was just sex. I knew that I didn't love her anymore, and with Lily, she made me feel young but I compared her to you. I know that you don't feel the same way I do, but I love you Jordan and I always will." Garrett sighed, not wanting to look at her but needing to. Jordan looked shell shocked.
"Garrett, I care deeply for you, but I cant say those words. I'm not ready for that. You know I have commitment problems. I want to be with you Garrett but I just cant say that until I know in my heart that I will mean them. I wont hurt you by making it meaningless." Jordan looked sad and kind of spooked.
"I know Jordan. Love takes time, and we have all the time in the world. We can take it as slow as you want or need to. I've waited for this long, I can wait longer." Garrett smiled at her and gently brushed his lips over hers.
"Thank you Garrett for always being what I need."
"Anything for you Jordan, anything." Jordan snuggled up to his side and they started watching the movie Jordan had picked out.
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Thanks!
GN