A/N: Clearly I do not own the characters of "Crossing Jordan."

He had held her. Held her against him as if by holding her long enough he wouldn't have to let her go. Held her so that when they were apart the faint pressure of her still tingled in his arms, and his neck still tickled with the memory of her dark hair.

He held her on the unforgiving mountain first, in the shadow of the fractured plane, and again as hope returned in the form of choppers high above. And finally he held her in the quiet discomfort of a hospital waiting room, between the weeping woman with wispy white hair whose friend was unable to calm her, and the tired young man sleeping under a newspaper.

With the hard arms of the chair pushing into him, he held her when she fell asleep. Held her while Bug read through every newspaper in the room, even the one that had once covered the man snoring gently beside them, despite Lily's protests ("Let the poor man be!").

He held her when Nigel came in, arm swathed in bandages, followed closely by a softer, concerned Kate, who, by the looks of her damp hair and clean clothing, was the only one yet to shower. He held her when Nigel gave up waiting, draped himself with an audible thump over a chair, and fell asleep under Kate's possessive eye. He held her to him all through the long night, and through three separate receptionists. He was still holding her when Bug gently replaced the newspaper over the man's eyes and finally, when the doctor came out, he shook her gently awake and released her.

Jordan woke quickly and looked urgently up at the tired surgeon before her. Her face still showed the imprint of the folds of Woody's shirt, creases ran across her nose and right cheek, spider-webbing from sleep-dark eyes down to her jaw.

"Well?" Her voice cracked on the single word, worn from a mixture of exhaustion and worry. Her dark eyes pleaded for good news, an eyebrow raised in question quavered with barely concealed panic.

Woody kept his arm around her waist, still tingling with under-circulation from hours under her sleeping weight. Some of the tension in her body relaxed as his hand rubbed her back, comfortingly wrinkling and unwrinkling the dark blue shirt she'd thrown on. Kate left Nigel sleeping across the room and came to hover nearby.

The surgeon looked down at them earnestly, careful to make eye contact with Jordan to assure that she understood what he was saying. He had been told, and had picked up from gossip, some of what these people had been through.

"He did well in surgery. We managed to get the bleeding from his spleen completely under control, we think we found the only place he was bleeding from. The rib was fractured neatly and we set it. He's stable, but the blood loss was quite severe."

"Thank god." Bug had come up behind them. Lily peered over his shoulder, while a small, blanketed bundle in her arms stirred slightly, trapping her light hair between it and her chest. She rocked it absently.

"Can we see him?" The quaver was still in Jordan's voice, but the scratchiness of sleep was fading quickly, and her gaze met the surgeons steadily, but her hand clutched Woody's knee painfully. His other hand covered hers.

"He's not conscious yet, but well… Are there any family members here? I mean, it's customary for them to see the patient first…"

Jordan looked hard at him, as Bug folded his arms. The doctor shrugged apologetically. Woody shifted and prepared to hold her down. The worried frown on Lily's face eased a little in amusement as she recognized what he was doing.

Jordan's voice lost the quaver and gained a hard edge. "Where is his room?"

"Just down the hallway and to the right, but I really…"

"We have been colleagues for years. When I had surgery he was entered as my legal guardian. We nearly died on a damn cold mountain in the middle of nowhere. I did everything I could to keep him alive. Now, what was that you were just saying about family?"

She brushed off Woody's restraining hold, and shouldered her way past the bewildered doctor, whose mouth opened in protest. Forgetting that she was in socks, having taken off her shoes before she fell asleep on Woody, she strode out the swinging doors and into the empty hallway.

Woody smiled apologetically at the poor man. "Just let her go."

Lily came forward. "He would want her to be there. Please." Her head tilted appealingly.

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It was the third door she tried that led her to Garret. For a moment she didn't recognize him, lying there in an antiseptic room, pale sheets drawn up around him, surrounded by wires with his weathered skin sallow in the harsh light. The thick stubble on his face betrayed that it had been awhile since he had properly shaved. She watched his chest rise and fall for a moment, until it was clear that his breathing was regular and reassuringly strong.

A deep breath, and her hesitation was over. She stepped firmly into the room, and shut the door behind her with a light click, which sounded harshly against the hush, even though she tried to hold the door back to avoid it.

"Garret…" The catch in her rich voice was not from weariness.

Barely four steps brought her to the hard chair beside him. In another smooth movement she was seated, and grasping his rough hand between both of hers from amidst the wires. Her hair had hardly settled before she leaned swiftly towards his body.

"I'm here."

And she settled down to wait, as he had done for her not so very long ago.

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"…And you didn't think to wake me when the doctor came in?" Nigel was exasperated.

"You were sleeping. The doctor said he was doing well. He wasn't awake. It wasn't urgent." Kate replied with an amused and exasperated look of her own.

Nigel ran his good hand through his hair. "You should have woken me."

Across the room, Maddy had woken. A thin wail filled the room, slowly gaining in volume despite the attempts of Bug and Lily to quiet her with brightly colored toys, and much to the annoyance of the man under the newspaper. His head came up, and he was awake for the first time that any of them had seen. He glared at the mother and child, and with an audible snap, unfurled the newspaper that had covered him and began to read.

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"Jordan…" A rasping voice got her attention. "Jordan…"

"Garret!"

He lifted his head up a bit from the pillow with an audible grunt and surveyed his surroundings. Jordan watched him, a relieved smile lightening her face.

"I had surgery." It was a statement, but a slight question was implied.

"Yes," Jordan reassured him quickly. "It went well! According to the doctor you should be up and about in no time."

That wasn't actually what he had said. Nor what the nurses had said the times they had come to check on him. Most of their reports had hints of "a long road ahead" and "too early to tell." Jordan ignored it stubbornly.

He gave her a hard look, not quite prepared to believe her about that. As if reading his mind, she shook her head slightly, but whether it was a warning not to question her, or an admission of her lie he did not know. Too tired to argue, he let it slide.

"Everyone okay?" His voice was quiet, but she had no trouble understanding.

"Yeah. Woody, Bug, Kate and I got clean bills of health from the doctors. The only things wrong were a few bumps and bruises and a little dehydration. Nigel has a broken arm, but they set it and gave him stitches, and Kate hasn't left his side. We're all fine, Garrett, we're all fine." The renewed catch in her voice revealed her emotional state.

"Nigel and Kate?" His lips quirked into a small smile.

Her lips twitched as she looked down at him, and she nodded.

He gave her an intent look. "You and Woody?"

She hesitated for a moment, and then nodded again.

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Jordan came out into the waiting room quietly as it was still early in the morning, and only polite not to wake those inside. She really needn't have bothered; the wailing child had awoken most of the room before her mother whisked her out. Lily had been trailed by fading wails and an anxious Bug. The man with the newspaper had leaned back in his chair and fallen asleep within moments of their leave-taking.

Woody rose to greet Jordan, eyes questioning. From a chair on the other side of the room, Nigel sprung up, followed more sedately by Kate.

"Well?"

"He's awake!" She smiled at them.

Kate sighed in exasperation. "And?"

Nigel looked at her eagerly while she leaned gratefully against Woody.

"And he wants to see you guys. But the nurse says one at a time. When I left he was still protesting."

"Shouldn't we call his daughter? I mean, this would be a good time for them to talk."

Everyone gave Kate a surprised look.

"What? It would be!"

"Kate," said Nigel as if explaining something to a small child, "Garret and his daughter haven't spoken in ages. I don't think now would really be the time, we really shouldn't let him get upset and-"

"She does have a point," said Jordan slowly.

"Have you called your father lately?"

"Well, not since we got back…"

Woody stepped in between them. "The hospital said they were going to call her. Guys, relax, they're taking care of it. Now if none of you are going to see him, I am." He strode out of the room. Nigel and Kate exchanged a look, then followed him.

Jordan's voice called out after them, "They said 'one at a time'…"