Little Souvenir
Chapter 2
Towel Trouble
Disclaimer: Crossing Jordan and all related characters were created by Tim Kring and are owned by NBC/Universal and Tailwind Productions. This fanfiction is meant for entertainment purposes only and does not intend to infringe on the rights of the owners.
Author's Note: Thanks to those who reviewed! I like reviews! Reviews are good! I'm all for feed back - and don't be shy if I screwed something up. I'm still pretty new to the whole CJ fandom so any factual errors I blame on faulty research materials (and with a BA in history, research is something I'm really good at).
Notes: Dialogue borrowed, and in some cases re-written, from Crossing Jordan episode 5.11 "The Elephant in the Room" written by Joe Pokaski and directed by Bethany Rooney.
Special thanks to TwizTv for the episode transcript, and the Crossing Jordan Encyclopedia for episode summary and notes.
Shortly after finding breakfast, Woody returned to his and Jordan's room and found her repacking her purse, after popping what appeared to be a couple of aspirin. He informed her that the roads were more or less cleared, but it was advised that either snow tires or chains be used. Jordan, having been brought up by Max alone and therefore treated as one of the boys, had moved the chains from her El Camino to the morgue's Jeep. She had expertly put them on without Woody's assistance and then dared him to say something about it. Woody's self-preservation instincts kicked in and he wisely kept mum.
On the car ride back to Boston, Woody and Jordan chatted about previous cases and swapped a few stories about their college days, but expertly avoided the topic of the previous night. To be more accurate, Jordan expertly avoided the subject and after a while Woody decided that it wasn't worth it to force her to talk about it. If and when she was ready, she'd talk about it, but Woody highly doubted that it would be anytime soon. He wasn't even sure if she would even tell Pollack about it.
Evening was falling once they pulled back into Boston. Jordan dropped Woody off at Renee Walcott's office before heading to the morgue. Once there, she caught up with Nigel, who filled in her on the goings on since she'd been out of town.
"Really, quiet as a morgue here," Nigel joked as they walked towards the elevators, making Jordan roll her eyes.
"Seriously Nige, you did not just make that joke," she groaned. "At any rate, Garret will be in at seven, and then I'll come in at ten to cover his shift while he's in court." She checked her watch and sighed. "But for right now I have a long overdue date with my bed."
"And what about your Aussie beau? You two are getting pretty serious, no?"
Jordan scoffed. "I don't ask about your sex life."
With a wicked grin, Nigel answered, "I wouldn't mind."
"Yeah, I would," Jordan said drolly.
The elevator dinged and the pair looked over to find Woody walking towards them. Jordan smiled brightly at him and he flashed an equally brilliant smile at her. Nigel glanced between the pair and quickly deduced that more had happened in Littleton Village than Jordan had said. A lot more.
"Hey," she said lightly.
"Hey," he answered, completely ignoring Nigel. "Uh, dumpster diver just found this at the municipal refuse. It's a towel from the Medici Hotel."
Jordan looked confused. "Two days into the trial?"
"He saw the hotel logo on the news last night," Woody explained, "and thought there was a reward."
Turning towards the lanky Brit, Jordan addressed him. "Okay, what can you get me in 13 hours, Nige?"
Taking the towel, Nigel inspected it. "Well, I can match the blood against the Anne Rappaport samples. Prints are gone, though. If I can find viable sweat or skin cells, I can maybe get sex and blood type. If and maybe."
Jordan nodded with a satisfied look on her face. "Get 'em," she ordered before addressing the detective. "Uh, Woody, give Walcott's office the heads up on this. And Nige, everything you've got in real time."
Nigel walked off with the towel to run it through trace while Woody headed back to the elevators. Noticing that Jordan wasn't walking right along with him, he turned around to look at her. "Hey, you coming?"
Jordan looked up from her cell phone. "Uh, you go ahead. I need to tell Garret about the new evidence."
Nodding Woody got into the elevator and pressed the lobby key. Knowing Jordan, she was probably going to avoid him as much as possible until she could figure out what the hell was going on between the two of them. He had hoped that by sleeping together, any remaining barriers between them would come down but apparently all it had done was create more. Once out of the elevator he pulled out his cell phone and called Renee.
"This is Walcott."
"Renee, it's Woody."
"Something wrong, Detective Hoyt?"
"We had a dumpster diver turn in a towel from the Medici Hotel. I've taken it to the ME's office where Nigel is running trace on it. He said that there won't be any prints, but he's going to test the blood against Anne Rappaport's and also see if there's any sweat that puts Meyers there at the time of death," he reported dutifully.
He could hear Walcott grimace on the other end of the line. "And if the sweat doesn't belong to Meyers?"
"Then he's telling the truth and there was a third party in the hotel room. If that's the case, then we have to find out who and fast, on top of what kind of involvement they had."
"Thank you, Detective Hoyt. I'll see you at the trial tomorrow." The line went dead and Woody sighed. This trial was going to be a pain.
The next morning Jordan walked into the morgue and found Nigel in trace, busily working on the Medici towel. This was, of course, after dodging Emmy and Lily and their overabundance of questions about Garret's current whereabouts.
"How's it going, Nigel? Find anything useful?"
"The blood is Anne Rappaports, but I'm still working on the sweat."
"Anything else?"
Nigel shook his head. "Not yet."
"Damn. I wonder if we can do DNA tests on the sweat. You know Walcott's gonna want them."
"Six months in the municipal dump is a lot of damage to undo, luv," Nigel answered. "Frankly, at this point it wouldn't be worth it."
Jordan groaned. "Fine, fine, kill my joy. I'm going to my office to look over the case file again."
Shortly after she walked out, Woody walked in, looking cheerful for a guy who was heading off to court in a few hours.
"How goes the towel Nigel?"
"Still working on it," Nigel answered. Looking up to give Woody a proper once over, he finally sighed. "You are way too happy for this early in the morning. What got into you?"
"Oh, it was a nice change of pace to get out of Boston for a little while," Woody answered with a shrug. "I have to say, there's something about nearly getting killed in a barn."
Nigel chuckled. "Why do I get the feeling there more to it than that?"
"Now, now Nigel, I am not a kiss and tell." Woody then smirked. "Or in this case, a sleep with and tell."
Nigel, who had been taking a sip of coffee, choked as he tried to swallow. "I beg your pardon? You finally managed to bed Jordan?"
Woody gave a nonchalant shrug. "I'm neither confirming nor denying it."
"This is major. I never thought that she'd let you do it," Nigel said, standing up. "What could this possibly mean?"
Again, Woody shrugged. "I hope it means that we can officially have a relationship."
"Uh, hate to burst your bubble mate, but there is one tiny little detail you might have forgotten."
"What's that?"
Nigel merely indicated for Woody to turn around. Sure enough, Jordan and J.D. were walking by at that moment, his arm draped around her shoulders and her arm looped around his waist. With a sigh, Woody said softly, "Oh yeah, that."
I apologize if it seems like the chapters are short, but I feel that the story as a whole works better in that format. So, before you even ask, yes, there will be a lot of chapters. I'm up to 13 already and I don't think I've really even hit the half-way mark. I just hope you'll all stick with me for however long this ends up being.
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Squee! I love this and I'm totally addicted! Please continue! Squee!
Constructive criticism and critques are welcome. Suggestions are pondered. Flames will be deleted with a sadistic laugh.
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