The day before~

Woody didn't even try to conceal his frown as Jordan strode into his office.  He couldn't believe she had the nerve to walk in his office...unarmed.

"Let's play a game Jordan......Watch! I'll put my hands over my eyes and I'll count to ten and when I take them away...you'll be gone."

"Don't tell you're still upset over last week."

Leaning back in his chair, pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and finger. His ears were still ringing from the reprimand he received covering for Jordan when she 'inadvertently' picked up evidence from a suspect's premise before a warrant could be signed.

"Upset doesn't come close."

Jordan rolled her eyes.  "Geez, you sound more and more like Garret every day."

"What do you want Jordan?"

"Do I have to want something from you to stop by?" she laughed.  When he didn't return her mirth she shifted her feet. "Okay fine....but this time I actually have something for you."

"If it's not a new ass to replace the one Walcott chewed off, I'm not interested."

"Renee is all bark...."

It was Woody's turn to roll his eyes.  Picking up a pen, he turned his attention back to the stack of paperwork on his desk, hoping Jordan would get the hint and get on with it. She made his nervous when she acted this way, especially when his desk calendar was blaring the date at him.  His head popped up at the sound of a match being struck and his stomach dropped as Jordan lit the candle on a chocolate cupcake she had placed on his desk.

"Happy Birthday!" Jordan smiled at his dazed look. "You didn't think I'd let the big 3-0 slip by unnoticed did ya?"

"How....?"

Unaffected by his internal sense of dread, Jordan nonchalantly waved her hand and pushed the cupcake closer.  "You just have to know where to look...Oh, by the way; did you know your driver's license expired today?"  

Woody's eyes widened as his jaw dropped slightly.  He fumbled in his pant for his wallet. Finding his license he groaned...so it begins,

...The Birthday Curse.

Damn, he knew what he'd be doing for his lunch hour and probably most of the afternoon.  He should have never got out of bed.

"Don't forget to make a wish," Jordan murmured with an enigmatic smile as she leaned over his desk.

Choices, choices he deliberated with hooded eyes.  He decided to wish for something simple.  He wished for midnight to arrive in the next fifteen minutes.  Regrettably, it was only nine in the morning.

After a drawn out pause, he blew out the candle.  Jordan slowly dipped her finger in the chocolate.

"What did you wish for?" She asked as she licked the frosting off her finger. Uncomfortably he shifted in his chair for a moment.  "Well...?" She asked again tilting her head to one side, her eyebrow arched with curiosity.

"I can't tell you, or it won't come true," he pointed out playing along. He pulled the candle from the cupcake and carefully split it in two.  He offered half the sweet to her.  "All I can say is just be careful walking around today...you never know when a piano will fall from the sky..."

"Ha-ha-ha...real cute...." Jordan replied sarcastically.  She looked at her watch, "Crap, I gotta go.  Meet me at Pogue tonight; we'll have a few drinks...maybe play some pool...." When Woody looked like he was going to protest she added, "...and I'm buyin'"

"Trust me.  This isn't a good idea...."

"Good, say seven?" Jordan didn't wait for an answer.  In a flash she was gone.  He could only sit there shell-shocked.  Shit. 'The Day' was out there in the open for the hands of fate to slap him around.  Taking one last look at his driver's license he tossed his wallet on the desktop. Maybe, if he was lucky, an unplanned trip to the Registry of Motor Vehicles would be the only thing the happened. 

A decidedly rude noise came out of his mouth. With a sigh he dug into his paperwork.  There was a busy morning ahead of him if he was going to spend the afternoon at RMV.......

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"Fifteen...number fifteen can come to the counter...." a monotonous voice yelled from the service counter at the RMV office. 

Hell...I'm in Hell...Birthday Hell, he thought.   Woody cringed in his seat as an infant shrieked from the back of the waiting room. The noise resonated through the low drone of the static coming from the television perched from the ceiling in the corner of the room.  With a pained sigh, he looked at the number on the tiny slip of paper in his hand for the hundredth time in as many minutes.

"30....how freakin' perfect," he mumbled to himself.

Shortly after he walked into the branch office and RMV employee announced that the computers were running slow.  They had turned off of the units...except one in hopes of keeping the system from crashing.  If it weren't for driving illegally he would turned around and walked out an hour earlier.

His stomach grumbled reminding him that he hadn't eaten anything all day...except for the half a chocolate cupcake Jordan had brought by earlier. Scanning the room he spotted a vending machine just inside the door to the RMV office.  Humming a sarcastic version of 'Happy Birthday', he walked over to the machine.

Woody had tried to forget his birthday ever since it became obvious that Friday the Thirteenth couldn't hold a candle to the date, each year...every year...of his life....

At his sixth birthday party, his brother ate too much cake and ice cream and proceeded to vomit all over the presents.  At twelve a broken arm cancelled a trip to watch a Badgers game.  At seventeen he watched as his high school football team lose the regional final 63-0. Each year it was something different, finally culminating in the big disagreement he had with Annie on his twenty-seventh that triggered the beginning of the end.

When he got to Boston he tried to bury the fact that he even had a birthday. He thought he was successful until Jordan and her damned cupcake.

Fishing around in his pocket he found enough change for a candy bar.  He popped the coins in the machine and pushed the button...nothing happened.

"Ah sir? That candy machine doesn't work...."

Woody leaned his forehead on the plexiglas fighting the urge to hit his head against it as the voice continued......

"FIFTEEN! Number fifteen...it's your turn at the counter NOW please...."

....to be continued...  

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As always, thank you so much for your feedback......it's my drug of choice.  And thanks for the birthday greetings I received....Jo.