Woody hung his head for a moment, suddenly taking great interest in the toes of his shoes. Finally, raising his eyes to meet Jordan's, he asked, "Can we go upstairs for a minute? To your room? Where we can talk without being interrupted or overheard?"

Jordan led the way upstairs, her shoulders still slumping under the weight of worry for her daughter. They reached the top of the stairs and went into her bedroom. Determinedly, she shut the door and turned to look at Woody. "Okay, Hoyt. Spill it. What is going on with you? And why should it concern me? And most of all, why should it involve Meghan?"

"Have a seat, Jo. This is going to take a while," Woody replied, motioning her to the bed. Jordan sat down on the edge, crossing her arms in front of her. She hasn't changed, too much, Woody thought, Still defensive...especially when it comes to protecting her own. He remembered she would take the same stance with him when she knew she was right about a case. When she knew someone she loved was going to get hurt...It didn't surprise Woody that Jordan was a great mom...her compassion and concern for those she loved was measureless.

"You know what I told you when we saw each other in Chicago?" he began.

"What?"

"When you asked what I did in the FBI and I told you I took care of the President?"

"Yeah...you're like his body guard or something, right?"

"No...remember I told you I was not exactly a body guard, but it was classified and I couldn't really tell you?"

Jordan nodded. She did remember, vaguely. She was so taken with the idea that Woody worked with the President, that she really didn't hear a whole lot after that.

Woody came over and sat beside Jordan on the bed and took her hand. "I do work with the President, Jo. On nearly a daily basis. But I'm not his bodyguard. When I left Kewuanne for Quantico, I was in training to be a special agent. Unlike the other agents who were training with me, I had no distractions. No wife. No kids. No family. So I was able to focus solely on the task at hand. I became good at certain things....certain things that secured me not only a very lucrative and prestigious position, but also a very dangerous one as well."

He paused here, not sure exactly how to tell her. She needed to know...God knows she deserved to...but it was classified. "Jordan, I need to ask you something here. I need to know that beyond a shadow of any doubt that you can keep what I'm about to tell you completely secret. It never leaves this room. We can talk about it together, but you can tell no one...not Max, not Garrett, not Helen....no one. If you tell, if you even barely mention it to another soul, it could put my life in danger."

Jordan nodded, her brown eyes wide and solemn in her tired face. "I promise..."

"About five years ago...after the terrorists threats were stepped up, but before 9-11, the President requested a ...a...liaison of sorts. A middle man, a 'secret agent', for lack of a better word, that could work with the informants from various terrorist organizations. One that could weed out truth from fiction, credible threat from an off-hand remark. I'm that man."

Jordan drew a sharp breath. "Then that means..."

"Yeah, it does. I know almost every terrorist network in the world. I have informants in all the hot spots all over the place. I talk with some of them on a daily basis. I'm great at my job, because I'm probably the most unassuming guy these men have ever laid eyes on. They don't think too much about telling me a lot of what they know. Then I weed it out...discover what's real and what isn't....and report it to the President's office. Most of the time, directly to him."

"So why didn't these guys go after you?"

Woody sighed and squeezed her hand slightly. "Because they also probably know that I don't really care about me...I would have put up a fight, but would not have given up any information about what I know as far as terrorist cells or anything. They would have ended up killing me without retrieving any new knowledge. But somehow...they found out I had a daughter...with you. Before I even knew about it. They also knew that you would run straight to me when Meghan was kidnapped, telling me about my impending fatherhood.

"And they also knew me well enough to realize that once I discovered that Meghan was my daughter, and her life could be in danger, I'd do anything for her. Give up any information. Give my life...so she would be safe. So it's not you that got our daughter into this situation. You didn't piss anyone off this badly. I did."

"Who are these guys, Wood?"

Woody sighed deeply. "Right now, I'm not completely certain. I've got some leads I'm still having tracked down."

Jordan looked over at him. This revelation seemed to have aged Woody years beyond what he really was. His face looked haggard...lined with worry...and did she see regret? Regret from what? Her Farm Boy was gone...probably vanished years ago...with the weight of his job. The weight of his past. She just now noticed the light sprinkling of gray that was tinting his temples, while her hair remained the untouched dark chestnut it always had been.

"I'm sorry, Woody," she said suddenly.

He looked up surprised. "Sorry for what?"

"Sorry for not being able to get in touch with you about Meghan...that you haven't gotten to know your daughter...that you've had to deal with...with...your job all by yourself. That your marriage to Sandra didn't work out...You just seem so .... Alone."

He gently squeezed her hand again. "It's okay, Jo. In many ways, I guess this is the life I chose for myself. I mean that night...at your apartment...you told me that the Malden thing was behind us...that you didn't blame me...and I still chose to leave. I knew I shouldn't marry Sandy...that I wasn't over us...over you...I made the whole town of Kewuanne mad at me ...even Cal. I'm still not in good speaking terms with Mom and Dad over that.

But now it's different. I know I have a daughter...a family, of sorts. And when we get her back...when everything is back to normal again, I won't be alone."

Jordan paled. "You're not thinking of taking her...away...from... me?" The thought hurt so badly her lips could barely form the words.

Woody shook his head. "No...but I do want to get to know her...have joint custody or something. Summers. Parts of holidays..."

Jordan swallowed hard and pulled her hand from hers. Rising from the bed, she walked to her bedroom window, looking down into her backyard. A backyard filled with reminders of Meghan...her swing set...the playhouse....all her various toys scattered across the lawn. She realized this may happen when she called Woody...but the priority of getting her daughter back safely took precedence over any other concern at the time. Now it seemed that her worst worry...that Woody would take her daughter away...may come true.

"Do you think that is a wise idea? I mean she doesn't know you at all," she replied.

"She's already asking questions. You said so yourself."

"But don't you think your job could continuously put her in danger?"

"I can change jobs....it isn't that hard to get transferred. I may even could get transferred back into Boston."

Woody heard her take a deep breath, and before she even tried to reply, he said, "Don't worry about it now, Jo. I would never take Meghan away from you...but I do want to get to know her...I am her father. Joint custody is the fairest way for everyone to go..."

Jordan nodded, not trusting her voice. Her daughter had been kidnapped. By a group of individuals her father was involved with. And when and if she every got her back, Meghan may be taken from her again...that was something she didn't know if she could live with.

Another sleepless night that yielded another restless morning. Jordan was biding her time, waiting until time for her and Woody to drive to the parking lot on South Elm Street. She tried to stay busy...she cleaned the kitchen, did laundry, changed the bed sheets...the police had finally let her back into Meghan's room, so she cleaned it. Woody watched her with a half-amused expression on his face. He had never seen Jordan this domesticated. It was a new sight for him.

Max and Helen had come over...Jordan had introduced him to her step-mother. It was obvious that Jordan and Helen were very close and that Jordan loved her. Randy and Caroline had come with them and brought baby Hunter. Jordan immediately latched onto her three-month old nephew and held him closely while they talked. To Woody, it seemed he had caught a tiny glimpse of how Jordan must have been with Meghan when she was an infant. So Jordan had an almost intact family now...including another step-brother. Woody sighed again when he realized how empty his own life was. While his life had progressed professionally, Jordan's had progressed personally. He wondered if she knew how really blessed she was.

It seemed odd to him how much he could ache for a daughter he really didn't know and who herself had no clue he existed at all. He had heard her voice the other night over the phone as they talked with the kidnappers. His heart had broke right along with Jordan's when he heard Meghan say, "I'm scared, Mom...I want to come home." He heard the tremor in the child's voice just like Jordan did. It was all he could do to restrain himself and stay calm for her and her mother. All he wanted to do was jump through the receiver and wring the kidnapper's neck, if that could have been possible.

The sudden ringing of his phone stopped his train of thought. Flipping it open, he said, "Hoyt."

"Woody...this is Hinshaw. We've got a read on who the kidnappers are. Are you where you can talk?