Chapter Seventeen

The next morning, Jordan took Woody to the hospital. She admitted him and then went to the waiting room...hoping by some fat chance they at least had interesting magazines there to occupy her for the three to four hours Woody would be operated on. A movement in the doorway caught her attention. It was Dr. Evers.

"Dr. Cavanaugh?"

"Is something wrong...Woody?"

He grinned. "No, Woody's fine. I thought you might want to be in the room with him while I operated. You are a doctor..."

Jordan sighed. She would like nothing better.

After washing up and putting on the scrubs the nurses offered, she found herself in the operating room...she went over to Woody, and like she had so many other times since his accident, gently took his hand. "Jordan?" he asked, slightly groggy from the relaxant they had given him.

"Yeah...how'd you know it was me?"

"You're perfume...sweetheart...your perfume."

"Ready?" Dr. Evers asked, moving the laser into position.

"As I'll ever be," replied Woody.

Three hours later, both eyes bandaged, it was over. Woody had felt little and with the pain medication given, he wouldn't feel anything for several days. He would spend two nights at the hospital in Hawaii and then he and Jordan would have a direct flight home...no stops or layovers anywhere. In ten days, Dr. Little would remove the bandages and he would know if his sight was back at any level or if his world would remain dark and he could become a dairy farmer in Kawaunee. Time would only tell.

"No, Woody," Jordan said, putting as much force as she could behind her words. "I don't feel good about this."

"Yes, Jordan. I've done this before."

"Not since you've had surgery!" she exclaimed, raising her voice.

"Shh...do you want everyone to hear us?" They were in her office at the morgue.

"Frankly, I don't give a damn," she nearly shouted. "You don't need to be staying by yourself after the surgery."

"I'll be fine. Eddie's taking me over now. I'll talk to you later." He got up from the couch in her office. They had come directly to the morgue after arriving back in Boston. Jordan needed to check her messages and get caught up on a few things. Woody had told her he needed to make some phone calls. She didn't know they were to Eddie. She had anticipated either camping out at his apartment on his couch or at her apartment on her couch until his bandages came off.

But that was not to be. Despite the fact a big part of her was relishing in the idea of having him close by again...taking care of him...Woody wasn't going to allow it. "Hey," she said, stopping him before he could find his way out her doorway to wait for Eddie by the elevators.

"Yeah?" He didn't turn around. He kept his back to her.

"Could I at least come by at night and check your bandages? Your eyes will need to be dressed. You heard Dr. Evers. Eddie can't do it. At least as well as I can."

Keeping his back to her, he nodded and made his way to the elevators, one hand trailing the wall to guide him.

Jordan watched him leave. He didn't need her much anymore. Not really. I guess I've served my purpose... and he's moving on, she thought. She didn't know Garrett was behind her until she felt his hand on her shoulder.

"You okay? I couldn't help but over hear...I'm sorry."

Jordan felt the tears rise in her eyes. "Yeah...I just thought..."

"That things would go back to the way they used to be? That you could continue to be his nurse? I don't think so Jordan. He's a man....a man that can only take small doses of being taken care of like that. He's the type of man that feels his job is taking care of you....protecting you. It's not setting well with him that he can't. Plus the fact that Devan muddied the relationship waters for you two...."

"I know..." Garrett could hear the break in her voice. He gently pulled her to him.

"You need to let him go, Jo."

"I did...he's going back to his apartment."

"No....I mean emotionally...let him go. Even if he gets his sight back...despite what you told me earlier about following your heart, you need to let him go. Woody's wrestling with a lot of issues right now. I know the signs. His blindness is a part of it....it affects his future....but that's not all of it. You need to move out of the way and let him work through this...make up his mind. Let him go, Jordan."

"Is that an order?"

"Not exactly...just some advice from someone that's been there."

"But I'm scared, Garrett."

"Of what?"

"That he may get hurt...or that he may hurt me."

Garrett hugged her. "There's always that chance. Either way, you need to get out of his way."

She nodded. But it would be one of the hardest things she would ever do.

The next night, after she got off work, she found herself at Woody's apartment, knocking on the door. She came to dress his eyes and check on him. Then she was going home and get some much needed rest. Taking Garrett's advice, she was going to be friendly, but not anything else.

"Hi," she said as Woody opened the door.

"Jordan?"

"Yeah...came by to check your eyes...you know. Doctor those baby blues."

He pushed the door open wider. "Come on in."

"So," she said as she came into the living room, "how's it going, Wood? You okay?"

"Yeah, fine. Where do you want me?"

"Couch is good." Jordan took a cursory look around the room. A few beer bottles. Pizza. He had been home a while.

Woody made his way to the couch and sat down on the arm of it, making him at a higher level for Jordan to deal with....much easier on her.

Jordan sat her bag down on the table and flipped the light off by the couch. "Okay, cowboy...let's see what we've got." She cut the bandage wrapped around his head and removed the gauze bandage. Then she took off the pads over each eye. She washed the area with saline and dropped the medication in each eye and rubbed the ointment on. Then she put fresh bandages back, careful all the time to keep her touch light and professional, her demeanor only friendly. "How's that?"

"Thanks. Better."

She made to pull away from him when he caught her wrists. It always amazed Jordan how he always knew exactly where she was at in relationship to his body, even though he was blind. She chalked it up to his other senses becoming more acute. She wondered if they would stay this sharp after he got his eye sight back.

"What?" she asked.

He pulled himself up, so that he was standing over her. "I need to know something, Jo."

"Okay...."

"It's been bothering me since we were in Hawaii. Will you be honest with me?"

She nodded, wondering what it could be.

"The bikini, Jo. Why'd you wear it?"

"The bikini?" She wasn't following where he was going with this.

"Yeah...the red bikini...the barely there bikini?"

"It was my bathing suit...I bought it last summer when Lily and I went on vacation..."

"Why did you wear it in front of me?"

She had never thought about it. It was her bathing suit...the nicest one she had...she never thought about how he would react to it....not being able to see. He could feel the heat from her face. He knew she was blushing.

"So why Jordan?" he asked again. "Are you a tease? Never figured you for one. But you were....you knew I wouldn't touch you again as long as I was blind....and then you come out in that bathing suit. What were you thinking? How did you think it made me feel?"

Jordan felt confused, but only for half a minute. Then she grew angry....after all she had done...taken care of him...arranged the treatment....and he was raking her ass over the coals for a bathing suit? She pulled away from his grasp.

"I know you're angry, Woody...about your eyes...about the accident...and probably about Devan running out on you like that, but I'm sorry. I'm the one here. I'm the one who took care of you...not out of pity, but because I cared...I wanted you to be safe...taken care of....and I wanted to be the one to do it, because you've done so much for me.

"I didn't wear that bathing suit for any other reason other than the fact it's the only one I have and I didn't have time to go shopping before we left to go to Hawaii. You've been so short with me...such a bastard at times...I didn't think it would have any affect on you because I didn't have blonde hair and blue eyes and answer to the name of Dr. McGuire.

"I'm leaving. I'll check your eyes from now on when you come in with Eddie for work in the mornings. And until then, you can go to hell, Woody."

She turned quickly to leave, before she dissolved into tears...before he heard her cry, when she heard him trip behind her and fall. He had reached out to stop her exit and lost his footing. Immediately she was at his side, helping him up. Brushing the hair off his forehead, she asked, "You okay?"

He wasn't. There was a long gash on his arm. "Come here," she said, grabbing her bag again and leading him to the bathroom. There she carefully washed and cleaned his cut, and bandaging it up...taking care of it the same way she did his eyes. She couldn't do this anymore. She didn't think she could put herself through this emotional wringer another day. "Woody," she said softly, when she had completed her task. "This time, I need to know something."

"Sure..."

She took his hand and put it on her face ... where he could feel her tears...know the depth of her emotion. "What are you going to do after the bandages come off? What are you going to do when you get your sight back?"

He hesitated only half a heartbeat. He pulled her into his arms and gave her a searing kiss, sending her world into a spin, not letting her for air, not letting her go, not letting her out of his arms...not until he thought that she knew exactly where he was heading.

The only problem was, she didn't. He had only confused her more. He still hadn't answered her questions. "No, Woody...that's not what I meant. Are you going back to Devan?"