Chapter Four

"Merry Christmas, Jordan," Garret said, giving her a brief hug in the hallway.

"Merry Christmas, to you, too," she replied. "Can you believe it's been a whole year already?"

"Yeah, I know. Time flies. How are you doing, Jo?"

"Fine."

"No. That's not what I mean...Woody...are you doing okay doing without him? Are you over him?"

Jordan sighed..."Do I think I could begin a relationship with someone? Something that may have permanence about it? No. Not yet. Woody will always have a place in my heart." The holidays were the hardest without him. During the regular times, she could keep busy. During the holidays, she'd have time off...time on her hands...and time to think about him...the void in her life....the ache in her heart.

"The reason I ask is that we got a call this morning from him."

"From Woody?"

"Yeah....They found a body out there....with ties to the Irish mob here. He was wanted in LA and Boston. Sunny D's letting us have a stab at the body first. He wants to know if you'd like to fly out and do the autopsy."

"When does my plane leave?"

Garret grinned. He had expected her to jump at the chance. "In three hours. Think you have time enough to go home and pack and get to the airport?"

"Hell, yeah."

Her flight had arrived. Woody kept looking for her in the sea of people that were crowding LAX during this holiday season....He had no idea there were so many brunettes in the whole world. He wanted to get her and get back to their morgue...let her do her thing in autopsy....and then see if she would still be interested in spending some time with him. After he had gotten her e-mail a few days ago, he had wondered what to do...should he plan to go to Boston for Christmas...call her...then a body found in an alley provided his answer. It had a Massachusetts driver's license and a Boston address. He ran a few computer searches and hit pay dirt. He had told his boss he would be perfect to over see this, due to his ties in Boston. His chief had concurred and he was handed over the case on a silver platter. The first thing he had done was call Dr. Macy and request her.

Finally, he caught sight of her...her hair was a little longer...she was maybe a little thinner, but damn, those eyes were still the same. "Jordan," he called out.

She thought she heard him call her name above the crowd. She had left Boston in such a hurry she hadn't thought to call Garret and find out who was meeting her. After he had handed her the ticket confirmation, she had gone home, packed, changed into nicer clothes, and sped the airport. She heard her name again, but was having trouble locating the source. Then suddenly, there he was, in front of her. Still just as tall...but his hair had been highlighted by the sun....he was tanned...and it seemed his shoulders were broader. But his eyes.....oh God...those eyes....were still just as blue. "Woody," she managed to get out before he hugged her tight.

She clung to him, relishing once again, his nearness....the feeling of being in his arms just a few seconds. His cologne. All the dozens of things she had taken for granted when he lived in Boston, she was now soaking up like a sponge as he held her and gently swung her around. "Let me look at you," he said at last, releasing slowly.

She was still as petite as ever...and in that black pin-striped pantsuit and heels, she looked like a runway model...to him anyway. Her make up was different. But her hair was still thankfully wavy, and partially pulled back from her face. "Jo...you look good."

"You don't look too shabby yourself, Farm Boy," she replied. And he laughed. No one had called him Farm Boy since he moved out to LA.

"Ready to go to my morgue?"

"Oh...your morgue?"

Woody grinned and went with her to retrieve what little luggage she had. He put it in his car and they drove to the LA county morgue. He waited in autopsy until she had changed into scrubs. When she emerged from the locker room, she looked more like the Jordan he remembered....all business. Her hair was pulled back in a messy bun...her scrubs were riding low on her hips. "Okay, where is he?"

Woody put her through what they knew about the guy and introduced her to one of the ME's there that had started the initial trace work. From there on out, Woody just sat back and watched. In many ways, it was like old times....when she was finally satisfied with trace, she and the other ME agreed to meet the next day to do the autopsy. Woody smiled to himself with satisfaction. She'd be here at least a few more days.

It was still early in the day, and Woody knew he needed to get to his office and finish telling her what he knew about this guy...so he could get on to other things with her. After she had changed back into her suit, he asked her if she would mind going to his office with him for a little while. She grinned at him. "Sounds interesting....but remember, me and these guys didn't play well together when I lived out here before..."

"That was a long time ago Jordan... I'm sure no one remembers."

Jordan gave him smirk and allowed him to take her hand and lead her out to his car. A few minutes later, they entered his office building and he was immediately acutely aware of the other men's stares. He pulled her a little closer to him until he heard a voice from behind them. "It can't be...you're the ME from Boston? I swear, I thought we had gotten rid of you." It was Woody's chief, Peter Brannigan.

"No such luck, Brannigan. I told you I'd be back," Jordan chuckled. The three made small talk for a few minutes, until Jordan excused herself to go to the lady's room. Peter turned to Woody and said, "So that's who you've been moping over for the past year?"

Woody nodded. "Yeah."

"Don't blame you, Hoyt. She's turned into a beautiful woman and an excellent ME. Tell her what you know...and take the rest of the afternoon off and enjoy her."

Couldn't have worked out better if he had planned it. He corralled Jordan into his office after she emerged from the restroom and they went over the case piece by piece until he had told her everything he knew.

They were sitting on the couch in his office, so close their knees were nearly touching. When he had finally answered all her questions and told her all, he had reached out and gently pushed a curl behind her ear. "That's it, Jo. That's all I know right now."

"I guess we'll know more tomorrow after the autopsy."

"Yeah."

"Well....I guess...I guess I need to ask you to take me to my hotel...."

"Um, Jordan, I was kind of hoping you'd like to stay with me...I have a spare bedroom...and I've missed you...I'd like to spend as much time with you as I could..."

"Woody, that's an awful lot of trouble..."

"No...I'd really like for you to stay with me...if you would."

Jordan swallowed hard. What should she do? Her head said hotel, her heart said Woody's apartment. For once she let her heart win out....besides, she didn't know when she'd see him again.

"Okay. Your apartment it is."

He took her home and she changed into jeans and a t-shirt. She came into the kitchen to find him packing a picnic basket. "What's up with that?" she asked.

"Well....I know it's not summer, but this is LA and the weather is warm...even if Christmas is less than two weeks away. I thought we'd go somewhere quiet, with a bottle of wine, and have a picnic. Now that's a Christmas memory that will always be original."

Less than a half an hour later, they were on their way. "Where are we going to?" she asked. Woody had the top down and the wind was blowing her hair all over the place.

"It's a secret," he shouted above the noise of the engine and wind. "Just be patient."

So Jordan sat quietly and wondered...as they passed park after park....until finally he turned off the highway onto a back desert road....and just kept going. "You got plenty of gas?" she asked. She hadn't seen a gas station for miles.

"Don't worry about it..." and he kept on driving. Finally pulled over and parked the car. "Know where we're at?" he asked as he reached for the picnic basket in the back seat. It was getting dark...

"No..wait...yes...oh my God." It was where her car had broken down so many years ago....when Woody took a bug spray nap....when they had kissed for the first time....Jordan felt butterflies in her tummy.

"I thought you may remember...."

"That was forever ago," she said, helping him spread out the blanket. She sat the food out and he began to build a fire...it was getting darker, and chilly. The fire made things cozy...and before Jordan knew it, they were talking like old times....like nothing had ever happened...he had never left. In one way, the ache in her heart got a little easier, but she knew in a few brief days, she would have to go back to Boston, and leave him here. She deliberately pushed that thought out of her mind...she was going with her heart for the next couple of days....They ate. He asked about Nigel...Bug...Lily...and Garret. She got him caught up.

"Now, Jordan, how are you?" he had asked.

"I'm okay..."

"You're working hard."

"Don't we all?"

"Did you mean what you said about missing me in your e-mail the other day?" he asked, suddenly avoiding her eyes.

Well, it was definitely, you-show-me-yours-I'll-show-you-mind time, she thought. "Yes...I did. Did you?"

He nodded, sitting a little closer to her. "Do you remember how after I told you about some of my life in Wisconsin...you kissed me?"

Jordan hadn't forgotten...for years it had replayed in her mind why she did it...and then lately it had been why didn't she do it again ... and more often. "Yeah, I do..."she replied softly.

"You know Jordan, it's Christmas...can you believe it?"

Jordan was struggling to follow him. He had gone from one subject to a random thought. "It has come around quick." Maybe he was getting shy this time...

"Yeah, it's Christmas...." He suddenly scooted over a little closer to her...but it was dark and she couldn't see exactly what he was doing...

"And you owe me a kiss...." he said.

"A kiss?"

"Yeah. A kiss. It's Christmas." Woody looked up and Jordan's eyes followed his. He was holding a piece of mistletoe over her head. "So...are you going to pucker up without a fight....or am I going to have to hold you down and get it....because either way, I'm getting a kiss." He wagged his eyebrows at her.

Jordan laughed and shook her head at him...A Christmas tradition. He'd hide mistletoe all over the morgue to see if he could catch her and get a kiss...but that was before everything...before Devan...and him pushing her away.

But that's part of the reason she was here....maybe....to see how much of their past she could recapture....or if it was too late. She grinned. "Okay...seeing as how you went to so much here and get your kiss."

She leaned forward, expecting him to kiss her. "No..this isn't quite right, he said...He sat back against the car and pulled her over against him ...and lowered his head.

The year of not being near him had numbed her senses to such an onslaught. He softly kissed her...a kiss reminiscent of the few they had shared while he was in Boston...it was the kiss of two young lovers...a cold night, under the Boston stars...sweet and laced with innocence.

And Woody had meant to keep it that way....he didn't know how she would react and they still had a few days together...he didn't want to scare her off and she leave LA in a huff...and not want to see him again. So he kept it light, their lips barely touching....

Jordan could have screamed of frustration. He wouldn't let her pull him down for a deeper kiss....he was just barely kissing her....not satisfying at all to a woman who had missed him so much.... "Woody?' she had asked, when he finally raised his head. To his delight, he could read the frustration on her face.

"What Jordan?"

"That is not a kiss...."

He smiled against her lips. "It's not?"

"No. No, damn it. Kiss me like you missed me...you said you did."

And he did...again and again. Hardly letting her pull away to breathe...kissing her more deeply every time, until at last, gently cradling her, he lowered her onto the picnic blanket, kissing her neck, that spot behind her ear that made her knees go weak....sliding his thigh and knee between her legs.

Jordan kissed him back with all the longing she had kept bottled up for the past year and a half...from the time he had began pushing her away until tonight...under the California stars....with a soft breeze blowing....She held him, running her fingers through his hair, sliding her hands down the front of his shirt and feeling his muscles bunch in reaction to her light touch, pressing a trail of kisses along his collarbone. Her head had stopped thinking, and all she was doing for once in her life was feeling. And reacting to the way he made her feel.

"Jordan, sweetheart..." she heard him whisper in her ear... "Do we need to put the brakes on now?" He had pulled away long enough to look at her eyes in the light of the fading fire.

"No.."

"You're sure?"

She gently guided his hands to the buttons on her shirt and nodded. "Yes."

It seemed right it should happen there...in that place in the desert where they both had really recognized their feelings. Woody had been the wiser of the two. At least he had admitted it to himself...and her. She was the one who had ran from it...from his affection...from the promise he held of love...because it had been a scary proposition for her to trust another man in her life with her heart and her body....

But she wasn't afraid right now. And every soft gasp or low moan she gave only seemed to encourage him to push her just a little harder...raise the stakes a little higher....until she simply clung to him as he held her. Finally, he pulled the top blanket over both of them and they just laid there for a while....looking up at the stars....He chuckled.

"What's so funny?" she asked, rolling over so she was lying on top of him.

"You know, if you would have given in three years ago and admitted you loved me here then....just think of the time we've wasted."

She started to make a joke...but stopped when she saw his eyes. "I know Woody. All I can say is I'm sorry, and that I was scared...of love...of being in love with you. Of being in love with anyone. I always seemed to lose anyone I really loved. I didn't want to lose you, too."

"So what makes it different now?"

"You. I know love is about taking risks....and your worth the risk, Woodrow Wilson Hoyt."

His heart lurched again. She thought he was worth the risk...a risk she seemed willing to take. "When did you realize this?" he asked, gently twining her curls around his fingers.

"Right before Devan came...I wanted to tell you, but....I guess life just seemed to get in the way....then you and she...I mean...if you were happy, I didn't want to mess that up. And afterwards, you pushed me away...you pushed everyone away."

"Jordan, Devan and I were friends. Just friends...she knew how I felt about you...but she was also there to listen to me....you were very busy...I know that's no excuse...I know your dad left you the bar to tend to...and you had your job. Peter had left, you folks were still training Devan....You were preoccupied. I felt I was just another burden for you."

"You're not a burden, Woody. You've never been...now me, on the other hand..."

Woody silenced her with a kiss. "No...you were never a burden. A challenge sometimes, yes. But mainly, you were just...well...lost in so many ways...I just wanted to help you find your way out of the cloud you kept walking around in...your mom's death...Max...James...but it seemed I just kept screwing it up."

"No...you didn't. I don't know what I would have done without you, Woody. I'm not doing too well now."

He silenced her with another kiss..."Just don't think about that right now...Right now it's just us....the stars....and the mistletoe...."