Chapter Ten

She had a severe upper respiratory infection and was suffering from hypothermia, according to the doctors. For days, her temperature fluctuated between normal and 104, while her body temperature was below normal. They kept her warm…blankets, heat packs…slowly it rose back to what it needed to be.

She would sleep and wake in fits….still dreaming she was in the box and couldn't get out…that the water was coming in and no one found her. She'd wake with a jolt, relieved beyond words she was in the hospital. She asked the nurses to please always leave a light on in her room…the darkness no longer held any sort of comfort or refuge for her.

Max had come by to see her as soon as she had been brought into Boston General. She had barely recognized her father. She barely recognized anyone during the days her state of consciousness came and went. She just sort of floated on the edge of reality…not really wanting to remain unconscious, but finding it far too difficult to rejoin her world.

Garret came by…as did Nigel and Lily and Bug. But Jordan found it too painful to talk much to them about what had happened to her. She did speak to Garret long enough to get a reassurance that she still had her job. She hadn't been fired due to her absence from work. "Come on, Jordan," he had said. "You know me better than that." She had nodded and drifted back off.

Woody came every day….sometimes merely sitting by her bed or sitting on her bed with her, holding her hand. "Come on, honey," he said, "Wake up and talk to me… please?" She did try. She knew she needed to thank him for everything he did. From what she could remember that Nigel had told her, he was the driving force behind finding her and capturing Charles Pullman.

Finally, after she had been in the hospital about a week, she began to rejoin reality. Her eyes opened on a Saturday morning to find a pair of clear blue ones staring back at her. "Good morning," he said to her, getting up out of his chair and sitting on the bed facing her. It was the weekend. He was off duty. So instead of the ever-present suit, he had on faded blue jeans and a shirt.

"Hi," she said, somewhat shyly.

"How are you feeling?"

"Better…still kind of tired….but better."

"Good. You know, you've given us quite a scare," Woody said, gently taking her hand, careful not to disturb the IV units that were still attached to her.

"I didn't mean to…it's just…"

Woody held his hand up to silence her. "It can wait. The nurse said to call her when you woke up." He pushed the call button by her bed and soon her hospital room was filled with nurses and the doctor, who asked Woody to leave while they examined Jordan. Another chest x-ray was ordered, to see if her lungs had cleared. It was nearly an hour before her room emptied out again. Woody quietly re-entered it, taking his seat on her bed. The IV units had been pulled out.

"So what's the verdict?" he asked somewhat jokingly, holding her hand again.

"I'm better. The lungs look good. The temperature's been down about 24-hours, the hypothermia is gone. I guess I'm going to live."

"That's good," he replied. "Jordan, we need to talk about what happened…."

"I know. I promise I'll give the police a statement just as soon as the doctor lets me. I remember everything….and I'm sure Lois has the cards and the box with my hair in it."

"That's not what I mean," Woody rejoined, but was interrupted by Garret and Max entering the room. The nurses had called Jordan's father to let him know she was conscious again. The two men stayed for nearly an hour, talking with Jordan…Max insisting that she come to his house to recuperate when she was released from the hospital and Garret telling her not to work the graveyard shift any longer.

Woody didn't say a whole lot during these exchanges, merely watching Jordan from the sidelines. The men did most of the talking, he noticed. She actually did very little. He noted that she did not agree to either of the men's requests. She never said she would return to normal working hours. She never promised her father she would come to his house.

And she never promised Woody that she would talk to him about what happened.

He knew the rape kit had come back clean. She wasn't sexually assaulted during the attack. That had been one of his biggest fears for her. But she had obviously been brutalized in several ways….the box being the most obvious. He wondered how long she had been in it. And the look of fear that was on her face when he raised the lid still haunted him in his dreams….She had been cold and wet and frightened. And despite Max's and Garret's comments and reassurances tonight, he didn't think she was really on any sort of road to recovery.

After Max and Garret left, he reassumed his seat on her bed. She was tired…he could tell by looking in those honey-colored eyes. "I guess I'll leave, too….so you can rest. I'll tell Lois you're awake and talking. She'll probably be by here tomorrow and get a statement, if it's okay with the doctor. Would you like me to stay with you until you go back to sleep?"

Jordan shook her head. "No…that's okay. I'm fine." She shut her eyes and curled over on her side away from him.

Woody swallowed hard and eased up off the bed. She needed to talk…but she obviously wasn't going to talk to him.

By the time Lois arrived Sunday afternoon to take her statement, Jordan's room was filled with flowers – from her dad, Lily and Bug, Nigel, the Boston PD, the mayor's office…and roses from Woody. Pink roses. Her favorite. "Quite a haul you got there," Lois had joked, looking around the room. "Thinking of opening a florist's shop?"

Jordan had chuckled along with the detective, whom she felt close to now, and that she owed and enormous debt of gratitude to. "Thanks Lois," she said.

"For what? Doing my job?"

"For listening to me…believing me."

"No problem. But I do need to get a statement from you…and I'm not sure if you'll have to testify or not. The DA is working on a deal and if that goes through, then Charles will go straight to jail."

Jordan nodded. "Well….I'm ready if you are," she said, indicating the statement.

Lois started her tape recorder and Jordan told her story….of the abduction…what Pullman had said he was going to do to her….and the box. She thought she may break down in the middle of it…it was still so fresh in her mind…and the terror that she felt from the dreams she still had from the event was very real. But she didn't. She made it through fine. She answered a few more of Lois's questions and then the tape recorder was turned off. Jordan sank back on her pillows with a sigh.

"Good job," Lois said, putting on her coat and getting ready to leave. "You talk to anyone about this yet?"

"No…you're the first."

Lois regarded her for a moment. "You need to talk to someone….this was kind of traumatic, don't you think?"

Jordan shook her head. "Not in my life…just another day at the office," she joked.

Lois chuckled. Jordan had gotten herself in some pretty tight spots over the years, but this was by far the most dangerous. "You know, Jord, Woody worked really hard on getting you home. He was the most relentless I had ever seen him…."

Jordan gave her a surprised look. "Really?"

"Yeah. He and Nigel didn't sleep much…they're the ones that cracked the case. Just thought you may want to know." Lois gave her one last smile and left the room. She was going back to have the tape transcribed, but the truth was, she was a little concerned about the ME. Her voice had been too flat….too emotionless during the interview. Lois knew what was happening. Jordan was keeping all of her feelings of helplessness and terror locked inside her.