Disclaimer: None of them are mine….wouldn't begin to know what to do with them if they were, but would have a really good time trying….

Chapter One

Jordan sighed and sank back into her seat on the airline. It had been a long flight…from Atlanta to Charlotte…Charlotte to Philadelphia. Now she was on the last leg of her trip, Philadelphia to Boston. It would be good to be home…after all, it had been a whole year since she had seen Boston….been in the morgue….seen Garret and Nigel…hugged her father…

Kissed Woody goodbye.

Idly looking out the window, she wondered just how much had changed since she had been in Atlanta. She tried to speculate how much had altered…how were things progressing between Lily and Bug? Was Nigel still the only computer guru? How many more gray hairs had Garret gotten?

Was Woody finally over Devan?

That was the reason she left. She knew that Woody and the blonde ME had grown close during Devan's last days. At first Jordan had been jealous of the couple, bur realized that she couldn't involve herself in relationship with anyone until she had matured a little more herself…a process that had begun in Boston and continued in Atlanta. She had finally let go of Woody emotionally and decided to concentrate on her own personal growth. Besides, Devan was giving Woody something she couldn't…. undivided attention and time.

And then came the plane crash and Jordan watched Woody slowly collapse emotionally and then physically. She had stood by him to help him pick up the pieces of his life…knowing from experience how hard that was to do by yourself. She had held him and let him cry on her shoulder. She had made him eat and go back to work. She encouraged him to go on with his life…go back to the Pogue…go out with friends.

She thought that somewhere along the way, he would find his way back to her…and to what they had begun toying with before Devan came into the picture…for as much as Jordan had wanted to disengage her heart from the detective, she couldn't. She had known she loved Woody before Devan came, but had been too afraid to admit it. When she was finally able to confess her feelings to him, he was already caught up in his affair with Devan. So Jordan had kept her mouth shut and her heart in lock-down.

But he didn't find his way back to her. She thought he may still be grieving over Devan, but that wasn't it. He had decided he didn't want her. "A relationship with you is too hard, Jordan," he had said. "You don't know what you want from one day to the next….one day you want me, the next you don't. I need something stable. I need someone that will be there for me…"

She had thought long and hard about telling him how much she had changed…how much she did love him, but when he had turned and walked away from her, she realized that he wouldn't believe her, anyway. It was now useless. She had to release him emotionally one more time…and this time it was for good.

And she tried. She tried really hard, but working with him in such close proximity was difficult. Her pulse would race every time he would take her arm, or put his hand on the small of her back to help her though a door. Garret had known her heart and her feelings for the detective…and knew she needed time away from Woody…a situation that would not be possible in Boston. So when an opportunity for training came up with the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, he offered it to her. "It will be good for you professionally….especially with these new strains of bacteria popping up…, new e-coli, all the new things we're seeing. Personally…you'll have the time you need to get your life back in order."

It had been for a year's worth of training, but she jumped at the chance. Her father had returned and had taken the bar back over. There was really nothing to keep her in Boston. She put her belongings in storage, parked her El Camino at Garret's, packed her suitcase, and left on a plane out of Logan one early Sunday morning.

But not before talking to Woody one last time. She had gone over to his apartment the day before she left, catching him in his jeans and an unbuttoned shirt. "I just thought you would want to know…I'm leaving for Atlanta tomorrow to work with the CDC for a year," she said.

He initially looked shocked. The last thing he thought she would do would be to leave Boston again. She explained the additional training, but wasn't sure he really understood. "I wanted you to know why I wouldn't be there if you requested me for a crime scene….why I wouldn't be at the Pogue. I didn't want to leave without telling you good-bye."

He had nodded and wished her well. "You'll be back, won't you?" he asked.

"Eventually….in about a year."

"Not even coming back for Christmas?"

"I'll just have Christmas day off…I can't."

The good byes had been awkward. She went to kiss him on the cheek, but he turned his head at the last minute and caught her lips in a soft caress. "Take care of yourself, Jordan."

"You do the same, Woody. Devan would want you to go on with your life…and you need to," she had said softly to him, before giving his chest one last pat and letting herself out of his apartment.

She had halfway expected to see him at the airport on that Sunday…whether it was to see her off or beg her not to go, she wasn't sure. But he didn't. There was no one there to see her leave. She had boarded the plane and didn't look back. Other than phone calls to Nigel and Garret, there was no contact between herself and the morgue. Her father had come to Atlanta for Christmas, since she couldn't get away.

She had left…to get more training and to make herself get over him.

The training had been wonderful. She had learned a lot. There was so much she needed to share with Bug, Nigel, and Garret. Her idea to come away from the experience at better ME was a huge success. She wasn't sure how successful she had been at getting over Woody. She didn't work with detectives in Atlanta, but the sight of a tall man with brown hair and crystalline blue eyes could send her over the edge in a heartbeat.

In once sense, she had changed. She had matured, grown, decided that obsessing over her mother's death was no longer a healthy thing. She felt like now she was really a woman…in everyway. She was ready for a relationship….she was now ready for all life had to offer her as a female.

She wondered just how much everyone else had changed…or had they? Had Woody gotten over Devan? Had he moved on with his life? Had he found someone else?

Was she really over him?

She would know shortly…her plane was landing. She retrieved baggage and made her way down the concourse, taking in the sights of Logan. She was just about ready to hail a taxi to take her to Max's house when there was a voice behind her…

"Hello, love."