Chapter Ten

The Price of Revenge

Two more murdered senators and two months later, Jordan's world was still upside down. Having Drew back at the morgue had resurrected the specter of Digger…permanently it seemed for her. Nightmares and resulting sleepless nights plagued her now…just as badly as they had six years ago.

Drew had left Boston…after the murder of a Rhode Island senator and then one from New Hampshire, he had gone to those states, following the trail of evidence wherever it took him. He was still in touch, comparing notes with Jordan and Woody. No doubt, in time, the evidence would circle back to Boston and he would return.

So Jordan had her conference room back…her peace of mind…her own little corner in her own little world.

Except that Woody was nowhere in her universe.

When she woke up the next morning, he was gone. No note. No phone call. No nothing. And at work, he had acted like nothing had happened…making her feel used…cheaply treated. She had asked him why...

Sighing, he had replied, "It was sex, Jordan. Sex. That's all. Not a commitment. Not a 'happily ever after'. Just sex. After all, it obvious you've got something going with Drew…no sense in spoiling that. And after all our history of near-misses I don't think either of us really wants another half-hearted attempt at a relationship."

And after Drew left for Rhode Island, Woody went back to his office at the Boston PD without a backward glance, leaving her to once again pick up the pieces of her life after he had torn it apart.

She wondered if he knew just how much his words cut her to the quick. Perhaps maybe she deserved it, after all the years she had strung him along. Maybe it really was his time for payback.

However, the price of revenge was getting higher everyday. Determinedly, she got her pocketbook, jacket, and a thick file together and strode over to his office. He wouldn't take her e-mails or calls, nor respond to her faxes that she needed to talk to him. Santana had called her and told her he was in the office with the homicide detectives today. Woody would see her this afternoon…whether he wanted to or not.

He had woken up before she did that morning after he had taken her to bed. For a minute, he had been disoriented, not realizing where he was at…the opaque windows blocking the sunlight and playing with his already fuzzy mind. Then he felt her warm weight against his back…curled up beside him. He remembered then. He had taken Jordan Cavanaugh to bed and made love to her not just once, but at least two other times that he could recall.

What was he thinking?

That was just it…he hadn't been. He had gotten emotionally involved with Jordan one more time…all because her fears had played on his damned chivalrous heart…and that part of his body had somehow been attached to his manhood.

The last thing he needed in his life right now was to be sucked back into her emotional games. It was the last thing he wanted….despite the fact that he couldn't get her taste out of his mouth…or erase the touch of her lips…or forget how it felt to have her move beneath him.

Besides…she and Haley were seeing each other….so that night must have been the result of some lingering curiosity and a host of questions all beginning with "what" – what if they did finally sleep together…what would it be like…what would they do afterwards?

He had pushed himself out of her bed before she had time to wake up…and did the only thing he knew to do…

Pretend it didn't happen.

And if he tried really hard to imagine that it didn't, maybe she wouldn't believe it happened either.

It seemed to have worked…after one short "morning after" conversation, ignoring the obvious seemed to have been effective.

Until now. She was striding toward him with fire in her eyes and anger in every footstep. And he couldn't run and hide anywhere…she had already seen him. She walked up to his desk…sitting in the middle of the homicide department, surrounded by countless other homicide detectives. "I need to talk to you," she demanded…her voice cold and hard.

"Not now, Jordan. I'm up to my ears here…I'll call you later this afternoon."

"No. I need to talk to you now. In private."

There's no way in hell I'm going to be alone with her again… he thought. "Not now. I told you I'm busy."

Jordan took a deep breath and gave him a daggered look sharp enough to pin him through the wall. "This can't wait, Woody."

"Then tell me here…" He really believed she wouldn't discuss their personal lives in front of at least thirty of Boston's finest. She was far too private of a person…even if she was the most pissed he had ever seen her.

"Are you sure?"

He couldn't back down now…not after everyone had heard what he said. "Yeah…it's fine. What's on your mind?"

Taking a deep breath and looking him in the eyes she said. "I'm pregnant. You're the father. The due date is November 24. Here," she slammed the file folder on his desk in front of him, "is a list of expenses my insurance covers. There's another list of what I expect you to cover. Visitation and child support can be worked out after the baby is born. Have a nice day, Detective." She spun on her heel and left, the detectives parting like the Red Sea to let her through…then turning back to face him with amused looks on their faces.

"Don't you all have work to do?" barked Woody, his temper rising by leaps and bounds. The detectives scattered.

With shaking hands, Woody opened the file…pushing the money issues out of the way, he flipped to the medical forms. Her due date and approximate time of conception corresponded to their one night together…but what about Haley? No…she wouldn't have approached me like this unless she was double-damned sure I am the father. Oh, hell….I'm the father….He sat back and ran a shaking hand down his face. In seven months…if all went well and Mother Nature kept up her end of things, he'd be a daddy.

He wasn't ready for this.

Jordan kept her angry stride up all the way back to the morgue, where she entered her office, slammed the door, and locked it.

She was pregnant. She had known it for sure for at least two weeks...a month, even, maybe.The first sign was her breasts that got tender and swollen…then her period didn't come. She was too regular on her cycle not to notice the delay. She knew where all the signs were pointing…that and the fact that she and Woody had not slowed down to take any precautions during their one night together…it all added up to a positive at-home pregnancy test.

Which she promptly double-checked by redoing another test that the morgue used on female victims. It was positive, too. So with two plus signs hanging over her head, she made an appointment with her doctor….and procured the necessary medical forms that she would need to assure Woody the baby was his. A quick call to the insurance company and one fax later, and she knew exactly what would be covered…and what Detective Hoyt would be responsible for.

She sighed and walked over to the window in her office…looking out at the Boston skyline, but not really seeing it. A mother. She was going to be a mother.

Jordan Cavanaugh was having a baby. She was pregnant. She looked down at her still-flat tummy and rubbed a loving hand over it. She was having Woody's baby. A year…eighteen months ago….they both would have been thrilled. Time alters so much.

And his words to her had altered their relationship…permanently. .."Go…Now!" he had told her from his hospital bed. "I don't need a 'pity girlfriend'." And most recently, "It was sex, Jordan. Sex. That's all. Not a commitment. Not a 'happily ever after'. Just sex."

More specifically unprotected sex…that had resulted in her pregnancy. She had no idea how Woody would react to the fact he was going to be father. She hadn't hung around to find out. She really didn't want to know.

She just knew that in seven months, the doctor would place her daughter or son in her arms and her life would be changed forever. A smile played at the corner of her lips at the thought. Jordan had no idea how she would make it…but thousands of other women in Boston were successful single mothers…there was no reason she couldn't be one, either. And financially…even if Woody balked at support…she could make it….things might be a little tight at first…but there all sorts of possibilities out there.

She turned and took another file off her desk. This one was for Garret…he needed to know next…so she wouldn't be obligated to do x-rays any longer. She had no idea what his reaction would be.

However, Jordan was very much aware of how she felt…aside from a little morning sickness…she was ecstatic. She was going to have a baby…something that she always felt life had passed her by on…becoming a mother…was now going to be a reality in a few short months.

Woody may have meant to love her and leave her…with regrets and consequences….that may have been his revenge towards her.

And she had paid the high price of his revenge…his child. But she didn't feel a penny poorer…instead she felt incredibly rich.