As the days past, Woody couldn't remember if he smelled Jordan's perfume or not any more. If she was still showing up...the nurses never told him.
Much to his pleasure, his visitor list dwindled to almost nothing. A surly attitude got the result he wanted. The only person that didn't seem to get the hint was Sydney.
Two weeks and half weeks into his hospital stay and Sydney was a reliable as the clock on the wall. Every day it was the same. He'd show up after work, bitch about it, and then fill Woody in on anything that remotely sounded like interoffice gossip. After the first two weeks Woody gave up trying to run the young man off. Woody would never admit it but he was actually started looking forward to his visits after a while. Sydney was the only person that didn't look at his legs like they expected him to jump out of bed and start walking.
It was on that day Sydney tracked him down in the solarium.
"Don't get a speeding ticket in that thing Detective," Sydney smiled pointing at Woody's wheelchair.
"I'm still trying to figure out how to not run into everything..."
"You won't be in it long enough," Sydney shrugged. He pulled a deck of cards out of his pocket and without asking he walked over to an open table and began to deal. "...deuces wild and the score stands in my favor."
Woody had no choice but to wheel over to the table. By the time he awkwardly maneuvered the chair in place, he had broken out in a sweat and Sydney was already studying his cards.
"It's easier to turn that thing if you use a lighter grip on the wheel. I'm taking two and raising you $500," Sydney said pulling a well worn take out napkin from his pocket. He had been using it to keep score of the card game they'd had been playing the last few days.
Woody begrudgingly gave Sydney a smile. "$500, huh? You know I'm never going to be able to cover these bets."
"I'll take your marker." Sydney deadpanned. "I won't ask how therapy went today."
"Good, because it sucked."
"It's supposed to...Fold." Sydney tossed his cards down.
"It's just getting worse."
"Worse is good. Reteaching your nerves to work isn't easy."
Woody dealt out the next hand. "Did they teach you that in medical school?"
"No, it was something I figured it out first hand."
Woody lifted his eyebrows, curious of something other than his own melodramatic self for the first time in weeks.
"Really? You...you mean you were paralyzed?" he laughed looking at the young man's legs.
Sydney just nodded as the next hand was dealt and waited for Woody to take his cards and check the bet before he continued.
"I was in a car accident when I first started driving. My brother and sister were in the car with me, horsing around like the dumb teens we were..." he called Woody's raise and smiled when the detective won the hand.
"Took a telephone pole right outta the ground, now tell me THAT'S not impressive?" he challenged and puffed out his cheeks as he looked over his new hand. "Fold." he said tossing the cards down and folding his hands across his stomach when he saw the questions coming up on Woody's face.
"Yeah...yeah, impressive...but did by any chance some shrapnel from the car go through your body, nick your spine and make you dead from about here.." Woody said indicating his sternum with a point of one finger. "...down?" he asked snidely. "Cause otherwise I don't think it's quite the same.." he said dropping his cards to the table with a sigh.
"No...no I didn't...but I did have a metal pole off the construction truck in front of me go through my side and nick my spine..." Sydney said dryly and lifted his shirt to show the long scar on his left side over his ribs. "Took the jaws of life and some serious hedge clipper like things to get me outta the car..."
Sydney held Woody's gaze steadily, almost angrily before he realized Woody was only speaking out of fear. Fear of an uncertain future.
"Oh..." Woody said shamefully and cleared his throat. "So...so, when'd you start walking again?"
Sydney didn't have a chance to answer when Woody began to curse when his damaged body finally registered that his one foot caught between the leg rest and the table leg It probably had turned purple by now from lack of blood. "Shit...shit!" he said reaching to pull the pant leg of his sweats up and sighing as he rubbed the dead limb to try and return some color to it.
"It was long...I won't lie to you, about 3 months of painful, I'd-rather-be-flying therapy before I finally felt the doctor pat my foot on his way out of my room one morning.." Sydney explained wordlessly moving to the chair beside Woody and casually lifting the detective's leg onto his own knee and rubbing the calf to get the blood circulating.
Woody nodded a thank you and looked around the room, trying to hold onto what dignity he had left.
"Three months.." he said in a soft voice, almost in danger of sounding like the easy going man he'd once been. "I don't think I can do it...I don't think I could wait that long...it's too hard." Woody looked up surprised when Sydney suddenly dropped his foot. "Hey! What the hell did you do that for?" he asked angrily.
"Ah, shut up ya jerk...you didn't feel it anyway," Sydney shot back shaking his head. "And where the hell do you get off saying it's too hard? You don't think you can do it? Boy, was is your head crippled along with your legs? You can do it...you just need to pull your proud, dumb, big eared head outta the sand and think of who's been here for you and wants to help you..."
Sydney mumbled as he gathered up his cards and his jacket barely giving Woody a chance to speak. "Just a stubborn jackass if you ask me..."
"You comin' onto me Sydney?" Woody asked with a sarcastic laugh.
"No...and thank the Lord.." Sydney huffed and pointed at Woody as he headed for the door. "You got one devoted...DAMN fine lookin' woman stopping by late nights after working all day who would jump at the chance to help you...to GET you through this but what do you do?"
"You wanna sit around feeling sorry for yourself and playing cards with a guy whose last name you probably don't even know..." Sydney continued with a smirk. "You might wanna give up on the 'woe is me' bit, it's working AWESOME for you so far." he said turning and letting the door shut behind him as he shook his head and shuffled the cards once more before returning them to their little box and slipping them into his pocket with a grin.
When she walked into the hospital earlier and found Sydney looking for Woody she asked him not to tell Woody he saw her. She'd come back later. Somehow she never made it out the exit. She had heard the stories about Woody's disposition...everybody was concerned. Sydney was the only one that didn't act like Woody's attitude was alarming. They all chalked it up to Sydney not knowing the old Woody. Even though she told herself to go home and get some sleep she still found herself drawn to the solarium door.
Jordan jumped when the door opened and felt herself uncharacteristically blush at Sydney's speech about her being a fine looking woman. She looked like hell. She has for weeks. There wasn't enough makeup in the city to cover the grey paleness of her skin. She felt like a kid caught doing something bad when Sydney shoved the cards in his pocket and stop in front of her.
"Your boyfriend is a jackass you know...and you're not much better for letting him do it." His words were harsh but his tone was far from it. In fact, he sounded slightly amused.
Jordan smiled in spite of herself. "Tell me something I don't know. How is he doing...really?"
Sydney looked back at the glass door. "Go find out for yourself Jordan." With a small smile Sydney continued down the hallway. Over his shoulder he yelled back telling Jordan to tell Woody that he'd be back tomorrow.
Taking a deep breath and smoothing her hand over her hair Jordan pushed the solarium door open. "Hi."
"Oh...hi.." Woody said folding his hands over his lap trying to sit up better. "I thought it was Sydney back for a second round.." he said trying to be light but cleared his throat.
"So how are you feeling?" "So how's work?" they both asked talking over one another and shared an uncomfortable laugh.
"I guess I'll live.." Woody shrugged.
"You'll be up and around in no time, they've got the best doctors in the city working on you..." she nodded. "I called Cal." Jordan blurted out suddenly and the fire returned to Woody's eyes.
"What?" he asked exasperated. He didn't want Cal there. "Jordan...it wasn't your PLACE...it wasn't...how could you just,...I don't need HIS pity on top of .." he stopped himself and ran a shaky hand through his hair.
"Mine...on top of mine I know... it's okay for you to say it. You may think that, but it's not true Woody...It never was and it never will be...but I'm not going to sit by your side day in and day out trying to convince you of that. You know me Woody.." she said quietly, her voice laced with hurt. "And because of that you know that I'm telling you the truth." she said holding his gaze. She was tired and drained. Her emotions were dangerously close to the surface and she let him have it with both barrels...even though her voice had dropped to barely a whisper.
"I thought that the idea I might lose you hurt more than anything I've ever felt...but I was wrong...trying to convince myself to let you go hurts so much more.." Jordan whispered shakily and wiped a stray tear away. "And Cal deserves to know. He may not be all you've got in the world but you're all HE'S got and whether you'll admit it or not, that matters to you... Good night Woody."
With her head high she turned and walked out leaving Woody alone with a room of strangers that could only shake their heads.
Thank you for all the nice reviews. I hope you're enjoying the story. We had a good time writing it. Unfortunately, Bug didn't make it in this story which kinda makes me sad. I (jmkw) enjoy writing his snarky self. ...but we thought we'd play with Sydney a little. The whole 'Do you have brothers and sisters?' speech from Skin & Bones gave us the needed little bunny for this fic that wouldn't have worked with Bug. As for leaving the hospital (NCCJFAN), let me just say a rehab has the potental for a few kinks. ;)
