Jordan kept on telling herself dinner was just dinner. She was surprised when David called and suggested they meet. After their one and only date she made it very clear that they couldn't be anything more than just friends. As hurt as she was by Woody rejection, she couldn't just turn off her feelings. When she explained this to David he seemed to understand. He thanked her for a pleasant evening and told her if she ever changed her mind to give him a call.
She called the next day.
That was over a month ago. David was safe. It reminded her of that platonic safety she had with Woody...only she wasn't involved...neither was he. David was still a stranger. He didn't know about her past. He didn't know about the hell she had been through at the hands of the three men she loved and trusted most in the world. The best of all wasthe most difficult question he asked was how she liked her coffee. To him she was just a woman named Jordan who happened to work for the state. Sometimes it was nice to be that simple.
David beat her to the Indian restaurant and was waving to her from a table by the window as she walked up. It was funny that he suggested that particular place. It was just down the street from the rehab where Woody was staying. She noticed it as she drove past after visiting him and wondered if he'd be interested in trying it out some day when he had a few hours of parole.
"Hi."
David smiled as Jordan walked up to him at the table by the front window. He was happy to see his new friends' smiling face. Especially after the sour one he'd had to look at during his last session for the day.
"So, shrink any good heads today?" Jordan asked with a wag of her eyebrows as she took the seat across from him and David ordered her a soda. He had to smile. He couldn't help it but he enjoyed keeping up his charade of being a 'shrink' as Jordan called it. When he had told her he was a therapist she had automatically assumed he meant a psychiatrist. He didn't tell her she was wrong and he suspected that if he was one, he would have probably saw more in her assumption than just a wrong guess.
"You know I'm not supposed to discuss my patients." David smiled around the edge of his water glass and shrugged. It wasn't entirely a lie. If there was one thing he learned through his years as a physical therapist it was to be vague when necessary. When Jordan just rolled her eyes in response he smiled.
"But if I COULD discuss my patients I'd tell you about this last guy I had today..." David said shaking his head.
"Ah," Jordan said nodding back. "Real whack job huh?" she asked
David laughed softly in response. "Nah...more just the type to not think he' can get any better...believe you me Jordan...no one gets better unless they want to and that's the truth." He said with conviction.
And it was true. Whether mental or physical strain a person has to believe they can recover.
"They need good people in their lives to back them up too...Theoretically..." he winked at Jordan over their food as it came to the table.
"He just is resigned to where he's at in life...you know? I'm finding it really hard to make any progress with him right now..I mean he's not moving backwards but he's not moving forward either..like he's waiting for something to just magically fix him and he doesn't want to do any of the work to get there anymore...and he's just tired...you can see it in his eyes, his body language..." he let out a short sad laugh. "He's gonna be a challenge, I know that much about him but other than that he's keeping relatively tight lipped..." David explained.
"So what about you? How's your friend doing?" he asked trying to remember what little information she'd given about the injured, complicated relationship with her 'friend' in the hospital.
Jordan had been vague on the details about Woody. She didn't know if it was just embarrassment or if she was guarding Woody privacy that she spoke in circles to David. She didn't want to admit to herself that she was just licking old wounds along with the new ones. She just assumed David heard enough crazy people every day...he didn't need to listen to one on his off hours.
"Better, I think... We really haven't talked much since the 'accident'. When we do, it's awkward. A mutual friend of ours...a co-worker visits him daily but he's pretty tight about filling the rest of us in. Those two share something that none of us have quite put a finger on..."
Innocently David asked, "Are they...involved?"
Jordan choked on her soft drink. "Um...no. As amusing as that sounds...no. Syd may be good looking but...my friend is from...he's...Sydney's not his type."
The name "Sydney" stuck a nerve with David. His problem case, the police officer that took a bullet a few weeks back, had a friend named Sydney. From what he could decipher from their conversations this Sydney guy had some life changing challenges with injuries himself as a kid. As a physical therapist, David saw that kindred spirits like that helped his patients. That's why he let this Sydney stick around during his sessions.
It made him ask, "Your co-worker, Sydney? He wouldn't happen to have been similarly injured at one time?"
"Syd?" Jordan laughed. "I doubt it. I understand he's ran in the Boston Marathon every year since he was eighteen."
"I've seen people bounce back for catastrophic injuries to do just that."
"You work a lot with victims of injuries don't you?" Jordan asked out of calculated curiosity.
David hedged. He worked with all kinds, from pro athletes to grandmothers recovering from hip surgery. Trauma victims were just one facet of his career. "...sometimes."
'That's good to know."
When Woody went in for his last therapy session of the day he was almost happy to see the kind, thirty-something PT guy he'd become accustomed to over the past few weeks. With Jordan stopping by intermittently and the routine of his old daily life gone, Woody found some comfort in the familiar faces that greeted him every weekday at 4 pm.
"David, always a pleasure." He said smirking sarcastically. The other man just nodded and offered him a hand to help him to his feet.
"You know the drill, hold tight to the rails detective and keep an eye on your feet while you walk.." David returned casually.
"Walk is such a relative term Doc..."Woody quipped back through painful cringes. "This is more of a shuffle than anything...though I'm gonna have a hell of an upper body when I finish with all this...shit.." he mumbled and dragged his legs on the floor as he moved to the chairs just past the railing with David's hands on his hips holding him up straight.
"You've already got a hell of an upper body man...look for the violin music elsewhere." David returned with a smile and helped the man into a chair and sat him back as he prepped to work on his leg exercises.
"So..." He started casually. "Does your lady know you've got the feeling back in your lower torso and thighs yet?" he asked and wasn't surprised when Woody just shrugged.
"She's not my lady...and it's a small victory in the long run so I think I'll wait, thank you." Woody leered and grimaced as David moved his legs a little more roughly.
"Well, I think you're a stubborn idiot if you don't mind me saying.."
"...and what if I DO mind you saying?" Woody hissed out through a groan as he watched his legs move, still baffled by not being able to really feel them even as they moved. It was like he had been sitting to long and they were asleep and just on the cusp of getting really prickly as he started to move...only that prickly feeling wasn't there.
"...There isn't a choice..." David nodded. "Why? Were you gonna storm out of here away from me and not listen?" he asked raising his eyebrows and smiled when the detective just folded his arms stubbornly.
"I'm not telling you what to do...but from how you describe this chick she sounds like she's pretty special to you...you say you're just friends, but I get the distinct impression you're interested in it being more...both of you." he said remembering how often his patient mentioned this 'friend' stopping by.
"That was before. She didn't sign on for this," Woody pointed at his all but useless legs.
"Nobody signs on for trauma Woody." David said softly as he helped Woody to his feet for another trip down the rails. "They just accept it...and grow from the experience...as do the people in their lives."
Pretty words. Woody snorted wondering how often David had said them in his career. Tall, good looking obviously athletic...his buddy David could talk the talk. Woody ignored the little voice in his head saying that Sydney had been telling him the same thing for weeks.
Neither of them knew his relationship with Jordan or really anything about him for that matter. There was no way Woody would drag Jordan into this life...no matter how much he wanted her.
"You don't know Jordan..." Woody growled as he made it to the end of the rails and turned for around for one more pass.
It was David who stumbled during the next set of steps. It was all he could do to stabilize Woody while he untangled his feet.
"You alright?" Woody asked with honest concern as David's face devoid of color before it filled back up again.
"Yeah, damn shoe lace..." David muttered as he reached for his perfectly tied shoes, a fact that didn't escape Woody's keen eyes. "So...Jordan...let's her name?"
"We work together...or we used to work together."
"...and you wanted more...?" David asked leadingly.
"Jordan is one of those women you can't decide if you love or hate...but you know you're never going to get over her no matter what."
"Have you told her how you feel?"
"It's not like it's relevant anymore..." Woody panted at the end of the rails.
David just nodded and helped Woody turn to make another trip.
