Chapter 7! GO!

At 3:58, Jordan was trying very hard not to laugh at the look of death Woody was giving her as he was finishing up the exercise of lifting his knee so that his thigh was parallel with the floor, then releasing it slowly and repeating with the other leg. Once again, Woody had assumed that because Jordan could not remember anything about other people, she would behave in a more timid fashion. And once again, he was rewarded with typical Jordan drive which resulted in him putting more into his physical therapy than he had been forced to do in the hospital. She also wouldn't let him quit one second before he was supposed to.

"C'mon, Detective, minute thirty to go," she said as encouragingly as possible.

"You know, Jordan, my training to be a cop was more forgiving than this," Woody grumbled, then immediately wished he hadn't wasted breath on the statement. He gritted his teeth and tried to focus on something other than the burning in his muscles.

"Ah, well then, they were too easy on you, weren't they?" Jordan joked. Despite his sour attitude about his recuperation, Jordan saw a spark of ambition in Woody that she was determined to bring front and center. She had a feeling that his spirit for survival had been a huge part of his personality until a short while ago. Now it was time to find out if she could get him motivated enough, or even angry enough, to bring that back. "Just think, Woody, in a little over a minute, once you catch your breath of course, you can curse me into the ground for putting you through this. Funny, isn't it? All that time in the hospital and you wanted to get out. And now you have me to deal with. I bet the nurses there were just smitten with you, and about a hundred times better looking than me. Lots of blondes, right?" Woody glowered even more at her. She just laughed good naturedly. "I bet you'd give anything to go back to that -"

"Jordan can you do me a favor and just shut up?"

"Oh you don't want me to agree to that."

"Why the hell not?"

"Because then I wouldn't be able to tell you that you're done," she smiled at him as she clicked the button on her stop watch.

Woody let out a huge breath and reached for his water bottle before collapsing onto the couch. Jordan tossed the watch at him and sat down, tucking her legs under her. Taking a look at the packet she had been given on his therapy needs, she mentally noted that everything had been done in full without him having to stop for a reason other than his own stubborn resistance.

"Looking good," she complimented him. "It doesn't really surprise me that you recovered as fast as you did."

"Yeah, well, I'm still just a shadow of what I was before," he said cynically. His face was set, and the glare of anger was still in his eyes. "Three weeks ago you had me running five miles at a time. What good is a cop who can't even make it through a set of knee-ups without getting winded?"

Jordan looked at him in concern. She had been sure he was stepping away from that kind of thinking. There had been moments in the last day when she felt like there were two different people fighting for control of Woody's body. One was caring, and hopeful if not completely optimistic about life. The other was this defeated man who was only sure that the world had dealt him a doomed hand. It wasn't hard for her to decide which suited him better.

"What is making this so difficult for you, Woody?" she asked slowly. "I mean, everything points to you spending the rest of your life as a handicapped man. And here you are, defying everything the textbooks predicted for you. That's not something to sneer at."

Woody stared gravely at his hands while she spoke, listening to what he knew was the truth. But there were things about his views on life and death that he just couldn't share with her, had never really shared with her even before this. And he certainly didn't feel like revealing the secrets of his past with her right now. It was too much for him to voice the irony of the shooting.

"Jordan, I joined law enforcement to fight back against the idiots who make this world a crap hole," he told her solemnly. "And I can't do that until I run those five miles again. Until then, all I have to look forward to is deskwork. What use am I then? How is that possibly something to be proud of?"

Jordan stared at him, somewhat in disbelief. Reaching out with her hand, she gently touched it to his face and turned him to face her. She made sure she had his eye before speaking.

"Woody, what you are doing right now is something to be proud of. It's a miracle; you know that, don't you? Someone out there is making sure you keep going in this world. And you're going to beat this completely. Because I honestly can't imagine you giving up," Jordan said firmly as she gripped his hand. "You've been trying to be Superman, fighting the bad guys until they're all gone. But even Superman had to deal with his kryptonite from time to time."

With a feeling of relief, Jordan felt his hand tighten around hers. His face relaxed a little and she saw the anger drift out of his eyes.

"How do you do it, Jordan? How do you know how to talk any sense into me at all without knowing a thing about me?" he asked. She shrugged innocently, not sure if she should say anything. "I'm lucky you're sticking this out."

"You're lucky for a lot of reasons, but being stuck with me as a burden is not one of them," she muttered. Suddenly, she remembered something from the previous night that had bothered her conscience as she fell asleep. "Woody, I wanted to ask you something. Something that I probably should have been more sensitive to last night. Why is it that I'm listed as your next of kin? You told me why I have you listed, but why..." She trailed off as she noticed him look away from her in avoidance.

"It's not really something I like to talk about," he told her calmly. "You didn't really know too much about it even before…well, before. All you need to know is that there is no one else."

"Well I hope one day you'll be able to tell me about it," Jordan said softly after a moment's silence.

Nigel watched out of the corner of his eye as Jordan finished stitching up the latest drowning victim that had been brought into the morgue. Lily had basically snuck Jordan into the morgue while Slocum was out for the day. They had let Slocum know that Jordan's doctor felt it would be best for her to be around familiar environments. He had graciously agreed to let her visit briefly if it would speed her recovery. However, he had not agreed to let Jordan assist on cases. None of them had really planned on getting Jordan so involved so soon, but her intense interest in the case had overpowered any protests they had. Five young women, all apparently chosen at random, had been submerged in water forcefully and left to be found. There was absolutely no connection between. Nigel himself had admitted that is was a mind puzzle.

Forgetting that he was supposed to be running tests on samples from the body, Nigel must have made it too apparent that he was watching her. She looked up at him and smiled knowingly as she snipped the last suture. He blinked in embarrassment and shook his head.

"Sorry," he said. "It's just amazing. How you can remember how to do an entire autopsy perfectly, but…"

"But forget an entire life?" Jordan offered bluntly. Nigel glanced away from her gaze. "It's ok. There's no point in trying to pretend it didn't happen."

"We just don't want to make this any more difficult for you."

"I know," she smiled sadly.

The despondent look in her eyes broke Nigel's heart. Since the moment she had stepped out of the elevator, she had been eager to let this place absorb her back into its history. He could see the hopeful look on her face, almost read her thoughts: that this place would solve everything. He was sure that was the reason she had jumped on the chance to participate in the work going on, trying to recapture why the morgue made her who she was. But after a few hours, all that she had found was proof that she could move mechanically through the motions of her life. Beyond that, there was nothing.

"Well," Jordan said as she snapped off her gloves. "That's all done."

Just then, Sidney came through the double doors holding a large manila folder. He gave Jordan a charming smile and walked right over to her, holding the folder out.

"Dr. Cavanaugh, we got some interesting results back from taking a look at her clothes. And they're yours if you can tell me my name," he grinned. Nigel rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"Yeah, I'll tell you your name," replied Jordan as she snatched the folder from his hands before he could react. "It's Rumplestilskon, and you go parading around as some guy named Sidney."

"Hey, Doc, no need to go bashing my height," Sidney said as he put his hands up in defense. Jordan gave him a smile before opening up the folder.

"So what've we got here?" she asked, allowing Nigel to read over her shoulder.

"Well, we found a small piece of fabric that was caught on the zipper of her jacket," Sidney explained to them. "And on that fabric, we were lucky enough to find a hair."

"That's the first item the killer's left behind," Nigel commented. "He slipped up."

"Or she fought back more fiercely than the others," Jordan added. "There were signs of struggle all over her body."

"Were you able to get a match?" Nigel asked.

"Indeed we were," Sidney said proudly. He flipped the page for them so they could see the DNA results. "Say hello to the hair of one Martin Gomez."

"No," Nigel exclaimed in disbelief. Jordan looked at him, confused. Without even waiting for her question, Nigel went on. "The Boston PD has been trying to nab this guy for over a decade. He got caught up in a nasty murder trial involving a drug ring. But no one could ever find enough evidence to convict him. He's been lying pretty low, but people have wanted him behind bars for the longest time."

"Including Slocum," Sidney said. "I guess he was one of the ME's in charge in the original trial. Bagging this guy now would sure give him a boost in the system."

"But that's not right," Jordan insisted. "You guys were the ones to find this. Slocum hasn't done a bit of work on this if what you've told me is true about him."

"Unfortunately, love, that's not how it will play out once this goes public," Nigel told her apologetically.

Jordan glared at the case file, upset by the injustice of what was going on in the morgue. When she had first arrived in the late afternoon, her friends had filled her in a bit on the events of the last few weeks. About how her old boss, Garret, had been forced to leave because of his actions on a case eight years ago. And now Slocum had taken over. Jordan had not missed the stony looks on their faces nor the sarcastic way they talked about his "reign" over the morgue staff. She personally could not understand why they didn't simply become mutinous. She was even more surprised that there was apparently no evidence of her doing anything to fix the situation. If it made her this upset without the memories, it should have made her nearly spontaneously combust before. She handed the folder back to Sidney.

"Thanks for letting me play today, guys," she joked. "I intend to stay involved. I'm gonna go scrub out, I'll be back."

Nigel and Sidney watched her walk out, knowing that it could mean big trouble if Jordan decided to get too involved in this case, amnesia or no amnesia. Slocum had his way of consenting to ideas without saying which part he was consenting to. Jordan taking charge of the situation would not sit well with him. Then again, there were benefits to having Jordan Cavanaugh on your side in an investigation.

The sound of the door being pushed open behind them caused the two to look around. Woody was walking in aided by his canes, with Lily and Bug in tow. Woody looked extremely uncomfortable, and for good reason. They had been civil to him throughout the evening for Jordan's sake, but it was obvious that he purposefully stayed out of the way as much as he could to avoid any unwanted confrontations. And now here he was surrounded by the four people he did not want to have to deal with.

"Well, Woodrow finally decided to come out of hiding," Nigel said coolly. "Where'd you find him?"

"Memorizing the vending machine," Bug replied. Woody rolled his eyes.

"Ok, can we move on now? I think we've established that you all hate me," he grumbled. "Have any of you heard from Dr. Macy yet?"

"Unfortunately, no," Lily said, her concern overpowering her dislike for Woody. "Nobody can reach him. We've tried everything."

"I guess Jordan's disappearing act taught him a thing or two over the years," Bug remarked. The comment was met with heavy silence as everyone accepted what they had been trying to deny: Garret had run.