A/N No, this hasn't been forgotten. fell by the wayside while I started on a collaboration and some smut (sorry, but as much as I've enjoyed writing this there is going to be no smut. As hot as JOC is I can't picture writing Woody smut.). We're in the home stretch now, about four more chapters left...enjoy! And thanks to garretelliot as always. Even though she IS the one to have distracted me. ;)

"So." That was becoming a very common conversation starter for the two of them.

"So." He repeated. They both were focusing more on their food than the conversation. Her mind had been on Woody all afternoon, she didn't want to think about the man in front of her, it just made what she had to think about that much harder to think about. Just made her decision on whether or not to say yes that much harder.

Woody had said he would back off. She had made it clear that she loved Shaw and Woody had very obviously gotten the message. She just hoped that he would keep his word and not make another play for her. Garret had told her to follow her heart. And she loved Shaw. She didn't need Woody getting in the way.

"So that was the infamous Woody Hoyt." Shaw said, taking another bite, and she nodded.

"Yeah."

"Seems like a nice enough guy." She laughed.

"That Midwestern charm. Gets you every time." He grinned.

"Yeah. I see how it would.." She nodded and stared back down at her plate. "So what happened between you two?" She shrugged. This was not the question she wanted to answer. She had given Shaw the rough details of it. They had been close, flirted and stayed on the border of wanting more, but never crossed it. And she had mentioned that his getting shot had been what made him reevaluate his life.

"We-" she began. "We danced around our relationship, and he got sick of it. He got shot decided that he didn't want to waste his life with the dance we did, and left." It wasn't the first time she had told him, and if he was looking to get the entire story, she wasn't going to tell it. The only other person to know exactly what had happened was Garret, the one that she turned to for a shoulder to cry on. Nigel Bug and Lilly had all inferred it, but she hadn't told anyone but one that Woody had forcefully told her to get out of his life.

It felt wrong though, to not tell Shaw the whole story, but it still felt raw. It had been almost three years, but it still felt too painful to say everything that had happened. She loved him, she was seriously considering marrying him, debating on whether or not to call up Danny, drag Shaw on the first flight to Vegas and elope.

"You love him?" Shaw asked, and she met his pale green eyes before nodding.

"I did." She replied and he held her gaze.

"Do you still?" She didn't want to answer this, she wanted to avoid it. Not because she wanted to hurt Shaw, although that was part of it, but because she was torn.

"I-" She began and felt the intense, bright eyes boring into her. "-Don't know." She said truthfully. "I thought I got over him. I love you. But he walks back in and suddenly out of nowhere he's making me second guess everything in my life. I love you Shaw, I want to be with you but-" he cut her off.

"That's I need to know." He said and kissed her gently. He knew she loved him and that was enough for him. She loved him, Woody be damned.