It wasn't that he didn't love her. Nigel loved Jordan to the unfathomable depths of his heart and to the very epitome of his soul. She wasn't one to be in touch with her feelings. She was always one to push and run. It happened before and he thought about it. Lord, did he ever think about leaving her? No! He thought of her feelings before his own and it amazed him to no end how much he truly sacrificed for her. He hadn't meant to screw up. Who ever did? It was an accident and now he couldn't even make things right. He couldn't hold Jordan in his arms and kiss away her tears. He'd never hear Eve's giggles again. He was sure that she wasn't coming back. He resigned himself to that fate. He took another sip of the bitter, amber liquid and it burned as it went down his throat. The fool that he was, he actually thought he could change her. He believed that he could gain her trust and love enough to ask her to marry him. He wanted to adopt Eve but wasn't sure if Jordan was ready for that step so he had remained quiet letting time take its course with their relationship. The fool that he was, he thought that maybe they would have a happy ending. 'What a stupid, naive fool you were. Happy endings are for fairy tales, novels and children's books.' His mind told him over and over again. He now doubted that they would ever have an ending. 'Give her some time and she'll come back.' His heart told him but he didn't know if he could trust his heart anymore. And now he was regretting ever coming to America. He should have stayed in England and lived out his life instead of coming to Boston and living a complicated one. He could barely contain his anger. He barely recalled the details of the night. He had gone somewhere, stocked his refrigerator full of liquor, came home, and in the futility of the situation and all of his frustration, he downed the liquid like water. One after another. Just continuous. He had even bought more. He grasped the neck of an empty bottle and flung it against the wall and he heard it shatter. Then the dark shadows of sleep over took his troubled mind and he passed out on his living room couch.

Two Weeks Later

Nigel sat at his desk, dark sunglasses covered his eyes. He could feel his pulse behind his eyes. It was another day. Another hangover. Mountains of paper work covered the desk top and he knew he was behind. The only difference now was that he didn't care. Behind the sunglasses, his eyes were closed and he jumped when he heard a chair scrap across the floor behind him. It made his hangover angry and spikes of color and pain shot through his head. "Would you be quiet!" He hissed out as he rubbed his temples.

Garrett could no longer sit, idly, back and watch Nigel from afar. Something was bothering him and Garrett had to figure out what it was before he was forced to take action against Nigel's lazy attitude. He pulled out a chair and sat. "We need to talk, Nigel." His voice was soft. He didn't want to anger the man since he had obviously developed a short temper. People were complaining left and right about Nigel's behavior so that had to be addressed to.

A soft groan escaped from his pale lips. "Sorry boss." He whispered. Nigel literally felt himself shaking and growing ill. The last two weeks were catching up with him. Today being the worse out of all previous days. He had called Headmaster Chancey before leaving for work only to find out that his worse fears were confirmed. Eve had been withdrawn from the daycare program, indefinitely. Licking his lips, he managed to spin himself around to face Garrett. "Did you want something or did you just want to stop in and talk to your favorite bloke?" He tried to sound as normal as possible but failed.

"Nigel..." Garrett began then stopped noticing the other mans haggard appearance. He was paler than usual and he could see dark rings peeking out from under the sunglasses that seemed to have become, permanently, attached to Nigel's face over the last few weeks. And he looked thinner, if that was possible. He was dressed in the same outfit that he had worn yesterday and several days of stubble covered his face. Also the smell of alcohol permeated the air. "My God! What's happened to you?" Garrett was shocked.

A bitter little laugh escaped from his throat. "What's the matter chief? Never seen a broken man before?" Nigel's accent seemed heavier than usual and his words were slurred making them difficult to understand.

"What are you talking about?" Garrett stood and closed the door to the small office, shutting the one window blind in the process. Somehow, this situation looked familiar and he was experiencing deja-vu. "Talk to me Nigel. You're a good Medical Examiner, don't force me to suspend you." He crossed his arms over his chest and waited. He knew that it was a weak threat but he doubted in Nigel's condition that it would matter how strong the threat was.

"I bet you'd get a bloody jolly laugh out of this." He sneered then sighed. "She's gone, Doctor M. She just...left." Nigel threw his arms in the air to make his point then winced as his head began to throb again from the sudden movement.

Garrett was confused. This was about a girl? He never seen Nigel so screwed up over a girl. Hell, he didn't even think he dated. His job was his life. "Why would I laugh about that?"

"Because she did it to you too, mate!" He huffed. "I think I'm going to be sick." Nigel covered his mouth and bolted out of his office and stumbled towards the nearest bathroom. He didn't even get the door completely closed before he emptied the contents of his stomach into the porcelain toilet bowl.

Blinking, Garrett sat there as he watched Nigel run to the bathroom. Then his words hit him. 'Because she did it to you too.' His eyes widened just a bit as he stood and walked to the bathroom, stopping outside. He finally understood. This was about Jordan. It made sense now. He had stopped by her house several times to drop off and pick Spencer up and he could hear Nigel inside playing with Eve. Spencer would come home and talk for hours about how cool 'Uncle Nigel' was and how he knew how to play all the coolest video games. Nigel seemed to always be at Jordan's when he stopped by with Spencer. Why hadn't he put two and two together? Nigel had a relationship with Jordan. Or at least, he did, but not anymore by the sound of things. When Nigel appeared a few minutes later, he gave a understanding smile. "Let's get out of here for awhile." He stopped at the front desk on the way out and made sure that he'd be called if any emergency came up and then he left with Nigel. He drove to the Pogue without thinking.

Inside, Nigel was greeted by a small smile from Max. He had stopped by there several times to see if he had heard anything from Jordan but the answer was always no. He nodded in greeting and sat at a table towards the back, where it was dark. Garrett sat opposite him a few moments later. He was silent having no idea what to say to his boss.

"What happened?" Was Garrett's only question and raised an eyebrow when Max brought over two cups of coffee and sat them down before disappearing again. Nigel had obviously been in this state for sometime and Max knew about it.

"I was a git." Nigel mumbled as he blew on the steaming cup of coffee and took a sip. The liquid was strong and he knew it would take away his hangover. He sighed, removing his dark glasses and locking his blood shit, red, eyes on Garrett. "The little tyke called me daddy and I reacted badly." He laid his head onto the cool wooden surface of the table. "Actually that would be an understatement." He mumbled into the table top.

"Daddy? How long were you and Jordan together?" He obviously figured out that the little tyke was Eve but was sure that the little girl wouldn't call just anyone daddy. Garrett took a sip of his own coffee and waited.

"Over a year." Came his muffled reply from face down on the table. "I...it was two weeks ago. I was trying to get Eve up and she called me daddy once. I thought I was hearing things but then she called me it again and Jordan heard it." Nigel lifted his head and rested it on his folder arms, his spiked bracelets digging into his cheek. "It shocked me and I made up an excuse about a meeting and left. Jordan didn't want me to go. She said that must have slipped out. It hurt me to know that she was probably right. When I realized that I had made a mistake by leaving...it was too late. Eve hadn't shown up for daycare and Jordan had called off sick at work. They were gone and now they bloody well aren't coming back!" He slammed his fisted hand onto the table, spilling some of his coffee. "I hurt her and now I can't fix it. I always fix it." He whispered.

He raised an eyebrow. Somehow, it didn't shock him that Nigel and Jordan had an relationship. They both were loners and slightly eccentric. He waited for the pangs for jealousy that usually hit him when thinking about Jordan with someone else but they didn't come. He felt nothing but pity for Nigel. It had to be hell knowing that the first time that Jordan left, she came back with a kid and widowed. Nigel had to be thinking that the same would happen again since he had obviously taken up drinking as a late night hobby. He had to be thinking that Jordan would find someone else to give her love to and he'd be left with nothing except a broken heart. He knew all too well what Nigel was going through because he had gone through it himself. "If she loves you, she'll come back. Don't let what happened between me and her deter you from keeping faith that she'll return. There is a difference between you and me. She stopped loving me long before she left. I really did do something wrong and all you did was overreact to being called daddy by a child that you obviously adore." He glanced at his watch. "I have to get back to the office, take a few days off and get yourself together." He stood, patted him on the shoulder and left.

Nigel left the bar soon after Garrett. His motorcycle was still back at the morgue so he decided to walk. A little exercise would do his tired limbs some good. He knew what Garrett said was true. Jordan had stopped loving him long before that marriage was over. Their eight month affair was testimony to that. "Please come home, love." He whispered as he looked up to the clear blue sky.

Meanwhile Elsewhere

Jordan and Eve are currently staying with Jebadiah while Jordan sorted out her emotions and tried to shake the a flu bug that she picked up a few weeks back. She was up most of the night now, not just mornings, throwing up. That seemed to be the only unbearable symptom other than occasional chills, hot flashes and irritability. Being a doctor, she knew in her mind that it wasn't the flu but this was her way of dealing with it for now. The first night back in Kentucky, she didn't even remember driving there. Jeb found her in shock, sitting in the driveway with a sleeping Eve in the backseat. It took another two days before she'd even speak to anyone other than her daughter. When she finally did open up, all she would say was that she came to visit her family since she missed them so very much.

Jeb knew the truth since Eve was anything but quiet. She had told her grandfather that she called her Unca Nige daddy and that he had left. After that her mommy packed her in the car and they left as well. Jeb knew that Jordan must have witnessed the who daddy calling incident and that was the reason why she ended up on his doorstep but what he couldn't figure out was if Jordan left because she didn't want Eve calling this Nige fellow daddy or if she did. Her reaction to his leaving would say that she was ok with this man being called daddy by her daughter and that his leaving had hurt her. He also wasn't blind to that fact that his daughter-in-law was sick. He had enough children and grandchildren to know exactly what that meant. It meant that his granddaughters Uncle Nige was more than a brotherly figure to Jordan. Maybe that was the underlying reason she had left? The whole daddy calling situation had just pushed over the deep end so she ran back to the place where she felt safe. He could only guess since she wasn't willingly giving up any information pertaining to her life back in Boston. He just hoped that she knew what she was doing.