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DISCLAIMER: I don't own these characters. No profit is being made.

It's all for fun.

A/N: I promise the Woody-torture won't continue forever, but after the way he behaved… well, a woman scorned and all. g

Part Three: Homecoming

Boston

Lily and Garret met Ed Deline's private plane when it landed. The man himself stepped off the plane, one McCoy child in the crook of his arm, the other's hand grasped tightly in his. Behind him, Jordan emerged, her dark glasses a paltry defense against her grief. Her face was too thin and her skin too pale. She had drawn her back severely. Only the telltale bulge in the front of her black dress gave sign of much life.

Garret leaned over and whispered in Lily's ear. "Did you know she was…?"

Lily shook her head. "Not a clue. Wow."

Ed Strode up to Macy and Lily. He nodded at them. "I wish I could say it was a pleasure to see both of you again, but…."

Dr. Macy nodded.

Smiling a smile that never reached his eyes, Ed looked at the two little girls. "This," he dropped his gaze to take in only Catherine. "This is Catherine McCoy. And here-" He gave the girl in his arms a quick kiss on the forehead. "This is Sarah McCoy." His smile stayed in place but his eyes became, if possible, more sober. "I know all of you here in Boston will take good care of them." Jordan had reached his side. "And our Jordan, of course."

Garret nodded, his throat tight at the sight of his favorite subordinate – though she'd only ever been subordinate in name really. "Welcome home, Jordan." He took her hands and felt her slide into his embrace. He could feel the tension singing through her. A mournful countermelody of grief played against it. He ached for her. Of all the people he knew Jordan had fought the hardest for the happiness in her life. No one ever said that life was fair, but he wished, for her, it could have been.

Lily knelt and smiled at the older girl. She introduced herself and was rewarded with a big smile. "You worked with Mommy before. You help people when they're sad. Maybe you can help Mommy."

Lily choked back a gasp. Catherine McCoy was certainly her parents' child – forthright and honest, four going on forty. "I'll – um – I'll do my best."

Ed sighed as he studied the tableau, his grasp on Sarah still firm. "Jordan, are you sure you won't let me-?"

"I'm sure, Ed. You've already done a lot." She disengaged herself from Garret and reached for Sarah. Garret insisted on taking her instead. Jordan rolled her eyes slightly. She was pregnant, not helpless, but she knew the gesture came from love. "We'll be fine. And you've got that big opening."

He looked down for a moment. "Mindy can stay as long as you need her."

Jordan nodded. "She's going to help us settle in and then I'm sending her back. Danny and I never had a nanny before and I'm not going to start now."

Ed sighed again. "God, you're stubborn."

His observation coaxed a smile from her. "As a mule."

Deline kissed both girls goodbye, promised them they could come see him anytime it was okay with their mother and assured them that when the new baby arrived he would be the first one there. Catherine willingly gave her hand to Lily, a gesture that both pinched his soul and reassured him. He hated to let Danny's family go and hoped someday Jordan might choose to return, but he knew right now she couldn't face everything she was facing in a place that had so many happy memories lurking around every corner. The fact her former colleagues still treated her like family was good. The fact she'd also let him buy her a house in a decent part of Boston and pay for a good private school for the girls was better. He hugged her. "We'll miss all of you." He looked down at her. Tears stood in her eyes. "Come back to us someday, Jordan."

She made no commitment. "Thank you, Ed. For everything."

"I wish it were more. I wish-"

"Please don't." Her control wavered. "Get on that plane before you're late."

He studied her for a long moment. Danny had chosen well when he'd settled on this beautiful, spirited woman. They'd been a good match, maybe one of the best he'd ever seen. At last, he kissed her cheek in parting and was gone.

XXXXX

"Hey." Jordan's soft voice caught Garret's attention.

He looked up from his paperwork and smiled at her. "Hey, yourself. Come in." She sidled into the room and for a moment Garret was assailed by images of her doing that so many times before, usually when she wanted something. "Getting settled in?"

She nodded. "Pretty much."

"Lily said she's stopped by a couple of times."

"Yeah, she has," Jordan confirmed. "The girls like the way she lets them play in the bathtub. I've always been a little stricter about the amount of water that ends up on the floor. Danny lets them-" She bit the inside of her cheek and looked down at her hands, fidgeting restlessly in her lap. "Lily also reads bedtime stories quite well, apparently." Her voice was thick with tears.

Garret got up and came to sit beside her on the couch. He put an arm around her shoulders. She rested her head against him. "How are you doing, Jordan?"

She shrugged. "I miss him. I keep having to remind my daughters that their daddy's not coming home. I wonder how I'll ever make sure our son knows what an incredible man his father was-"

"This one's a boy?"

Jordan nodded. "Yeah." She wiped away the tears now trickling down her face. "I think Danny had already signed him up for T-Ball and Peewee football and was talking to his old military contacts about West Point." She gave a bitter, harsh laugh.

"Are you ever sorry, Jordan?"

She looked up at him. "For – For the last six years?"

Garret nodded.

"No. Danny was exactly what I needed at a time I really needed it. We liked each other."

"Just liked?"

"No, not just liked, but that's how it started." She breathed deeply. "That's how it always was. We enjoyed each other's company. And there were never any illusions for either of us." She rubbed a hand over her belly. "I was always enough for him. Strengths. Flaws. Didn't matter."

Garret smiled at her. "You have flaws?"

She chuckled. "Believe it or not." She smiled as the baby kicked against her hand. "So, no, I could never regret it."

The chief M.E. ran a hand over her hair. He was proud of her. "So, any special reason you're here?"

She colored faintly. He could always read her like a book. "Maybe."

"Maybe like wanting your job back?"

"Could be that," she admitted.

"Jordan, are you sure? I mean – the baby, the girls… everything?"

"Garret, I worked until I went into labor with Catherine. I worked until two weeks before Sarah was born. I've got the girls settled into the pre-school that Ed insisted on. They've already made bunches of friends and have so many play dates I'm thinking about getting each of them their own PDAs. Mornings?"

He sighed.

"Please? I'm going nuts. I need to be doing something. I need something to – to take my mind off him every once in a while. I need to feel useful and I don't."

"Mornings. And I check with your doctor that it's okay. And when she tells you to stop working, you listen. And if it gets to be too much, you tell me."

She threw her arms around him and hugged him, agreeing blithely to his conditions.

XXXXX

Woody walked in and surveyed the chaos in the small diner. Tables and chairs overturned, food congealing on the floor, a couple of windows broken as patrons had fled the gunmen. Three dead – a waitress, the manager and a cook who, one frightened witness trapped in a booth until the rampage ended, said had tried to stop the gunman. The detective saw Dr. Vijay crouched next to the body of the waitress. "What've we got, Bug?"

He looked up. The chill between the morgue staff and Woody had never quite thawed. It wasn't so much that he'd hurt Jordan. She had obviously recovered. It was more how he'd hurt her – pushing her away, treating her with contempt, acting as if she didn't matter to him and never really had. Only Lily had gone to his wedding four years ago. She'd received praise for her charity and forgiveness until, with a wicked un-Lily like smile, she'd said, "Charity? Forgiveness? No way. I just want to go so I can think how much better Jordan looked at her wedding and how great that day was!"

"Bug?" Woody repeated.

Dr. Vijay shook his head. "Sorry. Three dead. Multiple gunshots to each vic. She died first." He pointed to the pallid blonde on the floor. Then he pointed to a young man in a white apron. "He was probably second. There are powder burns on his hands, so he may have fought with the perp."

Woody nodded. "A witness says the cook tried to stop our guy. Who else?"

"The manager. He's back toward the office. One shot to the chest and another to the – well, let's say, it's a little personal."

The detective grimaced.

"Looks like lots of prints. This guy wasn't subtle."

"Motive?"

Bug shrugged. "Maybe one of the poor people out there heard something."

"Oh, I've got motive," Jordan told them from the office doorway. She advanced and handed Woody a black and white picture. It showed the waitress in an intimate clinch with the manager. The word "whore" was scrawled in red across it.

Woody's mouth had dropped open at her appearance. He closed it with some effort. "Jordan. Hi." He gave her a wry grin, the same sort he'd given her the day he'd told her he'd moved on, right before she'd called Danny McCoy. His eyes ran up and down her body.

Betraying no emotion whatsoever, she gave him a very level look. "Hi. Something wrong?"

"I – uh – I didn't know you were coming back to work."

She nodded. "Almost three weeks now."

"And you're – um – I mean – you know…."

"Pregnant?" She smoothed her sweater over her belly, emphasizing its seven-months' roundness. "Yep. Turns out I'm pretty good at it." She let a sly grin spread across her face. "Or, at least, what gets ya' that way." She strode past him, telling Bug she'd meet him back at the morgue.

Woody gaped at her, his jaw hanging slackly again. He turned back to Bug. "Someone could have said something."

Bug raised an eyebrow. "Sorry. She didn't announce it to the whole Boston P.D. Her choice."

"Not the whole department. Someone could have told me."

"You know, Woody, you've barely asked about her in the last six years. I think we all assumed you wouldn't really care."

To that Woody made no response.

END Part Three