Medical Examiner's Office, City of Boston

12:49PM

Jordan was no more than two steps into Trace before Nigel stopped her. "I told you love I have no idea. The lo-jack was either damaged or disabled after it was towed from the water."

"This..." she said jiggling the newly surfaced keys in front of her, "has your name written all over it."

Nigel palmed the keys from her outstretched hand to verify for himself that indeed they were hers. "Where did you find these?"

Jordan snorted as if to say 'where you put them'...

Only the look on his face and the tone of his voice were too honest in their surprise to believe he had anything to do with them.

"You really don't know do you?" she asked, her mouth agape.

"I'm sorry Jordan."

"They were on my desk. Someone put them there this morning while I was in autopsy."

Nigel was slow to smile, but his smile was wide nonetheless. Instinctively, he loved a mystery and Jordan's El Camano was becoming more interesting by the minute. On a whim he booted up his computer and took one more look at lo-jack. Where there wasn't any trace before... there was now a signal.

"Well, I'll be..."

"I'll be what?" Jordan asked over his shoulder.

"There's a signal. According to this, your vehicle is...here."

"Here!"

"Yes, here." Nigel pointed to the coordinates on the screen. "The morgue. Shall we?"

Before Jordan could say anything, Nigel twirled the key ring around his finger and left. It was all Jordan could do to keep up with his long legged stride. She caught up with him at the elevators. She didn't quite know what they were going to find. She didn't know what she was feeling was either dread or relief...

"Dr. C! Dr. C! I'm so glad I caught you!"

Without looking away from the little number counting down over top of the elevator Jordan said, "Whatever it is Emmy leave it on my desk. I'm busy right now..."

"Okay," Emmy said sounding slightly stranded.

Emmy shifted back and forth on the balls of her feet. Jordan knew when it came to the high strung woman that stance's meaning could run the gambit between there was a police lock-down on the ninth floor to there were doughnuts in the break room.

The elevator doors open and Nigel stepped inside. Jordan was a little slower. She couldn't shake that feeling that Emmy was going to go postal one day and she'd be the first target. She opened her mouth ask what she wanted when the doors closed. As soon as the car started moving Jordan had no choice but to move Emmy and her message to the back burner.

It didn't take long to find what the lo-jack signal had pinpointed. There in her assigned parking spot was her El Camino. Nigel's low whistle mirrored the look on Jordan's face. There was no mistaking this was her old El Camino even through the fresh paint and new interior was enough to take a second look.

Nigel keyed the lock with an innate caution honed over years of Jordan and her little surprises and opened the door. He popped the hood and checked for anything out of the ordinary. Satisfied it was clean he started the engine.

"I don't understand," Jordan said. "Garret said it was totaled."

"It was." Nigel slid out of the driver's seat and held the door open for her.

After a test drive around the block Jordan was satisfied that all the little quirks of her car were still there. The stirring pulled to the left and the muffler rattled a little while it was in idle. While she drove Nigel helped himself to the contents of her glove compartment. A water damaged registration and insurance card were still inside but nothing else. One last fumble under the seat proved that her CD collection seemed to be intact, but the case was new. She was more confused than ever.

"Who?"

She looked at Nigel for an answer and he just shrugged. "I'll make some calls when we get back."

Nigel already had a plan for checking with all of the local garages as they made their way back to Trace. "I'll start with the places closest to impound. You start calling around South B."

"Right." Jordan said grabbing a binder from Nigel's bookshelf.

"Dr. C!" Emmy yelled from the hallway.

7:20PM

As soon as Emmy said Woody's name Nigel rolled his eyes and hung up the phone. It didn't take a criminologist of his level to put two and two together. Jordan started to argue but in the back of her mind she knew Woody was behind all this.

Through out the rest of the day she went from shock- to relief- to total outrage in a matter of minutes.

Now, she was sitting in front of his apartment building in her reconditioned ride.

What was she going to say to him? Thanks? What do I owe you?...How dare you? She had rehearsed a dozen speeches to herself through out the rest of the day. Nothing sounded right.

Then again...when did anything ever sound right when it came to Woody?

Jordan knew she could second guess herself to death. Not anymore...especially where Woody was considered. For the first time since she knew him the cards of their relationship were laid out on the table. All the hands had been dealt and the game was over, called a draw. There was nothing left but to split the pot...yet she wasn't ready to reach in.

She knocked on the door with forty-third version of her speech on the tip of her tongue. She mustered up as much bravado as she could find waiting for him to answer.

Woody pulled himself off the couch. He wasn't expecting visitors. He certainly wasn't expecting Jordan.

Without preamble Jordan pushed her way into the apartment, tossing her bag on the counter, looking strangely at home in his befuddled mind.

Jordan looked around reacquainting herself with his home. She was taken back. Other than a new set of free weights in the corner it looked the same. To be honest she didn't know what to expect. Something darker maybe, not just the dark-side calendar hanging on the wall marked with his aunt's birthday.

"We need to talk." she said firmly.

"I think winter is coming early this year...the Patriots are looking good...and it's good to see Garret back in the morgue. I think that about covers it Jordan." he added helpfully.

Anything to get her out of his space.

"No," she cut back. "We need to talk about my car. I know you are behind it."

Woody could easily deny it. He wanted to. "Let's just say I owed you."

"I was the one that climbed that trail when you and everyone else told me to go home."

"You found those kids. You saved their lives."

Woody stood by the door his hand itched to reach for the doorknob. The feeling double folded as her voice softened.

"Is that why you thought you owed me?"

"...No. Maybe I just needed to clear my conscience."

"Did it work?"

Woody allowed himself a cold-coffee smile; dark, bitter and slightly wired. "I stole a car. I had it striped down to the bare bones and built back up, and I didn't have the balls to take the credit for it."

"You're right. You did steal my car. You took something that didn't belong to you and messed with it."

"It was broken Jordan. It was broken and I couldn't leave it that way."

Somewhere along the line Woody forgot they were talking about a pile of steel and rubber. Jordan looked away. She felt it too.

"It wasn't your fault Woody. Strauss left me in that...hole. He ditched my car to buy some time."

"I should have made sure you made it home," Woody chuckled mirthlessly. "How many years have I known you? I knew better than anybody how well you listen to being told what to do."

"Then you know I would have probably double backed anyway."

...and she would have said the right thing, smiled the right smile...and wouldn't have been alone traipsing through the woods alone. Strauss wouldn't be waiting for her. She would have found the boys without becoming a victim herself. She wouldn't have ended up buried alive.

"When it comes to you Jordan, I wouldn't expect anything less." he said with a nod.

Woody noticed the way Jordan wrapped her arms around herself. He itched to hold her just like he did when she emerged from that hillside. Instead he shoved his hands in his pant pockets.

"I never asked you to get involved Woody." she said with careful breathe.

"No, you didn't ...but I did anyway. I came by your apartment that morning to give you the paperwork to your car. I don't know why I didn't just do my job. I thought maybe I screwed up so much already I could at least do this. "

"Are you talking about the case or something else Woody?"

This time Woody did open his door. "Everything I ever cared about is dead Jordan. I just stopped fighting the inevitable. I was just taking care of some unfinished business."

Reluctantly, Jordan took the hint and stood up fishing her keys out of her pocket. "I always thought finding closure was something woman did at the end of a relationship."

"We never had a relationship to end Jordan."

"I'm sorry you feel that way. As far as I'm concerned what we had the most real relationship I've ever known. " As she walked passed him Jordan impulsively brushed her lips across his cheek. "Thank you for...for...everything." She said jiggling her keys. "I hope I can return the favor someday."

"I'd rather call us even."

Jordan chanced a smile...The kind of smile she had flashed him a number of times. "You're not getting out of it that easy cowboy."

Woody tried to be unaffected...but he couldn't. The old Woody smiled back. "I'm not changing the oil again."

Jordan took his response as the tiniest step forward. She didn't hope to understand what he was going through when she couldn't put a name on most of her demons herself. Woody was there for her. Even though he didn't want her in his life Jordan knew she would always be there for him. That sparkle of hope made her feel better about her own nightmares.

For Woody it was like an alcoholic taking that preverbal drink. It would be so easy to acknowledge how far under her spell he still was...and would probably always be. Yet, he had nothing to offer her until he could bury his own ghosts forever. He hoped maybe, just maybe, her El Camino was one step in the right direction in reclaiming his soul.

"I'll call in a thousand miles," She announced before turning into the hallway.

Woody quietly closed his door knowing he'd be there when she called in a thousand miles.

Jordan drove away knowing that Woody's innocent smile would keep her safe from her dreams that night. She knew she couldn't fix what was wrong with Woody like he fixed her Camino. Only now there was hope and she was driving the proof.