Man, I am just updating like crazy here! I must be brilliant on this story…or avoiding my homework…potato potahto

...your horoscope says you will review my story today...amazing!

I Might Say Yes

Sunday dawned bright and warm, with the extreme light typical of winter time being the only indication that it was even December. No work and no calls meant the chance to continue through dream land for a few extra hours. When the phone rang shrilly on the nightstand, it jarred both Danny and Jordan. She rubbed at her tired eyes while he reluctantly rolled away from her to pick the phone off the cradle to answer it. Jordan could hear a man's sharp voice on the other line.

"Uh huh," Danny said groggily. "Yeah, she's right here."

Jordan closed her eyes and groaned inwardly. She rolled onto her stomach and buried herself beneath the covers. She felt Danny tap her on the shoulder with the phone.

"It's Garret, Jordan," he said, amused at her attempts to hide. "He wants a word with you."

"Tell 'im I don't wanna," she grumbled into the pillow. She heard Garret's muted voice come through the phone again. He sounded pissed.

"He says he can hear you, so you might as well get your ass in gear," Danny informed her, grinning as she emerged unhappily from the covers. He was pleased to see that she looked just as beautiful first thing in the morning as she did going to bed. As she took the phone away from him, he ran a hand along the line of her neck, brushing away strands of her hair.

"Garret, what's up?" she asked with false courage.

"You turned your cell phone off, Jordan. Do you know how long I've been trying to find out how to get in touch with you?" Garret's voice hit her harshly, making her grimace a little.

"My guess is since yesterday," she replied unhelpfully, rolling her eyes at Danny to garner sympathy for being lectured. He chose that moment to start kissing his way up her arm, starting at the tips of her fingers. Jordan had to bite her lip as Garret yelled at her.

"Don't be smart, Jordan. You could have at least told us where you were staying so that we wouldn't have to be worried sick the last twenty four hours about where you were and what you were doing," Garret said, sounding an awful lot like her father.

She smiled at the unintentional double meaning in his words, looking down at Danny who was now trailing his lips across her shoulder. How was she going to explain this? There were no possible words that would make Garret happy.

"I told you I was going to Vegas," she argued.

"What for?" Garret demanded, though he must know perfectly well what for if he had finally managed to locate Danny McCoy's home phone number and found her there at nine on a Sunday morning.

"To figure my life out," she said. He didn't say anything. "Look, I swear, I just need a few days, Garret. Really. I need this."

Garret sighed heavily. "Just a few days, Jordan. Then I want you back in Boston where you belong," he paused, thinking over what she had done. "Be careful. Don't make any choices you'll regret later."

"I won't," she said tightly. It annoyed her that he thought so little of her decision making that he thought this was another fling.

She sank down into the pillows and handed the phone back to Danny, who put it back in its cradle. He turned back to her with an impish grin and moved over so that he was propped above her. He reached out with his left hand and entwined his fingers with her right hand. Jordan couldn't help but smile back up at his ridiculously happy face.

"So a few days, huh?" he asked her.

"Yup."

"You certainly had high expectations," he joked, and she laughed lightly. He searched her eyes for a moment, a question at the tip of his tongue. Finally, he asked quietly, "You sure you wouldn't want to extend that a little?"

Jordan felt her heart leap. "Do you want me to?"

"I want you to stay as long as possible," he told her. "What does the Boston morgue need you for in the end, really?"

She smiled at his words, feeling herself blush. "It's more the fact that I get my paycheck from them that's the dilemma," she said.

"So? I can find someone here to give you a paycheck for the same thing," Danny persuaded her shamelessly. He let go of her hand to cup the side of her face, rubbing his thumb against her cheek. "I don't want you to go, Jordan."

To emphasize his point, he lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her deeply. Jordan felt her body respond to him, and she reveled in what he was able to make her feel. She had feared that she would never be able to let herself feel this way again, but Danny turned those fears into nothing. Jordan pretended to be torn about her decision; but as he made love to her, she knew in the back of her mind what she would decide in the end.

A few days ended up turning into a few weeks. Ed Devine pulled some strings and got Jordan a temporary position as an ME, and by the time Christmas rolled around there was already a strong rumor that the position would become permanent. Jordan found herself enjoying Las Vegas much more than she ever thought she would. It helped that most things that she did meant having Danny McCoy at her side. She was quickly falling in love with him, and knew that he was falling hard for her. And it wasn't very long before those words that Danny longed to hear as he made love to her escaped her lips right along with his name.

The staff at the Montecito was thrilled, if not a little shocked, with the pairing. They knew that Danny would be the last person to rush into anything too serious too soon, but it was plain that Danny and Jordan just fit. End of story. And any of them would have been pleased to hear them announce an engagement sometime in the near future. The only person who seemed bitter at all was Sam. It clearly bothered her that Jordan came back to Danny, while Woody continued to be evasive. Jordan was thankful not for the first time that it was no longer her who was suffering from Woody's scorn.

She felt guilty more often than she liked about running off to Vegas the way she did, especially with the holidays approaching. She never intended to hurt her friends, but it was inevitable that they would feel upset about her sudden departure. She talked to them daily, never missing the opportunity to speak to each of them at least once. The last thing that she wanted was for them to think she had abandoned them or forgotten them. Lily was the easiest to talk to, as she managed to turn Jordan into a gossipy teenager about her relationship with Danny. She was truly happy for them. Bug just wanted to make sure she was doing all right, Sidney joked around with her about becoming the next Britney Spears in Vegas, and Nigel told her that if Danny did anything to mess with her that he would be forced to revisit his combat training.

Garret was the hardest to talk to. He wanted her to be happy, and he was genuinely glad she could find that happiness in Danny. But it was clear that he missed her. Jordan worried about him. There was a light that had dimmed somewhere in him, she was sure. It had happened even before she left Boston, but she was afraid that she was only contributing to his sadness. Lily insisted that she was keeping her eye on Garret and assured Jordan that she would be the first to know should anything change dramatically with him. She had no choice but to accept this as it was, however concerned she was.

No one mentioned Woody…and she was just fine with that.

It was on Christmas Eve that Jordan told Danny she felt that she needed to visit Boston to check in on everybody; mainly, to check in on Garret. She emphasized the word 'visit.' Not 'return,' but 'visit.' They were sitting in the living room enjoying the glow of the Christmas tree, the fire in the fireplace, and the Frank Sinatra Christmas Album. Danny had made them hot chocolate with the perfect amount of Bailey's Irish Cream. He loved making that drink for her; it made her just relaxed enough and slightly buzzed to bring out her outgoing side without making her drunk.

"When would you leave?" he asked her, playing with her hair with his free hand.

"I was thinking after New Year's," she said. Danny nodded.

"Okay. I'll make plane reservations in the morning," he said. She looked at him, surprised.

"Wait, you're going too?" she asked.

"Yeah, is that all right?" he laughed at her. She smiled and shook her head in surprise, somewhat taken aback.

"Of course. I just…ah, I guess I didn't think you would do something like that," Jordan said, knowing she made absolutely no sense.

"Do something like what?" he asked, getting more amused at her by the second.

"Follow me across the country," she said, reaching out with her foot to nudge his leg playfully. "Kinda stalker-ish, actually."

"Well, you know me. One phone call and I hop on a plane," he said, giving her a knowing smile. Really, Jordan, I would do anything for you, he thought, feeling too foolish to say it out loud. He stared at her for a minute, and then put his cup down and jumped up from the sofa. "Okay, I can't wait any longer," he said eagerly as he kneeled down next to the tree. "This was going to be for tomorrow, but you're getting it now."

Jordan sat up expectantly as Danny retrieved a small box from beneath the tree and brought it over to her. Her heart raced for a second before she realized the box was probably too large to be what she thought it might be. Then again…

"And before you panic, no, it's not a ring. I would give you a little more warning than that," he dispelled her worries. "Unless of course you wanted it to be a ring, in which case I will sit here quietly while you berate me."

Jordan laughed and leaned over to kiss him.

"I'm sure whatever it is will be just perfect," she told him.

She pulled the silver ribbon off the package and lifted the lid from the box. Her hand snuck in beneath the tissue paper and closed on what felt like glass. She lifted the object out. In her hand was the most beautiful blown glass rose she had ever seen. It was a lone, full blossom framed by a single leaf. A rich butter yellow had been woven into the glass of the petals, accented by the Kelly green of the leaf. Jordan was speechless.

"Do you like it?" Danny asked eagerly, looking at her with the face of someone who knows they've done something right.

"Danny, this is…I can't even find the words," she said. "It's exquisite."

Danny wrapped an arm around her waist and rested his forehead against the side of her head.

"It reminded me of you," he murmured, brushing his lips against her hair.

Jordan almost wished that it had been a ring in that box, because she would have married him right then and there. She felt guilty thinking that this was the most beautiful present a man had ever given her. There was one present that had come close…but it was all wrong in so many ways. What Danny had given her was just right. More importantly, it was right for them. Jordan turned her head and kissed him lovingly.

"Merry Christmas, Danny," she whispered against his lips.

"Merry Christmas, Jor."

Of course. Of course he would be the first person she would run into upon her return to Boston. She hadn't even been there six hours. She hadn't even been to the morgue yet. All she did was walk down the street to the Starbuck's on the corner for some coffee, and walking in the opposite direction was the living proof that to love and lose is not necessarily better than to never love at all.

Jordan took a deep breath and braced herself for what she was sure would not be a pleasant reunion. He had definitely seen her, she was sure of that. She stood taller as he approached her…and walked right past her without so much as a glance. Slightly stunned, Jordan turned and watched him walk away. Her lip twitched, deprived of the words that she had been prepared to say to him, her jaw open a little.

"Oh," she muttered vehemently.