Oh school, how I loathe thee and thy propensity for delaying my updates…

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What A Lovely Way To Burn

Two days later, Jordan was back in her old office trying to plow her way through the paperwork that had managed to find its way onto her desk. The task was growing increasingly difficult, especially when Danny stopped by at lunchtime to bring her coffee and a chicken salad. She had certainly been eating better since starting to date him. When her forty five minutes was more than up, she still wasn't quite ready for him to leave her at the mind numbing work. So she made no argument when he walked behind her chair and began to knead the tensed muscles in her shoulders and neck, dropping light kisses on her skin from time to time. After several minutes, the paperwork was forgotten, and Jordan closed her eyes and melted under Danny's hands.

She let her mind wander, not really thinking about anything specific, but just allowing her mind to visit things that had been bothering her. There was definitely a different mood in the morgue these days. Not necessarily bad; just different. Garret acted like he had lost his authority there. He was still being watched carefully, and the constant monitoring showed in the way he ran the place. Everyone else seemed somewhat less enthusiastic because of it, though no less dedicated to the work they were doing. They were more than glad to have her back. It seemed to give them an extra push in the cases. And, despite Danny's eagerness to flaunt their relationship, the morgue had been Woody-free since her return. For that, Jordan was grateful

A knock at the door brought Jordan back to reality, and she immediately missed Danny's touch when he stepped back to allow her to answer the door. Lily stood on the other side with a slightly apologetic look on her face.

"Hey, Lily, what's up?" Jordan asked.

"Garret wants you to take an autopsy in two," she explained, handing Jordan a file. "Pretty routine, traffic fatality."

"Doesn't trust me with the big stuff yet, huh?" Jordan joked.

"Oh, no," Lily smiled. "I think he just doesn't want you to get too…tied up. You know, in case you need to leave…or something," she finished mildly with a glance at Danny.

"Ah," Jordan said, giving Lily an understanding smile. "Yeah, I've been getting that impression." Turning to Danny, she said, "Mind if I go take care of this?"

"Not at all," Danny said, walking over to join them. "Actually, I should probably be getting back to the apartment. I have to check in with Ed in an hour." He leaned down and kissed Jordan goodbye. "See you tonight. Bye, Lily."

Jordan watched him walk away, and Lily followed her gaze.

"My God, is it me, or did he get hotter since the last time he was here?" Lily asked, admiring the vantage point she had. Jordan elbowed her jokingly in the side.

"Hey, I went to a lot of effort to nab him, I don't need any competition here," she said sarcastically.

"Jordan, I hate to break it to you, but with a boyfriend like that, you better get used to outsiders admiring the view," Lily smiled. She looked at her friend and was surprised to see a slightly unnerved look on her face. "What?"

"I just haven't heard anyone refer to him as my boyfriend before. It sounded…new," Jordan said, trying as hard as possible not to sound freaked out by Lily's label. Lily still gave her a concerned look.

"You guys are serious though, right? I mean, surely people in Vegas consider him your boyfriend," she prodded.

"Yeah," Jordan said quickly, smiling to cover up her discomfort at being questioned. "But it sounds different coming from one of you guys, ya know?"

"Oh," Lily said, though she didn't quite understand.

"Anyway, I better get on that autopsy before Garret decides to kick my ass in gear for me," Jordan said lightly, heading off towards the locker rooms to change into a pair of scrubs.

When she was in the seclusion of the changing area, she stopped to think about what had just happened. It made no sense. Not even two weeks ago she was ready for Danny to get down on one knee and ask her to be his wife, and it had not scared her in the slightest. She wanted it, more than she ever thought she would. But there was something about Lily and the rest of her morgue family pointing out the seriousness of her relationship that made her pulse quicken. She was starting to feel slightly pressured by it, like they were analyzing every move that was made. And presiding over this thought was the fear of how they would react if she did decide to let the relationship move into the area of an engagement…a marriage. Because that would change everything.

Lifting her eyes to the ceiling, she shook her head a little before heading over to do her autopsy. The work managed to relax her, the meticulousness of it distracting her enough so that she didn't have to worry about her life. Everything she found was in line with a typical traffic fatality. The twenty-five year old man had swerved off the road and collided with a cement wall at top speed. Crushed ribs, a broken neck, internal bleeding…nothing out of the ordinary. Jordan thought that she might just get off easy on this report, until she ran the tests for any unusual substances.

"Well that's just fun," she muttered as she stared at the tox screen.

"What's fun?" Sidney shoved his way through the double doors with a pile of papers in his arms, catching her statement.

"This traffic vic has a rather high amount of iron in his system," Jordan told him.

"Overdose?" he asked, curious.

"I don't know," she said, moving over to let him look at the screen. "What person takes an overdose of iron and then gets in the car to drive somewhere?"

"Maybe he didn't know he was being overdosed," Sidney suggested darkly. Jordan looked over at him.

"You suspect foul play?" she asked mysteriously with a raise of her eyebrow.

"Of course."

"What would this job be without a little cynicism," she said sarcastically.

"Not very entertaining," he answered her, walking with her over to the body. "Did he have an ID?"

"Yeah," she said, picking up the wallet that was in his personal affects. "Phillip Di Giovanni."

"They have Italians in Boston? I thought it was strictly Irish," Sidney quipped, and got a semi-amused look from Jordan. She stared down at the ID for a few more moments, her brow furrowing.

"He's local," she said as she read the information, and then handed the wallet over to Sidney. "See if you can locate any relatives that we can contact. They might have some answers for us."

"I'm on it," Sidney said, leaving her to take a second look at the body.

An hour later, Phillip Di Giovanni's parents were located and informed about their son. Jordan examined his stomach more closely and found what she needed to back up the high doses of iron in his system. The internal bleeding from the accident had hidden the corrosion of his stomach lining from her in her initial exam. Now that she knew what to look for, it was easy to see that his stomach and intestines had been almost destroyed by the amount of iron forced into his body. She grimaced, thinking that this young man had gone through excruciating pain before he died.

With Lily's help, Jordan talked with Vince and Gina Di Giovanni about anything in their son's life that would have caused him to overdose, or to imply that someone would do this to him. From their emotional reaction, she guessed that they had no suspicions of either scenario. Jordan felt horrible for even suggesting it at the look on Gina's face when she thought her son might have killed himself…or been killed. Phillip had always been an outstanding human being…not without his faults and problems, but always a solid person. He had just graduated from NYU with a double major in journalism and psychology and was interning at a paper in Boston. All things considered, leading the idea life.

And if Jordan knew anything about life, it was when it seemed ideal that things started to crash and burn.

Her stomach growled at her as she stood at a computer in trace, looking over samples taken from Phillip's body. She should have left work an hour ago, but she wanted to find something to jump start this investigation, forgoing an offer of take-out from Lily and Sidney. The police had been alerted to what was going on, and a search of Phillip's apartment was underway. Jordan knew that eventually a detective would be assigned to the case…she cringed at the thought of how that would turn out. Her best bet was to get as much of her side of the work done as soon as possible to avoid any unnecessary confrontations. When her phone rang, she momentarily abandoned her research and answered it.

"Hey, you almost done?" Danny's voice came through the speaker, making her smile.

"I want to be," she said, looking guiltily at the mass of work she had created in trace.

"I want you to be, too," he said, his voice leaning on the husky side. Funny how just his voice could make her skin tingle. "If you're not back soon, I might just have to share this four star meal I whipped up with some other sexy brunette," he teased her.

"Don't you dare," she grinned, her body starting to feel some very un-professional sensations. Without fail, Danny cooking her a luxurious dinner led to a night of him paying more attention to her body than she ever thought a man could. With one more glance at the papers and evidence lying around the room, she decided that she wouldn't really find anything of importance tonight anyway. "I'll be home in twenty minutes."

Even in her dreams, Jordan felt his hands sliding over her, his lips touching every inch of skin on her body, making her more aware of herself than ever before. In these moments, she never doubted how her future with him would turn out. She loved him too much to consider letting him go. If he could drop everything to come to Boston with her, not even knowing how long they would stay, she should be able to do the same for him. But she still worried about what it would do to everyone if she left…what it would do to Garret. Being in Danny's embrace made her forget about that, if only for a little while. It gave her the chance to imagine the promise of a life with him. Those images followed her dutifully into her dreams, replacing the haunted thoughts that had been collecting there since the sniper shootings.

Her phone seemed to shriek in the dark, making her eyes fly open in alarm. She felt Danny sit up next to her, his arm still slung across her waist. Blinking to focus her eyes, Jordan reached over for the receiver while he switched a light on.

"H'lo?" she said into the phone, her voice thick with sleep.

"Jordan," Lily's voice echoed in her ear, shaky and tearful. "Garret was in a car accident."