It is a cloudy and wet day in SoCal…please brighten my day with some reviews, critical or otherwise! Enjoy the latest chapter! Ciao

A Zephyr This Ain't

If one more traumatic thing happened in Jordan's life, she didn't think she would be able to handle it. The week turned into one of the most horrendous she had ever experienced. Emotions ran ramped in the morgue and traveled out into the police force and the DA's office. Fighting her own emotional involvement in Garret's behavior was growing impossible when she had to explain her takeover as Chief ME to questioning authorities. Someone up the ladder had come close to bringing Slokum back in, but was met with a general uproar, and not just from the morgue staff.

On the second day of being Chief ME, Jordan came home stressed and close to a nervous breakdown. She had jokingly told Danny that if he wanted out, now was the time, before she totally lost it. He had taken her face in his hands and stared in her eyes. She didn't even need him to ask.

"No, I don't want you to go," she choked out as the breakdown that had been threatening her started to surface. "I'm sorry, I'm just sounding off. The truth is, I'd probably just crawl into bed and never leave if you decided you wanted out."

"Jor, I'm here for as long as you'll put up with me. You know that, don't you?" he had asked her.

"Of course I do," she had told him, moving into his arms and holding on for dear life. "But the Montecito's going to want you back at some point, or you might realize just how screwed up I really am and decide that this is not even worth it-"

"Hey, uh-uh, don't say that," Danny had said, placing his fingers under her chin and forcing her to look up at him. "I told you at the beginning that if I thought it was worth it I would go for the long distance thing. And you're more than worth it."

After searching her eyes to make sure she believed every word that he said, Danny had leaned down and kissed her deeply. She responded hungrily, the rawness of her emotions releasing the full extent of the passion she felt with him. They barely made it to the bed that night. Trying so hard to let go of everything but him, Jordan's vision nearly went white when pleasure wracked her body, her ears ringing with the sound of his voice. Danny laced his fingers firmly with hers, knowing she needed to be grounded to something to fight against her world crashing down around her.

It surprised them both when tears appeared in Jordan's eyes, and she gripped his hands tighter. She looked up into his eyes, trying to convey that it was nothing he had done. Ever so softly, Danny kissed away the shining tears from her cheeks, though he felt his own emotions following in her footsteps. He couldn't understand why they were both in tears. He felt that perhaps this turn of events would be the thing to make or break them; and perhaps it was the fear of such an event that brought the tears to their eyes. He was terrified of losing her.

Snow had been falling steadily on Boston for three days straight. It made the second week of Jordan's new job seem ten times more dreary and difficult than it already was. The only thing she had to look forward to during her day was knowing that she was going home to Danny. Nearly every evening ended the same way. He would find the exact right moment and right way to kiss her, and it wasn't long before he was making love to her. It made struggling through her days as "boss" just a little more bearable.

Despite offers from both Jordan and Lily to help Garret out while his leg healed, he insisted that it wasn't necessary. Abby had jumped at the opportunity to spend the time with her father. Lily commented that she suspected Abby was looking forward to giving Garret a hard time about abiding by rules and regulations. Visits and phone calls to Garret's house were frequent, and Lily was first in line to make sure his therapy sessions were under way. Given his easy cooperation with the requests of the court, there were going to be very few reprimands from the DA's office. But even with all of this, Jordan still worried about him…a lot.

"Jor?"

Danny's voice brought her out of her thoughts. They were sitting in her office, trying to find something that would give them a starting place with the iron overdose victim. There were benefits to taking over the morgue, and allowing him to work on this case with her without needing to ask permission was one of them. He had been assisting her on the case, lending the skills he normally exercised in Vegas.

"Yeah?" she said, leaning forward and straightening the file she was holding to make it look like her thoughts hadn't been drifting.

"Did you read this statement from his roommate?" Danny asked her. Jordan furrowed her brow and shook her head a little.

"Refresh my memory."

"Says that Phillip used to go away on weekends, sometimes on weeknights. Never told anyone where he was going or who with," he explained. Jordan nodded in recognition, running a tired hand across her forehead.

"Nigel was supposed to run searches on his credit card activity to see if we could pinpoint anything. He should have it for us this afternoon," she told him.

Before they could discuss it further, Lily walked through Jordan's open door to hand over a stack of completed paperwork for her to sign. Jordan groaned inwardly at the sight of all those papers. Lily gave her a sympathetic look as she placed them on the desk.

"Sorry," she said. "Power has its price."

Jordan rolled her eyes. "Tell me about it."

"You guys making any progress on the case?" Lily asked them.

"Possibly," Danny informed her. "We're waiting on credit activity. It might narrow down what this guy was up to."

Lily nodded. The case had caught the attention of everyone in the morgue, mostly because it had been a very slow few weeks otherwise. They all seemed to be going stir crazy, especially with Garret gone, and energy was focused on Phillip Di Giovanni. Putting down the paper she had been reading and avoiding the brand new pile to be signed, Jordan looked up at Lily.

"Have you talked to Garret today?" she asked.

"Briefly," Lily said with a slight roll of her eyes. "I asked him if he was attending all of his therapy sessions."

"And?"

"I believe his exact words were 'Bite me,'" Lily said, unable to hold back a smile. "So I assume he has been."

Jordan smiled and glanced at Danny. They exchanged amused looks. Danny had taking a liking to Garret, saying he reminded him a little of Ed Deline, and Garret had warmed slightly to Danny after seeing how well he treated Jordan. After what Woody had done to her, Garret had placed higher standards on who he thought should be with Jordan. She realized that Garret had indeed worried about her decision to go to Vegas. He resented her leaving Boston so suddenly, and she was sure he wanted to resent Danny for keeping her away. But after seeing them together, Garret had giving his form of consent…less grief about the relationship. Jordan doubted that consent would hold should she decide to return to Las Vegas.

Jordan looked away from Danny when she saw Bug walk into the room in a hurried manner.

"The PD just called in a traffic fatality near the park," he said. "They think it might be related to the Di Giovanni case."

This was what Jordan had been waiting for over the last week and a half. The police had been alerted about the case and told to look for several signs that might indicate iron poisoning in any other deaths around the city. She had taken a leap in assuming that the killer might strike again, but her assumption had just paid off. She stood up and grabbed her coat and scarf, nodding at Danny.

"We're on it," she said as she shrugged into her coat.

"Uh, Jordan," Bug said, and then paused. She glanced at him, and had a feeling what he was about to say. "They finally assigned a detective to the case…it's Woody."

"Oh. Okay," she said casually, and really only feeling half as confident as she sounded. A glance at Danny told her she had reason to worry. This was what he had been waiting for…a chance to make it clear just how much she belonged to him now. And while she had no problem making Woody feel uncomfortable, she feared that a simple crime scene investigation might turn into a full fledged smack down when these two men came face to face for the first time.

"Jor, what are you afraid is going to happen?" Danny asked her as they drove to the scene. She rolled her eyes at him.

"Are you serious?" she said. "You've all but tried to send him an engraved card letting him know that I'm no longer available. What do you think I'm afraid of?"

"A duel?" he suggested jokingly.

"Two alpha males in close proximity like this is a recipe for disaster," she went on. She gave him a pleading look. "Just please promise me you won't let him drag you down to his level, 'cause he's going to try."

"Yeah, okay," Danny replied. It was silent for a moment, and then he glanced over at her with a self-satisfied look on his face. "So you think I'm an alpha male?" he grinned.

"Shut up," she said, though she laughed at the proud look on his face.

They pulled up along the police tape stretched across the street, and Jordan was surprised at the number of people that had been called out on this wreck. She caught sight of the car as she and Danny flashed their badges to the cop controlling the scene. Judging from the tire tracks on the still icy road, the Mercedes had spun out and wrapped itself nicely around a solid maple tree. Her mind didn't have time to think more on the accident, though. A voice that she had been dreading barked at them from off to her right.

"What the hell is he doing in here, Jordan? This is a closed crime scene," Woody snapped at her without so much as a hello. Jordan subconsciously put herself between Danny and Woody and gave the detective her best authoritative look.

"He's been assisting me on the case. So I'm assuming that I'm perfectly in my rights to bring him here," she said as though it was the simplest concept on earth. She saw Woody glance above her at Danny with a look of disdain on his face.

"He's not an ME," he argued.

"He's helping me," Jordan said with a note of finality, taking a step towards the wrecked car. She glanced back at Danny and caught the threatening glare in his eyes as he stared Woody down. She gently brushed her hand against his and indicated that they should get moving. With a final look at Woody, he followed her.

"Well," Woody called after them sarcastically. "Nice of you two to stop fucking around long enough to help out."