A/N: I'm trying really hard to keep this story moving, but I've been focusing my energy these last few weeks on an audition for a workshop program in NY…good news is, I made it! This leads to more free time now to write. So thanks for being patient and for the reviews, especially Nynaeve1723! I hope you're feeling better!

- Kate

Times Like This

The time between Jordan's revelation and Woody's reaction seemed to encompass an eternity. An eternity in which she felt that the world had frozen, and all that existed was his face, filled with pain. It hurt her more than he would ever know to have to tell him that she had begun a new chapter of her life that did not involve him. But she would never feel the same way about her Wisconsin Detective again. Ever. The time when she could have given him her heart had passed.

Jordan stared into Woody's wide blue eyes, the enormity of her words registering in his mind. This was it. Any chance of winning her back was whipped away with the knowledge that she was carrying Danny McCoy's child.

"You're sure?" he asked meekly. It was the only thing he could think to say.

"Extremely," she whispered, finally allowing her eyes to drop away from his. She felt his hands release hers and watched him take a hesitant step back. "I wish I knew what to say right now," she said awkwardly.

Woody absently waved a dismissive hand.

"You don't owe me anything," he muttered, beginning to walk away from her. "I think…uh, I think I'll just leave you alone now."

"Woody-"

"You said it yourself, Jordan. I destroyed this. Please, just let me deal with it my own way."

With one last glance at her, he turned and left. Jordan stared at the door for a long time, her mind thinking of nothing and everything at the same time. She wanted to cry, but found that she couldn't. It was odd. Her emotions had gotten the better of her for the last several weeks, and suddenly, when she should be overwhelmed, she was bereft of tears.

Strangely enough, she felt a certain amount of catharsis. She had been avoiding having to deal with Woody for so long. And she had told no one of her pregnancy. After years of practice, Jordan thought she would have mastered secrecy by this point in her life. But keeping feelings locked away never got any easier. Perhaps it had been a good thing that Woody had sought her out tonight. Painful as it was, Jordan found a small amount of closure in the encounter, if only in that she had been able release herself from a relationship that she doubted ever existed in the first place.

She had hoped and prayed for weeks that Woody still loved her, and had been given nothing to make her believe that he did. A few heated but angry glances, maybe concern for her safety, but no more than would be spared for any citizen in danger. It ate her up inside. But she had dragged herself through it. And she had moved on.

Very purposefully, Jordan placed a hand over her stomach, feeling what could not really be felt yet. Voicing her pregnancy, something she herself had only known about for a few days, made it incredibly real. With any luck, the next person she would tell would be her child's father…and hopefully he would be as happily amazed by it as she was.

The next morning at work, Jordan had little time to think on the previous night as she continued bonding with the bathroom stall farthest from the door in what she was sure was her ten thousandth battle with morning sickness. When it had first started, she brushed it off as the stomach flu and treated it as such. But after a week, she could no longer deny that her symptoms were not at all congruous with the stomach flu. For a day or two, she was too scared of the implications to even attempt to put the pieces of the puzzle together. But when she finally forced herself to sit down and do the math, she barely even needed the pregnancy test to tell her what she was sure of. The trip to the doctor's office had simply been to finalize things – Jordan Cavanaugh was going to be a mother.

But at the moment, leaning against the unforgiving wall of the stall, the tile floor cold beneath her legs, she wasn't feeling very motherly. It was hard not to be pissed off at the minute being causing her all of this discomfort. She was starting to think that morning sickness, not to mention the birth itself, must be Mother Nature's challenge to women. If they could get through it without going nuts, then they deserved to be mothers. Jordan ran her hands over her face and let out a deep sigh.

She heard the door to the bathroom squeak open, and sat quietly, hoping whoever it was would leave without noticing her.

"Jordan?"

Lily's voice caused Jordan to roll her eyes up to the ceiling. The grief counselor had been looking at her funny all week. The woman was too observant for her own good, and Jordan only hoped that she would keep her suspicions to herself for a little while longer.

"Jordan, I saw you come in here, you might as well just talk to me," Lily said.

Jordan shook her head and stood up in defeat. She unlatched the door and walked out with the most casual look she could muster, heading for a sink to wash her hands. She cringed inwardly when she saw how disheveled she looked in the mirror.

"Hey Lily," she said cheerfully.

Crossing her arms, Lily leaned against the counter and looked Jordan over.

"So how long have you known?" Lily asked.

"Known what?" Jordan tried to play dumb. Lily gave her a humoring smile.

"C'mon, Jordan," she said. "This is your eighth trip to the bathroom this morning, and I'm pretty sure you haven't gone bulimic on us. How long have you known that you're pregnant?"

Jordan opened her mouth with the intention of lying, but hesitated and wondered what the use would be. In four months time, her own body would give her away. She shut the water off and placed her hands on the counter.

"Officially, five days," she told Lily, unable to suppress the pleased smile that tugged at the corners of her mouth. "But I think I've known for a few weeks…just too anxious to do anything about it."

Before Jordan could even react, Lily's arms were flung around her in a tight hug, almost knocking Jordan off balance. She grinned full out, partly in amusement at her friend.

"This is so exciting," Lily said eagerly, pulling back to look at Jordan anew.

"Yeah, it is," Jordan nodded, slightly subdued in embarrassment from Lily's enthusiasm.

"What was Danny's reaction? Does anyone else know? Did you tell Garret? Oh! Can I throw you a baby shower?" Lily fired off questions in rapid succession. Jordan didn't know where to start with her answers.

"Ah, of course you can. And…you're the first to know. Or guess, actually," she lied through her teeth. No need for it to get around that Woody had been the first.

"Danny doesn't know yet?" Lily asked in surprise.

"Uh, not yet," Jordan shook her head. "It's not really something I want to tell him over the phone."

"Oh of course," Lily agreed immediately. She smiled at her friend. "I'm so happy for you, Jordan."

"Thanks, Lily," Jordan smiled back. After a moment, she said as graciously as possible, "Um, would you mind not telling anyone just yet? I don't want all of Boston to know before the father does."

"Absolutely," Lily said earnestly. She bit her lip, her eyes sparkling with excitement. "I should probably get back to work before they notice that both of us are missing. I'll just tell them you're not feeling well." Jordan nodded her thanks. Lily gave her hand a squeeze. "You're gonna be a mom," she said wistfully, and Jordan heard the personal longing in her voice.

It brought a whole new importance to her situation.

Jordan couldn't shake the way Lily had said those words for the rest of the day. She knew her friend wasn't jealous by any means, but she knew there was a bit of wishful-ness. There had never been much talk in the morgue about family life, settling down. Jordan was one in a group of misfits who were still recovering from their own childhoods and who could barely contemplate bringing brand new life of their own into the world. Or so it seemed.

The one time Jordan had considered adopting a baby, they had told her only half jokingly that she couldn't even keep goldfish properly. She hadn't felt very inclined to voice any desires for a family after that. Maybe she hadn't been the only one.

When she got home that night, she pulled out a few photo albums that contained pictures of her early childhood and sat herself down on the couch to look through them. She stared for a long time at the pictures of her mother, her belly filled out in her third trimester. The pictures made her wonder what that time had been like, how she had felt, how she had told Max that she was pregnant. Her mother had not lived long enough to tell Jordan things like that. She could only assume they were happy. They looked happy.

A knock on the door tore her attention away from the photos. She jumped up eagerly, looking forward to the Chinese that she had ordered. At the moment, it was one of three things her stomach tolerated for dinner. Pulling open the door, she stopped in her tracks at the sight of Danny standing on the other side, a smile on his face.

"Hey beautiful," he said. Jordan gaped at him.

"What are you doing here?" she asked incredulously, breaking into an ecstatic grin.

"Well, I seem to remember leaving a fiancé around these parts," Danny joked. "You know where I can find her?"

Jordan laughed and wrapped her arms tightly about his neck, closing her eyes and breathing in his presence. He held her close, burying his face in the dark waves of her hair.

"God I missed you," she murmured.

"Not half as much as I missed you," he replied, his voice humming into her body. It sent chills down her spine. He pulled back just far enough to look into her eyes, and then lowered his mouth to hers. He kissed her soundly, letting her know exactly how much she had been missed. When she felt his tongue play teasingly at her lips, she willingly opened her mouth to him. The sensations of his kiss sent an unusually strong thrill to her belly, and she suddenly remembered what she had to tell him now that he was back. His hands slid down her back and back up underneath her shirt, and she moaned softly, deciding the news could wait a few more minutes.

It wasn't until one of Jordan's neighbors emerged from their apartment several minutes later and startled the couple did they decide it would be wise to move into the privacy of the apartment. They exchanged looks reminiscent of teenagers who had been caught necking as Jordan closed the door. She smiled at Danny as he put his things down.

"What?" he asked.

"Just glad you're back," she said simply.

"Me too," he agreed, kissing her lightly before making his way to the kitchen. Jordan made to follow him, then saw something on the counter that made her stop. He didn't notice her uncertainty. "So what should we have to celebrate? Champagne? That Chardonnay we've been saving?"

"Uh, nothing for me, thanks," she told him. He looked at her sideways, his eyes narrowed.

"Is everything okay?"

"What, can't a girl just turn down a drink without it making the morning news?" she teased him, hoping to distract his instincts.

"Yeah, sure," he shrugged good naturedly, but still eyed her carefully as she moved slowly towards the counter. He grabbed a glass for himself and placed it down on the island. That's when he noticed a grainy black and white photo sitting there by itself. He picked it up absently and looked at Jordan over the counter. "Is this a sonogram?" he asked her.

"Yeah," Jordan replied, her voice surprisingly calm despite the way her nerves seemed to be racing through her body.

"Did it fall out of a case file?" Danny inquired naively. Jordan shook her head, fighting back an amused smile. "Well what's it doing here?" he went on, looking at the picture a second time. Jordan waited, watching his eyes grow wide as he read the name printed at the bottom. For several moments, his eyes seemed frozen to the photo. Ever so slowly, he brought them up to meet hers. "This is…" Jordan nodded. "It's really…" Another nod. "You're…"

"Pregnant…yeah."

Without a word, Danny walked around the counter and took her in his arms. Jordan tucked herself against him and rested her head in the crook of his neck.

"Are you glad?" she asked quietly. He pulled back and gently cupped her face in his hands, looking intently into her eyes.

"Jordan, I've never been so happy about anything in my life," he said. She smiled up at him, blinking back tears of joy. Danny leaned down to kiss her forehead, and then slid his hands down her arms as he knelt down in front of her, closing his eyes and pressing his face against her belly. Jordan placed her hands tenderly on the top of his head, holding him to her as he brought himself as close as possible to their child. She looked up briefly and silently thanked the only person she could think of for this moment…her mother.