"Where are you Garrett?" Lily whispered to the air in her office. She had just phone his cell phone three times and his home phone twice. No answer on either. Where the hell was he? Why wouldn't he talk to anyone? He must have some reason… he couldn't have run away. He wasn't a hypocrite, she though, but then she remembered why he wasn't here in the first place. It was always "Don't let anything get in the way of doing a thorough job. Their work had to be top notch, and after all those years, all those lectures, he had known he'd done the exact opposite of what he asked them to do. How could he? Had he forgotten about it, or just gritted his teeth every time he went against something he himself had done. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she hadn't heard her cell phone ringing. She stumbled to pick it up before voice mail did. "Hello?" She whispered into the phone.
"Lily. We need to talk. Now." Lily almost dropped the phone out of surprise. It was Garrett.
"Sure Garrett, where and how soon?" Lily told him, grabbing her coat on her way out the door. Fifteen minutes later she was sitting in the same coffee shop she had been the day before, only this time, it wasn't the overwhelming happiness of her relationship with Bug that filled her heart, but worry and excitement about seeing Garrett again. About hearing what he had to say.
"Lily." She heard an all too familiar voice say from behind her.
"Garrett!" She exclaimed, turning around and giving her boss a hug. "What's going on?"
"Its… it's a long story." He said quietly.
"Well, are you going to tell me about it? Because I have a lot of good news to tell you!" She told him with a smile.
"How about you go first." He told her.
"Alright… I hope you're ready for it."
"I thought you said it was good news?" He clarified.
"Yeah, it is. But I'm not sure you know how good I mean by good. Things are almost perfect…" She said with a small smile, her eyes meeting his, "Except your absence, of course." He nodded for her to continue. "Well, it all happened yesterday. Things had changed Garrett since you left, they really had. The morgue, well you wouldn't have recognized it. We came, worked and left. No socializing, no small talk, no after work drinks or visits. We came, worked and left, simple as that. I mean, other than when we were forced into in because of work related situations, such as discussions about medical things in trace, I don't think anyone said a word to Jordan. She changed the most Garrett. Since she ran out of that hospital room a week ago, you wouldn't recognize her. She doesn't put the same effort into cases like she always did and…" Lily could have described the unhappy situation for the next hour, until Garrett interrupted her.
"I thought this was a happy story?"
"Sorry, I just still can't believe how things got to… But yesterday, I decided to put a stop to it. I went into Jordan's office and told her we had to talk. Still having a bit of the real Jordan left inside her, she wasn't going to make it easy, or so I thought. All I asked her was if she could tell me what happened, and the whole story came pouring out. Tears and all." Lily said. Garrett was a little surprised. He knew things would have changed for the worse, and after Lily's description of the morgue, he knew it wasn't pretty, but Jordan breaking down into tears after a simple question? How bad things were things really with her and Woody? What the hell had Woody done to her? "Woody told her to get out of his life." Lily answered his question, reading his thoughts. "She thought he meant it. I think he did to, at the time." Garrett nodded, but he still had an angry look on his face. How could things have gone from this to almost perfect in the duration of one day? This he had to hear. "I told her that I was sure he hadn't meant it, and that we'd go see him after work. Surprisingly, she agreed and after work, we went. I went in first, and you should have seen the look on his face when he found it wasn't Jordan there to see him. He was devastated. I felt so bad for him Garrett, but I knew he'd have his chance in a few minutes. With Jordan listening in, I got him to admit how much he still loved her, and missed her."
"I bet that wasn't too hard." Garrett added with a tad of sarcasm. He of all people knew how much in love Woody was with Jordan. He would have had to get amnesia to lose his love for her in less than a week, and even then, he doubted it would have gone away.
"No, it wasn't" Lily agreed with a nod, "Then, of course, it was like a fairytale. Jordan came in, and I don't think I've ever seen anyone look so happy in my life. I left, and they made up, and she made plans to go back the next morning to visit. All was well."
"Yes, that does sound almost perfect." Garrett agreed, but he thought it would have been more the way Lily described the perfect situation earlier.
"Oh, that's only half the story." Lily smiled, her eyes shining in a way he hadn't seen them for a long time.
"Well continue." Garrett told her.
"Jordan filled me in on the details as I drove her back to her car at the morgue. Just as we pulled into the parking lot, my car broke down. Of course, I could have just gotten a ride home with Jordan and called the night off, but I thought I would head up to the office for some paperwork. Maybe my car braking down was a sign that I should." She said with a laugh. "So, back up I went, but not before Jordan got a little confession out of me first. She came back up to the office too, and you should have seen the look on Slokum face. He didn't know what had happened to the world, us two in the office when we weren't forced for the sake of our jobs. Then, I went to my office to continue some unfinished paperwork from that afternoon, and Jordan was needed in trace. That's where her and Bug met detective Jake Fredrick, Woody's replacement on the force. To make a bit of the longer, unnecessary part of this story long, let's see… how did Bug phrase it… oh yeah, Does being in love with Jordan Cavanaugh come with that job description?" Lily said with a giggle. Garrett broke into a smile too.
"So detective Jake fell in love with Jordan?" He said, chuckling after he had said it out loud. What was with these detectives? They had to pick Jordan, out of all the girls in Boston to fall in love with? Jordan, who was so troubled, and protective of herself. But he couldn't blame them, she was gorgeous, but not in that way, not to him anyway. He viewed her as his daughter and a damn good medical examiner, not as a possible dating opportunity.
"Yep, you could say that." Lily agreed, "Bug informed Jordan on this during a break where Jake had gone out to get some coffee. Jordan also used this little break to the advantage of well, her helping me." Garrett was starting to put the pieces together, but he still wasn't seeing what the puzzle made. "Okay, I'll just tell you plain out Garrett. I am in love with Bug." Garrett smiled. She thought he hadn't already figured that out? He watched these people work every day, all day. He saw how they worked with each other, and how they looked at each other. There wasn't much they could sneak past him without him knowing, even if he pretended not to notice for their own good.
"And…?" He prompted.
"Bug loved me back, that's how Jordan helped me. It ended up all four of us, Jake, Jordan, Bug and I went out for coffee at this shop late last night. Afterwards or sometime during Jordan clarified with Jake that there was no possible chance of hem going out, or having any sort of a relationship beyond the point of friend co-workers. In turn, he told her about how it seems more than a few of his and Woody's colleges viewed Woody and Jordan's relationship."
"I don't understand…" Garrett told her.
"According to some of the Boston PD, or whoever Jake's been talking to, Woody and Jordan have been 'going out' for the last four years, and they broke up when he got shot." Lily said, holding back a laugh.
"Oh really?" Garrett asked with a smile. "What did Jordan say?"
"Nothing to Jake, but later we talked about it and she felt pretty embarrassed." Lily confided. Garrett nodded understandingly. "Is that all of the good news, or is there more?"
"Well, that pretty much sums it up. Oh, other than the fact that this morning, Jordan did go back to visit Woody, and it seems their well on the road to being more than friends, if you know what I mean." Lily added with a smile.
"They kissed?" Garrett asked with a smile of his own.
"Twice, and it wasn't too innocent, or so Jordan told me." She said with a laugh.
"And you and Bug?" He asked, not knowing what to expect the answer to be.
"We're not far behind." She said with a shy grin. He hugged her. He had missed Lily so much. Now that her sharing was over, he knew it would be time for him to talk. If there was anyone he could try and explain things to, it was Lily. Jordan, well she'd understand, but she'd be too mad at him for the first few days he started talking to her again to be able to listen. He needed someone more rational. Lily was the right person. He just hoped it wouldn't put her in too much of an awkward position.
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"Has anyone seen Miss. Lebowski?" Slokum asked, seemingly annoyed as he burs into trace.
"Sorry." Bug told him.
"Ah, I thought you would have had her under high security Buggles." Nigel teased quietly, hoping Slokum had heard, but hadn't caught what he said. He didn't know about Slokum, but Jordan had heard and was trying to fight back her laughter. She knew how much Bug hated being called Buggles, and Nigel was going to constantly tease him about Lily until Bug found something to keep him quiet with, in which case she could tease them both. Ah, she loved the way things worked.
"I'm going to ignore whatever you meant by that comment, Dr. Townsend." Slokum told Nigel, which meant he hadn't heard. "So how is this case coming?" Slokum asked in a way too innocent voice.
"Oh, just fine." Jordan told him with a smile.
"Well, I trust it should be coming along more than fine, with three of our best devoting all their time to it." He added slyly, hinting for one of them to take another case, but they weren't backing down.
"Oh, we'll crack it in no time Dr. Slokum." Nigel said, mocking Slokum's innocent voice.
"You better." Slokum shot back, but with a little uncertainty which confirmed the assumption that Slokum had something to hide, and this case was the link to it. Now they just had to find out what that link was…