CHAPTER 25

A/N: Okay, Nigel will have someone by the end, I promise. Lol, I want him to be happy too! Anyways, I started this chapter long ago… but now I'm finishing it and publishing it. Third snow day of the year! They always come on the most convenient days too! First one was the day of the Crossing Jordan marathon so I got to watch that all day instead of writing a geography test… now today I don't have to go to school and get in trouble for not doing my homework haha, another long weekend! Well, anyway, onto Chapter 25!

This is sort of a new note, I wrote like half this story a long while ago, and now it's the end of December and I'm writing some more ha, sorry about the very, very long wait but I just kind of tired myself of this story, but that's alright, I'm back with it now!

xXxXx

"This is a nice restaurant." Garrett observed as he and Renee were waiting for their meals to be delivered to the table.

"It is." Renee agreed with a smile.

"Renee…" Garrett started. His eyes had been looking into hers but he dropped them down to look at the placemat in front of him. She knew what he was going to say. He was going to ask what this meant. She could read him like a book. "What is this dinner supposed to mean? Does it mean we want to give this, us, another chance? Or is this just a 'friends' thing?" She knew that she wanted to give them another chance. She felt they deserved another chance.

"Well, I'd like to give us another chance." She told him. She sat there for a few seconds while he digested the information. Finally he looked up at her.

"You do?" He sounded more surprised than he looked.

"I do." She told him with a grin.

"I was hoping you'd say that." He admitted. They both sat there for a moment, grinning like idiots until the waiter interrupted.

"Here you are." He told them placing their plates down on the table.

"Thanks." Garrett nodded to the waiters back as he walked away.

"Looks good." Renee observed. Garrett nodded in agreement before they started their meal.

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"I can't believe it!" Shyama raged to her husband in her son's guestroom.

"Can't believe what?" Alok asked, hiding his smile. Being in Boston and realizing that he didn't have to sit by and be bossed around by his wife his whole life had given him a slight boost of self confidence.

"You know very well what!" Shyama spat back at him. She really could not believe it. "Mahesh is talking back to me, his friends are downright rude, and he's got a girlfriend!"

"Aren't you the one that is always encouraging our son to get married and have children?" Alok pointed out.

"Not with this Lily…" She told him with a look of disgust on her face.

"Why not?" Alok wondered. He saw nothing wrong with any of it.

"Because. Just because something isn't right." Shyama told her husband.

"That doesn't make any sense. If this is who Mahesh loves… then I say, let him do what he wants." Alok argued.

"Well what about this Jordan?" Shyama started on a new topic seeing as the last discussion was a lost cause.

"What about her?" Alok questioned. It was getting really, really hard to keep from smiling now.

"Look at the way she treated me!" Shyama exclaimed.

"You two had an argument… she won. Do you know how many people you've made feel the way you do now? I can't even keep count… it's a very big number. It's called getting a taste of your own medicine."

"Now I can't believe you!" Shyama exploded. "You and Mahesh are being so disrespectful to me."

"How can you expect us to go our whole lives living by your rules, doing what you want?" Alok shot back, "You can't expect us to keeping throwing away what we want for you. Not all the time. Yes, sometimes you have to make sacrifices for you family… but Mahesh and I are the only ones making the sacrifices. You always get what you want, when you want."

"I'm not going to have this discussion with you." Shyama told him. "Goodnight Alok."

"Goodnight." They both climbed into the double bed in their son's guest room and went to sleep without another word.

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After saying goodbye with a lot of kissing, Jordan was on her way home from the hospital. She was thankful the nurses didn't put up a fuss about her staying well past visiting hours. They just smiled and told her that they were glad things were working out between Woody and Jordan because he was so sad without his girlfriend around, and a happy Woody was better than a sad Woody. She laughed at that, thanked them and promised to come back and visit the next night as well. She got into her car and drove back to her apartment. When she got in she had a message on her machine so she got a beer and sat down on her couch, pressing the play button on her way by.

"Hey Jordan, its Jake Fredrick. I was just wondering… well can you call me? Okay, here's my number…" He wanted her to call him? She had just met him the day before, and he knew she had Woody. What could he possibly want? One way to find out. She picked up the phone and dialed. "Fredrick." Jake's voice answered smoothly and calmly. He didn't sound like he needed any help…

"Hey Jake, its Jordan… you called?" She asked, hoping it was something important because she did have to work the next day… she wanted to sleep sometime.

"Jordan! I'm glad you called." He exclaimed, sounding relieved.

"What did you need?" She asked, getting straight to the point. She really didn't want to be talking to him; she really wanted to be sleeping.

"Well… it's a long story, but I need help." Jake sighed quietly into the phone.

"You need help?" She repeated. Why was he calling her for help? Didn't he have any friends that actually knew him and didn't suspect him of involvement of murder?

"Yeah… it's confusing, but I thought maybe you could help me. I'm in a lot of trouble right now." He confessed. Jordan didn't know what to say. She knew that Woody would kill her if she invited Jake over because well, he'd be jealous, and also, Jake was in trouble apparently, and they already suspected him of being involved in some pretty dangerous murders…

"I could try to help you." She blurted out. Her curiosity won, as always.

"It's not…" He started but couldn't think of the right word to say, well he could, but he figured it would scare her away.

"Safe?" She guessed.

"Yeah." He admitted. Jordan knew she shouldn't help, but she couldn't help but remembering all those times that Woody shouldn't have helped her, and he ended up saving her life… but then again, now they were in love, did she want to be in love with Jake? No, she was happy with Woody… but he just needed a friend to help him out.

"I'll help you, I know how it feels to need help in an unsafe situation, trust me." Jordan laughed. "But can this wait until tomorrow, I'm completely tired tonight, and I do have to work tomorrow."

"Yeah, uh, sure. I'll call you again tomorrow then to explain. Goodnight Jordan." Jake sighed.

"Night Jake." Jordan closed the phone and fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.