A/N.. I don't usually like epolouges.. but this really needed one. let me know how it was. This was a really experimental piece for me and I loved all of the reactions.. good and bad... i have to say I really like it.. but i'd love to know what you all think..


(When it was finally over)

"Yeah, she really wants to do this. It's important to her."

She stood in the door way watching him iron his shirt, the phone pressed between his ear and his shoulder.

"I don't know. I tried, but come on Matt, Jordan wants what Jordan wants." She could hear the smile in his voice. How on earth had she wound up married to this man? This man who could put up with her and her whole store full of baggage and still smile about it, while desperately trying to get her what she wanted.

"It's in my desk,the locked side, in a file with her name on it. Yeah, just bring the whole thing." She walked up behind him laying one hand on his back and taking the iron with the other. He kissed her cheek, bringing his hand up to the phone. "Thanks Seely. I'll tell her. Bye."

"So when you told me you would try and track down some of his family what you really meant to say was 'I have a copy of his FBI file in my desk.'" She smirked at him. "Did you run a police check on all they guys I dated?"

"All?" He raised his eyebrows at her.

"Detective?"

"You'd known him two months and he had a key to your apartment Jordan. Yes, I ran a background check." He took his shirt from her and started putting it on.

"How'd you know he had a key?" She asked curiously. "What did he do wear it on a chain around his neck when he came to the precinct?" He smirked at her.

"Mass-pike copy cat, Jordan. He was in your apartment before you got there remember?" Woody shook his head at her, moving his fingers up the buttons of his shirt.

"You were barely talking to me then." She said softly, he stopped buttoning and watched her. "You still did a background check on him?" She started back to the buttons he'd missed.

"I was worried." He admitted as he snaked his arms around her waist.

"Worried or jealous?" She smiled clasping her hands behind his neck.

"Worried and jealous." He told her in a low voice. She lifted her chin up kissed him.

"When did you run the check?" She asked breathlessly her lips grazing against his.

"When he asked if I minded if he…" His he turned his head as his voice trailed off. "I don't want to talk about this Jordan."

"Woody?"

"You don't get to hold the patent on Pollak guilt, Jordan." He said softly turning his head in the other direction, avoiding her eyes. She held his face still for a second before tugging his head down until their foreheads were touching. "It's my fault too." He closed his eyes. "All of this."

She thought for a minute, running her hands across his back.

"We could do this." She said softly. "We could blame ourselves for what we did and didn't do or what we knew or didn't know.." She lifted her head up and looked into his eyes. "Or we could… not."

He smiled at her.

"I'd rather not." Her voice was honest and calm.

"Who are you? And what have you done with My Jordan?" He said smiling.

"Humm.. I evolved." She pulled his tie from the dresser, looped it around his neck and tied it.

"Are you ready?" He wished she wasn't going to do this. She nodded and they left for the sentencing.


She spoke to the court room, to Tallulah Simmons, to the judge. Her new psychologist said it would be cathartic. Maybe it was she wasn't sure.

She talked about her miscarriage, clinically telling them what the drugs and alcohol did to her baby. She talked about what it felt like to think it had been her fault. She talked about how her friends, colleges, and the public had all thought she'd tried to kill herself. She told them about how Woody had been the one who had to give her CPR at the scene and how it affected him.

She talked for a moment about JD Pollak and how he deserved better. She talked about Her parents, James, Emily and the family she wished they could have been. She asked the judge to see Tallulah Simmons for what she was, a deeply troubled woman. She had asked for mercy, before slipping back down onto the bench beside Woody, holding his hand and crying silent tears.

The judge sent her to Harper Rehabilitation, her former workplace, where she'd be closer to her sister. She had chosen not to make a statement, just wordlessly accepted her fate.


Jordan had insisted on having a memorial service for Pollak. Woody and Seely had tracked down his family and made plans to have the body shipped back to Australia. She had some of his coworkers tell funny stories about him and Nigel read a letter of thanks from his family, for solving the murder.

Now it was time for a memorial of a different kind.

"Ready?" She stood in front of the candles for a long time before nodding at him. He lit the long stick, moving it over each little round votive before he chose one. She watched his hand shake a little when he lit it, her eyes moving to his. He didn't look at her when he leaned in and kissed her temple.

She thought of Woody's baby pictures in Kawanee, this time not as something that was lost to her, but as something that could one day be for them. He was surprised to find her smiling when he finally did look down at her. He kissed her forehead, a slow grin slipping onto his face like he knew what she was thinking.

In his own head Woody Hoyt had been thinking of every horrible decision he had ever made, every loss he'd ever felt. Until he looked at her almost wistful smile. It was then that he knew it was all worth it… to be with her.