Life. It's a strange concept when you take the time to stop and think about it. Technically, we're all born on a timeline; we're all a ticking bomb just waiting to go off, we're all born with restricted time, slowly inching toward the deadline for all we know had been pre-planned since the moment of our creation. The problem: we don't know when the deadline is. So what do we do with our life? How do we know what to do and when to do it? How and why do we make the decisions we do?
The answer: we don't. Nobody can really tell us for certain when we're going to die. That's why we half to make the best of the time we're given because nobody wants to be the person who's lying on their death bed and thinking, 'Damn I wish I had done more.'
As Jordan stood there beside Woody, the two of them almost frozen in time, staring intently into the brooding eyes of Dr Laverne, guilt squirmed around in her gut. The hard reality that Woody may never be able to get to know the daughter Jordan had kept from him for almost five years was eating her away. And as he raised his hand and wiped that tear away from his cheek, Jordan could feel her stomach convulsing, every single one of her worst fears doing a play-by-play through her head. Her knees buckled under her weight and she started to crumple but Woody, who had been watching her intently out of the corner of his eye, turned when he saw her start to fall and threw his arms out, grabbing her around her waist and hoisting her back up to her feet, allowing her to rest her exhausted body against his chest.
"Dr," Woody prompted, steadying Jordan in his arms making sure her balance was ok.
"You're Emma's parents?" he asked, removing his glasses from his kind face and wiping them on the hem of his scrubs. Woody and Jordan nodded in response, both to scared to open their mouths. "Sorry if I scared you, I just put drops in my eyes. Have a seat." He motioned to the chairs behind Woody and Jordan and they hesitantly sat, Garret, Nigel, Bug and Lily all leaning in for the news.
"Your daughter sustained serious damage from the blow to the back of her head …" he started.
"Ya we know that already! Just tell us if our daughter's going to be ok!" Jordan half-yelled, anxiety and fear spilling over her voice.
He gave her a small, understanding smile before continuing. "Emma's going to be fine," he said, cutting straight to the chase and flat out handing them the information they were dying to know.
Sighs of relief were exchanged throughout the group and Woody grabbed Jordan gently by the arm, pulling her into a tight hug.
"Can I see her?" Jordan asked, pulling hesitantly away from Woody and looking back into the doctor's face.
"Luckily we didn't have to do surgery but she needed 21 stitches and she's going to be recovering for awhile," he replied.
"That's not what I asked," Jordan said, her voice harsh and demanding. Woody smiled despite himself. She really hadn't changed since the last time he saw her.
"Ya, you can see her. But only two at a time and try not to wake her when she's sleeping," he said, standing up and motioning Woody and Jordan to follow. They got up and followed his retreating back down the hall to a room near the end. He slowly eased the door open and waved them in.
They took tentative steps into her room, their eyes wandering over Emma's sleeping and bruised face to the bouquet of flowers Lily had brought to the steady beep of the heart monitor she was hooked up to. Jordan could hear her pulse pounding heavily in her ears, picking up pace as she took slow steps towards her daughters bed, Woody's comforting, warm hand resting gently on her back.
Hey icy blue eyes were closed in sleep, small chest heaving up and down with each struggling breath she took. Jordan pulled a chair up to her bed and sat down, barely aware of Woody standing right behind her. She watched as his hand crept slowly over the quilted blanket of Emma's bed and found her small, cold hand, gripping lightly onto her thin fingers. Jordan noticed the little twitch their daughter's hand made at the touch. Both Jordan and Woody could tell that she was awake but hiding it.
"Emma, sweetie," Jordan whispered, leaning in towards her daughters face. "It's mommy. Come on baby I know you're awake. It's safe now," she said again, tears threatening to spill over the brim of her eyes. With his other hand, Woody reached down and rested it on Jordan's shoulder. She didn't tense or flinch as he expected she would.
Woody and Jordan could both see Emma's eyes darting around even though her eyelids remained firmly closed. She was scared; they could see that too.
"Em?" Jordan prodded. She wanted more than anything to see the little girl open her eyes and show Jordan's increasing maternal nerves that she really was ok.
"Emma?" It was Woody's voice this time, pleading his daughter to just open her eyes. Jordan noticed that at the sound of his voice, their daughters face relaxed, breathing slowing down and stopping to simply listen.
"Em?" he asked again. "It's …" He didn't quite know how to introduce himself. He had missed so much of her life already and he didn't know whether Jordan would allow him to be her father. He turned his eyes that mimicked Emma's to Jordan who nodded her head in encouragement. "It's Daddy."
Her eyes slowly opened, taking in the strange scene around her. Jordan raised her eyes to Woody, smiling in thanks, before turning her eyes back down to Emma.
"Hey babe," she said, raising one of her hands to her daughters hair and stroking back pieces of stray hair.
"Mommy?" her sleep filled voice asked. Both Jordan and Woody tried to put out of mind the fear they heard deep within her question.
"Ya Emma?" Jordan replied, moving her eyes to the sight of Woody's hand gripping tightly onto Emma's.
"Are you sure it's safe now?" she asked, her icy blue eyes darting back and forth between Woody and Jordan.
"Of course," Jordan said. "See Em? You're in the hospital now. Everything's fine."
Truthfully, everything was far from fine. But Jordan would be damned if she added to Emma's already fragile nerves.
"Daddy?" Emma asked. Woody looked down to her, startled by the name he had wanted to hear for so long but was very unused to.
"Ya Em?"
"You're not going to go away again? Are you?" she asked, tears filling her eyes with the possibility that the father she had just begun to know was going to leave her.
Woody wondered how to answer it. It wasn't a decision that he alone could make. There was Nikki to take into consideration and their home back in LA.
"I'm going to do my best to see you every second I get the chance," was the only answer Woody could come up with.
Jordan looked up into his face, disappointment and warning etched into her features. She would also be damned if she let Woody hurt Emma the way he had hurt her.
As if on cue, the ringing of a cell phone shot through the stiff hospital air. The lack of vibration coming from Jordan's pocket told her it was not hers. Woody plucked his out of his pocket and flipped it open.
"Hoyt," he answered automatically and out of habit. "Nikki," he said, a lot more quietly than when he first answered. With a slightly embarrassed look to Jordan, he backed out of the room and took the call to the hall.
"I'm sorry," her quiet voice answered back. "I really am. I told you that I was going to be understanding about everything that came up when we came here and I wasn't. I totally blew up at you and I am so sorry," she pleaded.
"Nik …" he said. "You have nothing to be sorry for. You found me with another woman … not that we were doing anything … but it was another woman all the same. I would have flipped too," he said, understanding seeping through his voice. "And I did tell you that I had a past in Boston and that things were going to come up but it turns out that even more things have come up than I expected. Things that even I didn't know about," he said, running his fingers through his hair.
"Well tell me about them," she said, curiosity about her future husbands past coming into play.
"Not over the phone. This is something I have to tell you in person," he said, pacing back and forth down the hall.
"Ok well are you free right now?" she asked.
"Um …" he hesitated. "Sure. Where do you want to meet?"
"How about Paulo's down on Third?" she offered.
"Sounds good," Woody replied. "Meet you there in fifteen minutes?"
"Alright. And Woody …" she hesitated. She couldn't tell if now was a good time to say it again or not. "I love you."
Woody was taken aback, even though it wasn't the first time that she had said it to him. "You too," he said back before hanging up.
Leaving Emma and Jordan while his daughter was in the hospital was the last thing he wanted to do. If he could, he would have sat there all night to watch over her, to make sure that no harm came to her again. If he could, he would do it for the rest of her life. Woody walked back into the room, tucking his cell phone back into his pocket as he walked to Emma's bed.
"Who was it?" Emma asked, sitting up.
"A friend of mine," he said, twiddling his thumbs. The detail was vague but Jordan knew that it was Nikki.
"Do you have to go?" Emma asked. Her voice was expecting, as if she already knew the answer.
It broke Woody's heart to have to tell her the answer. "Ya sweetie. But just for a little while. I promise that I'll be back as soon as I can."
She nodded her head, disappointment clear on her delicate features. Woody dropped a kiss onto her forehead before backing out of the room, then stopping at the doorframe.
"I promise," he said as he turned reluctantly on his heel and walked away.
XXXXXXXXXXNikki and Woody sat at the table, looking over their food to each other. She was wearing a flattering pair of dark jeans that hugged her slim hips and a low v-neck red sweater that brought out the natural flush on her pale cheeks. Around her neck hung the twenty-four carrot gold necklace with the princess cut diamond at the end that her father had given her for her eighteenth birthday. She was clearly dressed to impress.
"So …" she said, not waiting any longer for him to bring up the conversation that he clearly didn't want to have.
He looked her over, taking in her stunning features. He thought about the past year of their relationship, how she was simple and kind. In a way she reminded him of Lily; always thinking about everyone but herself. She was calm and liked to stick to the rules; predictable. In other words, she was the anti-Jordan. It was the reason he had become attracted to her.
"So …" he mimicked.
"We got together so that we could have this conversation," she said, her voice bordering on impatient. "You need to tell me."
He sighed deeply, knowing there was no way he was going to get out of this. "I've told you about Jordan," he said, suddenly very interested in his plate of spaghetti in front of him.
"The girl you played the game of cat and mouse with for years? Ya, you've told me about her," Nikki said, reaching out her hand and tilting his chin to look at her.
"Well … it seems that there was more to our relationship when I left than I knew about," he said, clearly stalling.
"How could there be aspects of your relationship that you didn't know about?" she asked, confusion wrapping around her head.
Woody looked into her pale blue eyes, wishing he was back at the hospital with Emma and Jordan. "She was pregnant when I left and I didn't know."
Nikki was silent.
"I have a daughter."
XXXXXXXXXXSorry about the wait guys. I'm so bad. Anyways … there you have it. Lot's more drama to come as long as you review!