Chapter 6

I'm Going to Miss You

Woody looked at his watch with tired eyes for the third time within the hour. Again it told him it was after two. Long after two.

"Okay, well that about covers it as far as your itinerary, you have any questions? Seeley? Hoyt?" The captain asked.

Woody snapped out of his daydream for a moment and rubbed his eyes as he sat up straight. "Y..yes sir, I mean, no sir, no questions." He said faking a smile, but he was really thinking 'when the hell can I get out of here and go home?'

A quick look to his right told him Seeley was thinking the same thing.

The captain looked between both men for a moment and nodded. "Okay, well then go home, pack, get some rest and I want a phone call once you get settled in Kansas." He said with a short nod.

"Thank you, Captain," both men said standing as their superior rose and left the room.

Woody let out a long sigh and checked his watch again, wondering if Jordan would be annoyed if he called her to come over or he stopped over at her place for the rest of the night. Matt didn't miss the long look at his watch or the question in his eyes.

"Careful dude, I don't know how she is after lack of sleep but on a good day I know that woman is a loose cannon. You really think she'll be okay with you dropping in for a little middle of the night lovin'?" Seeley whispered as they pulled their things together to leave.

Woody just stared at him. "Anyone ever tell you to mind your own business Seeley?" he asked sarcastically. Matt just shrugged.

"A time or two…just don't cry to me on the plane tomorrow when you're dragging ass," he said patting Woody on the back on his way out the door.

Woody grabbed his keys and turned off his computer with a stretch. He opened his cell on his way out the door and without hesitating hit the speed dial for Jordan's apartment number.

On the sixth ring the machine picked up and he sighed. Being in the awkward relationship place they were right now left him not knowing whether to call around, find her and give her hell for not telling him where she was or just accept that maybe she had other plans or had to work late and just hadn't told him. He opted for slightly cryptic phone message to pique her interest and call him back sooner than later. "H…hey, Jordan it's Woody, if you're there pick up……okay, well, I guess you aren't there, or you're sleeping, but umm.." he was going to tell her about the flight tomorrow and the weeks he'd be spending in Kansas without her and how he wished he didn't have to. But he wanted to tell her in person. "If you get this before tomorrow at 11, call me okay?" he said softly. "I'll talk to you later." He said before hanging up.

Of course she wasn't answering. She wasn't supposed to be at his every beck and call. She had her own life and job outside of….whatever it was that they had together. With a resigned sigh Woody headed home to his apartment building and fingered his apartment key and the spare as he rode the elevator to his apartment.

His hands stopped and his head lifted. That was it. His excuse to go see her in the morning would be dropping off his spare key to her in case she needed to get into his place for anything or just to check in on it and feed his plants.

Happy with the master plan he'd hatched between floors one and three, Woody smiled and strode in his front door, dropping his coat and his gun on his way to the bedroom.

He jumped a little when he sensed someone in his room and even more when he realized they were in his bed. He reached over to turn the bedside light on and let out a soft sigh when he saw Jordan's sleeping face amidst the blankets on his bed. He sighed softly for a different reason when he sat down beside her and brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes.

"I love you," he whispered softly and watched her a moment longer. When he stood from the bed Woody shook his head and removed the second key from his keychain and placed it on the dresser. He'd give it to Jordan in the morning. It was a hell of a lot easier than breaking into his place at any hour of the night and less likely to put Jordan in a jail cell overnight if she ever did it again.

He peeled off his clothes, not even having the energy to put them in the hamper and climbed into bed with her clad only in his boxers from the day.

'Well, well...' he thought with a smile as he sided up to Jordan and sensed the femininely familiar rubbing of something silk and lace against his bare side. He slowly lifted the covers and had to swallow a moan when he saw that Jordan was wearing sexy red lingerie and knew it was all for him.

He watched her for a moment and thought of the first time she had worn that for him. It was a warm night in the summer. The window unit in his fourth floor living room only did so much to keep him cool and he was tossing and turning in bed, frustrated and thinking about how much more bearable this would be if it was Jordan he was sweating over and not the lack of crisp, breathable air in his little apartment.

It was one of the few nights his wish actually came true and she had stopped in after working a night shift, knocking softly on his door at a quarter till seven. When he opened the door and looked down at her with tired eyes she just gave him a sexy little smirk and pushed him back onto the couch and shut the door behind her. The hot night had given way to a cool, breezy morning but they both still managed to work up a sweat as good as that one he'd experienced in the heat of the night before.

With a little kiss to the corner of her mouth and a promise to enjoy that lingerie in the morning, Woody wrapped Jordan in his arms and drifted off into a deep, much needed sleep.

It wasn't until the kids in the neighborhood could be heard out on the streets getting a nine a.m. start out the door to play the next morning that Jordan's eyes peeked open and she turned over in Woody's large smooth arms. She reached out a tentative hand to touch his face and realized with a little pang of fear that even without having had sex the night before she was still just as satisfied as every time they had. Every time. It was with this foreign feeling that Jordan suddenly realized it was the first time she had spend the night with Woody and not had sex with him. She remembered a few tender kisses and soft touches throughout the night but they had gone no further.

What did this mean? When had this happened? When did a seemingly casual love affair turned into spending the night just to sleep beside the one you…

"Mmmorning stranger…" Woody's deep, morning voice called out softly as Jordan was pulled out of her panic attack for the moment.

"Morning yourself…you weren't here last night.." She said more meekly than she'd intended. Woody misinterpreted her being upset over last night's plans being ruined for something having happened. He was suddenly sitting up beside her.

"Why? What happened? Did something happen?" he asked looking her square in the eyes and trying to find the answer there.

As much as she hated to admit it to herself, let alone any other person on the earth, Jordan liked how protective Woody was of her. It made her feel safe and loved and like she mattered more than she'd ever thought she could to anyone. She offered him a small smile and stroked his cheek lovingly with the back of one hand.

"No no, nothing like that, I just….I guess missed you is the word I'm looking for." She said with a playful grin.

Woody sighed. What she just said was going to make what he had to tell her at some point in the morning just that much more difficult. Especially when she said it sitting beside him in bed in a nightie that covered little more than the essentials. He groaned softly thinking of the amount of time he was going to have to go without her tender touches in the night, the soft kisses she woke him with and the safety he felt spending the night in her arms.

"Oh..well…okay." he said with a casual nod and leaned over to kiss her softly. "I see you had no trouble breaking and entering your way in though.." he said trying to be light. "I don't want my neighbor's calling the cops on you..I don't have enough money in my bank account to cover your bail every time and this just seems a little more cost efficient." he said reaching for the key he'd placed on the night stand.

Jordan raised a hand before he could even turn around. "Oh..no no no…that's okay.." She said quickly, trying to be casual when her brain was flashing lights and sirens to get out of there as quickly as possible. "You really don't have to, I just…." She stammered and covered her eyes with a nervous chuckle. "I was dressed kinda ONLY in this when I came here last night..well besides my coat..and I just didn't want to have to go back out like that and I just…." She stopped and sighed. "It's okay, you don't have to give me a key.." she said touching his arm.

Woody looked hat her baffled. "Jordan…I don't…I'm not…I don't feel like I HAVE to do anything, I want you to have this…" Was he really going to do this now? Hit her with this news of him leaving for a little when she was already so vulnerable and her emotions exposed.

"Why? What's going on?" Jordan asked when she noticed his face falling little by little.

Woody turned away from her and ran a hand through his hair irritated. "Yeah see, that's the thing…I was hoping maybe you could check in on my place from time to time while I'm out of town.." he said quietly and tried to sound casual in his delivery.

But this was Jordan he was with. Jordan who knew him better than he knew himself. "Where are you going?" she asked so meekly that he thought he literally heard his heart breaking in half.

"Kansas…for several weeks", he finally blurted out and turned to face her in bed. "Maybe a few months and I just wanted you to be able to check in on my place, get the mail every few days…water the plants that sort of thing.." Woody tried to explain in the methodical manner police work had trained him to follow when explaining bad news to someone who didn't want to hear it.

"You don't have to go easy on me Farm boy…I'm a big girl I can handle you not being around," Jordan said trying with little success to be as unaffected as Woody seemed to be.

"Well, ya know it should only be for a few weeks…we've got our suspect cornered in Kansas. It's just a waiting game now to keep him under surveillance and wait for him to make one wrong move, drive too slow past a bust stop of elementary school and me and Seeley'll be on him like a badger on curry," he said turning to her and folding his legs under his butt.

"A…badger on…" Jordan started confused and Woody just rolled his eyes.

"It's a Wisconsin thing.." he mumbled and looked at his hands as he nervously picked at a cuticle.

There was a painful half minute or so before either of them said anything and when they did it was at the same time and with the same sentiment.

"I'm going to miss you."

They both laughed softly and squirmed, not sure what to do or think or say and so they said nothing at all.

Woody was the first to raise his eyes to Jordan's face, watching the indecision, the confusion, and finally the realization of impending loneliness playing out across her soft features. His heart and stomach ached at the thought of being without her presence in his life for so long a period of time that it made him a different kind of nauseous to finally put a name to that pounding in his chest and his ears. It wasn't that he didn't want to be without her, it was that he couldn't be without her.

Like air, food, water or shelter Woody needed her love like he needed the next breath of air to fill his lungs. She finally scooted over towards him a little and laid her head against his chest, one arm coming to rest around his waist in a tender hug. When she tightened her arm around him, Woody closed his eyes. On second thought he could do without shelter or food. Give him this woman's love every day of his life and he'd live long into his golden years.

With a swift little motion Woody was on his back, wrapping an arm around one of her long, silky legs as he guided her to lay on top of him and her lips were on his hungrily with the passion of a woman knowing it would be a long time before she could again be this close to the man she loved.

"Woody…"

"Jordan…"

Their soft whispers stirred the hair on each other's necks like the gentle breeze from outside was stirring the drapes in front of his bedroom window.

"When do you have to be at the airport?" Jordan asked between a moan and a sigh.

"Noon.." Woody hissed back as her stealth hands slipped below the waist of his boxers.

"Then we better make the next two and a half hours count.." she said squeezing him gently and giving him a sexy little smirk to hide the sadness she was feeling.

And until right up to 11:30 when Woody said he absolutely had to leave or he'd miss his flight they did make that time count.

Jordan walked him to the door as she wrapped his bathrobe around her thin frame more tightly and hoped he didn't see her rub her cheek into the collar that held his smell.

"I'll call when I get there.." he promised while she fixed his still damp hair in the doorway.

"I know you will…and I'll lock up here before I go…" she said with a sigh and looked around the room. "And I promise I'll try to keep your plants alive until you come back though you shouldn't be surprised if they're deep sixed by then. I have a knack for killing defenseless plants.." Jordan tried to joke with a crooked smile.

Even though he knew he was going to chance missing his flight Woody had to stop and pull her into his arms for a long, passionate kiss.

"I'll try to call a few times a week…" he whispered and felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise because he felt more like a husband leaving on a business trip than a best friend who you sleep with.

"Call when you can, I know you'll be busy.." Jordan said back and couldn't look into his eyes because she knew she'd cry if she did.

Woody pressed his cheek to her forehead one last time and with a soothing rub of her back whispered an "I love you" which she immediately returned.

Jordan's arms came up around his waist and she hoped the cologne she'd helped him splash on a short time ago rubbed into the robe more.

"Be safe," Jordan said biting her bottom lip as he stepped out of her arms leaving her feeling as cold as his bed would remain for a while.

"Always am.." Woody said with a quick grin and a wink as he hoisted his bag onto his shoulder and got on the elevator with one last little wave.