Thank you so much to everyone for your kind reviews. It's helping to keep me motivated. You are all so wonderful! I'm having a great time writing this story, so I'm glad you are all enjoying it. We're nearing the end!
This one's for Merryann who went out of her way to let me know how much she's enjoying this and then made me blush with her compliments. Thank you.
Disclaimer: I don't own them. I'm just trying to focus my frustration on creating a complete ending for our beloved characters.
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Chapter Nine – Family
She allowed herself a moment of relief that he was okay, before grabbing him by his sleeve and pulling him into her office. She closed the door and leaned against it.
"Where the hell have you been? I was worried sick!"
"I was at the office, doing paperwork. When I got your message, I came straight down. Although I'm not sure I should have." He gave a pointed look, letting her know he'd seen her argument with Haley and he was not happy about it.
She ignored that fact for the time being.
"Albie Samson is the connection, Woody. He's out on a technicality." She watched his expression change from pissed to thoroughly pissed. "Vilson Ahmeti was in prison in Yugoslavia with one of Zaki Hamberi's brothers, Fakhir. When Ahmeti ended up dead, Samson contacted Fakhir to put together a plan of revenge against Boston authorities. But Samson went to prison before the plans could be finalized, so Fakhir took matters into his own hands.
"Only Fakhir's not from here, which means he needs an inside guy, someone who won't raise red flags." Woody said slowly.
She nodded. "Right. Enter Blackie Conroy. We think Blackie was losing his mobbies to Samson's organization. Obviously he's not happy about it, so he cuts a deal. He gets Samson the information he wants, no questions asked, and Samson gives his word he'll leave Blackie and his organization alone."
"He's in and out of the prison constantly, visiting his 'employees'. All he has to do is walk by Samson's cell, slip him the info and be on his way. No words, no glances, no suspicion. Nothing to trace it back to him."
"Virtually foolproof."
"Except no one planned on the Venezia's crew to figure everything out and let the nerve gas go onboard the ship, long before they reached the Boston Harbour."
"Exactly."
He yanked his cell phone from his pocket, flipped it open. "I'm going to get officers down here. I'll get someone to guard Garret, too –"
"It's all ready done." She looked at him sheepishly. "Haley took care of it."
He looked at her with a 'you've-got-to-be-kidding-me' look. "Well, I guess I'm not needed here, then. I'll just go back to my office and continue to try and put a dent in the mountain of paperwork piled on top of it." He turned to go.
"Woody, don't. Please." He stopped, but didn't turn to face her. "There's some things I need to explain to you –" She swore as her cell phone began to vibrate across her desk. She grabbed it, intending to turn it off, but stopped when she saw the call display.
Woody turned, caught her look of fear.
"It's the hospital."
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His legs were numb.
He could still feel his toes – barely. But his legs were completely devoid of feeling.
He didn't dare move for fear of waking her. She'd finally fallen into a fitful sleep after pacing the hallways for hours. He'd convinced her to sit down simply because he was afraid she was going to fall down. She'd sat with her head on his shoulder, closed her eyes and drifted off. When he was sure she was asleep, he'd adjusted their bodies so they were both lying down, her head on his chest with her legs draped over his. Now he wished he could make his mind go to sleep as well as his legs, but his brain was working overtime, trying to figure out how to best help Jordan through this.
At her office, he watched her face turn from pink with embarrassment to deathly pale with fear when she took the call. He knew it wasn't good. She was barely able to tell him the news as she stood with her phone dangling from her hand. "He's . . . Garret's . . . I have to go," was all she managed.
He quietly grabbed her keys and wallet and when she slowly closed her phone, he wrapped an arm around her waist and led her to the elevator. He didn't ask what was wrong until she was safely buckled into the passenger seat of his car.
"Infection," she stated numbly. "His temp was elevated this morning. They didn't seem to be concerned about it, but said they'd monitor him in case." She looked at him then, and he knew she was barely containing her emotions. "I didn't stop this morning, Woody. I haven't seen him since yesterday. What if this is –"
"It's not, Jordan. They caught it early, right? They're probably all ready treating him with antibiotics. They called you because you asked them to notify you of any changes. He's made it this far, he'll be fine." He hoped he wasn't making a promise he was going to have to break.
They'd made it to the hospital in record time.
Woody watched with fascination as Jordan greeted Renee with a hug, then gripped the D.A.'s hand in hers as she spoke with Dr. Roberts. The doctor confirmed they'd started an intravenous drip with a very strong antibiotic and hinted that the infection could be the reason behind Garret's coma. He was going to run some tests, and when he knew more, he'd let Jordan know. All they could do was wait and hope Garret's fever came down before it did too much damage to his all ready fragile body.
So, with nothing left to do, she'd paced. And paced. And paced some more. She'd barely paused when their friends arrived even though she realized she hadn't called them. She figured Woody must have done it while she was speaking to the doctor. She'd soon driven Kate so crazy with her movements that Kate had hauled Nigel off his chair and stated they were going to the cafeteria for a coffee run. It was two hours before they returned.
Maggie had finally made an appearance, with Abby close behind her. According to them, they'd been in Tuscany, waiting for Garret to arrive. When he'd been two days late, they figured work had gotten in the way. When he'd been four days late, Maggie had checked her home voicemail. That was when she'd heard Jordan's message and they'd packed their bags and headed back to Boston as fast as they could. Jordan had managed to stop pacing long enough to give them a quick run down of everything that had happened, including Garret's current condition.
Now, several hours later, they were still waiting for more news, any news, on Garret's condition.
Woody looked around the waiting area at the morgue staff. It never ceased to amaze him how lucky he was to be a part of this 'family' especially considering he didn't have one of his own any more. It had crossed his mind briefly to try and get a hold of Cal and let him know of Samson's release. He'd quickly talked himself out of that plan; he didn't know what Cal was up to or who he was associating with these days. For all he knew, Samson was just sitting back and waiting for the Hoyt brothers to make contact so he could go after Cal or Woody or both of them. So he had resigned himself to waiting on Haley's discoveries and told himself he'd contact Cal when they had more information about Samson's organization and Woody felt it was safe to give his brother a heads up.
He felt Jordan twitch in her sleep and ran his hand through her hair to calm her. He wished he could do something to help her with her pain. He wished he could do everything he hadn't been able to do for her when Garret was first brought in.
He wished he didn't feel so helpless.
He'd been a part of hundreds of cases during his time in Boston, but the worst ones were those that hurt Jordan. He never felt like he knew just what to say or do to help ease her pain. The only time he'd felt like he'd helped her was at the Lucy Carver Inn when she'd asked for his opinion of her relationship with J.D. I think you all ready know. I think we always know what we want. Not what we say we want, but what we really want. He laughed now at the irony of his statement. Jordan Cavanaugh was what he really wanted; what he had always wanted. But he'd told her to get out of his life.
Now he was terrified that Drew Haley was going to walk in at any minute and take Jordan away from him.
He sighed, looking down at the woman he loved. She was lying on her left side, facing the waiting area with her right arm was draped across her midsection. Her left arm was at an angle across her chest with her hand resting on her right shoulder. He untangled his hand from her hair and gripped her left hand in his right one. Feeling the completeness of that small gesture ripple through him, he leaned his head back, closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.
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Kate sipped her third cup of coffee slowly, not really enjoying the taste anymore. It wasn't so much that she needed the caffeine it was that she needed something to do with her hands. Otherwise they would give away her nervousness, and she didn't want any of the morgue staff to see how unsure she was of the outcome of Garret's situation.
She watched as Jordan snuggled into the warmth and safety of Woody's body. She watched as Jordan fell into a fitful sleep and she watched as Woody ran his fingers through her hair to calm her. He seemed to do it automatically, without hesitation, like he'd done it many times before. Kate longed to have that familiarity with someone else's body and the contentment and love that went along with it.
She glanced at Nigel, seated to her right. He was turning his empty coffee cup around and around in his good hand. She smiled a little to herself, knowing he was doing it for the same reason that she was still drinking her coffee; the only difference being that he was comfortable with the others knowing how nervous he was.
Without thinking, she reached over and gripped his wrist, startling him into stopping his movements. He jerked his head in her direction, surprise and questions in his eyes.
"I need some air. Take a walk with me." It was more of a demand than a question and she rose from her seat looking at him expectantly.
He grinned before jumping up from his chair. He tossed his coffee cup in the nearby trash can and followed her down the hall.
She seemed to wander aimlessly through the halls until they came upon another waiting area. This one was equipped with a balcony, enclosed with glass to protect people from falling over the edge.
Nigel watched her obvious discomfort with a mix of humour and fascination as she stood at the window looking out over the city. He glanced over her shoulder at the beautiful expanse of Boston. He loved the view this time of the day, when the sun began its slow descent over the horizon and the cars far below became streaks of white and red as their lights cut through the dimness of the evening. He realized with a start that they'd been at the hospital more than ten hours now, and there was still no word of Dr. M.'s condition improving. He looked at Kate's rigid posture and was almost certain she wasn't enjoying the sunset. He went to the railing, casually leaned back on it, and waited.
"I never wanted to like Boston."
Inwardly he grinned, but managed to keep a straight face.
"It was always just a job. Find out the truth about who killed Lance Cooke and go home."
"Yet, when you got asked to stay, you did. Why?"
She looked sharply at him then realized he wasn't speaking with rancor, he was just curious as to what her answer would be. "I don't know. I suppose it was because the governor asked me to, and it is career suicide to refuse a request from the governor."
He stayed silent; just raised an eyebrow at her.
"And there was something about this place, the morgue I mean, that got to me. At first I thought I could make a difference in the apparent lack of respect and obvious hierarchy confusion."
He smiled at that. She didn't have to mention Jordan's name; he of course knew she was referring to the shenanigans Garret let Jordan get away with.
"Gradually I realized it wasn't a lack of respect, it was just the opposite." She paused, caught his smile from the corner of his eye. "The jury's still out on the hierarchy issue."
She sighed. "I didn't understand the 'family' . . . thing. I always functioned under the 'don't ask, don't tell, don't get involved' rule at work. No one could get hurt that way. And then Jordan got sick. I saw how much you were all affected by it. And I felt . . . I don't know . . . left out."
He turned sideways so he could face her. He wanted to hold her hand, tell her he she didn't have to feel that way anymore, but he wasn't quite sure how to approach her.
"When Dr. Macy asked me to 'baby sit' Jordan after her surgery, I should have been furious. There was a time not too long ago I would have been." She smiled at the memory of asking him to hire a nurse. "Then he said he trusted me." She looked at Nigel then, and the pain was apparent in her eyes. "No one's ever said that to me. I guess I knew they must have, because no one has ever questioned my findings. That is, until I came to Boston. Then I got questioned constantly."
"Kate," he said softly. "We don't question you because we don't trust you. We just function on a different level than everyone else. The simple truth isn't good enough for us. We question things because we're constantly driven to find more, do more, so we can give more to the families." He did take her hand then, and was pleasantly surprised when she didn't pull away. "We have Jordan to thank for that. I don't know how many families would still be searching for answers if it weren't for Jordan and her inability to let things go."
"It's nice giving closure." She said it so softly he barely heard her. "It's nice feeling like I'm making a difference. I fought for so many years to get my dad clean. I always wondered why my love wasn't enough to make him seek help. I finally had to cut ties with him or risk being sucked into his world. In the process, I cut everyone else out, too. Everyone that I was familiar with. Everyone that reminded me of him."
She took a deep breath and turned to face him, looking him straight in the eye. "I shouldn't care this much about my boss. I shouldn't care this much about anyone I work with. I shouldn't get this close." She jabbed a finger at his chest. "And you! You drive me crazy and I wasn't kidding when I said I wanted to feed your kidneys to Binky." He looked scared then, and she laughed at his expression. "Be grateful I care enough not to feed your kidneys to Binky!"
She reached up and brushed his cheek with her fingers and her eyes turned serious. "You make me feel like I belong somewhere again, Nigel. Thank you." She smiled a little and turned to walk away then stopped. "You still owe me a new car."
He watched her for a moment, grinning to himself. Who'd have thought a joke-cracking bloke from Britain would be the one to break through that tough exterior? He pushed himself away from the railing and prepared to follow her back to Dr. Macy's room.
It happened so fast he didn't have time to react, didn't have time to blink.
All he felt was heat.
And then a pair of beautifully soft lips was capturing his in a searing kiss.
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Woody felt like he'd just drifted off when the nurse shook him gently awake.
"The doctor will be in to speak with Dr. Cavanaugh in a few minutes," she whispered.
He nodded, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "Thanks," he whispered back. He glanced around the waiting area and realized vaguely that Nigel and Kate had disappeared. Bug was stretched out on the love seat across the room from Woody, with his nose buried in a nature magazine.
He attempted to sit up, and found that he couldn't feel anything below his waist. A moment of panic threatened to overtake him before he realized it was the weight of Jordan's sleeping body that had cut off his circulation. He relaxed back into the couch and ran his fingers through her hair, enjoying the feeling of having her so close to him.
"Jordan," he whispered. "Wake up sleeping beauty." He leaned forward as best he could and laid a soft kiss on her temple. He removed his hand from her hair and ran it softly up and down her arm, stopping at her shoulder where he gently massaged her muscles. He grinned to himself when he felt her stir.
"Mmmm," she mumbled then realized where she was and pushed herself quickly to a sitting position. "Woody! I'm sorry. Why did you let me fall asleep? You're legs must killing you!" She blushed slightly at the implication of her words then yelped when he pulled her back down to his chest.
"It's nothing a back rub from my favourite M.E. won't cure," he purred in her ear. He nibbled gently on her earlobe. "Besides, it feels nice to hold you."
She lifted her head and looked directly into his eyes. He was smiling at her, but she knew his words were no joke. She smiled back and brushed a soft kiss on his lips. "I promise if we make it out of here tonight, I'll give you that back rub. It's the least I can do for letting me conk out on you." She sat up and gingerly climbed out of his lap so the circulation could return to his legs.
He grabbed her hand as she walked past him. "I didn't wake you because I was uncomfortable, Jordan. The nurse came to see me. She said Dr. Roberts will be in to talk with you in a few minutes." He watched her expression turn somber as the reality of Garret's situation caught up with her once more.
"Thanks," she said softly. She wandered over to Bug and crouched down beside him. Woody couldn't hear what she said, but gathered it had something to do with the doctor coming to see them.
She stood up after a moment and looked around. "Has anyone seen Kate & Nige?"
"They left a while ago. Probably just went for a walk." Bug swung his legs off the couch he was stretched out on. "I'll go see if I can find them. If the doctor comes before we get back, you'll wait for us?"
Jordan nodded then went to the arm chair in the corner where Renee was quietly napping. She exchanged a few soft words with the woman and then repeated the process with Maggie and Abby. She'd no sooner woken them all when Dr. Roberts came in looking for her.
"Can I talk to you in private?" He asked Jordan. She nodded silently and once again grabbed Renee's hand. "You're coming with me," she whispered, dragging the D.A. out of the room with her.
Woody waited long agonizing minutes for Jordan to return with news of Garret's health. He hoped for all their sakes that the antibiotics were working and that Garret would finally wake up from his coma. He knew what it was like waiting hours on end in a hospital for news of a loved one. He thought of his father. Sometimes the news you wanted to hear never came.
He looked up as Bug reappeared with Nigel and Kate in tow. He looked suspiciously at the guilty look Nigel wore and wondered briefly what had happened while the two were out of the room. "Jordan and Renee are with Dr. Roberts now," was his answer to Bug's questioning look.
The words were no sooner out of his mouth when Jordan and Renee stepped back into the room, small smiles on both their faces. Woody breathed a sigh of relief; they were finally getting some good news.
Jordan took a deep breath and faced her friends. "He's responding well to the antibiotics; they caught the infection early and his fever has broken all ready." She grinned at the collective sigh of relief that echoed through the room. "He hasn't regained consciousness yet, but the good news is the doctors ran a MRI to find out where the infection is, and there doesn't seem to be any compromised brain activity. They're not exactly sure why Garret's still in a coma, but they figure it may just be his body's way of trying to heal. Anyway, we are allowed to see him, but we have to suit up to reduce the risk of any more infectious viruses getting to him. Two at a time, and there's a ten minute maximum. Renee and I are going first."
She caught Woody's eye before she turned and left the room. He smiled at her, letting her know he'd be there waiting for her when she finished with Garret.
Jordan followed Renee back to Garret's room where they donned gowns, gloves and masks before entering. She hung back while Renee spent the first five of their ten minutes on her own with Garret. Jordan watched from the doorway as the 'take no prisoners' D.A. held Garret's hand and caressed his cheek with her fingers. When her time was up, Renee kissed Garret's forehead and crossed the room to where Jordan was waiting in the doorway.
"Thank you," she whispered to Jordan. "Thank you for letting me be here with him."
Jordan smiled softly at the woman she once considered her nemesis. "Thank you, Renee, for sitting with him last night. It means a lot to me that someone he cares about was here with him, whether he knew it or not."
Renee smiled back at her then nodded her head to the doorway. "You'd better get in there before our time is up. I'll let whoever is next know they can come get suited up."
Jordan nodded then took a deep breath and pushed open the door.
She stood for a moment in silence, taking in the various tubes and IV bags and monitors surrounding her friend. She knew it wasn't very long ago he'd done this same thing in her hospital room. She sat in the chair beside his bed that she'd occupied two nights ago.
"Hey, Garret," she whispered as she took his hand and squeezed it gently. "You scared the hell out of me, you know. We're even now, okay?" She paused to wipe away a stray tear escaping down her cheek. "You're going to be okay. You can beat this, Garret. We're all here to make sure of it and we're prepared to kick your ass if you even think about leaving us! Nigel and Drew Haley and I are still working this case, so I'm not going to promise you I'll be back tonight, but I swear I'll see you tomorrow. And Dr. Roberts better have some good news for me." She leaned forward a placed a gentle kiss on his forehead. "Sleep tight, Garret. I'll see you in the morning."
She got up quietly and with one last glance over her shoulder, she silently left the room.
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He was waiting for her when she emerged from Garret's room. He watched in silence as she stripped off her gown, gloves and mask. He watched as she closed her eyes, fighting the tears that hid there. And when he watched her start to shake, he stepped forward and wrapped her safely in his arms and held her until her tears subsided.
"He's going to be okay, Jordan. The doctors are optimistic about a good recovery. He just has to get his strength back, and until he does that, the coma is the best thing for him." He pulled away gently and brushed a stray lock of hair from her cheek.
"I know," she whispered. "I know. But it's still hard, you know?" She looked at him with a watery smile, knowing all to well that he understood what she was saying.
"I know." He repeated her words as he smiled back at her. He ran his hands along her upper arms in an effort to help calm her. "Can I take you home now?"
She nodded. "Can we wait until everyone's seen him? I just want to make sure someone will be here with him tonight."
"Sure Jordan. Let me know when you're ready to go." He kissed her forehead gently then took her hand and led her back to the waiting area.
It was another half hour before everyone had been in to see Garret. Maggie and Abby volunteered to stay the night with him and once Jordan was satisfied they had all her instructions and phone numbers memorized, she let herself be led away by Woody.
The trip from the hospital to her apartment wasn't a long one at that time of the evening. Even so, Woody had to gently shake her awake when they reached her building.
They rode the elevator in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. When they reached Jordan's apartment door, Woody took her keys from her and unlocked the deadbolt. He didn't voice his concerns, but she knew he was concerned about the Albanian mob threat. When he was satisfied all was well, he locked the door behind them and led her by the hand to her couch.
"We need to talk," he said softly as he sat down.
"I know." She was silent for a moment as she gathered her thoughts.
He watched her struggle with where to begin, so he blurted out the first thing that came to mind; the question that had been bothering him since eight o'clock that morning:
"What did Haley mean when he said he'd almost lost you before?"
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