It's funny to see "Nina" resurrected, but when you got a cliffhanger she just seemed to come out. Only this time it's just jmkw and MADAMBETH. We hope you don't mind just two minds this time.
We started writing this, email tags back and forth, the Monday after "Jump Push Fall" aired. It's not really "our" take like "Causa Mortis" started out as. More like ...just a little fluffy cliffhanger closure.
We hope you enjoy.
DISCLAIMER: Don't own them. Just playing with them for awhile. We promise to put them back when we're done.
It was raining that day. The water hit the windows of the hospital with every blast of the wind.
"Where's Jordan? I thought she'd be here." Lily asked.
"I left four messages on her phone. She's not answering." Garret looked up and down the hospital corridor once before sitting down next to Lily. By the way she clutching and unclutching her purse he could tell she was debating whether or not to call her again. "Slocum might have her running."
Lily sighed. She talked to Woody right before they wheeled him out. He didn't ask about her. In fact, he didn't say anything. "I don't think so. Something's not right Garret. I can feel it."
"With Jordan, you never know," he said checking his watch. "How long as he been in there?"
Lily squinted at the big round clock at the end of the hallway. "Ah, about three hours I guess. They didn't take long taking him in once the surgeon arrived."
Not missing the subtle gesture, Garret wrapped his arm around her shoulders. Lily just felt more than anybody he had ever met. He could only imagine how hard the last few days have been on her. His gut knotted with guilt. "He's going to be alright Lily. Everything's going to be alright..."
At the morgue, Jordan set the phone down on the cradle slowly. She laid her head on her desk. Whoever said 'no news was good news' should have to rot in cliché hell.
"His Majesty has requested that from now on any and all requested for your...gas chromatograph needs to be verified in writing by his office..." Nigel chuckled leaning against her doorframe. The way he slapped the requisition form on his thigh told her exactly how he felt about this newest directive. "He spelled it with two O's"
"...what?" Jordan asked lifting her head slowly.
"Darling, what are you doing here anyway? You should be at the hospital."
"With Garret...gone we're a little short staffed," Jordan said reaching out for the paperwork. She rolled her eyes and the yellow sticky note with big red letters that was slapped on top.
"Your hands had been officially slapped," Nigel drawled as he leaned on the corner of her desk.
"I'm sure he'll take away my birthday by the end of the week," Jordan replied tossing the report on her cluttered desk.
"I'll take care of it Jordan. Slocum is busy kissing political ass today. He told Emmy he'd be out all afternoon. We've got you covered...Go."
Jordan gave him a watery smile. It was the best she could do under the circumstances. She could tell by the look on his face Nigel could see right through her. "I'll stop by later..."
Nigel let her blatant lie slide. Lily had filled him in on the hell Jordan has been though from the second she answered the call from dispatch to the moment Woody came out of surgery and the ugly truth was discovered. The woman sitting before him wasn't the distraught woman Lily described to him over drinks.
"...Alright," he said walking to her door. "But if you change your mind..."
Jordan didn't have to wait long. No sooner had Nigel turned the corner into Trace a uniformed officer walked toward her office doorway. Not your everyday normal patrol officer. but Brass, somebody from the Commissioner office. Jordan knew these guys didn't just wonder into the morgue for no good reason and this one was looking for her. It could only mean one thing. She stood up and met him at the door.
"Dr. Cavanaugh. Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh?"
"...yes."
"The Police Commissioner would like you to know that he and his office is completely at your disposal in this time." the man said in a dry, memorized speech way.
"...It has been arranged through a personal courtesy from the D.A.'s office that you are granted personal leave affective immediately to take care of any an all outstanding business Detective Hoye may have." the officer handed Jordan a manila envelope. "Inside are Detective Hoye's personal affects ...wallet, keys...phone. His professional vehicle had been remanded until at which time he is well enough to have it reissued. His personal vehicle is parked at an address attached to the memo from the office inside. There are also numbers and contacts for the department's ombudsman and the president of the Boston Police Department Wives Club. Please avail yourself of any and all help they can give you ma'am. And once again we all hope Detective Hoye recovers quickly." With a firm hand shake he turned and left the way he came.
"His name is Hoyt. Woody Hoyt." Jordan called down the hall after him. In a state of relived shock she opened the envelope. The man was a packrat. She pulled out the memo inside. It was from the Police Commissioners office spelling out her rights and responsibilities as Woody's next of kin.
"Next of Kin? Nigel!"
Nigel looked up when he saw Jordan storming into Trace. "What's wrong?"
"What the hell does this mean?" she asked handing him the envelope.
Unable to hold his curiosity, Nigel dumped the contents on a nearby table. It didn't take a forensics specialist to figure out who the contents belonged to. He took the standard yellow form out of her limp hand. He had filled out a few of these in his career...so had Jordan. So, Woody named her his next of kin. It really didn't surprise him. After Woody's very mysterious fall out with his brother, the man had nobody. Nobody but them.
"It looks like the department has made you his official babysitter for the time being..." Nigel said lightly.
Jordan was past listening. She was centered on the ragtag pile of belongings from on Woody when they brought him in the hospital. She reached out to run a finger over the worn leather wallet. She remembered him once complaining about needing a new one but not wanting to go through the hassle of breaking a new one in. There was his new picture phone. She smiled thinking about a slow evening not too long ago that he found out Sydney had the same model. They had spent the next hour chasing each other around the morgue trying to "shoot" pictures of each other. The results that showed up in email tags over the next few days had them all laughing. That was when something shiny caught her eye. She pushed aside an ATM receipt and a pack of bubble gum to get a better look...
Nigel turned his attention away from the paper when Jordan froze. When her face grow suddenly pale he asked, "Jordan, love...are you alright...?"
It was the ring.
It was Nigel who reached out to pick it up. He flipped it around his finger looking at it like a man...like Nigel would look at anything that caught his imagination. Jordan had to admit in his hand and outside its box it looked smaller...but not any less intimidating. She felt a tear form in her eye.
"So this is it? The theoretical ring?" Nigel studied the setting. .
Jordan could only nod.
"He's carried around all these weeks. It's pretty." He had to press. "...and why didn't you take it again?"
"Nigel!" she exclaimed in outrage. "It's...It wasn't...I don't...Damnit, it's complicated."
Jordan snatched the ring out of his fingers. Why was he carrying it? The thought of that ring may have haunted her for days after her birthday; she never really looked at it. It was really a harmless ring. White gold and diamond chips, maybe not something she would have ever picked out for herself but she could see why he thought she'd like it. The face was flat. It was designed to wrap around the finger. It would be comfortable to wear...
"Why don't you try it on?" he whispered.
"I can't," she said quickly stuffing it back in the envelope. She felt like they were somehow prying into Woody's personal business. "Um, I'm going to..." she stalled and grabbed the set of keys. "I'm going to...take this stuff over to his place and...and check his mail. It's the least I can do."
"You can stop by the hospital on the way..."
Before Jordan could answer Nigel's cell rang. He motioned for her not to run off. Jordan finished refilling the envelope while he finished what turned out to be a short phone call.
"That was Lily. Woody's out of surgery. She, ah, wants you to know, she and Garret are planning on sticking around until he wakes up..."
"Good. He needs somebody there..."
Jordan turned heal and left.