First of all, I know you already had read some revelations from Henry to Jo. But a story needs a beginning. I want to explore different sides of the story. I have some ideas of cases they can have, I want to explore Henry and Jo's relationship, the way they will act now they know his secret, if someone else will know it, this kind of things.
I want to apologize if you find some errors in my text, my main language isn't English but French, feel free to correct me.
Of course I want reviews to help me for my story, to have your opinion, you can say what you want.
I hope you will enjoy my fiction, it's been awhile I haven't wrote anything so I enjoyed doing it. Thank you for reading.
-See, you can manage to escape from some situations. You know what they say, it isn't over until the fat lady sings. But these situations, for most of them, might catching you up if you're not careful. I may be immortal, I'm not some kind of wizard. I do not have the possibility to make disappear things like proofs of my condition. I guess it was written. I already heard many times I was made like that for a reason. If my fate is already predicted, this have to be planned too. It's easy to lie when you do it for centuries. You know how to hide things, you are used to disappear after a couple of years. But what is not easy to do is to lie in front of someone who deserves the truth. I guess I can't escape anymore.-
It was always a long story with Henry Morgan. Of course, it wasn't the kind of story you can tell to anyone. It's a story like ones you only hear one time in your life. A story which grows during years like it already did, like it'll continue to do. Maybe sometimes it's more thrilling than others, some passages might be more romantic to be morbid a few moments later but it's still the story of a great man.
This same great man had to tell the truth to her, the woman standing in front of him since his last sentence.
"It's a long story." He had say.
She preserved herself to say anything in response. It wasn't the moment to tell him it was enough, that she didn't want to hear that again or another of his lies. Jo has always been a patient person. She wanted to know this very long story of him but Henry was this type of talkative person for anything else but himself. If she wanted to know, she had to let him talk in his own way. Abraham was near them. He wanted him to tell her, he always wanted that. He may be old, he wasn't blind. He knew they could trust her even if she would need time to believe his father's story. But he had to help him, Henry may have two-hundred-thirty-five years, he wasn't really good in social relations, he was a loner and most of all, he was afraid. No wonder when you know his ex-wife placed him in a psychiatric institution because she thought he was crazy talking about immortality. Of course, later, she knew he didn't lie. Too bad the pain was already inflicted. Abe acted instead of his father. He pushed him back to let her enter in the shop. Henry just closed the door behind them. After that, the man walked through the room and climbed the stairs to find Abraham and Jo. Both of them were in the kitchen, the woman sit on a chair and the old man was preparing tea. Automatically, still in silence since his own words, he sat in front of the beautiful lady. During an instant which felt like an eternity, he detailed Jo's face.
The woman was looking in front of her but it was like she couldn't see the doctor. She was deep in her thoughts. And damn, how she was beautiful for Henry. Her face was thin, just as he liked it and her eyes… What a beautiful brown to color them, as her hair dropping on her shoulders. Henry's eyes looked a moment her lips. His breath was almost inexistent when he finally woke up. Abraham just had laid the cups on the table and the sound made them both react. They avoided looking at each other again. Abraham left the kitchen to let them discuss but another uncomfortable silence filled the room. Henry's look at the table like a boy caught misbehaving. Slowly, Jo took the photo she found on the floor and slipped it under his eyes, on the table.
"I know you don't know from where to begin. Why don't you with that?" Did she ask to help him.
"Because it started way before that." Was the only response he gave her. Simply, he needed to think how to narrate his long life.
He passed his hand on his face, bit softly his under lip and joined his hands together, near his cup of tea. He sighed a last time, moistened his lips and spoke again.
"Look, I… You should know that despite appearances, I wanted to tell you the truth since the beginning. I mean, not the very beginning because I didn't know you this well but I didn't mean to lie this much. I just had to preserve my life and... You. So I just thought the best way to do it was lying and I know…"
"Henry. Look, you do a course." Said the young woman. She didn't mean to be rude but she knew he could talk like that during hours to explain only one thing. "Just… Try to find your sentences before saying them. You don't have to be nervous."
"Of course I have to."
Jo wasn't capable of understanding why he said that and this way. His tone was dry as if he did not appreciate her words. She looked at him during a brief instant. She never saw him like that and it was weird. His look was down when he mumbled an apology. He took a long breath and look at her again.
"I'm immortal."
His words resounded in the room while Jo looked at him during… Well, a very long time. Was he kidding her? She knew he was a man of his word and even if his lies didn't work anymore on her, he wouldn't find such an excuse. So why was he saying that? Was he lost in Lucas-land? She swallowed and looked at her tea like it was the most interesting thing in the world at this instant. Henry noticed that and pursed his lips. Maybe it wasn't the best way to say things, finally. He was certain she thought he was crazy. Unfortunately, it was true. This curse was present in his life since two centuries now.
"I know you will not believe it. Not like that. But I don't want you to say anything during my next… Course. Because you don't know nothing about my life and what I have been through, all the struggles that I faced just because I wanted to be true. I want you to listen to me, now. You will ask anything you want after. Understood?"
He was so serious, Jo stayed muted because of (or thanks to) that. She just looked at him again. Despite the hypothetical veracity of these revelations, she was interested. She couldn't just believe that, of course, but why would he create such things?
"First of all… I'm not thirty-five. I'm just used to be since… Well, two centuries."
Jo swallowed her tea the wrong way and coughed suddenly. Henry was desperate, he had this impression that all he said was tell in the wrong way and made him look even more ridiculous to Jo's point of view. But she was just perplexed. When she walked in the shop's direction, she never thought she would end up in this situation. But here she was, it was weird. But she wanted the truth. And if it was his truth, well, she had to listen. She cared about him, too much maybe, she decided to listen after she had wipe her mouth with the towel Henry has brought.
"I'm sorry. Please, continue." She said.
But the doctor wasn't going to return on his chair now. She felt his hands on her shoulders and not long after, his breath near her ear. His question was blown.
"Do you believe it?"
She didn't move since his hands touched her. She stayed still and had to find her words.
"It's not that. It's just… I mean, how can I do it like that? It's a lot, Henry."
"So, do you think I'm crazy?" He was in a weird state, his fingers pressed Jo's shoulders. She didn't like that.
"Never." She didn't hesitate for her answer, not even one second. She knew he wasn't.
She felt him released her from his hands and for an instant, she was relieved. She didn't like the way he acted because she knew it came from his panic. And she didn't know why he was so anxious. Ok, his story was hard to believe and she really didn't know what to say but still. She was his friend. She stood up and looked at him. He was leaning against the kitchen furniture, arms crossed. She saw his hands, softly caressed his own arms like he was searching for some kind of comfort. Slowly, she came near to him and her hands found their way to his cheeks. Thanks to that, she could raise his head to make him look at her. Her voice had a lower tone when she spoke again.
"Henry, calm down. Please, calm down, I don't like to see you like that."
She stared at him during a long moment of silence. Her eyes had met his and they didn't move during all of this instant. She could read all of his panic, all of his insecurities through his two dark irises. His distress and his fear. Her thumbs, softly, moved against his cheeks. She didn't even noticed but she had this need deeper in her, she had to help him.
"During your past… Someone really hurted you, am I right?"
"I was not insane. I am not. But she…" He couldn't finish his sentence. It was still hurting him. Not only because Nora put him in a psychiatric institution but because the most important person for him at this time didn't believe him and betrayed him. Abigail's reaction was good, even if they weren't talking that much about his past. And if Jo could not bear his secret? Will he have to leave this city and start all over again? He knew he couldn't let his feelings gain the upper hand on his reason but he didn't want to leave New-York, not now.
"Tell me, Henry. You told me you would tell me everything. You can trust me, I'm not like this person, ok? Keep going, I will not leave." She promised. She wouldn't leave and let him be in this state.
He stared at her during some seconds. His own screams from 1815 were perceptible to his ears, when he was forced to go in the Charring Cross Asylum, in a cage, when he was imploring Nora to have him get out of this place and how she abandoned him. It was painful to think about it and it wasn't because he was two centuries old that he didn't remember well his entire story. It was quite the opposite and it was hurting him as hell. His breath was fast and he seemed to search his words before he mumbled the year. Jo didn't move, exactly two hundred years before that, something happened in his life.
"I was… Thirty-five for real this time. When I told my ex-wife I was an immortal, she…"
Jo didn't know anything about Nora, of course, but she knew he wasn't talking about Abigail. His eyes looked gradually down when he sighed his next words.
"She threw me in this place, this institution, this asylum…"
"What? Henry, what asylum?" Asked carefully Jo to not rush the doctor. This one closed his eyes, a shiver crossing his back at the same time.
"If you don't trust me, I can prove it to you. She didn't want to, but I can."
"No, Henry, you don't have to. We just need to talk and… Make it all clear, ok? Come." She said as she walked towards the couch in the living room, holding his arm. They both sat on it and Jo was still looking at Henry's face while he kept it down.
"I'm not like this women, Henry, I'll listen to you and try to understand and... I'll try to believe you, alright?" She knew she had to change his mood. She took a tone a little bit more lighthearted, intrigued by what he could tell her. "So, tell me. I want to know everything you want to tell me about you, your condition, how do you live with that?" She asked leaning slightly her face, trying to see Henry clearly.
This one looked finally at her. She would appreciate this detail. He preferred to talk about that.
"Well, let's say I live normally. I still feel things, I still feel pain, I still can die. I just come back every time. Always in the East River. Naked." He said, looking at her, looking at her lips when these two widened. Her laugh came at his ears and he couldn't help himself but smiled. It was better than the precedent subject.
"That would explain a lot of things!" She answered. This anecdote was pretty funny. But a detail stopped her. "But, Henry. Does it mean you die a lot? I don't understand, you said you were immortal but now, that you can die?"
The doctor cleaned his throat.
"Do you remember the scar on my chest?"
"Yes. You told me you were shoot."
"It was the first time. See, my father had a shipping company. It's a long story I will tell you another time. One day, I was on one of his boat, the Empress of Africa and…"
"Wait." She interrupted him, making him looking at her again.
"I see you remember quite clearly what boat it is. Anyway. I was already a doctor, I will not tell you all the details but the captain of the ship shot me and threw me in the ocean. But I survived, I mean, my condition began at this time. Since this moment… I died a lot."
"And since we know each other?"
Henry turned slightly his head towards hers.
"Well, too many times."
A silence came between them, while they were looking at each other in the eyes. She had to believe it but it wasn't easy. She was about to say something when her phone rang. Henry looked at her gesture to take it in her pocket and just kept looking at her while she talked to... Lucas?
"What is it about, Lucas?"
"I tried to call Henry but… Abraham just told me to mind my own business, I didn't understand very well but we have a problem in the morgue, I had to call someone."
After a sigh, Jo answered.
"Well, it's your lucky day, I'm with Henry. You're on speaker, tell us."
"There is a corpse."
Jo and Henry looked at each other before the doctor answered. Jo couldn't help but think she loved his accent.
"If there is a corpse in the morgue, Lucas, it's not really a problem, it's where it belongs to be."
"No, I mean someone brought a corpse while there was no one, a young woman, her throat is slit and nobody can tell who she is. Generally, when an employee gives us a corpse, he calls us or at least leaves a document. So I think…"
"The person who brought the corpse is the murdrer." Said Henry with the look he has when he understands something serious, interrupting Lucas.
"We're on our way." Told Jo before hanging up.
The partners stood up and walked out the store after having say what happened to Abraham. Near Jo's car, Henry spoke.
"Detective. I would be pleased you don't talk about you know what to the others."
"Your secret is safe with me." She answered with a wink. But what could she say anyway? That her colleague says he's immortal? Not like that, she had to think about it.
