Despite the initial shock of discovering all that had happened in the time they'd lost, her Mother's death by far the most devastating, Suzy finds their new life not at all that different from how it had been before. Despite the change of scenery, of course. Which admittedly, is more than she could have hoped for after finding the hollowed out remains of what had once been the Elysian and Henry nowhere in sight. That he'd somehow found her still a mystery to them both despite speculation that a certain piece of jewelry might have been responsible, but short of consulting a professional on the subject, a term Henry uses loosely of course, they're no closer to discovering the truth than they ever had been.
After a week though Suzy finds Helen's house still feels like exactly that, Helen's house. It's halls and high ceilings a reminder of a time she'd rather forget despite the memories it held of finding their mother again. She's a hypocrite she knows, but at least she'd not abandoned her own children in choosing to be with Henry. He blames himself, she knows that too. A silent agreement coming between them that no matter how much they might wish it otherwise, spiriting is not, nor will it ever be, something they consider again.
The live-in third wheel also causes no end of problems. The man they'd picked up once on a whim in the hopes he might bring them together now somehow so deeply ensconced in her life he's reheating casseroles and parenting her children like he's every right to and she finds, more often than not, she can't stand to be in the same room, let alone the same house, lest he attempt to rekindle whatever relationship the shell of herself left behind had been embroiled in.
It's after the third such occasion that Suzy takes up cursing on a professional level even Henry can only marvel at when she begins letting loose, at a jam jar of all things, before he suggests that perhaps they take their leave to test the limits of his newfound freedom and drive somewhere, anywhere, that isn't here and find they make it all the way to the new clinic without a problem before they'd even realised it.
A clinic that is, much to her initial horror, exactly as it had been if she and Henry had never met. The only consolation being that her professional life is as efficient and indeed clinical as she could ever wish it to be, unlike the 'raging shit storm' - Henry's words of course - that is her personal affairs when she's summoned back to the house under the guise of a distraught Verity only to find said child unaware and decidedly confused by her mother's frantic attentions and a litany of unwanted romantic declarations from Aaron which results in an argument and her choosing the sofa once again over their shared accommodations.
It takes two more weeks of the same before Aaron finally takes a hint and moves back into his apartment full time. Verity and Elvis seemingly indifferent of the change in circumstances while both Suzy and Henry breathe a sigh of relief at his departure. They argue of course when she absolutely refuses to share the same room, let alone bed with Henry as her other self and the interloper and instead moves them into her mother's room which tears open old wounds as she's forced to sort through the detritus of a life half lived before she can make it into something either one of them is comfortable enough in to just be.
It's hard and it's messy, but finally they establish some semblance of normalcy, or what constitutes normal for them anyway, though that doesn't stop her from casting a curious eye over the property section every Sunday, looking for what she's not quite sure, until one day, fate seemingly intervenes.
"I think I want a house like this," Jonquil mentions casually over coffee, "After the wedding of course."
Suzy casts an eye towards Zach through the terrace doors as he mumbles his agreement from his place beside the record player, one of Henry's vinyl's playing softly in the background as he taps furiously away at his laptop.
"Why don't you just move in here?"
"No offence Suzy," Jonquil rolls her eyes, "But I don't fancy starting a family in earshot of you and the kids."
"Never stopped you before." Henry gripes from Suzy's other side, disgust curling his lip as he looks to her with a shudder.
"I didn't mean with us," She scoffs, "Mum left the house to us both, you and Zach can move in and we'll just, I dunno, find somewhere else."
"Really?" Jonquils stills with her mug to her lips, expression decidedly perplexed yet humbled by the gesture, "You'd…you'd do that for me?"
"It's a lovely old house," Suzy muses thoughtfully, "But to be honest I've never much cared for the suburbs."
"Well thank fuck for that," Henry cheers, stretching his long legs out against the balcony rail, "Where are we going and when do we leave?"
"Somewhere closer to the clinic would be ideal, and school," She shrugs, subtly answering Henry's initial query as she ascertains the later from her sister, "I've enough from the insurance on the penthouse to afford something in the city, all depends on when you were thinking of moving-"
"Now-" Jonquil interjects with a start, "No, well – soon, but now soon if you know what I mean. Unless that's not enough time-"
"No," Suzy startles, for once decidedly pleased with her sister's lack of patience as she takes another sip of coffee, "No that would be, well, perfect."
"Too right it would," Henry adds in encouragement, "This house gives me the creeps, the kids look miserable, hell I'm dead and I'm fucking depressed as shit here."
"Are you sure?" Jonquil frowns, shifting in her seat as she chews on a cuticle, "Look, maybe you should talk this over with Aaron first?"
"That won't be necessary." Suzy stops her with a shake of her head.
"What she really means is we sent the dickhead packing." Henry adds as Jonquil's face falls.
"Oh Suzy," She breathes, "You didn't…"
"Didn't what?"
"Suzy!"
"Oh don't look at me like that," Suzy finally scoffs, rolling her eyes in irritation, "I appreciate your concern, really Jonquil, but I'd no intention of remaining in any relationship I'm neither comfortable in nor happy with."
"That's news to me," Jonquil scoffs, "I thought for sure the two of you would be set up here for life?"
"Yes, well," She sniffs, glancing to Henry who looks far too impressed with himself, "People change."
"Fair call then," Jonquil shrugs after a time, "At least now he's gone I won't feel bad in admitting he was kind of on the boring side, even for you."
"Oh, you have no idea," She murmurs in agreement, "Why do you think I preferred talking to myself?"
Henry's smirk morphs into an outright guffaw that Jonquil joins in with unknowingly.
"Well you certainly seem happier for it," She remarks, "Seems like it's been far too long since I last saw you smile let alone crack a joke. I missed this you."
"I missed you too," Suzy smiles as she reaches across to grasp her sister's hand, "And I am, happy that is, all things considered."
Jonquil nods in silent understanding before their attention's drawn to the vehicle approaching up the drive, horn blaring and lights flashing as Steve announces their arrival from the driver's side window, Jenny waving excitedly from the other as they pull up in a cloud of dust.
"Oh, goody," Henry deadpans, "The fucking cavalries arrived."
"Never fear, Steve is here!"
"Fuck me." Henry snorts, glancing to Suzy, "Still a knob head then."
"Evidently." She murmurs into her coffee as Jonquil stands to greet the newlyweds when they join them on the verandah.
"What're you two doing back so soon, I thought for sure you'd be gone another week?"
"What can I say Jonks," Steve throws his arms wide, sweeping her up in a hug she'd clearly not expected as she blushes and chuckles, "Sometimes a king just longs for his castle no matter how worldly he becomes."
Henry snorts, "You should've seen what your spawn did to the last fucking clown that called himself King."
"Daddy!" Verity squeals not a moment later as she blurs out the front door.
"Speak of the devil." Henry quips.
"Princess!" Steve bids, sweeping her up into his arms as he clasps Elvis in a manly half hug when he exits the house shortly after, though at a decidedly more subdued pace than his sister. "It's good to see you, Son."
"You too Dad," He agrees, moving to embrace his step-mother, "Jenny."
"Hello sweetheart." She beams, kissing his cheek as Verity wraps herself around her middle.
"Did you bring us presents?"
"Of course we did, my love," Jenny strokes her hair lovingly which makes Suzy smile, "But you'll have to wait until we get unpacked. We came straight from the airport you see."
"Oh, of course." Suzy nods when it becomes clear the last comment is directed at her.
"What, your broom pack it in then?" Henry mutters darkly.
"So," Suzy prompts, squashing down the urge to laugh, "How was your trip?"
"Oh, Suzy, Peru was just, unbelievable." Jenny breathes, fanning her face as if she might swoon at the mere recollection of it, "Just, magical."
"Truly fantastic," Steve concurs, moving to hold his wife about the shoulders as she gazes adoringly up at him, "Let me just say, Machu Picchu was an experience, not of this world."
"Well that certainly sounds…enlightening?" Suzy nods.
"Too right it was," He agrees, "You see I thought I'd lost the touch there for a while."
"I'm sorry what?" Suzy frowns.
"I've been reenergized, Suze. Achieved a spiritual oneness with the world," Steve pauses, poised with his hands pressed in prayer, "Ready to become one with my, special, little guy."
"There's nothing little about me for a start, dickhead," Henry scoffs as he stands to move past the pair with a scowl of discontent, "Just ask your ex."
Suzy chokes, a furious blush burning her cheeks as Jennifer suddenly slaps Steve's chest with the back of her hand, her nostrils full flare as she looks to him.
"Oh my god, I knew it!"
"Knew what?" Steve startles, Jennifer's face stoic and serious as she takes another deep breath.
"He's here, Steve."
"Who's h- oh-" His eyes suddenly widen in understanding before a smug grin curls his lips, "See, told you it'd work."
"Oh no, no fucking way," Henry backs away, unintentionally shifting through Suzy herself as he moves behind her, "Suze, you keep that fucking mad bitch away from me?"
"Where is he?"
"Who?" Suzy feigns confusion.
"There," Jennifer points to where Henry stands at Suzy's back, "Just behind Suzy."
"Steve-" Suzy's eyes go wide as Steve suddenly drops to the floor at her feet, "What're you-"
"Oh give it up Suze," He rolls his eyes, "You know just as well as I do who we're talking about. You've been talking to him for years thinking no one was watching."
"I beg your pardon?" Suzy suddenly can't help herself and she laughs.
"Stop pretending, there's no denying it now," Steve replies solemnly, "Jenny knows a lost soul when she smells it, and your Henry and I, we've a connection, like soul mates. Ever since I passed into the next world-"
"Henry?" Zach queries with interest as he finally joins the commotion behind Jonquil, glancing questionably down at Elvis who replies in a bored tone as he flicks lint from his jacket.
"Dad thinks the ghost of Henry Mallet is his soul mate."
"For real?" Zach's brows shoot up into his hair in intrigue before they narrow into a frown.
"Seriously, Steve?" Suzy snorts.
"I'm not your fucking soul mate or spirit anything alright?" Henry scoffs, "Wouldn't wanna fucking talk to you even if I could."
Suzy stifles another snort as Steve poises himself to pray, Verity watching on with a bemused raise of her brow while Elvis merely sighs as if he's somehow become accustomed to such behavior.
"Dad, what're you doing?" Verity queries with a tilt of her head, her nose scrunching as Jenny shushes her.
"Quiet now, sweetheart," She bids with a finger to her lips, "Daddy needs to concentrate."
"Daddy needs committing more like." Henry drawls as Verity laughs.
"That's not very nice Verity," Jenny chastises, "You know your father takes this very seriously. Even you can't deny Henry's presence."
"It's not that," She snorts again in response, "I know he's here."
"You what?" Henry frowns as Suzy leans forward, "Verity?"
"Will you all be quiet," Steve snaps, "How am I supposed to commune with anything over your constant babbling."
"Maybe you should just tell him, Mum?" Verity shrugs, far too entertained by the whole scenario as her father turns to glare absurdly up at her.
"These things are delicate, Verity," Steve rolls his eyes, slipping to sit Indian style on the floor before a vaguely bemused Suzy and a decidedly irritated Henry, "The energy flow must be just right if I'm to hear the words of wisdom I so desperately seek."
"Somehow I don't think 'you're a fuckwit' is anything like the kind of wisdom you're looking for mate."
Elvis snorts and Henry's eyes widen.
"Hold on, what?" He breathes catching Elvis staring back at him in amusement, "You can-?"
"Yup." Elvis pops as Verity grins up at him too.
"Oh you've got to be fucking kidding me?" He can't help but chuckle, "Suze are you getting all this?"
"I know he communicates with you somehow, Suzy," Steve presses, her attention so focused on the man at her feet she'd not noticed the exchange between Henry and her children, "I need you to help me channel Henry, so we might become one with each other and the universe-"
"I don't think that's what Henry wants." Verity remarks, crossing her arms with a huff.
"Too fucking right I don't, Vee." Henry adds in encouragement.
"Now Verity," Jenny warns, "Your fathers spent a year trying to make contact and now finally he has a chance."
"Don't fucking talk to her like that." Henry objects as Steve huffs and resumes his ridiculous mantra.
"If I could concentrate this would be a hell of a lot easier."
"You're a knob end, and no it won't," Henry snaps, "Even your kid's tryna tell you as much and you're not even fucking listening!"
"Suzy can you just-"
"Alright, that's enough!" Suzy snaps suddenly, everyone going silent as she stands to straighten her dress with long suffering sigh before she addresses them again.
"Yes, if you really must know, I can talk to Henry," She breathes with a glance down at Steve at her feet, "I see him just as clearly as you did the day you electrocuted yourself."
"And so can your kids." Henry adds, her head snapping around to gaze up at him in alarm before they shift to the pair silently watching on.
"What?" Suzy frowns, "Is that true?"
"Since the wedding," Elvis confirms, "But like Jenny said, Verity knew about Henry long before then."
"Hold up," Steve objects, somewhat offended as he looks to his children, "You can both see him too?"
Ignoring him entirely Suzy shakes her head in disbelief, "But why didn't you say something? To me? To Henry?"
"He was your secret to keep." Verity murmurs with a small shrug.
"A secret kept so you lot didn't think she'd gone round the fucking bend," He mutters, mindful not to direct his aggravation on the two who least deserved it, "So what, now everyone knows about me then?"
"Pretty much," Elvis nods, "Well, except for maybe Zach and Aunty Jonquil?"
"I think we've missed something here." The man himself mutters, scratching his head in confusion as Jonquil stands at his side in the open doorway with an equally perplexed expression.
"No, we've pretty much covered everything now," Elvis assures him, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder, "Mum's boyfriend is the ghost of Henry Mallet and our step-mum's a Witch."
"Riiight-" Zach murmurs with a stroke of his beard.
"Necromancer, sweetheart," Jenny corrects with a fond smile, "And Henry's not a ghost, he's a spirit, well, a soul at the very least, in part anyway-"
"There's a difference?" Elvis scrunches his nose in confusion as he looks to Henry who just looks equally, if not more confused than the boy himself.
"The fuck if I know."
"Henry!"
"They've been able to see me for the last month Suze," He scoffs with a roll of his eyes, "Certainly not the worst they've ever fucking heard that's for sure."
"Oh, dear god." She groans, fingers poised at the bridge of her noise to quell the impending migraine.
"It's alright Suzy, we all know you're not insane if that's what you're worried about," Jenny smiles kindly, "Some people are merely more sensitive and perceptive to the universe around us. And while I might not be able to see your Henry as you do, I know he's there."
"I was once possessed by the spirit of Darren Bonny." Jonquil adds, slightly awkwardly.
"Yes, you were," Henry agrees with a bemused lift of his brow, "Just like I possessed your boyfriend there and binged on Bowmores, fags and Su-"
"Henry," Suzy hisses, looking to Zach who remains stoically silent on the matter, "What about you Zach? What do you make of all this?"
"Well," He begins with an uncomfortable chuckle and a scratch of his head, "Despite knowing for a fact that the man is alive and well and living in Vaucluse-"
Henry throws his arms up in aggravation, "Oh, not fucking this again?"
"I'll admit the Henry I've come to know, again as it were, is still not quite the man I would have thought him to be," Zach ventures with a shrug, "And I know we both had our reservations at the time but- turns out the man was legit."
"Fuck you," Henry spits, "That wanker isn't me."
"No, no I don't believe that, not for a second," Suzy shakes her head, "What possible proof could he have that wasn't stolen when he ran off with Henry's diary-"
"Charlotte," He breathes, and she stills as Henry goes quiet at her side.
"What about Charlotte?" Suzy ventures.
"She called up out the blue not long after-" Zach clears his throat, "Well, after Helen died. Asking for you as it happens, but you were in no fit state of mind at the time."
"Oh, I see."
"She seemed just a skeptical at first funnily enough," He chuckles half-heartedly, "But when the baby was born, well, you know what they say, DNA never lies."
"Baby?" Suzy frowns, her voice barely a whisper, "What baby?"
"Henry's granddaughter, Isabel," He enlightens her, "As it turns out, Apollo's wife was pregnant at the time of his death."
"Oh, fuck." Henry breathes, dropping down into a nearby chair with his head in his hands.
"That's terrible," Suzy gasps, "That poor woman, I had no idea-"
"Which begs the question," Zach ventures somewhat hesitantly, "If I choose to believe in any of this of course, of just who the hell it is you've been…well, seeing, all this time?"
"If it was anyone else claiming such things I might've thought them mad," Zach shrugs, "But because it's you."
"It's Henry, Zach," She murmurs, "It's how I knew about Charlotte to begin with, because he told me himself."
"And I believe you." He nods with a small chuckle of disbelief, "Despite everything I know to the contrary, I truly do."
"We met when I was eight did you know?" She smiles, smoothing a thumb across the surface of Henry's medallion as she clasps on to it, "On the ferry on the way to school, he gave me this right before he-"
Suzy swallows as Zach nods, "Only Henry didn't die, Suzy."
"So you keep saying," Henry scoffs, "But if I didn't die then why the fuck am I trapped here like this then?"
"Because the King was right." Verity pipes up much to both their surprise.
"You what now?"
"Barney says your soul was split in half because you're meant to be with Mum," She beams, "But the timing wasn't right when you first met so fate had to intervene."
"What?!" Henry and Steve both scoff at once.
"Fate intervened?" Suzy shoots her a somewhat dubious expression.
"Sorry Dad," Verity shoots him an apologetic look, "Henry's not your soul mate, he's Mum's."
Suzy brows disappear into her hair line at that, "Soul mates?"
"And just who the fuck is Barney to be telling you that then?" Henry ventures, foot tapping impatiently against the deck.
"Oh, he's our granddad," Verity offers, seemingly realizing her error in not elaborating first, "He also says to say he loves you Mummy and he's proud of you and Aunty Jonquil and he's sorry he never said so before."
"Dad?" Suzy breathes, eyes wide as she glances up at Jonquil who likewise appears equally as awestruck as she clings to Zach, "Sweetheart have you seen-"
"Of course," She nods as if it were obvious, "He also says that if Henry thinks he has any hope of becoming the man you need him to be then he'd better hurry up and get his shit together before it's too late."
"Verity!"
She protests as Suzy gapes, "His words, not mine."
"Hold on, hold on, let me get this straight," Steve stops them, holding up his hands as he shifts to his feet, "So basically what you're saying is Henry isn't here to lead me on a quest of universal discovery or enlightenment but instead, because of some ridiculous error of some outdated notion like fate, his soul's been torn in half because he fell in love with little Suzy?"
His lips suddenly curl in disgust, "That's sick!"
"You," Henry deadpans, "Are a fucking dickhead mate."
"Henry's right," Suzy breathes with a nod of agreement, "You are a dick head."
"Oi!"
"Be that as it may," Jenny soothes Steve's objection, waving him off when he shoots her a wounded expression, "What? They're right Sweetheart, I'm sorry, but your rationale is ridiculous. Nor will I condone the denouncing of fate like it bears no significance in our meeting. Because ultimately, if it wasn't for the fated binding Henry has to Suzy, then we would never have met at all."
"Oh, no, Henry was bound to the Elysian," Suzy corrects, "Not me."
"That's hmmm, inaccurate," Jenny screws up her nose in thought, "He might have been once upon a time, but you smell, similar, which to me would naturally allude to a bond of some description existing between the two of you that most likely superseded the original locational binding."
"Like I said," Verity rolls her eyes, "Soul Mates."
Henry scoffs, "What kind of cruel, fucked up twisted version of fate would match Suze with a half dead prat like me then eh, tell me that?"
"You make her happy," Elvis shrugs, silencing them both, "Even if you're not totally alive, that's good enough for me."
"Oh Elvis." Suzy murmurs.
"Perhaps it would be best," Jenny suggests, "If we consult a higher authority on the matter hmmm?"
"A higher authority?" Suzy frowns as Henry swallows, "Like who?"