A/N: This was a prompts given to my by Jaden for stocking stuffer challenge and athough she intended it to be a Star Trek prompt, it spoke to me in a very different way. Had to get this posted before the Christmas season was over. New Years Eve may be cutting it close but hey, it's up! Happy New Year Everyone.
FYI: In my mind, Lucas would likely be one of the first, if not the only person, Henry trusts with his secret and so this is what happens when Lucas and Henry get a moment to talk about the past and the future.
Family Christmas
It was just another Monday morning, for Doctor Henry Morgan, as he walked through the sterile floor toward his office and he stopped in front of his door. Plastered across the front of his office door was a beautiful evergreen wreath with a bow in the same colour as his pristine blue scarf with holly berries and sprigs of mistletoe. Without a word, Henry turned around, straightened out slightly and stepped forward once more.
Lucas sat at his work stations leaning back in his chair and swivelling back and forth as he scrolled through report after report on the computer screen before him. It had been a relatively slow week, by New York standards, and he was sure that if he kept up his studies of Henry's reports, he was bound to learn something.
"Lucas?" Henry questioned as he stepped up next to his colleague and caused him nearly fall out of his chair. "What is that?" he asked as he half turned and motioned toward his door.
"I thought you might like that. They don't make them like that anymore, do they Henry?" Lucas asked cheekily.
"Lucas..." Henry's voice bore all the warning that hundreds of years could muster.
"What, I figured you'd like it?" Lucas swivelled out of his chair and stood. "I mean I thought we'd made a break through. I thought we were friend. I'm keeping your secret, you're keeping mine. Not that mine have anything on yours. We're friends right?" He asked. "And when I saw it I literally said to myself, 'whoa what kind of person would like that' and then it hit me. You. You would like that. Because you lived that. It's just so you, Henry, whether you'll admit it or not. That wreath speaks to your suave and debonair, your mystery and grace. It speaks to hundreds of years of forgotten Christmases and a future of complete consumerism and frivolity."
"Lucas, just because I was in a sharing mood does not give you the right to do that." Henry stated. "And furthermore, what is wrong with that? Why would I like that?" Henry back peddled and hushed his voice.
"Because this generation is a generation of consumer douchebags. Everything that we put up are plastic, glitter spewing, fire hazards. That, that right there, is classy. Traditional. It screams Henry Morgan. Hell, your scarf matches the ribbon!"
"And yet, I see a problem with it, why?" Henry asked and his features softened.
"Because it's real?" Lucas asked as he grasped at straws.
Henry tapped his nose and motioned for Lucas to carry on.
"And this is supposed to be a sterile environment..." Lucas sighed and moved toward the door to take the gift down.
"I do like it, Lucas. You've done very well, thank you, but it has to come down. I'll hang it on the antique shop door. I promise."
A smile spread across Lucas's face. "So we're friends."
"We're more than mere acquaintance, yes, and I trust you more than most people." Henry admitted, "but I can't have you taking it too far, Lucas, especially when we're working. You are more my protégée than anything. And I told you about my past for a very specific reason; what is that reason Lucas?"
"Science." Lucas beamed.
"Exactly, so what do you have for me today?" He asked as he gently took the wreath from Lucas's hands and went into his office. Lucas followed, and gently Henry placed the wreath on a shelf before moving toward his coat rack and then his desk.
"Nothing as of yet, Doctor Morgan," Lucas answered formally.
"Strange, and Jo hasn't come around with anything nefarious?" He asked cheerfully.
Lucas shook his head. "Nope, and I've input all of your reports. I'm studying them, but I'd love a lesson, if you have time."
Henry motioned to the chair before his desk with a smile that twisted about his face. Lucas sat on the edge of his seat, like a child ready for a treat, and fought to remain silent through his bubbling excitement.
"A lesson then, I shall teach you, Lucas. Where should we begin?" Henry asked.
"Christmas, the first after you died the first time," Lucas said as he rested his elbows on his knees and his chin on his fists and watched Henry with an anticipation he'd not seen in a great many years.
"That was my first Christmas alone." Henry said sadly. "Not much to learn from it, aside for the strange phenomena that kept me alive even after being shot, and succumbing to the water on several occasions. I was too shocked and disoriented to truly understand what was happening - I still don't understand it. I drowned. It was terrible, worse pain than the gunshot wound. The body fights itself. The ocean swallows you up. Then I awake, alone, naked, in the water and my wounds are gone. I swim for as long as I can, a storm lingers and jostles me about, and once again I grow weary and falter. I drown again, and again, until I awake by the dawning light on a sandy beach of an island that seems like a miracle and a curse. I spent a long time on that island, keeping track of days with notches in a palm tree that I flagged as my landmark in a vast wilderness. I make my own clothing out of brushes and debris. I live on coconuts and crustaceans that I can catch in the shallows, ever worrying that I will die and never really realizing how futile that idea is. My mind, though bright and young, could not process the idea. Months passed, I had no true idea of the months or days in the calendar, I only knew how many days I had been on the island. When I was finally rescued by a merchant ship, I was told of the days, and I realized I'd completely missed Christmas, and a loneliness came over me that I had not yet come to accept or comprehend."
Lucas listened enraptured by the story. He remained silent as Henry finished and then for a long time, as Henry watched him carefully, Lucas processed the ideas, the emotions, and the concepts that his mind was trying to grasp. "The body fights to stay alive at all costs," he whispered to himself but Henry heard him.
"Indeed, in the wake of my immortality, my brain continued to push on as if I could die. One task at hand, to keep myself alive at all costs, and yet, I'd already died on several occasions. My subconscious mind manifested a fear of the water, to keep me from drowning in it. I would not even think of trying to swim away from the island once I'd arrived upon it because I was convinced, even still, that I would succumb at some point." Henry explained. "The brain is a mystery in and of itself and after 200 years I still don't know how it works."
"Why then do you have the wound still? All other wounds that you've received in your many deaths have left with the rebirth, so why would the gunshot wound have remained when the drowning killed you?" Lucas asked.
"I still do not know, perhaps because it didn't kill me and so I had it before I died." Henry offered his best explanation, or rather the one he'd come to convince himself of. "The shot paralyzed me. The shock of being shot was beyond my comprehension at the time and for a long time I believed that was what killed me. I had the weapon in my hands, convinced that it would be the weapon that would one day kill me for good and yet when it was used against me, I woke up again. On that day of my first death, and by the time I realized I was in water, I was far below the surface and I could barely move. The intake of breath was quick, the water filled my lungs, and I drowned. I know this now."
Lucas sat back in his chair, took a deep breath and stared at Henry. "No mystery in that." He said.
"Indeed, there was not. The man who shot me was known to me and yet, had I faced him or even found him again, I would be caught up in an even greater scandal. He was under the employment of my family. The crew saw me die, well shot and thrown overboard. How then would I accuse a man of murdering me if I came face to face with him and was alive and well with only a scar?" Henry asked.
"Bah, no justice at all." Lucas wanted to curse but thought the better of it.
"It was a very different time." Henry said to try and console the young man before him.
"It would drive me crazy," Lucas said and shook his head. "How are you not insane?"
"It drove me to many brinks in my life, insanity, depression, fear, hostility..." Henry's voice trailed off as he remembered, "but in a long life, one that stretches out before you with no visible end, you overcome and evolve. You have to. You do not die and so what else is there?"
Lucas shook his head, much as he had the first time Henry told him this story of his immortality and his longevity. Disbelief and shock were at the forefront of his thoughts and yet he believed Henry wholeheartedly, even before Abe had been brought to him as witness, and even before he'd been the one to pull a naked Henry Morgan out of the river. He believed because it was Henry and why would he make up such a fantastical story?
"I set my resolved, Lucas, to make this curse about the science of death and I suppose that now, as I work here with you and Jo, I have come to realize the usefulness of all my experience and study." Henry said, almost cheerfully. "I know a lot about death, because I have lived it."
"So, how many times have you died at Christmas?" Lucas asked morbidly.
"Never right on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, but near Christmas. Or I've felt the sting of judgement and betrayal at this time of year. More often than not, Christmas is a dark and dreary time for me, though when Abe was young, there were many very good Christmases." Henry offered honestly.
"Abe, I totally understand your relationship with him now. And it's not all weird anymore." Lucas said an back peddled. "Not that it's like creepy or anything, it was just odd that you and he would live together and run an antique store, and I'll shut up now." He said and clammed up.
Henry laughed heartily. "Because he looks old enough to be my father, and yet, I am his." He nodded. "Yes, a 35 year old man living at home with his very capable father does seem a bit odd. I'll give you that."
"I was going to say grandfather..."
"Abe isn't that old!"
"He's 72."
Henry put up his hands in defeat, because he was well over 200 years old, but still looked like he did the day he died. "Just don't let Abe hear you say such things. He's sensitive about aging gracefully."
Lucas began to speak again, the words hung on his tongue as he opened his mouth and then Henry saw something shadow his face and he stopped again.
"I dread the day I will say goodbye to Abraham, and one day I will out live you, and Jo, and every person in this city. It has happened before and it does not get easier." Henry offered knowing exactly where Lucas's mind had gone and come back around to. He watched the young man before him with great sympathy because of the loss in his eyes and the discomfort in his being.
"There is a thought to ruin Christmas." Lucas said with a great sigh as he dabbed at his eyes with the edge of his lab coat.
"Well, yes, loneliness is also a great ruiner of Christmas, with or without immortality." Henry chuckled. "Why will you not go home to your family?"
"Have you met my family?" Lucas asked sarcastically. "No, no one has because they are crazy and horrible."
"And they are the only one you will ever have." Henry countered. "Once a year, you can't share time with them?"
"It's not worth the aggravation, trust me." Lucas emphasized his words. "There is nothing more unpleasant than a gathering of people who see you as nothing but a failure."
"But you're a doctor." Henry offered sympathetically.
"Not the right kind of Doctor." Lucas corrected.
"Now there was another very disappointing Christmas," Henry said reminiscently. "I know exactly how you feel, Lucas."
"Do tell," Lucas said as he moved back to the edge of his seat. "Or do we need a good glass of scotch before we can continue? I know I usually need to be drinking heavily before I can talk about my family."
Henry laughed heartily for a long moment, pulled a bottle from his desk and stood as he walked to the bookshelf and pulled two crystal tumblers from a decanter set that sat in a place of honour on the shelf. He poured out the liquor and handed one to Lucas before taking his seat once more.
"Long before I was immortal, or perhaps not that long, I was quite the rebel for an eldest son. You remind me of me way back then, but that was a very different time from now." Henry began.
"Eldest sons inherited everything." Lucas said with a gasp.
"And the Morgans were a wealthy, well to do, family." Henry said with a nod and produced his pocket watch and handed it across the desk to Lucas. "It belonged to my father, the eldest of his siblings and the one who inherited all of the wealth. It was made for him when he came of age and was handed down to me in the same manner. It is one of the first of its kind and, in my youngest years, I met the master who made it."
"Shut up!" Lucas gasped.
"Tis true, my friend, and minus a stretch of time where it was at the bottom of the ocean, it has been in my possession ever since." Henry continued. "It was given to me, in a time, when it was assumed that I would carry on as my father had. I was groomed from a very young age to be a land owner, to carry on the family business, and to remain within the old money that I would one day inherit. Though it sounds like a lot of work, and looks like a lot of work, it was a way for the aristocracy to do absolutely nothing and live off of their interests while others slaved and gained nothing in return. I was the son of a gentleman, in possession, or soon to be in possession, of a very good fortune with a very good name to accompany me and I was sent off to school because it was what was done." He explained. "My first Christmas home from Oxford, I voiced my interests in studying medicine. It was met with great disgust and at one point my father vowed to give me nothing. It was as if my father was prepared to disown me. My mother begged that I should change my mind, carry on in a gentleman's education and marry the woman they had chosen for me. I would then inherit everything and live a very comfortable, easy life. As I was born to. But I didn't change my mind and I didn't return home until my father was on his death bed."
"Then you see what family and Christmas really meant to some people. It is nothing more than the time of year when they want to ruin our lives and break down all the good they we've built over the year." Lucas said emphatically.
"I see it all too well, Lucas." Henry nodded and raised his class. "To avoiding family." He said and Lucas echoed his sentiments.
After a long moment of savouring the old amber liquid, Lucas continued. "How long after your father's death did you die the first time?"
"Several months," Henry answered. "I was called to his bedside as a doctor first, to consult on his condition. I agreed with his physician, that his condition was dire and that there was nothing more to do. I remained at his bedside as his son and he and I spoke for the first time in years. I knew what he was, and always had, but I did not know of all his dealings. He confessed his part to me, and that of the family business, in the trade of human souls, and I could not stand to inherits what he'd build. It was repulsive, and he knew it. I believe he gave me everything just to spite me. When he passed, everything under the Morgan name was settled on me and I went out into the world to take stock of my assets. I found myself on one of my father's ships, trying to save a life, but my life meant as little as those of the slaves they were trading. I was shot, died and woke up again. From what I understand, when I died all of my inheritance was settled onto my younger brother. After that, a cousin who turned out to be a pirate, and the estate fell apart somewhere in the late 1890s." Henry explained away the last bit as if he were reading it out of a history book. "I managed to re-acquire many of my family treasures when they sold off the equity of my childhood home. A lot of what is in Abe's shop may or may not have been my inheritance." He finished with a smirk that made Lucas raise his eyebrows in shock and his jaw hit the floor. "That crystal you are drinking out of sat in my father's study every day of my young life. It was a gift given to him upon the birth of his son and heir."
"You?" Lucas asked. "You were that son! This is to celebrate your birth."
"Indeed it was, mazel tov." Henry said with a laugh.
"Dear God, Henry, how?" Lucas gasped.
"When you live forever, you have a lot of time to look for things." Henry confessed.
"It's all just so incredible, and I whine about my family drama." Lucas said with a shake of his head. "Did you ever have a good Christmas?" He asked.
"My Christmases with Abe and Abigail were always good because I vowed never to be that man who turned his children away. I knew the value, by then, of family and how short a time span we spend with them. The first Christmas after Abigail left was one of the worst."
"That is understandable, you'd lost the love of your life."
"One of them, yes. I have been married three times in all of my years. I never did marry the woman my parents wanted me to. Nora was my first wife. I married her almost twelve years after my first death. She betrayed me when I told her of my secrets. Eliza was my second wife and knew of my condition before we married. She died in my arms far too young. She had always been a sickly soul, prone to bouts of this or that. She had weak lungs and died of an infection - likely tuberculosis but we didn't have a name for it yet. I vowed never to marry again, after Eliza, that is until I met Abigail and for the first time in my long life we had a family. Abraham was a grown man when his mother left. He understood as well as I did, why she left and yet, Christmas that year was spend desperately searching for her. Wishing for a miracle. Checking morgues and manifests for anyone who might bare a resemblance to her. I was mad with fear and worry. Christmas just didn't happen that year."
"I'm sorry, Henry." Lucas said sympathetically.
"So am I, Lucas. So am I." Henry said pensively as he stood and walk to the window and looked out at the city of New York. "But then again, I suppose it wasn't the worst Christmas. It was lonely. It was trying, but Abe and I were together. I think my worst Christmas, that I can remember thinking and dwelling on Christmas, was actually the ones I spent while at war. I've lived through both of the great wars. They took years, and I was involved for the duration of both of them. I knew Abigail toward the end of the second, but the first was something entirely new. I spent my first Christmas in that war patching up bodies and dragging them from the trenches. The second was spent cursing the atrocities of the chemicals. But there was light in those hours of war when those fighting it remember it was Christmas and they were perhaps the moments that really brought home the meaning of it all. Good will. Peace on earth. Family and togetherness. You have been lucky, Lucas, in your life to not have to deal with a draft situation. People should always have the choice, but in those wars we did not. I went to war because I had to the first time, and the second because I thought that I would find an end, finally, to my searching and suffering. Instead I found Abigail and Abraham."
"You have been searching for your own mortality, it would seem, for a long time." Lucas commented as Henry's back was still toward him. "And Abigail and Abraham finally taught you how to live it."
"Yes, I suppose they have." Henry said as he turned back to Lucas and began to pace.
"But you're losing it again," Lucas said and his words shocked Henry. "You're dwelling on the idea of losing Abigail and Abraham, and because of that you will dwell on your own death rather than the life you could have. Isn't that the point of life, to love and to lose love?" He asked as Henry stared at him. "Or what do I know?" Lucas finished when Henry's stare became to much for him.
"No, you're right," Henry said when Lucas looked away. "But if I am immortal and must find a way to keep on living, then shouldn't you find a way to make room for your family?"
"I don't believe that family is blood," Lucas countered. "Family are people who welcome you, love you, treat you like an important part of something. They accept you, flaws and all, and they are not disappointed in your choices just because they aren't the choices that they wanted you to make. My blood relatives are none of those things and so they are not my family. You are my family, and Jo and Hansen. My family are my school friends whom I still see because we had made a lot of great memories together and want to have them in our lives. Abe is my family because he's accepted me and talks to me like an equal in knowing about your secrets. Blood doesn't make you family. Kindness, acceptance, understanding, love, and maybe even a little mischief is what makes you family. So, your argument is void. I spend whatever time I can with family. Thankfully I work with the man whom I see more as a father and mentor than the one who sired me ever was."
Henry's face twisted into a grin. "You are a very clever man, Lucas, and though I have lived many, many years in this world, I find you very fascinating. Progressive and yet such an old soul." Henry complimented the young man before him and watched as Lucas began to beam with pride. "What say you to making this a very memorable Christmas for all of the right reason?" He asked as he walked to the place where he'd put down the wreath and picked it up. Henry walked to his door and replaced it where it had hung when he arrived and then nodded decidedly and returned to Lucas in the office.
"But isn't it a contaminant?" Lucas asked.
"Until someone tells me to take it down, it will stay up!" Henry countered as he grabbed the receiver of the land line in his office and raised his hand as he made a call.
Lucas sat silently listening to one side of the conversation and grew ever more excited with every passing moment.
"There, Abe has agreed. We will have a family Christmas," Henry said as the call was ended. "And we will celebrate the days of Hanukkah as well."
"Well, we don't have much time to plan out this best Christmas ever. Hanukkah has already started and who knows how long we'll have before someone shows up dead in this city!" Lucas said as he jumped out of his seat.
"I'm sure we will manage." Henry laughed as he saw Jo walking across the medical space and stopped at the door to his office.
She knocked and was ushered in.
"What are you two up to?" Jo asked suspiciously as Lucas had fallen back into his chair and was lounging awkwardly.
"We are commiserating over family faults." Henry answered the question with a wink.
"And drinking. They must be harsh family stories." Jo commented.
"My family hates me!" Lucas said with a smile. "Henry's were never happy with his life choices."
Henry nodded when Jo looked to him for confirmation.
"So we've decided to be family instead of letting those who judge us ruin our Christmas." Lucas finished as he stood again.
"Well, unfortunately we've caught a case." Jo said with a sigh. "Or I'd join you in the horrible family stories."
"There is nothing unfortunate about it, isn't that right Lucas. We are at our best while doing the things that made our parents unhappy." Henry smiled as Lucas bowed.
"You two are up to something," Jo said suspiciously. "Am I going to have to separate the two of you?" She asked.
"Isn't that usually how it works?" Lucas countered with another question. "You take Henry off to a crime scene. I stay behind and make sure his work space is exactly the way he likes it and I wait for the bodies to arrive before you make it back."
"And then we get down to work," Henry said as he reached for his coat and scarf.
"You do make a very good team." Jo admitted. "Nice wreath by the way, you don't see them made like that much any more. It suits you Henry."
"Thank you, it was a gift from a very good friend," Henry smiled, winked at Lucas and then reached for the doorknob once more. "After you Detective. Lucas I will return."
"All right boss man, I'll have everything ready for you." Lucas said as he followed Jo and Henry out of the office but stopped and leaned on the jam as they carried on and left. "She could be number four, Henry, if you just open up to her too." He said under his breath and then, with a spring in his step, he jumped in to prepare for the wonders that were Henry's expertise. "I knew he'd like the gift!"