Henry's body looks the same every time he revives after death, but sometimes there are little differences. After a recent death he wakes up the next morning and discovers that his current body is less than ideal.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. I'm merely borrowing them for my own amusement.

Warnings: Blood and Gore, Temporary Character Death, mentions of Suicide

Spoilers: Scattered references to events from random episodes up through season 1 episode 8.

Author's Notes: This story is a very minor crossover with Stargate SG-1. Only one Stargate SG-1 character is mentioned in a few chapters. You won't be lost if you aren't familiar with Stargate SG-1, but those that are will be able to appreciate a bit of added humor.

Suicide is joked about and even occurs at some point during the story, but since it's in relation to a character that can't permanently die, it's not a big deal. If for any reason you think this might offend or upset you, please don't read this story.

Dr. Henry Morgan woke up and looked at his clock. It was well over half an hour before his alarm normally woke him up. Today he was woken instead by an incredibly itchy nose. He let out a soft groan as he sniffed and rubbed at his nose and could feel congestion starting to set in. He hated when this happened. He'd enjoyed a nice string of non-afflicted incarnations, but his current body, which he had acquired just the previous evening, seemed to suffer badly from allergies. He never used to get allergies, but as the condition grew more and more common in modern society, he found himself growing increasingly prone to them. The strange thing was that every time he died the things he was allergic to changed seemingly at random. Sometimes he got lucky after he died and didn't seem to have allergies at all, or at least he'd die again before he could encounter anything he was allergic to. He briefly mused over how accident prone he seemed to be and wondered if his immortality made him more reckless than he would otherwise have been. Of course at times he'd find himself allergic to something that he'd been allergic to in a past incarnation but the intensity of the allergy wasn't always the same. What had previously been a minor allergy could turn into something more severe or vice versa. One thing that stayed fairly consistent was that sneezing seemed to feature as a prominent symptom in the majority of his allergies most likely due to his keen sense of smell and overall sensitive nose.

As the itch in his nose increased, he quickly deduced that his current body must have a rather nasty pollen allergy. He looked around for a box of tissues, but there were none on either of his nightstands, since it had been a few months since he'd last suffered from allergies. He couldn't wait any longer. The itch in his nose reached its peak and he had no choice but to sneeze into the crook of his arm. He sniffed wetly and pulled himself out of bed. He opened his closet and retrieved a box of tissues from the top shelf. He opened the box and pulled out a couple of tissues just in time to muffle two wet sneezes into them. He sat down on the edge of his bed and blew his nose then sighed. He could tell that this was going to be one hell of a day.

Henry showered and dressed thankful that he had woken up early as it took him a bit longer than usual to accomplish these activities with his intermittent sneezing. He went down to the kitchen to get breakfast and brought the tissue box with him. Abe was already sitting at the kitchen table eating a bowl of oatmeal.

"You look awful," said Abe as he looked up from his breakfast.

"I'm fine," said Henry cringing inwardly at how congested his voice was starting to sound. "It seems that this is just going to be one of my allergy-ridden incarnations." He quickly pulled a tissue from the box and sneezed harshly into it.

"Bless you. You sound awful too," Abe replied. "There's some oatmeal for you on the stove."

"Thank you," said Henry both for the blessing and the oatmeal. He poured himself a bowl adding syrup and brown sugar and sat down at the table across from Abe trying his best to eat between sneezes.

Abe shook his head after Henry sneezed for the fifth time since he sat down. "You should take a sick day."

"I'm fine. I told you, it's just allergies. I've got too much work to do."

Abe rolled his eyes. "Yeah like you're going to get so much work done sneezing all over the place. At least take something for it."

Henry nodded. "I will. I'm stopping off at the pharmacy on the way to work." He gasped as the tickle in his nose suddenly flared up and caught three rapid-fire sneezes in a wad of tissues. "If the medicine doesn't work, I'll simply commit suicide tonight. That usually does the trick."

Abe rolled his eyes again and ignored Henry's last comment. "And you've packed a handkerchief?"

"Yes father," Henry replied sarcastically, the irony not lost on either of them. "I've got two in my coat pocket and another four in my briefcase and I'll be purchasing more tissues as well."

Abe nodded finally satisfied. "Very well. Off with you then. If you want to go torture yourself, who am I to stop you?"

Henry chuckled and kissed Abe affectionately on the top of his head secretly pleased that his adopted son fussed over him so much. He put on his coat and scarf and headed off to work.

Jo didn't see Henry when she entered the morgue. There was only Lucas preparing a body that had just been brought in. "Is Dr. Morgan in his office?" she asked him.

"Yes, but I wouldn't go in there if I were you Detective," Lucas warned. "He's having one of his attacks and he's not in the best mood," he said air-quoting the word "attacks".

Jo was about to ask what he meant when she heard the sound of muffled sneezing coming from Henry's office. "Allergies?" she asked.

"Yeah, though to what I have no idea. The man never tells me anything," Lucas grumbled. "Sometimes he just comes in sneezing his head off for no apparent rhyme or reason. Then he holes up in his office as much as possible demanding not to be disturbed unless it's an emergency. I honestly don't know why he just doesn't take the day off when he gets like this."

"Well thanks for the warning, but I think I'll take my chances."

"Suit yourself Detective."

Jo smirked. "Don't worry. I can handle him." She knocked gently on Henry's office door.

"I said I was not to be disturbed," came Henry's annoyed congested voice from the other side of the door followed by a small series of muffled sneezes.

"It's Detective Martinez," said Jo.

"Oh it's you. Very well, come in if you must," Henry answered resignedly.

Jo entered the office closing the door behind her. She tried not to stare but Henry looked terrible. His eyes were bloodshot and puffy and his nose was awfully red. "You look like hell."

Henry narrowed his eyes. "How kind of you to notice." His breath hitched before sneezing twice into a tissue. He groaned softly before blowing his nose.

"Bless you. Funny, I'd have taken you for someone that uses handkerchiefs over tissues," Jo commented.

"You would be correct in your assumption Detective, however I've already used up all the handkerchiefs I brought with me. All six of them." He rubbed his nose as he felt the need to sneeze again, but it backed down for the time being.

"Yikes, that must be one nasty cold you have," Jo replied feigning ignorance hoping she could get more information out of him that way. "You should really go home and rest before you infect the rest of the staff."

"I do not have a cold. There is no risk of me infecting anyone."

"Not a cold. So what's wrong with you then?"

Henry sighed feeling his patience waning. "I would think that to an officer with your investigative skills it would be painfully obvious that I am suffering from an acute allergic reaction."

Jo couldn't help chuckling a bit. "Let me rephrase that. What are you allergic to?"

"At the moment? Pollen I think. The count is rather high today." Henry grabbed a tissue as the tickle he'd staved off returned in full force and he sneezed harshly into it, paused for a couple of seconds, then sneezed twice more.

Jo frowned. That was an odd answer, but then Dr. Henry Morgan was full of eccentricities. She wondered how many other allergies he had that weren't bothering him "at the moment". She had the strange notion that he might have numerous unusual allergies. She resisted the urge to laugh as she imagined him collecting allergies in much the same way he seemed to collect scarves. "The pollen count has been high for the last several days and you've been fine. Did you just forget to take your meds today?"

"No. My allergies are somewhat erratic. The pollen simply wasn't affecting me until today. I did take some medicine, but as you can see..." he paused to sneeze wetly into another tissue, "it hasn't been one hundred percent effective. I was much worse an hour ago though so it must be doing something. Be glad you waited until now to come to see me."

"Um yeah," Jo mumbled not wanting to imagine the state he was in an hour ago. "Well I hope you feel better soon."

"Thank you. Now did you want something, or did you just come here to gawk at me and interrogate me about my faulty immune system?"

"Oh right," said Jo having almost forgotten why she was there. "I just wanted your opinion on a cold case. It's not urgent." She placed the file on the one spot on his desk that wasn't covered in used tissues. "Just take a look whenever you're feeling up to it."

Henry picked up the file and opened it. It was quite old and had a rather musty smell to it which seemed to aggravate his already irritated nasal passages. He could feel his nose tickling and starting to run as he attempted to scan the first page. He tried to ignore the sensations at first, rubbing and pinching his nose to try to make the feeling back down. If anything this seemed to make things worse. He dropped the file and grabbed a handful of tissues just in time to catch an intense fit of sneezes. They came hard and fast one on top of each other pitching him forward violently in his desk chair.

After the first dozen sneezes, Jo's mouth dropped open in astonishment. She'd never seen anyone sneeze like that before in her life and guessed that this was a glimpse of what he must have been like an hour ago. "Shit, are you going to be ok?"

"I'll live, but barely," Henry answered once he'd managed to stop sneezing. He blew his nose repeatedly before continuing. "Though if I haven't improved by tonight, I might just kill myself," he said repeating the same joke he'd used with Abe that morning.

Jo started to laugh but stopped as she sensed something in his voice that made her think he wasn't entirely kidding. "Yeah well I think that's a case of the cure being worse than the disease."

"That's easy for you to say." In his exhaustion Henry rested his head on his desk in the folds of his crossed arms. He realized this was a big mistake as he caught another whiff of the musty file. He sat up, grabbed some more tissues and sneezed several more times into them blowing his nose wetly when he'd finished.

Jo felt so bad for Henry. The poor guy looked so worn out and miserable that she almost wanted to hug him. "I think you should go home and rest. You're in no condition to be working right now."

Henry waved her off in a dismissive gesture. "I'll be fine. This will pass once the medication takes full effect."

Jo raised an eyebrow. "I think you need new meds."

"Perhaps," Henry agreed. Unfortunately another facet of his condition was that when his allergies changed after dying, sometimes medications that had previously worked well were no longer very effective. Sometimes it would take him up to a week of experimentation before he figured out what medication his body currently best responded to.

"You really need to go home, but you're in no shape to drive. Can your roommate pick you up or do you need a ride?"

Henry was about to protest, but driving to work had been a challenge and that was before his allergies had hit in full force. He sighed in defeat. "Abe will be happy to pick me up, he's used to it," he said referring more to his need for rides after dying and reviving. "You needn't concern yourself."

"Ok give me your keys."

"Why would I do a thing like that?" Henry asked with a puzzled expression on his face.

"Because I'm a police officer and I'm telling you to," said Jo firmly. "With allergies like yours it might actually be worse than driving drunk and I don't have time to babysit you until your friend gets here to make sure you don't drive."

Henry stifled a sneeze and then chuckled. "Very well Detective." He retrieved his keys from his pocket and handed them over to Jo.

Jo pocketed the keys. "Take care of yourself Henry. Again, there's no rush with that file. It's a fifteen year old case, it can wait a little longer." Henry nodded and then started to sneeze again. Jo wasn't sure if she should just leave or wait for him to finish and say goodbye. Henry waved her off indicating that it wasn't going to stop any time soon, so she turned on her heels and fled the office.

I wrote this story before they made it clear that Henry doesn't own a cell phone and doesn't drive, so just think of this as a slightly alternate universe where he does have a phone and drives and covers any other inconsistencies.