Disclaimer: I don't own any of this.
Author's Note: This is my contribution to the Lucas week ficathon. I wrote this very late/earlier so I'm not sure it's entirely coherent. Hope you enjoy anyway, please feel free to review as always.
The Immortal Man
Lucas sat at home one night, surfing the internet. In the way that Google does, it showed a website with no relevance to the searched topic. The title of this site: 'The Immortal Man'. As an assistant medical examiner, Lucas was faced daily with the inescapable fact of human mortality which left the idea of immortality almost childishly inane. Nevertheless he was intrigued and so, digressing from his search for new graphic novels, he clicked and entered the website.
It proved to be a chat page, one of those conspiracy sites that the internet was filled with, he would have backed out to his search if he had not, upon the page opening, been faced with the countenance of his colleague, Dr. Henry Morgan.
The page was filled with various pictures, mostly from impossibly long ago, all of Henry. Some were so old that they were photocopies of paintings and drawings. Of course this couldn't actually have been him.
At the bottom of the page the first post, presumably by the founder of the site, read: 'When I was little I broke my arm, the doctor who fixed it was named Dr. Morgan. The other day I saw this guy who looked just like him, only exactly how he did then. So I thought I'd look up the good old doc and found all these pictures, with some deeper research. What's up with this guy? He's like immortal or something.'
After inspecting some of the photos Lucas decided that with the poor resolution there could be any number of more reasonable explanations. His interest in filmmaking had taught him that photography, particularly film, was a tricky business. Besides the obvious, that the photos had been photoshopped; there was the option of simple mistaken identity, perhaps relatives of varying degrees. Even so there was something distinctly odd about the pictures. Dismissing the whole thing as absolutely ridiculous, he exited and returned to his earlier search for graphic novels.
The next morning Lucas arrived before his boss, a not unusual occurrence. To pass the time, after setting up for the day, he decided to look at the magazines he knew had arrived for his boss the day before. As he had expected, he found them on Henry's desk. There he also found something he had never paid much mind before, a black and white picture. He had once, early in his assistantship, found interest in the fact that it was black and white but had chalked it up to artistic choice by the photographer. Now looking at it he recognized the woman in the photo, and he knew where from. He had nearly forgotten about the website from the night prior, until he had seen this picture that is. This very woman had been in a few of those photos. One in particular came to the forefront of his mind, she and Henry together but the date at the bottom had read May 18, 1955. That just simply wasn't possible, but here was her photograph on his desk.
He must have been there, entranced by the oddity of the portrait, longer than he thought for his trance of thought was interrupted. Interrupted by a familiar British accent. "Lucas, What are you doing in my office?"
Thoroughly caught and cursing his curiosity, Lucas turned to face his certain doom. "I was just..." his scrambling fingers met the edge of a magazine, "looking at some of your magazines." He explained lamely, raising the newest edition of the Explorer's Club newsletter.
"I see." Henry responded, discomfort at the violation of privacy which he had interrupted evident by his tone. "About that-"
Attempting to deter the conversation from where it was obviously headed, he diverted it h a question. "Is this picture of your wife?" As soon as he finished the question he knew he had managed to overstep the boundary and reveal his true crime.
"Lucas, please leave my office." Henry requested in a tight voice.
"Yeah, of course Henry. May I still call you Henry? Doc? Doctor Morgan. I'm leaving. I'm sorry." Lucas babbled as he backed out of the office.
"And I also ask that you refrain from repeating this action in future." Henry added, politely as ever reminding Lucas of his boundaries and admonishing him in the manner of a father with a misbehaving child. Henry returned to his office, leaving Lucas alone in the suddenly chilly morgue to consider his misdemeanor.
Briefly gaining the courage to glance into the smaller room, just in time to see Henry gently touch the frame of the portrait, before quickly returning to his duties.