A/N: This is the first fanfic I've ever posted in first person, and despite my usual Henry, Jo & Abe focus, it's from Hanson's POV. Go figure.

Thanks to okevamae for the Hanson reveal fic prompt on Tumblr and the request for "more Henry & Hanson bro-bonding in general." Here's some Bros before Jos for you. ;)

Lately I've been thinking a lot about my Great Aunt Doreen. Ignorance is bliss, Mikey, she used to say, and I would roll my eyes when she wasn't looking, but now I get it. I totally get it.

Doreen's gravelly smoker's voice has been echoing through my mind ever since Sunday night, and it's getting pretty damn annoying. Partly because even the memory of that voice makes me need a throat lozenge. But mostly because of Henry Morgan.

Dr. Henry frickin' Morgan. Genius, oddball, and…immortal being? Apparently, yes.

Great.

Life was so much simpler when Henry was just the slightly spooky, scarf-loving M.E. and Jo's unofficial-partner-slash-will-they-won't-they friend. Now I know this massive, impossible secret– not that I ever asked, mind you, or remotely WANTED to know– and life is getting more complicated by the day.

Maybe that's the way to approach this problem: work through it one ridiculous day at a time. It's worth a shot, anyway.

SUNDAY

Until Sunday happened, I was starting to almost not mind working with Henry, which was major progress. I used to legitimately dread seeing him at a crime scene. Granted, the man gets results, but he's so...odd. Plus, if I'm being honest, I hate showing up at the morgue after wasting two hours of my life researching leads, only to have Henry discover the exact same information after five minutes of examining toenail fungus, or whatever he does. I've seen him pull the right answer out of thin air too often to think he's BS'ing, and I'm a fair guy, so I'll admit: the doc is a bona fide genius. Still– it's annoying.

Sunday was one of those rare days when Henry and I were both on call and Jo wasn't; she was out of town. I sometimes wonder if the Lieutenant and the Chief M.E. get together and plan all our schedules based on Henry and Jo's odd-couple partnership– more specifically, their way-above-average solve rate. That's how it seems to play out, anyway: the Jo and Henry Show, starring Jo and Henry, with Mike Hanson as "That Other Guy."

Despite my third-wheel status, I don't really mind their pair-up, and neither does anyone else at the precinct. It means that the rest of us don't need to figure him out (a.k.a. deal with his weirdness) ourselves, but we still reap the benefits. That said, I have to admit that the guy has grown on me this year. I'm finally learning to translate Henryspeak into normal person language, and weirdness aside, he actually is a decent guy– if you like the charming, handsome British eccentric type. Which Jo obviously does.

On Sunday, everything went sideways– like Twilight Zone levels of sideways– and my delicate Henry Morgan balance was completely thrown over. Henry and I caught a homicide, and the evidence led us to a building in the warehouse district. Of course, it had to be your basic shady, abandoned part of the warehouse district, and I was dumb enough to enter the building with only Henry before backup arrived.

I shouldn't have been surprised when one of the suspects started shooting at us from the shadows. I was pretty surprised when Henry threw himself in front of a bullet headed straight for my very bullet-sensitive chest.

I remember leaning over him and saying, "Keep talking, Doc! Don't you dare die!" All I could think was that Jo would kill me if I let Henry die. Or worse, she wouldn't kill me, because she'd be too deep in despair to avenge her partner. Either way, Henry was fading fast right in front of me, and I couldn't do a damn thing to stop it.

That's when the evening started shifting from tragic to unreal. There he was, bleeding out onto a dirty concrete floor, and Henry was pleading with me. He kept saying, "Don't tell Jo, please don't tell Jo," over and over again.

I wanted to honor a dying man's final wish, especially the man who just took a bullet for me, but I had no idea what the hell he was talking about. What was I not supposed to tell her? That her partner had just died? Pretty sure she would figure that out whether I told her or not. The doc hadn't confessed any deep, dark secrets or undying love, so I had nothing to not tell. Or so I thought.

Imagine my surprise when Henry's entire body disappeared in a flash of light. He stopped breathing, and it had barely registered with me that he was gone when all the sudden he was gone gone, and I could only manage one thought:

What.

The hell.

The paramedics showed up a few minutes later because like an idiot, I had thought Henry might need them, and I had to invent some cockamamie story about an injured perp who miraculously recovered and escaped. What else was I supposed to say? Yeah, Dr. Morgan was critically injured, but never mind. He got better and left! Where did he disappear to? Funny you should say 'disappear…'

Yeah…no. I lied through my teeth. Which, as it turns out, is the #1 Thing I Do Now for Henry Morgan. But more on that later.

When I finally left the warehouse, I was debating whether I should check myself into the hospital for a brain scan, or just go home and throw back a stiff double– a double anything would do. That's when my phone rang. It was Henry.

"Detective Hanson." He sounded calm. That pissed me off for some reason, and I repeated my earlier thought, along with a few others. "Henry? What the hell?! If this is some kind of weird psychological experiment, I will kill you myself, and this time you will not be coming back."

He had the nerve to chuckle and say, "That would be a surprise."

I blew up. "Don't laugh! This is not funny. And what is this, anyway? What the HELL just happened?!" I may have been bordering on hysterical at that point, but can you blame me?

"I'm sorry." His voice was suddenly all calm and sober again. "I know that what you saw was… unexpected, and upsetting, but I can explain."

I took a deep breath and thought, this oughta be good.

TBC

fyi, here is okevamae's prompt in full: "I have been craving something where Hanson is the first to discover Henry's secret. In my head he reluctantly helps hide it from Jo, but he finds the whole thing really annoying. Not just the lying to Jo, but the kind of irritated discomfort of a straightforward and logical person forced to deal with a thing that has to be true even though makes no sense. The world needs more Henry & Hanson bro-bonding fic in general IMO."