Hey everyone! Just a very short one shot. Another small take on Jo's reaction toward Henry's secret. It's something that I always thought about so I wrote a little something. It's sappy but well, it's a love story after all.

So Forever doesn't belong to me and once again English isn't my native language so if you are a hater because of my grammar's issues or whatever stuff like that, you know the way out (sorry if I sound mean but I have to warn every time because I've got my fair share of haters because I wasn't writing in perfect English, oh sorry if I wasn't born with it. And that's the reason I haven't posted any one-shot in a while because of such 'nice' reviews.

Hope you'll enjoy

In his long life, Henry hasn't told the truth about his condition to a lot of people. The first time he tried, Nora his first wife, ended up locking him up in a lunatic asylum in which he had suffered from different traumas and 200 years later he was still remembering all the pain his journey there, caused him.

Then he has been lucky enough to meet Abigail and raised a wonderful family with her and Abe and having both of them accepting him the way he was and protecting him at all cost until Abigail couldn't bear the physical's difference between them. But at least he had no secrets for his family.

On the course of this long life, he could say only three people knew about him but now made it five.

The 4th to find out about his condition was Lucas. Henry didn't tell him and never planned to do so but his bad tendency to die led him right in a trap on the field with Lucas and his assistant had witnessed him die so, of course, he had no choice but to tell him the whole story or at least half of it. Yet, the young man found that utterly fabulous but really had some issues to keep a straight's face toward Jo because she had an excellent power on him and he was encouraging Henry to tell her the truth before she was killing the two of them.

So obviously now she knew about it. Henry has taken a whole afternoon to tell her and explained that picture he never had the chance to explain when she first showed up with it, a couple months ago.

She had listened and never interrupted him but he couldn't lay his finger on what she was thinking once he was done. She never said too much but she did thank him for telling her the truth and being honest. This didn't help and Henry was scared she could talk to Lt Reece and tell her he needed help but to his surprise, she did none and kept his secret safe.

He could have taken it as a good sign but she was barely talking to him and was purely and simply avoiding him when they were working on the cases.

So, he figured she wouldn't want to talk to him ever and would probably ask to stop their partnership in the future. Henry felt hurt but he couldn't blame her. He was putting himself in her position and understood why she was keeping her distances from him.

Though, what he didn't know was that he was completely mistaken. Jo wasn't avoiding him on purpose. She just needed a couple of weeks to herself to gather her thoughts and digested everything Henry has put on her shoulders. This was truly a lot to take in and none of them were telling Henry, but she was sometimes having a talk with Abe to know how to better deal with it and he was giving her good advice but he always ended up saying the same, that time was the only answer to truly accept the whole story regarding Henry's immortality.

She did believe it because everything was making sense and frankly she has been suspecting it for a whole year, but it was all insane until it was not.

So that's all she needed, a bit of time and she would eventually come back all by herself. Because despite everything he told her, all the pain he went through, all that suffering, she wanted to be there for him and not only as a simple working partner, she wanted to be more, she wanted to give herself to him, and forever if she could promise him that but he needed to respect her time and she would tell him everything she felt for him, she would tell him he wouldn't be alone anymore and she agreed to grow old with him because she didn't give a damn. Once she would deal with the truth, she planned to get back at Henry and never leave him.

But after a couple of weeks where Jo wasn't still talking to him, Henry wondered what he did to deserve that and thought that this wasn't worth keeping the fight, he has done it way too long and he just wanted to give up. He had nothing to gain and nothing to lose. He made a decision, he was going back to London and he would just keep living his life there but he needed to see Jo one last time, he needed to tell her what he felt or at least a part of it so he wouldn't have a guilty conscience.

He found himself nervously squirming in front of her door and took a deep breath. This was it.

He slowly knocked and waited for her to open. When she did, she seemed really surprised to see him.

- Henry?

His heart skipped a beat. This would be harder than he thought. He pursed his lips in a fine line.

- Listen, Jo, I know you don't want to have anything to do with me but I need to talk to you.

She stared at him and sighed, pushing herself to the side to let him in.

He slowly walked into the hall, capturing her place one last time. A place where she had offered him to stay a couple of nights when they were working on tough cases.

A place where they often fell asleep on each other's arms, on the couch, watching a movie or just having a simple talk.

Henry felt his heart ached. He would be missing all of this but this was for the best.

Her voice calling his name brought him back to the reason he was here in the first place

- Henry? So, what is it you wanna tell me?

He couldn't look at her in the eye, so he started talking back to her

- I just wanted to tell you that I'm truly sorry…

Jo wasn't following

- Sorry for what?

- I… I know how much I've hurt you when I told you the truth and I am aware you're not really believing me or you can't come clean with it and nor that I can blame you. I understand.

Jo opened her mouth but found herself unable to say anything, her words got stuck in her throat. Henry finally faced her and walked toward her. He handed her his watch.

- I want you to have it. I always thought it was the key to my immortality somehow because it always stays behind but I don't think it's relevant.

Jo frowned. Where was he heading with that?

- And as you're the one who always brought it back to me, I want you to keep it. – he sighed and felt his heart-shattering – I'm going to live a lonely life and will try to keep the dying thing at a bare minimum.

Jo blinked, still not quite sure where he was heading but she really had a bad feeling about it

- Wait, wait! What does that even mean?

Henry stared at her. Maybe he could…. He shook his head, he just couldn't, not again.

- I do not wish to burden you. You are honestly the best thing that ever happened to me in centuries, whether you believe it or not. But, I can't go through this anymore, you deserve someone better. I don't want you to suffer because of everything my secret will bring on you.

Jo couldn't believe her ears. Her heart started to pound faster in her chest…. He was not going to do it, was he?

- Wait, are you running away?

- I'm just…. I… I need some time all by myself.

She pursed her lips in frustration. But what the hell was wrong with that guy?

Henry walked past her to reach the door but she shouted

- No way! I already lost Sean! There's no way I'm going to lose you too.

Henry froze but still was ready to leave but Jo prevented him from doing so and stood right in front of the door, her arms crossed over her chest

Henry sadly looked at her

- Jo, please…. I need to…

Jo looked at Henry straight in the eyes and without even thinking, she just blurted out

- Do you love me?

All the sudden, Henry remained completely frozen as they were sharing an intense eye contact and he realized…. He realized how familiar this just sounded and that he was about to make the exact same mistake he nearly did with Abigail years ago. He closed his eyes for a couple of seconds and Abigail's words echoed back in his mind and when he opened his eyes again, what he was seeing was Jo's face with the exact same determination Abigail had back then and he knew how it ended up. Jo wasn't going to let him go. So that meant…. Did she believe him? Or…. Enough thinking, he was doing that way too much. He just closed the gap between him and Jo and just planted one on her. He kissed her slowly with fierce passion, both of his hands moving to her cheeks. They shared one of the most intense moments of their lives and between two kisses, Henry whispered.

- I love you, Jo, more than anything

Jo felt tears at the corner of her eyes, she just smiled and kissed him back

- I love you too and I believe you, I did since you told me but I needed some time but Henry I love you and I want to be with you and I don't know if I can promise that but I surely intend to stay forever.

Henry smiled and hugged her against his chest. She was his new world and forever was a long time for them.