Jo makes a confession as Henry lies dying in her arms.

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

Warnings: Blood & Gore, Temporary Character Death

Author's Notes: This story was inspired by jo-martinez over on Tumblr.

Jo wasn't sure how she had gotten here on the ground holding Henry in her arms as he bled to death. She remembered chasing a suspect into the alley with Henry and she and the suspect had fired simultaneously at each other. The man she shot was dead and Henry with his lack of a self-preservation instinct had dived in front of her to take the bullet for her. After that it was a bit of a blur and the next thing she knew she was sitting on the ground supporting him in her lap with one arm as she tried to stop the bleeding from the gunshot wound in his side with her other hand. Had she called an ambulance? She couldn't quite remember, but she had a vague recollection of him telling her not to, that the wound was too severe and that they couldn't do anything to help him. She felt as if she had gone into some sort of shock. There were tears streaming down her face but she couldn't remember starting to cry. She just knew that she couldn't bear to lose him. He wasn't just her partner, he had become her best friend, and she was pretty sure that she had started to feel more for him than that despite trying to keep things professional.

"It'll be alright Jo," Henry said in a weak voice, the attempted smile on his face marred by a grimace of pain. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. Please don't cry."

Jo couldn't help but laugh sadly. Of course he would try to reassure and comfort her when he was the one bleeding to death from a painful gunshot wound. "Yes you'll be ok... just hang in there... stay with me," she murmured words she didn't really believe as she held him closer to her and started rocking him gently. Henry reached up with one hand and tenderly brushed away the tears from her face but he soon gave up as more kept falling from her eyes.

"Jo do me a favor please?" Henry asked softly.

"Of course Henry, anything," she answered.

"Please take my watch and keep it safe for me," he practically begged.

"Henry I... I can't take that from you," she protested knowing how valuable his antique pocket watch was. "I mean, wouldn't you want Abe to have it?"

Henry nodded not having the strength right now physically or emotionally to explain to her that his death wouldn't be permanent and that he didn't want his watch to disappear when the rest of him did. "You can give it to him. Just please take it from me. Put it in your pocket and keep it safe. I don't want it to get lost."

"Ok Henry, I promise I won't let anything happen to it." She removed the watch from his pocket and unclipped it from his waistcoat and then transferred it to her own pocket. He noticeably relaxed against her, and she stroked his hair as she held him trying to soothe him as best she could. She wasn't sure how long she stayed with him like that, but at some point he closed his eyes. She felt for a pulse and it was still there but growing weak. "Henry are you still with me?" He gave a small affirmative grunt and nodded slightly, but didn't say anything or open his eyes. Jo knew it wouldn't be long before he was gone and before she quite knew what she was doing she found herself confessing feelings to him that she had only just fully realized minutes ago. "Henry I... you know you're more than just a partner to me. You're my best friend, and I think I've started to feel more for you than that. I think I may have even started to fall in love with you. I'm so sorry that it took me this long to realize it, but I had to tell you before you..." she trailed off and bit her lip, then pressed the lightest of kisses against his lips to say goodbye.

Henry's eyes shot open in surprise and he looked up at Jo. Had he heard her correctly, had she actually kissed him, or was this some sort of hallucination caused by the massive blood loss? It was bad enough that Jo was going to witness his death and he'd have to either come clean about his immortality or pack up and move again, but this confession of hers, assuming it wasn't a hallucination, was going to complicate matters further. He wasn't quite sure how he felt about her declaration of love, but he knew that he did care for her as a close friend and perhaps if he allowed himself to be open to the possibility, in time he could come to love her back. He would have to consider this more later, he didn't have much time. "Your timing is truly abysmal Detective. We will have to discuss this later," he choked out with his dying breath.

"Henry! Henry!" Jo cried out as his eyes dropped closed again. This time there was no pulse and he wasn't breathing. She hugged him tightly to her and started sobbing uncontrollably into his chest, then after a few moments she stopped startled when she could no longer feel him in her arms. She opened her eyes and her mouth dropped open when she saw that his body had disappeared. She took a few minutes trying to process what had happened and think of a rational explanation but her mind was drawing blanks. Yet he must have known this was going to happen. Why else would he have been so insistent that she hold onto his watch for him? Was he some kind of weird species of alien that just vanished when they died? These were crazy thoughts and she was starting to wonder if she had dreamt the whole thing, but the dead suspect was still there lying several feet away and Henry's watch was still in her pocket and she had his blood all over her. Then she remembered that he said they'd talk later right before he died. She had thought he'd been in denial up until the very end, but was it possible that he wasn't actually dead, but just somewhere else?

She wanted nothing more than to get in her car and drive to the antiques shop to try to get some answers, but she knew she had to stay here until the crime scene was processed. She got her phone out and called Reece and reported what had happened leaving out the details of Henry's injury and death and said that they had gotten separated and she didn't know where he was, which was at least partially true, and that Lucas would have to do the autopsy. After she got off the phone she sat down leaning against the wall of one of the buildings lining the alley with her head in her hands. While she waited for the others to arrive she replayed the events over and over in her mind. As she started to cry again she prayed that Henry was out there somewhere safe, but she wasn't going to get her hopes up. Maybe at the very least Abe would be able to shed some light on what had happened and she'd definitely speak to him as soon as possible.

I cried so much while writing this story. I promise I will continue this, but I just need to take a break and lie down and cry some more for awhile.

While I was writing this I kept picturing the song Bleeding Out by Imagine Dragons and the Forever fanvideo I made for it. If you'd like to see the video, search YouTube for "Forever Bleeding Out".