Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Forever but my character Hannah.
Hannah gripped Henry's hand excitedly. It was Saturday, but not just any Saturday. It was the Saturday after the Friday that report cards had been given out. Hannah had proudly shown Henry the A's and he had promptly promised ice cream the next afternoon.
"I'm gonna get strawberry! Or maybe chocolate." She second guessed thoughtfully. "What are you gonna get?"
Henry pretended to think for a moment. "I do believe I might get vanilla."
Hannah giggled. "You always get Vanilla, live a little. Try another flavor for once."
Henry grimaced internally. Hannah had clearly been spending too much time with Abe, her unintentional imitation had almost been dead on. "Getting vanilla is living." He teased, "it's better than those weird flavors you get like rocky road."
Hannah stopped walking and was about to retort when the unknown figure walked out from the alley next to them. He grabbed Hannah around the neck and placed the gun in between Henry's should blades simultaneously. "Don't make a sound or you get a piece of lead in the back before your little girl gets one in the head." He hissed.
Hannah's eyes went wide and she whimpered as the arm tightened around her neck, temporarily cutting off her air supply. Any fight Henry had, left at the terrified squeak Hannah made. "We'll give you whatever you want, so there is no need for any violence." He attempted to calm the crazed man.
"Shut up and move!" The gun dug a little deeper propelling Henry into the alley. The mugger shoved Henry against the wall while keeping a firm grip of Hannah. "I want everything in your pockets, and don't even think about calling for help."
"Please let us go." Hannah begged before gasping as the arm tightened once more.
"If you know what's good for you then shut up!" He replied shaking her.
Henry, who had been pulling his wallet out stopped as his over-protective nature took over and rushed the man. The grip the mugger had kept on Hannah evaporated as he tried to fend off Henry and she collapsed on the ground in a heap stunned.
Bang!
Hannah gaped, Henry slowly looked down in shock, and the mugger ran.
Henry fell to his knees before falling back. Although his previously white shirt now had a growing red stain on the front, Henry hardly noticed the pain coursing through his body but locked eyes with Hannah who was staring with wide eyes.
"Hannah, listen to me," Henry coughed, "you need to run home and tell Abe what happened. He'll help you, but do not go to the police. Do you understand?"
Hannah nodded, but instead of leaving crawled closer to her father. She gingerly placed one hand on top of the wound in Henry's abdomen and applied gentle, but firm pressure. "I can't leave, cause then you might leave Daddy." She whispered blinking back tears.
Henry placed a bloody hand atop hers and tried to smile, but it came out more as a grimace. He was fading fast and she needed to leave. "Hannah, please go. Everything will be all right." Henry drew a shaky breath and closed his eyes dreading the inevitable. More than ever he was dreading his death, and the consequences it would have.
Hannah removed her hand from under Henry's and stood to leave. This wasn't fair! She thought unhappily. Daddy didn't have to die. She swiped at her tear stained cheeks and picked up his wallet from the ground as well as his pocket watch from where it had fallen. She turned just in time to see Henry draw his last shallow breath before…disappearing?!
Her mouth dropped. All the blood that had been on the ground was gone, the blood on her clothes and skin was gone, and her father's body was gone. Hannah clutched the wallet and watch to her chest and took off running.
Abe had just turned the sign to closed when he saw Hannah dart across the street and almost get hit by a car before throwing the door open and running inside.
"Hannah Morgan," Abe scolded, "do you have any idea how dangerous what you just did was?"
"Daddy disappeared!" She cried out and Abe swallowed the next bit of his lecture. "A bad man shot him and then he disappeared."
"Did the bad man see him disappear?" Hannah shook her head no and Abe sighed in relief. "Okay, I'm going to go get some clothes and then I have something to show you."
Hannah waited anxiously and worriedly. She had just told their roommate her father was dead and the first thing that came to his mind was 'I'm going to go get some clothes' seriously?
Abe came hurrying down the stairs and grabbed Hannah's hand. "When we get there, I'm going to need you to stay in the car."
"Where are we going?" She asked as they walked to the car and she climbed in the backseat.
"You'll see." Was the only answer she got, even when she persisted to ask questions and demand to know what was going on Abe was silent. It wasn't until she had been sitting in the car for what seemed like forever did what happen truly sink in. Her father was dead. She knew he wasn't her 'real' father, but he had been the genuine article to her. She buried her face in her hands and sobbed.
To say Henry was furious was an understatement.
"How could you have been so irresponsible?" He demanded from behind the bushes where he was drying off and changing.
"What was I supposed to do? Leave her by herself at the shop? Henry, that little girl is crushed. She thinks you're dead!"
"Maybe because I died in front of her Abraham, but did you honestly believe it was a wise idea to bring her with you? And leaving her in the car? What if she does something foolish?"
"I locked the car and if she tries to get out the car alarm will go off. Now will you relax?"
Henry rubbed his wet hair with the towel. "Being a father means this is what I do Abraham, the same way you try to corrupt her as her older brother."
"Corrupt? I do not corrupt, if anything the little sprite has corrupted me." Abe pretended to be shocked. "Now are you done changing yet?"
Henry walked out from behind the group of bushes he was changing in. "Yes, now let's get to the car. I need to figure out some way to explain all this that won't make her think I'm crazy."
"Or think that she's crazy." Abe mumbled remembering his own experience finding out his father was immortal as a child before following Henry towards the parking lot where he had parked.
Hannah hated waiting! Why couldn't Abe come back all ready and tell her what was going on? Maybe he wasn't going to come back she realized. Maybe he was going to abandon her like her father had done when she was little. No, she told herself, Abe isn't like him. He wouldn't leave me, they promised. Maybe he just needed some time to sort it out, maybe he didn't believe her, maybe he thought she was going crazy, maybe Abe had gone to see about giving her back to the social worker people, or maybe…
Her maybe rant was cut short by the sound of the car door opening and closing before hands pulled her towards someone. At first she had assumed it was Abe but they didn't feel like his hands, in fact they felt like… "Daddy!" She yelled throwing her arms around his neck as Henry smiled and held her close. Then she realized who she had just seen. "Daddy?" She pushed away from him with a confused expression. "But you got shot."
Henry glanced at Abe for help but then turned back. "There's something I have to tell you, but it must stay a secret or else people will try to come after me." Hannah nodded solemnly. "Whenever I die, I come back. I can't stay dead."
Hannah cocked her head. It sounded like something out of a comic book, and yet it made sense. "For how long?"
"How long what?"
"How long have you been dying?" She clarified.
Henry took this moment to lock eyes in the rearview mirror with Abe, who smirked a bit. Henry sighed and turned his attention back to his daughter. "227 years, and Abe is not our roommate. He's my adopted son and your older brother."
Hannah gaped at this news before grinning. "I have a brother!"
Abe let out a laugh from the front seat and even Henry had to laugh at her outburst. "Yes, you have a brother, but no one must know."
"Or else they'll hurt you?"
Henry nodded solemnly. "Do you think you can keep this secret?"
Henry watched as she chewed on her lip. He really needed to break her of that habit, it wasn't good. Finally, she inhaled and nodded, trying to look brave. "I can, on one condition. Don't lie to me when you die. If I ask if something is going on or what happened please tell me." She pleaded, clasping her hands together.
Henry was confused. "Why?"
"Because he used to lie to me and he was bad, so you can't lie to me because you're good." She explained.
Henry felt his spirit get crushed a little. In the three years Hannah had lived with them, he had thought they had broken through all her walls and gotten her to have complete faith and trust in them. Clearly though, while she did love them and trust them, she still had some reservations about everything; reservations that would probably last through her entire life. If this helped soothe those reservations then Henry would do it gladly. "All right, I promise to never lie to you about this ever again."
Hannah smiled before she yawned loudly. Henry tucked her into his side after making sure she was buckled in and secured properly. He caught Abe's eye in the mirror again.
"So I guess the secrets out huh?" He teased a bit, starting the car.
"Yes Abraham the secret is out, but I think she'll handle it."
As always leave me a review and if you like reading about Hannah then you should go check out my other story A Walk in the Park, which covers how Hannah came into Henry and Abe's lives.