This is the first time in a very long time that I've put word to paper, and the only time I've cared enough about a fandom to publish, so gentle honesty is appreciated. Although I still hold out hope that Forever will be picked up, my subconscious couldn't wait and this is the result; definitely a one shot, although there are ghosts of other ideas tumbling around up there on the top shelf somewhere. Time will tell whether Jo and Henry come back out to play again or not. Hope you enjoy!
The characters within are not my own, they belong to Matt Miller. I'm simply borrowing them for the time being.
Again, this story continues where Forever Season 1 Episode 22, 'The Last Death of Henry Morgan', leaves off. If you haven't seen it yet (Heaven Forbid!) you might want to before continuing.
And, Reawakening
"It's a long story," Henry said with equal parts fear and hopefulness in his eyes.
Cocking her head to the side and lifting her eyebrows, Jo replied, "Neither of us have to be at work til Monday morning."
Sighing resignedly and stepping back, Henry open the door wider and ushered his partner into the room before glancing around to find that Abe had disappeared. Handing the photograph back to Jo, he re-locked the door and gestured toward the back of the shop.
"Maybe we should go upstairs," he said, barely glancing at Jo before leading the way to the second floor stairs. Caught up in his own emotions, he didn't notice her pause briefly to look at the pictures sitting on Abe's desk and then glance back at the photo she held.
On the upper level all was quiet and dark, again with no sign of Abe. Henry paused briefly to wonder where he'd gotten off to before turning to Jo.
"Go ahead and have a seat in the living room," he said with a brief incline of his head toward the french doors standing open across the room. I'll just put some tea on and join you in a moment."
Jo nodded and headed to the other room, shrugging her coat off as she went, while Henry stepped past the island to fill the kettle. Moving around the kitchen to gather the tea, cream and sugar, he momentarily eyed the knives tucked away in their wooden block. Escaping the coming conversation would be easy enough, but then he would have to run, and running meant that he would be completely alone. Abe had already made it abundantly clear that he couldn't start over again. And then there was Jo...
Shaking his head to banish his somewhat panicked thoughts, Henry left the tea service sitting at ready on the island while the water heated. As he made his way to the living room, he trusted that the sound of the kettle whistle would alert him, and possibly provide a much needed distraction from what was to come. Taking a deep breath to steel himself, he walked into the living room and pulling the french doors partially shut behind him.
"The tea will be just a moment. Can I get you anything else?" he asked.
Jo was seated on the couch, her coat draped across the back behind her, idly tapping the photo on the coffee table. "Just the truth, Henry. You've been hiding something since we met, and then this," she said, placing the photo face up on the wooden surface in front of her.
"And if I told you it was complicated?" he asked, sitting down in the armchair opposite her.
"I wouldn't expect anything less. Don't worry, I'm the least judgmental person you'll ever meet," she said with a ghost of a smile, echoing what he had told her so many months ago.
"Alright," he said, looking up to meet her eyes with a neutral expression. "The man in the photograph is me."
The delicate creases that always appeared between Jo's eyes when she was thinking deeply about something started to form. "This, is you," she said, phrasing it somewhere between a question and a statement.
Henry stood and began to pace with his hands clasped behind his back. "A hypothetical," he replied. "As I am already well aware that you have excellent powers of deduction, let's say that I was actually in the first car of that train just before we met, and I really did fall off the roof of Grand Central Station. I was also in the back of the taxi when it went off the pier, and where you found my watch for the second time. I was also shot and killed in the train tunnel where you found it the third time. What would you say if I told you that I am over 200 years old and through some, trick of fate or curse or what have you, I can die, but not stay dead?" He paused in his pacing to look directly at her before continuing, his expression unreadable. "What if I told you that each time I die I end up waking up in the East River, naked, without a mark on me other than the scar from the wound that killed me the first time; the same scar that you noticed when you rescued me from Molly's stalker? What would your detective's mind tell you if I said that I have lived many lifetimes, and that photo you are holding is evidence of only one of them?"
The creases between Jo's eyebrows got deeper as she looked from Henry to the photograph. "Henry I would say that's insane, b..."
"Of course, it's insane," Henry said quickly and resumed his seat, his eyes hooded. "There is only one reasonable explanation, which is that photo is of my grandfather, here on a visit back in the late 1940's. The child and woman are Abe and his mother. My grandfather met Abe's parents here, and it was through his connection that my father later became friends with Abe."
Jo had opened her mouth to reply when the living room doors banged open and Abe marched in with the tea service in hand. He placed it on the coffee table between the couple after moving the picture aside and addressed Henry, his heavy eyebrows low on a face full of frustration.
"Pops, stop it! Just because her first reaction was to say it's insane, that doesn't mean she's going to immediately lock you up in the funny farm."
As he spoke, he handed Henry one of the cups of tea. He then picked up the other cup and held it out behind him in Jo's general direction while still berating the other man. Jo snatched the cup from his grasp, afraid he would start waving it at her.
"Jo deserves the truth, not that cockamamie cover story you just cooked up! She's stood by you, no matter how crazy you've acted, and she's still here. She's giving you another chance to come clean, maybe your last chance, and you're not going to blow it!" Abe practically yelled.
"Abraham!" Henry replied, matching Abe in tone while scowling back at him. He opened his mouth to speak again but words seemed to fail him and he resorted to gulping down half his tea, despite the liquid's temperature, while staring daggers at the other man. Setting the cup back in it's saucer, he leaned forward and placed it back on the tea tray before his eyes grew wide and he looked back at Abe in alarm. "Abraham, you didn't!" he exclaimed before jumping to his feet. He then placed a hand over his stomach. "Oh God, you did," he added, before pitching face first onto the Aubusson carpet with a groan.
Jo yelled Henry's name and started to stand, but Abe quickly stepped to her side and placed a hand on her shoulder to keep her in place. "Now, watch," he commanded, and jerked his head in Henry's direction. Shocked, Jo could only sit and stare at her shuddering partner, slow to process everything that had just happened. Within seconds Henry's muscles gave up the fight and after one final exhaled breath, his still form disappeared. There wasn't a single sign that he had even been in the room with her, short of the half finished cup of tea.
"What... how..." Jo faltered and then looked up at Abe, eyes wide. "Wait, you just called him 'Pops', are you saying he's you father?"
Abe snorted and looked down at Jo with raised eyebrows. "I just poisoned a New York Medical Examiner in front of you, a veteran police detective, and then the body disappears right before your eyes and that's what you take away from it? C'mon, we've got to go pick him up."
"Pick him up, right," Jo muttered while setting her untouched tea back on the tray like it was an explosive that she'd just realized she was holding. At the same time, Abe took what was left of Henry's tea and threw it into the fireplace, cup and all.
"Nasty stuff, aconite, but you'd never have gotten the truth as anything more than a 'hypothetical' from him otherwise," Abe said. He then turned back to Jo. "You alright? How you holding up?" he asked while studying her face.
Jo stood up and frowned at Abe. "Truthfully? I'm not sure whether to arrest you or check myself into Bellevue." she said. "You know, somehow I knew Henry's first explanation made a kind of crazy sense. I was going to tell him that before he suddenly changed it. Everything adds up no matter how nuts it actually sounds; the picture, the watch in the front subway car, his encyclopedic knowledge of the city and, everything else. And I knew I saw him go off that building. So, it was real... what made him backtrack?"
"Well, let's just say that Henry hasn't had the best luck with people that have found out about him," Abe said. "The first time they had him committed, which is why he panicked when you mentioned the word 'insane'. Other times didn't go any better, and sometimes much, much worse, but you didn't hear that from me. I'm going to be in enough trouble as it is. Now, we'd better go."
Jo grabbed her coat and the two of them made their way downstairs and through the shop, only pausing long enough for Abe to pull a duffle bag out from underneath his desk. After locking the shop door behind them, he looked at Jo. "We might want to take your car, if that's okay. Depending on exactly how long it took Henry to resurface, and where, you may have to pull some strings and your car might make it look more official."
Jo just nodded and pointed to her silver police issue parked just down from the storefront, then started toward it. Less than 15 minutes later, and after Abe's explanation on the variation of times and spots Henry came to shore, they were out of the car and headed toward the river. Abe had been right, and as they hurried toward the water they saw two uniforms advancing on one wet and naked Henry Morgan. Abe handed the duffle bag off to Jo and she fished her shield out of her coat pocket while racing to catch up with the patrolmen.
"Hey guys," she huffed out as she reached the two officers and flashed her badge. "I've got this. He's wanted for questioning." She then gave the uniformed men her best business face while thrusting the bag into Henry's arms and shoving him behind a nearby evergreen bush.
While the younger of the uniformed pair just looked confused, the older one tried his best to hide a grin. Obviously he'd heard rumors of the skinny dipping M.E. "Sure, Detective. Hope you and your, uh, person of interest, have a nice evening," he said as he grabbed his partner's arm and steered him back the way they had come.
Face flushed from a combination of the officer's teasing, her sprint through the chilled, not quite spring air and Henry's state of dress, or lack thereof, Jo turned toward her partner who was currently trying to drag a pair of sweatpants up over damp thighs. Spinning back around, she paused for a moment to collect her scattered thoughts before addressing him over her shoulder.
"So, this is the explanation for your indecent exposure charges I take it?"
"Sadly, yes," Henry replied. "And thank you for preventing yet another. You can turn around now by the way."
Jo turned back to see him pulling a NYPD issue sweatshirt on over a white t-shirt. Ironically, it was the same outfit he was wearing when she had rescued him from the ribbing he'd been receiving in the precinct a few months back. "No problem Henry. Besides, Lieu would have had a fit if you were brought in and I just stood around and let it happen." she said jokingly, but the waterlogged man in front of her didn't even look up. Instead he concentrated on zipping the jacket.
Henry took a deep breath, hesitated a moment and then finally spoke, his voice resigned while he continued to contemplate the piece of metal between his fingers with a pained expression. "I'm so very sorry Jo. Sorry you had to find out this way, sorry that I didn't tell you sooner... I just... you were right, it does sound completely insane, and sometimes I've acted as such. I couldn't risk being labeled that way though, not again and not by you. I value your friendship, your companionship, too much. Finally looking up, he was surprised to see that Jo was staring back at him with unshed tears glistening in her eyes. Silently, she stepped toward him and placed her arms around his neck to pull his chilled body into a warm hug before whispering in his ear.
"God, you poor man. It's alright Henry, it's going to be okay."
The moment was surreal, like Abigail's reaction all over again. Slowly, Henry brought his arms up and encircled Jo's waist while burying his nose in the pale blue scarf she was wearing. Breathing in the clean, heady scent that was uniquely her, he felt at ease for the first time in thirty years. A sigh escaped as he stood and held her as she held him, both of them ignoring everything else. Neither of them saw Abe slip back toward the street with a pleased smile, having stood well back from the two of them.
After what could have been hours or only minutes, Jo leaned her head back to look at Henry, not quite ready to break their newly formed connection just yet. "Doctor Morgan, I do realize that you're the one with the medical degree, and I'm beginning to suspect that you probably hold several of them by now, but don't you think you should put on some shoes? It's freezing out here!"
Henry chuckled, a warm sound devoid of the caution he usually met everything in life with. "I tend to agree Detective, shoes are definitely in order, as is a hot bath and another cup of tea, preferably laced liberally with something other than aconite this time... hmm, maybe coffee instead."
Suddenly, Jo's expression changed to that of suspicion and she stepped back, running her hand backward through the hair that framed her face and pulling it into a fist on top of her head. "Aconite?!" she exclaimed. "Henry, you knew exactly what Abe used without being told, just like you knew what Khoeler killed the conductor with before the labs even came back." Eyes narrowing, she stared at him and asked, "Exactly how did you know it was aconite?"
"It's simple really," Henry replied as he shoved his feet into the tennis shoes he'd found in the bottom of the bag." As I told you then; I had experimented with it a long time ago. But, since I couldn't be sure without knowing the symptoms during death, and we needed answers, I injected myself with it."
"You..." Jo's words faltered, and she dropped the hand holding her hair back to her side in frustration. "No Henry, just, no. Look, I may not know your whole story yet, but I can guess now why you have this need to throw yourself into danger at every turn. If we're going to continue with this relationship though, that stops now. No more volunteering yourself for science and no more trying to protect me, either physically or by withholding information. You've got to let me do my job, and even knowing you'll come back I'd rather not watch you die again. Do you understand?"
Standing up straight and ducking his head slightly, Henry thought about her words for a moment before raising his eyes to hers. "I understand Jo, and I promise, no more secrets and no more experiments. However, if it comes right down to a decision between my life and yours, I can't promise that I won't get involved. If something happened to you when I could have prevented it..." he let the last word trail off with a serious look.
Blowing out a breath, Jo nodded. "Alright. That's something at least, but don't think that this discussion is over just yet," she said, pointing at him. "Now, let's get out of here before that foot patrol decides to swing back around."
They were walking back to Jo's car with hands in pockets and shoulders brushing when Henry spoke again. "Jo, you called this a 'relationship' back there. By no means do I want to read something into it, but, were you speaking just of our work relationship?"
It was Jo's turn to duck her head. "Do you remember when I told you that I didn't want to go to Paris with Isaac?" she asked while glancing over at him every so often. Henry simply nodded in answer. "When he picked me up, he had all these plans. Every moment was mapped out, and that's when I realized... I didn't want to go to Paris with Isaac because what I really wanted was to get lost there, with you."
Smiling gently, Henry pulled the hand closest to Jo out of his pocket and held it out to her. She took it and smiled back at him somewhat shyly.
"Well my dearest Jo, I do believe that can be arranged," he said with a wink.
Back at the car, Jo looked around for Abe but Henry assured her that he'd probably went back to the shop. "I imagine he's gloating over what he accomplished, and afraid of what I'll have to say about his tactics. Despite his age, he is still my son after all," he said.
"Oddly enough," Jo said as she unlocked the car, "that's biggest thing, out of all of this, that I'm having trouble wrapping my head around. Of all the relationships between the two of you that I could have imagined, he being your son was definitely not one of them."
Once they reached the shop, it was obvious that Henry had been correct. Displayed prominently on the door was a hand printed sign in Abe's careful lettering that read 'Gone on Vacation' with a return date a week away. Reaching into the duffle bag one last time, Henry produced a ring with two keys on it and unlocked the front door with one of them, then he handed the set to Jo.
"Just in case. The second one goes to the delivery door," he said.
"But won't you need these?" she asked, taking the ring from him.
"No, my set should still be on the dresser upstairs. Besides, we keep several extra sets, for obvious reasons."
"Come to think of it," Jo replied, cocking her head to one side as she attached the keys to her own ring. "If you always come back, uhm, the way you do, what happens to your clothes and personal items? I mean, besides those times I was there to rescue your watch?"
Chuckling, Henry stood back and motioned for her to enter the shop ahead of him, then followed her in and closed the door, locking it for the second time that day. "I always come back in a body of water and as long as I have it on my person at the time, everything ends up back where it started that morning as if I'd never worn or pocketed it," he said, turning toward her. "Can you imagine how much I'd end up spending on clothes otherwise? No, the times you found my watch, it had fallen from my pocket. I was actually trying to retrieve it when I died on the subway car," he added.
Jo shivered involuntarily, remembering the crumpled bodies strewn throughout the subway wreckage. "Not exactly sure if I'm sorry I asked or not," she said.
Frowning slightly, Henry brought a hand up to cup Jo's face and run his thumb lightly across her cheekbone. "I apologize, Jo. It's been so long since someone new has known my secret, I forget the details can be somewhat shocking."
Jo leaned into his touch, closing her eyes briefly, and then opening them again to look at him. "It's alright. I work for the police department, I can handle it, and I want to hear the details. "Besides," she added with a mischievous grin. "I told you I'd get you to let me in someday."
With eyes growing dark and smoky, Henry took a step forward, bringing his other hand up to mirror the first and frame Jo's face. "That you did, Detective," he murmured, and then inclined his head so that their lips almost touched before pausing. "May I?"
In answer, Jo reached up to twine the fingers of one hand into the curls at the back of his head, inviting him forward while bringing the other up to rest at his waist. The kiss started off softly, each testing, exploring, getting to know each other. Soon however, the warmth began to kindle into a slow burn and their kiss deepened. One of Henry's hands shifted underneath her thick curtain of hair to cup the back of Jo's neck, while the other slid down to press on the small of her back, closing the small gap between them and fitting her to him. Jo's fingers on the back of his head tightened their grip and urged him on, while her other hand wandering up his side and around to trace his spine.
As touches and mouths became more insistent, by some unspoken agreement they parted reluctantly. Henry dropped a gentle kiss onto Jo's forehead before tucking her head into his shoulder and wrapping his arms around her waist. "Well," he said huskily. "That accelerated faster than I intended. Not that I didn't thoroughly enjoy it, but I had hoped to take things slowly at first, considering both of our histories."
Nodding her head into his neck, Jo replied breathlessly."Wow. Uhm, yeah. Slow is good."
They stood that way silently for several moments before Jo spoke again. "Hey Henry? I could really use a drink about now."
Laughing, Henry gently moved her away and took one of her hands in his, thumb lightly tracing her knuckles. "I believe there are several selections in the apartment. Would you like to come up?"
"Definitely," Jo said with a nod. "So Henry Morgan, what's your story? The whole one this time."
Henry smiled and cocked one eyebrow at her. "Maybe the abridged version? I'm not sure there are enough hours left in the day to cover all 235 years."
As they turned to walk toward the back of the shop hand in hand, Jo replied. "Who says we have to end that story tonight?"