.:3:.


The third time Henry ran into Sydney, he was sure something was going on with the teenage boy. He wasn't entirely sure what it was, just a feeling. And as long as he had been alive his 'feelings' hardly turned out to be wrong. (Except for the few times he was, humiliatingly, mistaken to be flirting with a woman and it either resulted in him being kicked between the legs or stuck in a date he was desperate to get out of).

But when Henry Morgan made up his mind, it was made up. He thought there was something going on with Sydney and he was going to do something about it. Not like he had a fool proof plan or anything, and apart from knowing his school name he wasn't quite sure where to find the boy. But as fate would have it, Sydney found him.

Henry and Abe had been playing chess in their store, mulling over the latest police case that Henry had assisted with. Abe, of course, was trying to stir something between Henry and Detective Jo Martinez and as per usual, Henry was avoiding the statements with snide remarks, soft smiles, and rolls of his eyes. It wasn't that he hadn't noticed that Jo was attractive, many men thought so. (As far as he could see from the quick looks they shot her way when walking down the street). But it wasn't something he dwelled so much on. There was too much else going on in his life. But he did find it sweet that Abe cared so much about his own happiness.

"I told you before, Abe, I'm content not spending my life with anyone," Henry said, his eyes studying the chess board. The game was starting to become tougher and tougher as the two played. Despite Henry's years of playing Abe was starting to catch up in terms of the tricks and deceives to keep him from getting an easy win. Henry was at a stalemate as he tried to find a way to keep his adoptive son form finding the perfect placement for the win.

Henry's smile waned.

Son.

It was so normal to him to say that. He was the one who had adopted Abe and raised him alongside Abigail. However, Abe was older and getting older. Clearly he would be the first to pass between him and Henry, unless Henry found the source of his immortality. Every now and then he wondered what it really was that kept him alive and how that also kept him from opening up to people. Opening himself up fully so that they understood his unique mannerisms and views on life. In a realistic sense he knew things would turn out badly once people found out he was immortal. It had happened well enough, and he didn't plan on allowing himself to be poked and prodded and studied for science.

Sure the idea that telling some people he couldn't die, that he was immortal was tempting. Very tempting. The secret was slowly killing him, seeing time change, technology change, and people change day after day was more daunting than anyone could ever imagine. But Henry was more afraid of the overwhelmingly possible outcome. He was already a bit of an outcast, a loner…he didn't want to be shunned even more—and besides, he rather liked his privacy.

Henry made his move and leaned back in his seat. Images of Abigail and Jo filled his head making him smile a little.

But to be able to share his life with someone else…in a romantic way, that was a harder thing to realize would never come to fruition. He didn't believe women would be perceptive to the idea that they would grow old while he continued to be young. Abigail hadn't cared even as she got into her old age and the two couldn't be as romantic in public, she still loved him as much as she had when they first met. No, Henry reminded himself. That wasn't always true. The looks was enough so that she would flush and move away from Henry. That eventually drove her away…

But things always had to end and he couldn't stand the thought of being hurt as badly as he had when she passed.

No.

He was fine on his own.

"I'm just saying that you need a woman that's willing to put you in your place every now and then," Abe said. He frowned when Henry moved his chess piece forward, placing him in check. "You have to admit that you have a tendency to get in your own way a lot. As well as getting your own way." Abe pointed towards the man that was his adoptive father but appeared he could be his son. Every now and then Abe felt the differences in ages between the two was much larger and complicated than it should have been—Henry was older than him but Abe looked older and was treated as such; a father and a son all the same. It was exhausting at times but needed for some sense of normalcy.

And no matter the age, it was normal for people to care about their family members when their love lives weren't going the way they should. "Immortality be damned, she's good for you."

"I only have a professional relationship with Ms. Martinez and I intend to keep it that way," Henry replied. He leaned back in his seat and paused a moment before he grabbed the warm coffee mug that sat before him. "As it is, she appears annoyed by me each time I'm around her."

"Gee, I can't imagine why." Abe smirked.

Henry smirked back. "Abe, is that sarcasm I detect?"

"You bet your ass it is." Abe ignored the amused glance Henry sent his way. Then it shifted to one of slight annoyance, not particularly enjoying when anyone cursed around him. "You may be immortal, but she's right. You can't keep running around and acting like you can't seriously get hurt. Your curiosity is really what's going to be the death of you."

"I hope so."

Henry took a long sip of his mug and waited for Abe to make that fatal move he anticipated then moved his Rook forward. "Check mate." Abe stared at the board in disbelief and Henry stood up, pushing back his chair with his thighs. He brushed off the front of his blouse, removing imaginary specks of dust. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be downstairs using my curiosity to speed up my impending doom."

Abe gave a humorless laugh behind him as Henry walked over towards the trap door in the middle of the floor.

Henry then quickly stopped, hearing the door to the antique shop open. Straightening, trying to pass off inspecting the floor, Henry whirled around and watched as Sydney slowly made his way inside. His dark blue eyes shifted back and forth as he looked around the antique shop, not landing on any piece for longer than a few seconds.

Then Sydney's eyes landed on Henry and he smiled, gaining confidence as he sauntered inside. He pulled white earbuds from his ears, allowing the sound of rock music to blast through the air. "Hey."

"Hello." Henry blinked in confusion, turning to Abe, who looked at the young teenager with a raised eyebrow. It wasn't normal for teenagers to want to come into antique shops. Over the years he had seen enough clientele come in to know it to be true. Every now and then one came in with their parents, practically dragged the whole way.

"What brings you by here?" Henry then paused, his eyes narrowing. "As a matter of fact, how did you know I worked here?"

"A guess," Sydney replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "I reckon, an old-fashioned guy like you, where else would you work?" Abe stifled his laughter. Henry turned and glared at him but Abe waved a hand his way, continuing to laugh. "I've walked by a few times…I've seen you in here." He shrugged, eyes shifting. "Is this a bad time?"

"I don't know a lot of teenagers that were interested in antiques," Abe commented. "But I'm sure we can find something that you like." He looked the boy up and down. "Or that you can afford." He cleared his throat. "You are aware that these items can yield a hefty price tag."

Sydney smirked. "I can afford it," he said.

"Did you strike oil overnight?"

Once again, Sydney's eyes shifted and he merely shrugged in reply. Henry walked back over to the table that held the chess table and sat down, watching as Abe lead Sydney around the shop, pointing out new furniture, the history of each piece, bringing Sydney into conversation over each one.

Henry's eyebrows rose. So this kid was good at school, very smart, perceptive and was into antiques? There was something off about it. Not that it wasn't possible. But having lived for more than two-hundred years, Henry had a good look at teenagers and how they acted as the years went on. Teenagers his age were supposed to be sucking down soda and energy drinks while they pulled all-nighters on their video games, hitting on girls and hanging out with their friends. Why would he want to, consistently, hang around Henry when he probably had better things to do.

Then again, you never did get an answer as to why he's here in New York, Henry reminded himself. There were many reasons for it happening, one of his parents being an American, having moved due to a job. He had mentioned brothers and sisters once but didn't say anything about his family otherwise. And he sure was secretive, more than other teenagers were. When they got the chance they usually talked as much as they could, one-upping their friends the best they could while trying not to give into peer pressure. Or in other cases, purposefully giving into peer pressure so that they would be deemed as 'cool' in their peer's eyes.

But Sydney didn't seem like that kind of teenager to him. He might've had a girlfriend, he might've had friends. But the few times he had seen him he was alone. He didn't have the air around him like he was a loner or searching for someone. His aura was…different.

"So what is it that tickles your fancy?" Abe asked. He spread his arms wide, to showcase the inventory of the shop. Sydney took a quick look around once more before his eyes landed on an object directly on the shelf beside him.

"I really like this mirror, actually," Sydney said. He reached out and grabbed onto a handheld mirror with gold plating, jewel studs, and butterflies painted on the side. "My Mum had one just like it, but my brothers and I accidentally broke it ages ago."

Henry started, noticing how the boy's eyes had lowered. It wasn't the same as when he was trying to avoid a question, no this was different. Something was painful for the boy. It was in his body language; suddenly turning in on himself, the lowered eyes, the slight pout. His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed hard; maybe trying to hide his sadness? Henry wasn't sure what emotion it was that quickly shot through the young boy's eyes. Maybe something that had happened recently?

No, if that were the case he wouldn't be able to continuously put on such a normal demeanor, to read Henry as well as he could.

"Anyway, I'd like to buy it, mate," Sydney continued, snapping out of his trance. He handed the mirror back over to Abe, reaching into his back pocket and producing a small, black card. "How much?"

"About a thousand dollars," Abe replied.

Henry looked over at Sydney once more, expecting his eyes to grow wide with surprise, shock, or worry, but instead he retained his calm demeanor and handed Abe the black card so he could go to the register. Sydney started to head over towards Henry and spotted the old fashioned phone that rested on the front counter. "Wow, you blokes are really going for the antique angle, yeah?"

"We have to keep up with idea of the store, right?" Henry asked, raising his mug in greeting.

"Sure, but you'd seriously increase your revenue if you created and app that would show people your inventory as well as highlighting the places that the pieces specifically come from," Sydney said. He sat down across the table from Henry. "Not including the fact there's a highly probably chance that you'd be able to crate connections with other vendors or antique shows in the area to acquire even more inventory." He blew his hair out his face then quickly arranged it so that it fell back in front of his eyes. "You'd get in touch with new clientele around the world, as well."

Henry gave a wry smile. Technology, although he appreciated the mass change in medicine and science, had never been something he was particularly interested in. There were too many things to learn how to do. He didn't even have an e-mail address, something Detective Martinez got onto his case about as well as not having a cell phone. He had a cell phone now and it took him and Abe ages to figure out how to configure it. Then there were those that watched him with amused smiles as he slowly punched out the keys on a computer keyboard and the keyboard of his cell phone.

The sooner he got on the internet—was that what they were still calling it?—the sooner someone could look him up and things would get messy for him.

Messier than it already was, anyway.

Just that morning he found himself crossing the street at the worst opportune time and had his brain splattered all over the pavement, before having popped up in the Hudson River and being arrested. Again. When Abe arrived at the police station to drive him back home, he had opened the passenger door to his car and looked at the young man remarking, "If this wasn't so funny, I would be tired of this by now."

To which Henry only responded with a half smile.

He was sure there was going to be some sort of a news bulletin about his accident. Wondering if there was any information on the man that had been hit and disappeared. It happened once before and Henry kept low, waiting for it to blow over before making another appearance. But when it died down in the city, it lived on in infamy on the internet. He was sure there was some sort of a website or a message blog—or whatever they called it—out there for everything he had done.

"Me and technology don't mix very well, I'm afraid," Henry said to him.

"Technology and I," Sydney quickly corrected him. Dimples appeared in his cheeks as he smiled apologetically.

Henry regarded him curiously. "Has anyone ever told you—"

"That I can be annoying? A smart ass? Arrogant?" Sydney guessed. "Oh, all the time. My brothers and sisters are the ones that say it mostly. And my girlfriend"

So he does have a girlfriend, Henry thought. His eyebrows lifted in slight surprise. Then he focused in on the other thing the teen had said. His brothers and sisters must be important figures in his life as well. Henry slowly worked at him. "I was going to say, very sure of yourself, but that works," Henry said. He looked up as Abe walked back from the cash register with the hand held mirror carefully wrapped and placed in a bag. "You have brothers and sisters huh?"

"Yep. It's Julius, then my sisters Riley and Rhuben, who are twins, then Patrick and Noah, they're twins, too, then me," he explained.

"Wow, that's a pretty big family."

Sydney's cheek twitched. His smile faded. His eyes became dull. "Yeah, there's never a dull moment."

"I'm sure Henry could say the same," Abe remarked, causing Henry to glare at him once more. He chuckled and motioned behind Henry as the door to the antique shop opened once more, a ringing bell capturing their attention. "Good Morning, Detective Martinez. Don't tell me that someone started off the morning with a bang already?"

Detective Martinez gave what appeared to be an amused smile, though it didn't particularly reach her eyes from what Henry noticed. In fact, the way she had her arms crossed, eyes slightly narrowed, her head having jerked at the sound of the bell ringing overhead showed she either had a hangover or was getting over a cold with a splitting headache. He would bank on a hangover; considering she had put on more makeup than usual to try and off set her bloodshot eyes and her lips trembled as if she were experiencing and trying to hold off a wave of nausea.

Either the case they had been working on before—where a little kid had suddenly passed, where it turned out that her mother was poisoning her food—had taken its toll on her or else she had been reminded of her late husband and couldn't shake the darkness that surrounded her. It seemed to follow her like a fog, almost like a dark cloud threatening to rain on her every second of every day no matter how much of a sunny disposition she tried to put on.

Tried, being the operative word.

"You don't have to worry about that," Detective Martinez replied with a slight sigh. "But there is a new case that I need Henry's help with." She turned to the immortal man, who regarded her with interest. "We've found a body at the post office, there are no outward signs of a struggle or anything that would've caused his death. The man was fairly young, about your age, and yet his family seems to think he was murdered."

Henry nodded slowly. His mind already starting to work over the possible reasons as to why he would have passed if it weren't for murder. And the reasons he did if he was. His was broken out of his thoughts as Detective Martinez cleared her throat. She pointedly put her hands on her hips as she stared right into Henry's eyes.

"But please, this time when I say for you not to get into anything, please don't get into anything. Just do your own job and leave the rest to us."

Easier said than done, Henry thought. He was a doctor, a medical examiner. He always needed to know the truth of everything that came his way. It was hard to stand back and act like nothing was happening when it was his calling to go above and beyond his work for justice.

"I'll be right there," Henry replied, placing his mug on the table. It didn't look like he was going to be getting a lot of his research done that day. Standing up, he motioned over to Sydney, who suddenly appeared to shrink back in his chair. That had to be a strange exchange to watch, he noted. But Sydney's didn't seem so concerned about that rather than the attention suddenly turned on him. Interestingly enough, Henry noticed that Sydney wouldn't look at Detective Martinez. "This is Sydney. I've made his acquaintance a couple days ago."

"Is there any particular reason why you treat Dr. Morgan like he's your son?" Sydney bluntly asked Detective Martinez. Still, he wouldn't look at her. "Like you're annoyed by him?"

Jo blinked in surprise as Henry stifled a smile. "I—uh—" Closing her eyes, she gently shook her head. "I don't treat him like he's my son."

"You just told him not to get into anything, yeah?" Sydney's eyes narrowed. "Much like a mother would to a child that's always getting in the way of something." He tilted his head to the side, eyes still narrowed, still looking away from her. "It's either that or you're slightly irritated by him because he's managed to solve some of the more…inexplicable cases that have gained media attention as of late."

Jo looked at everyone in the room, her eyes widening slightly. When her gaze landed on Henry he smiled. "Oh my God, there're two of you," she remarked. "You're not related to him are you?"

"No." Sydney chuckled. He sat up straight and finally looked at her. "By the way, I'd suggest black eyeliner, as opposed to the brown that you're using, to offset the redness of your eyes."

"Thanks for the tip." Jo turned back to Henry and tapped at the face of her watch. "We have to get going, Henry." Then she reached up and mimed pulling out a stubborn eyelash, rubbing at her eye.

"Let me just grab my coat." Henry picked it up off the back of his chair and shrugged into it. "Sydney, do you need a ride anywhere?"

"No! That's okay!" The teenage boy paled and quickly jumped off of his seat. He grabbed onto the bag that had been left for him and hurried towards the front door. "Thanks for the mirror! Hoo roo!" Once he was out the door, he tucked the mirror into the pocket of his sweatshirt and took off down the street at a high speed.

The three adults watched him race by the window, disappearing from site.

Frowning, Henry followed Jo out of the shop and looked down the street in the direction that Sydney had run off. But couldn't see him through the crowds the covered the street. He must've been moving pretty fast. With a wave of her hand, Jo motioned for Henry to follow her down the street, in the opposite direction towards her car.

"You know Henry, you really surprise me," She commented. "You have a…interesting taste in friends. First a man that's old enough to be your father and now a teenage boy? Suffice to say you're not like any other person I've met."

"Neither is Sydney, considering the fact he's being abused," Henry commented. It was a strange statement to make if it wasn't true. All of the signs lined up so quickly, so easily, that Henry was mildly annoyed he hadn't figured it out the very first day he had met Sydney.

The statement made Jo stop on a dime. Her lips pressed together, her jaw sharpening as she turned towards him. "That's a serious allegation, Henry," she said in a slow drawl. "Not something to make a joke of."

"By now I'd hope that you would take everything I'd say seriously," Henry commented. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his coat. "Didn't you notice the way he visibly paled when you came into the store, let alone spoke with him? That shows he has had some interactions with the police that he isn't willing to have again. Or authority figures in general. Teachers…parents…I didn't think of abuse at first, but then there was the specific way he would keep his eyes away from me or Abe, also keeping his hair in his face. It wasn't until he blew his hair out of the way, a normal movement of a teenage boy with shaggy hair that I noticed the bruise." Henry reached up and tapped directly on his orbital bone. "Right here. And his interesting way of speaking to someone; in a normal, arrogant way teenagers do, and then seeing that things don't work out well, that he offends someone, he immediately shuts down into a mumble, turning his eyes away from you."

"OK." Detective Martinez looked directly at him. "If that's the case, who would you say is the one abusing him?"

Henry smiled. It wasn't a humor filled smile. But a smile nevertheless.

"That's the tricky part as physical abuse is normally at the hands of the parents. I would suspect them if it weren't for the fact that Sydney reacted very sensitively towards the mention of his mother, showing that he really did care of her. I use 'did' as the operative word because of an earlier conversation that he and Abe had while he was buying the antique mirror. I believe that either something happened to his parents or he's just not living with them anymore. Or not living with his mother. That he is currently living with someone who may be or had been abusing him. The mention of his brothers and sisters shows that's really close to them as well. I believe that he's been separated from them, here in New York while they may still be in Australia or else he'd be speaking of them in the present tense, in a more lively manner. But the question is, why?"

"Alright. I'll take a look into it after we figure out what happened to his postal worker."

"I'm highly inclined to say that a very nasty paper cut is out of the question."

"Funny."


A/N: More expansions. I promise things are going to become more different from the last story as more expansions go on. I hope you guys still enjoy it though.

Cheers,

-Riles