A full week passed before Jo saw either of the Morgan men again. She'd put a lot of effort into ignoring their calls and not answering her door when she was certain it would be one of them on the other side.
Earlier in the week, when drawing her bedroom curtains for the night, she could have sworn she saw Henry standing on the other side of the street, watching, waiting. She refused however to give him the satisfaction of opening the fabric again to check. Her dining room table was littered with newspaper clippings, internet print outs and old directories. Empty take out boxes strewn around the apartment, unopened fortune cookies collecting in a bowl on the coffee table. Outside of work, she had time for little else. Finding out the truth behind Henry Morgan was all she was interested in. It had taken a lot of calls, used up most of her outstanding favours, had even involved a call to her former love interest Isaac to build the picture that she had now, but she was finally satisfied if not entirely surprised with her findings.
In short, Henry Morgan, for all intents and purposes, appeared to be just what he claimed to be. A doctor, a father, a widower… and an immortal.
She leaned back in her chair, running her hands through her hair. Immortal. In one week her entire belief system had been overturned, Jo wasn't a religious person, even after Sean's death, she refused to believe in an afterlife, a God. Though Henry's condition wasn't even remotely religious in context, he had still managed to entirely shift her world of logic and reasoning.
This realisation didn't make her any less resentful, any less hurt by his actions. But it did help her to understand them a little more than she had before. A knock at the door had her sighing in frustration, she didn't need to get up from her seat to be certain that a Morgan was on the other side.
'Jo, it's me Kid. Open up.' She pursed her lips, blowing out a slow breath before pushing herself up from the chair and slowly moving to the door. 'Come on Jo. You can't stay mad at us forever.'
The door swung open startling Abe, clearly he hadn't been expecting her to answer. She could hardly blame him, he and Henry had been playing a game of tag, coming to her door each evening to attempt to get her to open up and let them in. The past couple of nights however, only Abe had come.
'I wouldn't take that bet Abe.'
'Can I come in?' She swung her arm to allow him past. 'Thank you.' The old man made his way into the lounge and took in the chaos around him. 'Um, you redecorating?' He met her gaze and saw that she was clearly in no mood for humour. 'Okay, okay. I just… Henry and I, we just wanted to make sure that you were okay.'
She crossed her arms. 'I'm fine.'
He nodded and smiled. 'Good. Henry's not… if you're interested.' She shrugged noncommittally and leaned against the jamb of the door. Abe gestured to the dining room table. 'May I?'
'Be my guest.'
Abe began to sift through the paperwork and research that Jo had compiled on Henry. 'The internet is a dangerous thing huh? I can't believe that you were able to find all of this.'
'It took some digging. You'd have to know what you were looking for to be able to connect the pieces.'
'And what have you concluded?'
Her mask slipped then, fear and uncertainty flickering in her eyes. 'That, somehow, Henry is much older than 35.'
'Yeah… he is.'
Abe walked over to the sofa and settled down, ready to answer anything that Jo wanted to know. She sighed and followed him, sitting across from him, her bare feet tucked up under her.
'You're his son?'
'Yeah. I know it's hard to believe, luckily as a kid I found it much easier to get my head around. He was my dad, and that was that.'
'Why did he lie to me Abe? Why did you lie?' She rubbed her eyes with the heels of her palms. 'I thought that you and I, we shared a pain.. a grief.'
'I hated lying to you, but he's my father and though I don't always agree with him, it's not my story to tell. He wanted to tell you, I could see it in his eyes, but he was scared.'
'Of what?'
He gestured to the table. 'Of this… of you not believing him. Only four people have ever known his secret, me, my mother, his first wife Nora… and now you. He has only ever shared this with people that he loves dearly.' She drew in a shaky breath. 'He's miserable, lonely. It had been thirty years since my mom left him, until he met you. You changed him Jo. You made him hope again. But he's never learned to let go of the fear of rejection.'
'He should have trusted me.'
'Damn right he should have.'
'And you shouldn't have lied to me.' Her voice held an accusatory tone and he ducked his head.
'Something I will never forgive myself for.' She nodded and began to pick at the nail on one of her fingers. 'So now what?'
'I don't know Abe. My colleagues, Henry's colleagues think he is dead.'
'No body was ever found…'
She looked up at him then, a small smile playing at the corner of her lips. 'I don't know if I am ready to think about that yet Abe, there's still so much to say… I just…'
Abe leaned forward and placed a gentle hand on her arm, stilling her movements. 'You're right. But you can't go on like this, neither of you. You're both working so hard to ignore this thing that's going on between you, that you are making yourselves miserable in the process.'
'What thing?'
'Embrace it Jo. You and Henry, you've been given a second chance. I've thanked God each and every night since you came back to the store that you showed up when you did. You both deserve to be happy.'
She placed a hand atop Abe's and rubbed his wrinkled skin gently. 'I don't think I'm ready for that Abe, not now. I felt that things were moving in that direction before… but this… this has changed things.'
'You say that, but the heart wants what the heart wants Kid. You don't think he was coming back to the store each and every Friday night to visit me do you?'
She smiled gently, the fear and uncertainty returning to her brown eyes. Abe pushed himself up from the sofa. 'Why don't you get some sleep? But if you can't.. Henry has become a bit of a night owl, I'm sure he'd enjoy the company.'
Before she could protest, Abe pressed a tender kiss to her hairline and exited the room, and the apartment. She closed her eyes and tried not to dwell on the churning sensation in her stomach when she thought about being alone with Henry Morgan.
Xxxxxxxx
Henry lay in the darkness of his bedroom, sleep wasn't a friend as of late but he enjoyed the stillness of the room, it was a way to avoid Abe's knowing glances. He'd realised, too late of course, that there were worse things in the world than his secret being found out, he'd lost the only woman who had managed to fill the void in his heart because of his fear. True, she hadn't believed him, but he believed now that she might have tried to.
He sighed and draped an arm across his face, praying that tonight sleep might show him some mercy. He heard the door creak as it opened, soft light spilling into the room. Not removing his arm he let out an exasperated sigh. 'Abe truly, I am in no mood tonight.'
Abe didn't respond. Instead he heard the door close. With a self-satisfied smirk he hummed in appreciation, but when the side of his bed closest to him dipped he frowned. Peeling the arm from his eyes he looked up 'Abe..I…' In the darkness of his room, the intruder looked remarkably like Jo Martinez and he had to blink twice to reassure himself that he wasn't dreaming. 'Jo..'
She met his eyes briefly before letting them fall back to her hands. He scrambled quickly into a half sitting position. 'I'm not dreaming am I?'
'Dream about me often Henry?' There was a smile in her voice.
'More often than appropriate, I assure you.' She blinked, surprised at his answer and met his eyes. Even in the darkness, with the moonlight glistening between them she could see his eyes, and she suspected, he hers. Sensing the tension, he cleared his throat. 'Why did you come Jo?'
She sighed, heavily. 'I don't know. I should be angry at you, more angry than I am.'
'You certainly were angry at me.'
'Yes, and I won't lie and say that the feeling has entirely disappeared…'
'But?'
'But… as crazy a story as it is, as unbelievable a story as it is.. I know you were telling me the truth.'
His eyes began to glisten in the moonlight, a small unsure smile crept onto his face. He found her hand in the darkness and clasped it gently causing her to release a shaky breath. 'Thank you Jo. You have no idea what those words mean to me.' She nodded and he frowned raising their joined hands for inspection. 'You're trembling.'
She withdrew her hand from his. She wasn't ready for this, physical contact was too much. A week ago she believed Henry to be dead, and now here she was sitting in his bedroom, on his bed, trembling of all things. She pushed herself up from his bed, willing herself to hold it together.
'Jo?'
'Tomorrow Henry, tomorrow.'
He nodded in understanding. Tomorrow was the weekend after all, they'd have plenty of time to discuss this, the future. Whatever that future might now be.
He watched her move to the door, and before she was out of it she turned to look at him one last time, almost convincing herself that he was still there. Their eyes held for a moment before she exited and closed the door behind her. In his bed, Henry let out a long sigh, tomorrow.. he wasn't sure he'd ever been so hopeful for a tomorrow. Sliding back down under the covers he closed his eyes and prepared himself for a much needed sleep.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Henry whistled cheerily the next morning, pouring a cup of coffee for Abe and a tea for himself, Abe allowed the corner of his newspaper to sag and lifted a brow. 'Henry?'
'Yes Abe?'
'You're whistling Pops.'
'Am I?' Henry grinned.
'I assume that you and Jo came to some kind of understanding?'
Henry's smile faltered and he suddenly looked serious. 'No, we didn't. But she doesn't think me a loon any longer, and that's a step forward isn't it?' Abe nodded. 'She's wary of me, I can tell that much, and this is a long way from being fixed. But I have hope.'
Abe smiled, he hoped that the damage wrought by his and Henry's deception wasn't so serious that this couldn't be fixed. So far as the rest of the world was concerned, Henry was dead, that would be no small feat to overcome, but Henry's priority was Jo, the rest of the world could hang. That attitude however didn't explain how they were going to get themselves out of this one.
Henry had just finished clearing the breakfast plates when he heard Abe coming up the stairs from the store, he called out over his shoulder as he loaded the plates into the sink. 'Tea, Abe?'
'Um..'
Spinning on his heel he met Jo's eyes. She raised a hand up to greet him. 'Jo.' Her name poured from his lips like honey and it was almost impossible to prevent the small smile that graced her lips. He grabbed a towel from the counter and wiped his hands clean, not making any move toward her. 'Perhaps you would prefer a coffee?'
'Sure Henry.'
'Please, make yourself at home.. I'll be with you a minute, and we can talk.' He frowned suddenly. 'Where did Abe get to?'
'He made himself scarce.'
Henry pulled a face and nodded, but then turned from her to busy himself with making the tea and coffee. Shrugging off her jacket she moved to the sofa and sat down, Henry's scarf was hanging across the back of it and she couldn't help herself from fingering the material gently. The apartment had seemed to take on a new identity. When Henry had been missing, she had thought she could smell him on the furnishings in the apartment each time she visited, she realised now that she had been wrong. He was everywhere now, his aftershave, his shampoo and soap, he was invading her senses and she felt hyper sensitive to his proximity.
The man himself appeared from the kitchen and offered her a mug of coffee, after all this time he still remembered how she preferred it and it warmed her slightly. He took a seat beside her, and sat his teacup down on the table next to him. She could feel the tension radiating off of his body, he was uncomfortable and nervous, as a Detective she was well versed in body language, and Henry Morgan was scared. Of Her.
A few seconds of silence passed before he noticed the manila folder on the coffee table, he nodded to it. 'Another case?'
'No. It's research.'
'Ah. Research on the life of Henry Morgan I presume.'
'Yes.'
He took in a shaky breath and forced a smile. 'Did you find anything in there of any worth?'
She looked at him in surprise, his eyes finally meeting hers. 'Henry.. everything in that file is of worth. Everything in that file is important.'
He looked down at his hands. 'Not everything I'm sure.'
'Henry?' He looked up again and huis breath was taken away by the serious honest expression on her face. 'I don't like what you did to me, in fact, I hate it. You should have trusted me…. You COULD have trusted me.. but what's in that file… it makes sense to me. I understand in a way, why you felt that you couldn't tell me this secret. What I found, it's all important, because it made you the man that you are today… it made you my best friend. Without it, we'd never have met. And as angry as I am at you right now, the idea of never having met you is unthinkable.'
He had moved inches closer to her, their eyes holding, gaze unwavering. He could almost taste her breath on his tongue, until something broke the spell and she tore her eyes from his. He let out the breath that he hadn't realised he was holding, and it left him quickly. She was hurt, he'd done that to her.
'Thank you Jo. I know that it might not mean much now given my actions, my deceit, but I want you to know that the feeling is mutual.'
He offered her a sincere smile, it was a start. Time, that's what they needed. Time would fix his wrongs, he would be patient.
'So.' Her voice broke him from his musings and he frowned at the mischievous look on her face.
'So?'
'So… how are we going to explain your resurrection away?' She took a sip from her mug. 'There's a new ME.. Lucas, Hanson and Lieu all think that you are departed, how do we suddenly explain your reappearance?'
'In all honesty, I hadn't given it much thought.'
'Yes… I'm sensing a pattern here.' He grinned sheepishly and shrugged his shoulders in a most uncharacteristic Henry gesture. 'I have some ideas… we'll get past it. I'm not sure you'll be getting your job back anytime soon though.'
He shook his head. 'No I suppose not.' Picking up his tea he took a sip and glanced at her from the corner of his eye. 'There are more pressing matters than my employment right now, I would much rather put my efforts into that area of my life.'
If she understood his meaning she didn't let on. It would take time, but she was certain she could forgive him, was certain she was already halfway there. The bitterness and hurt that she felt as a result of his betrayal was overwhelmed by the warmth and fullness that she felt on having him back, within reach. She'd kick his ass if he ever tried to pull a stunt like this again, but given his lack of secrecy now she highly doubted it possible. There was something reassuring and comforting about the idea that Henry would always be around, just the thought made a smile tug at her lips. He cocked his head at her, smiling with a question in his eyes, but Jo sipped her coffee, not ready to let him back into her thoughts… not quite yet.
AUTHORS NOTE
Thank you everyone for the kind reviews. I am really going to miss this show, holding out hope that someone signs it up. Keep reviewing, I'll try to keep you all satisfied.
