Henry is struggling to crack the code on the tattooed corpse and Adam calls to help nudge him in the right direction.


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

Warnings: Blood and Gore, Temporary Character Death, mentions of Suicide

Spoilers: Scattered references to events from random episodes up through season 1 episode 8.

Author's Notes: This story is a very minor crossover with Stargate SG-1. Only one Stargate SG-1 character is mentioned in a few chapters. You won't be lost if you aren't familiar with Stargate SG-1, but those that are will be able to appreciate a bit of added humor.

Suicide is joked about and even occurs at some point during the story, but since it's in relation to a character that can't permanently die, it's not a big deal. If for any reason you think this might offend or upset you, please don't read this story.


Henry had a rather nice time with Jo watching Netflix. She had selected the movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Henry had protested at first because he had never seen the first three Star Trek movies, but Jo had insisted that it didn't really matter. He enjoyed the movie much more than he had thought he would. It was funny and heartwarming at the same time and it definitely did cheer him up. They invited Abe to join them when he came home, but he declined saying he was going to bed and winked at Henry as he went upstairs. After Jo had left Henry filled Abe in on what had happened with Adam and they searched the building from top to bottom for bugs and hidden cameras, but were unable to find anything.

A few days had passed and Henry was still struggling with his allergies. He had experimented with various different medications and dosages, but so far the only combinations that seemed to give him adequate symptom relief both inside and when outdoors on high pollen days or in other situations with a high concentration of allergens also made him feel groggy and in a fog, which actually made it harder for him to do his job than if he was just sneezing his head off. It was becoming a bit of a catch 22 situation though because the prolonged sneezing fits would greatly exhaust him as well. Jo and Lucas had ganged up on him and started calling him Sneezy. He tried to laugh it off good naturedly at first, but Jo soon stopped when she saw how much the nickname was bothering him. It took several stern looks before Lucas finally got the hint that it wasn't funny anymore. He sat on the edge of his bed with a box of tissues next to him turning over the prescription nasal spray in his hands. He knew he was probably going to regret this, but at this point he was desperate and willing to try anything.

He shook the nasal spray, uncapped it, and squirted it once up each nostril sniffing to get the medication up into his sinuses. Within seconds he knew that this had been a stupid idea as his nasal passages began to prickle and burn. The feeling quickly escalated into a strong tickle and he grabbed a handful of tissues and started sneezing violently into them. The sneezes were loud and forceful, coming one on top of another, causing him to rock forward with each one. The sneezes were doing nothing to alleviate the tickle in his nose and it seemed like the more he sneezed the more he had to. After a few minutes the sneezing showed no sign of stopping and the muscles in his chest and abdomen were quickly becoming sore. If anything the sneezing seemed to be getting more violent and he toppled off the edge of the bed from the force of them. He knew this needed to stop soon or he was going to pass out. He managed to get himself up into a sitting position, but found that the non-stop sneezing made it impossible for him to stand up.

Abe ran upstairs when he heard the crash and found Henry on the floor of his bedroom sneezing uncontrollably. "What the hell happened?" he asked, his voice full of worry. Henry was sneezing too much to try to speak, and Abe looked around the room to see if he could spot the source of the attack. Finally his eyes came to rest on the bottle of nasal spray on the bed. "Oh for crying out loud," he muttered and went to the bathroom to fill up the sink with water. He returned to the bedroom and pulled Henry to his feet and pushed him into the bathroom and dunked his head in the sink.

Henry coughed and sputtered when he lifted his head out of the water and then started sneezing again. He dunked his head a second time and held his head underwater for as long as he could stand it. When he lifted his head out of the water again he sneezed twice more and that seemed to end the fit. The violent sneezing attack had sapped all the strength from his body and he felt his knees buckle. Abe caught him before he could collapse and managed to get him back to his room and into bed. Henry blew his nose over and over again and used up nearly half the tissue box. Abe brought in a towel and dried his face and hair. "Thank you," he managed to croak out. His throat was raw from all of the sneezing and his voice was incredibly hoarse.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Abe said shaking his head. "You know how those nasal sprays affect you."

Henry sighed. "I was desperate and I hadn't tried that particular brand before."

"The next time you want to do something stupid like this, let me know first." Abe picked up the nasal spray and dropped it in the trashcan. "How long were you sneezing like that before I found you?"

"I don't know," Henry answered and massaged his temples which had begun to throb badly. "It felt like I had been sneezing since the dawn of time, but it was probably only several minutes." Abe shook his head again in exasperation and left the room. He returned ten minutes later with a cup of hot tea and some Tylenol. Henry gratefully sipped the tea and closed his eyes as the warm liquid soothed his ravaged throat, then he swallowed the pills. "Abraham, please kill me," he said with a soft moan.

"I will do no such thing. You need to find a way to manage your allergies like any normal human being," Abe responded indignantly. "If you want to die so badly you can do it yourself and find your own way home. I don't want any part of it."

Henry took his son's hand in his. "I'm sorry Abe. I forget how hard it is on you."

Abe nodded and smiled sadly. "Try to take a nap. I'll wake you when dinner is ready."

Abe went back down to the kitchen to finish cooking dinner and Henry closed his eyes quickly falling asleep. He was woken about ten minutes later by the sound of the phone ringing, but felt too exhausted to even reach over to the phone on the nightstand. After three rings the phone stopped ringing and then Abe called up saying that it was Dr. Jackson on the phone. Henry struggled to sit up in bed, his stomach muscles protesting and picked up the phone. "Ok Abe I've got it." He heard the click of Abe hanging up the kitchen extension. A sudden tickle in his nose caused him to sneeze three times before he could greet his colleague. "Hello."

"Hi Dr. Morgan. Are you alright? You don't sound so good," Daniel answered sounding concerned.

"Bad allergies, I'll live," said Henry dismissively.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. I know how awful that can be," Daniel sympathized. "Mine used to be pretty bad all the time, but shots definitely helped. Now they mostly only act up when traveling and I'm not used to the local pollen."

Henry retrieved a handkerchief from the nightstand drawer feeling like he might sneeze again. "Unfortunately shots are not an option for me." He inhaled sharply and sneezed twice into his handkerchief, then rubbed his nose.

"Bless you. Is it a fear of needles?"

"No, it's a long story, and why would I be afraid of needles? I'm a doctor."

"Well there's a difference between sticking needles into someone else and having them stuck into you. Anyway I wanted to get back to you about those images you sent me. I'm sorry it took me so long but I was out of town," Daniel explained apologetically.

Henry chuckled. "I figured you would be. You're always off on some adventure. It must have been somewhere exciting if there was no internet access."

"You have no idea," Daniel replied with a laugh. "I had a chance to go over the images this afternoon and you were right, the tattoos are nothing but gibberish and it might be some sort of code. I'd offer to help try to decrypt it, but unfortunately I have to leave town again in the morning. I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help."

"It's alright. You were help enough. I'm not fluent in these languages and I was only eighty percent sure it was a code." Henry was starting to wonder whether it was even a code at all though, and not just decorative nonsense. He and the NYPD cryptologists hadn't been able to come up with anything so far.

"Well good luck figuring it out and feel better."

"Thank you Dr. Jackson, goodbye." Henry sneezed again as he hung up the phone. He pulled himself out of bed and went through the different allergy pills on his dresser. They might not be very helpful when he was outside, but at least he could have some relief while in his own home. After deciding on a medication he swallowed the pills with what was left of his tea. He lay back down in bed hoping he could get a bit more sleep in before dinner, but then his cell phone started ringing. He fished it out of his pocket and answered it without even looking at the screen. "Hello." He sniffled then stifled a small sneezing fit against the back of his wrist.

"Hello Henry. Gesundheit, you don't sound at all well," said Adam with a slight snicker.

Henry's eyes widened as he recognized Adam's voice. "What do you want?"

"I just wanted to see how the case was going," said Adam.

"If you had anything to do with this murder I'll..."

"Kill me?" Adam said cutting Henry off. "Be my guest. I'd be honored to be your first. What makes you think I had anything to do with this murder?"

"The flowers you left on my desk were the same as the ones found at the crime scene," Henry pointed out.

"Those were just to let you know that I'm watching," said Adam, "and from what I can see, you're no closer to cracking the code than you were when you first caught this case and Dr. Jackson wasn't much help. Don't worry though, I'm here to nudge you in the right direction. Take a closer look at the tattoos."

"I've already gone over every inch of those tattoos a hundred times," Henry protested.

"Look closer, really close," said Adam cryptically.

"Why did you pick white roses?" Henry asked. He had to know whether it was just a coincidence or not.

"You know why."

"But how could you possibly know about..." he trailed off and muffled a series of four sneezes into his handkerchief.

"I've been watching you for a long time Henry. I have all the time in the world and there was no rush to reveal my existence to you."

Henry sighed. "So it was your intention to cause me heartache."

"I'm trying to help you Henry. You need to get Abigail out of your system. Eternity is too long to dwell on the past. It is ironic though, how her favorite flowers which you used to bring her with such love now cause you to dissolve into an allergic mess," Adam replied with a nasty laugh. "I find the nature of your allergies fascinating. In over 2000 years I've never experienced them myself. It has been interesting to see how they change with each death, and I think I could turn it into a game."

"Why would you do that?" Henry asked appalled at the implications of what Adam was saying.

"Boredom Henry, one needs to spice things up every now and then. Now get to work on those tattoos, time is running out," Adam replied and hung up.

Henry stared at his phone for a couple of seconds before putting it back in his pocket. So now he knew that Adam had picked white roses on purpose because of the personal significance they held. He didn't think that Adam had intentionally triggered his allergies, but he seemed terribly amused by it, and had implied that that sort of thing was going to happen more often. After dinner he got on the computer and pulled up the images of the tattooed corpse and began going over them again. He squinted at the screen wondering what Adam had meant when he said to look at the tattoos really close. After about an hour he just clicked repeatedly on the zoom function out of frustration until the image on the screen was a huge pixilated blob. He cocked his head to the side as he realized that there seemed to be some sort of pattern in the pixels. He zoomed out a couple of times and his mouth dropped open at what he saw. The tattoos were all made up of lots of tiny ones and zeros. It was binary code! He grabbed his phone and called Jo right away to inform her of his breakthrough.