Sunday evening, 30 minutes to Episode 4 ...
"You're getting quite the hang of that," Jo teasingly observed as Henry worked her remote to bring the TV to life.
He set it down on the end table to his left and smiled. "Well, I've sort of been practicing with Abraham's. His remote is shaped like a gun." He playfully rolled his eyes over to her.
"A gun?" she asked, surprised. "Kids." She shook her head with a mock-frown and they both laughed. "How's his back?" A slight smile still graced her lips but her expression was one of pure concern.
"Well, if he follows his doctor's instructions - "
"Yours?" she interrupted.
"- and takes his prescribed pain medication," he nodded, "it should be fine in about a week." He shifted back against the cushions and sighed. "And I hope he's learned his lesson that he simply can't lift heavy objects like he once could."
"He did say that he didn't know the ottoman was that heavy," Jo offered in her friend's defense.
"He thinks he's still a kid!" Henry scoffed, shaking his head slightly.
"Compared to you, he is!" she chuckled.
He smiled and rolled his eyes but continued to hammer his point home. "Abraham is stubborn, rarely wants to take anyone else's advice, insists on doing things his way, and can be a general pain in the ... rear sometimes."
Jo raised her eyebrows and fought against a smile. "Like father, like son," she pointed out.
Henry's eyes slid from corner to corner, then up, then down. "I believe I've just been insulted."
Jo threw her head back and laughed, her eyes crinkling shut and her thick, brown mane falling back over her shoulders.
Henry frowned a bit, feigning hurt and added, "I'm certain I've just been insulted."
She leaned and reached over him to retrieve the remote. He took advantage of their sudden close proximity and placed his arm around her waist, pulling her closer.
"Sorry that our plans for a chaperone fell through," he whispered, his breath warm against her cheek. But there was no real remorse in his voice or in his laughing eyes. In fact, he was rather going to enjoy another evening alone with the lovely, doe-eyed detective.
"Oh, don't worry," she whispered back, her warm breath pleasantly whisping against his lips. "Abe's replacement should be arriving any minute." She gave him a quick peck on the lips and, grabbing the remote, reclaimed her perch on the couch half a cushion away from him.
"Replacement ... ?" He eyed her and, confused, leaned forward a bit.
"You see, a transformer blew and cut the power to Lucas' apartment building so - "
"Lucas?" he asked, slightly alarmed with disbelief.
"So ... I invited him over to watch the latest episode with us."
Henry sat forward, elbows resting on his knees, clasped hands shifting nervously against each other. His brow was knitted but his eyes had widened to owlish proportions. "Lucas?" he repeated. "Jo, how could you even think to - " Knocking at the door interrupted the beginnings of their semi-disagreement.
"That should be him," Jo said, pushing herself up off of the couch. Thankful for the interruption, she quickly walked over to open the door for a timid but grateful looking Lucas. "Come on in," she greeted him.
"Lucas," Henry murmured under his breath and put on his best false smile to welcome his assistant. "Nice to see you," he said much louder as he stood up to shake hands and exchange greetings. His eyes slid over to meet Jo's as she directed the young man to sit in an overstuffed armchair on her side of the couch.
"I really appreciate the invite," he gushed, settling into the chair. "Wouldn't want to miss any of this show and how cool is this to be able to get your thoughts, Big Guy, on the action as it's goin' down."
"The action. Quite." Henry pressed his lips together and forced a smile again at Lucas' fanboy grin.
"Oh, uh, I kinda got hung up in traffic on the way over," Lucas said. "Could I use your ... bathroom ... please?"
"Oh, sure, sure," Jo motioned to the hallway. "First door on the right," she called after him. She then turned to Henry. "Best I could do at the last minute," she told him in a whispery tone. After a moment of studying his look of apprehension, she said, "Oh, come on, it'll be fun with him here. And he thinks the world of you," she said, pointing at him. "And you of him," she reminded him, bumping his shoulder with hers.
"Yes, I suppose you're right." He ducked his head, slightly embarrassed. "It's just that ... well, he doesn't know ... you know, about me." As he spoke he placed the outstretched fingers of his right hand over his chest where his scar would be. "And I don't want to slip up and say the wrong thing."
"You'll be fine." She patted his hand and squeezed it but released it when they heard Lucas walking up the hall and back into the living room.
"Hey, it's on," Lucas announced. He quickly retook his seat and they all settled back to watch the fourth installment of "The Morgan Chronicles".
vvvv
After a quick recap of the previous episode, the opening scene unfolded onto a ship at sea in the middle of a raging thunderstorm. The year displayed on the screen was 1814. Under the angry and darkened night sky, the camera angle tightened in on the hull to reveal the ship's name: Empress of Africa.
Lucas' mouth formed an O and then he chuckled. "Same name as the ship in the Rick Rasmussen murder case." He looked over at Henry and waited expectantly for his confirmation.
"It ... would appear so," Henry uneasily agreed. "The fruits of good research by the show's production staff."
Lucas nodded, mouth still agape, then his head snapped back to the screen. The trio watched Henry's onscreen persona steal down to the hold of the ship and attempt to pass a key to one of the enslaved men. He snatches it back when interrupted by the angry captain who suspects him of having stolen the key. He later threatens him.
"You may be the owner's son, but out here at sea, I'm judge and jury. One wrong move - "
"And what?" Henry defiantly challenges. They're interrupted by a crew member who informs the captain of a slave with a fever and Henry offers to examine him.
"They're probably gonna throw the slave overboard if he is sick," Lucas somberly predicted. "That's what they did back then," he sighed.
"He just has a fever," the doctor declares. "He'll be fine." He stands and faces the angry captain, hoping that his diagnosis will suffice to save the apparently frightened man with silver-colored eyes from a drowning death. The captain ignores the non-cholera diagnosis, denounces the man as being property and then orders his men to throw him overboard. The doctor desperately attempts to intercede, shouting that the man is not infected but his words fall on deaf ears. The captain orders him to step aside but he refuses and defiantly stands his ground.
"I cannot let you do this." The screen shows the doctor's eyes filled with terror over the man's fate and disgust over the captain's murderous decision. His quickened breathing causes his chest to heave. He knows by uttering those words that he seals his own fate.
"Then, so be it!" the captain shouts and fires a single shot from his flintlock pistol into the doctor's chest and he falls down amongst the crates of cargo.
At the same time, both Lucas and Jo flinched at the sound of the gunfire but Henry shot straight up to his feet. Jo quickly stood up next to him and grasped his clenched fists. She'd been so wrapped up in watching the scene that she only now noticed the sweat on his brow, his rapid breathing, and how the small muscles knotted and flinched in his face. His large eyes were wide with anger and she knew that he was reliving his first death through the images on the TV screen.
Fortunately, Lucas was still transfixed by the scene as it continued, showing Henry and the enslaved man he'd tried to save, being brought out of the cargo hold past the pen that held the other Africans. A key dropped from Henry's hand, unnoticed by the murderous-minded captain and crew, and it was stealthily retrieved by the slave named Osa. The same man Henry had tried unsuccessfully to secret the key to earlier.
"Wow, they, they got the key but ... too bad for those two guys," Lucas whispered. By the time he looked over at Henry and Jo for their reactions and input, Jo had wordlessly managed to calm the Immortal and get him seated again. Although his boss looked a little pale to him, Lucas concluded that it was from having watched the intense scene. He opened his mouth to say something but jerked his head back around to the TV screen at the sound of a large splash, then another.
Henry cringed at the sight of the two men being tossed mercilessly into the raging sea. His own memories rewound, independent of the images on the TV screen and, once again, he felt the physical pain of being shot; the vague perception through a semi-conscious fog of being carried then tossed overboard, crashing into and sinking beneath the angry depths. As if the depiction and his own memories of that horrific event weren't enough to upset him, the end of the scene caused him to nearly choke.
The captain hastily issues an order for his men to retreat once again from the raging storm into the bowels of the ship. A straggling crew member casts remorseful eyes at the spot where the two men had just been thrown over. He suddenly leans forward, gripping the side of the ship, his eyes widened in wonder. As lightning lights up a patch of water more brilliantly than any lightning strike he'd ever seen, he sees the doctor, recently claimed by the deep, shoot up out of the water apparently unharmed - and naked! The ship is moving at a fast enough clip that the image of the once dead man grows smaller and disappears along with the lightning bolt. He continues to lean and strain his eyes but he sees the sight no longer. A large wave crashes into the side of the ship, causing it to roll and knocks him down. He manages to frantically scramble to his feet and finally seeks the shelter of the below quarters. The scene ends with him safely below but shaking like a leaf on a tree from head to toe, both amazed and frightened at what he'd just witnessed.
"Never let a word of this drop from yer lips, Dundee," he warns himself, nervously wiping the sweat from his upper lip. "It's Bedlam for sure." He straightens up and realizes, "Or, more likely, the deep for you, as well."
At the start of the first of many commercials, Jo lowered the TV's volume instead of muting it, out of courtesy for their guest. But the room lay eerily silent for each of them felt impacted in different ways by the closing scene.
Henry, already on the edge of his seat, cast nervous glances between Jo and Lucas. His gaze rested mostly on his hands, though, as he struggled to calm himself. He wondered what thoughts were now in Lucas' imaginative mind. Was he putting two and two together, matching up the then with the now of Henry emerging from a waterway naked? Bollocks! It was his idea that he and Jo have a chaperone but it would have been so much better, so much easier if Abraham had been able to be there instead of ... instead of anyone else who didn't know his secret. But he knew he couldn't blame Jo. It wasn't her fault that he was the way he was.
Jo, sensing his agitated state, loudly asked, "Tea cakes anyone?" She jumped to her feet and tugged Henry's arm until he stood up, as well. "Yeah, help me bring 'em in, Henry." She continued to tug on his arm and motioned with her head towards the kitchen. Henry finally nodded and placed his hand on the small of her back and followed her. "We'll be right back, Lucas," she promised.
Lucas, uncharacteristically quiet and deep in thought, muttered an inaudible response, his eyes roaming around the room. Jo's words registered late with him and he turned to watch them just as they disappeared behind the kitchen door. He stared at the closed door for several seconds then shook his head, grinning slightly. "Strange coincidence. That's all."
Jo opened the fridge and brought out a plate of tea cakes her niece had baked in cooking class. "Grab some saucers, please," she asked Henry. While he did that, she grabbed the milk from the fridge, as well. "Glasses," she indicated with a nod at the cupboard. "Napkins," she muttered to herself and busily placed them on the kitchen island next to everything. She then hugged Henry and buried her face against his shoulder.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," she managed through her tears. "I shouldn't have let Lucas come over here to watch this ... stupid show with us!" She shook her head causing her long tresses to tangle and bounce across her shoulders.
He felt oddly calm now, about the whole situation. He hugged her, rubbing one large palm up and down her back and kissed her on the side of her forehead. "Not your fault, darling." He kissed her forehead again and pulled back to look down into her upturned, tear-stained face. "Perhaps it's fate."
"How so?" she asked, wiping tears from her cheeks.
"Oh, I've been secretly entertaining the idea of letting our other three close colleagues in on my secret." She frowned up at him and he answered her unspoken question.
"It makes sense, Jo. My secret of immortality is a huge burden for you to have to carry all by yourself. And I ... I feel that they deserve to know, too." He also felt a great sense of relief if Lucas was managing to peek behind the mysterious shroud that surrounded his life. He picked up one of the napkins and dabbed at her eyes and her cheeks.
"Let's have no more of that, shall we?" She nodded and her smile met his in a loving kiss. They pulled away from each other and Henry jokingly suggested that they get back into the other room with their chaperone - ASAP.
vvvv
"Mike. Isn't that funny?" his wife, Karen, asked. "They have your friend's ancestor bobbing up in the water naked." The slight smile on her face gradually faded, though. "Nice touch, guys," she added sarcastically, referring to the show's writers.
"Yeah, funny," he softly replied. But it wasn't really funny to him. It was ... strange. Another strange coincidence? he thought. "Uh, excuse me, hon, I have to make a call." She was aware of his uneasiness and asked if everything was okay.
"Yeah, yeah, just remembered something I gotta call in real quick," he assured her. He managed a smile and patted her hand before stepping out onto the front porch to call Lucas. He paced back and forth impatiently until the call connected and Lucas answered.
"Lucas. This is Mike ... Yeah ... What are ya doin' over there?! ... Oh, well, get some privacy away from them ... Go out on the porch like me!" He heaved an exasperated sigh then said, "Good." He tapped one foot nervously as he waited for Lucas to come back on the line.
"Did you see that?" he asked Lucas, emphasizing each word but careful to keep his voice down this time.
("Look, I don't like talking behind their backs. Behind the Doc's back," he said. "Feels like I'm being, I don't know, disloyal or something.")
Mike drew out a long sigh. "I know but ... that last bit where the guy ... Yeah, that Henry was thrown overboard fully clothed then, supposedly he died but was seen alive and naked in the water. Skinny dippin' just like the Doc!"
("Yeah, I saw it," Lucas uncomfortably replied. "I gotta go back in before they get suspicions.")
"I'm just askin' a question." He paused for Lucas' reply that never came then he sighed. "You're right. Guess I just got a little carried away." He ran a hand through his hair. "Don't mind me," he chuckled a bit. "Go on back inside. Enjoy the rest of the show."
("No problem. G'nite.")
The call ended, Mike went back into his home and resumed watching the rest of the show already in progress. He sat back down on the couch next to Karen and gave her a quick hug.
"Business taken care of?" she asked.
"Yeah," he replied. "What's going on now?"
"Well, it's the next year already, uh, 1815. Somehow he survived that awful business at sea and he made it back home to England, can you believe it? The writers want us to believe that a person could have survived being shot point blank in the chest with a gun like that one," she scoffed.
"It would have blown a hole in his chest you could put your fist in," Mike said, his brow knitted. 'And made hamburger of his heart.'
vvvv
Lucas knocked on Jo's door again but his earlier enthusiasm over viewing the episode was now gone. Mike's phone call had suddenly put a damper on the evening for him and he fought against a sinking feeling in his stomach. He didn't like talking behind the Doc's back. Jo's either. After all, it was just a silly TV show. Wasn't it?
Jo opened the door wide for him but he stayed put on the doorstep. "Aren't you coming back in?"
"Uh, no, uh, something came up and I gotta bail."
"Oh. Okay. When it rains it pours, huh?" Jo rhetorically asked.
"Yeah," he chuckled, "Well, gotta book. Bye. And thanks for letting me come over even for a short time." He smiled and crept backwards down the stairs then turned and walked quickly away to the subway.
"Glad you could come," Jo replied. "See ya later." She watched him curiously as he walked then ran down the street away from her house. She closed the door then rejoined Henry on the sofa.
"Another one bites the dust," she jokingly told him.
"I take it we've lost our substitute chaperone, as well?"
Jo simply smiled and shrugged then turned her attention to the TV screen. "What's going on? What'd I miss? Who's the other guy?" Before Henry could answer any of her questions, she said, "Ohhh, Father Sullivan - old."
Henry filled her in on the flashback that had just ended of Nora having him committed to an asylum when he tried to tell her that he was now immortal after having been shot and killed by the captain of the slave ship.
"I was hauled off in a straight jacket like a veritable lunatic to Charing Cross Asylum where they experimented on me with so-called scientific methods to restore my sanity. After several months I was transferred to Warick Prison where I was simply forgotten; left to waste away and die." He gnashed the words out as he warily eyed Father Sullivan onscreen, happily saying that he believes his claim of immortality and that he knows how to help him.
"Is this where ... "
"Yes. This is when we planned my 'escape', my self-demise by ... hanging." Tight-lipped and tense, he visibly relaxed and blinked several times when the scene advanced to Father Sullivan being relentlessly questioned by prison authorities about his cellmate's escape.
Although defrocked for more than three years, the former clergyman refused to share any details of any of their conversations and swore that he "knew not how the young man had managed to escape". In truth, he didn't know. The why and how of Henry's immortality were a mystery.
The camera rolled over the inside of the abandoned ruins of the crumbling, dungeon-like prison as it stood today. Unnarrated wording without accompanying music scrolled up declaring that prison authorities never learned details of Dr. Henry Morgan's escape or who had aided him. Also, that even though his whereabouts after his escape remained unknown, there were unconfirmed sightings of him over the next 60 years.
"Well," Henry sighed with relief, "it would appear that my 'character' has finally fallen out of the story."
"And into legend," Jo added, smiling.
"Obscurity has always served me better," he noted with a tight-lipped smile.
vvvv
Joanna Reece lay alone and awake in her bed since her husband, Gregory, was at a late night meeting with his boss, Mayor Quarrels. Making sure that his boss came across well in an upcoming press conference and an early morning appearance on CNN was ruled more important than him sitting home to view a TV show with his wife. Their busy schedules often clashed, cutting into their time together, but they'd managed to keep the vibrancy in their marriage for 23 years.
Some explosive details in the latest episode nudged at her, fighting against her ability to fall asleep: the Henry Morgan character apparently survived a deadly gunshot wound and later appeared to be naked in the water. He'd gone in fully clothed, apparently died, but emerged moments later naked. Naked. His character had also claimed to be immortal? It remains unknown how he managed to escape from the fortified prison he was placed in or where he escaped to, but there were unconfirmed sightings of him for the next 60 years? She didn't like the conclusions her thoughts were forcing upon her so she chose to cap a lid on them.
"Oh, this is crazy," she said out loud. "Good night, Morgan Chronicles!" With that, she rolled over on her side, punched her pillow, and finally nestled into a sleep of dreams.
Notes:
Contains references to Forever TV shows S01/E01 Pilot; S01/E08 The Ecstacy of the Agony; S01/E15 Dead Men Tell Long Tales