I don't own Forever or Danny Phantom.
This was meant to be 5k or shorter. It's now three times as long. Don't know of any better time to post it than when people are bored at home, hopefully this helps with the lock-down blues.
Two of a Kind
Chapter 1
Henry Morgan disliked preforming autopsies on children in the best of circumstances. This was not the best of circumstances.
"It appears the cause of death was the stab wound in the left shoulder. If the knife severed the brachial artery, which it likely did considering the placement and severity of the wound, he could have bled out in moments." Henry glanced down at the wide pool of tacky blood. "And there certainly seems to be enough blood loss to account for that. The knife still being in the wound might have slowed the flow but if it was jostled he still wouldn't have much time."
"Looks like we have a temperature of seventy-one degrees, on the nose," Lucas said, even his normally chipper attitude in the face of death was absent with the young body between them.
Henry frowned. "Cooler than I would have expected, considering the body doesn't seem to have been here long enough to reach ambient temperature. Rigor mortis hasn't set in and won't for hours."
Lucas could only shrug in reply.
"I hate it when it's kids," Detective Hanson said, rubbing the back of his neck and glancing away from the body. "He's gotta be what, fourteen? Not more than that."
"And a runaway if I'm reading his clothes and condition right," Jo Martinez said, from where she crouched by the boy's body.
A jogger discovered the body late in the morning. It was the body of a fourteen year old boy, shaggy and unkempt black hair surrounding a pale and gaunt face. The eyes slit open showed blue and his clothes had weeks of grime and dirt rubbed into them. The body lay tucked away behind a pillar and overgrown bush. Only a taped and worn red shoe poked out visible from the path. It was likely the reason the body remained undiscovered till almost noon.
"There's no sign of a bag or backpack," Henry said, sweeping the scene for any additional clues. "The positioning of the body implies someone attempted to hide it from sight, quite possibly a robbery."
"Don't imagine he had much to steal, but people get desperate on the streets," Hanson said. He looked at the body again and cursed. "Not much older than my boys," he muttered before turning away.
Henry glanced toward Detective Hanson. Many of his coworkers and colleagues considered Henry oblivious, but he was a father and he remembered when Abraham was this old. Looking up, Henry could see a growing crowd of curious bystanders. Thanks to the approaching lunch hour there were more people in the park now.
Henry motioned for an unusually quiet Lucas. "I think we have as much as we can get from him here. We'll get him back to the morgue and start the autopsy."
Lucas nodded. "Sure thing, boss," he muttered and prepared to transport the body.
The morgue was nearly empty thanks to the lunch hour now in full swing. The first thing Henry did was remove the knife, a common steak knife so no help there in determining the killer, and bagged it for Detective Martinez. She arrived from the scene shortly after to collect her evidence.
"Prep the body, would you, Lucas?" Henry said. He handed her the evidence bag and walked her toward the door.
"Thanks," Jo said taking the bag. "I'll run this down to the forensics lab, see if they can get any prints, but don't hold your breathe. This case is going to be back burned so fast your head will spin."
Henry paused. "Back burned? Are you implying that this boy's case will be ignored in favor of other priorities?" After months of working with Jo on homicide investigations, Henry was slowly coming to the understanding that justice, or at least the organizations tasked with carrying her out, was not as blind as they claimed. Still, to casually dismiss a murder investigation even before it started was too much for him.
"Homeless kid stabbed in the park?" Jo shook her head. "There's a good chance it was another homeless person, strong possibility of drugs involvement. The fact is we'll most likely never find out who did it and even if we do get something back from the knife, by the time the lab's done the killer will be long gone."
"Doc!" Lucas called from the exam table.
"Just a moment, Lucas," Henry threw over his shoulder, "But this is someone's child. They deserve closure."
Jo shrugged. "I'm not saying we won't try. We'll run him through the system, see if there's any missing persons reports, try and contact family. Hopefully, he'll have someone to claim him, but too often no one ever shows up. Then, with no one to press for answers… and besides, there really isn't much to go on here," she huffed a sigh. "Look, don't get your hopes up, Henry. I know you're used to our cases coming to a much more satisfying end, but as far as murder investigations go, this is more of a norm than the last couple of cases you've worked."
"Doc!" Lucas called, louder.
Henry huffed, rubbing his forehead. "In a moment!" He focused back on Jo. "We haven't even looked at the body yet, there could very well be vital clues that aid in finding the killer faster than you realize. Already the mystery of body temperature and blood coagulation gives us something more to investigate. Don't give up hope, Detective."
"I admire your optimism." Jo grimaced, looking at Henry in concern. "But this is one type of murder you're just going to have to get used to if you're going to work homicide. Not everything is some intricate plan by a villain. Sometimes it's just humanity being violent."
"HENRY!" Lucas yelled panic in his voice, drawing both Henry and Jo's attention.
"What is it Lucas? What's wrong?" Henry hurried over to the table frowning at Lucas's white face and wide eyes.
"The body!" Lucas gasped, panic not subsiding. "It's-It's-" He threw his hands in a sharp gesture toward the exam table.
Henry looked down at the body and felt the blood drain from his own face. The shirt lay cut open, the tattered remains hanging over the table still under the boy's back. The torso was thin, ribs conspicuous likely from weeks of poor nutrition. Scars crisscrossed over the ribs and abdomen, far more and varied than would be expected on the average runaway. Henry deduced the boy probably came from an abusive background. That wasn't the cause of Lucas's panic. No, the cause was the telltale "Y" shaped scar starting at each shoulder and traveling down the center of the body.
"Wait," Jo said, hands going out as if to stop everything. "Someone's already performed an autopsy?"
"At the very least attempted," Henry breathed as he stepped closer to get a better look, "The incisions have healed so the boy must have survived…" He trailed off, eyes turning toward the stab wound in the shoulder. Blood trickled out of the wound. It leaked out in a slow flow dripping down and soaking into the boy's ragged and destroyed clothing.
"OH SHIT HE'S BLEEDING!" Lucas gasped, not enough breath in his voice to turn it into the yell it should have been. "How can he be bleeding? He was dead!"
Henry surged forward and checked for a pulse under the jaw, sure enough there was a faint thump thrumming under the skin. Medical training kicked in despite Henry's numb shock. He grabbed a wad of gauze lying on the instruments table and pressed it into the wound. His wide eyes kept traveling back to the boy's face despite his frenzied movement because Lucas was right. This boy had been dead.
"He was dead!" Lucas repeated still fixed in his place on the other side of the body.
No… the boy, because this person was still alive. Henry could feel the growing pulse, under his hands gaining strength rather than losing it and being alive turned it from an object to a person. It still didn't change the absolute impossibility of it.
"We stabbed his liver! Seventy-one degrees! He was dead!" It seemed Lucas could not get past that fact.
"We did stab his liver," Henry realized in a rush. "Lucas check the abdominal wound!" Henry should have remembered that sooner than he did. He was still in shock. The medical impossibility now under his care only increased as the boy grew noticeably warmer. The blood flowed faster, staining the gauze red, and the heart beat stronger.
"What?" Jo finally shaking off her own shock. "How is he not dead?" Her gaze darted around from Henry to Lucas and back to the boy.
Almost as if in response to her statement the boy drew in a deep, gasping breath. His body jerked to life, chest moving up and down in juddering leaps. His eyes flew open. He took a wild sweeping look around him, gazing running over Henry, Jo, and Lucas before coming back to Henry in panic.
"Jo! Call 911! Get an ambulance here!" Henry ordered, finally overcoming the shock of the dead coming back to life. Perhaps it was the clear evidence from breath returning to the body or the blue fading into a healthier pink around the lips and face, but he could tackle the mystery before him when the boy was stabilized.
With a guttural "no!" the boy pushed Henry away and rolled off the table.
No one should be able to move like that after losing the amount of blood this boy had. Henry only had a moment to reflect on the fact before the boy grabbed Henry's hunting knife sitting on the instrument table.
"No hospitals! Get away from me!" the boy hissed. He slashed the knife at Henry forcing Henry back another step before bringing the knife up again.
Henry raised both hands in a calming gesture. The boy was now bleeding heavily from his shoulder.
"Alright, let's everyone remain calm," Henry said against his own racing heart. He kept his eyes fixed on the boy but could hear Lucas's fast and heavy breathing behind him, muttering about zombies and the undead. A panic attack from his assistant would not help calm the tension in the air. Henry would have to speak to him about that.
"Hey, hey," Jo said, creeping up from Henry's periphery. "You don't need to be afraid, we're just trying to help." She placed a hand on Henry's arm, gently trying to pull him back. Henry refused to move and waved her off. Thankfully she didn't have her gun drawn but held the other hand up in a calming gesture similar to Henry's.
The boy huffed a strained laugh. "Oh, like I haven't heard that one before," he said, backing up a step. "This is a morgue. You're a cop." He shifted from one foot to another, body tense and trembling.
"Yes," Henry said, taking a step forward despite Jo's insistent tugging on his arm. "You were mistakenly brought here when you were misidentified as deceased." Even as he said it, he knew that was wrong. This boy was dead not even a quarter hour ago, but there was no need to panic the young man even more.
"Sure, it's all just a misunderstanding," the boy growled, scowling from Henry to Jo as he switched pointing the knife from one to the other. "Then there shouldn't be any problem with just letting me go." His gaze flashed to somewhere behind Henry's shoulder, probably the door, before returning to Henry and Jo.
Henry frowned. The boy was panicking less about waking up in the morgue and from being caught. "You're injured," Henry repeated, "let me tend your injury and then we'll discuss you leaving."
"I'm not stupid. You're not that kind of doctor," the boy shifted from foot to foot, eyes darting around for a way past Henry and Jo. "You cut people open, not sew them back together. And I'm not letting that happen."
"I assure you," Henry said taking another slow step forward. "I am more than qualified to treat your injury." Injuries, Henry silently corrected himself, looking at the blood staining the boy's jeans, not as much as he would expect, though. "But first you need to put down the knife."
"Will you let me go?" the boy asked looking from Henry to Jo and back.
No, they would not let a minor with a serious injury whom someone had recently attacked just walk back out on the streets. No need to tell the boy that, though. "We'll talk about that once I've tended to your injuries."
The boy winced, flexing his left hand. He chewed on his lip for a moment. "The cop's gotta go," the boy said, flicking the knife in Jo's direction.
Jo opened her mouth. "It's alright, Detective," Henry said, cutting off any comment she could make. "I think the first order of business is to tend to the injuries and then we can see where to go from there." He glanced over to Jo and found the detective glaring daggers at him. "Lucas and I can look after the wounds. I'm sure you have other matters to attend to first."
"I'll leave when you put down the knife," Jo said turning back to the boy. She softened her usual commanding voice, but still kept the firm tone. "I can't leave you in here with a weapon and threatening my two favorite MEs."
The boy clenched his jaw a couple times. The knife dropped an inch or two. "Promise you'll leave?"
"I'll leave the room when you put the knife down and if you follow Doctor Morgan's instructions," Jo said.
A staring match ensued. The only things breaking the silence was the steady drip of blood from the boy's shoulder to a growing pool on the floor and the boy's shuddering breath. The boy shook with the effort of standing and holding the knife and while his color was better than the bluish-gray of a corpse he was still white as a ghost. At least, Lucas sounded like he got himself under control.
The boy glared at Jo for several moments before he slowly lowered the knife
Jo, in response, backed away. He tracked her movements. When he had brought the knife down to his side, he shuffled to the exam table and set the blade down on it. From the corner of his eye, Henry saw Jo hesitate at the door but motioned for her to leave.
"Would you ensure no one else comes into the lab?" Henry asked. The last thing they needed was new people involved with the situation and shattering the uneasy truce.
Jo nodded and slipped out the door.
Henry turned his entire focus on the boy. Taking a steadying breath, he stepped closer. "Now, let's take a look at that shoulder of yours. Lucas could you go get the first aid kit?"
The boy tensed even more and the shaking increased as Henry drew closer but he left the knife where it lay. Lucas shot off to fetch the white plastic kit. It was an extensive first aid kit, much more so than when Henry first arrived, but Henry being a doctor and working with the police could not in good conscious leave the office kit so woefully under-prepared. Even without the close working relationship with the NYPD, there was always the off chance some poor soul was misidentified as deceased and woke up on the exam table, not unlike the boy in front of him.
Henry frowned as he helped the boy climb back up on the table, facing the door. The boy refused to sit any other way. Yes, Henry heard stories about people being misidentified as deceased and delivered to the morgue. This boy's case was different. The boy had been dead. Henry was certain. Now the boy was not only alive but moving around with surprising strength and lucidity that should be impossible considering the injury and blood loss. There was something more going on here and the possibilities sent Henry's thoughts whirling.
"What's your name?" Henry asked, as he took the first aid kit from Lucas and clicked it open.
The boy hesitated before muttering "David," down into his lap.
That was a lie. Henry would bet money on it. The boy's name could possibly begin with a D but it was not David. Henry couldn't blame the boy for lying, though. At best, the boy was a runaway. At worst…well, Henry would be more sympathetic to the boy's situation than anyone but himself, and perhaps Abe, would realize.
"That's a good name," Henry said, "Does it come with a surname?" he pulled on a pair of gloves, eyeing the wound. The blood flow didn't bear the trademark color and intensity that came with severing a major artery, at least not any more. David probably wouldn't agree to surgery anyway, however much Henry would have preferred someone got a better look at the damage.
David sent him a confused look.
"A last name," Henry clarified forgoing his usual sigh at the degeneration of educational standards.
"Smith," David came back and set his glare back on the floor with the occasional glance toward Lucas and the door. Jo's outline stood on just the other side of the frosted glass doors. There were other figures gathered around her, uniforms by the color of their clothing. She undoubtedly alerted others to the situation. Henry was just relieved no one decided to overrule the decision to keep others out of the room just yet.
"Well, David Smith," Henry said. "I'm going give you a local anesthetic to help with the pain before I examine the wound more and stitch it back together. Any allergies I should know about, latex, iodine?" David shook his head and Henry continued, "While I do that, how about you tell me exactly what happened?"
Henry prepared the wound, ignoring how the boy stiffened even more at the sight of a needle.
"I got stabbed," David said, lifting his uninjured shoulder. "Almost died, got sent here. Not much to tell."
Henry tilted his head to the side and pursed his lips. He made a show of thinking about it for a moment before saying, "Not exactly a complete account of events." Or and honest one, Henry thought before continuing. "When did you get stabbed?" He sterilized the area around the wound.
"In the morning," David said eyes fixed on the floor in front of him, gaze hard and voice flat.
Henry took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He glanced at Lucas who still stood well away from the table, eyeing the boy with simultaneous horror and excitement. No doubt, Henry's assistant was ruminating on those comic books he read at lunch. "Lucas would you leave us for a moment?" Henry asked.
Lucas jerked. He tore his gaze away from David and blinked at Henry. "Uh," he stammered, looking back to the boy and then to Henry again.
Henry leveled a look at Lucas, hoping the younger, more excitable man refrained from stating any misgivings out loud. David was tense enough without adding the stress of Lucas's speculations.
"Yeah, I'll just…" Lucas gestured behind him and nodded. "Yeah." He turned and left, his shadow joining Jo just outside the frosted glass doors. From the sharp movement of Jo's outline, Henry guessed she was not happy about Lucas leaving Henry alone with a potentially dangerous patient.
No matter, Henry turned back to David. Nothing helped build trust like giving a person a good alibi, at least in Henry's experience. "I know this must be very stressful for you," Henry started. "Particularly waking to find yourself in the morgue. Cases of…" he hunted for a plausible excuse for the spontaneous recovery, fabricated or not, and hit on an article he'd read in a medical journal years before, "the Lazarus phenomenon is rare, but it does happen."
"Lazarus Phenomenon?" David asked.
"Spontaneously coming back from the dead," Henry explained in a gentle tone.
David sucked in a breath, stiffened and jerked back from Henry, his glare, sharpened by thin cheeks shot up to Henry. David's hand twitched toward the knife before his tightened it into a fist in his lap. That was a stronger reaction than Henry expected. Combined with the scar on David's chest, Henry could draw at least one possible explanation, however unlikely it seemed. David opened his mouth but Henry spoke first.
Henry held out his hands in a peace offering, sutures in one hand. "Don't worry," he said, "Scientific oddity aside, there is precedence for such a thing. I'll respect your privacy as will Detective Martinez and Lucas. We won't tell anyone." Henry glanced at David's shoulder wound, still bleeding at a worrying rate. David's color paled to sheet while, but considering the boy was stone dead an hour ago, Henry assumed the danger wasn't as serious as with a normal person. He didn't let it worry him…too much. They needed to settle this, gain some trust.
"You don't seriously expect me to believe that," David ground out through clenched teeth, gaze darting between the door and Henry. "You have to fill out paperwork, explain what happened to your boss and whatever other oversight this place has. You're going to have to tell somebody. The people out there are already talking about it."
Henry tried for a rueful smirk, but wasn't sure how much of it made it past the worry. "You'd be surprised how mundane even the most remarkable events can be if phrased the right way on the paperwork," Henry said. "As long as the insurance is satisfied, no one will look any further. As for the talk, rumors always embellish on what actually happened. "
"Why?" David asked, gaze narrowing to slits, "You doctors love shit like this. You can write papers on it, get famous, or grant money, or whatever."
"I'm not worried about that. I'm happy with my own anonymity and I have enough money to be getting on with, I am, however, concerned for you and your safety," Henry said. He moved in slow, like approaching a wounded, frightened animal. "And that includes your own anonymity."
David scoffed. He muttered something under his breath, but remained still as Henry finally began closing the wound.
Henry focused on the wound, tried to project honesty with every motion, every expression, every word, and very carefully did not look at the 'Y' incision scar on David's chest. That scar represented so many of Henry's own fears of discovery, even some of his past experiences. If Henry's conclusion about the boy were true and David did have a condition even remotely similar to Henry's, he would have to proceed with caution. However the boy's immortality worked, if it truly was immortality, he apparently had to carry the scars of his injuries with him to some extent, unlike Henry. Considering the number of them, Henry wondered how long the boy had been alive.
Henry felt a swell of empathy for the boy in front of him. Henry had been in nearly this exact position multiple times. Especially in the early years of his curse, he lived in fear of discovery, of returning to the insane asylum or even falling into the hands of a curious medical professional who let their curiosity overrule their humanity or ethics. Certainly, before Bedlam, he never thought a fellow doctor could deliberately inflict that sort of suffering on another human being. His instincts rebelled against revealing his secret to anyone, but he needed to try and help this boy and for that he needed the boy to trust him.
Perhaps, giving a little more information would be enough. "I…have seen something like this before, not what happened to you, specifically," he hurried when David jerked again at the revelation, "but someone who came back from the dead. I understand why a…situation like that is important to hide. I won't tell anyone, you have my word."
There was still wiggle room to pretend it was a one-time event. In situations like David's and Henry's, plausible deniability could mean everything. Sometimes it was all that stood between Henry and discovery, especially in the last couple of months.
David chewed his lip, eyes flicking to Henry's face, watching Henry's every move. The boy remained steady as Henry stitched in the injury closed, not even a flinch which was both impressive and troubling. Henry let the silence stretch, wary of pushing too hard. Unless the boy managed to slip away from custody, David would be around for at least a short time. Hopefully long enough for Henry to cajole into a real conversation.
Henry finished the stitches. He tacked a pad of gauze over them for the time being. He would have to run David through mobility tests for that arm later. The knife Henry had pulled out could easily leave additional nerve damage. Though, Henry's impression at the crime scene was that the artery had been severed and by all evidence that was no longer the case. Henry just hoped his deductions about the boy's condition were accurate.
Henry turned his attention to the next stab wound, the one from their own liver thermometer. Henry's frown deepened when he checked the side puncture wound. The probe should have entered David's liver, should still be bleeding regularly, but the bleeding had nearly stopped.
"Don't worry about it," David hissed and brought a hand to clamp over the wound. "It'll be fine."
Henry looked up at the boy, equal parts concerned and intrigued.
David's gaze shifted to the doors behind Henry. Raised voices came from the other side a moment before they opened.
David's arms flew up to cross over his chest. Henry scowled and gently pulled the boy's injured arm down again. He shuffled his feet to put himself between the boy and whomever came into the room. At least, there was no major nerve damage.
"Keep that arm still as much as possible," Henry said. He swept the lab coat off himself and onto David's shoulders. He pulled the front closed hiding the many scars over David's torso.
David's eyes flicked up to Henry's, glare dropping off his face in shock. Henry gave a small smile and nodded in encouragement. The corner of David's mouth twitched in an almost smile before flattening again as the intruder spoke.
"You must be David," a woman's voice said behind Henry. Henry recognized the voice as Liz Jenkins, the liaison between the police department and child protective services. "I heard about what happened and came down as soon as I could. Is he alright?" She turned her question to Henry.
"He'll mend," Henry said, turning to face the woman. "There doesn't seem to be any significant nerve damage, but he'll need to have it checked more thoroughly to be sure." He never much liked the bureaucrat. Her job was necessary, Henry knew, and it was often thankless. The few times he'd been in her office the woman's desk was buried in active files. Her makeup didn't quite cover the dark circles under eyes, either. Still, she long since seemed to give into the letter of the law rather than the spirit of it.
Ms. Jenkins nodded. Jo stood behind her, glaring only mildly at the child protective service agent's back. Lucas stood next to her, shifting from foot to foot and worrying at his lip.
"Good, it's lucky I was already in the building for another case, saves the trip of coming back," Ms. Jenkins pulled out some paper work from her brief case with a put-upon sigh. "We might as well get this started, do you have any family that can come get you while the police work on your case?"
"There is no case," David spoke up, drawing frowns from the adults in the room.
"David, you were stabbed," Jo said, frown torn between puzzled and cautious. "We need to investigate that, make sure whoever did it doesn't hurt you or anyone else again."
David shrugged and crossed his arms over his chest. He dropped them to his side again as he caught Henry's glare for moving his injured arm. Instead, he reached up with his uninjured arm and held the lab coat closed with a fisted grip. "You can look for the guy all you want. Even if you find him, I'm not pressing charges so nothing's gonna come of it. Now can I leave?"
Jo furrowed her brow, opening her mouth to reply but Ms. Jenkins spoke before she could.
"You're a minor, you can't leave without proper adult supervision. Now do you have family we can contact or not?" Ms. Jenkins set her over-full brief case on the table and dug through the contents.
"No, I don't," David ground out, scowling at the woman. "What's more, I don't need any. I can look after myself."
"The injury to your shoulder says otherwise," Ms. Jenkins said, focused on her search. "State law requires you have a guardian, unless you have an official letter of emancipation?" She looked at David's scowling face then turned back to her briefcase. "I thought not."
"Perhaps if I talked to David," Henry spoke up. The last thing they needed was this bureaucrat distancing David any more than necessary.
Ms. Jenkins shifted her gaze from David to Henry and back again. "Fine. I'll go get the documents ready to put him in State custody. In the meantime, try and confirm if he has a guardian or not." Then she turned and left.
Henry glared at the door. He knew the woman was over-worked, probably underpaid, and definitely calloused to this sort of situation. Henry himself had times when the amount of pain he felt and saw over his long lifetime seemed to numb him from recognizing the tragedies happening around him. Still, he managed to find it in him to keep a good bedside manner. Couldn't she?
Shaking his head, Henry turned back to David. Now was not the time to reflect on Ms. Jenkins or her bedside manner. "Detective, would you give me a moment with David alone?"
Jo looked between the two of them, then nodded. She dragged Lucas back out into the hall and Henry found himself alone with the boy once again.
"You need to come up with a guardian," Henry said, without preamble.
"I told you, don't have one, don't need one." David looked away, a scowl settling on his face.
Henry shook his head. "You need to realize, the NYPD is not going to let you leave on your own. You're a minor and there are laws concerning your welfare. It is far better for your…" Henry considered several words he could use without outright saying anything indiscrete, "situation if you do not have to spend time with a city provided guardian."
"Yeah, we all know what those can be like," David muttered, rolling his eyes. His gaze slid back to Henry and he scrutinized the doctor. "Why do you care?"
Henry couldn't say he thought he knew what David was going through, that Henry had experienced something similar. He couldn't reveal his own secret. Too many years of carefully tight lips prevented that so Henry settled for something vague, "I've seen people in your situation before," he ignored David's sotto voiced "doubt it" and pushed on, "believe me it's better if you can call someone, anyone. Perhaps a family friend, employer, school teacher, even a shelter employee would work for a short term basis. It just needs to be someone you know who can agree to look after you for a short time."
"I'm Houdini, they're never going to hold on to me for long," David shrugged, a thankfully one-shouldered gesture.
Henry shook his head. "I have no doubt, but it will be easier to just produce someone that is willing to take you in for a short time if you can rather than have the department immediately notified of your escape. At the very least, it would give you a chance to rest and recover before going out on your own again." Henry had been in similar situations where he needed to choose between escape and bluffing his way out of some conundrum.
David grimaced. He looked down at his right hand, flexed it a couple times before cursing and shaking his head. "Would you be willing to do it?" he asked after a moment of silence.
Henry opened his mouth, closed it, then cocked his head. "I'm not sure…" he tapered off. While his initial reaction was to reject the idea, it would provide the opportunity to observe the boy more thoroughly. Henry would be able to perhaps investigate how this boy went from being dead with a mortal wound to alive with an injury half as dangerous as the initial wound. It may not be exactly like Henry's own condition but it was close enough to warrant further exploration. If the end result of the boy's condition was immortality, like Henry, they would most likely run across paths again in the future and Henry would like someone to share immortality with besides Adam. If he was wrong about the whole thing, a few days was hardly going to reveal any secrets.
"Very well," Henry said, still hesitant, "You're welcome to stay at my home for a short while, but only until we find better accommodations."
"You mean until the heat dies down and I can disappear like the ghost I am," David said, smirk creeping into his expression.
Henry drew in a deep breath, already regretting his decision. "I mean, until we find you better accommodations than the last minute state custody they'll produce today. Really, the street is no place for a person your age, and especially not injured like you are. I've worked in this office long enough to have seen my fair share of runaways end here."
David huffed, muttering some comment under his breath about age that Henry failed to catch in full.
Henry turned and called Jo and Lucas back into the room. "I'll be looking after David for the time being."
"You?" Jo repeated pulling back with her face scrunching in confusion. "Do you even know how to handle kids much less a teenager?"
"It'll only be for a few days," Henry said, trying hard not to be insulted. He'd been closed off with his co-workers, they had no reason to expect he'd been a father in a former life.
David scoffed at the same time. "I can handle myself just fine, especially with a guaranteed roof over my head."
Jo looked between Henry and David a moment, a smirk growing on her face. "This might be entertaining. I'm going to go start the paperwork for you. Oh, and I want to be there when you tell Abe."
Lucas, however, shifted from one foot to another, concerned expression twitching from David to Henry. He stepped forward, grabbing Henry's arm and pulled him to the other end of the room. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" he hissed, glancing back to where David stared at them. "That kid is basically a zombie."
"Lucas," Henry sighed, shoulders sagging and eyes rolling.
Lucas held up two shaking hands. "Alright, I'll grant you he's showing way too much cognitive function so maybe he's not a zombie. He is a vampire or something, though. He was dead, definitely dead and now he's not! And that stab would? Somebody was clearly trying to stab him through the heart, exactly where you would stab a vampire if you wanted to kill it! Add in the "y" incision scars? Come on! You're the observant one here, how are you not seeing this?"
"I can hear you, you know," David said.
Lucas flinched and pulled Henry into Henry's office before closing the door. Henry shifted so he could keep an eye on David through the window. "Lucas, you're being irrational. There are no such things as vampires."
"Well, that's not true," Lucas huffed. "I dated this girl in college-"
Henry spoke up and over any unfortunate information he was about to learn about Lucas's previous dating experiences. "Vampires in the supernatural and mythological sense do not exist. There is a perfectly rational explanation for what has happened here and we will find it." Well, perhaps not rational in the sense of conventional science, but whatever it was, the explanation certainly didn't include vampires.
Movement from the examination room caught Henry's eye and he refocused his attention. David was gone. Henry rushed out of his office and up the center aisle. David lay on the ground gasping for breath through clenched teeth and face screwed up in pain.
"You shouldn't be moving around," Henry rebuked as he took David's arm and helped him off the floor.
The boy was pale and his eyes were clenched shut. He nodded. "Yeah," he breathed, teeth still clenched tight. "This is going to take a day or two."
"I should think so," Henry said, flashing back to when Abraham was a teenager and pushed things too far. Boys never really changed, no matter what decade it was. Perhaps, he wasn't as ready to have a teenager in the house as he thought.
TBC…