Summary:

Henry tries unsuccessfully to snatch the evidence from the lab and Jo threatens to arrest him if he tries to sabotage the case. And he inadvertently explains part of the reason for his strange behavior.

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It had briefly crossed Jo's mind to visit Farber again - briefly. For the man obviously had no way to respond to her questions, so her time would be better spent keeping an eye on Henry, she concluded. To that end just ten minutes ago, she had suggested they have dinner, her treat, but he had asked her for a rain check. He hadn't even offered a lie, just a quick, polite refusal, and a thank you. After he'd hung up, she'd experienced an unexpected pang of rejection. Just a twinge but it was undeniably there. She managed to brush it aside as she jumped up from the paper chaos on her desk that only she knew how to deal with and walked over to the coffee pot for a third refill.

An odd feeling of Déjà vu washed over her as she found herself once again trying to stay mentally one step ahead of Henry during a murder investigation. But her instincts told her to stay at the precinct. Don't go home, don't stake him out at the shop. Stay right here at the precinct.

After refilling her coffee mug, she carried it back to her desk and eyed the time on the wall clock before taking her seat. As she blew on the hot brew to cool it, she suddenly recalled a few weeks ago when Hanson had proudly shown her a cell phone photo of him and a couple of drinking buddies grinning and hugging a bowling league trophy. He had laughingly pointed Stan out in the photo and informed her that he was single and he could "hook them up".

" That is, whenever ya get tired of the Doc," Hanson had playfully informed her.

At the time, she had rolled her eyes and fumed at him as best she could, all the while willing her cheek's smile muscles not to betray her. Nope. She didn't want a hook up with Stan for she was nowhere near being tired of Henry. Confused and frustrated by him at times, yes, but not tired. It surprised her at how much her feelings for him had slowly grown.

It also crossed her mind that it might upset Henry if he knew about the chem teacher having helped them. Although it pained her to think that way, she tried to put herself in Henry's shoes and asked herself what he might do next. A dismaying thought occurred to her that he would try to get at the official evidence in the lab. The same way he'd gotten to that darn pugio before she did so he could hide it or give it to someone else or … she still wasn't quite sure what he had intended to do with it. This whole thing was frustrating as hell but she had to calm down and push her feelings aside. Think like a cop.

A glance at the clock again told her that nearly two hours had passed since she'd called Henry. Time enough, she thought, for him to have figured out what his next move was and she had a pretty good idea of what he would do next. She swallowed back her emotions and realized that she had to stop him from doing something stupid. Again.

vvvv

Unlike the darkened storage area of the Evidence Lockup, the Forensics Biology DNA lab was as brightly lit inside at half-past midnight as it was at half-past noon. Perhaps because of the white walls, ceilings, testing tables, and white hazmat suits worn by the sparse personnel reflecting the artificial light. Ahmi, an overworked technician fought sleep as he sat at his white-topped workstation and did his best to complete a final report regarding tests on a set of stainless-steel ice tongs suspected to be the weapon in a domestic violence case. His attention was drawn to the sound of the door opening and he welcomed the visitor, any visitor, as a reason to take a brief pause from his work.

"Dr. Morgan," Ahmi said. "All suited up. Sure you're not sleepwalking?" he teased.

Henry forced a polite smile and lowered his head before lifting his head back up and replying. "No, no. Wide awake," he replied. "I came to check on the progress regarding the samples in the DeSoto and Glausser cases."

"Oh, that's next," Ahmi replied. He pointed behind him to a metal, wheeled cart in the corner of the lab with taped-up white shipping boxes with EVIDENCE labels on them. "More than one case points to a serial killer, most likely," he further commented.

Henry slowly approached the cart and studied the boxes, wishing he could just light a match to them. He abandoned the reckless thought and felt he should abandon his equally reckless plan to abscond with the evidence.

"I know you're anxious to see if the new evidence is connected to those two cold cases," Ahmi began, "but you'll just have to wait." He finished the report and properly packaged everything to go out then left his seat to stand next to Henry. "But if there is a match, it won't even take the normal two hours to find out."

"Oh? And why is that?" Henry asked.

"Because that DNA?" he replied, pointing at the boxes. "I remember it. Took only minutes to get the results. Lots of weird antibodies in it." He grabbed the large, brown envelope with an Evidence label taped across it and returned to his workstation. "If you don't mind, Doc, I work better without -"

"- without someone breathing down your neck," Henry finished for him. Ahmi nodded and he took that as his cue to make himself scarce. "I'll leave you to your work, then." With that, although with a heavy heart, he left the lab. He removed the hazmat suit, gloves, plastic hairnet, and shoe coverings, and tossed them into the hazardous waste bin. He then armed into his topcoat and wrapped his scarf around his neck. Just as he opened the outer door and stepped into the hallway, he froze at the sound of a familiar voice.

"Fancy meeting you here."

He slowly looked up to see a very serious-faced Jo with her arms crossed. "I was just, ah, checking on something in the lab," he awkwardly replied as he closed the door. She could see right through him, he told himself. Along with the anger that darkened her large brown eyes, he saw hurt. His actions were not only angering her but hurting her again. It couldn't be helped, though. He was trying to protect her.

"Do I need to search you?" she asked tiredly and her head tilted to the side. "Because if you've taken anything out of there or tampered with any evidence again -"

"Don't be ridiculous, Jo," he replied, feigning innocence.

She dropped her arms and stepped closer to him. "Then, what the hell are you doing here at this hour?" she angrily demanded.

He couldn't answer right away and pulled his lips in instead. "I told you; I was just checking on something. Many's the night I've worked into the wee hours, Detective. My presence here is hardly an aberration."

She stepped even closer to him. "Stay away from this lab, Henry," she warned him, her voice low and hoarse. "And don't you dare ef with any of this evidence."

"Jo -"

"If you try to screw things up again, I swear I will arrest you," she continued, still in a hoarse whisper. "Understood?" she asked in a stronger voice, one eyebrow raised.

"Understood," he glumly replied.

She appeared to soften a bit although she lowered her eyes and stepped aside, motioning toward the elevator. "C'mon. I'll run you over to the shop."

He thanked her but they moved in sad silence as they rode the elevator down and exited the building. Once inside her car, the silence hung between them like a slice of winter cold; and they both wondered to themselves how things had gotten to this point after all the drinks, dinners, laughter, and tears they had shared over the past several months. Especially after they'd both begun to imagine cultivating something more meaningful between them.

After they arrived at the shop, Jo parked and they sat there in more silence for a few moments. Henry finally cleared his throat and undid his seat belt. He thanked her again but instead of replying, she let out a protracted yawn that ended in a sharp squeak.

"Oh. Excuse me," she pleaded, shaking her head. "Been a long day."

"I think it would be best if you didn't try to drive yourself home," he told her. "It's okay; you should spend the night."

She yawned a second time and shook her head again. "Well, I hate to be a bother." She smiled sleepily at him. "But I think you're right."

"Of course, I'm right and it's no bother at all," he happily replied.

A little more than ten minutes later, Henry sat on the coffee table and watched her sleep as she lay on the couch in the sitting area. He chuckled softly, not wishing to disturb her. Just half an hour ago, she was angrily threatening to arrest him and now she was asleep on his couch again looking like an angel. He took in a deep breath and slowly released it, awed by her beauty and wondering just when she had stolen his heart. She stirred a bit as she nestled her head into the plush pillow and snuggled under the warm comforter. As she stilled again and quietly slumbered, her earlier words came back to him.

"Why did you lie to us about those DNA results?"

"No living person is that old."

"Jo … I sincerely wish that I could tell you the truth about that DNA," he quietly told her as she slumbered. "It doesn't matter if you'd believe me or not. That, yes, there is a living person as old as those ancient antibodies. To explain it all to you would put you in so much danger. And I can't risk that." He reached over and lifted a strand of hair that had fallen across her cheek with his finger and smoothed it back behind her ear.

"I care too much for you, Jo, to put you in danger of being harmed by Adam. He could shake off his coma any day. The blasted psycho has a way of finding things out about me and about the people important to me. If he ever found out that I had told you about his secret ..." He shuddered at the thought and stood up, unable to voice any more of his fears about Adam. "Sleep tight, my dear."

Only half asleep, Jo felt his fingers brush against her shoulder and her cheek as he tucked the comforter closer around her before he left the room. She heard him click off the light and she felt it safe to open her eyes. She frowned and wondered just what the hell kind of nonsense had he been talking about!

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Information about forensic labs found on the Internet.