After they get back from the river, James finally gets to hear Henry's long story.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. I'm merely borrowing them for my own amusement.
Warnings: Adult Themes, Slash, Temporary Character Death, mentions of Suicide
Spoilers: General spoilers for the whole of Season 1.
Author's Notes: This story exists in an alternate universe in which James Carter is alive in present day. Henry and James had been dating for awhile before Henry started working with Jo. I'm not sure when exactly this story is supposed to take place, but it's probably before the events of episode 8. This story was written for the Big Reveal Ficathon event.
After they arrived home from the river, Henry went to take a hot shower, and James helped Abe to get dinner ready. James tried to ask Henry questions during dinner, but Henry insisted that it was a long story, and that he wanted to enjoy his meal before delving into such emotional subjects. After dinner, Henry and James retired to the living room with a bottle of wine, and Abe went up to his bedroom to give them some privacy. Henry sat on one end of the couch and James was stretched out with his head in Henry's lap.
"Ok Henry, I'm ready for this long story of yours," said James smiling warmly up at Henry.
Henry took a deep breath and ran his fingers through James's hair for a few moments to calm himself before answering. "Well, it really is a long story, and one that is neither easy to tell or to hear for the first time. I'm not sure if I will get through the entire thing tonight, but I will try to fill you in on the important details."
"It's alright. I'm not going anywhere," James promised. He sipped his wine and rubbed soothing circles against the palm of Henry's hand.
"I only hope that you still feel that way after I've finished my tale." Henry took a long sip of his wine before continuing. "I was born on September 19th, 1779."
"You really are that old?" James asked in astonishment.
"Yes James. I'm 235 years old," Henry confirmed, "but thankfully I stopped aging when I was thirty-five years old."
James chuckled. "Wow, I'm dating an old man. That will take some getting used to, but it explains why you're such an expert on the 18th and 19th centuries. What was it like for you growing up?"
"Well I came from a fairly wealthy family in England. I had all the best tutors, and when I was old enough I went to medical school and became a doctor. As I said, this is a very long story, so perhaps we can speak more of my childhood another time. My father owned a shipping company, and due to some financial difficulties, he had started transporting slaves. I was furious with him of course, but he was insistent that this was his only option. After his death in 1814, I boarded one of the ships with the intention to free the slaves on board. I was so close to getting the cell key to one of the slaves, but then the captain alerted me that one of the slaves was sick, so I went to examine him. He just had a simple fever, and I told the captain that he would be fine, but the captain was convinced that it was something more serious, and he ordered the slave thrown overboard. I tried to intervene, and only got shot and thrown overboard myself for my trouble."
"That was the first time you died wasn't it? It's the real story of how you got that scar on your chest isn't it?" James asked, reaching up to place a hand on Henry's chest over where his scar was located.
Henry covered James's hand with his own and squeezed it tightly. "Yes, I died that night. I can't explain it, but I somehow revived in the middle of the ocean completely naked. I haven't aged a day since then, and every time I die, I revive again in the nearest large body of water naked and completely healed."
"So what exactly happens to your clothes when you die?" James asked with a teasing smirk.
Henry chuckled. "If only I knew James. It's a rather expensive side effect of dying."
James laughed but then sighed sadly. "I really wish you had told me all of this sooner."
Henry let out a shuddering breath as painful emotions threatened to overwhelm him. "I wanted to James, really I did, but I was afraid. I've had some very bad experiences with people finding out about my immortality. This has made it very difficult for me to trust people with my secret. It took me a year to make my way home to my wife after my first death. At first, she was just overjoyed that I was alive and didn't question the miracle. Eventually, she wanted to know what had happened to me and how I got the scar on my chest. I told her the truth and she didn't believe me. I foolishly tried to prove it to her. I was going to slit my wrists. She lied and told me that she believed me just to get me to stop. Then the next day she had me sent to an insane asylum."
James gasped in disbelief. "My god, how awful! Was this Abigail that did this?"
"No no no! Not Abigail, she came later. This was my first wife Nora," Henry explained. "I trusted her and she betrayed me, though in hindsight I'm not entirely sure I can blame her. The asylum was a horrid place though. It was cold, damp, and filthy. The treatments they tried on me amounted to torture. At one point they tried 'hydrotherapy' on me, which was basically the same thing as waterboarding."
"Oh Henry, you poor man," said James, his voice full of sorrow for the man he loved. He sat up and turned to put his arms around Henry who leaned into his embrace, resting his head on his shoulder.
Henry felt his eyes fill with tears, hearing James use the same words that Abigail had used when she had found out about his immortality. "That wasn't even the worst of it. I've been hung, burned at the stake, exsanguinated, and dissected when people have learned of my immortality. I encountered Nora once again many years later in 1865. My name and face was in the papers after saving a child from a burning building and she recognized me. She could see that I hadn't aged in all that time, and she finally believed me. And yet, she betrayed me once again by attempting to shoot me to prove my immortality to the world. A nurse, that I had been romantically involved with at the time, stepped in front of me and was killed."
"Henry I am so sorry. I just can't even imagine the amount of suffering you've endured. I understand why you felt you couldn't tell me." James held Henry a bit closer and rubbed his back soothingly.
Henry sighed sadly. "Even if I had summoned the courage to tell you, you wouldn't have believed me."
James shook his head. "Abe said there were photographs and documents to prove it though."
"Perhaps those would have been enough to convince you," Henry conceded, "but I don't think you would have truly understood until you saw it for yourself like you did tonight."
"Well witnessing your death certainly lowered the burden of proof on your end," James mused.
"Yes, it certainly did," Henry replied with a wry grin. "Abigail saw me die as well. I died in her arms after being stabbed by her ex-boyfriend. She was the first person to truly accept who and what I am without question."
"How did Abe find out?" James asked. "He seems pretty accepting of you."
Henry nodded. "Yes he is, and he's probably much more tolerant of me than I deserve. It was quite different with Abe. By the time he was fifteen, he began to realize his father wasn't aging, so Abigail and I sat him down and explained everything."
James's mouth dropped open in surprise. "His father? Abe is your son?"
"Yes, Abigail and I adopted Abraham at the end of World War II. He was rescued from a concentration camp," Henry explained.
"Wow I just... now that I think about it, the way you act around him is exactly like a father would with their son, but I always interpreted it the other way around. So if we ever got married I'd be saddled with a 70 year old step-son?" James asked with a teasing grin.
Henry laughed. "I suppose so, not that you could ever say so in public." Henry's expression darkened again as thoughts of Abigail filled his head. "I'm not sure marriage would be the best thing though with my condition."
James frowned. "What does that matter if we love each other?"
Henry sighed sadly as he let the memories wash over him. "Abigail and I were madly in love, and we had a wonderful marriage, even if she had to sacrifice a lot in order to be in a relationship with me. Eventually, when it looked as if she was old enough to be my mother, the strain was too much for her, and she left."
"Henry, I'm not Abigail," James said and kissed Henry tenderly on the cheek. "I plan on staying with you for a very very long time whether or not we get married."
"You have no idea how happy that makes me to hear you say that. I was so afraid that you'd want to leave after learning the full truth about my condition." He lifted his head up to kiss James softly.
James returned the kiss and caressed Henry's now healed arm. "Nope, you can't get rid of me that easily. So is there anyone else that's currently alive that knows your secret besides me and Abe?"
"Well there is one other person, but I'd rather not talk about him right now," Henry replied uncomfortably.
"Henry please, no more secrets?" James pleaded.
Henry sighed in defeat. "Alright, I suppose this is something you should know about. He calls himself Adam, though I am certain that this is not his real name. He is an immortal like myself, the only other one that I am aware of. He is much older than I am, over 2000 years old. He is a mentally unstable psychopathic serial killer, and he has been stalking me for a few months."
"Oh my god Henry! Why didn't you tell me you had a stalker!" James all but shouted.
"Because I didn't want to worry you, and it would have been difficult to explain about my stalker without explaining my immortality as well. It's not as if he can truly hurt me. He's killed me once already and I'm still here," Henry pointed out.
"But he is hurting you, because, with the exception of dying in your sleep like you did tonight, dying still hurts you doesn't it?" James asked desperately.
"Yes, I do still feel the pain of my deaths, but it's only temporary. In any case, there isn't much I can do about it. Suppose the police actually caught him and put him in prison. He'd simply commit suicide and escape that way. Don't worry, I'll be alright," Henry said, giving James's hand a reassuring squeeze.
James sighed and hugged Henry tightly. "I know. I just can't stand the thought of someone causing you pain. So Jo doesn't know about you then?" he asked changing the subject.
Henry shook his head. "No she doesn't. I've wanted to tell her as well, but I could never bring myself to do it."
"You need to tell her Henry, and sooner rather than later," James insisted. "She really worries about you too with all the reckless stunts you always pull when you are out in the field together. Why keep putting her through that when there is no need for her to worry? Don't make her wait until you die in front of her to tell her the truth."
Henry closed his eyes for a moment and ran a hand over his face. "I know you're right James. I don't want her to worry about my safety when it's unnecessary, but she won't believe me. Even if I show her all of the documents I have, she will probably want to have them authenticated, which is too risky for me."
"Well now that I know, you'll have both me and Abe to back up your story. I mean she can't think that all three of us are crazy can she?" James pointed out.
"She could, but I will admit that it's probably less likely," Henry conceded. "I suppose we'll have to have her over for dinner sometime soon to talk about this."
"Well as far as she knows, you're still sick, so she'll probably want to try and visit you tomorrow. Maybe that's the perfect time to do it," James suggested.
"Oh James, this whole ordeal has been so exhausting for me. I'm not sure I can handle doing it again so soon. I was thinking of telling her maybe in a week or two," Henry clarified.
"Maybe it's better to just get it over with, but if you really don't want to tell her tomorrow, I won't push you," James promised. "You'll have to pretend you're still sick though if you don't."
Henry chuckled. "I actually have a great deal more experience pretending that I'm sick or injured when I'm not than I have with revealing the secret of my immortality."
James rolled his eyes and laughed. "Of that I have no doubt."
Henry drained the rest of the wine from his glass. "I'll see how I'm feeling tomorrow, and then I will decide whether or not I will tell her when she visits."
James nodded. "That's fair."
"I'm going to be so bored all day though," Henry complained. "I'm certainly well enough to go back to work, but I'll be stuck here all day since you told Jo I'd need to take the whole week off."
"Well maybe I'll take the day off myself and we can spend it together," James answered with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "I'm sure you have more than enough stories to fill the day up. And if by some chance you do run out of stories, I'm sure we can find other things to keep us occupied."
"Oh yes, I have more than enough stories to fill up a day off. Though at some point, I may need to rest my voice and focus on other activities," Henry said lowering his voice and nuzzled James.
James let out a soft sigh of contentment. "Though, I'm not sure I can afford to take the rest of the week off, especially if you're not deathly ill anymore. Perhaps, if you can demonstrate to me that you are physically fit to go back to work, I can give you medical clearance to return the day after tomorrow," he replied in a suggestive tone.
Henry didn't say anything in response. He merely grinned at James as he stood up from the couch. He captured James's lips in a deep kiss as he bent down and lifted him into his arms, taking his turn to carry him up to their bedroom.
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