Hey ! Thanks everyone for your last reviews. I'm glad you're enjoying that story :).

so here's chapter 4, a bit shorter than the previous one but it should work ;).

enjoy it

Later, when Abe came home, he was pretty much satisfied with his little tour. Going to Jo and giving her the proofs that his dad was immortal, he has never been that proud of doing something behind Henry's back.

But that was for a good cause. Abe knew his father and Jo belonged together and only her could make him happy for the next couple of years.

He wouldn't always be here for his father so he knew Jo was the one he should lean on, the day he would be gone.

Caught in his thoughts he noticed Henry only when he walked past the kitchen and saw his old man, surrounding with suitcases, turning the pages of a travel book. He frowned.

What the hell was he doing?

- huh, Henry. What's going on there?

He startled. The immortal didn't hear his son coming in. He quickly closed the book and gave Abe a fake smile

- Abraham! Hum... I didn't hear you coming. I was just going through some pages, no big deal.

Abe raised one suspicious eyebrow, looking all over them. He shook his head

- no big deal huh? Tell me, you're not trying to plan an escape, are you?

When his father didn't reply, Abe knew he wanted to do it all over again. He rolled his eyes.

- seriously now? What is wrong with you? Running away every time something goes wrong.

Henry lost it and threw the book away

- but it's just not something Abraham. It's Jo, she's been ignoring me and I'm not sure I can handle that anymore.

Abe was confused

- what? What are you talking about? Henry, you told her your secret only last week. The kid needs some time, she's been putting up with your bullshit for a year, now you need to let her breathe and gather her thoughts. Instead of doing that, you're playing chicken?

- Yes! Because I won't be able to go through that all over again. You didn't see the way she looked at me... I can't do that Abe, I went there once, won't do it again.

Abe sometimes wondered if a cold bath on the East River wouldn't help his father to stop brooding once and for all.

- So that's it? You don't want to give Jo another chance? You're running away like an idiot teenager?

Henry mumbled and rubbed his hands on his face

- I know. I am a coward. But I watched my first wife locking me up. I watched Abigail leaving me because she couldn't handle the physical's difference anymore. And Jo... - he sighed - she's honestly everything I have been dreaming for the last 30 years but if she's not going to accept me, then I need to leave her as much as it hurts. I can't watch another woman I love turning her back against me because of my secret.

Abe knew his father was stupid when it came to women but he had no idea how much.

- Well, yes! You are a coward. I told you Jo would probably get back to you, you need to be patient.

Henry didn't seem ready to change his mind. Abe walked toward him and put his hands on his shoulders

- All right! Just give her a couple of days and then, and it nothing had changed till then... Well, you can go. I'm no one to hold you.

Henry felt pretty much heavy but nodded

- thank you! But you know I won't do that alone

Abe threw his hands up in the air

- Henry! I'm good here! I've got friends and I'm too old for that. I'm sorry Pops, but this time if you want to run away, I'm not following you.

And on that note, Abe left his father with his deep and probably dark thoughts.

Jo had listened to Abe and looked all about the newspapers on the internet. She carefully read each of them and by the look at it, they really look like Henry, she could tell. She knew the man, she knew his features, it was him and the way the articles were describing how caring he was while healing people and saving lives. Sounded like Henry.

- incredible - she whispered, still not quite sure if she was believing it or not.

Of course, as there were so many stories about those centuries, her searches took her a very long time and she fell asleep with her laptop on her knees while she wanted to rest her neck against the armrest of her couch.

She was on the rooftop looking for clues with Henry by her side. She got shot and everything was kinda blurred to her. She remembered Henry trying to stop the bleeding, she remembered how that day her heart skipped a beat because no one she just met would have done that.

Then he tried to resonate with their murder's victim and for the lack, she could witness, he was also trying to push him away from her, so he wouldn't kill her once and for good. She wished she could move but she was too weak. Then Henry was brave and when the poison started to be sent to the city, he just got up even he was already very much in bad shape and she knew it, she saw it, she saw Henry and the murder's victim, falling both off the roof.

Still, when she woke up, Henry was there, standing in the light like an angel. And she thought back then « do I have a guardian angel now »?

She obviously chased that thought away, this was stupid and she was under morphine. She was pretty sure she saw him jumping off that roof though and tried to tell him but he denied, saying it was the morphine talking. She remembered looking at him straight in the eye, feeling a weird pound in her chest and told him he was hiding something, he gave her one obvious smile and she could notice he tried to actually tell her something until the phone cut them off.

On their second case together he promised the mother of the victim they would find out who killed her daughter. She remembered lecturing him about how long it could take sometimes to find the good murderer and he just replied with an « I got time ».

Maybe this should have been enough to become even more suspicious but she let it go.

And later, in that same case, he started talking about the way NYC was a long time before at least she thought, both of them were born, only her wasn't born.

On the Gloria Carlyle's case, Henry didn't show up because of the stupid « I don't like that museum » excuse. But the way he carefully worked on Gloria's body, the way he looked at her, felt like he knew her even again, he denied it.

Now that she had read so many articles, she was pretty certain, Henry had crossed path with Gloria long time ago.

So many flashes started running through her head, like that time when he absolutely wanted to take a bullet for her and he even made a move for that, only she didn't even think that day and shot at the guy that was threatening them.

She should have seen it earlier but it was completely off and unreal, who would like to believe something like that?

The nonexistent instincts of preservation, all the clues he dropped about history, all that knowledge he had. He was right, a normal human being couldn't have known so many things, even with the longest studies in the world. His knowledge of every language including Urkresh, like this wasn't something someone that « young » could even know.

And when she talked about knowing what he knew, someone had to live ten lives and he replied with « or just a very long one » she remembered looking at him, mostly like he was the eight wonder of the world but another clue, that's what he did all year long and she haven't been smart enough to take them. Or maybe she was, she just couldn't believe someone was immortal.

She was still sleeping and she was seeing all those flashes, she was hearing Henry's voice talking about her to all that history and she swore she could even watch him before she was even born, being himself surrounded with a lovely wife and a handsome son and all three of them were the perfect little family. They have been lucky to find each other and now more than even, Henry needed someone like Abigail to get back on tracks, Abe wasn't getting any younger and Henry couldn't remain alone anymore.

She remembered always finding his watch and wondered if it had something to do with his « capacity ». Maybe it did, thinking about it, she was always finding the watch somewhere where a murdered happened or something like that. Like when she found it on the cab, Henry was in there. He was the one who drowned. The skinny dipping on the East River, like every damn time. That was it, this was his « rebirth » or whatever he was calling it. She felt he couldn't go to the East River, only by pleasure, who wanted to?

That picture she found at the station came back to her mind, his behavior during the whole case and she pushed him away because he kept lying to her. Now it seemed to be clearer.

She also remembered after Sylvia's Blake case (but what she really Sylvia? Now Jo doubted it), she remembered talking to Henry and telling him "there is nothing in this world that you can't tell me", and that look on his face that day... She never dared to make a move or hug him, but he needed it and she was damn serious, he could tell her anything...

So why didn't she believe him right away? Because, in her right mind, no one could be immortal but deep down, she knew it was true, she has been seeing it since day one and she remained by his side nonetheless, thinking one day he would tell her. Now that he did, she ran away! Why did she run away?

She was scared, afraid of what the future would hold for both of them; scared of that moment she would start to grow older and looked older than he was, scared they had to move on because Henry would never get old. Scared of losing herself for love because she was devoted to Henry.

So she wanted to ignore the fact he was immortal, she didn't want to believe something that crazy could be real but all the proofs were there and she always has known them.

And all those newspapers, Henry couldn't have gotten so many ancestors with the same name, this was unlikely.

But was she ready to let him go? Was she ready to pretend all of that didn't happen, did she really wanted not to hear the rest of the story? A selfish part inside of her didn't wish to know more because it would make everything really real. But that other part of her, that detective part, that instinct she always had wanted to know more and her heart was always picking Henry. She knew she couldn't give up on him, in them, in the future they could build together. Her love for him had grown stronger since the past year and even after dropping that kind of bomb on her, she couldn't think about anything else than him.

That's all she wanted, she wanted to be with him, to build a life with him, no matter what and no matter what would happen next.

Her eyes shot wide opened at the last thought. She felt her laptop on her lap and looked at the time on it. It was 9 in the morning, she had slept five hours, the sun was already up in the sky.

She sighed and put her laptop away, walking to the bathroom and stepping in for a cold shower because she felt like that's exactly what her body needed this morning.

It has been a week, almost two

- it's time for us to have a real talk - she whispered to herself.