Work Text:
It was five months and twelve days since Jo Martinez had appeared at Henry Morgan’s door with a photograph and a question, one which led in turn to a lot of other questions. It was five months and twelve days since she had learned of Henry Morgan’s immortality. And it was four months and twenty-seven days since she had been convinced it was true.
The convincing in question came in the form of Henry’s accidental death, after an encounter with an armed criminal on the bank of the East River. Henry was fatally shot in the chest by the offender, and a minute later, Jo Martinez became the second person to see him both disappear and reappear from the same death. This moment, while somewhat awkward for all parties (save for the criminal, who had been shot by Jo a few moments later) was also a turning point in Jo and Henry’s relationship, as the latter finally realised that the former was neither insane nor lying to her about his condition.
Predictably, it took a while for Jo to wrap her head around the idea that her friend was immortal. Of course, it explained many things about him, such as his encyclopaedic knowledge, and his dress sense. Nonetheless, she still had many questions, one of which was being asked at this moment, five months and twelve days since she had arrived on his doorstep with an old photograph.
“Did you ever meet Arthur Conan Doyle?”
At this moment, Henry and Jo were walking to work along a New York street that could best be described as bustling. It was a crisp autumn morning, dry but cold, and Henry was glad to have an excuse to wear one of his favourite scarves.
“Arthur Conan Doyle?” Henry took a moment to cast his mind back more than a hundred years, to a chance meeting with a struggling writer. “Yes, once or twice. Why do you ask?”
“It’s just, I was watching that show, Elementary – have you seen it?”
“I cannot say that I have.”
“Well, it’s about a modern Sherlock Holmes. He reminded me of you a bit. I mean, he’s British, and he can learn a lot about things just by looking at them, like you. Like when you first met me, remember? You told me that my husband had just died, and that I was drinking too much. Both of which were true, but not very polite,” she added, looking sideways at him.
“I apologise,” Henry said. “I did not mean to be rude, merely observant.”
“I know that,” Jo said. “But Sherlock Holmes does that sometimes, too. Walks into a room, deduces everyone’s life stories, sometimes accidentally offends them in the process. He reminds me of you.” She paused for a second, as something occurred to her. “D’you think he was modelled on you?”
Henry frowned. He had to admit, it was possible. He had only known Conan Doyle for a day, but had learned a lot about him in that time, from what the man had told him and from what he had deduced himself. In fact, Conan Doyle was the first person to use the word ‘deduction’ when referring to Henry’s gift. “I suppose-” Henry began to say, before he was cut off by another voice, unexpectedly joining the conversation.
“Hi, gang!” The enthusiastic voice of Lucas Wahl catching up to Henry and Jo from behind, falling into step with them easily. “What are we talking about?”
Henry frowned again, mildly irritated by the interruption. Not that he was displeased to see Lucas, of course; he considered the assistant M.E to be a friend. Unfortunately, he was a friend who did not know Henry’s secret, meaning that the conversation could not continue in Lucas’ presence.
Jo, however, did not appear to be similarly irritated. “Sherlock Holmes,” she said, turning to Lucas. “I think he reminds me of Henry, but Henry doesn’t agree. What do you think?”
They came to a stop at a pedestrian crossing. Lucas thought about the question for a moment. “I dunno,” he said, “I’ve always thought of myself as Holmes, and Henry as more of a Watson. No offence, Henry,” he added.
“None taken.” Henry was walking behind the others, keen to listen to the discussion about him, but not to contribute.
The light turned green, and they began to cross the road. “I mean,” Jo began to say, “Holmes is British too, and they can both do the thing-”
“Where they look at you and stare into your soul?” Lucas said. “Yeah, Henry’s done that to me before, it’s-”
He was cut off by the sound of squealing brakes, followed by a thud and a sickening crunch. They looked around, to see a car speeding through the intersection on a red light. In true New York style, the driver had one hand raised, flipping off whoever was behind him.
Although they had heard somebody get hit by the car, there seemed to be nobody lying in the road, nobody injured or dead. In fact, everybody else seemed to be looking around in confusion as well.
Jo started to get a bad feeling in her stomach.
Cars began to honk at them, reminding everyone that they were, in fact, in the middle of an intersection at a busy time of the morning. The pedestrians made their way to their respective sidewalks, most of them shrugging it off as just another weird occurrence in New York City, and continued on their way.
Jo and Lucas stopped to regroup on the other side of the street, looking around for their friend. He was nowhere to be seen.
The bad feeling in Jo’s stomach turned into a pit, and sank to the bottom. By now, she was pretty sure that Henry had died, this time very much in public. Anyone could have seen him, or even accidentally caught it on camera, which could be disastrous for Henry. What was worse, Jo now had to come up with an answer for the question Lucas was inevitably about to ask.
Sure enough, a few seconds after she came to this conclusion, Lucas looked at her and frowned. “Where’s Henry?”
Jo was definitely panicking now. “Uh, Henry?”
“Yeah. You know, the guy we were just talking about?”
Jo was suddenly struck by an idea. “Uh, Henry’s probably at work by now, isn’t he? He likes to get there early.”
Lucas looked confused. “What do you mean? He was right here, walking with us.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jo said, beginning to walk towards the precinct.
Lucas ran a few steps to catch up with her. “Yes, you do. We were just comparing him to Sherlock Holmes, remember?”
“Yes, but Henry wasn’t here,” Jo said slowly, trying to sound convincing. “That’s why we were talking about him, remember? Making fun of him behind his back? But in a nice way,” she added hastily.
Lucas easily overtook Jo, and turned to stand in front of her, blocking her path. “Nuh-uh. I know what I know, and Henry was just here, walking with us. Then there was that car at the intersection…” He trailed off, frowning. “The car sounded like it hit someone, then Henry disappeared. How could that happen?”
“Maybe he, uh, went the other way,” Jo said evasively, pushing past Lucas and continuing down the street. “It got pretty confusing back there.”
“So you admit he was here!” Lucas said triumphantly.
“I guess so,” Jo said. God, she wished Henry were here. He’d know what to say, he’d been doing the whole immortality things for centuries, for goodness’ sake!
“What’s going on, Jo?” Lucas demanded. “Henry disappears, and now you’re acting all cagey and suspicious. Where’s he gone?” She began to shake her head, but Lucas continued speaking. “You really think nobody’s noticed how you two have been acting these past few months? Whispering in corners, giving knowing glances, keeping a little secret. This is about that, isn’t it? Isn’t it?”
Jo stopped walking, and sighed. She really didn’t know what to say any more. Of course, Lucas was absolutely right, and he kind of deserved to know the truth. “All right,” she said. “Come with me.” She turned down a side street and began to walk quickly.
Lucas followed her for a few blocks, not saying anything. He could tell they were heading away from either of their workplaces, but he couldn’t work out why. After a while, he finally spoke up. “Where are we going?”
“To the river,” Jo said, as though this were obvious.
“To the river. Right,” Lucas said. “Why?”
“You were right, about there being a secret,” Jo said. “The thing is, there’s more to Henry than meets the eye.”
“I knew it!” Lucas said, somewhat to Jo’s surprise.
“You know already?”
“Of course,” Lucas said. “Well, I have some theories.”
“Theories?” They were only a couple blocks from the river now.
Lucas began to count on his fingers. “One, Henry is brilliant, right? He knows a lot of stuff, for someone his age. Well, things about death, and history, and weird illnesses no one’s heard of. But not about anything modern. Computers, for instance. Who’s afraid of computers? That’s two, by the way. And three, he’s just old-fashioned. Have you seen his dress sense? Not from this century. Four, someone would have had to have lived several lives to know the things he does.”
Jo found herself nodding in agreement. “So, your conclusion, Doctor Wahl?”
“Henry’s a vampire.”
Jo blinked. That wasn’t the answer she’d been expecting. “A vampire?”
“He has to be,” Lucas said logically. “He’s older than he looks, his clothes are old-fashioned, and he knows all about death. Conclude, vampire.”
Jo had to admit that it made sense, in a way. A twisted way. “Not quite,” she said. “How about the aversion to sunlight? Henry goes out in the sun. And you can see him in mirrors.”
“I hadn’t quite worked those ones out yet,” Lucas admitted.
“I’m afraid Henry’s secret isn’t as straightforward as that,” Jo said. They were one block from the river now. “He’s immortal.”
Lucas frowned. “Like a vampire.”
“No, Henry’s human. He can die. But every time he does, he comes back again, in the nearest large body of water.”
Comprehension began to dawn on Lucas. “That’s why we’re going to the river,” he said. “To pick him up.”
“Yes,” Jo said. She glanced sidelong at him. “You don’t seem very shocked.”
He shrugged. “I thought Henry was a vampire for months. Immortal isn’t far off.”
Jo shook her head and began to cross the last road, to the park by the East River. The shock would probably come later. It took a few hours when she found out.
“Hang on,” Lucas said, jogging a few steps to catch her up. “Why did Henry tell you and not me?”
She raised her eyebrows at him. “Because I’m his love interest,” she said, as though it should be obvious.
Lucas frowned. “I thought I was Henry’s love interest!”
“No,” she told him, “you’re the geeky yet adorable sidekick.”
“I’m the sidekick?” Lucas looked as though someone had pulled a rug out from under him. “Why am I the sidekick?”
“I don’t know,” Jo said. “Some people in this life are main characters, and others are sidekicks. It’s the way of things.”
“I thought Henry was the sidekick,” Lucas grumbled, folding his arms like a child. A moment later, he realised that sulking was not the mark of a main character, and hastily unfolded them and continued walking.
They approached a quiet spot on the bank of the river, away from the morning bustle of the city. Jo stopped walking suddenly, turning to face Lucas. “There’s one more thing about Henry,” she said. “When he dies, he doesn’t just appear in water. He’s also-”
“Naked?” Lucas asked, looking past Jo’s head. She turned around to see an all-to-familiar figure peering out from behind a tree, wearing only a frustrated expression. She hurried towards him, making sure to only look at his face.
“That was one of my favourite scarves,” he said, as Jo got closer. “I liked that scarf. That scarf came from Belgium.” He paused, looking around. “Why is Luas here?”
Lucas held up an awkward hand from where he stood behind Jo. “Hi.”
“I told him,” Jo said. “Sorry.”
“In her defence, I asked,” Lucas added.
“He did,” she confirmed.
Henry sighed. “We can worry about that later,” he said. “For the moment, I seem to be lacking in the clothing department, and I am not eager to have another public indecency charge laid against me. It’s beginning to get embarrassing.”
Lucas’ eyes widened. “That makes sense now,” he breathed.
He and Jo both began to take off their jackets to offer to Henry, but were interrupted by a shout from behind them. “It’s all right!”
They turned around to see Abe, Henry’s roommate, jogging towards them, holding up a set of clothes. He slowed down as he reached them, out of breath. “My Henry senses were tingling,” he puffed, holding the clothes out to Henry. “Go on.”
Henry carefully accepted the clothing with one hand, and disappeared behind the tree to put them on. Abe leaned against the other side of the tree, turning to Jo. “How did he die this time?”
“Hit by a car crossing the road,” she said.
“Honestly, Henry,” Abe said, raising his voice so he could hear him. “We can’t take you anywhere.”
“It was an accident,” Henry called out.
Abe rolled his eyes and chuckled. Then he seemed to notice Lucas for the first time. “You’re here,” he said.
“I know,” Lucas said. “I mean, I know that I’m here, and I also know the big secret. Henry’s immortal.” He paused for a second after saying it out loud for the first time, reeling slightly. Henry was immortal. Was Lucas dreaming?
“I had to tell him,” Jo was explaining to Abe. “Henry got hit by a car.”
“It’s always the cars,” Abe said, directing his words to the tree. He turned back to Lucas. “How are you taking it?”
“Fine,” Lucas said, much more nonchalantly than he felt.
“Hmm,” Abe said, scrutinising Lucas’ expression. Finding out Henry’s secret was never a picnic, but especially in such a violent way. He seemed to be putting on a brave face, though, so Abe turned his attention back to the tree. “Are you going to come out to anyone else today?” he asked.
“Not if I can help it,” Henry said, emerging from behind the tree fully clothed, complete with a scarf. It was warm, if slightly inferior to his previous one. “That was my good scarf I lost,” he told Abe.
“There’s plenty more where that came from, Dad,” Abe said, clapping Henry on the back. “Come on, my car’s in the parking lot. I’ll run you to work.”
“Dad?” Lucas muttered to himself. Henry being Abe’s father made a lot of sense, if he thought about it. And it would explain why he was so upset about Abe’s mom dying. She was Henry’s wife! He began to follow the others towards the parking lot, reeling from the revelation.
“As a matter of fact,” Henry was saying, “there are only a handful like it left in the world. It’s quite a loss.”
“Why were you wearing it to work, then?” Abe countered.
Henry paused. “I like it,” he said.
“Henry,” Lucas said, “Jo said that you told her your secret because she’s your love interest. Is that true?”
Henry frowned. “Of course,” he said as though stating the painfully obvious.
Jo shot Lucas a look that said see?
“But I thought I was your love interest,” Lucas explained.
Everyone else shook their heads.
“You’re the sidekick,” Abe said. “Even I can see that.”
Lucas folded his arms again, dropping behind the rest. “I’m not a sidekick,” he muttered.
The immortal and his secret-keepers piled into Abe’s car, and they pulled out into the busy traffic, ready to face the rest of the day.