Forever

Questions and Answers

"So.... If it's so long, let's start with the basics." Jo said, clearly still apprehensive. "How old are you?"

Henry opened his mouth and was about to tell her a lie, but he quickly decided that wouldn't be nessassary.

".... Two.... Hundred...." He struggled to get each word out, as telling a falsehood had grown to be habit.

"Two hundred? What the hell?" Jo looked at him and pursed her lips, not buying it.

"That's how old I am." He said plainly, not daring to speak without her questions.

"So that's how you know Abe?"

He cringed. A hard one. "Yes and no. Abraham was a victim of the Haulocost. I.... Me and Abigail found him and took him in when he was a young baby."

"So he's your...... Son?" She looked a little disgusted, if anything.

"Yes."

"Doesn't that seem perverted?"

"No."

"You're a weird guy. What happens when you die? Is that how you met Abigail? When do you 'come back'?" She asked, now seeming confused.

"I come back between 10 and 25 seconds, but it can last anywhere from 1 to 3 minutes. I met Abigail during World War II, yes, and......" He stopped and took a breath, surprised by how easy it was to tell someone when pushed for answers."This next part is probably the strangest thing about the curse...... When I die, you see...... I come back in the Hudson River...... Naked."

Jo grinned, laughing. "Naked? I heard about that on the news. Some guy apparently keeps streaking through New York, repeatedly by the bridge.... I didn't know it was you!" She quieted down to little chuckles.

Henry's eyes widened. "It's on the news?!"

"Yeah... Um, about that. They never showed your face but say lots of civilians keep taking pictures..... Have you ever been arrested?"

"Yes."

"And Abigail- Did she know about this? About any of it?"

"All of it. Remember when I told you I was once a physician?"

"Yeah. You've held a lot of jobs."

"Indeed. There was a reason I stopped." He shifted in place, suddenly uncomfortable. "There was a man.... He must have cut a deal with another one, and they were fighting. One took out a gun and shot him. So, I.... I tried to help, I was a doctor. But the shooter didn't seem to care he would have taken another life if not for my curse-"

"Wait a minute, you have eternal life, and yet you think it's a curse?"

"Trust me; You have absolutely no idea. I outlive people, Detective."

"Stop that."

"What?"

"Calling me 'Detective'. It's fine at the workplace, but outside.... Call me Jo." She said, appearing uncomfortable herself. Henry nodded, making a mental note to try and break the habit.

"I outlive people, Jo." He repeated. "He shot me as I tried to help. Then he took off and I never saw him again. I was dying, and I knew it, but I still tried to stop the bleeding. Then...." Shame made his limbs weigh tons."........ Then I heard the sirens. So I left him to die and crawled behind a car so they didn't see my body disappear." His voice grew increasingly venomous and he spat the last words, the shame turning into anger at himself for abandoning the man because he couldn't afford to be discovered. "After that I stopped.... And turned to other jobs for a living."

"Such as a gravedigger?"

His mouth twisted in a slight sneer. "Anything was better at the time."

Abraham's voice suddenly echoed through the apartment. "Tell her about your 'studies'! She'll be happy to hear your slight obsession with death."

Jo's head titled back, and she looked surprised. "Wait a minute, that's why you became an ME. To figure out the curse."

He nodded. "Yes. I use past experience to help solve the murders."

"That's why you're so awkward!"

He gave her a condescending look. "I wouldn't put it that way... But-"

"R'you the only one?"

"Ah, about that...... No."

Her breath visibly caught. "How many?"

"One. He calls himself Adam, and he claims to have been alive for 2,000 years."

"Whoa.... Just one? Henry, you do realize if you do such a good job of hiding it, there could be a million others just like you. They may not know yet or they may be keeping it a secret."

Henry's heart stopped, and cold surprise swept through him. Others? Like him? If that was the case, there was a lot more help than he could ever have dreamed. Not to mention she was asking questions he had never even though of before.

"Yes... Now that you put it into words... I do."

Jo stared at the confused look that spread across his face, and for a moment it worried her. Nothing scientific or even paranormal scared or confused him. No, for Dr. Henry Morgan there was an explanation for everything.

"What's the most unluckiest diamond ever found?"

He looked taken aback by the question. "What?"

"The most unlucky dia one ever f-"

"The Hope Diamond!" He said, sitting up. Now he seemed at ease. She smiled. Did she just.... Comfort him? Scientifically speaking, she had and hadn't. Anything to do with medicine or science or mathematics must have put him at ease when he couldn't find a reason for something. She hadn't in the sense that now both of them felt uneasy.

"Henry, are you... Are you blushing?" Jo asked. Something made her heart do flip flops.

Henry tried to cover it up and turned his head so she'd have to look into the glare of the lights to see him.

"Never mind. Maybe you're sick." She quickly implied, trying not to embarrass him.

"So..... Where did you first.... You know, die?"

"A ship. I don't remember the exact coordinates, but a slave was ill. I was called down because they believed it was cholera. Yet when I confirmed it was a fever and nothing else, the men said they were still going to throw the slave overboard. I stood in from of the man and told them no. They held a gun to my chest and told me to move or I'd die. I stood my ground and got shot, thrown overboard in the slave's place. Or maybe they pitched the slave in after me." He said bitterly, squeezing his hands together in his lap. It still made hi angry to think about the unfairness of it.

He remembered the scar in his chest. That was located in the same place where he'd pulled the trigger..... Maybe it was a mark to remind him of the first time, his sacrifice to his practice.

"Do you enjoy it?"

"Enjoy what?"

"Living forever."

He mulled over it in his mind. It was kind of fun to- He banished the word from his mind. Fun wasn't commonly used when he was 'younger'. It was intriguing to which the world change and advance. But it carried a note of sadnnes and loss. He could sightsee, but he couldn't cling to anything. He could love, but he'd suffer the consequences. Everyone died, didn't they?

It was a though he hated so much it sent chills down his spine. Why did he get singled out? He was just a doctor, and the very name practically meant 'To do no harm.' So he decided something in speaking with Jo.

He'd find Adam.

And when he did, he knew he'd find a way to end the curse.