Forever

Realization

Henry threw the box down and it clattered to the ground. He suppressed the urge to vomit and heard Abraham gasp behind him. People gaped, gathering in a crowd around him. On the phone, Adam laughed.

"Is that......"

"Jo's? No way in hell. I'm insulted you'd think that, Henry. In fact, it's completely different. And, uh, about her forgetting of your little 'confession'..... Like I've said before, hypnotism."

Henry gritted his teeth and whirled away from the heart box, frantically looking around the construction site. No shots fired yet....

"Where is she, then?!"

"Where were you before? Our friend, Hugo's getting ready to kill her, by the way, so you may want to help out."

Something tugged at the back of his mind. Adam had expressed care for Jo before... Why, though? It was just beyond his mental grasp- Adam, Jo..... Connected! He was her ancestor!

"Why can't you help her?"

"Oh, I'll be there in a minute, I can assure you of that."A dry rasp souded over the small speaker, and Henry looked around the crowd to see who was laughing into a phone. Even though his gaze jumped from face to face, he could see no one with the device- Or a smile.

"You bastard!" He snarled, then pulled the phone from his ear. He gave Abraham a remorseful look.

Then he smashed it to the ground.

Abraham gave him a poisonous look. "Okay, by record of none other than Martinez herself, you.... That's the second phone you have utterly destroyed!"

Henry mocked a smile and cocked his head to one side. "Yes, and it won't be the last."

With that, he raced off through the site, searching for the exact spot he had last died.

---------------------------

"Back away! Back away or I'll kill her!" Hugo screamed. Henry put his hands up and froze. Beside the crazed man, Jo was crouched, holding her head and muttering multiple choice words of annoyed profanity under her breath. The wound was painful but not life threatening- At least, as Henry perceived it. Hugo looked at the men surrounding them, and told them to go F-off. Henry chose to believe that the word he'd said was Fly-off.

But it wasn't so and as it was he took a step forward, prepared to rip the gun from his hand. Somehow in the period of time Henry had been gone, he'd obtained it- and he now realized it was Jo's sidearm.

"Back off, or her brains'll be all over the place!" He screeched. Henry froze again. Maybe....

"Shoot me, satisfy your craving, Hugo." He muttered, shooting Jo a pointed look. She shook her head, sudden desperation flashing across her face.

"Henry, no!"

"Shut up!" He snapped coarsely. Her jaw dropped- that was the rudest thing she'd ever heard him say. "Just shut up, Detective!...... I know what I'm doing....."

Hugo stared at them both, jaw working to form words that wouldn't come. "You want me.... to... shoot... You?"

"Yes, if that's what it will take." Henry said. The realization that Hugo might remember killing him flashed through his mind and before he had time to awknowledge it, the man suddenly started.

"Wait a minute... weren't you the man I killed?"

It was growing increasingly difficult to keep secrets, as Henry noticed.

"No; that was an officer...."

"Oh... Yeah, I killed that one guy..."

"Stop! Police!" Two officers ran through the scene, revealing badges. They were dressed in standard uniform, grim looks on both faces. And drawn guns in free hands.

"She dies if you guys shoot, I swear it!"

"Look, just-" Henry started to take a step forward, when Hugo shrieked. He did something that was to be forever emblazoned in his mind.

He swung the barrel of the gun toward Jo's head and squeezed the trigger.

***************POV Swap: Jo***************

It was the first time Jo realized that she may die, she may be killed, and no one would remember her other than Lucas, Henry, Hanson, and Joanna.

Only them.

But maybe fate had been what saved her. Or maybe her parents. Someone, she was sure, was watching over her that day. After Hugo pulled the trigger, gun treacherously aimed at her head, her brain did some kind of memory flash. Her memories bubbled to the surface, long forgotten, long buried. Schoolyard kids teasing her, graduation from the Academy, her very first job at a run-down Starbucks. Her parents' deaths. Boyfriends, getting drunk, her husband's smiling face, and.......

Henry.

She'd known him for a little over a year and there he was, asking her for a pencil and explaining the point of a vector. Buying her a coffee after a long night at work, him and his.....

Suicidal ways. Were they suicidal? Or merely brave offerings of his life in exchange for another?

She didn't know. She didn't care. He was what she looked for, smart, handsome, brave, and by all means, had a large amount of respect.

Then a final flash of light and Jo realized something.

She hadn't survived.

But suddenly..... She was in her home, in her bed, lying under the cover, in.... Her birthday suit, with a little gasp of shock and a curse rolling from her tongue, she jumped out of bed and dressed hurriedly. Maybe it was a dream. It had to be. But it was so..... She peered inside her closet for the jacket she'd been wearing, her favorite blue one.

It was gone.

"Holy shit....." She mumbled.... Had Henry given her phone to her? Yes, he had. Where was it? She sifted through her room, her house, trying to find it, but it was gone. And the construction site, what of it? She grabbed her keys and sped off in her car, searching for the spot that she died.

*********************POV Swap: Henry********************

Searing anger blinded him. Screaming swear words he never even remembered saying in his lifetime, he dove at Hugo, beating him with his punches and kicks. All he could think about was Jo, her lying dead in a heap by his feet. Blood dripped from the gunshot at her head, and he was vaguely aware of the officers allowing him to beat the man senseless, as they ran off to greet the ambulance and other cops.

Hurthimhurthimhurthimhurthim! She'sgonetooshe'sgonetoo........ The thoughts were a constant barrage of hatred. Jo had been a spark of new hope in a world stifled to him by the memories. She was new, she cared for him, she was what he looked for. She was intelligent, and unlike a woman such as Iona, she could fight her way from a wet paper bag. She was, in a way, beautiful.

And then..... Henry lifted his foot back to deliver what could only be described as the Kick That Ended Hugo's Sex Days, when he noticed something.

Jo was gone.

Not only gone as in 'dead', but her body was gone. Disappeared. Vanished. He stopped mid kick, then gave it a moment's decision before aiming the blow for the man's mouth.

"Killing people.... should never..... be taken..... lightly....." He growled through pants. Then he turned and sprinted for Abraham and his car, the faintest of hopes sparking in his heart.