Forever

Leave it to Me

Adam chuckled as soon as Henry ripped the cloth he'd stuffed in his mouth out.

"What're you gonna do? Stab me, watch me bleed and scream in pain? So tell me...." He paused and the took a breath. "How long did it take for her to die?"

Henry stiffened and turned around, clenching his fists. He wanted badly to injure Adam, but he didn't want to become him, be what he had pledged not to be. As it was he'd tied the obnoxious immortal to a chair in his lab, and put a gag in his mouth so his jaw stretched painfully wide.

"I'm not inclined or answer that..." He muttered. Adam's shoulders shook with more laughter, and while he kept his head bowed and covered with his hood, Henry could instinctively sense that he was smiling.

"You're such a pacifist, Henry. Show some compassion. Go ahead, rip my arms off, crack me open, and see what's inside."

"Don't play tricks with me. I don't intend to do something like that even to an animal like you." He growled.

"Oh! Right! I'll just disappear!" He snarled. He lifted his head slightly to spit at Henry's foot.

"I only need answers. Then you can go." He was angry, very angry, with Adam for attacking Abe. He didn't think he could keep his temper at bay if the other man kept it up.

"Wha'dya wanna know? There's not much to tell. Considering you've had the better part of 235 years to figure the answers out."

That did it.

Without knowing what he was doing, Henry's fist rose and he threw all his weight behind a punch aimed for Adam's stomach. The hooded figure visibly grimaced.

"Ouch. Your bark is still worse than your bite, though."

"I didn't want to-"

Henry was at a loss for words. The last time he'd punched someone, defending Iona's title, he'd had something else to worry about than the small guilt. His hand had hurt like hell and he had simply gripped his arms and yelped.

This time there was no pain and he was surprised for that, for it left him bare to worry about how a punch could morph into something far worse.

But then, it wasn't like Adam would die if he decided to harm him in any mortal way. He still wouldn't lay and open cut on Adam, but he could break bones to force the information.

"What? Can't speak? Remember Iona? Well, you should have stuck to kissing her."

"She kissed me and that was once. I definitely didn't return her affections." Henry whispered. He sat in a chair placed across from Adam and glared at him, trying to think of a way to get knowledge about his condition without hurting him.

"Look, there was a cure. Henry, I wanna die just as badly as you."

"I don't want to die. I want to experience life. I'm stuck forever at 35. The prime of my life, and I really wouldn't enjoy having the curse replaced on me when I'm, say, 70." He paused and examined Adam. He didn't seem too mad. Or upset, or even nervous. No flicker of movement.

"Adam?"

No reply.

"Adam?" Henry stood up, knocking the chair over, and felt the man's wrist. He was dead, and judging by the-

His body disappeared, and he stared. The bastard must have anticipated Henry capturing him and taken poison before entering.

He was so sly, but none of it would ever be put to use because of how bored he'd gotten of life.

"Dad?"

"Yes?" Henry called, Abraham knew he had Adam down in his lab, but he didn't know the immortal had died. Still, the smell of casserole was so tempting that the ME didn't think twice about forgetting the whole thing and climbing upstairs for dinner.

That night, Henry couldn't help but think that he'd won a victory over Adam.

---

"Morning." Lucas tossed some papers onto his desk, shattering Henry's concentration on the multi-colored cube he'd found in the drawer of his desk. So far he'd managed to get three green squares stuck in the yellow and no way to move them without ruining the whole thing.

"Rubix cube?" The younger man said. Henry eyed it and set it on the papers.

"Now that I'm distracted, yes, it's a... R- Rubix Cube?" He'd simply resolved to calling it a party square. Lucas grinned and chuckled.

"Well, yeah. How far along were you?"

Henry displayed the puzzle to Lucas. "Not very." It was sarcasm.

"Oh... Sorry.... Anyway, traces of something blue on the vic's arm. Not matching any of the clothes or anything found near or around the crime scene."

"Thank you." Henry said, studying the photos. He wasn't very excited about the most recent case. A distant relative of the Carlyls, only discovered the minute traces in his DNA once it was entered into the system.

"So, are you guys doing anything tonight?" Jo asked, coming into the room. Henry looked up, and Lucas whispered 'good luck,' and sneaked out of his office.

"No....." He murmered hesitantly.

"Come with me tonight. I need a drinking buddy. 'Specially after the last few days...." She winced, and Henry nodded. He understood where she was coming from and there had to be an underlying reason she wasn't hinting at. Hell, the first few weeks after Abigail had died, Abraham had criticized his excessive drinking. There'd been hardly a time when he was sober enough, and he was so hungover afterwords he wished he never had.

"Maybe your husband's alive." The words were out of his mouth before he could even stop them. Damn, he never thought these days!

"You think? I didn't get his body back." Jo said. "Do you think it's possible?"

No. "Sure, maybe we could run his name through the system."

"Well, I can try. But they'll ask questions."

Henry winked at her, a motion she'd come to associate purely with him. "Leave that to me."