Forever

Ancient

"Morgan."

"Henry, it's Jo."

"Detective, it is approximately 2 AM. What, in Heaven's name, is wrong?"

"Well...."

"If this is about your husband... I'm sorry he's not immortal."

"What the hell? No! Why would I call you so early if that even was the case? Jeez, learn some common sense, will you?"

He rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand and sighed. This was not how he fancied waking up on a Monday morning. "What is this about, then?"

"Just got a call from the Precinct. Said there's no time to explain, but they've got a body- Well, a skeleton. It's dressed in clothes that are identical to yours and a knife stuck in its skull. Nothing else, other than a location near the river. It would have been saved for later if it wasn't for everything about it. And you gotta hurry- There's a bunch of people already in the scene and there's even a reporter."

"Ah, yes. I hear reporters have a tendency to multiply." Henry mumbled. He yawned broadly and his mind flickered to when he had been interrogated by a reporter for his 'immortality' in Germany. Oh, he'd had to flee, then.

"Hey, wake up."

"Sorry. Yes, I'll hurry, give me a half hour."

"Yep. It's in front of the coffee shop you say you like so much."

Well, at least he could get something to wake him up. "See you soon, Detective."

He put the phone down, dressed for the-long- say ahead, and wasted no time getting on his bike.

---

"You didn't get me one?" Jo asked disappointedly. Henry looked at the coffee in his hands and back at her, smiling a little.

"You didn't ask."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on. And this...." She lifted the sheet from the skeleton lying in the sidewalk. ".... Is your new friend."

"I have friends!" He protested, crouching to examine it further. "And coffee. The cause of death is rather obvious. Stabbed in the head. There's no flesh, making time of dead hard to identify other than the clothing."

"Oookkay? Anything else?" Jo asked. She looked at a reporter who had slipped between the lines and was scribbling down something on a pad of paper. "Hey! Back up, official buisiness here!"

"There's nothing more I can glean from the bones until this is taken back to the lab." Henry said, straightening up. He winked at the reporter and smiled at Jo.

"You owe me one." She said, and gave him a ten dollar bill to buy something jam packed with caffeine for her from the shop.

---

"Whoa. This guy looks like you." Lucas said, pulling on his gloves and standing in front of the skeleton. Henry looked up from studying the arm bones and glared at the younger ME.

"It was an... Attempt... At a joke... So what'd you find?"

"You know, I've heard something about Epic fails being when Regular fails just aren't enough." Henry commented, looking back down to the arm. Lucas grinned.

"Where'd you hear that."

"I know a man." Abraham was full of surprises nowadays.

"I have time of death, of you'd like to see that." Henry flipped through the papers on the table next to him and pulled one out,glancing at it without really noticing the words. Bones have been eaten away by the water and the amount of chemicals dumped into it," he wrinkled his nose in disgust. "All I had to do then was slow down the decomposition and desintigration rate of the bones. It puts date of death at-"

"200 years." Lucas whistled. "Damn. This is pretty old. Whoever killed him took the secret to his grave, huh?"

Henry stared at the arm bones, and his memories drowned him once again.

++++++++++++++++++++

"Oh, my."

"What's wrong?" He asked Nora, peeking over her shoulder at the paper. She showed it to him.

"Harris Pines is missing."

"Pines?" The man was their neighbor, a good, hardworking man who scarcely knew how not to laugh. He owned the local blacksmith, and was very adept at what he did. Henry had many things thought beyond repair brought back by him.

"Yes. He's been argueing with Charles again, so it seems." Nora commented. He reached out and drew her near with one arm, reading through the paper as quickly as he could. Despite the fueding neighbor, he didn't think Charles had done it. Maybe Harris had simply had too much to drink and was arrested or maybe....

He didn't know.

Harris Pines was never heard from again.

+++++++++++++++++++++++

"Doc, what the hell're you doing?!"

"What?" Henry looked down and saw he'd crumpled the paper in his fist. "Oh..."

"You're gonna have to redo that now, y'know."

"Yes, I know!" He snapped irritably. Lucas looked a little surprised, but said nothing.

"I'll, uh, I'll go get another paper for you to for out...."

"Thank you, Dr. Wahl." Henry blurted before he could snphut his mouth. Lucas smiled and turned back.

"What was that?"

"What was what?" He said innocently. Lucas looked confused and hurried out to the lab, just as Jo came in.

"Uh, Henry?"

He groaned and pushed the light away from the rib cage of the skeleton. "What is it now?"

"Someone's in a bad mood." She murmered. Henry sighed and apologized, then asked again, putting it into kinder words.

"Can I help you?"

"Yeah, actually. The Lieutinent wants to see you."

"What for?"

"Dunno."

He pulled off his gloves and stalked away towards Joanna's office, not saying another word.

His skeleton-taupsy would have to wait, it seemed.