Erratic Sensitivities (Forever, Henry) Part 15 posted.

[AngelEyes]

I know what you mean about withdrawal. I generally get obsessed with a show late in the game so I can just binge watch full seasons. I'm in on this from the go and it's torture waiting!!! Loved all the flashbacks in tonights episode!

[Shay]

Yeah I loved tonight's episode as well, there was so much funny stuff mixed in with the drama. I guess I finally got more of an answer about his cell phone situation. He definitely doesn't own one because he finds them to be "utterly useless", though I'm not convinced that's the real reason. Oh well, I'm not going to rewrite the stuff regarding his cell phone usage in this story, but I may take it into account for future stories. For the purposes of this story I guess I'll just keep ignoring that detail.

I also noticed that Henry called Jo by her first name for the first time when in previous episodes I'm pretty sure he always referred to her as Detective. Is it silly that I want to think that the reason is because she got to see him naked in my latest chapter? At the very least I'm going to have to write that into the next chapter.

I also loved the scene at the end. I was surprised that Henry was able to come up with a fake history between him and Abe so quickly. But really, they should have had a cover story made up already in the event that people asked those sorts of questions. I guess that wouldn't have been as funny though.

[AngelEyes]

You totally would think they'd have a cover story, right?

[Shay]

Yeah. It just shows how used to lying Henry is that he was able to come up with something believable right on the spot like that. It's actually kind of sad really.

[Shay]

Here's part 7 up just in time for tonight's episode. Speaking of which, here's a fun promo video clip I found.

Click here.

I couldn't resist sneaking in a minor Stargate SG-1 crossover. There's just one Stargate character that's mentioned but doesn't actually appear in the story. If you've never seen Stargate SG-1, don't worry. It's really just a minor thing and you won't be lost.

Anyway here's the story, enjoy!

------

Henry performed an allergy skin test on himself after they got home. He sighed in defeat as he examined all of the hives that had popped up on his arms and wrote the results down. It appeared that he was no longer allergic to latex, so he'd accomplished what he set out to do, but none of the other things that he'd tested positive to the previous day had gone away. In addition to the grass, ragweed, mold, dust, and feather allergies, he was now testing positive for miscellaneous tree and weed pollens and cats as well. He was starting to wonder whether it had been worth it and only hoped that this body responded better to medication than the previous one did. He applied ointment to his arms to help with the itchy hives, then left his laboratory and went upstairs to the kitchen to update Abe.

"So what's the verdict?" Abe asked.

"It seems that my plan partially backfired. The latex allergy is gone, which is good, but I'm still testing positive for a lot of other allergens." He grabbed some tissues from the box on the kitchen counter and sneezed forcefully into them three times in a row, then handed the list he'd written out to Abe to read over.

Abe frowned as he read the list. "Well the important thing is that the latex allergy is gone and I don't see anything else on the list that would be likely to be life threatening."

"Yes as far as we know, but based on how many things I've tested positive to, I'd say the chances are likely that I'll encounter things I'm allergic to that aren't on the list. It's virtually impossible to test for everything one could possibly be allergic to," Henry replied and sneezed again.

Abe nodded. "Try not to obsess over it. Just take something and go to bed. Maybe you'll get lucky and find a medication that works better for you this time around."

"One can only hope. Goodnight Abe." Henry kissed Abe on the top of his head and went up to his bedroom. He got ready for bed and then looked through his arsenal of assorted allergy medications. He finally selected one that tended to be quite sedating and swallowed a couple of pills with a glass of water. He figured that it would at least knock him out even if it didn't do anything for his symptoms.

------

When Henry woke up the next morning he wasn't feeling too bad. He was congested and his nose itched, but he was only sneezing sporadically. He took some more medicine and packed a bunch of tissues and handkerchiefs in his briefcase just in case before heading off to work. He was actually starting to feel somewhat optimistic by the time he arrived at the morgue and thought maybe things wouldn't be too bad. When he entered his office he was greeted with a peculiar sight. There was a bouquet of white roses with a card on his desk. At first he thought it might be a get well gesture from Jo, but he quickly dismissed that idea thinking it would be highly unlikely that she would send flowers knowing the nature of his allergies. He smiled sadly at the flowers recalling that Abigail had been quite fond of roses and white ones in particular. He opened the card and read it. It said:

Dear Henry,

My deepest sympathies for your most recent death. Cheer up though. You know as well as I do that suicide is never the answer.

Yours Forever,

Adam

Henry stared at the card and reread it a couple of times. How did Adam know that he'd committed suicide last night? He usually only seemed to know about his deaths that occurred outside of his residence. He'd have to check the whole building for bugs and hidden cameras. And how did he know what Abigail's favorite flowers were? Perhaps that part was just coincidence, but he was still suspicious. He tucked the card into his briefcase to file away later with the rest of his notes on Adam. He figured he should at least try to enjoy the flowers. He picked up the bouquet and brought the flowers to his face taking in the sweet aroma letting it bring back fond memories. He quickly realized this was a foolish thing to do as his nose started to tickle badly. He dropped the bouquet back on his desk and rubbed his nose while cursing his allergies for preventing him from enjoying something that reminded him of happy times from his past. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and brought it to his face just in time to catch a fit of several sneezes. He blew his nose and then grabbed the bouquet and went out to where Lucas was reading the file on a body that had just been brought in. "Did you see who left these flowers on my desk?"

"Nope, I just got here," Lucas answered. "Maybe you've got a secret admirer?"

"More like a secret torturer," said Henry and muffled three sneezes into his arm. "Would you please dispose of them for me?"

Lucas raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure Boss? They're very pretty. It would be a shame to throw them out."

"Yes I know, but..." Henry trailed off and sneezed again.

"Ok ok, I get the picture." Lucas took the bouquet from Henry and went to take them to the garbage dumpsters behind the building.

Henry sneezed a few more times and blew his nose. He wondered how much Adam knew about his allergies and wondered if it had been his intention to try to cause a reaction. When he felt he had sufficiently recovered he looked over the file that Lucas had been reading. When he had familiarized himself with it he started to pull some surgical gloves from the box when Lucas came running into the room.

"Doctor Morgan stop!" Lucas shouted as he ran, then tripped and fell into Henry causing both of them to fall over.

"Lucas," Henry said, then took a deep breath trying to reign in his anger, "would you care to explain just what you thought you were doing?"

"Um saving your life?" Lucas answered. He got up, brushed himself off, then helped Henry up. "Detective Martinez called and told me that you'd been hospitalized for a reaction to latex and that I should switch out the gloves here for latex-free ones. I haven't had a chance to do it yet."

Henry rubbed his left hip which had taken the brunt of the impact. "And you thought tackling me was the best way to achieve this?"

"That was an accident. I meant to knock the box away but I tripped," Lucas explained.

"And what was wrong with informing me verbally?"

"I panicked?"

Henry shook his head. "As it turns out, the hospital made a mistake. It wasn't the latex I was reacting to," he lied. "Even if it was, all you would have saved me from was a bad rash."

"I'm sorry," said Lucas. "When she said you had been hospitalized I assumed it was something more serious than that."

"Do you really think I would be so careless if I had a life threatening condition?" Lucas started to answer but Henry waved him off. "Nevermind, we have work to do." The morning was largely uneventful. There were three suspicious deaths that turned out to be accidental and one suicide. His allergies were still bothering him but the medication he had taken seemed to reduce his symptoms a great deal. He still sneezed from time to time but nothing so bad as what he was like the previous three days. He wasn't sure how well the medicine would hold up outside in the pollen filled air, but at least it was allowing him to do his job with few interruptions indoors. Just as Henry was finishing up lunch in his office Jo stopped by.

"Hey Henry. You look like you're feeling better," said Jo.

"Yes, thank you Detective. I wouldn't say that I'm one hundred percent better, but at least I'm functional," Henry answered.

"You know," said Jo barely concealing a smirk, "it might be time to start calling me by my first name after what happened last night."

Henry cringed inwardly and felt himself blushing a bit. "Very well, Jo. I shall try to remember to call you by your given name more often if you agree not to mention the events of last night again."

"Deal," said Jo, "though at some point you're going to have to tell me how you got that scar on your chest. Anyway we've got a body and it's rather strange. I think it might be just up your alley."

Henry quirked an eyebrow. "Strange how?"

"Well I haven't seen it yet, but from what Hanson says it seems like it's covered in an assortment of ancient writings," said Jo. "He mentioned Egyptian hieroglyphs but didn't know what the others were."

"I'm officially intrigued." Henry put on his coat and scarf and followed Jo out to her car sniffling as the pollen in the air started to work on his nasal passages. He grabbed a handkerchief from his pocket and sneezed twice into it. "Perhaps we should take my car. As you can see I'm still in search of a medication that completely suppresses my allergies."

"It's ok, I had my car detailed this morning so the perfume smell should be gone."

Henry's eyes widened in surprise. He couldn't believe how she seemed to be bending over backwards to accommodate him. It was already a big enough gesture that she'd given up wearing perfume, but to actually spend money so he'd be more comfortable... "You did that for me? I don't know what to say."

Jo shrugged. "It needed to be done anyway, you just gave me the motivation to stop putting it off."

Henry raised an eyebrow. He didn't recall her car being particularly messy, but decided not to press the issue. "Well regardless, thank you." They got in the car and Henry immediately sneezed again.

"Hmm maybe I should ask for my money back," said Jo.

Henry shook his head. "It's not the car. I'm just..." he trailed off and sneezed another three times into his handkerchief.

"Allergic to the air?"

Henry laughed and nodded. "That's certainly one way of putting it. What's in the air at any rate. This attack was starting before I got in the car."

Jo turned on the air conditioning hoping it would help and drove off toward the crime scene. "I hope you'll be ok at the crime scene. The body was found in the middle of a park."

Henry sighed. "I'm sure I'll survive." His sneezing slowed down after the air conditioning had been on for a few minutes, but as soon as they arrived and exited the car he felt the tickling in his nose flare up strongly again. It seemed that the area had recently been mowed and the air was heavy with pollen and the smell of cut grass. He sneezed five times in rapid succession and blew his nose as he felt it starting to run.

"Bless you," said Jo smiling sympathetically. "Are you sure you're going to be ok?"

"As I said, I will survive. I'm not about to let a bit of sneezing prevent me from doing my job," Henry answered rubbing his nose. He figured it couldn't hurt to take another dose of antihistamines and felt around in his pockets for his pill box. He quickly realized that he'd left it back at his office in his briefcase. He muffled three sneezes into his handkerchief and sighed knowing he'd have to manage as best he could.

"A bit of sneezing?" said Jo incredulously. "That's the understatement of the year. By the way, what happened to your leg?" she asked noticing that he was walking with a slight limp.

"It's nothing, just a bit of a mishap at the morgue," Henry answered barely even noticing the pain and stiffness in his left leg. He rubbed at his eyes which were starting to become itchy and watery. They made their way over to where Detective Hanson was supervising a bunch of CSIs. The body had been dumped behind a bush. The face and hands had been badly burned to make identification more difficult. The dead man was naked from the waist up and covered with writing in an assortment of ancient languages. What really caught Henry's attention was that there were white roses strewn around the victim's head.

"Hey Doc. The landscapers found the poor bastard about an hour ago. We must be dealing with one sick individual," said Hanson.

"Indeed," said Henry then turned to the side and muffled a couple of sneezes into his arm. He started to reach for the box of surgical gloves on the ground by the victim when Jo grabbed his arm.

"Um Henry, are you suffering from amnesia? You were supposed to bring your own gloves. I would really prefer not to take you back to the emergency room."

"It'll be fine. I promise you I was using normal latex gloves all morning without a problem. Though Lucas did knock me over in the attempt to save me from them. Thank you so much for calling him by the way," Henry said with a touch of sarcasm.

Jo couldn't help laughing as she pictured what had happened and realized that's why he was limping. "So what, you're just not allergic to latex anymore just like that?"

Henry shrugged and stifled a small fit of sneezes into the back of his wrist. "I had a feeling it was one of those here today gone tomorrow reactions and I was right."

Jo shook her head. "You really are the strangest person I've ever met."

"Well at least it's a step up from creepy, so I'll take it as a compliment," he said grinning.

"Still wouldn't it be best to avoid latex gloves to be on the safe side in case the allergy comes back?" Jo asked. "You did say that sort of thing could happen."

"Look I appreciate your concern Jo, but if I were to preventatively avoid everything I've ever been allergic to I'd need to walk around in a hazmat suit all the time." As Henry caught three harsh sneezes in his handkerchief he was starting to feel like he wouldn't mind having a hazmat suit right about now.

"And then you'd develop an allergy to the suit material," Jo teased.

Henry laughed. "Most likely. I haven't entirely thrown caution to the wind though. After I left the pharmacy yesterday I obtained supplies to do my own allergy testing at home."

"So you weren't just guessing, you knew the latex allergy had disappeared?"

"Yes, and I will continue to do my own allergy testing every so often to monitor any changes. Now that I've put your mind at ease, may I examine the body?" Jo motioned for him to proceed and he put on some gloves and crouched down to get a better look at the victim. He felt the tickling in his nose flare up stronger now that he was closer to the cut grass and flowers. He sniffled to try to keep from sneezing as he examined the body. "Well the obvious cause of death is strangulation, most likely with a belt or piece of rope, possibly even a scarf if it were bunched up. I'll be able to tell more about the murder weapon once we get the body back to the morgue. I'd estimate time of death at eight to ten hours ago. He wasn't killed here, but close by." Henry started crawling along the ground following the faint drag marks that were still visible to him despite the grass having been recently mowed. After a few feet he paused as his breath started to hitch with the intense need to sneeze but he pinched his nose quashing the urge and continued following the trail.

He finally found the murder site several yards away in front of a tree in a lightly wooded area. He stood up and brushed bits of cut grass from his clothing and pointed out the murder site to Jo, then walked over to another nearby tree and braced himself against it as he started sneezing repeatedly into his handkerchief. Jo gave him a brief concerned glance and then called the CSIs over to start collecting evidence. Henry continued to sneeze forceful body bending sneezes and when his handkerchief became soaked through he switched it out for a fresh one. He began to feel light-headed sat down on the ground with his back leaning against the tree. After several more sneezes he had enough of a pause that he managed to blow his nose and that seemed to end the fit for the time being. He wiped the allergic tears from his face and focused on trying to catch his breath.

"Damn Henry, this is you medicated?" Jo said when she walked over to check on him.

Henry looked up at her with red watery eyes. "It seems the dosage I took was ill equipped to handle such a high concentration of allergens." He paused as another small sneezing fit took hold of him, then blew his nose before continuing. "I would have taken more when we first arrived, but unfortunately I left my pills in my office."

"Maybe try a higher preventative dose in the future?" Jo suggested gently.

"I will take that under advisement," Henry said smiling weakly. He stood up and walked with Jo back to the body and then crouched down to continue examining it. "There is writing in several ancient languages tattooed on the body and the tattoos are fresh. I'd estimate this man received these tattoos approximately a week before his death. In addition to ancient Egyptian we have Cuneiform, Sanskrit, Elder Futhark, Ogham, and Mayan writing. It all appears to be gibberish though."

"Do you mean you just can't read it, or is it actual gibberish?" Jo asked.

Henry frowned. "While I'm not entirely fluent in these languages, I should be able to grasp a basic understanding of what is written here if there was anything to grasp. I think it's meant to be some sort of a code, though I'd like to consult with a linguist I know out in Colorado Springs who specializes in ancient languages."

"Um sure, if you trust the guy then he must be good," said Jo momentarily taken aback. She had grown so used to Henry seeming to know everything about everything that his requesting a consult had surprised her.

"Well Dr. Jackson does have some unconventional theories, but he's one of the best in his field and I'd trust him more than anyone else for this sort of translation work. I'll photograph the body once we get it back to the morgue and email him the images." Henry could feel his nose tickling again from the smell of the grass and the roses. His breath hitched a few times and then he caught a series of five sneezes in his handkerchief. He stood up and blew his nose and frowned as he looked at the roses. He knew that the presence of the roses didn't necessarily mean that Adam had anything to do with this murder, but it would be quite the coincidence if he wasn't involved. It wouldn't be the first time that he had suspected Adam of orchestrating a crime and then it turned out to be someone else. It was also possible that Adam had simply found the body and left the roses there to mess with him.

"It is weird about the flowers," said Jo when she saw Henry staring at them. "It's something you tend to see more if the killer cared about the victim, but given the mutilation of the body, it's not likely."

Henry nodded. "Yes there is that, but I was thinking of something else. It's the strangest thing... no nevermind, it's not important."

Jo narrowed her eyes. "If it's not important in the same way that it wasn't important that you were on the train that crashed, then I think you'd better tell me."

Henry sighed. "Very well. I'm sure it's nothing, but when I arrived at work this morning there was a bouquet of white roses left on my desk."

"Was there a note?"

"No," Henry lied. He rubbed his nose and stifled a couple of sneezes. "They weren't exactly agreeing with me so I told Lucas to get rid of them."

Jo nodded. "It's probably just a coincidence, but we'll check the security tapes and add those flowers to the evidence pile." She saw a sad expression come over Henry's face, "Is something else wrong?"

"White roses were one of Abigail's favorite flowers. I used to get them for her all the time. Of course I didn't suffer from allergies back then," he explained.

"Henry, I know you've been feeling like crap lately, but you should try not to think about her so much. You're just going to end up depressed, believe me I know."

Henry sighed. "Yes I know, but it's easier said than done."

Jo patted him on the arm. "Come on partner, let's get you back to the morgue." Henry muffled a sneeze in his handkerchief, nodded, and followed her back to her car.

[AngelEyes]

Dr. Daniel Jackson! Squeee! I have a huge crush on Michael Shanks. And he had actual allergies on the show. Brilliant! Anyway, great update on the story! I love Lucas tackling Henry, LOL! And the image of Henry leaning on the tree sneezing helplessly. Mmmmmm.

[Shay]

Yeah I didn't really plan on doing much with Daniel Jackson in the story, I just figured I'd throw a reference to him in there just for fun and because it was so fitting for where I'm taking the story. I was almost tempted to stick "Ancient" writing on the corpse along with all the other languages, but then I figured that would make things too weird, and it's already going to be weird enough where I plan on taking this story. Who knows, maybe I'll stick a scene in there where they discuss the case over the phone and maybe have them talk about their allergies as well.

So glad you enjoyed the story and the funny stuff as well as the fetish stuff. I so love it when I can make my readers laugh.

[AngelEyes]

I'm excited to see where you take it! Daniel and Henry talking on the phone, sneezing fits lead to discussion..... That would be lovely!

[Shay]

Yeah I think I will definitely do something with that. It might not be in part 8, but perhaps the chapter after that depending on how the writing pans out.

And omg I couldn't believe tonight's episode. I seriously don't know what is going on with my writing and this show. I mean I start writing about a code being done in a foreign language, and then the show does the exact same thing. Granted it was done in an entirely different way and not nearly as elaborate as what I'm doing, but still...

[Shay]

Here's part 8. Sorry there's not much sneezing in this part. It's more of a plotty/angsty chapter.

------

Henry didn't sneeze much on the ride back to the morgue, but this was only because he had fallen asleep shortly after they drove off. Jo kept glancing over at him every few minutes. She had expected him to look peaceful like he had looked after he had finally fallen asleep at the hospital, but it was a restless sleep. He kept sniffling and snoring softly from congestion and pained expressions would keep flitting across his features as if he were having unpleasant dreams. She was tempted to just take him home instead of back to the morgue. These severe allergy attacks seemed to take so much out of him and she knew in his place she'd probably just want to rest for the remainder of the day. They both had work to do though and she hoped this short nap would refresh him somewhat. She pulled into a parking spot and turned off the engine. After watching him sleep for another minute she gently shook him awake. "Come on wake up, we're here." Henry opened his eyes, blinked a few times to clear his vision and turned his head to look at Jo. With no warning his nose was seized by a huge tickle and he sneezed wetly right in her face. "Oh Henry, yuck!"

"I am so sorry, Jo. It just came on so quickly," Henry apologized with a horrified look on his face. He retrieved a tissue from his pocket and handed it to her, then grabbed a couple more and sneezed into them four times in rapid succession.

"It's ok, I know you didn't do it on purpose. At least you aren't contagious," she said taking the tissue and wiping the spray from her face. "I should have been more careful to avoid the line of fire given that you were sniffling in your sleep the whole way here."

"Was I really?"

"Yeah, it was kind of adorable actually," said Jo with a slight smirk.

Henry raised an eyebrow. "If you say so," he replied skeptically then muffled two sneezes into the tissues and blew his nose. They split up after entering the building, Jo going to check the security footage, and Henry headed back to his office. When he entered the morgue he saw that the tattooed corpse had arrived and Lucas was already prepping the body.

Lucas looked up when he saw Henry enter and took in his boss's haggard appearance noting his bright red nose and watery eyes. "Hey Doc. Allergies acting up again?"

"Your powers of observation never cease to amaze me," Henry answered not even trying to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. "When you've finished prepping the body, would you please photograph all of the tattoos and load them onto the computer? There's a colleague I want to send them to. I'll be out shortly." He went back to his office and closed the door and hung up his coat and scarf, then sat down at his desk and started rummaging through his briefcase. He found his pill box and took another dose of antihistamines, then blew his nose repeatedly in a fresh handkerchief to clear out the worst of the congestion. He closed his eyes for a moment wishing he could go back to sleep, but he really needed to examine the body more closely and this was not a case that he could entrust solely to Lucas. He sighed resignedly as he stood up and headed back out to the lab.

As Henry approached the exam table his nose started to tickle again and he realized that the faint smell of grass and flowers was coming from the body. He quickly brought his arm to his face and stifled three sneezes into it. Lucas blessed him and he nodded his thanks. He put on a surgical mask hoping to keep the worst of the smell out and then put on a pair of gloves.

"What's with the mask?" Lucas asked. "Is there something toxic on the body?"

"To me perhaps, but you should be fine," Henry answered.

Lucas nodded with a slight smirk. "I finished photographing the body and the pictures are all up on the computer for you. Quite the assortment of tattoos isn't it? I recognize the Egyptian, Cuneiform, and Elder Futhark, but what are the others?"

"Sanskrit, Ogham, and Mayan," said Henry as he began the tedious work of drawing blood and taking samples of the burned flesh.

"Wow, can you read any of it?"

"I could, if it actually said anything. I believe it's in code, but I'm going confer with a specialist just to be sure." Henry put on a pair of surgical binoculars and carefully removed some fibers from the strangulation marks on the victim's neck. He looked at the fibers under a microscope and was disappointed to find that they came from common nylon rope. He could match a murder weapon to the fibers if one was found, but he had hoped it would be some exotic material sold only a few places in the city. When he had finished up with the body he removed his mask and gloves, and went to the computer and looked through the images Lucas had taken to make sure he hadn't missed anything. He then composed an email to Daniel Jackson with the images attached. Jo returned just as he hit the send button.

"How are you holding up?" Jo asked noting that Henry didn't look much better than he did when she'd left him.

"I'm fine, just tired," said Henry dismissively. "Was there anything on the security feed?"

Jo shook her head. "Nothing useful, whoever delivered the flowers had his face completely obscured by a hood."

Henry nodded feeling somewhat relieved. He didn't want Jo getting mixed up in this whole Adam thing. "I'm sure it wasn't connected to the case anyway."

"Find anything else with the body?"

"Yes, the victim didn't fight back much if at all so he must have been drugged or unconscious at the time of the assault. I've run some blood work to check for drugs or toxins. Unfortunately the murder weapon is common nylon rope so it will be difficult to trace." Henry paused as he felt the need to sneeze, but he rubbed his nose and it faded. "There was no ID found at the crime scene was there?"

"No, but we're going to run the DNA through the database to see if we get any hits."

Henry sniffled as he felt the tickle in his nose come back and this time rubbing did nothing to relieve the sensation. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and sneezed into it. His breath hitched a couple of times and then he sneezed twice more, then blew his nose. "I sent the photographs of the tattoos to Dr. Jackson, but I don't know how quickly he will respond as he's often out of town. It might be a good idea to have a cryptologist start working on it in the meantime, and I'll see what I can make of it as well."

Jo nodded. "Not tonight though, you should get some rest."

Henry smirked. "Stop mothering me, I'm fine. That was the first time I've sneezed in the past hour."

"I am not mothering you," Jo replied indignantly. "This is an unusual case and if you run yourself ragged then that can affect your focus. It's not about the frequency of your sneezing, it's about how tired you are and you still look exhausted from the allergy attack in the park."

"Very well, I suppose I could use a break," he conceded.

"Come and have a drink with me," said Jo. "I think we could both use a distraction."

"I'd love to." Henry didn't really feel like hanging around a bar right now, but he accepted her invitation because he really didn't want to go home either. Abe had plans and he didn't feel like sitting around the apartment by himself. He grabbed his coat and scarf from his office and then walked with her to the bar across the street. His nose started to itch and run a bit after he stepped outside, but to his surprise he actually managed to make it to the bar without sneezing.

Jo ordered their drinks after they'd found seats at the bar. "I'll have a rum and coke and he'll have a club soda." Henry raised an eyebrow questioningly at her. "I might not be a doctor Henry, but I do know that you can't mix alcohol with allergy medication."

"Fine. I'll have a club soda with lime please," he said to the bartender who brought them their drinks after a couple of minutes. "Why did you ask me to have a drink with you if you didn't intend to let me consume alcohol?"

Jo shrugged. "It's just something that friends do."

"You consider us to be friends?" Henry asked genuinely surprised.

Jo shook her head and rolled her eyes. "We've been out for drinks a few times, I had dinner with you and your surrogate father, and I even took you to the hospital. What else would you call it? I wouldn't say we were close friends, but we haven't known each other that long."

Henry nodded and smiled. "When you put it like that, some might even assume we were dating."

"Like Abe?"

Henry chuckled. "How did you know I was thinking of him?"

"There were just some things he said to me at the hospital after you fell asleep. It was like he had this notion that it was inevitable that we'd end up together even after I insisted we were just colleagues," Jo explained.

"I believe that is just wishful thinking on his part. He'd like to see me move on with my life. He even said it was fate that you found me by the river."

"Well you don't usually get to see your friends naked," said Jo smirking.

Henry nearly choked on his drink. "You promised not to mention that again!"

"Hey you brought it up first. In a court of law that would open the door for me to testify about the night in question."

"Fair enough, but never again."

Jo smiled. "I won't bring it up if you don't." They sipped their drinks in silence for awhile listening to the radio in the background. Jo sighed as she heard the song Iris by Goo Goo Dolls come on the radio. It was one of those songs that still managed to make her think of her husband bringing up feelings of grief. She took a long swallow of her rum and coke and as the opening line of the song, 'And I'd give up forever to touch you, cause I know that you feel me somehow', played she saw Henry stiffen and a look of mild distress came over his face. At first she thought he was about to have a sneezing fit, but all that happened was he started gripping his glass tightly. "You ok?" He didn't answer and his eyes began to tear up. He sniffled and wiped the tears away. "Henry are you crying?"

"It's just my allergies flaring up a bit," he said not wanting to admit to the obvious. He knew it was a horrible cliché, but maybe in his case it would be believable. He wasn't familiar with the song that was playing but it definitely brought up feelings of sorrow over losing Abigail and he was finding it difficult to control himself. As the chorus started and he heard the words, 'And I don't want the world to see me, cause I don't think that they'd understand. When everything's made to be broken, I just want you to know who I am', he felt his control slipping. He stood up and quickly walked out of the bar before he completely broke down in tears.

Jo called after him, but he wouldn't stop. She paid for the drinks and ran out after him. She found him leaning against the wall outside the bar. He was taking deep breaths and wiping away a trail of tears from his cheeks. "Henry what's wrong?" she asked even though she was pretty sure she knew the answer.

"I just needed some fresh air," he said dismissively. He pulled his handkerchief from his pocket to blow his nose, but a sudden tickle caused him to sneeze twice forcefully into it instead. He blew his nose and looked away from Jo knowing she wasn't buying it.

"Yeah I can see the fresh air is doing wonders for your sinuses," Jo replied sarcastically. "Not a fan of Goo Goo Dolls?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Goo Goo Dolls, they're the band that wrote the song that upset you," she explained.

"I don't know what you're talking about," said Henry tersely and started to walk back to the morgue.

Jo grabbed his arm. "Don't walk away from me Henry. I'm really starting to worry about you."

Henry pulled his arm out of Jo's grasp. "Jo I'm fine really. My allergies are only a minor nuisance at the moment."

"I'm not talking about your allergies and you know it," said Jo firmly. "That song made you think of Abigail didn't it?" Henry didn't answer and looked off into the distance with a pained expression on his face. "It's ok, that song gets to me too. Hell some days half the songs on the radio make me think of my husband. I don't know how long your wife's been gone, but you've given me the impression that it's been quite a long time and I'm just concerned with how much you've been affected by memories of her lately. I don't want to see you go into a downward depression spiral."

Henry just shook his head at her words. He really didn't want to talk about this right now and started to walk away, but Jo grabbed his arm more tightly this time and his expression softened when he saw how worried she really was. "What exactly is it that you're afraid of Jo?"

"I just don't want to see you end up in the river again."

Henry just looked at her with a puzzled expression and it took him a couple of minutes to figure out what she meant and then his mouth dropped open in dismay. "Oh god, you think I'm suicidal don't you?"

"Not exactly, but headed that way maybe. Can you really blame me?" said Jo gently. "You keep joking about killing yourself and you even told Hanson to shoot you."

Henry stifled a sneeze in his handkerchief and sighed. "The jokes were just that, jokes, and I thought that being shot in the shoulder was a better alternative to having my throat slit. I assure you that my melancholy moods in no way indicate that I plan on hurting myself." At least not permanently, he thought to himself. Jo didn't look entirely convinced. "You were right that it's been a long time, and for awhile I was doing rather well, but after I started working with you I started running into more and more things that remind me of her as well as other painful memories from my past," he said not accusingly, but matter-of-factly.

Jo nodded. "I understand. This whole grieving for loved ones thing can be a real rollercoaster. I'm here if you ever need to talk."

Henry smiled. "Likewise, I'm here for you if you ever feel the need to talk."

Jo thought about what Henry had said for a moment. "I don't remind you of her do I?"

He shook his head. "Not really, though perhaps in the sense that life with Abigail was an adventure, and I've had more adventure in my life since meeting you than I've had in years."

Jo smiled sadly. "I'm not entirely sure that's a good thing. Well this whole going to the bar idea was a bust. We really need to do something more fun to take our minds off of things."

"Another night maybe. I am tired and I think I'd like to go home now. You're welcome to come with me. Perhaps we could watch something on that Netflix thing," Henry suggested.

Jo laughed. "That Netflix thing? You've got an account and I bet you don't even know how to use it."

"It's Abe's account really. I don't watch much television and he's always the one that sets it up if we do watch something on Netflix."

Jo shook her head. She found it so strange that Abe took to new technology so much more easily than Henry did. "I suppose it's my duty to teach you and help bring you into the modern age."

[Orb]

Lol, Netflix. Poor Henry, though. Good thing Jo helped him out

[Wig_Powder]

AWWW...Poor Henry. *hugs* Allergies and emotional upheaval; a potent combination (and they aren't doing my hurt/comfort genes any favors, except that I'm not bothered by it, oddly enough).

I actually think an emotional breakdown is coming from Henry in-show; My guess is that Abigail's going to come back into his life, either by accident or because Adam's using her as a pawn, and Henry will finally get the closure he needs. Said closure's going to involve a lot of crying, though, because it seems obvious that he's tamping down on his emotions because he doesn't want to open himself up for hurt again. To be confronted with the primary source of his hurt, though...it'll break him.

(Also, I didn't comment on your previous part, I don't believe, so let me just say now that I'm pretty sure Jo coming across him while naked is also probably going to be canon at some point. It seems like a prime comedy moment, but I hadn't even considered that possibility until you wrote it. So kudos there.)

[Shay]

Thanks so much for the comments guys. It means a lot to me that you enjoyed this chapter. I got so far into Henry's head when writing it that I was actually quite depressed for the better part of a day. I wasn't even sure I wanted to write that bar scene because I felt like I'd included enough angst in the story already and in particular had already included a scene where Henry was triggered by radio songs, but I just couldn't get it out of my head and knew I wouldn't be able to move forward with the story until I wrote it. Now a part of me feels like I want to write something with him breaking down even further than he did in this chapter, but I'm not sure if I want to do that with this story or save it for another, possibly non-fetish, story.

I'm not sure what's going to happen with Abigail simply because they haven't been clear about the circumstances in which she disappeared from Henry and Abe's lives. Henry did tell Jo that she left him, but he has to lie so much that I'm not sure how much truth there is in that. Even if it is true, she still could have died at some point after leaving him, though if she was still alive she'd be in her 90's. I do hope they bring in Abigail at some point, either alive, or Henry just finding out exactly what happened to her if she did die so he'll get that closure.

You're right, they probably will do something with Jo finding him naked after a death for comedy reasons. Though if they do I'll probably be more creeped out than I was after starting to write the plot with the foreign language code on the corpse and then they had a code in a foreign language on The Frenchman's ledger in the very next episode. I know they are really two completely different things, but it was enough of a coincidence that I was freaking out a bit. Yeah if anymore stuff like that happens, I'm probably going to end up rocking back and forth in a fetal position.

[AngelEyes]

"I sent the photographs of the tattoos to Dr. Jackson, but I don't know how quickly he will respond as he's often out of town.

LOL. Or planet. Or galaxy.

[Shay]

LOL, I know! Henry doesn't know about all that though. I was tempted to have Henry be aware of Daniel's real job, but then this would end up turning into a much bigger crossover than I want it to be for the purposes of this story. I now have this odd notion that Henry is really an "Ancient", but he doesn't realize it, and when he dies what he's really doing is ascending involuntarily and for whatever reason when he descends he always ends up in water and just really can't control it. I'm really not sure I can deal with all of that as far as this story goes, but it could be a possible interesting idea for another story.

[AngelEyes]

Intriguing!

[Shay]

Yeah I've been thinking more and more about this idea and I think I will do it eventually, but it will almost certainly be a non-fetish fanfic and it will probably be more of an SGA crossover than SG-1(though I could possibly do both since it would be set post series for SGA after Atlantis was relocated to Earth). It's just the subject matter is so heavy that I feel like making it a fetish fic would cheapen it and there's also the fact that in my mind if Henry was evolved enough to have a physiology similar to the Ancients then he probably wouldn't be prone to allergies and probably wouldn't get sick very often.

[Shay]

Here's part 9. Enjoy!

------

Henry had a rather nice time with Jo watching Netflix. She had selected the movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Henry had protested at first because he had never seen the first three Star Trek movies, but Jo had insisted that it didn't really matter. He enjoyed the movie much more than he had thought he would. It was funny and heartwarming at the same time and it definitely did cheer him up. They invited Abe to join them when he came home, but he declined saying he was going to bed and winked at Henry as he went upstairs. After Jo had left Henry filled Abe in on what had happened with Adam and they searched the building from top to bottom for bugs and hidden cameras, but were unable to find anything.

A few days had passed and Henry was still struggling with his allergies. He had experimented with various different medications and dosages, but so far the only combinations that seemed to give him adequate symptom relief both inside and when outdoors on high pollen days or in other situations with a high concentration of allergens also made him feel groggy and in a fog, which actually made it harder for him to do his job than if he was just sneezing his head off. It was becoming a bit of a catch 22 situation though because the prolonged sneezing fits would greatly exhaust him as well. Jo and Lucas had ganged up on him and started calling him Sneezy. He tried to laugh it off good naturedly at first, but Jo soon stopped when she saw how much the nickname was bothering him. It took several stern looks before Lucas finally got the hint that it wasn't funny anymore. He sat on the edge of his bed with a box of tissues next to him turning over the prescription nasal spray in his hands. He knew he was probably going to regret this, but at this point he was desperate and willing to try anything.

He shook the nasal spray, uncapped it, and squirted it once up each nostril sniffing to get the medication up into his sinuses. Within seconds he knew that this had been a stupid idea as his nasal passages began to prickle and burn. The feeling quickly escalated into a strong tickle and he grabbed a handful of tissues and started sneezing violently into them. The sneezes were loud and forceful, coming one on top of another, causing him to rock forward with each one. The sneezes were doing nothing to alleviate the tickle in his nose and it seemed like the more he sneezed the more he had to. After a few minutes the sneezing showed no sign of stopping and the muscles in his chest and abdomen were quickly becoming sore. If anything the sneezing seemed to be getting more violent and he toppled off the edge of the bed from the force of them. He knew this needed to stop soon or he was going to pass out. He managed to get himself up into a sitting position, but found that the non-stop sneezing made it impossible for him to stand up.

Abe ran upstairs when he heard the crash and found Henry on the floor of his bedroom sneezing uncontrollably. "What the hell happened?" he asked, his voice full of worry. Henry was sneezing too much to try to speak, and Abe looked around the room to see if he could spot the source of the attack. Finally his eyes came to rest on the bottle of nasal spray on the bed. "Oh for crying out loud," he muttered and went to the bathroom to fill up the sink with water. He returned to the bedroom and pulled Henry to his feet and pushed him into the bathroom and dunked his head in the sink.

Henry coughed and sputtered when he lifted his head out of the water and then started sneezing again. He dunked his head a second time and held his head underwater for as long as he could stand it. When he lifted his head out of the water again he sneezed twice more and that seemed to end the fit. The violent sneezing attack had sapped all the strength from his body and he felt his knees buckle. Abe caught him before he could collapse and managed to get him back to his room and into bed. Henry blew his nose over and over again and used up nearly half the tissue box. Abe brought in a towel and dried his face and hair. "Thank you," he managed to croak out. His throat was raw from all of the sneezing and his voice was incredibly hoarse.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Abe said shaking his head. "You know how those nasal sprays affect you."

Henry sighed. "I was desperate and I hadn't tried that particular brand before."

"The next time you want to do something stupid like this, let me know first." Abe picked up the nasal spray and dropped it in the trashcan. "How long were you sneezing like that before I found you?"

"I don't know," Henry answered and massaged his temples which had begun to throb badly. "It felt like I had been sneezing since the dawn of time, but it was probably only several minutes." Abe shook his head again in exasperation and left the room. He returned ten minutes later with a cup of hot tea and some Tylenol. Henry gratefully sipped the tea and closed his eyes as the warm liquid soothed his ravaged throat, then he swallowed the pills. "Abraham, please kill me," he said with a soft moan.

"I will do no such thing. You need to find a way to manage your allergies like any normal human being," Abe responded indignantly. "If you want to die so badly you can do it yourself and find your own way home. I don't want any part of it."

Henry took his son's hand in his. "I'm sorry Abe. I forget how hard it is on you."

Abe nodded and smiled sadly. "Try to take a nap. I'll wake you when dinner is ready."

Abe went back down to the kitchen to finish cooking dinner and Henry closed his eyes quickly falling asleep. He was woken about ten minutes later by the sound of the phone ringing, but felt too exhausted to even reach over to the phone on the nightstand. After three rings the phone stopped ringing and then Abe called up saying that it was Dr. Jackson on the phone. Henry struggled to sit up in bed, his stomach muscles protesting and picked up the phone. "Ok Abe I've got it." He heard the click of Abe hanging up the kitchen extension. A sudden tickle in his nose caused him to sneeze three times before he could greet his colleague. "Hello."

"Hi Dr. Morgan. Are you alright? You don't sound so good," Daniel answered sounding concerned.

"Bad allergies, I'll live," said Henry dismissively.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. I know how awful that can be," Daniel sympathized. "Mine used to be pretty bad all the time, but shots definitely helped. Now they mostly only act up when travelling and I'm not used to the local pollen."

Henry retrieved a handkerchief from the nightstand drawer feeling like he might sneeze again. "Unfortunately shots are not an option for me." He inhaled sharply and sneezed twice into his handkerchief, then rubbed his nose.

"Bless you. Is it a fear of needles?"

"No, it's a long story, and why would I be afraid of needles? I'm a doctor."

"Well there's a difference between sticking needles into someone else and having them stuck into you. Anyway I wanted to get back to you about those images you sent me. I'm sorry it took me so long but I was out of town," Daniel explained apologetically.

Henry chuckled. "I figured you would be. You're always off on some adventure. It must have been somewhere exciting if there was no internet access."

"You have no idea," Daniel replied with a laugh. "I had a chance to go over the images this afternoon and you were right, the tattoos are nothing but gibberish and it might be some sort of code. I'd offer to help try to decrypt it, but unfortunately I have to leave town again in the morning. I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help."

"It's alright. You were help enough. I'm not fluent in these languages and I was only eighty percent sure it was a code." Henry was starting to wonder whether it was even a code at all though, and not just decorative nonsense. He and the NYPD cryptologists hadn't been able to come up with anything so far.

"Well good luck figuring it out and feel better."

"Thank you Dr. Jackson, goodbye." Henry sneezed again as he hung up the phone. He pulled himself out of bed and went through the different allergy pills on his dresser. They might not be very helpful when he was outside, but at least he could have some relief while in his own home. After deciding on a medication he swallowed the pills with what was left of his tea. He lay back down in bed hoping he could get a bit more sleep in before dinner, but then his cell phone started ringing. He fished it out of his pocket and answered it without even looking at the screen. "Hello." He sniffled then stifled a small sneezing fit against the back of his wrist.

"Hello Henry. Gesundheit, you don't sound at all well," said Adam with a slight snicker.

Henry's eyes widened as he recognized Adam's voice. "What do you want?"

"I just wanted to see how the case was going," said Adam.

"If you had anything to do with this murder I'll..."

"Kill me?" Adam said cutting Henry off. "Be my guest. I'd be honored to be your first. What makes you think I had anything to do with this murder?"

"The flowers you left on my desk were the same as the ones found at the crime scene," Henry pointed out.

"Those were just to let you know that I'm watching," said Adam, "and from what I can see, you're no closer to cracking the code than you were when you first caught this case and Dr. Jackson wasn't much help. Don't worry though, I'm here to nudge you in the right direction. Take a closer look at the tattoos."

"I've already gone over every inch of those tattoos a hundred times," Henry protested.

"Look closer, really close," said Adam cryptically.

"Why did you pick white roses?" Henry asked. He had to know whether it was just a coincidence or not.

"You know why."

"But how could you possibly know about..." he trailed off and muffled a series of four sneezes into his handkerchief.

"I've been watching you for a long time Henry. I have all the time in the world and there was no rush to reveal my existence to you."

Henry sighed. "So it was your intention to cause me heartache."

"I'm trying to help you Henry. You need to get Abigail out of your system. Eternity is too long to dwell on the past. It is ironic though, how her favorite flowers which you used to bring her with such love now cause you to dissolve into an allergic mess," Adam replied with a nasty laugh. "I find the nature of your allergies fascinating. In over 2000 years I've never experienced them myself. It has been interesting to see how they change with each death, and I think I could turn it into a game."

"Why would you do that?" Henry asked appalled at the implications of what Adam was saying.

"Boredom Henry, one needs to spice things up every now and then. Now get to work on those tattoos, time is running out," Adam replied and hung up.

Henry stared at his phone for a couple of seconds before putting it back in his pocket. So now he knew that Adam had picked white roses on purpose because of the personal significance they held. He didn't think that Adam had intentionally triggered his allergies, but he seemed terribly amused by it, and had implied that that sort of thing was going to happen more often. After dinner he got on the computer and pulled up the images of the tattooed corpse and began going over them again. He squinted at the screen wondering what Adam had meant when he said to look at the tattoos really close. After about an hour he just clicked repeatedly on the zoom function out of frustration until the image on the screen was a huge pixilated blob. He cocked his head to the side as he realized that there seemed to be some sort of pattern in the pixels. He zoomed out a couple of times and his mouth dropped open at what he saw. The tattoos were all made up of lots of tiny ones and zeros. It was binary code! He grabbed his phone and called Jo right away to inform her of his breakthrough.

[Shay]

Sorry, this isn't another update to my story. I took a break to try making a fanvideo for Forever. It's not perfect but I think it's pretty good for my first time ever doing something like this. I'm very excited about it so I thought I'd share it with you guys. Enjoy!

[AngelEyes]

I love fanvids! Like, seriously, it's another addiction of mine. Yours is fantastic! I love it!!! Kudos!

[AngelEyes]

Wow. I just realized I di reply to your last story update. What can I say? That fit. Jeezus! Mmmmm. I loved the convo with Daniel. And Adam, hmmm, creeper much? You rock!

[Shay]

Thanks so much! Glad you're enjoying both the story and the video. I think I'd like to do some more videos and I have a couple more ideas, but I definitely need a break. Making the video was fun, but really exhausting(glad I didn't have to use actual film). I've also been working on a non-fetish fic as well which you can read here if you're interested. I had originally thought of working that story into this one, but I think it stands stronger on it's own.

[AngelEyes]

I'll totally go read it when I have a few minutes! I love your writing, fetish or not. What programs did you use to make the vid? Are you PC or Mac? I have an idea for a sherlock vid that is burning me up but haven't gotten to it and am unsure of best programs to use.

[Shay]

I use a PC and the program I used is Movavi Video Suite 12. It's got a really neat function where if you right click on a long video it will automatically break it down into small scenes. The function is called "detect scenes". The AI to do this isn't perfect, and I still had to manually cut a lot of stuff to get the exact video that I wanted, but it made it so much easier to find the scenes that I wanted to use. Before I found that function I thought it was going to take me weeks to make the video and then I ended up being able to do it in a few days.

It's also got a lot of special effect functions, but I didn't mess around with those too much except to add in a few very short fades to join clips that just looked really bad without it. I felt like the video might have looked better if I had used the fade more frequently for a smoother transition between clips but unfortunately that kind of merged the clips and made them slightly shorter so then the timing of the video was off for where I wanted it to match up with the music so I ended up only using it where I thought it was absolutely necessary.

Best of luck if you decide to give it a go!

[Shay]

Here's part 10. Sorry, not much sneezing or even plot in this part. It's just kind of a fun little interlude with fluff and silly stuff. The story should pick up again more in the next chapter.

------

"Hello Rudolph," Jo said with a smirk as Henry let her into the antique shop.

"Excuse me?" he answered with a puzzled expression.

"I don't think I've ever seen your nose quite this shade of red before," Jo teased.

"Clever," said Henry narrowing his eyes at her.

"Ok ok sorry, I guess it sounded funnier in my head." Henry locked up the shop again and led her upstairs. "Are you alright? Your voice sounds just as bad as it did on the phone. I thought it was bad cell reception."

Henry sniffled and shrugged. "Just the remnants of a violent sneezing fit before dinner."

"What brought it on this time?"

"I'd rather not say," he answered feeling a bit embarrassed about the circumstances.

"Come on Henry, I promise I won't laugh. I just want to make sure I don't accidentally expose you to whatever it was."

Henry smiled. "There's little chance of that happening. I was trying a prescription nasal spray and it had opposite the desired effect." He left out the part how he was foolish for even trying it to begin with due to his past experiences with that type of medication.

"Oh that's too bad. I've heard that many people find them more effective than pills," said Jo sympathetically. "Something smells good, is Abe baking something?" she asked as they entered the living room.

Henry sniffed the air unsure what she was talking about, then let out two harsh sneezes against the back of his wrist as the action irritated his nasal passages. "I can't smell much of anything right now, but he's probably making something for dessert. Would you care for some coffee?"

Jo smiled. "Sure, decaf if you have it. I'll be up all night if I have regular this late."

Henry nodded. "Make yourself comfortable, I'll be back shortly."

Jo took a seat on the couch as Henry went off to the kitchen and looked around the room. It certainly wasn't the first time she'd been in his apartment, but she really enjoyed looking at all the old antique furniture. She glanced at the laptop on the coffee table with the screen saver playing on the screen. Curious as to what Henry's big breakthrough was she tried to bring up the desktop, but unfortunately it was password protected. She started trying to type in a guess at the password when Henry came back with the coffee.

"What are you doing?" he asked sounding amused.

"Trying to guess your password," Jo answered unashamedly.

"And what's your best guess?"

"I'll bet it has something to do with scarves."

Henry chuckled and sat down next to Jo handing her a mug of coffee. "This is Abe's computer not mine. I only borrow it from time to time. Even if it were my device do you really think I'd pick such an obvious password?"

Jo laughed. "No I suppose not."

"I hope you like blueberries. Abe's made scones for dessert. They're still cooling off, but we can have them in a little while."

"Sounds good, I can't wait to try them. So what was your big breakthrough?"

Henry took a sip of coffee, then typed in the password on the computer and brought up an image of the tattooed corpse and zoomed in several times. "Do you see those numbers within the tattoos?"

Jo's eyes widened in surprise. "Yeah, hey that's binary code isn't it?"

Henry nodded. "So you know what it is then?"

"Well I can't read it or anything, but yes I've seen binary code before," Jo answered and took a long sip of her coffee.

"Likewise, I can recognize the code but not read it. I am fluent in a number of languages, but none of them include any kind of computer programming."

Jo laughed. "That really doesn't surprise me, nor am I surprised that you don't actually own your own computer."

Henry shrugged and then turned to the side sneezing harshly into the crook of his arm and sniffled. "Normally I have little use for computers outside of work and Abe doesn't mind letting me borrow his on occasion."

"Well I'll have tech get on this first thing in the morning," said Jo. "You know you could have just told me about this over the phone."

"I wanted you to see for yourself how small the coding actually is. There is no possible way something like this could have been manually tattooed. It would require some sort of robotics assisted technology," Henry explained.

Jo nodded. "You still could have told me all of this on the phone. I think you just wanted some company," she said teasingly.

Henry shrugged and didn't deny it. "Well I love Abe, but sometimes..." he trailed off.

"You'd rather talk to someone your own age?"

Henry laughed then sighed sadly. While it was true that he appeared close in age to Jo, in reality she was closer in age to Abe than she was to him. There wasn't anyone on the planet that he knew of his own age. Even to Adam he was just a baby if his claims were truthful. "It's not just about age though."

"I know. None of my other friends know what it's like to lose someone they were madly in love with. Even if we don't talk about it, it's still nice to spend time with someone who you know can relate to what you're going through."

"Yes it certainly is." Henry smiled and gave Jo's hand a quick squeeze.

Abe emerged from the kitchen carrying three small plates of scones. He raised an eyebrow when he saw Henry holding Jo's hand but didn't draw attention to it. "Are you two done working?" he asked setting a plate down in front of each of them and taking a seat in the armchair.

"Yes we're finished." Henry exited the program and closed the laptop.

"Wow these are really good," said Jo after taking a bite out of one of the scones. "Maybe you should have opened a bakery instead of an antiques shop."

"I'm glad you like them, but this is really just a hobby," Abe answered.

"It looks like he's enjoying them too," said Jo smirking when she glanced at Henry and saw him slowly chewing the scone with his eyes closed and a look of pure bliss on his face.

Abe laughed. "Yeah they're his favorite dessert."

"Indeed they are." Henry barely suppressed a moan as he took another bite. Abe had been making these scones a lot lately, but he never got tired of them.

"Time for a bit of entertainment I think." Abe turned on the TV and brought up Netflix then selected Doctor Who.

"You watch Doctor Who?" Jo asked surprised.

"Well I started watching the show when I was in my twenties and I never stopped enjoying it all these years later," Abe replied. "Have you seen it?"

Jo shook her head. "Only a few scattered episodes."

"Great, I'll show you some of my favorites!" said Abe grinning.

Henry narrowed his eyes at Abe and shot him a look that was a cross between 'don't you dare' and 'oh not again'. He knew Abe was going to put on the Utopia episode in which they learned that the character Jack Harkness had lost the ability to die permanently after an accident. He knew that it was unlikely that Jo would associate that character with him, but he was still uncomfortable watching the episode in her presence. Abe merely gave him a fake innocent smile in return. "I guess we're going to be here awhile," he said resignedly.

"Actually I should probably get going, but you boys have fun. Thanks for the dessert Abe."

"Oh come on, just stay for one episode," Abe insisted.

Jo smiled. "Alright, what the hell, why not?" she answered figuring it couldn't hurt to stay a little longer and humor Abe if it made him happy.

Henry stifled a trio of sneezes against the back of his hand and then stood up. "I'll be right back, you two start without me." Though the medicine had caused his symptoms to die down considerably, the tickling in his nose would still flare up unexpectedly. He retrieved a couple of handkerchiefs from his room and then returned to the living room sitting back down next to Jo and settled in for the long haul knowing that they'd probably be watching more than one episode despite what Abe had said. When he glanced at the screen he saw that Abe had indeed selected the Utopia episode as he had predicted.

"You tricked me!" Jo exclaimed laughing when it was over. "You convinced me to stay for one episode and then picked one that ends with to be continued. Now I have to see what happens next." Abe chuckled and played the next episode, neither he or Henry mentioning the fact that this was in fact a three part episode. She felt a bit annoyed when 'to be continued' flashed again at the end of the second episode, but she didn't say anything. She really wanted to see how this ended. Henry dozed off in the middle of the third episode and slumped over against her with his head on her shoulder. "Should I wake him?"

Abe shook his head. "Nah, he's seen this before. Let him sleep, he's had a rough evening."

Jo nodded. "Yes he told me." She tried to move Henry off of her without waking him, but he kept falling back against her in the same position, and she resigned herself to effectively cuddling with him and absently stroked his hair as she watched the show. When it was over she gently woke him up so she could untangle herself from him.

"So what did you think?" Henry asked after stifling a yawn.

"I liked it," said Jo smiling. "It was exciting and funny at the same time. That Jack character was certainly interesting."

"You thought he was hot didn't you?" Henry teased.

Jo ignored his comment. "I thought his immortality was interesting. I mean he wasn't an alien or a vampire or anything, just a normal human who can't die permanently due to some weird accident. Can you imagine living like that? I mean I'm sure it must have its down sides, but it would be wonderful to live forever and get to experience all sorts of amazing things."

"Yes I can imagine it quite well," Henry found himself answering bitterly despite knowing it was probably the wrong thing to say. In truth he was somewhat jealous of Jack Harkness. At least when he died his body and clothing didn't vanish. After Jo left he glared at Abe. "You just had to show her those episodes."

"They were good episodes," said Abe feigning innocence. "Ok ok, I just thought it would make it easier for you when you tell her the truth about you. You could start off by saying remember Jack Harkness from those Doctor Who episodes we watched?" Abe explained when Henry continued glaring at him.

"Abe I'm not telling her the truth about me anytime soon. Not unless circumstances require me to," said Henry firmly. "And somehow I sense that bringing Jack Harkness into it will just make her think I'm joking."

"You might have a point," Abe admitted. "You could always tell her that the character was based on you though," he said facetiously.

Henry just shook his head and laughed. In some ways it certainly did feel like the writers had based the character on him, but of course that was impossible.

Edited November 6, 2014 by Shayla