A/N:: Thanks to my new beta Mondhase, who is amazing enough to go over this tale in its monstrosity to right my wrongs, this is a now edited Chapter One.

Enjoy

The story is mine, the characters are not

"Henry, there is no way, that I am letting you come to work tomorrow. I know you have paperwork you promised Detective Griffin you'd come in and finish tomorrow morning but he can live with Lucas's work. It won't kill him, or you. It's your day off, you're going to have a hangover like you wouldn't believe, and Lucas will be feeling guilty enough without you subtly making him pay for it all day."

"Why would he do this?" Henry replied slowly, taking great care to pick words that would hopefully make sense, before loosing control and simply saying what came to mind. "There is a reason Detective, that I only ever have one drink. There-there are things I cannot talk about, things that need to stay a secret." He reached out to grab Jo's arm, trying to convey the importance of his statement; but he missed, his aim uncharacteristically off.

Lucas had made it his mission to get the poor doctor drunk. He'd wanted answers of some sort, and had somehow kept Henry's glass of cognac full much longer than it should have been. That, and it had taken Henry much longer to notice than it should have.

"Mmmhmmm" Jo responded distractedly, gently grasping Henry's shoulders and guiding him around the light pole he was about to walk into and towards the door to his antique shop.

"Isn't it considered rude, even here in America, to talk back to your elders? Don't patronize me-"

Jo shot back a retort immediately. "Oh, don't you even try, you're not that much older than I am."

"I'm older than I look, trust me."

"Henry, don't you try to pull this shit with me," Jo rolled her eyes. "I've read your file, I know your birthday."

"The month and day, yes, but I may have fibbed about the year." Henry looked down guiltily.

"Really? Is that what it's getting to these days?" she sighed. "I thought it was only older women who lied about their birthdays, not middle age, decently attractive men." She stopped walking, as they arrived at the door to Henry's and Abe's shop, and spun to face him head on. "Seriously though, you're going to have to come up with something better than that, it's not believable. You're hopeless with technology," Gently she pried the keys from Henry's hand, and opened the door, letting herself and Henry inside.

"1779. it was a decent year, historically speaking… " Henry babbled on as he usually did; history lesson after history lesson, and Jo grinned.

"So you're trying to tell me that you not only lied about your age, but you lied about it by two hundred years?"

"What? No no, It's a… umm…" Drunken Henry tried to cover his tracks, a little unsuccessfully, but it didn't really matter, because Jo wasn't taking any of it seriously anyways.

As if on cue, Abe emerged from the depths of the shop, chuckling silently "1889 is a bottle of Chateau d'Yquem, although it's incredibly hard to find, and extremely expensive. Henry's got a weakness for it." He shook his head in humorous dismay as he saw his father beginning to have trouble standing. "Henry, Henry, what have you gotten yourself into?"

"Me! No, no, no I did nothing, it was Lucas, he did this! Ask Jo!" He waved somewhat in Jo's direction and she nodded in agreement with a little chuckle. Abe rolled his eyes, and mouthed a quick thanks in her direction, before pulling an arm over his shoulder, and guiding Henry into the other room, where he ended up on the couch.

"Where are you-"

"I'll just be a minute Henry," came Abe's amused answer, as he went to thank the detective again. "He's not gonna like this when he wakes up tomorrow."

"I can't imagine he would. Lucas's got guts, I'll give him that. Might not have been the smartest thing to do, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't the least bit funny."

"I'll be sure to tell him"

Jo grinned. "You do that." She paused, thinking, and winced slightly. "Well, maybe not that last bit," Smiling in amusement, she put her hand on the door to leave. "I wouldn't want him to think I sat here all night laughing at him, I'd never hear the end of it."

"I gotcha back" Abe replied, winking. "Thank you, detective, for stopping all this before it got too out of hand."

"Just doing my job. My partner gets embarrassed, part of it's on me." She shrugged slightly, as if to say, 'what can you do?' "Oh, and I won't be calling him in tomorrow, don't you let him even try to get down to the morgue. It's his day off and I know he's getting into the habit of skipping those, but he's not allowed this time; I'll keep Griffin busy After a night like tonight, he needs the day off. -And it's probably better to give Henry a day to calm down before I set him on Lucas. Not that Lucas doesn't deserve it, but…"

Abe nodded. "I won't let him out, scout's honour."

Jo tilted her head slightly, something about the wording setting of warning bells in her head. "Were you even ever a scout?" she asked skeptically.

Abe shrugged, his eye filled with good humour. "I guess you'll find out tomorrow, won't you?"

She laughed for a moment, then turned to leave. With a nod and another thanks, she was out the door, and Abe was re-locking it.

oOoOoOoOoOo

"You came so close to telling her, I almost didn't save your ass. You're just prolonging the inevitable anyways."

"Abe, there is a time and a place… and when I am drunk, for the first time in over fifty years, is certainly not the right time."

"Figured you'd say something like that." Abe sighed, and pushed a cup of coffee closer to Henry.

Henry took it and drained the contents, then lifted a hand to his head. "My head is pounding," he said, "This awful headache is the main reason I don't drink that much."

"Are you sure it's not because of you potentially telling people you can't die-"

"Fine." Henry huffed, "The second reason then. Lucas is going to be-"

"Hey, hey, take it easy on the kid. He was just trying to get some answers out of you, right? Considering you've known him for years, and have told him virtually nothing about yourself, I don't blame him."

"Really? You're going to take his side? Abraham." He said his name with a tone of disappointment.

"I'm not saying it was the best of ideas, but I've got to give him credit for trying. Even Jo said she had to admire his guts."

Henry dismissed the last comment; he'd speak to Jo about all of this later. Sighing, he stood up, making as little noise as he could. "I cannot go to work like this, I'll be in my laboratory. I need some of that tonic you can be so fond of."

"Detective Martinez said you're not to come in, and that she'll talk to- what's his name? She feels bad for what happened-"

"Our dear picky Detective Griffin. And doesn't want me to see Lucas just yet, does she?" he groaned, and continued on his trek downstairs, talking the entire time. "Let me guess, she thinks that giving me a day to 'cool off', to use the modern colloquialism, will alleviate the extra work I have planned." He sighed. "She's probably right. So I suppose I won't be going in then." For a minute or two it was almost silent as Henry worked, only the sipping of coffee and clanging of beakers could be heard. Then he returned upstairs, and looked down at himself in disgust. "I need to go change into more acceptable clothing. As to why you didn't force me to change last night, we'll discuss that later."

Abe simply chuckled, and raised his voice so that he could continue talking even though Henry was now upstairs. "Henry, you are a very stubborn man, you should know that. You didn't want to, and there was nothing I could do to change your mind!"

Henry came down the stairs in a surprisingly short amount of time in a new suit, and with a new scarf around his neck.

"Forgive me, Abe, but perhaps next time you should elect to… force me to take a swim. Goodness knows it would have flushed the alcohol out of my body, I wouldn't have slept in my clothes, and I wouldn't have a hangover. I see no downside."

Abe shot him a look.

"Other than that, yes." Henry sighed. He already asked too much of Abe, he wouldn't seriously ask for that, not unless it was a real emergency. "You're right. You did the best you could, I'm sorry for doubting you"

"There's a simple solution you know." Abe crossed his arms and shrugged. "Don't get drunk again."

Henry ignored his son's cheeky attitude. "I have no plan to. It was completely accidental, and I don't intend to consume alcohol away from home in the near future. It put me in much too compromising a situation. Now," Henry directed his next question, "If I'm to be stuck here all day, we might as well make it worthwhile." he teased. "Fancy a game?" he pointed to the chess board, which was always set up for another match.

Abe took that to mean the conversation was over, which was fine with him. "Oh yes! Maybe I finally have a chance at beating you. The whole hung-over thing could be good for me." He rubbed his hand together in glee

"Unlikely, but I wish you the best," Henry smirked and they sat down to play.