Afterward

Jo walked up to the front door of the antiques shop and paused with her hand on the handle. She stared at the open sign, hanging in the window, the first time in months that it had been there. She'd thought she was ready for this day but she was surprised at the strength and mix of emotions she felt. She paused for a few seconds collecting herself and wondering how much more Henry must be feeling today. She strengthened herself and took several deep breaths before pushing the door open.

It had been months since Abe had died and this was the first day that his shop was open without him. At first, she hadn't been sure what Henry was going to do with the shop. For a while she hadn't even wanted to broach the subject with him, knowing that the decision would be difficult. She had been relieved when he had been the one to bring it up. The shop was too expensive to own when it wasn't making money so the only way to hold on to it was to have it open. Henry didn't like the idea of having someone else run the shop but he couldn't bear to sale it so he had decided to hire someone to run the shop. Besides, Henry knew that Abe wouldn't have wanted the shop to just sit there closed up, even if Henry had been able to afford that. Jo knew that it was going to be hard for Henry to watch someone else manage the store but she felt like it was the right decision and she knew he did too.

As Jo walked into the shop she found Henry hunched over the desk with Jerry Gibson going over some notes. Jerry was an old business associate and friend of Abe's. Before Henry had even begun the process of looking for someone to take over the shop, Jerry had approached him with an interest in running the shop. It had been a relief to Henry, who had dreaded the thought of trying to hire someone. He was glad that he was able to hire someone he knew and more importantly someone who Abe had known and liked.

Even still, Jo knew this day was going to be really hard for Henry and she was glad she had an excuse to get him away from it. While she was never happy about someone being murdered she was grateful that she had a distraction that would take Henry's mind off of it.

"Hello Jo," Henry greeted when he saw her walking in the door.

"Morning Henry. Hanson just called. We got a body. If you're up to it?" she asked.

Henry looked torn briefly, between staying and leaving. But he soon decided in favor of the latter. "Yes, I think the shop is in good hands. I'm going to head out, if that's alright with you," he said turning towards Jerry.

"Don't worry about anything, Henry. I'll be just fine."

"If you have any questions, I have, this...thing," Henry said holding out his new cell phone, unable to hide his distain for the object. "Please call, if anything comes up."

"I will," Jerry agreed with a smile.

Jo couldn't help but smile too. She had finally managed to persuade Henry to get a cell phone but he hated the thing. He may have one now but he did not try and hide the fact that he still did not want one at all. He had come up with several excuses against it when Jo had first tried to talk to him about it. But when he had hired Jerry on at the shop he finally gave in and got one knowing she was right when she said he would need to be a bit more accessible.

Henry still paused. He was no longer looking uncertain but there was definitely something under the surface. He hid it well but she could still see it, the pain he was desperately trying not to let on to. "Come on," she said tugging on his arm knowing he was going to need a little encouragement to get out the door today. "The scene's not far. It's such a beautiful morning I thought we could just walk."

He looked at her and she could see the weight of this moment for him. How she could have ever missed the depth he seemed to add to every experience just by a look alone, she would never know. She could clearly see now, how difficult this moment was for him and how emotionally charged it was, how it was about letting something dear go. But he gave her a brave smile, grateful for the presence she was right now and how she understood. "That sounds lovely," he said looking at her with gratitude.

"Alright then. We're off," he called out to Jerry as he followed Jo out the door and out onto the sidewalk. It was a nice spring morning. It was still a bit on the cold side but the sun was shining which made it feel warmer than it was. More importantly, walking would give them a little more time before they arrived at the crime scene, something Jo knew that Henry would need. They walked silently side by side for a while, neither rushing the walk or hurrying to fill the silence.

Jo thought about the way things had been between them the past few months. It was strange how nothing had changed and yet so much was different all in one. She'd been afraid when she first started to learn Henry's secret that it was going to change everything between them. She blamed this fear for why she had tried to ignore the truth of his secret when he'd first laid it all out for her. But after the night when Henry had died in her arms she'd had to face the facts of it. And it had changed everything, in a way, but not as she had expected.

Their partnership was still the same as it always had been. They worked together just as they always had, the perfect team, solving crimes that separated they never would have figured out. The only thing that had really changed in that respect was that she worried less about Henry. She no longer had to worry that his constantly reckless behavior would lead to his death. She no longer worried that his recklessness was a sign of his complete lack of regard for his life. She did worry now that if he did get himself killed someone might find out his secret, which was new. But the former burden had been so heavy that this new one hardly felt like one at all. She felt this new danger was a hurdle they could cross together if they had to where the former had been out of her control.

Their personal relationship, however, had drastically changed. While before they had spent only an occasion evening together they now spent almost every one together. It had started out, mostly because she had been worried about him and knew he had needed the company in his now empty house. But as the weeks had rolled on and Henry had gotten stronger and stronger neither one had been in a rush to change the arrangement. She still spent time at her own home but she almost always missed him when she did. She liked their dinners together and the stories that usually followed. There were 200+ years of his life he needed to catch her up on and little by little he had been attempting to do that. Though the first order of business had been explaining what happened when he died. She had teased him relentlessly when she found out that he came back in the river naked. Though she still couldn't talk about it without laughing, she really did take it seriously and she now kept of change of his clothes and a towel in the trunk of her car just in case. She now knew that she would be the one to get a call when he needed someone to pick him up.

There were lots of good stories like the ones when Abe was little. But some stories were difficult, like the night he'd told her about Nora and Abigail. They'd not slept much that night as he recounted the end of his two marriages and the dark fall out that had followed. Henry had had such a difficult life. He'd experienced so much more pain than she could have ever dreamed. She hadn't really thought it was possible but her desire to stay with him had grown even more on that night. She didn't know how he had ever gone through so much and turned out so relatively normal. She wasn't sure how he had made himself trust her after all that had had happened in his past but she knew she wanted to be there with him and help him though whatever was in her power to do.

Henry had seen so much history and she could hardly believe it at times when he told her first hand accounts of things she could only read about in history books. Sometimes he would have her blurt out a random year and he would try and recall what his life looked like that year. She'd had to brush up a little on history, since it had never been a strong subject of hers, just so she would have a better idea of what Henry's life had looked like over the years. Not that that she'd admitted that to him. Some nights they talked for so long she just ended up sleeping on his couch. That happened so often in fact, that she had finally taken to just keeping a pair of pajamas and a toothbrush at his house. She just liked being there with him. She had a place where she belonged again. Over the past couple of months being with him had started to feel like home and that was something she hadn't felt since Sean had died.

It wasn't even that the change between them was obvious. It was recognizable, barely, and every once in a while someone would comment about it. Someone would say something seemed different between them and they would pretend they hadn't noticed and didn't know why. But of course they both knew the truth. She could feel that something had changed in the way he looked at her and this felt like the biggest change of all to her. Now that she knew his secret she could feel the way he valued her. It wasn't that he hadn't before. But there had always been something in between them. He'd never been able to truly put her to the test, to know how true her feelings were for him until she knew who he really was. Now he knew she saw him, really saw him, for who he was. And he knew she really accepted him and loved him in spite of it all. There was a strong but unseen tie connecting them now. The thing between them was now special, a shared secret, not one between them. She gained his respect and his full trust and that had changed things.

And she trusted him too. She had known that she was worried about getting close to someone again. The pain of losing someone she loved had been so awful. She had sworn to herself she would never care about someone that much again. But she had for Henry without even knowing it. And now whatever became of her and Henry, one thing she knew for certain; he would always be there for her. She'd already came to care for him before she'd had that guarantee but having now felt really good. Henry never would leave her.

"How are you doing?" she asked, finally, breaking the silence after she felt she had left him to his thoughts for long enough. Henry needed time to think but there were times he needed to be roused from dwelling on those thoughts for too long.

He paused before answering her. He took in a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. "I'm sad," he admitted. "That's Abe's shop. He should be the one in there. Not gone." His voice was sad and when she looked at his face it was too. She knew it was really hard for him to leave the store in someone else's care.

"But," he started to add and his face lost a bit of the sadness. "I can't do anything about that, no matter badly I want to. And Jerry and Abe were good friends. Since Abe can't be here, I think he would be pleased with this arrangement." Though there was sadness in his eyes there seemed to be a bit of peace there as well.

Jo nodded in agreement and then after a pause, nudged her way in under Henry's arm wrapping hers around him. He couldn't help but smile as he looked down at her tightening his arm around her. She always knew just what he needed. He marveled still at the way she always had the perfect word or touch just when he needed it most.

"I am fortunate though," he said. She looked up at his face as it turned thoughtful again as he stared in front of him. "I mean...I got to spend Abe's whole life with him. I got to see it all. Who gets that chance?"

"Only you," Jo said, smiling at the secret that only the two of them held.

"I'm not saying it should be that way; a parent should never have to..." he paused, his voice catching, "you know. But I got to take care of him and protect as much as was in my power to do so, until the very end. That was my job as a parent and, I think, being the way I am made me better at. It still hurts more than anything but...I suppose I can see the blessing in it too."

Jo smiled slightly. "He taught you how to do that."

He smiled at how well she knew him. "He sure did," Henry said remembering fondly. "And you remind me," he said smiling down at her. She smiled in return but glanced away in slight embarrassment, still getting used to the added affection in their relationship.

He had really under estimated the joy of having her in his confidence. Most of the time he couldn't even describe it except to say that having her in the know just felt right, in a way that few things had in his long life. He felt lighter having had shared the weight of his secret with her. Though he would usually feel guilty about the burden he laid on others when he told them his secret, he found her to be an exception. He still felt twinges of guilt at times because his secret was a difficult one to hold but Jo was strong; it was something he knew she could handle. And most importantly she wanted to.

It was so rare that someone could really see Henry. He could count on his fingers the amount of people who had really been able to look at him and know him since he became immortal. Even fewer were those who looked at him the way she did. Knowing that she could know him completely left him feeling exposed; a feeling he was accustomed to, and one that brought about feelings of insecurities. Normally, complete knowledge of him brought about a look judgment or repulsion in one form or another. But that was not the way that she looked at looked at him. She liked him still and loved him, despite it all. He hadn't known how much he had longed for her acceptance, something he could only really have once she knew his secret, until he had received it in full.

That first death after he'd lost Abe had been hard. It was the first time in decades that he had died without having him there and Henry missed the comfort and positively Abe always provided afterward. He'd died countless times before Abe had been born but he could never go back to having it be normal not to have to have him there. But he wasn't alone. It may not be the same and never could be but he wasn't alone. Jo was there for him and he was more grateful for that than he had been for something in a very long time.

As difficult as that night had been for both of them it had been a turning point. He and Jo had grown so much closer now that she knew. Sharing his secret with her had knit them even tighter together. How could it not? She was the only one who really knew him. Sharing something like that took them to a certain level of intimacy but he did not know what to call it. They were so far from being colleagues that it was hard to believe that was all they started out as. Even friends didn't seem to be enough anymore to describe what they were now. Family of some sort seemed to come the closest but he didn't think there was a proper title to describe what he and Jo shared now.

The depths to which his respect and devotion and loyalty to her in return had grown surprised even himself. He had long known himself to be a man who could only fall hard. He never did things in halves and the only way to keep himself from giving his whole heart to a matter, was to not care about it at all. So when she had believed him and chosen to walk with him on this crazy path he couldn't help but give everything he was to her. Not that he could go around and tell her that quite yet. He knew he could surprise a person with his intensity so he kept such declarations to himself for now even though he still felt them completely within the confines of his own mind. Though he'd had yet to tell her so he knew that whatever she could ever ask him for he knew he'd give her in a heartbeat, for she had already given him everything he wanted.

For one of the first times since he'd lost Abe he was struck, not by all that he had lost, but of all he had gained. He had her, more than he ever had before and more than he ever would have had had Abe not encouraged Henry to be honest with her. Abe had given Henry a priceless treasure. Just when Henry had lost everything, Abe had found a way to give him Jo, in a new way and in a new depth than he'd had before. When it seemed that everything in Henry's life was ending, Abe had given him the beginning of something new. Abe already knew his old man was too stubborn to accept the help but he'd found a way to make it happen anyway. Henry had always known he had a smart son but he was even more brilliant than Henry had known. He'd found a way to reach out to Henry, even beyond his passing, to look after him even after he was gone. It made what he shared now with Jo, even more special knowing Abe had made it possible.

Henry was quite certain now that had it not been for Jo he never would have survived the loss of Abe. Just when he thought the pain of it would consume him, she'd be there. Somehow, in perfect timing she would always show up or call just when he needed her most. Without her there he'd have been left to his own destruction. He had the dark times after Abigail to make him fear what he could have become. He'd even had Abe at the time and he was frightened by the man he'd become back then. What would he turn into without anyone? He was afraid to find out. And thanks to Jo, he wouldn't have to. A heart ready to love but finding no one to give it to was a dreadful dangerous thing but he hadn't been left with that after Abe's passing. He had Jo to care for him and for him to care for in return.

If there was one thing that Henry had learned from being allowed to be Abe's father it was so see how special every moment was and to treasure it. He'd placed some of the magic back in Henry's life that had started to dwindle over the years. He'd also reminded Henry that time wasn't forever. Henry's might be but everyone else's wasn't. If there was something to be said or done there was only a limited amount of time to do it in. Though there were things he felt he might need to keep for a later date there was something he knew he needed to tell her now.

He stopped suddenly and Jo looked at him curiously, wondering why. "You saved my life," he said.

She smiled at him. "Henry, you're immortal. That means you can't die," she said it with a tease but the seriousness of her eyes showed she knew what he really meant.

Though he was sure she knew the rest (just like she seemed to know everything about him) he said it anyway. She deserved that much. "I'm not talking about my physical life. If it weren't for you...I just don't know what would have happened to me," he admitted, simply put but it held so much meaning it in.

She looked up at him, her eyes glistening a bit at the feeling in his statement. "Right back at ya Henry," she said smiling.

They started to walk again for a while before she spoke. "Why do you think he picked me?" she asked.

He was surprised by the question, not quite sure where it had come from. "Well, he knew someone had to keep me in line; I can be a handful," he said with a half smile.

She smiled and patted his middle gently "Yeah, that's obvious," she teased. "But why me?" she asked. "He took a pretty big gamble on me though. Don't you think?"

He was surprised there seemed to be a slight uncertainty still in her, especially with all that was pasted them. "What do you mean?" he said stopping and looking at her again.

"Well, he knew what had happened, in the past when you'd told people. I mean, what if I hadn't...how did he know I wouldn't..."she stopped, uncomfortable even saying that she might not have accepted him that she might have left him. She never would but how did Abe know that?

"I don't think so," Henry said confidently. "I don't it was a gamble at all."

She looked at him curiously. He would have to admit, he loved it when she looked at him like that, that do tell look. He loved that look of captivation and interest on her face, like the world was just as interesting to her as it seemed to him and like she could listen to all his endless ramblings about it. It was like a dare, a dare to surprise her and he never tired of it.

This time he had no tricks to dazzle her. He only wanted to tell her the absolute truth. "I think that he always knew what I had been too stubborn to see: that I can trust you. That you wouldn't leave me. That's all that really mattered. I never dreamed it could come down to just that. I thought it would be so complicated but it really was so simple."

Abe had always told Henry he should tell Jo about his secret. He had always made it seem like it would be so simple. It was complicated but in a way, it really had been simple. The details and all he had to explain seemed so complicated but trusting her with his secret had been simple. All it came down to was that she cared for him and how he could trust her. And if there were two things he could believe in this confusing world of his it was that.

She smiled at him, touched by his words. He hugged her tight and placed a kiss on top of her head before they started walking again. On to another crime scene. On to another day with her. All of it so complex and yet so simple. All of it, and life itself, so very wonderful again.

That concludes "It was so Simple." I hoped you have enjoyed reading this story half as much I have enjoyed writing it.