Hello folks,

Thank you for your many, amazing reviews again. I'm very sad to announce this is the last piece of this because sadly, Forever's been cancelled. Thanks for joining me on this ride for this season. I hope you enjoy this very last one.

Cheers.

01x22: The Last Death of Henry Morgan

Jo Mártinez has always been brave. As a little girl she was terrified of the darkness in her bedroom, but when her mom suggested a night light she refused because she wanted to be a big girl.

Being brave is something she's proud of and therefore she has long admitted to herself that she's fallen in love with Henry Morgan. Unconsciously, she's probably known for longer than she realizes, but the moment she climbed into Isaac Monroe's car a few weeks ago, everything became ridiculously clear. Because she is brave, she went to see Henry and wanted to tell him, but Abraham interrupted before she had the chance.

Now, as she follows him to wherever the hell he's going, she hopes she won't be too late. Something is wrong, she knew that the instant they found out about that Dagger. Jo doesn't know what exactly, but she does know that she needs to protect him, even though he's trying his hardest to hide that something's going on.

She has a feeling that whatever it is it's going to be something completely insane and unbelievable and yet it will be true.
Jo remembers all those moments in their year-long partnership when she thought that Henry hid things and she guesses that it's all connected to one big secret and Jo won't let him hide behind it any longer. She's in love with him and whatever secret he's got, she wants to know.

When she hears the second shot, she starts to panic. What if she's too late? Her heart pounds heavily in her chest and damn it, where the hell is he? She calls his name, but here is no answer. She can hear a voice which she thinks is not her partner's, so she quickly walks through the filthy corridor. When she finally rounds a corner and ends up in a larger room, neither Henry nor the other person are to be found.
Jo's heart is still skipping beats as she looks around. She can see no blood, so that's got to be a good sign, right? Whatever happened, whoever shot whom, obviously no one's hurt. "Oh Henry," she murmurs as she notices his watch. At least she knows for sure that he's been here, she thinks, as she picks up the golden object. What the hell happened and where is her partner? A few feet further lies something else. Jo's not sure what it is, but she picks it up nonetheless. To say she's shocked when she realizes what it is is entirely understated. It's a picture of a different version of Henry Morgan, a young woman and a baby. But the most important thing is that it's got to be at least sixty years old. That can't be, right? It's not possible. And yet, as she stares down at the picture in her hands, she knows it's true, even though it doesn't make any sense. Jo doesn't get what it means or what it implies. But she will, Jo decides determinedly and pockets both objects before she makes her way of out the underground.

Henry smiles as he thinks of his next move. Everything turned out relatively well. Adam's out cold for now, Jo doesn't know about his secret and most importantly, she's save. While he's sad that their partnership is no longer existent and that she's mad at him, he thinks it might be for the best because this way he won't endanger her any longer.

He's known for a while now that he's in love with her. In the beginning it was a little difficult for him to let go of his entirely consuming love for Abigail and let Jo into his heart as well. To be honest he didn't expect to fall in love ever again. After all, Abigail has the love of his life. But he can no longer pretend not to have these feelings for Jo and therefore, even though it break his heart, it's better to have her mad at him than her being in danger.

A knock on the store's door interrupts his thoughts and his heart drops when he recognizes the object of his affections. Swallowing, he plasters a grin on his face to mask his nervousness. He walks up to the door and opens it with false cheerfulness.

"Hello detective," he greets, "you have a new mystery for me to solve?"

"Yeah, I think you could say that," she says and holds out his golden pocket watch for him to see.

Henry doesn't know how he manages to keep his face innocent and thankful when all he feels is fear. "Oh, thank goodness." He takes it out of Jo's open hand. "It was just stolen. I was about to file a police report and…well, here you are."

Apparently she sees right through him. "Yeah, I figured you'd say that. I also found this," she tells him and to his horror holds up the picture of him, Abigail and baby Abraham. He knows he's doomed and he's so panicked that he doesn't come up with a retort.

"I was hoping you could explain it to me," Jo says without a smile. Henry can't help but stare at the picture. He's completely shell-shocked because how the hell is he supposed to lie is way out of this? He looks up at her and takes the picture from her. He feels Abraham come up beside him.

"Tell her," Abe says and Henry turns to stare at his son, who nods once. Henry is still frozen, but manages to let a breath out.

"It's a long story," he says and slowly steps aside to let Jo in. She bites her lip and follows his non-verbal invitation.

"I'm not gonna join you, but please be honest with her," Abe murmurs next to him, but he suspects Jo can hear him though, "you need someone besides me."

He quickly nods, but his mind is completely empty. How is he supposed to tell her this? What if she leaves and never comes back? His heart pounds in his ears as he guides her down into what Lucas called his lair.
Jo sits down and watches him expectantly. Sighing, he sits down next to her, but he's still got no clue what exactly and how to tell her. He peeks at the picture she's holding again. Henry remembers the day it was taken. Abigail was so happy to have this very first picture of their family. She looked beautiful, but sneaking a glance at the woman next to him, Henry thinks that Jo is very much beautiful herself.

"I have a condition," he suddenly starts. It's entirely unplanned, but maybe not thinking about this too much is the way to go.

"So far I know only one other person who is like me, so it's quite rare."

"You don't age," Jo says and Henry stares at her perplexed.

"How'd you know that?"

Jo shrugs. "Well, the picture's at least sixty years old and you don't look younger than now. Just different. More up to date."

"Right." He thinks he's an idiot for not thinking of that. Jo's a cop for god's sake. Of course she'd figure it out.

Jo sighs and gently puts her hand over his. "Henry, you've been…lets say "special" since we've met, so I've always known that you have secrets." She shrugs and bites her lip. "It's just….I've hoped you'd tell me once you learned you could trust me."

He feels like she's kneed him in the gut. It's obvious that he's hurt her. Her being mad is something he could have handled, but being disappointed? He swallows heavily against the lump in his throat. "I…I'm sorry, Jo. I never wanted to hurt you."

"Then tell me the truth now," she says and he takes a deep breath.

"I don't know where to start," he admits and glances at her.

"What exactly is your condition?", Jo asks and Henry closes his eyes for a second.

"As far as I know I cannot die."

Jo stares at him. "As in because of age like the elves in the Lord of the Rings?", she asks and Henry's confused.

"You've read Tolkien?" He's definitely not paged her for a fantasy fan.

"What? No! There have been movies," she says and rolls her eyes. "Really, Henry, you gotta get out more."

He decides to ignore that. It's important to have a serious talk. "To answer your question, no. No, I cannot die. Period. Whenever I'm killed, I return to life in the Hudson. Naked."

Understanding shows in her eyes. "That's why there are so many.-"

"Yes," he interrupts, not in need to be reminded of his rather embarrassing moments. They sit in silence for a moment.

"How old are you then?", Jo asks, breaking the quiet minute. Her question has his heart beating madly again because how is she going to take this? Finding his courage again, he forces himself to tell her.
"I was born on September 19 in 1779."

"Come again?"

"I was born on-"

"No, I heard you the first time, but…", Jo cuts him off, but trails off rather quickly as well.

Henry dares to look at her for and notices she's looking at the picture again.

"I'm sorry I'm dumping all of this on you, but to be honest I'm kind of glad I'm finally telling you."

Jo looks up at him and smiles. His heart does a flip at this. Forcing himself to calm down, Henry slowly slides hi hand over to hers and carefully entwines their fingers.

"What about them?", Jo asks, pointing to the picture in his hands.

"Look at the baby. Do you see any similarities?"

Jo studies it closely, gasps and looks at him with wide eyes. "That's Abe. Oh my god, you're his father." Her hand's flown to her mouth and her eyes are wide.

Henry can't help the gentle smile that forms on his lips. "Yes. Well, not his biological father, but yes."

"You were married to Abe's mom."

Henry finds it's easier to talk to her about this now. "I was. Her real name was Abigail, but she isn't Abe's biological mother either."

Jo nods and smiles. "You look so different there."

Henry chuckles. "I was. Time changes people and I have lived for almost 250 years now."

Jo puts the picture away and turns her body towards him. "I'm really glad I know about this now. I think I haven't fully processed it yet, but that's okay. So thanks for being honest with me." The way she makes his actions sound so nice makes him feel guilty again.

"Jo," he starts, "there wasn't another choice. I might have been scared of telling you, but I wasn't lying when I told you I wanted to protect you. I care about you a lot."

Her features soften. "I know. I care about you, too."

He smiles back at her and notices how she bites her lip. His heart start pounding harder again as he realizes she is about to say something that obviously makes her quite nervous. Henry can't breathe for a moment because Jo leans in closer.

"In fact, I do more than like you, Henry." Her gaze jumps down to his lips and Henry decides to throw caution to the wind and bridges the gap between them.
The kiss is everything he imagined it would be. Loving, tender, passionate and so very new. Jo gently strokes his neck with the fingers she slid into his hair a minute ago. His hands find her hips and Jo seems to take this as a sign to get closer until she can actually climb into his lap. Within a second their kiss grows from loving to hot and while he enjoys it immensely, he thinks they should put a halt to this because he hasn't finished telling her the truth yet and he supposes she should know everything before they really get into this.

Henry extracts himself as gently as he can. They both are breathing heavily and Henry takes her hand into his.

"I think I should tell you the rest of my story," he says and Jo blushes, but nods. "I'd like that."

"Good." He leans back a little and to his delight, Jo slides back as well and leans her body against his. Taking a deep breath, Henry wraps his arm around her and begins. "Remember when I had this stalker…?"