Title: To Thine Own Self Be True
Fandom: Forever
Rating: G
Length: 392
Summary: Abe is considering his identity.

It was late evening in early fall.  Abe, as was typical for a young man in his early twenties, was sprawled in an armchair, taking up more room than Henry Morgan thought reasonable for one adult.  Henry, meanwhile, was occupying a sensible amount of space in the second armchair.

Suddenly, Abe spoke.  “How do you cope?” he asked.  “With not being who you look like you should be?”

“What?”  Henry wasn’t aware he’d been dozing off, but Abe’s question seemed to imply he’d missed a few sentences.

“Well, people think you’re a respectable doctor, who’s probably lived all your life in this or a neighbouring state.  They have no idea about your past or where you actually come from.”

“Strangely enough, I have no wish for them to know.”

“Yes, but don’t you ever wonder what your life would be like if you’d carried on as you were to start with?”

Henry looked at Abe and shook his head in confusion.

Abe said, “Obviously, not as if you’d just carried on, because then you’d be 150.”

“I am 150!”

“But you don’t look it.  Which is my point – you don’t look what you are.”

Henry was starting to understand what Abe was talking about.  “This isn’t about me, is it?  What’s bothering you?”

“How do I know who I really am?  You know that bit in Shakespeare, when Claudius says, ‘To thy own self be true’?”

“It’s Polonius, but yes.”

“Whoever.”  Abe shrugged.  “How do I know I’m being true to myself, if I’m not necessarily who I think I am?”

“It depends.  Who do you think you are?”

“I’m an American.  But born into a European Jewish family.  And brought up by a loving Mom and Dad who weren’t Jewish.  Does it matter?”

“Yes and no.  In my long experience,” Henry ignored the snigger, “your identity – the things that make you ‘you’ – are not just your origins, although they play their part, but what you learn along the way.  Am I still true to myself as I was when I was your age?  I like to think I remain true to the part of me which wanted the best for all men; but the part of me which assumed I would take over from my father, always knowing what was right for those beneath me, I hope I have learnt otherwise.”