Jonathan Healy

**Spoiler warning!**
Ahead are significant plot details from the Patreon stories. Read at your own peril!

## Family

### Grandparents

Caroline Evans Carew (estranged)
Peter Carew (estranged)

### Parents

Alexander Healy
Enid Healy

### Siblings

Charles Healy (estranged)
Ada Healy (estranged)

### Children

Daniel Healy (1932-1935)
Alice Healy (1938-)

## InCryptid Series

### Notable Appearances

Alice and Thomas ShortsAnd Sweep Up The Wood

**Jonathan Healy** is the first member of the Healy-Price family to be born outside the Covenant. A cryptozoologist, he was the husband of Frances Brown, and the father of Alice and Daniel Healy.

Jonathan is the point-of-view character in the prequel series Jonathan and Frances Shorts and appears in the Alice and Thomas Shorts.

## About

### Appearance

Jonathan has sandy blonde hair and wears glasses.[*citation needed*]

### Personality

At the time of his first appearance, Jonathan is an analytical and cautious man, but open to putting himself in danger if the situation calls for it. Over time, this changes. He has a much harder time moving on from the loss of his son Daniel to a bogeyman assassin than his wife Frances. After her death in a hunting accident in the Galway Woods, which Alexander considers the turning point, Jonathan becomes risk-averse and deeply controlling. He fears his daughter Alice, who inherited her mother's brash, headstrong nature, will meet the same fate. Alice thinks that he never learned to let go of the things he loved. In the end, even Alexander considers him arrogant and self-righteous, as he is unable to accept Alice for who she is, rather than who he wishes she were.

Having never known the Covenant personally, Jonathan detests them far more than his parents do, and immediately distrusts Thomas Price, whom he later blames for his own mother's death.

### Professional Life

Jonathan follows in his father's footsteps as the town librarian.

## Biography

Jonathan was born in the Montmorency County hospital as his parents were making their way to Buckley Township, Michigan, in hiding from the Covenant of St. George. He grew up in the insular town and learned both his parents' martial skills and their hatred of the Covenant.

Jonathan went to university before the events of The Flower of Arizona; it is not clear where.

## In the Series

### Jonathan and Frances Shorts

Jonathan meets Fran in Tempe, Arizona, where he's investigating a string of deaths tied to the Campbell Family Circus. After solving the case and killing the monster (and human) responsible, Fran accompanies him back to Michigan, though it takes them three years to admit their feelings for each other. They have various adventures across the United States, and have two children. Daniel is murdered by an enemy of theirs, but Alice survives. In 1945, Jonathan is consumed by grief when Fran is also killed.

### Alice and Thomas Shorts

In the nine years since Fran's death, Jonathan has radically changed, becoming overprotective of Alice and wanting her to have a "normal" life, refusing to recognize how impossible that would be for her. He is immediately suspicious of Thomas Price when he arrives in Buckley, not helped by Alice having wandered up to Thomas's house without either of them knowing who the other was.

Jonathan grows increasingly more paranoid and rigid as time passes. When Enid is killed, Jonathan immediately and violently blames Thomas who had been called to assist with the matter. Then when Thomas makes a deal with the crossroads to save Alice's life, Jonathan forbids Thomas or Alexander to tell Alice what really happened, lest it send Alice into Thomas's arms.

When Alice goes away to college, Jonathan intercepts her mail and cuts off all communications with Alexander and Thomas. Only his own messages go through, even when this means keeping Alexander from going to retrieve a half-feral cryptid living in Alice's dorm room. Eventually Alexander gets the message, and warns Jonathan to stop trying to cut him off from his granddaughter.

### And Sweep Up The Wood

Jonathan is killed in 1960 by a hive of Apraxis wasps that are nesting in the Galway Woods. For once, when Alice tells him she is going hunting, he joins her rather than tries to pen her in. They find the wasps, which attack both hunters. Jonathan is killed almost immediately. Alice is injured but still manages to drag his body out to the road for help.

Many of the townsfolk attend his funeral. Because of the human presence, the local cryptids do not attend.

Because he died in an Apraxis attack, Alice knows that his body is currently harboring a brood of Apraxis eggs. She waits until they are due to hatch, then destroys them as they burrow out of Jonathan's casket.

## Relationships

### Enid and Alexander Healy

Jonathan is close to his parents and lives with them through adulthood, marriage, and raising Alice. Enid and Alexander are indulgent of his relationship with Fran, having feared that their introverted son would not find someone to settle down with. They worry sometimes about Jonathan and Fran's sex life, and though they aren't explicitly nosy, they are pleased whenever the relationship proves to be going well.

### Frances Healy

Jonathan meets Fran while investigating a string of murders related to the Campbell Family Circus. The mice immediately name her a priestess and, once the killings are dealt with, she returns with him to Buckley Township, Michigan. They live together with Jonathan's parents and have two children. Daniel is murdered at three years old, and Jonathan is very protective of Fran in the aftermath. Alice is born three years later, and the couple dotes on her until Fran's death.

### Alice Healy

After Fran's death, Jonathan becomes irrationally protective of Alice to the point that Enid and Alexander subvert his authority to give Alice some freedom. He hates her going into the forest, especially because that's where Fran died. He also despises her friendship with Thomas, not because of their age difference but because he has such a fervent hatred of the Covenant.

He infantilizes her and refuses to admit that she is growing up and into a woman he cannot control. When Alice is seventeen, Jonathan still considers her a child who shouldn't be exposed to foul language. When she goes away to college, he cuts her off from Alexander and Thomas's mail so she can only communicate with him.

## Quotes

### Epigraphs

**Half-Off Ragnarok**

* "Yes, that's a brilliant idea. Choose the career path most likely to lead to an early, painful death, and you're sure to find job satisfaction." (Ch. 2)
* "Gorgon society is fascinating in its complexity, especially since, until you know what kind of gorgon you're dealing with, there is no way of knowing whether the society is polite or not." (Ch. 15)
* "Love doesn't care what you want. Love doesn't care if it's convenient. Love pursues its own agenda, and there's no bullet in the world that can take it down. More's the pity." (Ch. 18)
* "There is a moment, just before the bullet hits, just before the serpent strikes, when you realize that your life is about to change forever, and not in a good way. That is the moment when you will try to make a bargain with God. That is the moment you will become an atheist." (Ch. 22)
* "Underestimate the power of gravity, if you like; underestimate how many bullets you need to take out a chimera. But never, if you value your life, underestimate what a parent will do for the sake of preserving a child." (Ch. 23)
* "This is a terrible, horrible, incredibly foolish idea. Let's try it and see what happens." (Ch. 5)
* "A life that is lived carefully, calmly, with thorough preparation and sufficient resources, is likely healthy, long, and incredibly boring. Fortunately, I have never been in danger of living that kind of life." (Ch. 10)

**Pocket Apocalypse**

* "We try to avoid words like 'monster' when we can. They tend to prejudice people. And yet, sometimes, 'monster' is the only word that fits." (Ch. 2)
* "This is a terrible, horrible, incredibly foolish idea. Let's try it and see what happens." (Ch. 5)
* "A life that is lived carefully, calmly, with thorough preparation and sufficient resources, is likely healthy, long, and incredibly boring. Fortunately, I have never been in danger of living that particular life." (Ch. 10)
* "Most people would very much like to believe that humans invented the ambush. It makes them feel like we're special. Smart. Try telling that to the trapdoor spider, to the octopus, or to the wolf. They'll be delighted to hear how special you are, as they're draining the marrow from your bones." (Ch. 15)

**Imaginary Numbers**

* "There are losses we don't move past, no matter how hard we try. Some wounds, once inflicted, bleed forever underneath the skin. all we can do is learn to live with them." (Ch. 17)
* "Some prices are far too dear. And yet we pay them anyway." (Ch. 24)

**Calculated Risks**

* "No sane man would want this life for his children. I certainly don't. Sadly, the universe seems determined not to give me a choice." (Ch. 8)

**Spelunking Through Hell**

* "There is no price too great to pay to ensure the safety of the ones we love. To question that is to question your love for them." (Ch. 5)
* "I only ever wanted to get her clear of the blast radius before the bomb went off. Was that so much for a father to ask?" (Ch. 13)
* "I just want her to live long enough to figure out what makes her happy. I just want her to be free." (Ch. 21)

## References

1. ↑ And Sweep Up The Wood
2. ↑ The First Fall
3. ↑ Married in Green
4. ↑ Spelunking Through Hell, Ch. 11
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Halfway Through the Wood
6. ↑ Off-Balance: Enid says they arrived in Buckley with a babe in arms, meaning he must have been born elsewhere.
7. ↑ The Way Home
8. ↑ Loch and Key