Chapter Text
Crane pov
The lieutenant and I were still entwined when we awakened the next morning. I kissed the top of her head and she nestled closer to me as she slept.
I had not thought it possible to feel more in love with her, but was never so happy to be proven wrong. At that moment, I felt as if, together, we could we could defeat Moloch handily (perhaps with time to spare for a doughnut holes errand). For the first time, I thought our mission could actually succeed.
At the prospect of our new relationship, I felt excitement and wonder and hoped to join my life with that of Ms. Mills... in whatever manner she would have me or was now regarded as appropriate. Would we share living quarters? Might she consent to marry me? (I was uncertain what role, if any, matrimony continued to play, in this age.)
Feeling self-indulgent, I permitted myself to envision our future together according to my most heartfelt desires. I imagined us as husband and wife, waking up with her beautiful, petite form in my arms each morning, just like today. I saw our work together, comforting each other, myself cooking her favorite foods; Abbie wearing a beautiful dress as we attended an opera in the city. (I had seen Carmen on television and thought she would love it.)
I imagined her snug in my bed each evening, pleasing her over and over again; pictured her belly swollen with my child.
She stirred then. I felt the muscles in her back tense as she arched them in a stretch.
"Good morning, my love," I moved a lock of hair out of her eyes.
She smiled up at me. "I could almost like mornings if they were all like this."
"That can be easily arranged, if you like."
Her expression was hard to interpret, as it sometimes was. I hoped to be better at reading her, with time.
"No regrets, I hope?"
She smiled and shook her head. "Only that we waited so long."
"You are worth any wait."
She pressed her lips to my chest in answer.
"I was just wondering, um..." She peeked beneath the blanket. "I see everyone's up."
I smiled, pleased at the turn our conversation had taken.
Abbie moved on top of me, straddling my hips. She leaned forward and kissed my cheek. Then sat up and met my gaze with a shy smile.
The morning sunlight suffused Abbie's hair and skin with a radiant glow. "How is it possible you are even more beautiful today?" I whispered. She was like a goddess.
Aroused by her beauty displayed before me, I allowed my palms to trace over the curve of her hips and slim waist, finally cupping her lush breasts, then leaning toward her to apply my lips and tongue until her eyes closed and she moaned softly.
"Yes... like that. Cr- Ichabod."
I lay back again. "You may call me by my given name any time you wish, you know. I am not actually a large waterfowl."
"Force of habit," Abbie smiled, her fingertips trailing lightly across my chest. "Let me make it up to you."
She moved her hips slightly and I could feel the slick moisture of her womanly folds on my arousal. She rolled her hips against me, as she kissed along my jaw to my ear.
My hands molded to the curve of her hips as she moved against me. Her breath felt warm against my ear as she suckled my earlobe then whispered, "I want you Ichabod. Inside me."
At the throaty sound of her voice and the promise in her words, my hips bucked against her and I heard myself moan.
She rose on her knees and I watched as her dainty hands positioned me. Our eyes met and held as she moved downward, sheathing me inch by inch. I was careful not to move, for fear of hurting her. She was so small.
When we were as close as we could be, she tipped her head back as she rotated her hips. She made a soft humming sound that I loved.
My hand cupped her soft cheek. "Alright darling?"
She angled her face toward my hand, kissing my palm. "Did you have the expression 'like a glove' in your time?" Her hips rolled softly against me. "Because, damn..." Her voice trailed off but I knew what she meant because I felt it, also. It was as if we were made for each other.
"We had that expression," I smiled, thrilled beyond measure by the love I saw in her eyes when she looked back at me.
Slowly, she moved her hips upward, almost unsheathing me, then descending slowly and completely. I gasped at the wave of pleasure I felt.
Her fingertips caressed my cheek. "Just getting warmed up, here."
I lost myself in the soft sounds she made, the silky feel of her smooth skin beneath my hands, my hips matching the rhythm she set as the pleasure between us grew. By the time she began to moan my name, her eyes were shut tightly and her brow was furrowed in concentration. "Ichabod, I-"
Hearing her say my name in passion was enough to create a familiar tension in my manhood. I quickened the pace of my thrusts. "Ichabod, yes, God..." She moaned, followed by a profanity that I shall not repeat (but was most flattered by).
As I felt her clench around me, our hips met and locked one final time as we both cried out in release.
I could feel Abbie's soft breaths against my throat, our chests rising and falling in unison as she lay draped over me. Enjoying her slight weight atop me, I put my arms around her, trailing my fingertips gently up and down her spine as our breathing calmed.
"I'm officially gross and sweaty," she said against my chest.
"You are certainly neither. But if you insist upon laboring under this misconception, may I offer you the shower first."
When she didn't reply, I added, "Of course, as a gentleman, I am most eager to offer my assistance as well."
She looked up at me and broke into a grin, "As a lady I am most eager to accept."
***
Abbie pov
I watched Crane stirring pancake batter, my mind still filled with thoughts of our lovemaking this morning. I had to close my eyes for a moment and replay the sensations of Crane's hands and mouth on me, his strong arms lifting me against the wall of the shower as water cascaded over us both. We had only stopped when the hot water began to run out.
"Are you quite well?" Crane’s voice broke into my fantasy.
"Good, yes," I took a quick sip of coffee... which went down the wrong hole, making me cough.
"Your eyes were closed. I was... unsure."
You're acting weird. Make conversation.
"So what is with you and cooking anyway? I thought you guys had cooks, back in the day."
He dropped the pancake batter into the skillet. "I confess it is a pastime I have only lately acquired. I believe it is enjoyable because the preparation of meals is so much easier now and the results so extravagant. For example, white flour like this would have once appeared on a king's table. And there is fresh fruit out of season," he pointed to the blueberries. "And nothing is spoilt or half-eaten by mealworms."
"Ew! You ate worms? That's it - never kissing you again."
"I attempted to extract them as much as possible but... the answer to your question is probably 'yes'."
"Makes me feel better about all the ramen noodles I ate when I was a kid. Hmm... but I thought your family was rich. Didn't that mean you had better stuff?"
"Also true but remember there was no Super Target marketplace then. Or canned food. Or refrigerators. If the crops failed or the livestock took sick, our resources were limited to what we had preserved in the larder or smokehouse.
He lifted the skillet and, with a quick, upward motion, flipped the pancake in the air.
"Getting fancy over there aren't you?"
"I am endeavoring to impress you with my culinary prowess. Is it working?"
"Considering how much fast food I eat, it doesn't take much to win me over, there."
"I have 'won you over' then? I would have made pancakes well before now, had I known they were they key to your heart. Speaking of..." he tipped the pancake from the skillet to a plate and passed it to me.
It was heart-shaped, of course. And delicious.
Crane finished cooking, then brought the other pancakes to the table, where he joined me.
"This is so good! Thank you." I leaned over and kissed him (which tasted like syrup.) "I should probably go home after breakfast. I want to visit Darlene in the hospital and I can't show up in this disgusting suit."
"A clear argument for storing your things here. Though nothing you could ever do would cause disgust."
My stomach flip-flopped at his words. Moving my stuff in? Damn, he wasn't wasting any time. I felt like I needed to be open with him, so he knew what to expect.
"I don't do 'relationships' all that well, Crane." I poked my food around my plate with my fork. "Luke and I dated for almost a year and that was the longest I ever went out with anyone... by a pretty big margin."
"You and Morales courted for nearly a year?"
I nodded.
"Clearly, you have the patience of a saint."
I shot him a look. "Don't be mean."
He nodded. "Apologies. Would you care for more coffee?"
I watched Crane as he poured me another coffee from the pot on the woodstove. I allowed myself to appreciate (definitely not for the first time) how beautiful he was. He had a tall, slim yet muscular build like a fashion model, handsome face, sexy voice, brilliant mind. And then there was me. Foster kid with family "issues" (to put it mildly.) Yep, definitely should clear up some stuff going in.
"I'm just letting you know that... I promise not to act weird when this ends. We can still be friends." I pushed my plate away as I'd lost my appetite.
As Crane brought my coffee back, he looked confused. He set my cup on the table and put his hand over mine as he sat down. "I confess I do not understand. Are you trying to get rid of me?"
His beautiful eyes looked so hurt. "No! Of course not. Why would you think that?” I felt my stomach twist as I realized how bad I was screwing this up.
"Because you are telling me how you plan to act after you break my heart." His brow furrowed. "If this is some bizarre modern custom, would you pray explain it?"
Me break his heart? What? I couldn't believe how wrong this was going.
I took a deep breath, trying to think how to word what I felt he deserved to know. "We'll still need to work together after this..." I gestured between us "is over. I'm trying to let you know I won't freak out or embarrass you when that happens. I promise I'll act like everything's fine."
"Ah." His thumb traced over my knuckles. “How do you know it will end?”
"Because everything good does." I had to whisper it.
"I confess my thinking was quite to the contrary on this matter as I should like nothing better than to share the rest of my life with you.
I couldn't talk. Could barely breathe. I felt my eyes tearing up. I squeezed Crane’s hand. "That... sounds nice."
He nodded. "So... you are willing to consider my side of this argument?"
I nodded; still couldn't talk.
Crane squeezed my hand back. "The matter is as good as settled then as I have the next six years to convince you..." he raised my hand to his lips, "...and during that interval I plan to be very persuasive." He looked at me from under his eyelashes.
"That's good," I managed to choke out, somehow. I stood up, then reseated myself in Ichabod's lap. I wrapped my arms around his neck as his arms went around my waist, pulling me closer. There it was again - the feeling of being where I belonged, like I was home.
"I'm willing to be persuaded," I whispered, then kissed him with all the love in my heart.
***
Jenny pov
I winced a little when I saw Abbie's name come up on my phone. Knew that call was coming.
"Hi Jenny."
She didn't sound as mad as I expected. Interesting. "I can explain."
"About the lying and running out on me, you mean."
"You were acting like you do right before you crawl into your couch fort with your blanket and your Netflix."
She made a scoffing sound. "I don't make sofa forts anymore, Jenny. I'm not 10 years old."
"Not the point. Can you deny you were about to blow off this witness thing?"
"Maybe I... just wanted to go home and watch Law and Order. It's a really good show. It's won a bunch of awards... and it's educational."
I noticed she didn't answer the question. "That's why you watch it? Because it's educational? Really?"
There was a long pause. "It's hard to explain. It's like things on that show make sense and you know what to expect. There's always the same process with the investigation and then the trial and the verdict. And the good guys usually win.”
"Also the DA doesn't sprout horns and start speaking in Aramaic."
"That too."
"But you can't do that anymore, Abs. You can't freak out and wait for this to blow over because it's not going away unless you two do something about it... which you can't if you're in your cocoon. You really are stuck with him for the next six years because you two are the witnesses.
Another pause.
"I wondered if you were trying to play matchmaker or what."
"Wow, ok, you know this isn't a romance novel, right? It's actually the apocalypse and potentially the end of the world and all. And averting that end has been my mission in life for... way longer than I even like to think about. And I will not let you screw it up."
I took a deep breath.
"Now that I've got my eyes on the prize speech out of the way, I also think you deserve to be happy, Abs."
"We both do," she said immediately.
"Don’t seem to be very good at it, though, do we?"
I waited to see if she would reply, then continued. "Since you're stuck with Crane anyway, maybe you could give him a chance?"
"Maybe I already am." Her tone of voice was like "do not call me on my bullshit" so of course I had to.
"See, I meant an actual chance. Not the judgey kind where you've already made up your mind he's screwing you over or is about to." I knew how guarded I was and I guessed she might be, too. Also, as an ex-mental patient, I was familiar with this type of "chance".
She was quiet, so I wondered if my guess was close to home. I let the silence fester, in all its awkward glory.
"You mean like if I assumed someone was dumping me just because they were friendly with a neighbor?"
"Y-es... that sounds like an example alright." Pretty specific one, too. Was I imagining or did she sound... embarrassed? "Any reason for choosing that particular example?"
"I may have done something that stupid some time or other."
"We all do stupid stuff. Just don't keep doing it."
I was trying to think of a way to finish this because I'd definitely met my quota of 'let's talk about our feelings' for the next couple years. "How about this: what do you have to lose by giving Crane a shot? It's not like life is all Xanax and rainbows now anyway. Plus, worst case scenario, the sofa fort will still be there."
After a pause she said, "This is the closest thing I'm going to get to an apology for the lying and running out on me, isn't it?"
"Pretty much. And I meant what I said about not letting you screw this up. The next time we have a chance to try that spell, you have to let Crane finish."
"Damn, Jenny! Are you going to ride my butt about that forever?"
"Nope. Just til the end of time."
"Hmm... or I could learn Middle English and do the spell myself. If my baby sis can learn it how hard can it be?"
Nope because I'm a damn hypocrite and I can't lose you again. "You know Crane would never play that. He'd sneak out by himself and do it alone."
There was another pause as I heard the intro to Ancient Aliens over the phone.
"It's a rerun," I said, "the lame one about crop circles."
"Ugh. So lame," she sighed. "Why didn't they just say in the first 5 minutes that it was drunk teenagers?"
I heard a sound like the phone dropping, followed by Crane’s voice in the background. "What shall we do, then, since there is no entertainment on television that Ms. Mills desires to watch?" After that, there were some rustling noises, followed by Abbie's giggle and, "Ichabod, stop, I'm on the phone."
"Sorry, dropped the phone."
"So he's Ichabod now, huh?"
"Once you get used to it, it's a nice name."
"I promise, it's not."
We said our goodbyes then. As I ended the call, I took a minute to look at the wallpaper on my phone. It was an old photo of Abbie and me standing in front of our apartment building with the bikes we got for Christmas that year. (They were from Goodwill, but they were new to us.) Mom had put our hair in pigtails with red and green bows and we were both grinning. Abbie pointed to the gap in her smile, where she had lost a front tooth. I touched her adorable, dorky little face with my fingertip. "We were so stupid," I whispered. "I wish we could be stupid like that again."
Just then the ringtone for my freelance acquisitions number sounded. I put on my badass voice and answered it.
***
Author's note
Thank you so much to everyone for reading and kudos/comments. You are greatly appreciated. Special thanks to coldcalliope for your insightful comments that helped me see this story with a fresh perspective. :)