"Crane! Crane, where are you dammit?!" Abbie yelled in an anguished cry. Abbie began to make her way through the woods of Sleepy Hollow. The entire area was filled with a thick dark smoke. Abbie stumbled around broken twigs and fallen branches, while wiping thick purple goo from her favorite brown jacket. She and Crane had just battled with four large Fyrus demons in the forest. The demons had been terrorizing Sleepy Hollow for the last few weeks. After spending a long 16-hour, energy drink fueled bender in the archives, she and Crane finally found that the only way to kill the demons was to stab the demon directly in the heart with a wooden stake. This was made even more difficult to do because the demons had the ability to conjure up blue flames with a simply flick of the wrist.
"Crane!" Abbie yelled again, her level of concern was steadily increasing every moment Ichabod Crane was not by her side. "Here, Leftenant," Ichabod gave a slight cough in an attempt to clear the smoke from his lungs. Abbie released a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding as she whipped around to see Crane standing directly behind her. Like her, Crane was covered from head to toe in the thick goo from the Fyrus demons. "One would imagine that one as through as the author of literature on Fyrus demons would have mentioned that they would explode upon death."
Abbie snorted. She and Ichabod began to walk back towards the car, and the sound of the approaching sirens. "Yea, well you'd think they would have also mentioned the fire throwing." Abbie gestured to the smoking wood around them. "How exactly are we going to explain all this smoke and absolutely no other evidence of a fire?" Abbie stumbled as her foot caught on a root she failed to notice in her haste to get to fresh smoke free air. Before she could hit the ground Ichabod's long arms reached out and found purchase on her hips. Abbie glanced back to thank Ichabod for his quick save and she noticed Ichabod's cheeks where stained a bright red. Abbie could help but wonder if the smoke was the cause of his blush or if it was due to the fact that he had still not removed his hands from her waist.
Abbie cleared her throat softly, "Thanks, Crane. You can let go now." Ichabod's hands dropped quickly to his sides, before then straighten to his full height and moving to cross his hands behind his back. "Quite right, Miss. Mills. I apologize, In my efforts to prevent your fall I have clearly forgotten my sense of decorum." "It's fine, Crane. Don't give it a second thought." Ha. Abbie thought, Don't give it a second thought? Yea, right I'll be thinking about that touch for the rest of the night. Logically speaking Abbie knew that Ichabod was technically still a married man. Even though it had been over a year since Ichabod's return from the grave she still wasn't quite certain of the technicalities on it. Was Katrina trapped in purgatory awaiting her release back to earth? Or when or if she was finally released, would her soul immediately move on to wherever it was destined to go? These where thoughts that had periodically come to Abbie over the last month or so as Crane had intensified his efforts to free his wife from purgatory.
Abbie had been so lost in her thoughts she hadn't notice that they had come right up to the parking lot where they had left the car. The emergency vehicles rushing into the parking lot brought her back to the present. Crane stood at her side as people began to jump out of the emergency vehicles. Several members of fire rescue jogged over and began to assess their injuries, while the fire department began to unload and connect hoses to put out a fire that didn't actually exist.
Abbie wanted to speak up, to tell them that it was a waste of time to spray into the woods. That there was no fire, but the words wouldn't come. She could not think of a plausible enough story and honestly it felt as though her throat was fire. The effort it would take was not worth it.
"What exactly happened here? We need to get you both to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation and these cuts. Is there anyone else that has been injured? We need each of you to get on a stretcher so that we can get you out of here." Abbie and Ichabod were bombarded by several of the EMTs. Abbie just stared, still unable to find her voice. Fortunately Ichabod chose this moment to speak up. "No, Miss Mills and I are all quite alright. Nothing a good night's rest cannot improve. And I could do without another trip to that…hospital." Crane said the word hospital with the distain he usually reserved for the internet, or paying for water.
"Sir, We will really have to insist that you come-" "No. We're both fine." Abbie cut of the tech before he could finish his sentence. "We're fine and there was no one else in there but us. Please just give us the necessary waivers. We'll sign them and be on our way." During her career in law enforcement Abbie had become well acquainted with the process the EMTs required and knew that there were certain things them must do and say to cover their own ass. Nobody wanted a lawsuit. However, today Abbie was far to exhausted to humor them. It had been a long battle and an even longer two days. All Abbie wanted to do was to go home and shower this disgusting goo off.
Just as Abbie and Ichabod finished signing the required paperwork to obtain their release Captain Frank Irving's vehicle pulled into the lot. Abbie gave a weary sigh.
"Captain." Abbie gave a small wave in greeting to her boss and Ichabod gave a swift nod while making brief eye contact with the Captain of Sleepy Hollow PD. Captain Irving stood studying them for a moment. Quickly scanning their forms, checking for life threatening injuries. Apparently satisfied that they would be find, he gave a long suffering sigh. "Do I even want to know?" He found himself asking this question more often than not when his Lieutenant and the 250 year old revolutionary were involved. He was still trying to wrap his mind around that one.
Abbie pursed her lips. And glanced at the EMT still hovering nearby. "Nothing to tell," she finally said. She continued to look the Captain directly in the eye and then glance causally back at the EMT. Understanding what Abbie was trying to say without words, Irving waved them off. "I want two full reports on my desk by Monday morning." Abbie knew that when he said he wanted two reports he didn't mean one from her and one from Ichabod. He meant one that was the truth and one that was believable enough that if any of them were questioned about it, it would sound real.
Abbie nodded and she and Ichabod quickly made their way into the vehicle, quickly buckling up and heading out of the parking lot.