A/N: I'm trying my hand at Sleepy Hollow fic. Each chapter will be the name of an Arctic Monkeys song as I have found them to be a great inspiration for this story. I own nothing. Hope you all enjoy.

Assuming that all things are equal, who'd want to be men of the people when there's people like you?-Teddy Picker(AM)

He was in a most horrid mood and he was certain his students were going to notice. He was much more crabby than he usually was. To start with, he'd barely gotten any sleep since Katrina bought a new mattress and sheets. She hadn't even asked him for his opinion on either. Then, she was gone when he finally decided to get ready for the day. Her job at her jewelry store kept her away more often than not.

He'd been telling himself for nearly three years now that she was just busy and it wouldn't be forever. But there appeared to be no end in sight and rather than his wife, Katrina seemed to him more of a roommate.

It was a subject neither one of them wanted to broach, especially with Ichabod's damning sense of honor and duty. No, he would not divorce Katrina unless she asked first, which he did not see happening any time soon.

He tried not to dwell too much on his home life as he sought to keep it quite separate from work. Hoping that his morning could still be saved, he placed his cup under the faucet of the Keurig machine he'd quite taken a liking to, thankful that someone had the foresight to buy such a thing.

Trying to ignore the scalding sensation, Ichabod took a long drink of coffee and closed his eyes as the warmth rushed through him. He took deep breaths, happy to note that he felt marginally better.

"Could you help me with this?" a voice asked, forcing Ichabod to open his eyes.

Coming into the professor's lounge was a short woman with beautiful, dark skin, large brown eyes, and curly hair that stopped at her chin. On her face was a friendly smile that immediately made him feel his day could certainly be salvaged. In her arms were bags from the Tarrytown Market.

"I haven't seen you here before." he observed as he took some of the bags from her.

She smiled as she did the same. "It's my first day, actually. I'm Abbie Mills, the new head of campus security. My office is in this building."

He nodded in understanding, remembering that the Office of Campus Security took up nearly half of the first floor in the Baldwin College of Behavioral and Social Sciences. Classrooms were on the second floor and offices were on the third.

"Welcome to Tarrytown State, Ms. Mills. I'm sure you will enjoy it here. Lots of action, I'm told." Ichabod put away all the bottles of juice and water she'd bought into the fridge and proceeded to load K-cups into the basket next to the Keurig.

"Can't be much worse than action as an FBI agent." she replied, stepping around him to put granola bars on the counter. "Still, I'm trying to make a good first impression."

He smiled at her when she said this. "Well Ms. Mills, you certainly don't need snacks to win me over. You've done that quite well on your own."

She laughed and gave him a curious look before nodding to herself. Feeling his face get warm, he turned and made for the door, noting that he should probably start getting ready for the day.

"Wait!" she called when he was nearly out of the door. "I never got your name."

He gave her a small smile. "Dr. Ichabod Alexander Crane, professor of United States and World History. My office is on the third floor and the door at the end of the hallway if you're coming out of the main elevator."

"That's...good to know."

"Indeed. Good luck, Ms. Mills. I hope your first day is wonderful." Then he was gone.

Abbie stared at the doorway still, unable to drop the small smile on her face. There was something about him she knew she liked almost instantly. But as her eyes finally left the doorway and travelled to the clock on the wall, she realized it was time to make her way to her office.

"And so, though the American forces stood hardly a chance, they managed to overcome the greatest military power in the world at the time. That, one could argue, is the true spirit of America."

He smiled as he looked out at his students. One student, near the front, rolled her eyes and shook her head. "The true spirit of America is racism and genocide but that's a discussion for another day, right, Professor Crane?"

He squinted and cocked his head thoughtfully before nodding. "Yes, I suppose that is another possible answer."

She gave him a sarcastic smile before taking out her phone. Deciding it might be best to just pick his battles, he dismissed class and headed to his office for what would be his two hour lunch break.

He didn't have another class until 2pm and he thoroughly intended to use that time to take a nap since he was practically dead on his feet. He stepped into his office and closed the door behind him as he made his way to the fluffy couch in the corner of his office. Despite the fact that his legs dangled off the sofa's edge, he pulled the small throw across his body and closed his eyes, intending to only sleep for a half hour.

"Hi, thank you for calling Campus Security. Is there anything I can help you with?" Abbie asked, trying to keep the boredom out of her voice.

Other than paperwork, her first day on the job was quite boring. She eyed the half-eaten granola bar on her desk and hoped the person calling would hurry so she could finish it.

"Yes, my name is Bethany Robins. I don't know if anything is wrong exactly but it's almost 3pm and Dr. Crane never showed for class. Normally, he leaves a note on the door or sends an e-mail but he didn't today."

Abbie frowned at this and nodded. "Right. Well, I'll go and check on him. In the meantime, don't wait up. Class dismissed." She hung up the phone and stood to stretch, wondering what could've caused the man from earlier to miss his entire class.

She took the elevator up to the third floor and walked to the door at the end of the hallway. Unlike a lot of the other professors, there was nothing on Dr. Ichabod A. Crane's door other than his name-plate.

She knocked three times and waited but received no response. She knocked again, slightly louder. "Dr. Crane, it's Abbie Mills from Campus Security. Is everything alright in there?" She heard nothing in response.

She tried the door and noticed it was unlocked. She stepped inside and closed the door behind her, feeling relieved when she saw that Dr. Crane was only asleep on his sofa. With a sigh, she poked him with her flashlight, careful to stand some distance away in case he was of the sort that fought people who woke them up.

"Dr. Crane, wake up." she said with a particularly hard prod.

His eyes opened sluggishly and he groaned as he turned onto his back. His head tilted over and a puzzled expression passed over his face. "Why are you here, Ms. Mills?"

She leaned against his file cabinet and raised an eyebrow. "A student called my office wondering if you were alright because it is now 3pm and you never showed for your 2pm."

It was comical how fast he shot up from the sofa, nearly pressing his nose into the clock that hung on the wall. "Oh, brilliant." he muttered as he huffed before pinching the bridge of his nose. "Just brilliant."

Abbie shot him a look of concern. "So you slept late. What's the harm in missing one class?"

"I didn't get an ounce of sleep last night. I'd only intended to close my eyes for thirty minutes. How foolish of me."

"Happens to the best of us. Anyway, I'm glad to see you aren't dead. If you need anything else, let me know." She gave him an awkward pat on his shoulder and left the office before he could thank her for waking him.

The silence in his office was broken by the shrill ringing of his phone. His stomach dropped slightly upon seeing Katrina's name flash across the screen.

"Yes?"

"Ichabod. I just wanted to inform you I will not be home until very late tonight. Don't wait up." She sounded distracted and from the noise in the background, quite busy.

"I wouldn't dream of it, dearest. Besides, it isn't as if you must call anymore. I can barely remember what your face looks like." he replied snidely. He felt annoyed that he'd missed his class and pissed that he hadn't been able to sleep the night in the first place.

"I'm sorry, Ichabod, I am. But it won't be this way forever. I want this store to be a success. You know that, right?"

He was silent as he let the latest of her excuses wash over him. He wished she would stop making excuses and just ask for a divorce already. Neither of them was idiotic enough to believe their relationship was actually working.

"I love you, Ichabod." It sounded like an afterthought and he briefly wondered if she'd had to remind herself to say it.

"I know."

The area of Sleepy Hollow where his complex of town homes were located was indeed a very quiet part of town. Each building consisted of about four town homes, each with a sizable front and backyard. All of them were three stories with the bottom being the basement. Ichabod's library took up a good portion of the third floor with the other portion being designated as storage for any extra product from Katrina's store. The second floor was home to three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms while the basement was home to the kitchen, dining room, and living room.

In all of Ichabod Crane's life, he'd never lived anywhere he loved more than the town home. Regardless of what was happening with Katrina, the town home felt a lot like his home. He could retreat to his library if ever he needed to.

He dropped his keys in the basket on the table in the entryway and took his shoes off before realizing that he hadn't gone to check the mail for the day. Cursing himself into oblivion, he raced outside and around the corner to mail center, not realizing that he didn't have on any shoes.

As he got closer to the mail center, he noticed that someone was already there, someone that appeared quite familiar to him. "Ms. Mills?" he asked questioningly.

She spun around and smiled at him in surprise. "Crane! You live here too?" She was holding a stack of mail in her hands as she leaned up against the wall.

"Yes, actually. For four years now. I assume you have just moved in." It sounded a lot like a question and she raised her eyebrows as he walked around her to get to his mailbox.

"That would be correct. Just moved in last week." It was silent between them as she observed him going through his mail very carefully. When he appeared to be finished, she spoke again. "I'm having a housewarming party tonight actually. You're more than welcome to come. I'm in 3B." She gave him a hopeful smile that he found he could not possibly say no to.

"I currently reside in 2C which, I believe, is across from your 3B." he replied. Abbie nodded in response and gave him an expectant look that took him some time to notice. "And yes, I suppose coming to your housewarming party would be quite nice."

They talked for a bit more before Abbie decided she needed to get back home to get things set up for the party. Crane walked back to the town home, unable to understand why he suddenly felt disappointed. It was noon and Abbie's party would not begin until 9pm that night. For a reason he was unsure of, he had the feeling that day would crawl by quite slowly.

A/N: Hope you all enjoyed it! Let me know what you think!