Prologue

It is nearly a month since Moloch released the Horseman of War upon the land and Henry Parrish gave up Katrina to the Headless Horseman. Jenny rescued Ichabod from the grave by tracking the GPS on Abbie's cell phone. (Unbeknownst to Ichabod when he hugged Abbie before leaving her in purgatory she slipped her cell phone into his jacket pocket.) Jenny and Ichabod then tracked down Henry Parrish and set a trap to send him into purgatory so they could release Abbie. Captain Irving is released from prison and murder charges are dropped courtesy of some 'friends' in the right places.

Chapter One

Halifax Nova Scotia

A woman is running through a dark wood. She's sees a man up ahead whom she recognizes but cannot remember his name. She tries to catch up with him to find out who he is and where they are. No matter how quickly she moves, she cannot reach him. Suddenly there is a flash of bright white light and the woman awakens in her bedroom and screams "ICHABOD!"

Sleepy Hollow, NY

Since Abbie was released from purgatory, she and Ichabod returned to their routine. While things look normal, Abbie is still suffering from the trauma of being left in purgatory. No matter how many times Ichabod apologizes and asks her forgiveness Abbie is still not herself. She is going through the motions but is obviously not the same.

Abbie and Ichabod arrive in the archives to resume attempting to find where Headless stole Katrina away to. They sit at desks facing each other while drinking coffee and pouring over manuscripts and maps. Jenny arrives with several books from her collection that she thinks could be of some use.

"Guys you know you could cut the tension in here with a knife." Jenny stated to neither one in particular. Ichabod looked over his shoulder towards Abbie and Abbie kept her nose buried in whatever she was reading. "There's no tension Jenny. Only whatever you THINK you feel" was Abbie's sharp retorted. Ichabod excused himself from the room for a few minutes.

Taking advantage of the privacy, Jenny pulls a chair up next to Abbie and sits down. "Look Abbie…" Abiie interrupts her "Jenny there is nothing to look. Don't know what you are sensing but everything is cool." Jenny harrumphs and shoots back "Then why is talk, dark and British walking around as if on eggshells when you're around?!" Abbie opens her mouth but can't find the words. After a moment she says to Jenny "That day I spent in purgatory was the absolute worst 24 hours of my life. It was a total mind bend. It's taking me a bit of time to get myself together from it. I'm not upset with Crane. I told him he had to go even though a) I didn't want him to leave me there and b) it was fulfilling the prophecy of a witness betraying the other."

Jenny puts her hand on her older sister's shoulder and said "you need to tell him that. He feels really shitty about what he did. He more or less said it but not in those words. I saw his face when I dug him out of that grave Abbie. He was a burning man. He was tortured. He said he would never forgive himself let alone ask you for forgiveness." Abbie quietly nods her head and says "I'll have a proper talk with him when he gets back." "Good. Now I'm going to see if I can cross reference any of Corbin's findings with these books I brought down." Jenny picks up the box of books and goes to the other side of the room.

A few more minutes pass before Ichabod returned to the archive room. He comes with cups of coffee for Jenny and Abbie. Abbie watches him and smiles to herself knowing that it was a big step for him to go into a Starbucks and run the gamut that is ordering coffee in the 21st century. She smiles at him as places the coffee on the desk next to her computer.

"Crane, please sit down" Abbie says as she pats the chair next to her that was recently vacated by Jenny. "Of course Miss Mills, is there anything the matter?" Ichabod asked her quietly intently watching her expressions. "Okay first of all after all the weird stuff we've been through, you STILL can't call me Abbie?! SERIOUSLY?!" Ichabod makes to apologize when Abbie puts her hand up to stop him. "Look Ichabod. We need to talk about what happened with purgatory and all the events around it." Ichabod looks down at his hands folded in his lap. Abbie reaches out and uses her index finger to tip his chin up so he is looking at her. She then takes both of his hands in hers and says "Ichabod, I don't hold you responsible for anything. And I NEED you to stop emotionally torturing yourself about it. I chose to stay behind. We weren't to know that Henry was Jeremy and he was going to bury you alive and give Katrina to Headless. It happened. And yes it was scary as hell in purgatory. The worst period of my life ever was spent there. But the best moment happened when I saw you and Jenny come through the portal to bring me home." A tear runs down Ichabod's face and he whispers "You don't hate me then?" Abbie shakes her head and replies "never in a million lifetimes could I hate you. We are in all of this together. Partners in crime, remember?" And with that Ichabod and Abbie give each other a little smile and Ichabod felt for the first time in weeks that things would be fine between him and Abbie.