Abbie pushes her cheek into her pillow, inhaling deeply its comforting aroma of pine and earth and well-worn cotton. The pillow is heated, curled to accommodate her head with utmost care. Her eyelids spark open, blinking slowly to readjust to the slice of dawn cutting through the trunks of the trees standing guard over the campsite. She sees the tent to her left, undisturbed. The fire still seeps smoke from glowing orange embers settled into the ash. Crane had manipulated it perfectly so that the warmth would carry them completely through the night.
Crane.
She inhales sharply when she discovers her pillow is Crane's chest. When she had drifted off in his lap, he stayed with her, supporting her head and keeping her precious limbs from lying completely on the ground. Though he had slumped over during the night, he'd curved himself under Abbie and enfolded her within his coat, so that he, not she, now presses into the damp grass. Abbie is wrapped around his legs, torso flush with his, face curled just below his chin. She is baffled to discover that, despite the odd tangle of their limbs, she had awoken with none of the nagging back or neck aches that she usually experienced when rising from her own bed and its pricey mattress. Though she'd spent the night on the forest floor, with Ichabod cuddling her in just the right way, she feels rejuvenated.
He still breathes in deep regular rhythms. A smile plays on Abbie's lips. She knows that he had sacrificed his own comfort for hers, again. It was so completely unnecessary. At the same time, it was so Crane, so completely endearing.
She tries to mould further into him, to commit to memory this one moment of pure bliss. Months from now, when she thrashes restlessly in her bed at Quantico, mind racing and exhaustion clawing at her sanity, it is this Abbie will think of to soothe her, to make the stress and the loneliness manageable until she returns to Sleepy Hollow. To him.
The beat of his heart resonates in her ear. It is hypnotic, and she drifts back to sleep, matching the pace of his breathing with her own.