A/N: So, I'm just going to assume that everyone is or isn't voting since we're losing in the E tv pole. Or it's the fact that more adults watch sleepy hollow while more teenagers watch vampire diaries and they really just don't have anything else to do than sit online and vote. Which I can't even be mad at. Oh to be a teenager again...sigh. Anyways, on with the next chapter. And can someone let fox know that if they need a show runner, they only need send me a copy of the job description and I'm pretty sure that I can make a decent attempt at it, lol. I mean seriously though, I'd give it a shot.
"Can you zip me up?" Abbie asked Jenny as she walked into the living room.
"Ooh, look at you," was her sister's reply as she stood up from the couch to go and zip the back of the black dress.
"You look pretty, Macey commented from standing on the couch.
"Thank you," Abbie smiled at her before telling her to sit not stand on the couch. The girl did as instructed, before hopping to the floor and giving a twirl, to show off the dress that Abbie and Jenny had picked for her earlier during the day.
The dress was black at the top and the bottom half splayed out, though not enough to make it look poofy, and it had large black and white horizontal stripes, a red satin belt stitched around the middle. Abbie and Jenny instantly fell in love with the dress once they had wrestled it on the child in the store's fitting room. Okay, so this was one of the fun parts of having a kid. Besides watching them grow and develop into little individuals the older they got, and not to mention that Macey had an awesome personality. She was sweet and kind, with little kiddy tantrum-y streaks mixed in between that gave her spunk, and not to mention she was goofy and loved to joke around. But besides all that, Abbie also got to dress her up in all of these cute little clothes.
"Look at me," she said still twirling.
"You look beautiful baby," Abbie told her.
"Like a little baby doll," Jenny told her. "Oh, which reminds me Abbs, I wanna take her shopping next weekend."
"She's not a doll Jenn," Abbie corrected her sister. She had had this conversation earlier with Jenn, and knew where her comments were going.
"Aunt Jenny said it was my party dress," the child replied shifting from leg to leg as if doing a little dance. Jenny gave her a huge grin at the child repeating what she had taught her, both with the party dress comment and dance and the Aunt Jenny part. Her smiled was quickly erased though as she noticed the scowl that Abbie was sending her.
"It's not a party dress baby, it's a dinner dress," Abbie corrected her.
Jenny shook her head at Macey once Abbie turned her back letting her know that the party dress comment still stood. The child giggled silently.
Jenny then turned back to her sister giving her attire for the night a once over. It was an all black dress that was form fitting, a little loser at the bottom to give the dress a more innocent look. The black straps lay a little closer to the midline with the neckline drawn in to make the top of the dress look as though it were being pulled towards the middle. It was a simple yet elegant dress. It really flattered Abbie's figure, Jenny thought.
"Speaking of party dresses," Jenny said, as she followed Abbie down the hall, leaving Macey to finish watching cartoons.
"Well it was the only thing I had for the occasion," Abbie said with an eye roll. "It's not like I make it a habit of going to these types of restaurants."
It was true. It wasn't that she didn't like going to these types of restaurants. She really did, on special occasions or every once in a while when she felt like really getting dressed up to go out for dinner. But usually she just liked lazing around either her or one of her friends homes enjoying the company of people she held dear, preferably in a pair of comfy sweats or yoga pants, not sitting around a bunch of pretentious assholes pretending to enjoy each other's company.
"Mmm," Jenny hummed. "Are you sure this isn't for Ichabod?"
Abbie gave her a look, partially confused. "Jenny, this is all for Ichabod. It was his dumb idea, remember."
"Yeah, I know that," she told her as she flicked a piece of the woman's hair with her finger in a playful manner. "But I'm not talking about that. I was talking about this." She made her point by pointing at the dress and heels that Abbie had on.
"Yeah," Abbie humored her, "because otherwise I would show up to this overly expensive restaurants in my pajamas."
"Com'on Abbie," Jenny taunted her. "Don't tell me this isn't for him at least a little bit. I'm sure you had dress in there somewhere that showed less cleavage and less legs."
"Well you know what Jenn, if I was trying to seduce Ichabod Crane, that is probably the dress I would have worn," Abbie said sternly as she turned back to the mirror to finish applying her make up.
Jenny thought about it for a second before she started laughing, it was true, at least she thought. This caused Abbie to laugh too, because she was also a little confused on what got Ichabod's rocks off. It could be the type of dress she had on now or it could be full eighteenth century attire where women's dress were only an inch of fabric short of a turtle neck. She'd be lying though if she didn't only slightly hope that being in the twenty first century for the last couple of years had served to sway him a little towards her style of dress for the night.
"You sleeping here tonight?" Abbie asked her as she turned around and placed her lipstick in her clutch.
"Naw, I'm going to head out a little bit later," she told her.
"K then, see you tomorrow," she gave Jenny a quick peck on the cheek.
"Yeah," Jenny confirmed. "Oh but I can babysit tonight if you need me to."
"Good night Jenn," Abbie told her. She then proceeded to get her and Macey's coat, the little red double breasted flair coat with black buttons being her favorite part of Macey's attire. Okay so maybe Jenny was right a little bit, Macey was ridiculously adorable and that made her all the more fun to dress up. Not to mention that Jenny had taken the time to braid a red ribbon into the goddess braid on the child's head, tying it into a neat little bow at the end.
"Ready to go baby?" Abbie asked reaching for the child's hand after her coat was on.
"Yup," was her reply as she took Abbie's hand and began skipping alongside of her.
"The bouillabaisse sounds delightful," Ichabod suggested to his wife as he looked over the menu, he and Katrina were the first to arrive at the restaurant and he was delighted to find that the modern day restaurant had managed to capture at least some parts of the ambiance that made the French culture what it was, at least back in his earlier days.
"That it does, Darling," she agreed. She was in a good mood. Abbie was currently running late. She had figured that the woman had behaved as she had when the idea was first introduced to her and was hoping that she would just not show. So far so good.
"Do you know what you are having, Sweetheart?" she questioned looking up from the menu. "I'll summon the waiter."
Ichabod placed his hand on top of hers as she was lifting it into the air to try to call for the servicers, preventing her from doing so. "
"Katrina," he said softly, calling her attention back to him and away from the waiters rushing about the busy restaurant, "don't you think we should wait for our guests before we order. It would only be polite."
"But my darling," she said with a smile, "they are late. Do you not think it rude of them to keep us waiting?"
"I am sure there is a good reason, besides, it has not been that long," he told her. "You don't know the trouble it can be getting clothes on that child in order to leave the house. Or getting her to sit in one spot at the dinner table," he went on, only stopping when he saw the look of contempt on his wife's face. After studying her face and realizing that she was not amused with the topic that he had chosen, he looked back down at the phone in his hands, checking for a message from Abbie. It wasn't like her to be late without at least informing him that she would. He was starting to get a little worried.
"Hey," he heard a familiar voice, causing him to look up from his phone. He immediately caught sight of Abbie, well her dress, but her immediately after as she walked over to their table, Macey walking briskly behind her trying to keep up. "Sorry we're late."
"That is quite alright," he said distractedly as he took her in completely, not recognizing the look that his wife was giving him for being so captivated by the other woman. The only thing that got his attention away from her was Macey jumping onto him, giving him a hug.
"Heeey," the girl said enthusiastically, as the man smiled down at her and lifted her into his lap. Abbie placed her purse in the chair next to Ichabod, reserving that chair for Macey and opting to sit next to Katrina, though she really didn't want to. She thought it best to put herself between the woman and the little girl.
"Hey yourself," Ichabod said as he leaned in to get his kiss on the cheek. Something the girl had taken to doing once one of the sharp artifacts had cut into his hand. Macey had noticed his 'boo boo', as he had learned it was called, and had given him a kiss on the cheek. Now he received those hugs and kisses whenever he hadn't seen her for a day or two, and since he had slept at the cabin the night before, he hadn't seen the child all day. "Don't you look darling?"
"Where have you been? I haven't seen you all day." the girl said cutting right to the chase. She didn't like it when her adults disappeared without warning. She was used to Jenny and Hawley disappearing for a day or two and even he got a tongue lashing when he would leave unexpectedly on one of his little misadventures. He had quickly learned to come back with presents when he did. While Ichabod didn't sleep at Abbie's every night, he was at least there usually before she went to school or would at least come with Abbie to pick her up in the evening. But today he hadn't, and she wanted answers.
Abbie laughed silently to herself as she watched Ichabod's face as he realized that he was in trouble.
"Well I had some things that I had to take care of," he told her. "And then I had to prepare to meet you and Abigail here tonight for dinner."
"Are you coming to the zoo with us tomorrow?" she asked him.
"I assure you, I will be there," he confirmed for her.
Katrina only watched the interaction between her husband and the child that was not hers. And while she tried not dwell on it, she could not help but to think how it would have been if they had gotten the chance to be a family with their own son. She could feel the bitterness rising up in side of her, causing a knot in her throat as she tried to swallow it and keep it from rising up and suffocating her.
"I want you to meet someone," she heard Ichabod say, and immediately forced a smile to her face knowing that that someone was her. He turned more to her, the child still in his lap. "Macey, this is Katrina," he told the child, "my wife."
Abbie only looked and observed. She could see the look of joy and excitement on Ichabod's face at finally getting to officially introduce his wife to the girl he had come to care so much about. He watched eagerly for her reaction, probably hoping for somewhat of an instant motherly attachment or at least empathy for the child since Katrina knew from a mother's point of view what it was like for a young child to be separated so violently from its mother at such a young age. Still, Abbie watched as Katrina smiled and put on all the pleasantries with the child, and though Ichabod may have been buying it, she sure wasn't. She had grown skeptical of Katrina in general but the hypervigilance that had sprouted up in the last couple of months when it came to the child let her know that Katrina was not as happy about Macey being there as she put on.
"And guess what?" Macey smiled up at Ichabod, after Katrina finished telling her how nice it was to meet her and asking her how old she was and all of the other questions one would ask a child of that age upon first meeting them. "Tomorrow after the zoo, we're going to get my Halloween costume," she finished not waiting for Ichabod to answer. "I'm going to be a princess."
"Hello Katrina, how have you been?" Abbie said stiffly, trying to force some pleasantries of her own.
Katrina's fake smile only faltered a little before she forced it back onto her face.
"Quite well I must say, and you Abigail? It must be extremely difficult having a child thrust upon you so suddenly," she told her.
Abbie gave her a look, feeling that the woman was taking a jab at her ability to care for the child or any child for that matter. "No, not really," Abbie half lied before taking a sip of her water, trying to keep herself from saying too much. Of course in the beginning it had been hard, and in some ways it was still hard in the fact that a lot of things had been easier and less complicated before, but it had been months since she had taken Macey home with her and she did not regret her decision. But she wouldn't give Katrina the satisfaction by letting her know about the hard part. She and Katrina carried on the somewhat of a conversation that they were having which was obviously more forced than the easily flowing conversation going on between the captain and the little girl. After a few minutes Abbie just decided to bail on her and Katrina's conversation and join theirs.
Thankfully it wasn't long before the waiter noticed that the rest of their party had arrived and came over to take their order. As predicted, once Macey had grown bored of her conversation with Ichabod and the other adults she had opted to taking in her new surroundings, which she had grown board with in less than five minutes and had taken up to making up little games for herself as she walked about the table. Abbie kept having to abandon the conversation every few minutes or so to tell her to have a seat or to pull her out of the way of an oncoming waiter. It wasn't until Macey had travelled a little too far from her to pull her back to her seat that the girl had accidently bumped into a waiter carrying a platter. He had managed to salvage all of the food on the tray as he tried to stay upright, except for the steaming hot shrimp bisque. Thankfully Ichabod had seen the plate toppling off of the tray and had pulled the child onto his lap only seconds before the hot substance would have landed on her.
Abbie gasped as she felt her cheeks turning red as everyone's attention were now turned their way. Most people didn't really know what had happened, they just thought the waiter had tripped.
"I am so sorry," she said her hands still over her mouth.
Macey could tell from Abbie's reaction and from the way all the other people were looking over in their direction that she had caused the accident and that she was probably in trouble. She looked over at Abbie again before looking up at Ichabod who had placed her on his chair in order to get up and help the waiter clean up the mess, to which the man was declining saying that he would get it up and that it was fine. He was just happy the hot substance hadn't splashed on the child.
"Well I guess I am not the only one with a," Katrina paused as if trying to find the right words, "disobedient child."
Abbie and Ichabod's head snapped towards her. Ichabod choosing to discuss it with her later as it angered him that she would bring up this subject now. Macey already had the feeling that the other woman didn't like her much and was starting to feel sad and overwhelmed now that the initial shock of the accident had worn off.
"Sorry," she mumbled quietly to the waiter.
"It's okay, Honey," the waiter told her.
"Are you kidding me right now?" she heard Abbie's voice come from across the table and looked back to see that she was talking to the red haired woman next to her.
"I'm sorry?" Katrina asked as if offended.
"She accidently bumped into the guy," Abbie told her, "she didn't purposefully try to kill him by torturing his soul." She was trying to stay quiet, but she wasn't sure how successful she was being at that seeing as how she could feel herself growing angrier by the second.
"Again, I have to apologize. I was under the impression that we were talking about your child, Ms. Mills, not mine," she retorted.
"Okay , first of all, you don't have a child. You have a fifty something year old that sold his soul to the devil himself to…,"
"Alright, ladies," Ichabod interrupted as he picked the child up off of his chair and sat back down. They were starting to get loud and while the rest of the restaurant had gone back to their usual business, he didn't want to draw attention back to them. "I believe that is enough for the night. Maybe we can just have dinner and discuss this another time."
They both turned back to the table, breaking eye contact and therefore their stare off with one another.
"Yes, because I would love to hear why you and she think it is okay for you to father this little brat while you won't even pay a second thought to our son who is still struggling with our abandonment of him," she told him.
"Or maybe it was the fact that his mother just didn't make good choice, and that he inherited that trait from her," Abbie concluded.
Katrina turned back to her giving her a look before replying. "You know Abigail, from what I remember, people did not have such slick tongues with those they assumed to be witches."
"No, they just burned them at the stakes," Abbie deadpanned.
"Abigail!" Ichabod whispered harshly. He could not believe that Abbie had just said that. But the look she gave him at his admonishment told him that Abigail was no longer playing nicely.
Macey looked around at the adults, trying to gauge all of their expressions, but it was all just too much for her. Everyone seemed angry, and now Ichabod and Abbie seemed angry with each other. And she was pretty sure the mean lady had just said that Ichabod didn't want to be her Daddy anymore because she was bad. And that made her sad. She didn't want Ichabod to be upset, but it seemed that he was, and she was pretty sure some if not all of that was directed towards her.
It wasn't until he heard a sniff that he broke his stare with Abbie to look down at the child. The chubby red cheeks and pouting, trembling lip and the big brown eyes that were starting to overflow with tears, it simply broke his heart.
"Why are you crying?" he asked her, no longer worried about the bickering ladies.
"I'm sorry," the child mumbled before she broke down into tears.
"I can't believe this," Abbie said turning back to Katrina, growing angrier at Macey's tears. "You attack a child, in order to validate that man's behavior, not to mention putting all of our lives in danger."
"I attacked no one. I was only making a simple observation that Ichabod's time would be better spent trying to help his own child rather than playing house with you and this little scapegrace."
"How dare you?" Abbie exclaimed. She wasn't sure what a scapegrace was but she was sure it wasn't a good thing.
"Leftenant please, can we all just have a nice dinner," Ichabod's mouth was still moving, but Abbie was over both him and his wife at this point.
Abbie gave a spiteful laugh before replying, "Of course you can." He went back to trying to console the still crying child and thought it odd, her sudden change in temperament. He didn't realize the full meaning behind it until he felt the child being plucked from his lap.
"Where are you going?" he asked, a little confused at seeing Abbie standing herself and turning to walk away from the table with Macey in her arms.
She didn't turn around or acknowledge him. She just kept walking towards the front of the restaurant.
"Leftenant," he called after her as he rose from his seat prepared to follow her. He was stopped by a hand on his arm.
"Let her go my love," Katrina told him. "It is clear that she has not enjoyed being in our company this evening. Do not try to convince her to stay if she does not wish to."
"I can't just let her go," Ichabod said, a little annoyed with his wife. He knew that she had a lot more to do with the events that had just transpired but had decided to have that discussion with her once they returned to the cabin. But it was clear that he had made Abbie upset somehow in the last few minutes, and he couldn't just let her go. They needed each other, for multiple reasons. And not only did he need to clear things up with her, he needed to make sure Macey was okay.
He rose from his chair and went behind her, leaving Katrina at the table looking after him and upsetting her in the process. But he was too busy trying to find Abbie before she left to notice.
He didn't spot her until the valet had already pulled her car around. She was currently fastening Macey into the backseat of her car. He started towards her and had just reached her when she finished adjusting the seat belt around the child.
"Leftenant," he said causing her to jump a little as she turned around. She had originally thought that he wouldn't follow her but had heard him calling after her as she made for the exit. When he hadn't caught up with her at the coat check she had again assumed that he had decided not to follow.
She tried to side step him, but he only stepped with her, blocking her path before taking a step towards her, cornering her between the open car door and himself. He hadn't been trying to corner her off, but he just wanted them to have a discussion without the valet attendants and everyone else overhearing them.
When she saw that he had blocked her escape route, she decided to go through him if he would not let her go around him. "Get out of my way, Crane," she told him as she walked towards him, her hands coming out some as if to push him aside. He did not budge.
"Why are you leaving?" he asked her.
"Why am I leaving?" she repeated the question as if she was offended by it. "I'm leaving because I can't be near you or your wife right now."
"What has Katrina to do with this?"
"Oh she has everything to do with this," she told him, mocking his accent, which took him a little by surprise. She had never done that before, well not in such a mean spirited way. "And then you just sit there and let her get away with it." She stopped for a second and threw her hands in the air. "But why am I even surprised?"
She again tried to side step him, and again, he stopped her. "I am completely aware of my wife's untactful behavior and I have decided to deal with that in a private manner, between her and myself. But you are not without fault here either, Left.." he tried to defend, she cut him off.
"I was defending Macey, and myself," she told him. "One of us had to."
"I do not know what you are trying to imply, Leftenant,"again she interrupted him as she folded her arms across her chest in a defensive manner.
"I am not implying," she told him. He gave her a look, but decided not to take her bate into spiraling into a useless argument, which it seemed that he was sliding down that slope either way.
"But the way I handle my affairs with my wife are my decision alone. You cannot expect me to handle these situations as you would."
"Of course not," she told him, a smile on her face. A smile that he knew even two hundred years ago meant that he was about two seconds away from having his ass handed to him in several forms. "Why is it that every time it's my interests pitted against Katrina's, you expect me to always put mine aside in order to satisfy hers. And now this matter between husband and wife, that also pulls me and my child into the middle of it, I'm expected to stay out of it. Why wasn't I told to stay out of it when I volunteered to stay in purgatory so that you could free her, or when Henry, your son," she air quoted, "got mixed in with the wrong crowd, to say the least?" She paused, waiting for him to reply. He didn't dare. "Well don't worry Crane, the next time your psychotic wife or your spawn of Satan does something displeasing to you, I'll be sure to stay out of it. You just be sure to leave me the hell out of it." With that she gave him a hard shove, causing him to stumble back a step as he was still in shock from her words. The small space he created allowed enough room for her to escape.
She closed Macey's door and had begun walking around to the driver's side. "What would you have me to do then?" He blurted out, half yelled really. He was being accused of something and he did not like what he was being accused of. He was being accused of hurting his partner, and she seemed to be implying that he was doing it intentionally. He did not like that one bit and he could feel himself becoming angrier because of it.
"Protect her," Abbie said pointing into the back seat of her car. "Stand up for her." His eyes immediately went to where her finger pointed. He felt his anger subsiding at the sight of the scared child in the backseat of the care, clutching onto the bear that he had bought her. She had stopped crying but it was as if it were only because she seemed too frightened to do so, as she watched the two adults in front of her argue.
Abbie didn't know what, but something inside of her had snapped upon witnessing Katrina verbally attack Macey that way, and then having the child fall to tears about it, well that honestly just broke her heart and caused a fire to blaze up inside of her. Normally she would have just told Katrina where she could shove and been content with that but that didn't seem to be enough to calm her emotions this time around. And the fact that Ichabod had let it go without even trying to defend Macey, well that just hurt her for some reason. It also stung that he had again chosen Katrina's side over hers, but she had sadly, gotten used to that and had learned to deal with it.
"God, Crane," she said placing her hand on her forehead, trying to calm herself as she too noticed that the child seemed overwhelmed by all of the emotions the adults were showing. "She's just a kid. We're supposed to protect her from this kind of stuff," she turned away from him, trying to control her emotions as she felt tears welling up in her eyes. She knew firsthand how adult bullshit could spill over into ruining childhoods resulting in dysfunctional adults. And she had promised herself a long time ago that if she ever had kids that she would do everything in her power to prevent that, including finding a non douchebag father for said kids. And though she hadn't really had any time to prepare before Macey was introduced into her life and didn't really have any say so in the circumstances, that promise was reserved for her as well. She had come to love the child as her own flesh and blood, she couldn't imagine loving someone more without literally imploding. And she had initially been okay with Ichabod signing the papers because he was a good guy, he would probably make a good co-guardian she thought since he actually seemed like he wanted to be a father, but maybe she had been wrong about her partner. At least in this particular situation anyways.
"You shouldn't have signed those papers," she said aloud, though it was mostly to herself.
But he had heard her, at least he thought he had. His brows furrowed as he felt himself growing angry again, though he couldn't quite muster up the strength he had before since his heart seemed to be slowing to an uncomfortable rate, or speeding up. He couldn't really tell, he couldn't feel his heart anymore. He just knew that there was a dull ache in his chest, where his heart was supposed to be.
"What?" he asked.
She put her hands on her hips again, taking a deep breath before turning back to him. "I said, you shouldn't have signed those papers. If she's not that imp…," she paused trying to find the right words. "If you can't put her first, if you can't care for her like you care for them, then you shouldn't have signed those papers. Because she's going to remember this. She's going to remember every single thing like this, because everyone remembers every time they got hurt by someone they cared about," she knew Macey well enough now to know the difference between the 'I want to have my way' tantrum cry, the 'I'm in trouble and I'm scared so I'm going to cry' cry, and all of the other reasons the girl would cry, including the 'my feelings are genuinely hurt slash I'm in emotional distress so these tears are a distress signal' cry that she had just experienced. "She's hurt," she told him. "And I don't know if I can fucking fix it." She mumbled to herself as she walked away, the tears she had been holding back finally spilling over. She was well aware that she wouldn't be able to protect Macey from everything, and that it would prove more of a challenge once the child got older and started experiencing more of life. She also understood that it was her job to teach her how to deal with those disappointments and hurtful experiences in a healthy, productive manner and that some of those experiences would serve to make her a more well rounded, deep, and empathetic person. But she was pretty sure that those life experiences, although more common, didn't naturally include witnessing an adult you loved and who was supposed to love you unconditionally stand by and let you get bombarded by a bully that you could not possibly protect yourself from. And she honestly didn't know how to fix that. She didn't know if anyone did, because she didn't know if it could be fixed. It could be accepted and overcome, because as she had experienced, even becoming an adult and actually being able to understand a rational reasoning for an adult's actions did not erase the pain that they caused you.
He watched her as she climbed into the driver's seat and closed the door. He then noticed that Macey was still staring at him from the back seat, her tear stained face close to the window as she peered up at him. As soon as his eyes met hers, she looked down, something she usually did when she was in trouble and she thought he was upset with her, only this time she seemed sadder and she didn't look back up at him through her eyelashes to try to gauge his reaction to her pouty face. He continued to watch as Abbie pulled away from the curb, at a loss for words and still trying to process what had just happened and what it meant for his relationship going forward with both Macey and his partner.
A/N: So this chapter got a little more serious, which is where I want to take the story, because as we all know Abbie probably still feels some type of way about him siding with Katrina, because I still some type of way about him siding with Katrina. And while I didn't wan't Katia to necessarily lose her job, though I doubt she has, I will say that her character was much more helpful and tolerable when she was stuck in a mirror. I don't think many people had a problem with helpful Katrina in the mirror from season 1. But she sucks in her more concrete form. I can't even lie, that episode where she let headless go and was all don't kill my son was the nail in the coffin with her for me. The other episodes made me made, but I was at least tolerating her. I wanted Abbie so badly to be like well screw it, we can't go with my plan, I'm not witnessing anymore. Now we all die. And just walk out to go enjoy the final days of life on earth.
But sigh, that being said. Go vote, there's still a couple of hours, though unless we pull it together I doubt we'll win. And as always Leave a Review!
