It was 5'oclock in the morning and the sun slowly begins to raise casting hues of pastel pouring into the darkened room. The room is eerily silent, nothing heard but the slight breathing coming from the two bodies conjoined, pieced together like the stitches inside of a quilt. Their bodies coalesced and they allocate each other's breaths, their heartbeats thumping together as if their blood runs only through one vessel, as if they share only one beating heart.

People had always asked Abbie, expecting a precise answer,

"Where are you going?"

As if life, living, was that easy to define. They expected her to always know the answers to everything. She didn't. Life was a mystery to her, an opened book written in words that was foreign to her mind. She wasn't meant to know that she would be the next witness of the apocalypse, she was never meant to know everything because life isn't quite that simple. Yet, they still asked her and not fully knowing the answer she would always smile and say,

"I'm going in the right direction."

As if gravity somehow was pulling her into the place that she was meant to be. She didn't believe in predestines, she didn't believe in fairy tale endings, because stuff like that is only written in books. They were simply words, little ink spots printed on a flat piece of colorless paper. She didn't believe in any of that. Yet, some part of her finds it ironic that despite all the odds against them, she would end up in Sleepy Hollow, not accepting another position, and finding the one person, Ichabod Crane, whose body fits perfectly alongside hers at this very second.

At this very moment, at 5'o clock in the morning, she feels whole. She feels like for the first time in her life she is living, doing something other than dwelling in a mundane existence. Living is more than just breathing, but it's the feelings that a person experiences. Before him, she was without feelings, going about normal living, as if the tide slowly carried her and she just floated. Ichabod is indeed her water, as she is dunked under him she becomes new. Exorcised from her demons, because she realizes she never had to face them alone. He purifies her and she knows that those memories will never fully go away, but, it doesn't necessarily rain forever. With him she experiences a sense of equanimity. She is optimistic and always hopes for the best, even though the best, like a unexpected love letter, rarely arrives, and even when it does it can be lost so easily.

This 5' o'clock in the morning is different, because, for once she isn't waking up alone. She had waited so long to experience the feeling of being wanted, not realizing, that she had been waiting all along for him. She had read once:

The two most powerful warriors are patience and time

This statement had never been truer. Abbie spent her life alone, abandoned by everyone, time had brought her new experiences, false love, but it did at the end bring her him. Even then, after waiting so long for him, she had to have the patience to be with him because he was married. Even though his wife was dead his heart still held her presence. It wasn't until Katrina released him that Ichabod let himself fall into the abyss that is Abbie Mills.

Ichabod moves and it stirs her thoughts. She has been lying on her side, his one arm wrapped around her stomach drawing her close. Her back is facing him and as he moves, slowly, she realizes how lucky she truly is. To simply have him breathing, lying beside her, could have so easily been taken away. She turns around facing him. His eyes are sown shut, mouth slightly parted, she can hear his easy breaths. He's so beautiful, so natural, as he sleeps. His dream has taken him captive and she can only wonder what thoughts, what images, have stolen him away from her.

A slight strand of his dark hair falls along the side of his face and she cannot help it, she moves her hand towards his silken hair, and pushes it from his face. Her hand then travels towards his closed eye lids and she gently rubs the delicate skin there. She glides down towards his nose and finally his slightly parted lips. She had only kissed those lips, for the first time, the day before, and apart of her is still breathless from it. How she longs to kiss them again, she longed for much more than just kissing, but, she has to respect Ichabod's wishes. She has to remember that he is a man out of time, things were different back then, and she has fallen in love with him because of those differences.

Wow the L word, she never thought she would say that. But, yes, despite her better judgment, she has fallen, no not falling; because he had told her he'd never let her fall. But she is, and in constantly being, in l..o..v..e.. with Ichabod Crane.

"Can't sleep?" She is surprised to hear his raspy voice murmur towards her, because, she thought he was still sleeping. She looks closer and she can see those azure eyes, still filled with slumber, starring back at her. She's embarrassed, in any other situation, she would have never let him see her vulnerable.

"I'm sorry if I woke you," she apologizes moving her hands back to her side.

"It's quite alright," he pulls her closer and she cannot help but smile. "I truthfully adore your embrace." She still fits perfectly connected to him, their fronts are sown together. She buries her face in the crook of his neck. She breathes in his scent, one that is so perfect for him, an earthy smell as if he were Adam born straight from the ground beneath them.

"Thank you for letting me stay the night with you." She whispers with an aspirated sigh. Did she truly deserve this type of peace, this type of happiness? Ichabod rubs her hair and his fingers are as gentle as a feather.

"It is of my greatest pleasure to share this rather hefty bed with you. It is rather large for just one."

"Should've invited me a long time ago," she teases.

"Yes, well that would've been rather selfish of me, don't you concur?" He places his feather like hand across the planes of her cheek bone then glides towards the back of her hair, ushering her closer. Her lips part as she moves backwards starring into those stars of eyes.

"We're allowed to do some selfish acts, every once in awhile, we're only human Ichabod, no one's perfect."

"tsk tsk," he reprimands softly. "I must interject that I have found falseness in that statement." Before she can say anything he continues, "I have found that you, Miss Mills, are indeed one of unadulterated perfection." She stares at him, breathless, wordless, because words couldn't describe her emotions. Sometimes, someone says something really small and it just fits right into the empty space of the heart.

The sun fully rises and the glow from its bright rays flutter into the darkened room. It illuminates their bodies with a heavenly glow.

Ichabod leans in closer touching her parted lips with his. "This shall have to be my selfish act of the day," She smiles as they begin to kiss each other. Her breath leaving her once more as his hand trails down her arm towards the curve of her stomach and hips. He grabs her leg placing it over his so that they can be even closer. She moves her hands towards his abdomen and travels up his muscular physique towards his chest. She stops momentarily, as she hears his rapid thumping of his heart, pleased knowing that this is for her.

She slightly sits up starring down at him and positions herself on top of him. Her dark hair falling over the sides of her shoulders as she bends down kissing him more. His hands a fidgety mess, all over her body like she is an uncharted map, one, he longs to discover. She presses kisses across his jaw line, and an escaped moan rumbles from his lips. She trails her affection towards his neck and her fingers graze the hard lean muscle of his stomach as she slowly tries to lift his shirt up.

"Abbie…" he manages to make out but it's quite breathless. She loves the way he says her first name, as if she's so precious, as if she truly is his prized treasure. She takes this as her ticket to continue, it's his praise to her, because the only thing that can escape from his lips is her name. She trails down to his broadened collarbone and kisses that as well. He moans again, "remember," he clears his throat, "remember our conversation only last night, we discussed this…" Abbie kisses his earlobe,

"This is my selfish act for the day," she murmurs against his ear. He sighs and she comes back towards his lips kissing him again. He engages but stops after a moment. She looks at him with confusion, "please," she asks and she knows that if she keeps pressuring him, keeps starring at him with those doe-like eyes, he'll have to cave. He grabs her waist and lifts her up, afterwards placing her on the bed, and slowly, gently, getting on top of her. He grabs both of her hands and holds them down on the bed. "Kinky are we?" She teases with a smile.

"Abbie, I promise it will happen. Just, not exactly at this very moment."

"Haven't you heard? I'm quite impatient."

"You mean more to me than just intercourse. You're so special to me. You're naked body should only belong to the one who falls in love with your naked soul. Do this, for me," She rolls her eyes and lets out a slight sigh of annoyance.

"Fine,"

"Can I trust you enough to remove my grip on you?"

"Can you trust yourself?"

"Abbie—"

"Fine," she smirks. "I'll be a good girl, for now, that is." He nods and slowly removes his hands. She brings her hands to his hair pushing it back so that she can memorize every little perfection about his face. She pouts, her lips plump and ripe like a juicy fruit, "you make this so difficult." He smirks,

"Haven't you heard, my treasure, that the hardest things are most likely worth fighting for?" She rubs her lips against his.

"Well, I can't sleep now, how about some coffee?" He smiles rubbing the lower part of her lip with his calloused thumb.

"I cannot comprehend what would be better."

It's 6' o'clock in the morning and as they stay connected to each other's bodies, the air is thin, as it prickles against the softness of their skin. For this moment Abbie understands that the earth does have some sense of magic. By just being this close to him, hearing his heart, feeling his breath against her face, that's how she finds her existence.

The sheets are crumpled beneath them as he bends down and kisses her forehead. "You truly are beautiful." Abbie nuzzles her face in his chest and smiles. He gets up and she too follows suit. She has messy hair, smudged eye-liner from the night before, and faded lines from where he touched her skin.

For once, in her entire life, she feels it…that feeling once long forgotten, she feels happiness.