Chapter 6: Never be the same again

"And this is a computer," Joe explained, ushering Betsy to the desk chair in the library as her tour of the premises and first introduction to modern times continued.

Betsy stared at the screen that read "Google," intrigued. She looked down at the keyboard and raised an eyebrow before typing her own name into the small box. At first, her fingers moved tentatively, but they emboldened and quickened with each letter. She gave a little start of satisfaction when her own image appeared, followed by hundreds of articles.

"I shall see you in a few hours," she told Joe and Miss Jenny, who laughed at her eagerness to learn all she could from this fascinating and, to her, entirely new device.

"We'll make sure Betsy settles into her hotel comfortably," Miss Jenny assured Crane and Abbie. "Why don't you two take some time to relax and maybe…talk?"

Joe grinned at them like he was completely "in" on Miss Jenny's meaning. Crane cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Lieutenant, shall we?" He suggested quietly, placing one hand lightly on her shoulder in a gesture of combined comfort and questioning. Scarcely had he had the chance to share with Betsy his joy at being reunited with her, or his relief at her survival of the Hidden One's attack. Crane certainly had not taken the time to consider how rather nice it might be to have a friend from his own time to confide in about the quirks and challenges of being a person "out of time."

Right now, despite all of these happy developments and even despite the foreboding dread of whatever Pandora had planned, and the need to develop a countermove, Crane just needed Abbie.

They sat down in their favorite coffee shop, where the barista speedily handed them each their usual beverages with their names written on the side, accompanied by smiley faces.

"Lieutenant…" he began, taking her hand as the term of endearment fled all too easily from his lips. "As much as I would like to…pick up from where we left off, as it were—"

Abbie looked down at their hands, then back at him. Her expression was one of nervousness and inner conflict. "Crane," she began to interrupt him, but Ichabod was too eager in his intended speech to stop just then.

"I wish to court you," he finished with a satisfied smile. There it was. "Now that our mutual affections have proved to be, well, mutual, I have lost the rest of my hesitation about discussing this matter with you." Crane felt as confident and happy as Abbie seemed to look fearful still. "Lieutenant, will you not take this leap with me? Will you not see where it may lead?"

"I can't lie, being courted by you sounds pretty…well, fantastic," Abbie admitted. "But every time I think about my feelings for you being so strong that they can be channelled to defeat a God, that someone foresaw that power and counted on it to save the day centuries later? And whenever I think about risking everything we've built between us on the chance that we might work out romantically? I'm terrified." Abbie took a few deep breaths, then nervously sipped from her coffee.

"I share your trepidation," Crane replied, "And yet…there is surely something to that old maxim that 'tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.'"

"I know that," Abbie admitted, looking at him with uncharacteristic near-bashfulness.

His heart beating hard and his own vulnerability on the matter all too clear, Crane said softly, "I will wait for you, Abbie."

She bit her lip and let her fingers finally relax and lace through his. He almost never called her Abbie, and she wasn't immune to the significance of the appellation, he saw with gratitude. Every time he called her by her Christian name, he felt as though she could see right through him and understand exactly how dear she was to him. The depth of a passion he had never dared to reveal to her overtly in its completeness.

"So there's a party tonight," Abbie announced, "An FBI gala to be exact. They're giving out some awards to agents, there'll be music and dancing. Would you like to come with me?"

"Lieutenant," Ichabod answered, glowing with pride and excitement, "I thought you'd never ask."