Nine months later
The FBI was a natural fit and here – making order out of the chaos, and shining in a leadership capacity – she truly felt at home. This was another step in her law enforcement career, and some days it was mind-boggling when she thought of her previous years, wasted and high and doing petty crime, to imagine that she had come so far. The counsellor all agents had been mandated to see had told her she should take pride in all her accomplishments and perhaps think of joining the Bureau's volunteer programme for disadvantaged youth.
She had blasted through training and graduated top of her class, performing so spectacularly she was pleasantly surprised at a bonus of a huge office while other rookie agents were camping out at desks outside. She had a feeling that little perk was compliments Agent Frater, especially since she was also posted to the FBI branch nearest to Sleepy Hollow. It was so ironic, she mused. Her life in Sleepy Hollow up to now had been one of trying to escape the bad times, and here she was embracing her role, her career in the same place she'd hated for so long.
You've come a long way, baby, she thought proudly. A long way. Her relationship with Jenny had improved. While still not perfect, they had a standing twice a week coffee date that had helped break a lot of the ice.
Yes, life was on the up and up and if she occasionally thought wistfully about what might have been with Mama, Daddy, Corbin and Andy...well, it would never been perfect, but she could say she was now content, though she hadn't totally made peace with Andy's involvement with Moloch. She could and did take a little comfort in the fact that he spared her life as much as he could, even apparently refusing to follow through on the order from Moloch to kill her and Crane. She'd visited him a few times in a federal prison where he'd been jailed for life and – despite awkward, tension-filled encounters – she couldn't help but miss the easy rapport they'd had.
And if there were other lingering what-ifs concerning a certain Englishman, well, those she pulled out for a rainy day, knowing it would do no good since he wasn't here. Still...
She did have to contend with a bit of awkwardness when Daniel Reynolds came in for a brief consultation on the Nevins case she was working. Nevins had been acquiring rare artefacts from around the world – read stolen – and the Feds had been asked for cooperation by several countries in retrieving religious or cultural pieces. She'd last seen Danny at graduation when he begged her to come with him to Washington to make a career there like he planned to. Abbie couldn't deny it sounded good. Not only did he understand her work ethic, he shared it, with them often competing against each other at the Academy. When they'd made their relationship official, she loved how sexy he made her feel, confident in her abilities as a woman and a professional. She was sorely tempted to say to hell with it all and go with him, but something always seemed to get in the way of them becoming closer and if she was honest with herself, Sleepy Hollow was the main reason. Her roots were there; it was home with its weird mix-match of pain, happiness and hope. She'd even bought a house, the kind of house she'd always fantasised about having years ago in grimy foster homes. More importantly Jenny was there and she wasn't abandoning her sister ever again, not when they were finally talking honestly.
And so she told Danny no. And months later he was here, walking in looking sharp (and so fine!), broad shoulders filling out a suit like no other man she knew. "Hello Abs, it's been a long time." Damn, he still did things to her and the old recklessness from her delinquent days flared up, urging her to take up the offer transmitted in those dark brown eyes of reuniting once again. But her reasons hadn't changed, plus Daniel Reynolds was now effectively her boss on this case – a no-no in her book. She turned him down again, genuinely regretful that they couldn't hook up for the brief time he was in Sleepy Hollow.
"Damn, Abs, you're gonna give a guy a complex," he joked, but she knew he was more serious than he let on. She smiled over the glass he'd poured in his office, knowing in her heart of hearts she'd made the right call.
"I guess it never really was our time, Danny."
He sighed. "Yeah, but it was good, wasn't it?"
She laughed and put her glass on the desk. "Damn good."
That episode had been the only blink on an otherwise uneventful return to Sleepy Hollow. Until one day, the security guard the front desk called her office saying she had a visitor. "Who is it?" she asked distractedly, speedreading a report that had just been handed to her by a field agent.
"Says his name is Ichabod Crane." There were a few seconds of absolute shock on her part. She came out of her trance to hear the guard ask her, "Agent Mills, you there?"
"Uh, yeah. I'm coming." She hung up slowly, unable to deny she was stunned and blindsided. Heart pounding, she rose and went to the lobby where he was pacing, only stopping when she appeared.
"Hey, Crane." He looked amazing in his familiar long jacket and it was as if time had never passed between them. She couldn't stop the bright soft smile from appearing.
"Lieutenant," he softly returned, eyes running over her as well. She had cut her hair and he lingered over that change the longest before saying ruefully, "Though I imagine it would be Agent Mills now."
Thing is "Lieutenant" with its British inflection was his name for her, no promotion would ever change that. But she said nothing given that she had no idea what he was there for.
"What's going on? Has something happened with Moloch?" She couldn't imagine what else would bring him back to Sleepy Hollow.
"No. No, that isn't why I've come." He looked nervous and fidgety and the prickly awareness that was always there between them was springing to life. He squared his shoulders and appeared to have made a decision. "I've come because of us."
"Us," she parroted blankly, unable to do anything else.
"Yes, us." He regarded her carefully. "I thought there were…that is, I had hoped you would…" he closed his eyes and shook his head. He looked as uncomfortable as she'd ever seen him. "I've missed you, Abbie."
The nerve of the man. To be doing this, right here in the lobby of the FBI when she was actively working a case, saying he missed her almost a year since she'd last seen him. He was the one who went flying off into the sunset, with no contact whatsoever and only now turning up to tell her he missed her? She should shut this down, she thought helplessly, turn him away politely, not feel stupidly hopeful and giddy and nervous. But like an idiot she stood there frozen.
"How long are you here for?" She folded her arms and jutted out her jaw, trying to keep grounded. She refused to entertain anything else if he was leaving soon.
"What I do for a living, I don't have to be physically present to meet my clients' requests. Once I have my laptop and my satellite connection I could be...anywhere. When I do have to travel, it is often very brief." He was being very deliberate with his speech, eyes roaming her face to pick up on any reaction on her part.
"What are you saying?" Her heart was hammering hard and it took all she had to remain impassive.
He moved closer to her, staring down intently. "What I mean," he said quietly, "is that I want to be with you. I can stay here in Sleepy Hollow for an extended period of time, but that would depend entirely on you."
She drew a deep, shaky breath, nodding and trying her best to be unaffected. It wasn't working. "What about your wife?"
"Katrina?" He asked in confusion. "What about her?"
"You voluntarily sat under house arrest with information about Moloch so you could search for the best person to get back her ashes. I don't know," and she didn't hide her sarcasm, "but that doesn't exactly scream that you're over her."
He smiled sadly. "I loved my former wife very much, Lieutenant, but guilt drove me to recover her ashes. I often travelled as an intelligence officer and was not there when Katrina met her death. I felt that by losing her ashes I had failed her in death as in life."
He sighed. "I swore I would do everything in my power to get her remains back safely. When I returned home, I scattered her ashes in her garden, realising it was time to let her go. I will always love her, but..." he paused and said carefully, "There comes a point when it's time to move on. "
There were dozens of persons walking around in the lobby, she thought, and yet they were so attuned to each other it felt as if they were in their own little bubble. She threw out another question, trying not to give in to this damning hope threatening to overwhelm her. "How do you know I'm not with someone?"
"I don't." He spread his hands helplessly. "But I've been consumed with thoughts of you since leaving. I couldn't live with myself if I didn't come back to see you in person and see if..." He trailed off, uncertainty flashing over his face. "My best friend Abraham threatened to push me off a cliff if he heard one more thing about this 'Lieutenant Mills', so I decided to fly over and tell you how I feel."
"There are things called phones, email, social media," she said softly.
Whatever he saw on her face made him confident enough to step even closer, towering over as she looked up, smile playing around his lips. "We work better face to face."
Did they ever. It was an active struggle trying to remember why she shouldn't jump his bones in a public lobby, but she barely restrained the impulse even though looking at him, she knew she would be more than welcome to.
She took another deep breath before releasing it, suddenly all business. "Okay, here's the thing. We go out on a few dates, see if anything's still there. If you stay in Sleepy Hollow, that's at you, nothing to do with me or a relationship that may or may not happen."
He nodded triumphantly, bobbing up and down on his heels from excitement. She wondered how much of that he actually processed beyond "a few dates". Thing was, she couldn't blame him, not with anticipation welling up in her body, her smile failing to be contained.
"As you wish, Ms. Mills." He bowed, a deep regal thing like the ones she used to see on TV. She should be weirded out by it, not secretly thrilled and touched. "Okay, okay," she laughed, waving her hand for him to get up, "not here, not now."
"No, Ms. Mills. Much later." He raised her hand and kissed it lightly on the back, his voice so low, so deep, so perfect that it pinged every possible sweet spot on her. The brief caress of his lips brought back stirring thoughts of their time together that had never really left her mind. Damn him, and damn those memories of him. She exhaled as he walked away; what in the world she was getting herself into she didn't know, but she couldn't deny as she went back to her desk that she was eagerly anticipating it.