A/N: I'm back! I've been particularly busy the last few weeks but things are lightening up now. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter!

Your passtimes consisted of the strange and twisted and deranged and I hate that little game you had called crying lightning. -Crying Lightning (AM)

The next day, Crane woke up to a quiet house. It was cloudy outside, meaning it was much darker inside. He stood from the surprisingly comfortable sofa and stretched, satisfaction spreading through him as his bones popped.

Abbie had been with him when he fell asleep again, but now it seemed she was nowhere to be found. He went up to her room and did not find her there. He remembered that she had a third floor just as he did and ventured up to it.

She was sitting on a large bay window, staring out at the cloudy morning sky and the city of Sleepy Hollow beneath it. If she heard him come in, she didn't acknowledge him.

"Good morning, Abbie." he spoke, feeling every bit as if he was in trouble for something.

She barely turned to glance at him, her attention elsewhere. "Did you mean what you said last night? About the hell and the high water?"

He was by her side in two strides, sitting close enough to her he could practically feel the heat from her body. "With every part of me."

She shrugged and sighed. "We've been together six months, Crane. You were with Katrina for eight years. I need to know that if it comes down to it, you will choose me. I refuse to be anyone's second choice, let alone yours."

Despite how dejected she looked, her voice portrayed something different. Her voice was strong and steady, allowing no room for argument. "Was I wrong in assuming we moved past this last night?"

"Yes," she replied near immediately. "There is a murderous thief out there who killed my partner and wants to kill me and your ex-wife could be connected to him. So long as he is out there, there is no moving past this."

"Lieutenant, I-"

"Crane," she warned, raising a finger toward him. "I don't have any room for doubt. You either choose me or you choose her. There will be no in-between. If you won't be on my side, I need to know now."

Her words sunk into him with all the weight of several cement blocks. He looked out the window, shame creeping through him as he considered how Abbie must feel.

How must it feel to care deeply about someone and feel second best? How must it feel to see him defending the person who tore him apart? How must it feel to have your life endangered and feel that the one who was supposed to care the most didn't?

Ichabod Crane was ashamed.

In that moment, as he considered Abbie, he knew she was right. There was no in-between. Katrina was his past. Even if he did choose her over Abbie, there would be no salvaging their relationship. She'd betrayed him, lied to him, broken his trust and his heart. He could not love a person like that.

He could, however, love the woman who had been there for him to stop him from killing his ex-best friend. He could love the woman who made his spirit soar from her very presence. He could love the woman who stood up for him in the presence of his ex-wife. He could love the woman who pushed him and his students out to safety, risking her life in the process. He could love a woman like that. A woman like Abbie.

He would love Abbie.

"There is no choice." Crane answered firmly.

Abbie looked over at him and he could see her bracing herself in anticipation of him hurting her. He felt part of his own heart break.

"There is no choice, Abbie, because the clear answer is you. I love you. I trust you. In that, there can be no one else. There will be no one else."

He felt himself shaking slightly, unable to believe that he meant the words he said. He almost felt dizzy at the way his heart seemed to be somersaulting in his chest. He'd long since forgotten what love felt like.

She smiled a watery smile and he felt puzzled at the tears in her eyes. Abbie snaked her hand through his and held it tightly before letting out a shaky breath. "You better not be lying to me, Crane."

He pulled her to him and held her tightly. "Never. I meant every word. If I have to say it every day to make you certain of it, then so be it."

They were quiet for a while and Abbie sighed, feeling a small weight lift off her shoulders. She gotten up a few hours before Crane and her mind could not help wandering to the night before when Crane had so ardently defended Katrina.

She'd been temporarily placated with Crane's apology, but she realized upon waking she needed something much more concrete than that. She needed a promise, his word.

"I'm not her, Crane," she breathed out into the silence. "If you don't feel happy anymore, tell me. I won't keep you from being happy."

He pulled her away from him and got down to his knees, taking her hands in his own. "I have not provided you with reasons to trust me, Abbie. After last night, it is possible that I may even be undeserving of it. But I know you are not Katrina. I am thankful for that fact."

Her eyes showed skepticism plain as day. Her eyes welled again and she closed her mouth tightly, swallowing hard in an effort to keep tears from falling.

"In the short time we have known one another you have done so much for me. I spent eight years with Katrina. Nearly a decade and...for most of it, I was miserable. I wanted to get away from her. My wish was granted and I am free now to give the love in my heart to one deserving of it: you."

She nodded and he pulled her to him so that his head was resting on her stomach. They stayed that way for quite sometime until Abbie decided she wanted to go for a run to clear her head. Crane decided it would be a good time to catch up on some grading.

Fifteen minutes later, Abbie was jogging the trail that went around she and Crane's neighborhood. The air was cold and crisp and the sky an ominous gray. She could feel the beginnings of rain coming down, but it wasn't enough that she felt the need to stop.

She was in the zone, her mind mostly clear as she considered what Crane told her. He'd told her he loved her, that picking Katrina over her would not ever happen. Some part of her doubted him, but she knew that Crane was a man of his word and he probably meant what he promised her.

She thought about what Crane's promise meant. Things were slow and easy between them but now that she knew he loved her what would be next? Should they move in together? Was sex an option now? She shook her head as her thoughts spiderwebbed in different directions. Things didn't need to be anymore complicated between them.

Maybe she needed space from all things Crane for the moment. She didn't want to be one of those people who got consumed by their relationships. No, with Henry Parrish and his Horsemen out there, she needed to focus on work.

Tarrytown State University had been extremely quiet since Charlotte's murder. Abbie had increased security patrols around the campus just in case. Her officers didn't seem to mind. It was the most exciting Tarrytown State had ever been.

Abbie made a mental note to call Frank when she had the chance so that she could tell him her theory of Katrina's involvement with Parrish. Maybe if they could prove she was involved she could lead them to him.

It started raining a little harder then and Abbie decided to call it a day and head back home. She'd turned onto her block when she noticed from a distance that something was wrong with her car.

The windows were broken and her windshield was spiderwebbed and dented in. Her seats were torn and her headlights were busted. On the hood of the car a message had been keyed in:

STAY AWAY FROM PARRISH OR YOU WILL DIE

"Shit." she breathed out as her hand covered her mouth. She looked around and saw a masked man running from behind one of the trees at the end of the block. She raced after him, noticing he was limping. It was the man who killed Charlotte. She was sure of it.

The rain was coming down harder now making it much more difficult to see. Still, she closed in on him, jumping on his back and taking him to the ground in the middle of the street. She yanked his arms behind his back and dig her kneeled onto them so he would be unable to move.

"Who the hell are you?!" she yelled over the pouring rain as she grabbed at his mask.

He groaned and struggled as she tried. "You will never know." His voice was cold and...and British. She felt her blood run cold as a million thoughts hit her at once.

Sleepy Hollow was not a big town. There were only two British people Abbie knew of. One of them was Crane, which meant the other had to be…

"Abraham?" Abbie breathed out as she locked her knees around his back. "Holy shit." She took her phone out and speed dialed Frank.

"I'm a block over. I'll be to you in a few seconds."

She held on to Abraham as tight as possible with an arm digging into his neck. With his injured leg there wasn't much he could do to get away.

She heard sirens and Frank and another police car pulled up a few seconds later. Abbie got off Abraham and went to wait in her house while Frank arrested him.

Her hands were shaking and she could hear blood rushing through her ears. It all made sense now. Abraham was the one who killed Charlotte. He was working for Henry Parrish. He was with Katrina which meant he was her in for Parrish.

She felt nauseous.

"Lieutenant, are you alright? I saw police cars and the Captain outside. Your car was vandalized. What happened?" Crane had come inside, though the front door was still wide open.

She looked up at him from her place on the sofa, swallowing the angry tears that threatened to fall from her face. Her jaw clenched and she tried to talk without exploding.

"Abraham. He is the one who killed Charlotte. He's working for Henry Parrish." Her voice was cold and measured. She spoke slower than she normally did and it dawned on Crane that she was enraged. And so was he.

"I will kill him."

"No. Parrish will if he thinks he's been compromised."

They were silent for a while. Crane sat next to her and held her hand tightly as she took deep breaths to take her down from her anger.

"You were right. If Abraham is involved with Parrish I would be remiss in thinking Katrina is not. The extent of her involvement surely remains unclear, but if we can make Abraham believe she is in danger...perhaps he would give up more of Parrish's secrets." Crane stated after a while.

Frank came in just then looking equal parts mad and satisfied. "Bastard's going into custody. He's a match for the surveillance tape. We're going to get him for vandalization and murder. He can't hurt you anymore, Mills."

His words seemed to go in one ear and out of the other. "Parrish and Katrina can. We need all three of them gone. The best way to do that is to use Abraham. We can convince Katrina we know she's in on it. We convince her that Parrish will try to kill Abraham and we get her to turn on him. Maybe she gives him up, maybe she kills him. I don't much care at this point."

Abbie got up and went upstairs, startling both Frank and Crane when she slammed her door. They looked at one another, Frank knowing what angry Abbie looked like. "I'm gonna head out. Tell her her car is being impounded to evidence and I'll have a rental here tomorrow morning."

"Of course."

The house was mostly quiet again now that Frank and the police were gone. The rain had gotten progressively worse and a snap of lightning made Crane rush upstairs to check on Abbie.

She was in her closet, tossing clothes into a suitcase. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"What on earth are you doing?"

"I'm going to Jenny's for a bit."

"Why?"

She stopped and stepped over the suitcase to get to him. "Clearly, I'm not fucking safe here, Crane. If Abraham knew where I lived, Parrish does too. He ruined my car. Do you believe me now? Do you see now why I had to ask you to make a choice?" Her voice was raising and he could see the beginnings of tears in her eyes.

"I never doubted you, Abbie." He took her hands into his own and held them tightly. "If anything, this has merely added more cement to my resolve. The portion of my life that they were involved in is over. I meant what I said. They will not hurt you. I swore to protect you, Abbie, and I meant it."

She looked down as the tears finally fell from her eyes. "I refuse to let him...he won't do to you what he did to Danny. I can't let him hurt you like he hurt Danny."

She hugged him tightly the , afraid that if he let go then he would be lost to her and she just didn't know if she could handle that. She loved him. Life was giving her a second chance and she would not see it taken away again.

A/N: Well? What'd you think? Until next time...