A/N: Sorry, again there are mistakes that I will need to fix later, but I hope you guys enjoy anyways. I like all the different interpretations people are getting from the story lol.


Abbie looked at her sister as both her hands covered her mouth. She had just told Jenny what happened between her and Luke Saturday night which she was embarrassed about, and of course the events that had transpired after, which she felt embarrassed about. She rested her elbows on her desk in the archives as she looked up at Jenny who was still processing the story as she had a somewhat confused look on her face. Thankfully she and Jenny were the only ones there since Ichabod and Hawley had gone out to grab their lunch.

"So, let me get this straight," Jenny started as she looked down at her sister. "You had a fight with Ichabod, kicked him out, then you let Luke go down on you, and then you kicked him out?" Jenny looked at her for affirmation.

She only nodded. "I know," she said moving her hands from her mouth to press gently into her eyes. "I'm a horrible person." She really did feel bad for using Luke to get off then kicking him out of the house. "But I couldn't let him stay," she defended as she dropped her hands. "Macey was there. The poor kids already confused enough."

Jenny smiled. "So that was the excuse you gave?"

"What?" Abbie exclaimed. "No. No Jenn, it wasn't an excuse. It's the truth." It really was the truth. She didn't want her daughter waking up to find the new guy from the day before was still in their home because even though she didn't know what that meant now, she would one day and she didn't want to start that habit or have the child remembering 'that guy' when she was actually old enough to understand what may or may not have happened. Thankfully it was the truth, or else she would have felt twice as bad about kicking Luke out in the middle of the night. "Don't give me that look."

"What?" Jenny asked, pushing Abbie's shoulders slightly. "I'm proud of you."

Abbie groaned. She had made a mess of things, well the Luke part was her fault, but the Ichabod part was mostly his fault. She was still angry at him but she was quickly losing her steam for it after their car ride this morning. First he had called her while she was trying to get Macey ready for school asking her, hesitantly, if she would be providing his transportation for the morning or if he should call a cab. She had rolled her eyes as she pulled the child's shirt over her head, cursing herself for feeling sorry for him since he sounded like he had been actually afraid to call her, as if he was unsure if they were still friends. And she felt bad about that because other than her, Jenn, and Hawley, Ichabod had no one other than Katrina, and that couldn't have been fun. She was angry at herself for having developed a soft spot for him.

"Are we going to pick up Ichabod?" Macey asked gleefully from the back seat as she sat straight up in her booster seat to see more clearly if they were actually heading towards Ichabod's place, her excitement growing at seeing they were.

She glanced into the backseat at the child. "Yeah, we are Baby." She watched still as the child's smile widen and her eyes brightened even more as she continued to look out the window. Abbie couldn't help but to smile herself. "Are you excited to see Ichabod?"

"Yeah," Macey replied sitting back in her seat and hugging her stuffed bear to her. "I miss Ichabod, Mommy. I miss him a lot."

The smile disappeared from Abbie's face as she refocused her attention back on the road. She felt awful at hearing the child voice what she already knew. She shouldn't have never let it get this far as to affect Macey. She had had no control over it in the beginning and she had tried to stop it, but in her anger she had allowed it to progress, even though she had try to prevent just that. But that ancient bastard just made her so freaking crazy. "I know you do, Sweetie."

Abbie was snapped back to the present as she heard Ichabod and Hawley coming into the entry way. Her head snapped up and she glared at Jenny. "Shut up," she told her. "You don't repeat any of this."

"As if I would ever," Jenny smiled as she walked back to table in the center of the room to clear a space so they could eat.

Abbie groaned inwardly, wondering if she should have ever told Jenny about what happened in the first place. She stood up from her desk and made her way over to the table to help Jenny clear it of the books at papers that cluttered it.

"You can't throw for crap," Hawley said as another one of the left over fries that Jenny was trying to toss into his mouth fell to the floor.

"Well maybe you're not as skilled with your mouth as you think you are," she smirked with a raised eyebrow. Abbie laughed and Ichabod let out a smile of his own, though he was sure there was a double entendre as the women seemed too amused and the smile had fallen from Hawley's face.

Abbie stood up from the table, still laughing at the playful bickering that had ensued between her sister and her lover, clearing her food from the table and going back over to her work station to see if there was any mention in Grace's diary about these medallions they were trying to locate. The other three people at the table followed her actions and proceeded to ease back into their own work.

She had been at her desk no more than five minutes when she felt his tall frame looming over her, blocking out some of the sunlight she had been getting from the window in front of her.

"Hey, what's up?" she asked glancing up at him before turning back to the diary in front of her. She really was trying to get over their horrible weekend, mostly for Macey's sake. But she was also starting to feel bad. Something about him was off about him. He just seemed sadder, quieter, and desolate.

"I just wanted to thank you for affording me transportation this morning," he told her. "I know that my behavior over these past few days have angered you and again I just wanted to apologize. It was not me intentions to…" he started but she held up her hand cutting him off. She really was tired of hearing him apologize.

"Crane, please stop apologizing," she told him as she stood up to go over to the book case to search for another source of information. He followed. "I've told you, it's fine. I'm over it."

He nodded, though he could tell that she was not completely 'over it'. She was trying and had made a successful effort to engage him in conversation, but there was still something between them blocking them from falling into their usual easy and effortless interactions. She was not as open to him as she had been in the past.

"There is something else that I wanted to speak with you about, Leftenant," he started but her attention had already left him as she stared wide-eyed at the door, causing him to notice the voice coming from the entry way. He turned to see who it was, but it seemed that Abbie didn't need to see the person to know who it was as he soon felt her pushing up against his back, gripping his jacket tightly.

"If you move, I'll hurt you," she told him, right as he saw Luke walk into the room, ending the phone conversation he had been having.

"Hi guys," the man greeted with a smile as he seemingly scanned the room to see who all was there.

"Luke?" Jenny said as she shot a look over at Abbie, or Ichabod as Abbie was no longer in sight. She then looked at Hawley who had a confused look as well at Abbie's sudden disappearance. The blond man took his feet down from the desk and sat up straighter suddenly interested in what was going on. "What are you doing here?"

"Actually," he replied, "I was looking for your sister. She around?"

"No, sorry. She just stepped out." Ichabod's head snapped towards Jenny at her response.

Why was she lying to the man? Not that he was in favor of Luke having any interactions with Abbie, but there was something going on that he was unaware of and he didn't like it.

"Really? Because I saw her car outside," he tried, but this time Hawley was the one who spoke.

"She borrowed my car," he told the man, causing Jenny's head to snap towards him. She was about to laugh and poke fun at him because that man let no one drive that car. She didn't even think he trusted himself driving it a lot of the times. But then she remembered they were lying. "She had to make a run and I had her blocked in," Hawley finished, knowing that his car was parked back at the dock as they had driven Jenny's truck in this morning.

"Oh," Luke said dumbly. "Could you tell her I stopped by then?"

"Sure," Jenny told him, becoming anxious to get the man out of the place as she could see Ichabod getting antsy in the corner of her eye.

"And tell her I called too," he told them. "She's not answering for some reason."

"She actually went to the cell phone store to get that fix," Hawley told him as he sat back down and put his feet up again, seemingly less confused and happier.

"Yeah," Luke said as he walked out of the building. He felt something was off, but couldn't quite put his finger own it, so he just left deciding to wait for Abbie to call him.

It wasn't until she heard the door closed that Abbie stepped out from behind Ichabod, staring at the entry way.

"Ooooh," she heard Hawley's taunting voice coming from the other side of the room.

"Shut up," she told him.

"Did you sleep with him?" Hawley asked, not being able to take a not so subtle hint.

Abbie was sure she could feel the wind from how fast Ichabod's head turned towards her. She refused to look at him.

"Yes," said Jenny.

"No," Abbie corrected.

"Oral sex is still sex Abbs," Jenny told her, before mumbling so only Hawley could here, "even if you kicked him out after."

Jenny smiled as Hawley let out an amused "What?" and went on tell Abbie about how he approved.

"Leftenant," Ichabod called to her after he could see she was willfully avoiding looking at him.

She turned to him and gave him a look that asked if he really wanted to go back down this road. He in turn raised an eyebrow that said 'well I'm just saying'. To which Abbie replied by rolling her eyes to walk over to her now ringing cell phone. Jenny laughed having witnessed their silent conversation.

Abbie sighed as she picked up the phone, thinking it was Luke again and prepared to hit the do not answer button to send him straight to voice mail again. To her surprise, it was actually Macey school. She answered and after verifying that she was the person they had been trying to reach, they told her that the child was sick and needed to be picked up early if possible. She had asked what was wrong it was explained to her that it was probably a virus as a couple of the kids in her classroom was also out sick. "Okay, I'm on my way," Abbie said not too excited about what the next few days and nights for that matter would be like with an ill four year old to take care of.

She hung up and started to gather her things, informing them that she was going to be leaving early and that Macey was sick. Ichabod followed closely behind her.

When they got to the preschool they were met by Macey's teacher who came up to talk to them. She informed them that a lot of the kids in the other classes were also out sick, and one Mom had called to tell her that they had been told it was the flu. It looked like the flu was hitting a little early this year. She also took the time to give them some warning signs as the teachers at the school had just had a seminar with the local pediatrician as the flu could often be deadly to younger children if warning signs were missed. Abbie made a mental note to call their pediatrician and make an appointment for the following day and thanked the teacher for those warning signs, knowing now that she knew them she would be watching the child like a hawk. Why did little people have to be so fragile? The teacher then pointed to a table that was empty save for one child with her head down on the table seemingly asleep.

"I don't feel well Ms. Darling," Abbie heard a little boy say as they walked towards the teacher.

"Mace," Abbie said kneeling down next to the child brushing some of the hair out of her face and rubbing her back. Ichabod stood by eyeing the children, starting to think they weren't as cute as they seemed as he watched one little boy lick a block before a little girl ripped it from his hand and proceeded to put it on top of her tower, then rubbing her eyes that with the hand that he was sure was covered with the boy's slobber. He grimaced.

The child eye's fluttered open to see her mother had finally come to get her.

"You ready to go home?" Abbie asked her.

"I don't feel good Mommy," she replied reaching for the woman.

"Oh, I know Baby," Abbie replied as she picked the child up and stood.

"Here," Allison, the teacher said, "I can show you were her things are."

Abbie handed the child to Ichabod before following the teacher into the little back room that seemed to house cubbies and coats and extra clothes just in case. When she went back into the main class room she saw that Macey had fallen back to sleep, her head on Ichabod's shoulder as he gently rubbed her back. She went over to them and sat the bag down before taking the coat and starting to put it on the child who whined a little at being woken up again.

"Tell me Leftenant," he said looking around at the children as if they had two heads, "this flu, is it commonly deadly."

Abbie looked up at him as she put the child's other arm into her coat and flipped the hood over her head. She could see the concern in his eyes. "It can be, but not nearly as bad as it was back in your day I'm sure. It usually just makes you feel really crappy for about a week or so," she told him. "So buckle in, because it's going to be a long night," she told him before picking up the bag and walking towards the door. He took a second realizing that she had just invited him back into her home on her own will. He had been tempted to ask but didn't know how well it would go over. It seems now that he wouldn't have to. He smiled to himself as he followed behind her, drawing the sleeping child closer to him to brace her from the cold air outside.


A/N: So I rewatched some season 1 today and found myself staring at the television wide eyed and tense like I had never seen this before lol. Waiting for season 3 so we can start yelling at the television again for good reasons meaning we're being entertained not disenfranchised, because yes season 2 was that serious lol. Anyways, review!