I really am sorry it's late. Like almost two weeks late. Like Kay partied way too much LATE. Here it is.

- Kay

Chapter 5 Let Me In (Part Two)

They stood in front of the stairs for what seemed like forever. Abbie took a seat on the second to last stair and looked over to him as Ichabod sat down beside her. She laid all of her cards on the table and it felt good to let it all out yet she knew she had to allow Ichabod to express himself just as she had. Abbie sighed as Ichabod grasped her hand. This wouldn't be easy but at least now she could feel something genuine from him.

Ichabod cleared his throat

"I first discovered your gift for talking in your sleep there, in that very living room. You had come home late, exhausted from your day we had fallen asleep watching The Vikings. I grabbed a blanket to warm you and you started yelling, quite profoundly, at me. First I thought you were possessed by a demon sent from Pandora, but after a few nights and a much needed google search, I knew it was how you truly felt. What bothered me most is each time when you awoke you had absolutely no recollection of anything you said to me, not a single word."

"Oh my God, I always thought Jenny was lying about that, I guess it's true. Crane it isn't something that I can control, I don't know when I'm doing it."

Biting his lower lip he grimaced "That only makes it all the more worse, I researched your condition, I know you can't control what you say during those times and that it is your subconscious mind taking over. Yet, I never thought that this would be us, I never thought that the one person in the world who I am closest to could harbor so much pain, because of me, because of what I put you through."

"That still doesn't explain what I woke up to. It doesn't explain you holding me the way you did."

"Was it really so uncomfortable for you?

"That's not the point. We agreed that we would live her under a certain set of rules. You doing my laundry and sleeping in bed with me wasn't a part of that."

"You didn't answer my question Abbie. So much for sharing and honesty I want you to know that this is your fault."

"How is it my fault?!"

"You did this." He chided

"How, how am I responsible for what you did?"

"The very first time I wandered into your room. I sat on the floor listening to you yell at me, when you became quiet, I motioned to leave like usual but you asked me to stay. I don't know how you knew I was about to leave but you did. What does that say about us, what does that say about those fragile little boundaries we're supposed to abide by?" He snapped

Abbie snapped at him "I asked you to stay with me?" Abbie whispered a statement that was more for her than him.

"It was more of a dare really you acted like you hated me. I have stayed by your side every night since, whenever I could."

"Crane sometimes boundaries are necessary,"

"Not between us, so you can just stop acting so innocent. For God sake just stop trying to fix me I know I am a shell of the man I used to be, you don't have to go pointing it out all the time. I can take it from strangers, I really don't give a damn about their arbitrary judgement or opinions of me, I cannot take that from you. I can't."

"That is not how I see you."

"Yes it is."

"I've seen the man you were before and you're still that same Captain I met in 1781. I see you Ichabod Crane, even if you can no longer see yourself and I don't pity you."

"Yes you do, you have been coddling me, like a child since day one of this relationship. Your right I haven't been quite up to par lately, but when you look at me like I'm a wayward child it bothers me. You just see me as this wretched fragile old man and maybe I am but your comment about fences and boundaries is horse shit. Yes we've established that I deserve it. I deserve to be shut out, but not at the expense of you subconsciously harboring hatred for me. Not at the expense of you hurting yourself."

"I understand that this life is an adjustment but how could you feel like that. I do not hate you. I wish I could that has been the problem ever since you decided to run away."

"I know that I am to blame, my colonial baggage is at fault. It doesn't help when I come home and I have to face up to the life that you have. The one life you truly desire and strive so hard for and I have to acknowledge that I can never cross this veil. I'll never be a modern man. In my time men bought the food, the clothes, the medical supplies, men where providers. I used to be like that and being here in your beautiful house, watching you work and pay mortgages. It baffles me that you wish me to be here with you. I am a deficit and I am not sure what skills I have that would warrant the hospitality that you've given me."

"We're supposed to support each other, the whole world is counting on us and you are hung up on this?"

"It would seem so."

Chapter 6 Let Me In (Part Three)

The air around them was charged with energy even though they gave up talking over ten minutes ago. Each time someone was about to speak they would stop. Finally, Ichabod's voice chased away the silence as he gave in.

"Abbie, last night was the first time I actually fell asleep with you in bed. I usually just hold you and leave right before you awake but you caught me this time."

"So how was it?" She said he voice tense and guarded

"What do you mean?" He exhaled a long breath he had been holding since this conversation began.

"You know" Abbie pressed "How was it?"

"It was very peaceful actually. I saw your face before I fell asleep. You finally let go just a little, you found comfort in my arms just as much as I did in yours" Ichabod reached over and found her hand and gave it a little squeeze as he said the words. "You placed your tiny little hand on my chest. It felt right. It was perfect. "

"Comfort?"

"Yes, is that word contaminated or something?"

"No" Abbie shook her head and looked a looked straight ahead at the front door as her hand slipped from his. "Wasn't something like that taboo for someone from your time? Indecent or something"

Ichabod smiled as the words left her lips "I may seem like a prudish asshole as you so adequately remind me but there are no indecencies among us. It felt right because, it was what we both needed."

"So I needed your ass to sneak into my room and climb in to my bed and tuck me in?" Abbie giggled and slapped her right knee "You must have been really fucking comfy then, seeing as though I woke up with your long ass leg over me. Not to mention your morning surprise" Abbie sighed "Crane, you can't keep doing this. We can't blur the lines of our relationship"

"The lines have been blurred since the day we met. You may not want to broach the subject but as you have stated before we are so much more than friends. You didn't seem to have a problem with it this morning when you kept moving about, didn't seem like you were in a rush trying to get away from me. Do you really want to know why you found me in your bed?"

"No, Crane I did all of this not to know why?" She sarcastically chided

"Have you noticed that you haven't had the nightmares about purgatory lately?"

"But that doesn't have anything to do with this" Abbie countered

Ichabod shook his head from side to side fast enough to give himself whiplash.

"It has everything to do with it. When I'm holding you it feels like nothing bad can penetrate through us. As if being together, cancels out all of the evil that seeks to undo the righteousness of this world. Abbie, when I left and went back to England I was tortured every night with dreams of watching Katrina harm you or watching her try to kill me."

"When I didn't have to endure those it was like my subconscious mind kept reminding me that I had killed her that my own hands had taken her life. I used to wake up tormented. After everything that happened I wanted to talk to you about it but broaching the subject seemed to make you uncomfortable and I was so self-involved that I didn't make the effort to help you like I should have and that lead us here."

"I guess deep down I knew that nothing good could come from leaving. I just did not have the power within me anymore to stay. To be honest I did not have a plan to do anything when I left. It started off simply as a walk that turned into this mess that's between us. I wanted to feel like before when I was a man of status and knowledge, when I used to be stronger than this. When I wasn't a misunderstood mockery the world views as a spectacle cosplayer from colonial times. I just wanted it all to stop but it didn't. It all became so pervasive. It overwhelmed me"

"We all have times when we want to give up Crane I just couldn't believe you did. You know I wouldn't allow myself to believe you left. I took over a week for me to even think that you would hurt me like that, that you could just take off and hurt me like that." Abbie snapped as she stood up and moved away from the stairs.

"I guess that makes me the weakest witness. I used to be strong and certain like you. I once wore that hat but I guess I'm just not as strong as you are anymore." Ichabod held his head in his hands the entirety of the argument pressing down on him.

"I didn't need you to be invincible Crane. I just needed you to be here. I wanted you to be here."

"I made a mistake and I'm getting to know that now. I am truly sorry for all that I've done to you. It was never my intention but it happened because I was not able to see past myself. I could not see past 1781 and I regret what led to this distance between us. But I don't want this. I don't want to be separate from you. I never wanted that. It has never given me joy to be away from you, I just wanted to feel like I belong here. I just wanted some validation that outside of being a witness I have a purpose living in this time."

"Please do not take this the wrong way. Abbie I had to know if I could make it out there, if I could stand on my own two feet without always knowing that you would be there to catch me. After what happened I punished myself, I killed her. Deep down, I thought it would break me, in its own way it did because I thought I would experience this deep sense of loss for her love, but that isn't what I felt. When the knife entered her heart I felt horrible for what I had done but I was also relieved. I was glad that she was gone but tortured because I had to kill her. What kind of man does that make me? "

"That's why you should've stayed. We could've worked through it together. Crane, you think you murdered Katrina? It was self-defense she tried to kill you in both lifetimes."

"You're right, but that doesn't change how it made me feel. From the moment Katrina was in this world I thought I would be happy, but it didn't feel right anymore, she was jealous of our relationship. I tried to be like before but nothing was the same and I couldn't go back to that type of existence. All of the lies just took their toll on me. I failed you because of it and I hate myself for it. Yet, the bond we share, even as fractured as it is, it can withstand nearly anything, if we allow it to."

"Crane it's going to be ok. I already forgave you."

"Did you really?"

"I told you I did" She yelled

"Then prove it, I dare you. I wager that you haven't really forgiven me at all."

"Fine," Abbie said as she moved towards the steps, she walked upstairs to the very top and yelled down to him. "Let's go to bed, together. This way we can both stop lying to each other."

"Your room or mine?" Ichabod asked, the words hung in the air.

Abbie never verbally answered him. She simply waited until he followed her to her bedroom door.

"We don't have to do this, Abbie."

"Yes, we do."

I hope it was worth the wait guys. Reviews are always nice