Abbie stared at her wall, the first sunlight casting a reflection through her window as she threw the sheet over her face and slowly turned over.
"Oww", she grunted loudly, her body still sore from her chest wound. She would be lying if she said she wasn't entirely looking forward to getting out of her bed today. And it had nothing to do with physical therapy or the mound of paperwork she still needed to complete down at the station.
It had everything to do with Crane.
His words to her last night had been a complete surprise. In content and the fact he had actually spoken them aloud. Crane prided himself on his decorum. And last night, his confessions to her were anything but.
I am in love with you Abigail Mills.
She couldn't get that one out of her head. And as much as Crane assured her he could put his feelings aside and be content with just their partner/friendship, she wasn't sure if she could. Things were different now, as much as she didn't want to think otherwise.
Every glance she gave him, every soft touch on the arm or face that she slowly began to realize how often she did, would be accompanied with the question of whether it would be interpreted wrongly. And she hated herself for thinking that way.
After another 20 minutes of procrastination, she finally forced herself out of bed. It was almost 9:30am, much later than she ever allowed herself to sleep, even on weekends.
The shower last night had done her a ton of good. And she planned to follow it up with a long soak in her bathtub that morning to scrub the remaining feelings of uncleanliness from her long hospital stay. She had just begun to draw her bath when Abbie failed to notice the small puddle of water that had come from her dipping her hand in to test the temperature. It all happened in slow motion. She quickly lost her footing and crashed down on the floor, her leg hitting the ceramic tub as she screamed out in pain.
"Leftanent! Leftanent!" She heard from afar as she began to open her eyes and gather what had just happened.
She heard her bedroom door fling open and a few seconds later she saw Crane's body above her, feverishly asking what had happened and if she was okay.
Abbie tried to sit up, realizing the pain from her still healing gunshot wound and the new gash on her leg forbid her from doing so without help.
"Hold on, Leftanent. I've got you." Crane said, as he easily lifted her body off the floor and carried her to the bed.
She held onto him tightly, clutching his long-limbed frame as he gently laid her down onto the duvet cover. She looked down at her wound and gasped as blood slowly dripped down her leg. She must have hit the metal faucet during her fall.
"Oh dear", Crane said, as he rushed into the bathroom to fetch a towel to catch the falling blood.
Abbie was about to curse herself for being so clumsy when she suddenly realized how little clothing she was wearing. Just her silk pajamas that left little up to the imagination when it came to what lay underneath.
Crane returned and she looked up right at the moment when he seemed to notice the same thing as well. His face flushed and he looked away, pardoning himself to go get the first aid kit as Abbie closed her eyes in awkwardness.
Not the smoothest way to let Crane know you wanna stick it out as just friends, Mills. She thought to herself as she leaned over to grab her robe which was laid out on her bed.
She had already covered herself as best she could when Crane returned with the bandages.
"Not the most ideal start to your first morning home, I dare say." He smiled as he slowly began to clean up the blood on her legs with a wet towel.
"I guess I should take it a little easier, huh? Until I get full use of my body back."
Crane had already begun to bandage her leg when he looked up at her and smiled, his hands gently wrapped around her bare leg as he smoothed the bandage down.
"There. Good as new, Leftanent." He quickly rose and grabbed the items to leave her to her peace.
"I will brew a fresh pot of coffee in a few minutes for you." He said as he left the room. "Try not to injure any more body parts in the meantime."
Abbie smiled as he shut the door.
…
The next few weeks had gone by without incident… until the morning of December 1st. Abbie had been spending the first half of her mornings in rehab, slowly regaining strength back in her chest and core. She was making much faster progress than any of the doctors imagined and had been told her full clearance would be coming soon thereafter.
The remaining portion of her days were spent in the office confined to desk duty. They had assigned a new lead on the Myers case since she was still only working part time. But she wouldn't let that stop her from being as involved as she could to nab down the criminal who seemed to have a personal vendetta against her.
"Son of a bitch!" She yelled out in amazement, her eyes flying up to the agents surrounding her in the open office. "He's been hiding right in front of us this whole freaking time!"
She shot up, walking briskly into Reynolds office, holding the smoking gun paperwork in her hand.
"He's adopted." She said matter of factly as Reynold finished up a phone call.
"What?" He said back to her, his face agitated at her interruption of the conversation with his superior officer.
"Myers. We've been wondering his tie to this community, this area. Why he keeps coming back here to hide out and do business and it's been staring at us this whole damn time."
"Mills, I don't follow."
"Myers is adopted. Court records sealed when he was only 6 weeks old but I noticed a minor discrepancy in some of his hospital paperwork and decided to look deeper into it. His adoptive parents were filthy rich, apparently bought their way into passing off Myers as their biological child but he was adopted and his birth mother is from right outside Sleepy Hollow, sir."
Reynolds stood up slowly and walked over to her.
"His birth mother died a few years ago but there's a house still in her name off Breckenridge Rd. I bet you anything we go there and find Myers, sir."
"Mills… you are freaking brilliant." He said, wrapping her in a sudden embrace and soon summoning the other agents to his office.
Abbie watched as the team got their plan together and left the building to take Myers down. And she couldn't help feeling a certain sense of accomplishment. Of course, it bothered her that she wasn't the one who actually got to look him in the eyes as he was handcuffed and brought in. But because of her find, he was off the streets. Not able to injure or kill any more souls.
She walked into her house that evening, still high off of the Myers take down and found Jenny and Crane sitting in the kitchen.
"Abbie, what's going on? What's with the weird grin on your face?" Jenny asked, taking a sip of her wine as Crane raised an eyebrow at the Leftanent.
"We got him." She said, her mouth turning up into a full blown smile. "Myers. I found out how he was connected to this area and the team took him down today."
Crane walked over slowly to where Abbie stood.
"Leftanent… your intellect and keen insight never cease to amaze me."
She looked away suddenly, aware of how close he was standing to her and how dangerous those compliments were and shot a glance at Jenny, who had hopped down from the counters and was already heading into the other room.
"Get dressed, Abbie!" She yelled as she closed the bathroom door. "We're going to celebrate!"