Julie got in her car and started out for what was quite possibly the last place on Earth she wanted to go. Last night she tried to scan the note so she could just e-mail it to Frank, but the paper was so thin the writing on both sides bled through on the scan. Of course it did. She stopped along the way for yet another meal handed to her out of a window. She hadn't seen her kids in two days, she was eating crap food, and there was a distinct possibility that she may have to see Crane. Awesome. She arrived at the precinct at about 11am and walked directly to Irving's office, hoping to avoid seeing Ichabod. She opened the door and saw him standing there talking with Frank. Of course he was.
"Oh. Hi." She said uncomfortably, looking anywhere but directly at either of them.
"Ms. O'Connor," Crane said, avoiding eye contact as well.
"I found this last night in my archives. Thought it might be important. Also, here's your bag of stuff you left at my house." She walked over and put the items on Frank's desk in front of Crane.
He said an awkward "Thank you." She turned to leave.
"Jules, wait," Irving said. "I'll walk you out." She reluctantly paused long enough for Frank to come over to her and walked out with him. After the door closed, Frank went off on her. "Would you like to tell me what the hell happened last night, Julie?" He waved a small paper in her face. "Because Crane just handed me a receipt for a $1200 taxi ride that I have to authorize the department to reimburse and he won't tell me why. - Why did no one tell this man about buses? - Then you show up shortly thereafter, which makes it even more confusing why he couldn't just ride back with you. Not to mention the palpable tension between you two in there just now. What the HELL is going on?"
"Oh, Frank. I screwed up. I mean I reeeally screwed up." she paused. She had assured him he could trust her. He was already angry. This wasn't going to be pretty. "I kissed him."
"You WHAT?" He said it loud enough that half the officers and staff in the room turned to look. Frank looked around at all the curious eyes. "What?!" he barked at them. They all knew enough to go back to whatever they had been doing.
"I know. I know! I'm an idiot. A big stupid idiot. I just..."
"I'm not even the least bit interested in getting involved in this fiasco, but I need you to fix it. Now. I'm sending him out here."
Julie hated that she disappointed Frank, who went in and spoke briefly to Ichabod. As she saw them talking through the glass she wondered if Frank told Crane that he knew what happened. Ichabod walked out and approached Julie.
"Hello." They were still not looking each other in the eyes.
"Yeah. Hi."
"Apparently, we need to talk."
"Talking is overrated. I say we give this avoiding each other and awkward silence thing a fair shot first. What do you say?" she said, making a half-hearted attempt at lightening the mood. Not that she didn't actually prefer her option to Irving's.
"Ms. O'Connor..."
"I know. OK, you're right." She reluctantly suggested, "Lunch?"
"Very well." Crane agreed.
They ended up at a nearby diner. They didn't talk much at all on the walk there. They sat in a booth and began to look at the menus. "I still have no idea what the majority of these items are." Crane confessed.
"I happen to be a diner food expert. Leave it to me."
"If you insist," he agreed reluctantly.
The waitress arrived. "Hi," Julie took charge. She figured she should probably just order something greasy, disgusting and delicious. They were at a diner, after all, and why stop when she was on an artery-hardening roll? "Two bacon cheeseburgers, two orders of fries - one with cheese and one with gravy, and two chocolate milkshakes. Please." Ichabod looked almost frightened. "Don't worry. You'll love it. I promise." He raised his eyebrow with an 'if you say so' kind of look.
As the small talk came to an end, a bit of awkward silence followed. They knew they needed to address the issue they came there to discuss, but neither wanted to be the one to bring it up.
"Regarding last evening," Ichabod started. "I am so sorry. I-"
"NO." She cut him off. "No, no, no. I'm not even letting you attempt to do that. What happened was my fault. One hundred percent. I was out of line, and I am so, so sorry Ichabod." Julie paused and looked at the table. She took a deep breath. "Look, I am not the type of person that loses control of her faculties like that. I'm really not, but you have to understand something. Since I was a young child, I have been utterly fascinated, even consumed, with your time in history. I spent so many nights, and days, imagining myself in your world. For most of my life I felt like I belonged to that era more than my own. Then I met Eddie. Eddie... made me want to live in the present and for the person I am, not the person I wished I was." She felt her eyes beginning to well up. "He stole my heart and made me love him with every single piece of it. When he died two years ago, I fell apart. To cope, I immersed myself even deeper into my work. I would think about these gallant, chivalrous men, and strong, elegant women and the lives they must have led, and the kind of love they must have shared. Eddie gave me that sort of love that I didn't think existed anymore, and then he was gone. Then yesterday there you were, standing right in front of me. A man from the 1700's. The kind of man I have thought about and dreamed about most of my life." She couldn't help herself, "And to make it worse, you look like that." She gestured towards him with her hand. She saw Crane give a very slight smile. She wasn't sure if it was out of embarrassment or appreciation. Probably a bit of both. She continued, "I cannot even begin to describe how attracted I am to you, for so many reasons, but that is absolutely no excuse for what I did. I know the love you have for Katrina, because I had that with Eddie. What I did was inexcusable, but I hope for the sake of our work relationship you can manage to forgive me."
"Julie," Crane said. She wished he hadn't called her by her first name. The way it sounded sent a tingle through her whole body. 'Jeulie.' "You are a lovely woman and I am flattered by your feelings toward me. However, as you said, I am married and very much in love with my wife. Aside from that, and pardon me for saying so, I don't believe you could truly have developed feelings of love towards me after only..."
"Woah, woah. Hold on a second. I did not say I loved you. I said I was attracted to you."
Crane looked a bit confused.
"Oh, boy. How do I put this? These days, it is not uncommon for two people to spend a night enjoying each other's..." her face twisted a bit, trying to phrase it properly, "...physical company without it being attached to a romantic relationship."
His eyes widened. "You mean..."
"Yeah."
"Oh." He looked surprised, and a little full of himself.
"Yeah." Julie went back to averting eye contact.
"Is there a term for this?"
"A few. None of them are particularly pleasant. 'One night stand,' 'Casual sex,' 'Booty call.'" Crane's eyebrow wrinkled a bit upon hearing that last one.
"So, you wanted..." His hand moved in circles as if trying to say something without actually saying something.
"Yes. Maybe. I don't know, probably. I don't think I'd really thought that far ahead. Can we stop talking about this now? I'm about to crawl under the table and hide."
"I can't say that sort of thing never happened in my era, but it was never so freely discussed."
"Crane..."
"This is interesting," he said, almost haughtily.
"Crane!"
"And it was rarely the woman who made the initial advance."
"Craaane!" She couldn't believe that, in his eighteenth century way, he was actually busting her ass about this. She probably would have cracked up laughing if she wasn't about to die of embarrassment. The food arrived. "Oh, thank God!" Julie said out loud. The waitress set down the food and milkshakes. "Look," Julie said, using the interruption to get their conversation back on track,"I just don't want you to feel guilty about Katrina. This was all on me."
"While I appreciate your willingness to take full responsibility, I am afraid I too played a role in what occurred. If you recall, you were not the only one participating."
"I did notice that," she said, getting butterflies in her stomach hearing him admit it. "but I'm actually little confused as to why. I have to admit I was really surprised when you responded the way you did. I mean, you don't strike me as the type to be tempted that easily."
"Perhaps you underestimate yourself," Crane said.
Seriously? Did he seriously just try to use flattery to try to avoid answering my question? Yeah, he knows exactly what he's got. It's not working this time, though. "Shut up. I'm serious." More softly, she asked him, "...I need to know. Please."
Ichabod sat there for a moment as if trying to find the right words, and the courage to say them. "I love Katrina with the whole of my being. She is in my very soul. And while I know she is still alive, I am unable to hold her, or kiss her. Sometimes the pain of that is absolutely unbearable."
"You're lonely," Julie softly said with heartfelt empathy.
Crane nodded. "I woke up over two hundred years in the future to find I have lost everything that I held dear. No family, no friends, no home, no wife by my side, my surroundings completely unfamiliar to me." It became his turn again to avoid eye contact. His arrogance dissipated for a moment. He reminded Julie of the shy kid in class on oral report day, taking a little too much time to get the words out. "I do not enjoy admitting it, however most of the time I feel quite...lost. For that one moment, when you...kissed me, I felt something other than 'lost' or 'alone.' It felt...warm...and comforting." He stiffened up. Vulnerable Crane was once again relegated to his usual position in the backseat. "Not that any of that excuses my actions. My hope is that my momentary indiscretion will be forgiven by my God and my wife."
Julie was trying not to let the tears that were settling in the corners of her eyes escape. She was truly touched that he had opened up to her that way, if only for a moment. She could tell it was very difficult for him to do so. She began to really see him as a person as opposed to some sort of ethereal being. At that moment she honestly just wanted to hug him. She decided instead to opt for moving the conversation forward. In fact, she did have a question.
"So you're going to tell your wife, who is apparently a witch, that another woman kissed you. That's not going to end well for me, is it?"
"Katrina and I have much more pressing matters right now. I doubt that this conversation will take place for quite some time. Also, she has kept a secret from me in the past to protect me, maybe I shall keep one to protect you. When I do make my confession to her, your name will not be mentioned." As nice as that sounded on the surface, Julie knew that meant one of two things. Either, 1. He was lying, or 2. He was not going to tell Katrina about the kiss at all. She assumed Katrina would easily be able to use a spell or vision to figure out who Ichabod was talking about, and she was sure Crane must have thought of that as well. She hoped it would be the latter option, almost as much for his sake as for hers. She was sure he wasn't looking forward to telling her anyway and protecting someone else gave him a valid excuse to rationalize not doing so.
"Thanks, Crane."
He nodded. "Now, what on earth am I eating?"
She was glad he changed the subject. "This, my Colonial friend, is the ultimate comfort food meal. You have your burger; ground beef, American cheese and bacon."
"We have our own cheese now?"
"Yeah, and it's pretty terrible." she smiled.
"Then you have your cheese or gravy fries."
"I am familiar with 'fries' and 'gravy.' Is that orange watery substance also American cheese?"
"Worse. It's processed cheese sauce. It's barely a dairy product." She smiled boastfully. She was pretty sure he was suddenly the one who wanted to crawl under the table and hide. "But the best part is this!" She pointed to the milkshake. "You haven't had one yet, have you?"
"No, I have not."
"Well, go ahead!" Crane tried to take a sip from his straw but the shake was too thick. He looked a little silly with his cheeks sunken into his already thin face.
"You may have to use a spoon until it melts a bit." Julie advised.
He followed her suggestion and scooped up some chocolate frosty goodness. He tasted it. "Oh my...this is marvelous!"
"I told you!" She made another ill-conceived attempt to be humorous. "The two greatest things about my era; chocolate milkshakes and one night stands."
Ichabod almost spit out his mouthful of milkshake but did not laugh.
"I'm sorry." Julie put her hands to her mouth and shook her head. "That was inappropriate. I'm a work in progress, Crane. Bear with me."
"Ms. O'Connor, I believe that we are all 'works in progress.'" Crane said, as he managed a polite smile.
"It would certainly seem that way." She smiled back. "So, are we good with putting this thing behind us?"
"Indeed."