As much as Jennifer Mills loved and respected August Corbin, the man was full of shit. For years he coddled her sister, insisting with that omnipresent smile of his that it all had to be on Abbie's time. In his words, Jenny and her sister were special, but it was her eldest sister that was in line for even greater things. It just wasn't fair, Abbie got everything.
Even before she came to that bitter realization, she was aware of being born to an unbalanced world at a young age, where the chips were stacked against her from the moment she drew breath. She figured it out long before their father left the picture, before the shock and grief from it broke the last vestiges of their mother's sanity. It came as little surprise when they were carted off to their new home, one that seemed to be even more temporary for the youngest Mills. Jenny was destined to not have much of anything. If she wanted a slice of anything in this life, she was going to have to fight for it. It made her want for nothing, save for making sure that other women and children like her did not have to live with the same fate. The fact that the world wrote her off as insane and a nuisance worked to her advantage, it was easier to turn their back and look the other way.
Her sister, even with her own demons and battles to fight, seemed to manage to have the easy life. With Corbin's help, Abbie got to keep her virtuous image intact, even though she backslid and committed enough misdeeds to make Jenny look downright angelic. It wasn't the lies, or the crimes swept under the rug that made Jenny hate her sister, it was being sent on missions around the world while Abbie continued to live safely by Corbin's side. For what little the world seemed to give to the Mills sisters, it seemed to fall into Abbie's hands. Though Corbin believed to his last dying breath that Jenny would manage to forgive Abbie, it didn't mean that Jenny wouldn't make Abbie suffer first. She would have to fight for Jenny's love, just as Jenny had to fight to protect to keep her fucking coward for a sister alive.
Shunning her at the asylum was too easy, wasn't nearly enough to express how much she resented and blamed her for every bad thing that she suffered through in her life. Ichabod Crane's involvement served to make her dig her heels in the ground further, and not just because the man looked and acted like he stepped off of the pages from a fucking Harlequin novel. He was a live Masterpiece Theatre set piece and historical reenactor, why Abbie would pay half a mind to such a man caught Jenny's curiosity instantly. Of course, her needling was sidelined by his insistence that he help, if not for the world but for her sister. Another man trapped in her sister's thrall, if she had one talent that had to be it. For that, the apocalypse could just fucking happen for all she cared. She still had her promise to Corbin to uphold, after that, she'd be done with this town and all of the messed up shit that was bound to it.
***
She had been joking about Ichabod being Abbie's boyfriend, but as she sat in the backseat of her sister's car she had to wonder. At the cabin, they moved with the intimacy of a pair that knew each other for years, though apparently the Vicomte de Grouchy had only awoken to this side of the century for only a few weeks. He seemed particularly spared from Abbie's wrath, a lesser man wouldn't fare half as well lifting Abbie physically from her seat; in fact they wouldn't dare. Yet lift he did, and though Abbie did not disguise her annoyance at the gesture, she moved as she was bid.
When the laser sights and gunfire was unleashed on the cabin, Jenny took note while they dove for cover, that in the battle of who got to shield and push the other from harm's way, Abbie prevailed. It was made all the more ridiculous given the man was twice her size, yet her sister managed just fine. As she found an opening to flank the assailants, she caught out of the corner of her eye the silent instruction on how to chamber a fresh clip. She had been too focused on her objective to get the jump on one of the shooters to see how that result turn out, though apparently Abbie and Ichabod's rapid fire was convincing enough to thin the herd, so to speak. It made the surrender of the last man standing all the more easier, for that she couldn't find complaint.
She did, however, take complete issue with Abbie's manner of interrogation, yet as they grappled for control of the situation, there was the Boy Scout, interjecting himself where he didn't belong. Though he kept his eyes and body mostly turned in her sister's direction, he made sure not to turn his back entirely to Jenny. Smart man, albeit an unhelpful one. He made up for it after the Hessian decided to permanently check out of the interrogation, diffusion yet another squabble with the introduction of his photographic memory. The pride in Abbie's voice at announcing that fact made her hate the man, if only for a moment.
***
Finally, she found a sore point, although it fell into her lap on accident. As she began to reload her ammunition in the backseat of Abbie's SUV, Ichy made a point to compliment and ask about her training. Though she was not accustomed to boasting about her history, the earnestness in his voice was enough to get her to rattle off her successful missions. She was a soldier that belonged to no army, but in his words she could sense a meeting a like-minded individual. He sounded positively giddy at meeting her at a common ground, even though it was at the expense of setting a glaring difference between him and her sister. Jenny was more than happy to make the distinction with a backhanded comment, knowing for certain his agreement would only serve to dig the knife in deeper. Abbie's curt dismissal of the entire conversation wounded no one but the person sitting next to her. Jenny couldn't even mask her victorious smile as he wisely turned back in his seat and became uncharacteristically silent. Maybe there was a benefit of taking a Prince Valiant for herself.
