To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved. -George MacDonald
Chapter Notes
Minor spoilers for 1x05. Quote inspiration from Orlando Jones.
At first, when it was merely a stretch of days; Luke Morales could only accept that the primary suspect in Corbin's murder was in fact a key witness. He argued against it, if only on the grounds that no court in the United States was going to believe anything that came out of Ichabod Crane's mouth. Except, as he realized as the days stretched on to weeks, that Abbie clearly had little problem doubting the 'Oxford professor's tale.' When the witness suddenly joined on retainer as a consultant, Luke began voicing his doubts to anyone who could listen, but everyone around him either seemed concerned with their own self-promotion or charmed by the British man's accent and outdated charm to care that they were talking with a man who sincerely believed that he was from the 18th century.
He knew that deep down somewhere that people were beginning to question the new guy in some form; he had overheard the whispers as he passed the break room or sat at his corner at the diner.
"Abbie trusts him," he caught Wendy uttering as a deputy began to gossip one morning as they watched Abbie and her 'partner' head off to the archives across the street. The pair were too engrossed in the conversation to take note of the people around them. Crane made it to the door first, intentionally since the man tended to measure his strides to his shorter companion except when it served his purpose, and Abbie seemed to take no umbrage as he held the door for her. The Abbie that Luke knew would stop in her tracks and wave half of the male force along to make her point. Not only did she step through the door without so much a pause in her stride, the smirk on her face as she glanced back at Ichabod to resume the conversation made Luke set his jaw.
Abigail Mills, by no stretch of the imagination, trusted Ichabod Crane. Luke could rest easy if her trust only went so far as finding nothing but good intentions behind his chivalry, but he feared it went much deeper. Even though Luke had known Abbie for much longer, long enough to believe that she might have begun to love him, not once did Luke ever feel that Abbie trusted him. She doubted his sincerity, questioned his want for her, probably wouldn't have allowed herself to be protected by him in danger. The specter of what happened long before he met her haunted the entirety of their relationship, at times her lack of trust in him and the world made him wonder if there was a part of her that was a bit crazy. Perhaps Quantico was where she needed to go, to find herself and her priorities. Maybe the absence was what she needed to realize that maybe she could have a place in her life. Yet, even after Corbin was laid to rest, Abbie rescinded her transfer. Though she chose to remain in the city, the door to Abbie's heart was locked to him. Even if she did love him, she didn't trust that things between them could go back to the way they were before. She wasn't wrong. For what felt like eternity to get Abbie to relax and smile back at him, to not tense when he started to call her 'Ab', to admit that she loved flowers and had a weakness for cute thingsā¦all it took for the man who sincerely believed he fought in the Revolutionary War was to be suspected of her late partner's murder.
When Luke received news that Ichabod had been checked out of the motel, he couldn't mask his glee when he asked what time the plane left for the UK, only to be dejected to learn that Ichabod Crane was in no rush to leave Sleepy Hollow. In fact, the pair was taking a noted off-the-clock shopping trip for things that Crane would need in his new residence. Luke felt his blood boil at the news; he knew that Abbie had a doting side. It was a calming thought to imagine her looking after a wayward child or an abandoned puppy, albeit one with a fondness for wearing period garb 24-7. It made him resent the man all the more, that someone that she was being tasked to look after, could be so easily trusted. The Abbie he knew didn't have it in her to trust, but he loved her anyway.
He never bothered to try to hide how much he still did love her in his voice, even as his voice tightened as her new partner waltzed past them, still dressed in his Ren-faire finery. Luke did his best to ignore the snooty glance the man shot his way as Luke tried to engage Abbie's attention, just as he tried not to be put off by her impatience that he was taking his time getting to the point. She wasn't one for loitering, especially over personal matters at work, but Luke reasoned emphasizing that she was stuck carting an insane man at work was a safe overlap, wasn't it?
"For a detective, you don't really have a clue."
He was so gobsmacked by her words that her leaving completely escaped his attention. What more was there to know about that man, especially one that she had no trouble hanging off of his every word.
Just because the man checked out at Oxford did little to put Luke's heart to rest, especially as he watched as Abbie hovered over Ichabod's quarantine monitor, her eyes lined with worry. He had caught the tail end of the man's confinement, saw his ex nearly commit bodily harm to the men in their haz-mat suits had Parsons not had managed to not only restrain her but talk sense through her panicked rage. He felt as much as he heard the mournful cry in her protest when the order was issued to sedate Crane. And now, as he watched Abbie in a place where he could no longer reach her, even if to offer comfort, Luke Morales finally got a clue.
