So...This chapter is gonna be a bit on non-linear storytelling as originally I was going to show Ichabod's day out and what happened to him, but I decided it would be more interesting if we show the aftermath of his misadventure and we don't get the full flashback until a few chapters later
The next day, Ichabod seemed even more like a young boy as he kept nudging Marzipan with increasing intensity until it was more like he was shoving her.
"Marzi! Marzi! Wake up, you Lazybones! I got a great idea on what to do today?"
The Cat-Girl yawned "What's that?"
"I want to play with the Cubs today!" Ichabod giggled "I can't wait to see their faces when they see me as a child!"
Marzipan did imagine their faces and wasn't sure it was a good idea "Are you sure that's...Wise?" She asked
"Aw, It'll be fine!" Ichabod chuckled
"Ichabod…" Marzipan yawned "...We played so much yesterday...I'm tired...I want to rest."
"Aw please?" Ichabod pleaded
"Marzipan's right…" Jonathan chuckled from the kitchen as he was making breakfast "You two had quite the day yesterday, if she says she needs rest then let her rest."
Ichabod sighed his maturity seemed to be returning to him
"All right Marzi…" He said, "...I'll go see the Cubs by myself." She could see Ichabod really wanted to do this together but Marzipan just had a...Funny feeling...More than just not wanting the Cubs to see her in her child form….It seemed to be that 'Feminine Intuition'
So after breakfast, Ichabod went out for the day, Marzipan at first tried watching TV but found there was nothing she wanted to watch, so she decided to look through the books Jonathan had brought to this cottage, as she was headed to Jonathan's bedroom where the bookshelves were Jonathan called "I'm going grocery shopping!"
"OK…" Marzipan called back
Looking through the books Jonathan had on the shelves, obviously he was not going to have 'modern children's books' she had been so fond of reading on Mizzer but she did find a collection of Grimm's Fairy Tales and collection of Hans Christian Anderson's Fairy Tales, several of the original Oz books and of course, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
Marzipan decided on Grimm's Fairy Tales as she remembered the original fairy tales were quite well...Grim compared to the Disney movie adaptations and she was in the mood to read about villains getting their gristly punishments!
Skimming through the tome, she discovered quite a few fairy tales she had never heard of, and found herself reading these and found them delightfully weird! The Two Brothers was the story of twin boys who through a bizarre string of events each find themselves with two young animals of various species and and so divide them evenly between them when they decide they go their separate ways, one brother saves a princess from a seven headed dragon, but when everyone stops to rest, a wicked servant decides to claim the princess for himself cutting off the hero's head and threatening the Princess to never tell, the animals revive their master with a life giving herb, as she was getting to the part where the hero was testing to see if the Princess still loved him by sending each one of his animals one by one to get a different piece of the royal feast from her she suddenly heard a frantic banging on the door, the suddenness of it startling her so much her tail floofed up!
Then she heard Ichabod's voice "Marzi! Marzi! Please let me in! Hurry!"
Marzipan went over to the door unlocked it...And saw Ichabod, clutching his...Bottom and dancing in place!
"Quick Marzipan!" Ichabod said as he came in "Get some ice and some bandages…" From behind Marzipan could see the seat of his pants was red with blood "Father CAN NOT find out what happened!"
"Ichabod!" Marzipan exclaimed "What the heck happened?!"
"First aid now, explanations later!" Ichabod barked his child like voice now had the authoritative snap he had learned from the military!
So in the bathroom Marzipan helped tend Ichabod's wound, she saw his bottom now had deep cuts!
But Ichabod did explain a little bit, "Stepped into a flower garden...And the man came out angry I had stepped on his flowers, but then he could see who I was related to...He used to live in Gotham before moving to England and...His daughter had been killed by my Father when he was a Professor, her death was an accident but clearly she had died during his fear gas experiments from overexposure to the chemicals…And...I guess I should be grateful he didn't decide to repay exactly in kind, but he whipped me with a switch!"
Marzipan could only murmur, as sweet as Jonathan Crane was now, she was grateful she didn't know him before he reformed…
"So Father can't find out about this and escalate things and make things worse!" Ichabod said as she applied the bandages
"I'm not sure this is going to work…" Marzipan said "...I think he's going to find out one way or another…"
So borrowed the idea that one student died in Jonathan's fear gas experiments from the Ask Scarecrow Tumblr