A/N: Yet another NFA Help Haiti auction ficlet. This one has something I've never written before. Gibbs/Abby. You can read it however you want to, but it's certainly not my usual. That's what happens when you take requests. :) It's a tag to Hiatus, Part 2.

Disclaimer: Not mine! Not mine! No money-making. :)

Seems So Far
by Enthusiastic Fish

It was only a single day before. One day. Twenty-four hours. One thousand four hundred forty minutes. Abby's mind faltered over calculating the seconds...but only for a moment. It was easier to think about that than about what had actually happened so many seconds ago.

Eighty-six thousand, four hundred seconds ago, she thought finally.

Just yesterday and yet things had changed so much, so drastically, and so horribly that it was an eternity ago, even if it was only a few hours. She had hoped when she woke up that morning that it would be a dream. A horrible dream...like the one she'd had about being autopsied. A dream that could be banished by reality. She drove to NCIS and looked and looked for Gibbs to be there. ...but he wasn't. He was gone. She hadn't dreamed his departure. She hadn't dreamed his leaving. Gibbs had left...and he had left a huge, gigantic hole in her.

Gibbs had been a feature of her life at NCIS. Almost the only constant one. Other people came and went...well, Ducky was still there, but he wasn't in her space as often. Gibbs was always there. Stan came and then left. Kate came and died. Tony was still there, but he hadn't been there the whole time. It was just wrong that Gibbs would leave. It was wrong, wrong, wrong.

And it hurt. She could still feel his finger on her lips when he wouldn't let her say anything. He had left and not even allowed her to speak. ...because, as she knew now, she could have convinced him to stay. Abby knew she almost always got her way. She could have made Gibbs stay, could have forced him to see reason and not leave her behind while he ran away from his life.

Her fingers touched her lips where he had silently shushed her. She felt that more than the kiss on the cheek he had given. She could hear his final words before he had abandoned them all. "Semper fi." How little that was, how...how not enough. Always faithful? To what? To whom? Gibbs had abandoned that saying by leaving them...by leaving her.

He'd only been gone for a day. It was possible that he hadn't even left just yet, hadn't run away to Mexico yet. ...but that didn't matter because he wasn't here. He had to be at NCIS. It wasn't NCIS without Leroy Jethro Gibbs storming around the place, without him hovering behind her, always knowing when she had something to tell him. Always knowing when she needed him to be there.

Abby grabbed Bert and gave him a hug. He responded accordingly. Gibbs had always been the one who could keep her safe, who could comfort her. He was always there. ...but not anymore. How different a single day could make life. At this moment, life was desolate and empty. She had gone from fear that he would die, to relief that he was okay, to despair that he had left. She wished it was her birthday. Gibbs wouldn't miss her birthday. He wouldn't stay away. ...but her birthday was months away.

She hugged Bert again and again he responded. He didn't say much but it was always the right thing. Like Gibbs. She laughed at the thought of comparing Gibbs to Bert the Hippo...but it was true. Gibbs was like that. Always there. Always ready with the one thing that was needed.

...but not anymore. Now, Abby knew that he was gone. If he ever came back, he'd come to NCIS. She knew that as well. Gibbs couldn't stay away from NCIS if he tried. She'd have to be ready for when he showed up. If he came once, he wouldn't get away again.

Nodding firmly to herself, Abby set Bert down and walked into her office. It didn't take long to find what she wanted.

The handcuffs clinked comfortingly at her side. She always had them with her, but now she would carry them around until Gibbs came back. When he came back, she wouldn't let him leave her alone again. Never again.

Then, Abby sighed. The momentary glow fading once again. Gibbs was gone. He was really gone. Yesterday, he had been there. Today, he was gone.

In the quiet of the lab, she whispered the words she had wanted to say yesterday, the words he had stopped her from saying.

"Don't leave me."

FINIS!