WARNING: Contains non-consensual spanking of an adult.
Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine. I just borrow them.
Sequel to Recovery, sort of.
Tony was lying on the couch watching a movie. Naturally. Three weeks had passed since he'd almost died from the Pneumonic Plague, and four days since Gibbs had finally agreed that he was ready to back to his own home. He'd expected that it would take a while to get used to being alone all the time, but his coworkers had made sure that never happened. Every night since he'd moved back to his apartment, at least one of them had dropped by with dinner and stayed to keep him company for a while. He'd wondered how they'd managed to pull that off since they all so rarely got to eat dinner anywhere but in the office or out in the field, but he suspected they'd developed a rotation of sorts. And he was grateful.
But glancing at the clock, he saw that it was only 3:00 and nowhere near time for a visitor. So when he heard a sharp knock on the door, his brow crinkled in surprise and confusion. He got up and made his way to the door – a task that was still much more difficult than he thought it should be – and looked through the peephole. To his great surprise, Abby stood on the other side. He opened the door, a huge smile spreading across his face.
"Abbs! What are you doing…" he trailed off. "What's wrong?"
Abby stood in front of him, shoulders slumped and head down. Instead of bursting into the apartment with her customary hug, she simply stood on the doorstep.
"Hey, what's the matter?" Tony asked again. He gently pulled her into his apartment and closed the door. His mind spun for a moment – had something happened to Gibbs? Was he hurt? Was Kate ok?
Finally, he heard Abby take a shaky breath. "I disobeyed him," she whispered.
"What?" Tony asked, still confused. Part of him was relieved that no one was hurt – or dead – but he'd been so busy worrying that he didn't quite catch what she'd said.
She looked up at him and he saw tears in her eyes. "I disobeyed Gibbs," she repeated, just slightly louder this time.
"Well…what happened?" Tony asked, leading her to the couch. It wasn't until after she had sat down on it that he wondered if maybe having her sit wasn't the nicest thing to do. But she showed no sign of being in pain, so he sat down next to her and moved on. "Abbs, what did you do?" he asked again when he got no response.
"I told you," she said, head down again, "I disobeyed him."
"I know," he said gently, "but how? I mean, what happened?"
She sighed deeply, then looked up and launched into her explanation. "We have this case now, Lt. Walden," Tony nodded, indicating that he was familiar with the case. "Well, McGee and Kate brought back evidence from Walden's house and car. And there was all kinds of cool stuff in there," her mood was lightening slightly. "There were Tarot cards, and a Ouija board, this really old Bible, voodoo dolls, I mean, this guy was into everything! It was so cool!"
"Abby!" Tony said sharply, "what happened?" He had a feeling if he didn't stop her, he'd never get the end of the story.
"Oh, sorry," she said sobering. "Like I said, he had all this cool stuff. Gibbs mentioned that he and McGee were going back to the house to talk to the neighbors to see if anyone heard anything the night Walden was killed. I begged him to let me go with him, but he said no."
"What on earth made you think he would ever say yes in the first place?" Tony asked.
"It was a long-shot. But I really wanted to see the rest of the house."
Tony shrugged. "You had all the crime scene photos."
"Yeah, but I wanted to actually see it." Tony rolled his eyes. "And when they came back and McGee told me that Walden's neighbors said Walden thought his house was haunted, well, I just had to see it for myself." She stopped and sobered again. "But of course, Gibbs came in while I was telling McGee that."
"And he told you that you weren't to go anywhere near the place, right?" Tony asked knowingly. She nodded. "And you begged him to let you," another nod, "and he said…?"
"'You are not a field agent'", she said in her best Gibbs voice, "'and there is no reason for you to go there.' And then he gave me that do-as-I-say-or-else look."
"So what the hell made you go anyway?" Tony asked. She opened her mouth to answer, but he cut her off with a sigh, "I know, you had to see the house." She nodded and hung her head again. "Does he know?" he asked.
She shook her head. "No. At least, not yet."
"Does anyone else know you went?" She nodded slowly. "Who?"
"Ducky."
"How did Ducky find out?" Tony asked, a little confused.
"He was out getting lunch just down the street from Walden's house and he saw me drive by in the direction of the house. When I got back to my lab, he was waiting for me."
"Is he going to tell Gibbs?"
She shook her head again. "Not unless I don't."
Tony nodded. "I see. Well, that does sound like Ducky."
"Yeah," Abby agreed. "He told me that I had no business going to the house by myself and asked if Gibbs knew I'd gone. When I didn't answer him, he deduced that Gibbs had specifically told me not to. I tried to get out of answering the question, but he knew better. So he told me that I had to tell Gibbs what I did. I told him that I can't possibly do that – that Gibbs would kill me. He agreed that Gibbs will definitely punish me, but that he refused to let me get away with defying Gibbs and possibly putting myself in danger."
"In danger?" Tony asked.
"Yeah, we haven't caught Walden's killer and apparently, Gibbs told Ducky that the neighbors had been seeing this same car driving up and down the street for the last week or so. Gibbs thinks that's our killer and is planning to set up a stake out tomorrow unless the local LEOs pick him up first." She hung her head again.
"Wow! Yeah, he's going to kill you all right," Tony said, sympathizing with his friend.
"Thanks a lot, Tony," she said, punching him in the arm.
"Ow! What was that for?" he asked, rubbing his injured arm.
"You're not helping!"
"Sorry, I didn't mean it to come out that way," he said, looking at her with concern.
They sat quietly for a moment, her lost in her fearful thoughts, him trying to think of something encouraging to say. He couldn't think of anything.
Finally, Abby spoke. "What should I do?"
Tony looked at her for a moment, hardly believing that she was even asking that question. But then he remembered times that he too had been in her shoes. "He's going to find out one way or another. You know you'll be a lot better off if he hears it from you."
She nodded. "But he's going to…well, you know what he's going to do."
"Most likely," Tony agreed. "But if he has to hear it from someone else, it will be way worse."
"Maybe," she said. He gave her a look. "Yeah, it will."
Suddenly, something occurred to Tony. "Um, Abbs, does he know where you are now?"
"I told him I was going out to get lunch," she said.
"Then you'd better get out of here and go do just that. You don't want to add lying to your list of offenses," Tony said, standing up and walking to the door. Reluctantly, she followed. When they got to the door, he pulled her into a hug. "It'll be ok, Abbs," he said quietly.
"No it won't," she whined.
He grinned, kissed her on the head, released her and pushed her out the door, ignoring her renewed protests. He closed the door and leaned against it for a moment. He felt bad for Abby, but, he argued, it was her own fault. His ringing phone broke him out of his thoughts.
"Hey Boss…Abby?...Um, yeah, she was…she just left…oh, she was just stopping by to say hi," Tony cringed as he said it, hoping the little lie wouldn't come back to haunt him. "Ok…I'll see you later then…bye." He hung up and cringed again. Then he decided that since he was standing anyway, he'd wander into the kitchen for a snack. No sense wasting the energy getting up for one after he'd settled back on the couch.