Left For Dead
"We gotta do something, boss."
Gibbs gave him a look. "Have you ever made a mistake, Tony?"
"According to you or me?"
"You."
A moment's silence. "Yeah," he answered, reluctantly.
"Could anyone make you feel better?"
There was a longer pause this time. "No."
They stood for a few moments more, and then Tony shrugged a shoulder resignedly and walked away.
"My door's unlocked," Gibbs called after him.
"I know."
Gibbs had to smirk just a little at the response, then turned back to Kate. Shellshocked and tear stained, she looked nothing like the confident, competent agent she'd slowly been growing into over the weeks and months.
Could anyone make you feel better? No.
It was true. Kate had messed up, badly, and there was no use sugar coating it - but that didn't mean you shouldn't try to do something, if you could. He fished out his phone from his pocket and hit speed dial.
It was answered before the second ring.
"Abs?"
"Hey, bossman, what's up?"
"Got somethin' I need you to do for me."
Kate had more or less given up on trying to convince the EMTs she was fine. It would be more effective if she'd actually believed it herself, but somehow she didn't think anything they could do was going to fight the self doubt and recrimination in her mind.
Ringing in her ears, a possible concussion, those things didn't bother her too much. She'd had worse. They wouldn't last forever. Allowing herself to be duped, allowing a murderer to kill again? That was so, so much worse.
She'd been willing Gibbs or even Tony to come say something to make her feel better. DiNozzo had split as soon as he could, and she wasn't at all surprised. Gibbs had stared at her awhile, but then he'd taken a call on his cell and she'd quickly lost sight of him. She figured he had probably wandered off, wanting to get away from the racket of vehicles and people. She couldn't much blame him for that, even though she felt a little like she'd been deserted.
Admittedly, she wasn't sure there was anything he or Tony could have said or done to make her feel better. There was a knot of guilt making itself at home in the pit of her stomach, and she felt like a fool. Not a feeling she was used to. Even if Gibbs had been the type for touchy feely heart to hearts (and the very notion almost made her laugh despite herself), there was no conversation they could have that would erase her mistake or the consequences.
The chaos around her had abated a little. Maybe now was the time to make a break for it, while the eagle eyes of the medical personnel were focused elsewhere. She got up, wincing as bruises made themselves known. She wasn't even sure if she was in a fit state to drive, or where her keys had got to, but she would worry about that when she'd escaped to her car. At least getting away from her immediate environs would be a respite from the noise and commotion, give her a chance to get her bearings. And she thought, hoped, prayed that that would be a good thing.
In the aftermath of an explosion, with casualties and debris and emergency personal scattered all around, Kate suspected that for once she was the only one who noticed Abby pulling up in her bright red hearse. Usually it was the centre of attention wherever Abby drove it. Today was not a 'usually' kind of day.
Kate stopped short in the painful trek to her car. Abby usually didn't come out to crime scenes, either, so far as Kate knew. Weird.
Abby bounced out of her car, all legs and pigtails, and as soon as she saw Kate she charged up.
"Are you okay?" Abby demanded. She scanned Kate's face, then enveloped her in a hug, which Kate gladly accepted.
"I'm all right, Abs. Really, I'm fine."
Abby released her and then studied her face again.
"You don't look too good, Kate."
Kate shrugged a shoulder and bit back a grimace. Gotta love painful honesty. "I'm okay. Shouldn't you be, I don't know, collecting evidence or something?"
Abby tilted her head to one side, pigtails swinging, and grinned suddenly. "Nope. Not here for that."
Kate frowned. Admittedly she'd just survived a bomb blast, which had left her head feeling decidedly scrambled, but... "What?"
Abby slipped an arm around Kate's back, leaned down and whispered, "I'm on a mission from Gibbs."
The conspiratorial tone and the way Abby waggled her eyebrows got a laugh out of Kate, to her own surprise, and she allowed herself to be led towards the hearse. It was nice to have someone to lean on. Now that the adrenaline had thoroughly worn off, she wasn't just sore, she was exhausted.
Kate hadn't really got Abby figured out yet: between the devotion to science and the fascination with mysteries, the goth looks and the cheerful demeanour, she was like no one Kate had ever met before.
One thing that was for certain, though, she had a good heart, and the way she got Kate sat down and gave her a candy bar and some water, chattered reassuringly about nothing in particular, wrapped a coat round her... well, Kate found that she was starting to feel a little less awful.
"Thanks, Abs. For looking after me."
Abby stopped mid ramble to grin brightly at her and squeeze her shoulder affectionately. "Hey, what's family for?"
Kate blinked, and then smiled back. "Family?"
Abby nodded. "Yup. You're one of us now, Kate. We look after our own." She winked. "It's a Marine thing."
"It's a- what?"
"Gibbs," said Abby simply, as if that explained everything. Which it probably did, thought Kate, if you'd been at NCIS long enough. I guess I didn't get deserted after all. It was a whole different world from her Secret Service days. Thank God.
Abby leaned in to give her another hug. It was kind of awkward with the car's doorframe in the way. Abby, who was already tall and wearing those ridiculous platform shoes, practically had to bend double. But nevertheless, it warmed Kate to her bones.
When Abby straightened up, Kate sighed. "I guess... I should probably go home. If I can find my car keys."
Abby put her hands on her hips, frowned, shook her head decisively. "Home? No, Kate, you're coming with me."
"I am?"
Abby counted out the reasons on her fingers, and her voice started to take on an unfamiliar fierceness as she spoke.. "One: a possible concussion. You can't drive, and you shouldn't be on your own. Two: Gibbs' orders - and also the fact that he's right, by the way. Three: you're... You're my friend, Kate and if you think I'm just going to- to let you go home alone after such an awful day, then-" She shook her head again. "Well, then you're wrong, okay?"
Kate gaped. Abby shrugged, and looked a little embarrassed. "Okay?" she said again, her tone a touch softer.
Kate nodded. "Okay."
"Yay!" Abby clapped her hands like an excited kid. "You are gonna be okay, Kate, I promise, all right?"
Kate found herself smiling again as Abby fussed around her like a doting granny, and then got into the driver's side and coaxed the hearse into life. As they drove away from the scene, she let Abby's words drift over her.
She would be all right, she realised. That knot of guilt wasn't going to get unwound in one evening, there were no magic words to make her feel better, no way to erase her error in judgement or the effects... but she had family. She had friends. She didn't have to do this alone.
Yes. Abby was right. She was going to be okay.
