Abby Scuitto stood quietly in the cemetery gazing at Kate's grave. She missed her friend on a daily basis still. Much as she loved Ziva, she still had intense memories of her fun times with Kate. It had been as if she had a big sister. Ziva was a good friend, they were at times confidantes. But sharing had been easier with Kate. Like second nature. She dropped into a crouch and noticed there were other flowers under the light cover of snow. What appeared to be a dozen yellow roses with one red one. She sighed. Tony. The other bunch appeared to be daisies and babies breath. She raised an eyebrow. The last a single pink rose. A symbol for 'family'.
She returned to NCIS by the end of her lunch hour. When she looked at the desk she saw a new case file, turning she noticed her table with two boxes of evidence marked and sealed with tape. She sighed and opened the file. Life truly did go on. Or maybe not… Where was her Caf-Pow? She looked about the room. No sign. Frowning, she went to the refrigerator; no Caf-Pow. Abby moved to the phone calling Tony.
"DiNozzo."
"Tony, is Gibbs there?"
"No Ab's. He's not back from lunch. Don't think unless he's in MTAC. Wait, no his coats not there. Maybe he had errands to do?"
"No, he would've told me." Tony frowned eyebrows up in question. Why would Gibbs have necessarily told Abs's about an errand? "Ab's, why…" Tony began but was cut off.
"I gotta go Tony. I gotta find him, it's wrong! Call you back."
Abby began to pace back and forth. Where would he have logically gone? No where. Not without telling her. They always discussed things over breakfast, dividing up the days errands. She liked grocery shopping if it was her turn to cook. Gibbs was a surprisingly good cook, but the repertoire was without the Cajun heat she enjoyed. They generally divided the week up between them. The dry cleaning he liked giving to her. His hours varied and it was definitely easier on him. Something was wrong, yes, definitely something was wrong. She turned and left to go to the morgue. Ducky might have a clue. Gibbs and Ducky talked every morning. She took the stairs.
"Ducky… ehwww!" Abby immediately plugged her nose. Ducky and Palmer were wearing special protective air filter masks as they worked on a decomposing corpse.
"Abby my dear even the best of air suction ventilation systems allows a few wisps of nature's processes to leak through. Sorry m'dear. However we are indeed making progress. Continue Mr. Palmer." He turned toward Abby without moving closer. "You can appreciate why I don't come closer. How can I help you?"
"I just wanted to ask if you talked to Gibbs this morning?" Abby's speech was blunted by her effort not to breathe and by her nose being plugged.
"Yes, we had our usual morning cuppa' together. Why?" Ducky took one step closer frowning in concern.
"He hasn't come back from lunch yet and nobody's seen him. I even checked with Fornell and the Director. He didn't tell me he had any errands this morning. He would' a told me." Abby forgot her concerns with smell in her anxiety. She wrung her hands together.
Ducky was the only one who knew how long Jethro and she had been in love before getting together. He remained extremely happy his two friends were now a couple. He had worked assiduously toward that goal for years now. They were consequently very intimately involved, almost as if making up for lost time. She was right, jethro would not have gone anywhere without telling her.
"No my dear, Jethro mentioned nothing of any plans to me. He mentioned shopping on the way home for your dinner nothing else. Perhaps McGee could check his cell phone…No you've done that of course haven't you."
"Yeah, first thing although he'll kill me if he finds out…Just in case this is nothing I mean. if it's something he won't care but if it's not… I just need some direction to look in. I don't have one. He told McGee he was gonna get coffee and a sandwich. That was 2 hours ago! But other than that I have no clue!"
Abby was pacing now. Her lovely green eyes were suddenly full of tears.
"What if something's happened to him? "
She whirled to face Ducky and her hands crept to her mouth. They began to shake.
"My Dear! My Dear!" Ducky moved toward her unthinkingly arms extended. He realized and stopped. "Let's not borrow trouble! Surely he simply forgot to tell you he had an errand or two?"
Abby stood thinking hard. "We were going to the library together on Saturday. He wouldn't drop the returns off now because we had picked out other stuff to get! The books are in his car though… No! Not it!" Abby began to pace faster.
"I didn't want to involve the guys. I think I'm gonna have to ask them. I don't know why Ducky but I feel it's not OK. My Gibbs-o-meter says it's not OK!"
Decision made Abby looked to Ducky again. Her pacing ceased right in front of Ducky and she reached to hug him.
"So, yeah. I'm gonna go upstairs. Oh right!" Abby backed off. "You always make it better Duck Man. I owe you a hug OK?" She smiled and dashed out of the room toward the stairs.
"You see that Mr. Palmer? Sometimes the listening skills are the most important ones to hone. A lesson to be learned certainly!" Ducky moved back over the table. " Lieutenant Mills agrees. Do you Mr. Palmer?"
Jimmy Palmer was carefully excising what was left of the Lieutenant's liver. He made a non-committal murmur of agreement. Ducky eyed the younger man over the top of his glasses.
Reaching to assist Ducky thought about what Abby had said. A knot of anxiety began to grow in his stomach. She was right. Gibbs would not have simply disappeared as he used to do before they were together. It was not like him to simply go home to basement and latest project without notifying Abby. Since he had rediscovered happiness and true love he was a gentler man.
More considerate, and more like the Jethro Ducky had known years before. He laughed, joked and teased. His dry sense of humor made his sparkling blue eyes sky blue. He was openly friendly to his team when they weren't on duty. His home had always been open to them at any hour. That hadn't changed. Each one of them had always looked to Gibbs as their father/mentor. Now they also thought of him as friend. They had all begun to congregate at Gibbs home, with and without current dates. Each taking turns to provide the meals. His quiet demeanor encouraged and soothed them. With his lovely mate there, bubbly and flitting about in the house and yard the laughter and affection overflowed. Abby was indeed a force of nature as Tony had said. She was the catalyst of love for the entire team, it's heart and always had been.
Gibbs work demands and production remained the same. He demanded and expected perfection, or as close to it as his team could produce. His focus was absolute and allowed for no distraction. It was what made him the best, and why he was the senior agent of the Washington office of NCIS major case squads. It was what defined his dedication to service, why he had become and remained a Marine. Ducky was very proud to be his friend. He would have retired long ago if he didn't want to be a part of the Magic that working with Jethro gave him. Being a part of his team made him a member of a family that he had never had.
"I feel we have reached a defining moment here Mr. Palmer." He lifted a bullet out of the now empty abdominal cavity. It had been wedged into the inside of his rib, cracking it internally. "Right where the x-ray indicated it would be."
Jimmy Palmer frowned. "Dr. Mallard, the liver indicates a stab wound. I could find no evidence of a bullet wound."
"Well, let us look further. The entry wound was so degraded and decomposed we could both be right."
Ducky turned his mind to focus on the corpse and placed Jethro's where abouts to the back of his thoughts.
Abby burst from the stairs and went into the bull pen. She paused by Gibbs' desk. The team wasn't there. Agent Bennett, a member of team 3 stopped and told her the team had been called out on a case. Frustrated she turned and went to the elevator to return to her lab. Her internal alarm was still ringing loudly.
Sighing she opened the folder to the new case and turned to the evidence boxes. She didn't know what to do. She had placed a call to Ziva. Now she had to wait.
Tony finished his sketches of the body and noted Ziva standing near the picture window and staring out.
"Finished Ziva?" She didn't react. "Z?" Still no reaction. Frowning Tony moved to her side. He touched her and there was still a split fraction of a second where Ziva didn't move or seem to know he was there.
"W…What? What do you want Tony?" She looked up at him with large chocolate eyes.
"Where were you just now?" Tony said tightening his grip on her shoulder.
Ziva had been increasingly nervous this afternoon. Looking up with every phone call, starting when the fax machine buzzed. This last phone call had rattled her.
"It's wrong Tony. He's been gone before, but he always answered his phone. Never be unreachable. It's a rule. He's always been at home, always reachable no matter where or what he's doing. He follows his rules, except Rule 12 of course. But Abby's the exception to everything for all of us. She's magic. Something's wrong. We need to find Gibbs."
Her dark eyes were intensely focused. McGee came up to them. Technicians were packing up the hard drive and lap top from the victims bedroom. The case looked like a suicide, but you never knew.
"What's going on?" Tim said looking from one to the other.
"It's Gibbs." Tony said. " He still hasn't checked in or answered any of our calls. Abby doesn't know where he is. That bothers me more than anything else. The not answering for a new case would get me going anyway, 'cause that's not our Boss. But leaving the Abster hangin' ? No way."
"OK. So what're are gong to do about it?" Tim said. The scene froze for a moment. Tony took out his phone and hit a button.
"This is Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo. I need to speak with the Director." As he waited to be put through he turned to his teammates.
"Tim start looking for his car. Ziva see if anybody at headquarters has talked to him today. Yes Director, I need to notify you that Special Agent Gibbs is missing."