A/N: 4th in the series: Set 2 years after the events of "Mending Fences"
Abigail Sciuto had gotten to know and love the people on this team. She loved every single one of them; wouldn't know how to live without any of them. They'd weathered a lot of storms together as a team. Over the years she'd been through so many emotional upheavals from them getting hurt; lost; kidnapped; shot or missing. And while she should have developed a thicker skin about these possibilities; somehow; she hadn't been able to; as if in doing so; she would become less invested in them as a person.
She'd finally reached a point where she'd felt a personal decision had to be made. So, while she waited for her expected audience to arrive; as she'd asked him to; when she'd called him to tell him she had something she needed to talk to him about; she rallied some internal backbone to go with the conversation she was about to have. This was gonna be tough; but it had to be done. After all, she couldn't take it anymore. Enough was enough.
Having been summoned to the lab; he bit his tongue; held his frustration at bay; and went to go see what it was the lab rat wanted. They had no current case; so she had no results about anything. So, whatever it was; had to be personal and he really didn't want to have a personal conversation with her; unless it was about herself; that, he could muddle through. He hoped she'd be quick about it;' he didn't want bossman gettin' pissed about him missing from the squad room without a better excuse than this.
Gibbs returned to the squad room with fresh coffee and the wherewithall to get through the dreaded paperwork backlog. Thankfully, it had been a slow week; and no one was out with injury or illness; and where the heck was his agent? Seeing the empty desk that was not supposed to be empty sent just enough irritation flowing through him to cause him to send questioning glances to the two remaining agents; silently asking them where their missing teammate was.
"Abby called; told him she needed to talk to him." Ziva answered his silent but angry and unmistakeable question. Now, not only irritated; but unhappy with Abby; Gibbs turned on his heel; prepared to fetch his agent back; and let the goth know she could not just keep doing this; pulling them down there at any given time; just to talk to them. That's what breaks and lunchtime; and God forbid; after work; was for.
The two remaining agents dug into their assigned stacks of backlogged work; equally unwilling to be on the recieving end of bossman's ire. They were both curious as to what was going on with Abby. She'd seemed unsettled; antsy; not like herself lately.
He never felt so angry or betrayed or hurt or unsure of what to do; before in his life; than he did at this moment. His mind was still reeling from Abby's unbelievable words. It was so much more than he'd ever thought possible from her. She'd had her moments of being chidish; hurtful; selfish; but this? This was pure unadulterated meanness; no matter what spin she'd out on it. The trouble was; he didn't know what he was supposed to do about it. He needed to think; so, he headed to the stairwell.
It had been a very, very long time since he'd felt this angry. Especially, at Abby. Who the hell did she think she was? Nobody had the right to make that kind of demand on someone else. What the hell was wrong with her? What the hell was he supposed to do about this? Did she really think she could get away with something like this; that it would work? Frustrated and needing to think; he headed to the stairwell.
Abby was in tears. Her plan had backfired. All she wanted was to explain what was going on and ask for his cooperation. Not only had he flatly denied her what she'd considered to be almost a common curteousy; but he'd had the gall to get angry with her about it! How dare he fight her on this? Damn him for making this so damn difficult!
He returned to the squad room angry and more than a little distracted. See the empty desk; he became concerned; until he took a second to recall the conversation he'd just overheard. Knowing it was a private conversation; but not quite so private; as her door wasn't locked and no precautions had been made to keep it private; he kept it to himself; choosing instead to focus on getting some coffee from the break room while he still had the chance.
Walking back to the sqaud room; no one seemed to be interested in anything other than what they were working on; and all desks were occupied but his.
Gibbs cell pnone rang and as he answered it in his typical "Yeah. Gibbs." style; everyone tensed; sensing this was a case.
Bossman hung up his phone with the expected. "Gear up! Missing Naval Officer; classified intel possibly missing along with him; let's go! McGee; gas the truck! "
The day passed with the successful conclusion of the case; as the Officer had merely tied one on at an out of town hotel; and never called into work. By the time things had settled down; the day was almost over. The squad room was comfortably noisy with multiple keyboards being typed on; case reports needing to be done.
Finally; Gibbs was alone in the squad room with the pile of case reports to go over; sitting on his desk. Reaching for yet another one; he flipped it open; only to become frozen in shock. Inside the case file; sitting on top of the final report; was a piece of paper that didn't belong there. This piece of paper made Gibbs' blood boil.
This was not happening!