Gibbs exhaled deeply as he leaned against the car. Flashing lights, shouting emergency responders and police dashed from one area to another. Amongst it all, even with her own injuries, she still purposely looked around the chaos until she finally saw him. Satisfied, she cast her eyes downward.
They knew each other were safe. That mattered. The truth remained however, she had lied to him. On one level he understood it, yet the back of his neck still clenched tight with anger, relief and hurt all at the same time.
Puddles beneath his feet alerted her to his approach. Their eyes met only briefly and Abby instantly looked back down at the ground. She swallowed hard as two black boots finally stepped into the space of dirt she had tried to focus on.
Closer now, he saw a small bruise swelling above her eyebrow; a red blotch on her cheek; her wrists held telltale signs that something had been bound around them. It was hard for him not to want to reach out to her as she clutched the blanket that wrapped around her shoulders. For the moment he would have to be content to see the mist of her breath against the cold dusk air. It assured him that she was in fact... still alive.
Abby looked up again for only an instant, bit her lip and let her hair fall down in front of her face. Had this been any other time, she would have jumped up and thrown her arms around his neck. Her hero. Her super-hero. Yet this time, her fingers instinctively began to twist against one another in a nervous attempt to quiet her own sense of guilt and apprehension. She had put the whole team in danger. It was he who had saved her. It was he who had risked his own life to save hers.
"Abby!" A breathless McGee emerged from beside the ambulance.
Both turned away to look at Tim. "I'm ok." Abby's voice cracked. "I'm sore, but I'm ok."
"Does she have to go to the hospital?" Tim asked still breathless.
"I don't want to go to the hospital, I don't need to go to the hospital and I'm not going to the hospital. ... And since you probably don't know how to ask... he didn't..." She filled her lungs with the cold air and let it out a long drawn out wheezy breath. "He... didn't."
Alejandro had issued plenty of threats as he taunted Gibbs over the phone, but had not delivered on that specific one. The angels above must have heard Gibbs silent prayer. Heavy drops of cold rain began at the very same time a tear began to slide down the side of his face. "Thank God,... he didn't."
Abby looked at Tim, then straight into Gibbs eyes for only a second. "I just want to go home."
Gibbs extended his hand to her and shot a look at both the paramedics and McGee. It was a look that clearly warned not to object. "Then... we good to go?"
The Emergency Response Team member nodded his head reluctantly.
Abby only glanced at McGee for a moment and watched him nod in unison. McGee's facial expression told her not to resist and he certainly wasn't about to do it on her behalf.
As badly as her body ached, as badly as her fear of what scolding lecture he might have in store for her, she sheepishly extended her quivering hand out to Gibbs. It felt good when Gibbs slipped his arm around her waist and held her tightly to his body. He felt so strong and solid against her frame.