Title: The Mail Girl

Spoilers: None

Warnings: Well, this might be a tad controversial, but this bunny just won't leave me alone.

Disclaimer: Characters aren't mine, this is not for profit, etc, etc…

-000-

"Are you in love with her?"

"I've never cheated on you."

"That's not what I asked."

"She's fifteen! I would never…!"

"That's not what I asked either, stop evading the question. Are you in love with her, Jethro?"

He didn't answer. He just avoided her gaze, lest the truth would come out of his eyes.

"When I married you I knew what I was getting into, I wouldn't be jealous of your girls, the dead don't scare me ok? I just thought some part of you had died and you couldn't give your heart to anyone else and I was gonna live with it, but this… girl, she's alive and she's a teenage brat and you gave it to her in a second! Not to me, your wife, but to her!" She looked at her husband's face, and discovered a stranger. Everything was in vain. "I'm packing my stuff and getting out of here. I don't need this shit, my lawyer will get in contact with you. That girl will be the death of you."

Gibbs stayed silent and still while his soon to be ex-wife packed her belongings and left the house. He was pensive. However, his thoughts weren't with the woman that just left, but with the one they had fought about.

-000-

Leroy Jethro Gibbs was a desperate man in a desperate situation. He had spent years dealing with his conflicted feelings: He hated them, he fought against them and, at last, he rationalized them, until they went numb. It didn't mean they went away. It just meant he learnt to treat Abby like nothing was going on, acting like he didn't care when she had someone by her side, or scaring them away with the pretense of protecting her. It meant he got used to the discomfort and the sadness, the closeness that was never close enough, the dull pain that would awaken every once in a while. That wasn't the only chronic ache in his heart by far, but it was the one he couldn't share event if he wanted to: the one that no one would understand, the one he had to deal with in silence, even as it was slowly killing him.

Gibbs and Abby, they were like the baby elephants who would grow up stronger than the rope that tied them, yet wouldn't dare to rip it off and break free. Even when the obstacles had fallen, the taboo and guilt remained, preventing them from shattering that invisible thin layer that kept them from being everything they could be. Nonetheless, he was growing tired and running out of patience. This situation was unsustainable.

A/N: This story takes places between the time when Abby was 15 years old and the present. 15 is the youngest Abby is during the whole story.