Author's Note: Lyrics from Phil Collins - 'Against All Odds'
How can I just let you walk away / Just let you leave without a trace
Three nights ago, Gibbs had resigned. Just like that; after everything they'd been through together he'd just up and walked out. Oh, sure, he'd said goodbye; told Tony he'd "do", reminded McGee he was a good agent and for Abby… For Abby, he'd had no words. She'd choked out a teary "Gibbs-" and he'd pressed his finger to her lips and then he'd kissed her cheek. No, for her he'd had no words, nothing but a simple kiss; but it said it all, and she'd let him go without another word.
How can you just walk away from me / When all I can do is watch you leave
Abby slumped miserably at her computer, Bert held tightly in her arms. Already it wasn't the same around NCIS. No matter how hard Tony tried, he just wasn't Gibbs. He couldn't see into her soul the way Gibbs did and he didn't make her feel safe the same way Gibbs had. Abby sighed and brushed at an errant tear that threatened to spill down her face. Thoughts of Gibbs and safety twisted her stomach into knots and she remembered seeking solace with him before, so many times.
"No way, Bert", she muttered to the hippo, squeezing him once and placing him beside the monitor. "We are not rehashing that again. Gibbs is gone and that's that."
"Abs." Tony's voice; strong and familiar, but laced with a touch of uncertainty. Tony's voice; not Gibbs' voice. She knew he'd heard her say Gibbs is gone; and she knew they'd both skirt around it, letting the words hang in the air between them. Gibbs is gone, and they'd all watched him leave.
She half turned from the screen, winced as he plonked a Kaf-Pow on the desk.
"You got some results for me yet, Abs?"
Leaving the Kaf-Pow where it was, Abby gestured at the screen. "Still running, no match yet. I'll let you know, Tony." She spoke a little more sharply than she had meant; amended it quickly with a smile that quirked one side of her face only.
'Cause we've shared the laughter and the pain and even shared the tears
She wished Tony hadn't bought that her Kaf-Pow, it only served as a reminder of all the times Gibbs would bring her Kaf-Pow; rewards for the results she gave him, the answers and the questions that led to the answers. All the moments etched in her memory; Gibbs' smile when she came through for him. She laughed to herself, a quiet chuckle that reached her heart; remembering the time he kissed her finger better.
She'd cut it installing a graphics card and showed him as part of an explanation for a case. He hadn't understood at first, had stared at her and asked if she wanted him to kiss it better. She'd smiled, told him it'd be really nice but wasn't her point, and continued her explanation. And he'd surprised her, when she was done. He'd lifted her finger to his lips, kissed it and smiled, asked if she felt better.
And another time, not so long ago, when they'd been working on the case with the dead model; he'd come in claiming that her new Assistant would start Monday. She'd been horrified; started telling him she couldn't do that again; had looked up and seen his face and known he was teasing her. She'd told him off, told him that it was so not funny, and all he'd done was smile and say mildly "it was to me, kinda". She'd wanted to throttle him then, but now she'd give anything for him to walk through the door and say it again.
The thing that hit the hardest, though, had nothing to do with Kaf-Pow. Even more recently than Gibbs' Assistant joke was Gibbs' support through the whole Michael debacle. She'd been so frightened then; with that crazy lunatic stalking her, and Gibbs had been her pillar; her safety. And he'd done more than that, so much more. He had a special knack of knowing exactly when to say nothing when she needed to talk to him, and he knew the right things to say, too. He'd told her nobody was going to hurt her, and he'd told her again when she asked to hear it a second time. "Nobody is gonna hurt you." And she'd started to believe it.
She had a vague recollection of the night she stayed over with him, after Michael had made it in to NCIS headquarters and she'd thought nowhere was safe. She had been drinking; drank far too much, in fact; and she broke his boat. Told him that it didn't seem so scary having a stalker on the loose, and it didn't.
"Oh, Bert," she sighed. "What am I going to do without Gibbs?"
But to wait for you is all I can do and that's what I've got to face
Take a good look at me now, 'cause I'll still be standing here
And you coming back to me is against all odds
It's the chance I've gotta take
A few weeks later, Abby's in her lab, working on a case, and it's a few moments before she realises who's there; and then that's it, she's flinging himself on him, breathless.
"I knew you'd come back"