Chapter 3

- - - - -

Gibbs looked at his watch. A creature of his generation, he was still more likely to look at a watch than at his cell phone to determine the time. Two, almost three hours had elapsed since he'd delivered Abby to the hospital. Surely there was news by now…?

He saw a woman in a doctor's lab coat conferring with a nurse, who looked around the waiting room and then pointed to him. "Mr…Gibbs?" said the doctor, coming to him. "Doctor Fox. You are the one here for Abigail Scuito?"

"Yes," he said, something in the doctor's tone triggering alarm bells in him. "She works with me. How is she doing?"

"That's a good question. I haven't had a chance to examine her because she seems to have…vanished."

"Vanished?? How is that possible??"

"She's not in the examination room we put her in. We've searched the floor and can't find her anywhere."

Gibbs flashed his badge, scowling. "Let me see your security camera tapes."

Fifteen minutes later, he was out the door and running for his car. One look at his face sent passersby out of his way.

- - - - -

"The Almondville town hall is the next exit, Timmy," Abby said, looking at her map. "Let's take that one. The picture of it online looked very cute. It's just a little town, a bedroom community—why are you pulling off here?"

Tim was guiding the car into a rest stop, which at this time of day had only a few truckers and some picnickers. "I'm thirsty. Let's get sodas from the vending machine and talk."

"Okay; I suppose there's no rush…though the town hall probably closes at 5…"

Once seated at a picnic table, Tim opened up. "Abby…I love you; I really do. But this is all wrong. You don't love me—"

"Timmy!! Of course I love you!!"

"No, you don't. Not really. Not in the way that you've been talking about. This is all my fault, Abby. I made a wish at a well…that things between us could go back to the way that they were, early in our relationship, and somehow it came true. I know that sounds crazy, but there's no other explanation for this. You even think that you're back in that time! Abby, I love you so much, and I always will. I would love more than anything for us to have a life together. But not like this. I want you to be you, and maybe, someday, come to love me by your own emotions.

"I wish I had never made that wish! I take it back! Please, Abby, try to understand. And concentrate. You don't love me. Not in the way I want you to. You probably never will. I don't want you to love me like this. You deserve true happiness, Abby, and I really, sincerely, hope that you find it someday.

"Please, Abby. Just go back to the way you were before Thursday…" Tim put his head down on his arms on the tabletop and sobbed. He had found everything he desired, only to have it be fool's gold. Now, he was relinquishing all of it, because it was the only thing to do.

Abby deserved the best.

"Oh, Tim," Abby said softly, kissing his forehead.

He looked up, and gazed into her eyes. The unconditional look of adoration was gone, replaced by the frank, sober look of the Goth-scientist.

Well, almost. There was a tenderness in her eyes, rooted in deep understanding. She was the present-day Abby once more…but still carrying the affection for him that she had always had.

"I understand, I think," she said. "No one else would ever believe it, but I do. How sweet of you to make a wish for me."

"I tried to undo it at the well yesterday, but when I looked for the well, I couldn't find it," he said.

"This means more to me, Tim: that you told me to my face."

"So I guess we're not getting married," he said with a half-chuckle, half-choke.

"No."

There was a long, comfortable silence. Then Tim said, "I'll drive you home. Gibbs is going to kill me for kidnapping you from the hospital."

"You did the right thing, Tim. I didn't need a shrink."

"You don't need me, either. Some crazy guy who can't let go…I'll try to stay out of your life from now on, Abby."

"Don't you dare! Timothy McGee, don't you even think about that! I will always love you, in a special way that I love no one else. You'll still be in my dreams sometimes. You are the sweetest, kindest, man I know. I can't imagine what my life would be without you." She kissed him tenderly.

He grinned, although there was still a touch of sadness in it. "I'm glad…so, you don't feel disoriented in time anymore?"

"I guess not. Well, it's still a little fuzzy. There was a man in my lab this morning…dark-skinned, moustache…asking about the Crawley case, which I don't remember too well…"

"Agent Sacks of the FBI. They're working with us on it. The Director would have sent him down to see you."

"Ah. Director Morrow?"

"No, Abby. Jenny Shepard is the director now, remember?"

She put a hand to her head to ward off the headache. "I think so. And that Mossad woman came on about the same time. Ziva David. The one I didn't recognize this morning."

"That's right!"

"So it really is October 3, 2005?"

"Yes."

"I can accept that. It just seemed more like 2003 or 2004 to me."

"That's the power of the wish. I wished that you would give me another chance…so the wish interpreted that as taking you back to that time." He shook his head. "Listen to me! Going on about wishes as if they were real."

"I'm a scientist, Tim, and I can't explain everything."

He smiled. "I do really love you, you know."

"I know. And maybe someday…"

- - - - -

They drove back to Abby's apartment. It probably shouldn't have surprised them to see Gibbs sitting on the steps.

"Oh, I am so dead," Tim groaned. "Maybe you can just get out, and—"

"McGee!!" Gibbs snapped, and pointed at him. Tim knew that fleeing now would only gain him maybe half an hour of life, Not worth it. Painfully, he got out of the car with Abby.

"It's okay, Gibbs," Abby said, placing herself in front of Tim. "I'm fine now. I have my memory back. Tim and I…did a lot of talking, and it came back."

"You a doctor, McGee?" Gibbs raged, giving Tim an unaccustomed shove. "What right do you have to abduct someone from a hospital??"

"I, um, um…" Tim knew that there wasn't anything he could say that would mollify Gibbs. Gibbs would always be protective of Abby, and it was true, Tim's actions probably looked strange.

"It's over, Gibbs," Abby insisted. "Tim helped me. That was what I needed. Not a bunch of shrinks."

Gibbs didn't look satisfied. "I should charge you with being AWOL, McGee. I'll take it out of your vacation time, just this once."

"Thank you, boss," Tim said meekly.

"You're really okay?" Gibbs asked Abby.

"Ten days until Navy Day, sir!" she said, saluting. He only nodded and walked off for his car.

"Stay and I'll make you dinner," she said to Tim. "We've had quite a day…my almost-husband."

"I'd like that…my almost-wife." His grin now was genuine.

- - - - -

Four years later…

"I left my camera in the car! I will get it, and catch up with you," Ziva called.

"No prob…" Abby wandered a little ways into the woods on the leaf-covered path. She was glad that Ziva had suggested this girl-hike in the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia. They didn't get a chance to do much together.

Rounding a bend, she stopped on seeing an old well. It had a neatly-shingled roof and a bucket with a dipper. Abby found a coin in her pocket and tossed it in. The wish came to her, unbidden. I wish that Tim and I were in love with each other once again…

-END-