The Pain We Suffer
AN/ I don't own NCIS. Thanks for all the nice reviews. You are all sweeties. Please keep reading and reviewing. It means a lot.
Chapter 3
Abby's in her room crying. She didn't understand why Gibbs was so mean to her. Then she thought, maybe Gibbs can tell that I am damaged now. He doesn't love me like he used to. This makes Abby cry harder. She cries herself to sleep.
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Out in the living room Tim's making up the couch so he can sleep. Gibbs has taken the guest room next to Abby's room. Tim gets the couch made and grabs his sleep wear and heads to the bathroom to change so he can get some sleep before Abby would need him.
In Abby's room, she's sleeping. Soundly at first. Then she starts to have flashbacks to the kidnapping. The fear she felt just before she was hit in the head. Abby starts to toss and turn. In the dream she wakes up to the light shining in her eyes as this guy talks to her.
"Well, about time you woke up. I was beginning to think I hit you a little too hard. Now, Ms. Sciuto. I am going to ask you if there was any other evidence that I didn't grab. I have the blood, prints and DNA results. Was there any more?"
"Well, for someone who's a killer, you'd think you wouldn't have left any evidence behind. Oh, but we always leave something behind." Abby doesn't realize who she's pissing off. And what he's capable of. The Abby that is watching the dream is screaming for her to shut up. That's when she sees her life take a turn.
The kidnapper slaps Abby across the face. Abby feels the pain and moans. She didn't want to relive this. Why was her mind making her relive this? She knew what was coming and tried to wake up. And she tries to scream. Nothing comes out at first. Then all her screams break through. Gibbs and Tim both hear this and go running to Abby's room.
Once outside her room, Gibbs tries to open the door. But in Abby's upset state earlier, she locked it so neither guy would come in.
"Abby! Open the door! Come on! DAMN IT!" Gibbs starts to throw himself against the door to get inside. After the third hit, the door flies open with wood splintering around the door frame. They both see Abby on the bed. She was thrashing around and moaning. She would let out a whimper here and there. Tim and Gibbs both head to the bed to wake her, one on each side. "Abby, wake up sweetie." Gibbs starts gently.
When there was no response, Gibbs grabs Abby by the shoulders and shakes her a little. "Abby! Wake up!" Gibbs is worried and scared for Abby. She shakes her a little more and gets more forceful. "ABBY! WAKE UP NOW!" Abby's eyes shoot open. She looks so shocked and then relieved. She looks at Gibbs and Tim, then realizes that it wasn't just a dream. It happened. Abby starts to sob. And then Gibbs did something that Abby never thought he would ever do again. He pulled her into a hug.
"Gibbs!" Abby cries out. She's so shocked and confused. Tim just watches.
"What Abbs?" Gibbs pulls out of the hug.
"I thought you hated me." Abby says through tears and labored breaths.
"Why would you think I hated you?" Gibbs is shocked at Abby's statement.
"Because, you yelled at me. A LOT!" Abby starts to sob again at the memories.
"Abby, I had gone a week on like a total of two hours sleep. I was just tired and wanted to get to sleep. I knew that you weren't hurt so bad that you were in critical condition. So I wanted you to stop horsing around so we could get home. I'm sorry if it hurt you. It wasn't my intention." Gibbs pulls her into a hug. He couldn't stand the look of sadness and betrayal she was giving him.
"I was afraid Gibbs. And you just make it seem like you didn't want to be bothered by me. I just want this to go away. Can we just forget this happened? I don't want to think of that jerk again. I'm safe and sound with the two of you." Abby says, hoping that they didn't hear the fear in her voice.
"Actually Abby, we have just begun. We have Tony and Ziva trying to track this guy down." Tim says, trying to get involved into the conversation.
"NO!" Abby yells and tenses in Gibbs arms.
"Abby, I know you are afraid of him. He won't hurt you again. We won't leave you alone. When he's caught, you won't have to worry anymore. He won't ever see the light of day again. I promise." Gibbs says, trying to reassure her.
"No! NO! NO!!!" Abby yells and pulls away from Gibbs. She pushes herself to the headboard of her bed and keeps shaking her head no. Gibbs turns to Tim.
"Go get one of her Xanax pills of the counter and some water. Now!" Tim rushes to get the medication.
While he's gone, Gibbs places a gentle hand on Abby's non-injured arm. Abby pulls away and starts to growl. It comes out as a growl, groan mix. Gibbs has never seen Abby behave like this.
"Abby! What's wrong? Why are you afraid to let me touch you sweetheart?" Gibbs is totally clueless.
"NO! NO! NO!!" Abby starts to get off the bed. Gibbs doesn't have a clue what she's planning to do. He's afraid for her.
"Abby, where are you going?" Gibbs moves to block the door so she can't leave. He's afraid she would leave the apartment and open herself to being in danger. Tim walks up behind Gibbs.
"What's going on? Abby, what's wrong honey?" Tim asks.
"I don't want to be here. I don't feel comfortable. Where's Bert?" Abby asks, almost sounding like a small child.
"Here, you take this and I will go find Bert for you." Tim hands the glass and pill to Gibbs to give to Abby. She slowly steps over to Gibbs. She hesitantly grabs the pill and water from his hands. Then quickly steps back as far as she can.
"What's this?" She holds up the pill.
"That's the pill to help you relax. Remember the doctor from the ER gave it to you? On the way home we filled it. No one's going to hurt you Abby. It's just Tim and Me. We won't let anyone in or let anyone hurt you again. Now you need to take the pill so you don't hurt yourself." Gibbs says, looking Abby in the eyes so she knows he's telling the truth.
Abby reluctantly puts the pill in her mouth and takes a long drank of water. She sets the glass on her nightstand. Then stands against the wall. And a few minutes later, Tim comes into the room with the farting stuffed animal. Gibbs slowly inches closer to her to giver her Bert.
"Abby, here's Bert." Gibbs says.
Abby starts to feel the effects of the Xanax. Her legs start to buckle and she slides down the wall. Her eyes start to droop. Gibbs slowly picks up Abby's good arm and then puts Bert in it and wraps her arm around Bert. Then he bends down and picks her up. He sets her down on her bed while Tim and Gibbs try to tuck her in. Tim turns and leaves, but as Gibbs goes to do the same, Abby grabs his arm.
"Don't leave please." Abby says groggy.
"Ok, but you need to sleep." Gibbs sits next to her on the bed and looks down at her.
"Gibbs, I love you. Please don't ever leave me. He will find me and hurt me again." Abby says, drifting off.
"I love you too. I won't leave you and he won't hurt you again." Gibbs pulls the blanket up more and leans down to kiss Abby's forehead. "Sleep my beautiful girl, sleep." Gibbs starts to fall asleep too.
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"Tony, do you have the print outs that were in Abby's lab?" Ziva asks, looking through an ocean of papers.
"Yeah Ziva, you pick it out of this pile. I'm sure it's here, somewhere." Tony response annoyed. They had been up and working since Abby had been found.
"Did you notice the way Abby acted toward Gibbs?" Ziva asks.
"Yeah. I thought Gibbs was going to pop a vein in his head. But if you think about it, Abby was in shock. She had injuries. So shock was the more obvious cause of that. But think about it. Being in that small room. Alone with nothing to keep you warm or safe. And he beating her. I would probably not be in the best state of mind either." Tony says, think about what poor Abby went through. Not even Abby could keep up her bubbly attitude.
"But I think Abby is in more pain then she leads on." Ziva says.
"I think you mean let's on. And you could be right. But Gibbs and McGeek are with her. So she's safe for now. We need to find this asshole and get him off the streets. He's already killed a petty officer and hurt our Abby. Let's try to keep him from hurting another person, shall we?" Tony says, trying to mask his fear and sadness.
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There's a soft knock on the apartment door. Tim gets up with his gun drawn.
"Who is it?"
"It Dr. Mallard my dear boy. I have come to check on Abigail. Please, let me in." Ducky says from the other side of the door. Tim opens the door.
"Sure, sorry Ducky. Come in." Tim steps aside and let's the good doctor into Abby's small-ish apartment.
"How's she doing?" Ducky asks.
"Well, she's had a little bit of a hard time. She and Gibbs had a misunderstanding. And then she had a nightmare. That coupled with a possible panic attack. So we gave her a Xanax and her and Gibbs are just getting to sleep in her room. You are more then welcome to go check on them for yourself." Tim says, heading to the couch to rest.
"Thank you my boy. You rest and I will keep an eye on the two." Ducky heads to Abby's bedroom door. He sees the splintered door frame, then looks past it to the bed. He sees Gibbs cuddled around a tired looking Abby. Ducky still was in shock to see his Abigail with bruises and a cast on her arm. Ducky walks quietly into the room and cover both Gibbs and Abby with a second blanket. It was a bit chilled in her room. Ducky bent down and gave a fatherly kiss to Abby's forehead. He's shocked at the moan.
"Don't, please. Gibbs, find me please. Don't let him hurt me again." Abby mumbles with a whimper at the end. It tares at Ducky's heart. Then she's quiet once again. Ducky leaves them to sleep.
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Thank you all who have taken an interest in this story. It's very special to me that you all like it so well. I wasn't sure I would get a lot of people liking it. But I thought I was put it out there and see how well it was liked. Thank you all so much. :)