Oh, the last chapter wasn't that sad, was it? Now I'm in Oregon and have decent internet connection for the evening….

Chapter Four

Addison was having a great time at the BBQ. A few of the people she met had sworn they had seen her before, but Rex was adamant that they had just arrived from Santa Fe. Ever since she'd hit her head though, everything had seemed fuzzy. She certainly didn't recognize anyone from the lunch, but her memories of Santa Fe weren't coming through either – though the church grounds seemed very familiar.

She startled when the back door of the church burst open and a man nearly fell down the steps and rushed around the corner. He looked sickly pale and she wondered if maybe an ambulance would be needed. She excused herself from the table, and carried her plate to the trash before following the man around to the side of the building. She watched quietly as he heaved into the trashcan and wondered if it had to do with the memorial service going on inside. Turning to grab a bottle of water from a cooler, Addy headed over to the man. "Are you okay, sir?" She placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Fine," he shrugged away from her but kept his eyes trained on the trash can.

"I… I brought you some water," she held the water bottle out to him.

"Thank…" Gibbs finally looked up to accept the water. "A- Abby?"

Addy shook her head and smiled. "Close, it's Addy, well Addison, but people call me Addy. Here, drink this, it'll help you feel better."

"No… Abby," Gibbs choked on his words, "you're alive… we… we've been looking… you died…" he reached out to touch her face, but was surprised when out of nowhere one of the homeless men from the lunch stepped between them and slapped his hand away.

"You stay away from her," Rex warned. "She was just tryin' to be nice and share some water. Keep your hands off."

Gibbs was too in shock to do much more than stutter. "No… no, I know her."

"Addy, you know this guy?" Rex nodded at Gibbs, his hands on his hips.

"I… I don't know, but… but maybe he looks familiar. Wait, you're… you're a marine, right?" Out of nowhere an image of him in uniform popped into her mind. Strong, loyal… warm. She felt like she knew him, but couldn't pinpoint any actual memories.

"Yes, yes! Abby you were at a club, I called you in to work, don't you… oh God, you're alive." He was shaking, his fingers twitching nervously by his side.

"Jethro, I saw you… Oh heavens!" Rosita rounded the corner and then clutched her hands to her chest. "Abigail, I can't… how… oh praise Jesus!"

"Wait, I know you too?" Abby's eyes went wide. "Why can't I remember?" she turned to Rex, hoping he could clear things up.

"You've got the wrong person," Rex shouted at them. "This is Addison! Don't listen to them Addy, we'll go back to Santa Fe, back where everything started."

Abby looked almost fearful when Rex started to get angry, causing Gibbs to move closer. "We've got to get you to the hospital, Abbs. They've got to look you over."

Something in the way he said Abbs put her at ease. "O-okay."

"No Addy, you can't leave me again!" Rex reached out to grab her arm, but Abby moved away from him to stand beside Rosita.

At the sound of the shouting a few of the other homeless men at the BBQ came round the corner. "Rex, go sit down and shut up," one of them walked over and grabbed his arm tugging him back toward the tables. "He's been off his meds for a while, been kinda angry the past few weeks."

"Addison, if you leave now, you can't ever come back with me. I'm headed back to Santa Fe with or without you!"

Gibbs put himself between Abby and Rex, bringing her attention back to him. "This is Rosita, you know her too. We're… we're your friends, you and I, we work together at NCIS, you don't remember?"

"I… I don't know. I don't remember much beyond this past week. I remember stuff as a kid, growing up in the south, Louisiana, right? I have a brother, Luca."

Gibbs nodded. "What did they call you, can you remember that?"

"A… Abby? I'm not sure… Rex said it was Addy, that my name is Addison."

"No," Gibbs pulled out his wallet and fished out her NCIS ID card which let her into the building. "This is yours. See? Your name and photo, this is you."

Abby took the small plastic card in her hands. She was wearing some sort of collar in the photo and her hair was in pigtails. Suddenly she felt as if her neck was naked, "I wore collars like this a lot?" She pointed at the photo and then brought her hand to her neck.

"You did," Gibbs nodded. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and hug her until the end of time. But her body language said that she was still uncomfortable.

"Why are you here? At the church?"

"Abby…" he couldn't stop saying her name, "we thought you died. This is your memorial."

Her eyes went wide again and she looked over to Rosita, who nodded in agreement. "Well this is awkward."

Gibbs reached out and brushed his thumb just under the cut on the side of her head. "Let me take you to the hospital, please?"

"Go with him, sweetie. I'll… oh Lord, I don't know what to tell the people inside. We can't let them go on…"

"I'll take her to the hospital; you stop the service and explain what's going on. Tell Ducky that I'll call him once we're at the hospital and she's being looked over."

"Ducky…" Abby said his name slowly.

"You remember him?"

"Is he a doctor? I… I remember waking up, my head hurt and I thought about needing… a duck, doctor… I'm not sure."

"Yes," Gibbs smiled. "That's right, come…" he took her hand and laced his fingers with hers before leading her to his car. He walked slowly, allowing her to walk alongside him, seemingly lost in thought. He led her to his truck and opened the door for her. He wanted to pull her into a hug, run his fingers through her hair and smother her with kisses, but instead he waited until she was seated and helped her with the seatbelt before closing the door and circling around to get in the driver's side. He hesitated a moment before opening the car door, taking a deep breath so that he could focus on the road. He was still trembling and his eyes burned as though he were on the verge of tears again. He opened the door and half expected to be alone again, but knowing that Rosita had seen her too, reassured him that she was real. Several times shortly after Shannon and Kelly had died, he had sworn he had seen them around town. Kelly he had seen in the window of the toy shop, at the ice cream counter and in the school yard. Shannon he had seen in the garden, the grocery store and even at the lumber yard as he searched for materials for a boat.

As soon as the car was started, Abby reached out as if she wanted to turn on the radio and then hesitated. "It doesn't work, does it…?"

"No," Gibbs smiled, "you've been bugging me to get it fixed, guess I'd better get it done."

Abby smiled faintly, and turned to look out the window. "How long have I been gone?"

"Just over a week. You were declared dead mid-week. You weren't among any of the survivors, your car was still in the parking lot. The building burned fast, most of the people inside died and their bodies were never recovered," Gibbs' struggled against the emotion in his voice, "just turned to ash."

"Do you think I'll remember everything?"

Gibbs reached out to cover her hand with his. "Yeah, and I'll be here to help you. The whole team will."

"Team?"

"I'll fill you in on everything, let's just get you looked over first, okay?"

They were quiet the rest of the ride to the hospital. Gibbs recognized the nurse at the front desk from when he had checked on the survivors that had been brought in the previous weekend. They were brought to a room right away and a nurse came in to look at the healing cut on the side of her head, and the last of the cuts on her arms and then they were left to wait for a doctor to come in.

"Were we… um, were we together?" Abby's cheeks tinged pink and she dropped her gaze.

Gibbs felt his stomach tighten, unsure of how to respond. How could he tell her how he'd been in love with her for so long, but it had been easier, safer to hold her an arm's length away? He'd always known about her crush on him, and he'd always just assumed it was more of a hero worship rather than anything deep. Why would she love a broken man like him anyway? "Why do you ask?" It was the easy way out.

"The way you were looking at me and the way you held my hand… am I right?"

"We-" Gibbs looked up when the door opened and the doctor strolled in.

Tony rambled nervously as he tried to run through his most favorite memories with Abby.

"Alright, that's enough DiNozzo," Gibbs warned lightly, "she's had enough for today, let her get some rest." Gibbs had been monitoring everyone's visits with her as she seemed most comfortable in his presence even though she didn't quite remember him.

Carol had been overwhelmed by the whole experience and hadn't stayed long, needing time to process everything. McGee's visit had been short and quiet. Gibbs could see that the younger Agent still had feelings for Abby, but relief had visibly overwhelmed him, and McGee looked worse than he had at her funeral. Abby had picked up on the awkwardness of the visit and tried asking a few basic questions and then had looked to Gibbs as if to ask him to move things along.

Ziva's visit had been good, and Gibbs had sat back listening quietly as Ziva told Abby the story of how she had come to NCIS and their struggles in the beginning. She told Abby about Kate, which had sparked a few memories, and how the two had grown closer over the past few years as Ziva felt like less and less of a replacement.

Tony had gone last, needing the time to deal with his own overwhelming emotions and then get a bit of fresh air before facing his best friend.

He hadn't been sure of what to say at first, but as soon as Abby smiled at him, all his worries vanished so he had sat on the edge of the bed and rambled on, pausing only long enough to listen to the questions Abby could come up with.

"Wait," Abby stopped Tony from leaving and then thought for a moment, "…don't you usually… smack the back of his head?" She was remembering bits and pieces of her friends – fuzzy memories, but memories none-the-less.

"Yes!" Tony rushed forward and pulled her into an awkward hug and then backed off. "Sorry boss."

"That's good work, Abbs," Gibbs gave her hand a squeeze and leaned in out of habit to kiss her cheek.

Abby held tight to Gibbs' hand as Tony hugged her and promised to be back first thing in the morning. "Gibbs," she whispered as soon as they were alone. The moment he kissed her cheek, it was like an instant replay of every time he'd ever kissed her cheek.

Although he had told her his name and that she preferred to call him Gibbs, it was the first time she'd said it. "Hmm?" He sat on the edge of her hospital bed, a gentle smile on his face.

As soon as he was sitting and facing her, Abby sat up and leaned forward to hug him tightly. "You called me Abbs and kissed my check and I… I had this flash of… you've done that before. A lot. It's like my memories are just… right there. Like when you are trying to think of a word and you know it, but you can't remember it and…" she frowned as she tried to push the memories to the forefront of her mind. "I was at the club and heading out the back because it was less crowded and there was a big boom and," she rambled, "I… I.. remember waking up by the dumpster and was so confused and… oh my God, how could I ever forget you?!" She hugged herself close to him and pressed her face to his neck.

Gibbs held her close and fought against the emotions that we threatening to overcome him. He opened his mouth to speak, but the words wouldn't come. So instead he pressed his lips to the top of her head and ran his fingers through her hair.

Abby was the first to pull away, sitting back far enough to get a good look at Gibbs, cupping his face in her hands. "I'm sorry, I should have gone for help. If I had gone to a hospital, you would have found me."

"You were confused, not your fault." He brushed her hair out of her eyes.

"I know, but I mean…you guys were having my funeral." It suddenly dawned on her that he had been upset enough to be physically sick over losing her and it felt like punch to the stomach, the tears welling up in her eyes.

"Time for bed," a nurse came in a looked over her chart, "visiting hours are over."

"No," Abby wrapped her hands around his, "can he stay, just until I'm asleep?"

"I'm afraid not, but he can come back first thing tomorrow. Hospital rules. And judging by your chart, you're only here overnight for observation, so it'll only be one night."

"I'll be back," Gibbs pressed a lingering kiss to her forehead. "Sleep well, Abbs."

TBC..