Gibbs thrusted the CafPow in her hands but for the first time ever she didn't want it. She had spent the past twenty minutes talking in a hushed tone with Palmer, discussing who was going to tell him. Somehow Gibbs liking her more meant that she got the short straw.

Abby's lab was still in silence, she hadn't had her music on all day and she'd barely noticed. She'd been too worried about DiNozzo. Gibbs had sat with her through most of the morning while he checked up on Tony's phone records – he couldn't do it in the squad room because he wasn't meant to be working the case and didn't want to get caught – but since he left she'd been on her own examining and re-examining the evidence from the McMilligan case.

Blood. Saliva. Semen. Fingerprints.

blood. saliva. semen. fingerprints.

blood, saliva, semen, fingerprints,

blood,saliva,semen,fingerprints,

bloodsalivasemenfingerprints

It was all fucking there.

It didn't make sense anymore.

She hadn't liked it from the beginning, and now she was feeling more and more like she should have trusted her gut rather than what forensics was telling her. It wasn't right.

"Abby." Palmer had called her from the door of her lab, so as to not startle her. She turned around and as soon as she saw his face she knew that Ducky had come to the same conclusion she had, and she knew he could see that look on her face too because he muttered, "Crap." under his breath.

In a second he was across the lab with his arms around her. "We killed Dinozzo." She wailed into his shoulder. She wasn't thinking clearly anymore.

"We don't know that… anyone would have made the same mistake… it's not your fault." His words of comfort didn't help then and they still didn't help as she remembered them now.

"Gibbs." She said it quietly. She wouldn't meet his eye and she wasn't wearing any lipstick. He already knew what she was going to say, he felt it in his gut.

"C'mere." He drew her to him and kissed the top of her head before squeezing her tight. She didn't hug him back, just stood there with her arms limply by her side and her forehead pressed into his shoulder while he rubbed her back. After a while he let her go and turned to her desk, looking for something. "Tell me what we got, Abs." He said as he handed her a tube of dark red lipstick which had been sitting in front of her computer monitor.

She gulped, pushing down the rest of the tears that were threatening to come out. "I killed DiNozzo."

"DiNozzo isn't dead and we're going to find him." There was a harshness in his voice that hadn't been there before, and it calmed her down. If Gibbs wasn't scared right now then she didn't have to be.

"I've been re-examining all the evidence from the McMilligan case." She said as she walked to her lab table, "and it's all here."

"…Yeah?" Gibbs raised an eyebrow.

"Well that's just it: In the last four months eight women fitting the same profile, including the vic from yesterday, have gone missing, and seven have turned up dead, all killed in the same way. It's methodical and calculated. We're definitely dealing with a serial killer, this guy knows what he's doing." She drew a breath while Gibbs processed what she'd said so far. "In comparison to the thought behind the crime the execution of it was sloppy. He left blood, saliva, semen and fingerprints. Which I would expect from a crime of passion, but not something like this.

"So either, someone came up with the plan and told Petty Officer McMilligan exactly what to do and watched him screw it all up -"

"Or?" Gibbs cut her off.

"He was framed."

~.o.~

"I need you to have a look at these photographs and tell me which of these men was the one who attacked you." Gibbs tried to keep his voice very quiet and calm, but still he saw the look of panic flicker across her face. "If you can help us find this guy, you can prevent what happened to you happening to dozens of other women." He said as he slid the folder of photograpshs towards the woman.

She took a shaky breath as she reached out a hand and set it on the folder. "What if I can't do it?" she stuttered out feeling her eyes prickle with tears and her breath begin to come faster.

"Then he walks." She gasped audibly when Gibbs replied and began sobbing. Behind the two way mirror Ziva rolled her eyes - She may have become more emotional recently, but this was just pathetic. "Just take your time." Gibbs reassured her, as he handed her a tissue.

She wiped her eyes and pressed her clenched fist with the tissue in it between her legs to stop her hand from shaking. With her other hand she slowly opened the file. There were five photos in there. Special Agent Gibbs reached across the table and spread them in front of her. They were all of men in their late thirties, slightly greying with crew cuts and hard jaws. She ran her eyes over all of the pictures. She hadn't wanted to do it ever again but she cast her mind back to the previous night, trying to relive her attack.

"Get off me!" she squealed hysterically, thrashing her arms and legs, but she was pressed to the bed beneath his enormous weight, so her movement was restricted too much to cause any damage to him. He grabbed her hands and pinned them to the base of her spine forcefully, using one hand. With the other he pushed her head into the mattress so she couldn't lift it. She strained her eyes in an effort to see him but all that she could see was the dark green of his cargo pants digging into her mattress by her side.

"I'm sorry. I don't think I saw his face." She squeaked across the table at Agent Gibbs.

"Anything at all that you remember?"

"Let me go!" The scream tore through her throat; she wouldn't have a voice for much longer.

"And why would I do that?" he snarled into her neck, his stubble scratching her soft skin. The stink of cigars on his breath was revolting. He tangled his hand in her hair and dragged her head up off the mattress. He pinned her to him effortlessly with his left arm while he reached beneath her with his right hand. She hadn't noticed the rope before, but she couldn't ignore it now as he pulled it tighter and tighter around her throat…

"He smoked cigars." She choked out, crying steadily now.

"Anything else?"

"I think he'd been fighting. There was blood beneath his fingernails and his right hand." She put her face in her hands. Gibbs knew that was all he was going to get from her.

"Good job." He picked up the photos and the folder. Ziva joined him in the hallway.

"He's not our guy?" She questioned, she hadn't really expected an answer so she wasn't shocked when none came.