Chapter Six: Make it Home

Rule #11: When the job is done, walk away.

Gloria refused to leave her husband's side. Gibbs had seen the look in her eyes and arranged for a cot to be delivered to Ben's room so she could at least get some rest.

After a short dinner with Luka, Mellie, and Sami, Gibbs drove the rental car back to Abby's parents house, where Gloria had insisted that they stay. Abby was strangely quiet, except for when she gave him the directions.

Gibbs pulled into the somewhat suburban neighborhood. He had trouble imagining Abby growing up in a place like this, identical houses and identical yards. When he finally pulled into the address she had given him, he smiled.

The front yard of the house was wider than the rest of the houses on the street, with patchy grass, kids toys, and bikes scattered around. It looked normal, lived in. He even caught a glimpse of the junkyard she'd told him about through the trees in the back.

What wasn't quite 'normal', was the house itself, which had been painted a fairly violent shade of pink. He glanced at Abby who shrugged.

"It's Gloria's favorite color," she said by way of explanation, climbing out of the car.

Gibbs grabbed their bags out of the trunk and followed Abby as she walked around to the side door and climbed the steps. She unlocked the door and walked inside.

He trailed behind. The door entered straight into the kitchen, which was fairly neat except for a few dishes which looked to be leftover from the day of Ben's heart attack. The decor was warm, a little country, simple and comfortable.

He followed Abby into the next room, where she stopped. The living room had a similar decor as the kitchen, but there were dozens of framed photos of the family on every surface and wall.

To his right was a picture of an adolescent Abby, probably around fourteen or so, wearing ripped up jeans and a black Nirvana t-shirt. The scowl on her face was hilarious.

On his left, was the polar opposite photo, a very young Abby, her dark hair in short pigtails that had been curled into fat banana curls and wearing a fluffy pink dress.

Abby turned towards him and he lifted an eyebrow at her. She grimaced when she saw what he had been looking at, then rolled her eyes. "I'm surprised she put this one up," Abby mentioned, looking at the first picture. "Gloria hated my grunge phase."

She had a thoughtful look on her face. "Guess she decided it was better than goth," she murmured, walking away.

Gibbs knew from previous conversations that Abby and her mother had clashed on her unique style of dress over the years. Gloria and Ben both came from fairly conservative backgrounds, but while Ben seemed to find great amusement and some pride in his daughter's life choices, Gloria struggled.

Though quite obviously very proud of her daughter's accomplishments and educational achievements (as evidenced by the many framed photos from Abby's college graduation clustered on an end table near the sofa), Gibbs suspected Gloria was more than a little fearful of Abby's chosen career.

Gloria loved her daughter, of that Gibbs had no doubt, but he also was pretty sure she'd have jumped for joy if Abby told her she was becoming a schoolteacher and never wanted to wear the color black again.

Gibbs could only hope Abby's pregnancy would bring the two closer together instead of pushing them further apart.

Abby motioned for him to follow her upstairs. He continued carrying their bags until Abby stopped at the last doorway at the end of the hallway.

"This is my old room," she told him before opening the door. "Gloria turned it into a guest room, but she left a lot of my old stuff in here."

Gibbs peered into the room. The walls were painted a dark purple shade, which he suspected was a remnant of Abby's teen years. The bedspread and curtains had some kind of purple and yellow flowers on them, which were no doubt Gloria's additions, but there were still little touches of Abby everywhere, like the glow in the dark stars on the ceiling.

Abby tugged her bag out of one of Gibbs' hands and set it inside the room. She looked at him pointedly before taking his bag and placing it beside hers, giving Gibbs no doubt of where she wanted him to stay tonight.

"I don't wanna be alone," she said softly, looking a little hesitant. She was still vulnerable after everything that had happened the past few days.

"Then you don't have to be," Gibbs said, putting an arm around her.

xxx

Despite the familiar settings and a rather pleasant bedmate, Abby didn't sleep very well that night. She found herself tossing and turning, unable to find a comfortable position.

A problem which Gibbs didn't seem to have, she thought to herself early the next morning. It was pretty annoying. If danger was in the air, a sniffle would wake him up. But knowing that everything was fine, the man slept like a rock.

Abby pushed the covers back and sat up, stretching her legs out in front of her. She briefly considered getting up, but instead decided to enjoy the view.

Gibbs was sleeping on his back, sprawled out, one arm resting over his eyes in an attempt to block out the sun, which shone freely through the window beside him.

Since they'd both packed so lightly, neither had anything to sleep in that night. Abby had put their clothes in the washing machine before they went to bed, and raided her parents room for bed clothes.

Gibbs looked rather sexy in her father's plaid flannel sleep pants, Abby couldn't help thinking. She couldn't decide if it was weird or just really hot.

He didn't have a shirt on which gave her an excellent chance to observe his lean physique. He had just enough hair on his chest to be manly, but not enough to require any Sasquatch comparisons.

She couldn't help noticing that the sleep pants were riding rather low, exposing his hipbones and… wait. What was that? She leaned closer and squinted at the waistband. That looked like ink.

She sat up straight, staring at Gibbs in shock. "You've been holding out on me," she murmured, wondering if she could get away with tugging the waistband down just a tiny bit further without exposing anything too scandalous.

"Like what you see?" Gibbs voice grumbled, startling her backwards. He moved the arm covering his eyes and turned towards her.

She was too excited to be embarrassed that she'd been caught looking. "You have a tattoo," she announced, pointing accusingly at him.

"Never said I didn't," Gibbs replied.

Abby grinned. "I can't believe you never told me!"

Gibbs propped himself up on his elbows. "You didn't ask," he said cheekily.

"I wanna see." Abby reached for the waistband but he caught her wrists in his hands before she reached her target.

"C'mon," she pleaded, giggling despite herself. "You have to let me see!"

Gibbs heaved a heavy sigh. "You're not gonna let this go unless I show you."

"Nope." Abby bounced in place on the bed, grinning from ear to ear. "You've seen mine, I wanna see yours."

Sighing again, Gibbs reached down and adjusted the waistband of the flannel pants further down on one side so she could see the small blue outline.

She leaned forward, squinting so close to his body that Gibbs inhaled sharply. She glanced up at his face. "Is that a bulldog? You got a bulldog tattooed on your hip?"

Gibbs grunted.

She leaned closer. "USMC, oh I get it! It's the Devil Dog! The Marine Corp mascot, right?"

Gibbs nodded.

"It's so cute." She giggled at the annoyed expression on his face. "It even has a little spiked collar, like Bert."

"Isn't supposed to be cute," he grumbled.

Abby sat up, still grinning at him. "I can't believe you kept this a secret from me! After all those times I asked you for advice on what tat to get next!"

Gibbs pulled his pants back up, probably to stop her from staring, which she couldn't really help doing.

"How long have you had it?"

"Awhile."

Abby narrowed her eyes.

"Got it my first year as a Marine."

"Any others I don't know about?" Abby snapped his waistband playfully, an evil grin on her face. Somehow she had never in a millions years imagined Gibbs with a tattoo, but she sure would from now on.

"One was more than enough," Gibbs says.

"It is not!" Abby exclaims. "Tattoos are like pistachios, you can't have just one."

Gibbs grabbed her wrist and traced the infinity symbol she had there. "I think you've got enough for the two of us."

"And you haven't even seen them all." Abby grinned wickedly and jumped off the bed, leaving Gibbs with a slightly stunned look on his face. It was so seldom that she could surprise him, she really was savoring the moment.

"I'm hungry." Abby tugged on the bottom of the blue shirt she had on. She'd found some of her old clothes in the closet to wear to bed, but they definitely did not fit her changing body. The shorts fit as long as she didn't try and pull them over her stomach at all, and the shirt didn't meet the shorts when stretched over her burgeoning bustline and belly.

Gibbs got up, pulling on the white t-shirt he'd chosen not to sleep in. Abby was a little sorry to see it go on, but she turned to hide her reaction.

"You want some scrambled eggs?" she asked, pausing in the doorway on her way out.

"You don't have to cook for me." The way Gibbs hair was sticking straight up made Abby have to stifle another giggle. Between that and the beard he'd been working on, he looked like a mountain man, especially in plaid pants.

"I'm not," she clarified, peering over her shoulder. "I'm offering to crack a few extra eggs. You'll have to make your own toast if you can handle it, Gunny."

Gibbs' eyes narrowed. "Watch it, Abigail."

"Yes, sir!" She saluted him, as always using the wrong hand because it was fun to bother him.

xxx

Gibbs was happy to see Abby's mood was improved that morning, although he was still a bit uncomfortable with her eager discovery of his tattoo. Truthfully, he'd been nineteen and very, very drunk when he'd gotten it, and most days he was just thankful it wasn't on his butt.

He wasn't sure what was more disarming, waking up in Abby's arms as he'd done the day before, or this morning's open perusal of his body. Always bold, Abby wasn't holding back at all anymore.

That was causing more than a few uneasy feelings to crop up in Gibbs' gut. The past few weeks had passed in what seemed like a flash and their relationship had evolved more than he'd expected in such a short amount of time. Nothing was as cut and dry anymore and that both intrigued and concerned him.

He used the bathroom, taking the time to brush his teeth before following Abby downstairs. They had made plans to meet Luka and Mellie at the hospital around ten, so there was plenty of time to have breakfast and get ready.

Gibbs had pulled Luka aside at dinner the night before to ask him a favor. Luka had agreed to pick up a disposable cell phone the next morning so Gibbs could keep in touch with McGee. Luka was pleased to hear that they were looking out for Abby and keeping tabs on Mikel.

McGee had uncovered some disturbing things in Mikel's history. Apparently Abby was not the only girl who'd gotten a restraining order against him. In fact, of the two other restraining orders McGee found against him, one had been taken out when he was only sixteen. Apparently he'd even threatened once to kill himself when a girl from his high school didn't return his affections.

His juvenile record consisted of breaking and entering, possession of stolen property, joy riding, and one case of suspected animal cruelty.

When pressed, Abby's friend Carol admitted to McGee that Abby had told her some things about Mikel, including that he'd broken into her apartment.

Gibbs wasn't thrilled Abby was even in the same country as this guy, but being with her was enabling him to continue the role of her protector.

His brain had been working in constant overdrive the past few weeks trying to figure out ways to keep Abby and her baby safe. The restraining order was not enough, especially now that Mikel knew she was pregnant. He'd told McGee to put a tail on Mawher the second he even suspected he was coming after after Abby.

Gibbs wasn't taking any chances.

They were going to have to have some serious talks, the two of them. Right now it was being put off by her father's health problems, but it was on Gibbs' mind almost constantly.

He was struggling with his feelings for Abby. His desperate attempts to keep things platonic seemed to not be enough anymore. He was happy to comfort her, but sharing a bed was starting to feel way too good.

And that outfit she was wearing. Since Gibbs hadn't been around when Shannon was pregnant with Kelly, he wasn't sure if it was normal to find a woman so incredibly attractive when she was visibly pregnant. He couldn't keep his eyes off of her, especially when her small tummy was poking out from between her shorts and a very tight t-shirt.

Gibbs was just struggling. Things seemed to be changing left and right and he couldn't quite keep up with them. He wasn't sure if he should be fighting these feelings, which was his first inclination, or embracing them, as Franks had made it abundantly clear he thought Gibbs should.

Gibbs paused when he reached the kitchen. Abby was bustling around, singing under her breath, as she scrambled eggs. She was wielding the spatula as a microphone when not poking at the eggs and shaking her hips as she sang.

He swallowed. Nope, Abby wasn't making things easy on him.

"Gibbs!" Abby twirled around, pointing with the spatula. "Aha! I knew it was you. I'm starting to get your spidey sense, or should I call it a Gibbs sense… either way I knew it!"

She looked so proud of herself Gibbs couldn't help but smile. "Apparently you did."

Abby turned back to the eggs. "I've decided I'm not going to think about anything unpleasant this morning. I'm just going to think good thoughts about good things and then everything will be all right."

"Okay." Gibbs squeezed her shoulder. He went in search of bread and a toaster and silently toasted and buttered bread while Abby finished the eggs.

In not long at all, he and Abby were seated at the kitchen table, each with a plate of scrambled eggs and toast. Abby was drowning her eggs in ketchup while Gibbs watched in amusement.

Gibbs took a bite of his toast and then noticed Abby wasn't eating. "What's wrong, Abbs?"

"Nothing." She sighed. "This would be better with bacon."

"Most things would be," Gibbs quipped.

Abby took a bite of her eggs and chewed slowly. "Can we go get bacon later?"

Gibbs shrugged. "Why not?"

Abby beamed, then her face fell.

Gibbs nudged her foot under the table and gave her a look, indicating he wanted to know why she was upset.

"I had an unpleasant thought." Abby took a sip of her glass of orange juice. "I don't want to have anymore unpleasant thoughts. I'm sick of unpleasant thoughts. Gibbs, tell me something happy."

"We're getting bacon later?" Gibbs attempted for her.

Abby reached across the table and laced their fingers together. "You don't think I'm stupid for getting pregnant, do you?" she asked suddenly.

Gibbs hadn't been expecting a question like that. "Nah," he told her honestly. "It might not be the best of timing, but that doesn't mean you're stupid. Sometimes this stuff just happens."

"I feel stupid sometimes," she admitted.

Gibbs squeezed her hand. "Everyone feels stupid sometimes. But a baby's always a blessing, no matter the circumstances."

xxx

Luka had to admit, he really liked Leroy Jethro Gibbs. And he'd been all poised to hate the guy, quite honestly. Years of hearing his big sister wax poetical about some Navy guy who'd had three wives and Luka was on edge, prepared to protect her.

From what, he wasn't sure. Maybe herself.

He'd started worrying about this Mikel guy two months ago when Abby called up one night and told him she was pregnant. He'd heard the fear in her voice, even if she wouldn't tell him everything. All she'd say was that he was an ex-boyfriend, and that things hadn't ended well.

Luka had tried to search out more information on his own, but he wasn't a computer wiz like Abby. Mellie was a little better, but he didn't want to burden her with keeping a secret from his parents.

When Abby told Luka she was going to Mexico to visit Gibbs, he wasn't sure what he was supposed to think. Then she'd refused to tell him when she was coming back, and he'd been downright scared. He'd never known Abby to be scared enough of something to run, and she sure was running this time.

But her last email, the one she'd sent after confiding in Gibbs, he'd found himself changing his mind. He could tell by her words what an impact just a couple weeks with Gibbs had been on her. She sounded more confident, less afraid. She had promised him that Gibbs wouldn't let anything happen to her and this time Luka believed it.

Shortly afterward their father had his heart attack. It had taken Luka two hours of phone calls to finally get through to her ex-boyfriend Timothy McGee, who had given over the number he had for Gibbs in Mexico.

Gibbs had his sister home in less than twenty-four hours.

He hadn't dismissed Luka when he'd mentioned that he was worried about her. He'd promised to explain everything when they arrived, and he had.

Luka was so relieved to finally be doing something for his sister, he agreed to quietly pick up a cell phone for Gibbs on his way to the hospital the next morning. For some reason Gibbs didn't want to borrow Abby's phone and said he needed to call McGee. Luka suspected that it had something to do with Mikel. Maybe he didn't want Abby to worry.

Luka had carefully planned to pull over for gas at a station he knew would have prepaid cell phones in stock. That way he would be able to avoid explaining to Mellie what it was all about. Gibbs had made it seem like this needed to be kept on the down low, and Luka didn't want to tell Mellie until he knew everything, until he knew what they could do for Abby.

Now, sitting at a table in the hospital cafeteria while Gibbs jabbed impatiently at cell phone buttons, Luka had an almost uncontrollable urge to laugh. Now this was the man his sister had been telling him about over the past few years. This was the real Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

"Here, let me," Luka offered, taking the cell phone away before Gibbs could smash it to smithereens. Abby had mentioned Gibbs lack of technological expertise, as well as his propensity for breaking phones.

Luka punched in McGee's number as Gibbs dictated it, putting the phone on speaker and setting it in the middle of the table in front of them.

The cafeteria was almost empty, too early for lunch and too late for breakfast. Only a couple tired looking nurses were eating off in one corner. He and Gibbs leaned forward towards the phone and listened to it ring four times before McGee answered the call.

"Hello?" McGee sounded puzzled, no doubt by the unfamiliar number on his caller ID.

"Where's Mawher?" Gibbs demanded, loud enough to make the nurses on the other side of the room glance nervously in their direction. Luka tried to give them a comforting smile, but he wasn't sure if he succeeded.

"Gibbs?"

"No, it's the Tooth Fairy," Gibbs fairly growled.

"Uh, sorry Boss. I didn't recognize the number." McGee sounded nervous, not that Luka blamed him. Gibbs tone had him feeling a little nervous himself.

"Yeah, well put it in your book thingy because I'll be using this number from now on. I want to know what Mawher's been doing."

There was the distinct sound of computer keys clacking in the background. "He had a couple jobs with the local cops yesterday that kept him busy until almost nine. After that he stopped for a pizza and rented a movie on pay per view," McGee told them. "He hasn't used his cell phone or his debit card yet this morning, which isn't unusual. It's Sunday," McGee added, almost as an afterthought.

Luka was actually surprised about that himself. He'd missed a day somewhere during this whole mess, because he could have sworn it was Saturday. Oh. That explained why Mellie had dropped Sami off at her friend Alice's house and not her piano lesson. Alice's family would make sure she got to Sunday School since the rest of them obviously weren't going to be at Church that morning.

"Find out anything useful?" Gibbs wanted to know.

McGee hesitated, which predictably didn't go over well.

"What, McGee?" Gibbs snapped, making the nurses nervous again.

Luka tried not to flinch. No wonder people were afraid of Gibbs. He was getting nervous and he hadn't done anything.

"Mawher made some charges last week at both a private investigator and a lawyer's office. I think he's trying to find Abby."

Gibbs smashed his fist against the table, making both the cell phone and Luka jump. He took a deep breath. "What was he doing at the lawyer's office?"

"I'm not sure," McGee said honestly. "I tried to talk to the guy but attorney client privilege just got in the way. It looks like they mostly do family law."

"Family law?"

"Uh, yeah. Stuff like divorces and-"

"Custody fights." Luka's jaw dropped as he looked over at Gibbs. "He's filing for custody."

"Or visitation." Gibbs took a deep breath. "McGee, I want you to keep an eye on any documents filed with the court system that have either Mawher or Abby's names on them. And watch the private investigator, don't let him tell Mawher where Abby's at. Get Tony and Ziva involved if you have to." Gibbs flipped the phone shut and looked across the table at Luka.

"It's worse than I thought, isn't it." Gibbs hadn't told him a lot about this Mikel Mawher person, just that his sister had gotten a restraining order against him and that he was bad news.

"It's not good," Gibbs admitted.

"Is she going to be able to go home?" Luka worried.

Gibbs seemed to be thinking this over. "I'm sure she'll want to, but if Mawher is going to keep harassing her… I don't know. I'd keep her with me in Mexico for awhile longer but there isn't a decent hospital within a couple hours."

"I wondered." Luka ran a hand through his hair. "She's gonna be pretty mad at you for digging around in her life."

"She'll get over it," was Gibbs frank response.

Luka chuckled. "Never thought I'd meet the day when my sister met her match. I don't know what your intentions are towards her, but I'm glad she has you."

"My intentions are to keep her safe," Gibbs said. "No matter what she says or how loudly she complains."

xxx

When they arrived at the hospital, the doctor was in talking with Gloria and Ben, and an interpreter was making sure they understood everything. Abby wanted to just burst in with questions and demand answers, but instead she acted like a grown up and waited in the hallway with Luka, Gibbs, and Mellie.

"You want some coffee?" Mellie asked Abby after Luka and Gibbs said they were going to take a walk. "We could go grab some from down the hall."

Abby shook her head. "Decaf doesn't taste right, and I can't have caffeine. I know they say it's okay to have coffee when you're pregnant now, but I'm not exactly known for drinking a reasonable amount of the stuff, so it's probably better I just stay away."

Mellie laughed. "So I've heard. Luka's told me some epic stories about your caffeine highs."

"All probably true, sad to say." Abby leaned against the wall. "I just hate all this waiting. I just want someone to tell me my dad's gonna be all right."

"The waiting really sucks," Mellie agreed. "When Luka had his gallbladder out last year I was ready to charge into the operating room and demand to know exactly what was going on."

"Really?" Abby asked. "You seemed so calm and put together when you called me. I didn't even realize you were nervous."

"I wasn't just nervous, I was downright terrified," Mellie admitted. "I'm used to Luka being the calm one. I just felt so alone. I mean, your parents were there, but I'm still bad enough enough at signing to barely be able to talk about more than the basics. You know, Sami was actually interpreting for me the other day."

"Smart kid." Abby gave a tiny smile. "I used to do that for Gloria all the time, at things like parent teacher conferences. Well, until my fourth grade teacher realized I wasn't telling Gloria any of the negative stuff she said."

"Really? I can't believe you did that."

"Yeah, well." Abby shrugged. "I knew I had the upper hand because Gloria wasn't good at lip reading and Ben usually had to work late those nights. When the teacher figured it out she made the school hire an interpreter. By the time Luka was in school I'd stopped doing stuff like that. Besides, I didn't mind telling all the bad stuff he did."

Mellie smiled. "It must have been hard for you before Luka was born, being the only hearing person in the family."

"Sometimes," Abby admitted. "Sometimes I felt like I grew up on a different planet than anyone else. But I had great parents and a good childhood. And then I got Luka, who I thought was my very own baby doll to play with."

"He always tells me you were like a second mom to him," Mellie told her. "It's how I know you're going to be an amazing mom to this baby."

Abby hugged her stomach. "God I hope so. This kid has enough against him or her, I don't want to screw anything up."

"Are you going to find out if it's a boy or a girl?"

"I want to," Abby told her. "I had an appointment for an ultrasound this month but I canceled it when I went to Mexico. I'd been talking to a midwife and she said as long as nothing changed I should be okay skipping one appointment."

"A midwife? Does that mean you're planning a home birth?"

Abby shrugged. "I'm not really sure anymore. It's what I'd like, but I don't exactly have a home right now."

"What do you mean, you don't have a home?" Gibbs voice boomed from behind her.

Abby wrinkled her nose. "I sort of gave up my apartment," she said, glancing over her shoulder at him.

Mellie slid out of the way and Gibbs stood right in front of Abby. "When?"

"A couple months ago," she mumbled, staring at the floor, feeling a bit like a little kid being given a lecture.

"A couple months ago?" Gibbs exploded. A passing nurse shot him a dirty look and he lowered his voice. "Where were you staying before you came to Mexico?"

Abby blushed. "Your house."

"My house?" Gibbs repeated.

"I kinda broke in," Abby admitted. "Although technically it wasn't breaking in because you didn't leave it locked so it was just sort of walking in."

Gibbs took a deep breath, looking very much like he wanted to head slap someone right now. "What about all your stuff?"

"Storage." Abby shrugged. "It's not that big a deal, Gibbs."

Gibbs opened his mouth, probably to disagree loudly with her, when the door to Ben's room opened and two men exited, one obviously the doctor.

"We'll finish this later," Gibbs whispered into Abby's ear, making her shiver, as she turned to walk in the room. "You can count on it."

A/N: For those of you who are interested, the current word count for this story is at around 75,000 (making this the longest thing I've ever written, surpassing The Middle Ground) and I'm still not completely finished. I've added at least one chapter to my 17 chapter estimate. The currently planned scenes are all at least partially written. The next chapter needs expansion, but after that nothing needs serious work until Chapter 14, so updates should continue to be weekly.

I don't have a beta, so hopefully I haven't missed any big mistakes. I try to read over each chapter at least twice after edits, so hopefully it's good. Hope everyone's still enjoying the ride!