Changes-Chapter 7
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As soon as she heard her husband's exclamation, JJ grabbed her cell phone and began dialing. First she called Abby's best friend Becca who claimed not to have heard from her daughter in the past few days. JJ believed her, so her next call was to Jack. Like Becca, Jack claimed not to know where Abby was but told JJ he'd talked to her on the afternoon that she left. According to him, she'd also told him that she was returning to the cabin. Since he had been working non-stop for the past few days, he wasn't surprised that he hadn't heard from her and he promised her he'd call if she contacted him. Since Marie was still in Italy, JJ didn't bother calling her and instead tried a few of Abby's other friends from school and none of them knew where she was. By the time she finished her last call, the worry had set in and she was close to panic.
Dave finished his conversation with Gibbs at about the same time, and once both phones had been snapped shut, the two of them just stared at each other for a moment.
"Where is she Dave?" JJ said in a wavering voice. "She's never done this before, I've never not known where she is."
"She'd better damn well not be doing this now!" He said loudly. It was one thing to be pissed at them, but to deliberately make them worry? To disappear without a word to anyone? When they found her, he was sure they would have a very loud discussion about what she'd done. "I get that she's angry with us, but she knows we need to know where she is."
"But what if she's hurt? What if she's been taken?" JJ voiced every parent's worst fears and it got both of them moving again. With a snap of her wrist, JJ opened her laptop and motioned Dave to join her in front of it.
"The all-knowing computer goddess at your service," Garcia chirped as she appeared on the screen in front of them. "How can I help the two of you today?" Dave and JJ could see that she was typing frantically on another computer and she looked stressed.
"Pen, we had an argument with Abby; she found out about my breast cancer scare and she left and we haven't heard from her in days. Can you help us find her?" JJ asked, trying to keep calm.
"WHAT? Days? And you're just calling me NOW?" The tech shrieked.
"We thought she was staying with Gibbs," JJ told her as her typing speed went up another notch. "It turns out she just stayed with him for one night before going off the grid."
"You've got that right," the tech analyst said as she stared at her screens. "From what I can tell, her car is in your garage?"
Dave nodded, "She left it at a Metro station and we picked it up a few nights ago."
"So I'm not going to be able to track her that way," Pen muttered as she stared at her screens even more. "Sorry loves; her cell phone is off and she hasn't used her debit card in the last few days. Did you try her friends?"
"Would we be calling you if we hadn't tried them?" Dave snapped loudly. "Dammit Penelope, you've got to have more ways to track her than that!"
JJ rarely saw her friend pissed off, but she could tell Garcia was trying to hold back her anger. "With all due respect sir," she practically snarled, "you're NOT the only one I'm doing work for today. The team is trying to close in on an unsub and they have me and my computers running ragged-"
"Do I look like I care?" Dave yelled. "Just fucking find my daughter!"
A look came over Penelope's face that neither Dave nor JJ had ever seen before and it was at that moment both of them realized that underneath her peppy and sweet demeanor, she could be as lethal and cutthroat as any member of the team. "The only reason I'm not obliterating your electronic empire right now," she said in a deceptively calm voice, "is because I know you are worried about your daughter."
"Garcia," Dave started in a much nicer tone of voice, but she would have none of it.
"This is NOT my fault, sir! I told JJ I thought she was nuts for not telling Abby, but did you listen to me, Cupcake?" She asked turning her attention to JJ. "No, you didn't and now your daughter is missing." Her attention was pulled away from them for a moment. "Is your mother still in Italy?" She asked Dave through clenched teeth.
"Yeah," he responded, wondering if Abby had actually gotten on a flight to re-join her.
"Well, I can tell you that the electricity usage at your mother's townhouse has been pretty high during the past week; much higher than it has been all summer."
"Thank God," Dave said in relief. "Garcia, I'm sorry-"
"Just go get your daughter, Agent Rossi," the still pissed off technical analyst said snippily. "You and I will talk in a few days." With that, she disconnected the call and left them looking at a blank screen.
"You realize that one of the most dangerous people on the planet now has a grudge against you, right?" JJ asked as he grabbed the car keys off of the table near the front door.
"We'll just add her to the long list," Dave replied as they left the house and got into the car. Within minutes they were speeding down the highway, gearing up for a confrontation with their daughter.
"You know you can't just start yelling at her, right?" JJ asked. "I know you're pissed at what she did, but she's rightfully pissed at us as well and I don't want this to escalate into an all-out war."
"But-" Dave tried, but JJ stopped him.
"But nothing. She said she needed some time to herself and that's what she got. Do I like the fact that she didn't check in with us, or that she didn't let anyone know where she was going? No, but we're just going to have to get over it. Besides, once we're past this, I'm sure Gibbs is going to have plenty to say to her about lying to him," JJ told him with a small smile. "Hopefully she's had enough time to cool down because when we get there, I want to have a calm and cool discussion with her. Capice?"
"Fine," he said petulantly. "I guess you have a point." He didn't like it, but he knew his wife was right.
The rest of the drive was quiet, save for the radio playing in the background, and since it was the middle of the day, they made good timing into the city. Soon they were letting themselves into Marie's townhouse.
As they stepped through the front door, they heard the shower running and, despite his promise to his wife, all of Dave's worry and anger rose to the surface and he stomped up the stairs just as the water turned off.
He strode quickly down the hallway, as JJ tried to keep up, and pounded on the door. "I know you're in there, young lady, so hurry up and get dressed and then get out here so we can talk!"
"Great Dave," his wife said with a roll of her eyes. "You lasted what? All of thirty seconds before you issued your first order?"
He was about to respond, when the door opened to reveal a towel clad figure. "Wow, I feel like I'm fifteen years old again."
"Rachelle?" Dave asked incredulously as he laid his eyes on his youngest sister for the first time in months. "What are you doing here?" The last he'd heard, she was doing humanitarian work in Somalia.
The younger woman shrugged, "My group received numerous threats from the local government so we had to pull out in a hurry. I'm stuck at the corporate office until my next assignment and ma said I could crash here. Thanks for the nice greeting, by the way," she said as she brushed by him and into her childhood bedroom. A minute later, she came out again, this time wearing jeans and a tank top.
"I'm sorry," he said, pulling her into a hug. "I was expecting…no, I was hoping Abby was here." He released her and JJ moved to hug her next.
"She was here, but only so she could pack some of the clothes she keeps here," Rachelle said, once she was done hugging her sister-in-law. "And that was a few days ago. Boy, the two of you really know how to piss of a teenager, don't you? I always knew you had that special talent, Davie, but I thought JJ would keep it in check."
"You've seen her?" JJ asked, ignoring Rachelle's comment. "Do you know where she is."
The younger woman nodded, "I do."
"Well, where in the hell is she?" Her brother asked in an exasperated tone of voice. Being the youngest, she'd always had a special place in his heart but she was also the one who could get under his skin the easiest.
Rachelle thought for a moment and then shook her head, "Sorry, I promised I'd give her five days before I came and got her. She has her cell phone and she knows she can call me earlier than that if she wants to."
"God dammit Rach, tell me where my daughter is and tell me now!" Dave roared and for once, JJ didn't try to calm him down; this was their daughter they were talking about and she wanted to know where she was!
"Abby needs time to think without you pressuring to talk about things! Do you really think you could leave her alone if she came home now? She feels betrayed and confused by what the two of you did and she needs time to process it."
"I get that Rach, but I still need to know where she is, for my own piece of mind. After all we've been through, I need to know she's okay." Dave was as close to begging as Rachelle had ever heard him and seeing both him and JJ so frantic made her waver in her decision to stay quiet. She was mentally debating whether or not to betray her niece, when her brother's cell phone rang.
"Rossi," he snapped.
"Mr. Rossi?" The voice at the other end of the line asked. "This is Mitch McAllister." Mitch McAllister owned the small general store near his other cabin; his ramshackle, writing/hunting cabin. It was only about two miles away from the store and he frequently hiked there when he needed supplies. Mitch knew that his cabin didn't have a phone line, so years ago Dave had given him his cell phone number in case of emergencies.
"What can I do for you, Mitch?" He asked, confused.
"Your daughter was getting groceries this morning and she left her wallet here. I don't know how long you folks will be staying in the area and I didn't want her going back to the city without it."
Letting out a long sigh of relief, Dave said, "Thanks Mitch, I'll be by to pick it up in a little while." With that, he disconnected the call and faced his wife. "She's at the other cabin."
JJ exhaled as well and said, "Thank God." Both of them moved to leave when Rachelle's voice stopped them.
"I'm really sorry I couldn't tell you guys," she said apologetically.
"No Rachelle, you chose not to tell us and, believe me, you and I will be having a long conversation about loyalties when I get back."
Rachelle sighed and shook her head slightly. "Looking forward to that, big brother."
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Abby returned from her hike to the general store, put the groceries away in the small kitchen and then went outside. The cabin itself was kind of a hole; there were four walls, a bathroom and not much else. Thank God her dad had taught her how to start the generator so she could have electricity or else she probably would've shacked up with Jack for the past few days, even if it would have made her parents ballistic when they found out.
She lay out in the sun for a little while in one of the rickety, folding chaise lounge chairs her father kept there but then she got hungry, so she fixed herself a light lunch. After that, she became antsy and decided to go for a run in the woods around the cabin. While there weren't trails cut into the woods like there were at the nicer cabin…the 'home' cabin, she was familiar with the area and wasn't worried about getting lost. She stayed in the woods for over an hour before returning to her temporary home and as she approached it, she saw the familiar SUV parked next to it. She gave a slight groan of disappointment as she entered the cabin and found her parents waiting for her.
"So you found me," she said unhappily. "How long did it take for Aunt Rachelle to give me up? Three minutes? Four?"
"Your aunt wouldn't tell us where you were," Dave said, trying to keep a lid on his anger as he tossed her wallet to her. "Mitch called me when he saw that you'd left that at the store."
Abby shook her head as she caught her wallet; she'd thought of everything and she was tripped up by her stupid wallet and the owner of the general store. Freaking perfect!
"It's time to come home, Abby," JJ said softly. "I understand that you're angry with us, but you can't avoid us for the rest of your life; eventually you'll have to talk to us about this. Besides, we're supposed to get bad storms tonight and I doubt this place is water tight."
Abby thought for a moment. She could push the issue and risk pissing her parents off, not that her dad didn't already look thoroughly annoyed with her, or she could go home and live a little more comfortably. Sure, she didn't really want to talk to them, but her mom had a point. She could also smell the rain in the air and she really didn't want to see firsthand if her mom was right about the cabin's ability to keep her dry.
"You're right," she finally said. "But I still need a little more time to get things straight in my head before I talk to you guys, okay?"
"Okay," JJ said before her husband could jump in. Unlike him, she knew Rome wasn't built in a day and she knew making up with their daughter needed to be done in baby steps. Heck, she'd expected much more of a fight with her over going home, so if she needed a little more time to think, she'd give it to her.
She watched as the teen quickly gathered up her thing and then she gently led her out the door while Dave locked up. While Abby didn't look too happy, soon she would be back home where she belonged and at that moment, JJ knew that was all she could ask of her.