Chapter Seven
In the morning Gibbs pulled up his car in front of the house, announcing his arrival by briefly pressing the horn. Since he had arrived on time, he decided to just wait for her to come out.
Sitting and waiting for her while sipping his coffee, Hollis's words from the previous day came to his mind.
"Yes, I'm going back. I made a decision, Jethro. You couldn't, so I did."
Gibbs finally allowed himself to be honest.
He indeed hadn't been able to make that decision. Her and him, it had been so different from all the other relationships he had been in before. He really had wanted to be with her, but he hadn't been able to agree to a lifelong partnership. Nor to even give it a try. As much as he had wanted to, but all his relationships since Shannon had ended in split ups, and always in unpleasant ways.
He still loved Hollis, therefore he wanted to spare her that.
But when she had been the one to end it out of no specific reason, it had seemed wrong as well.
As soon as he dropped her off at the airport, they would never see each other again. This was the ending point of their relationship.
Stay friends? Neither of them was the type to 'stay friends'.
It wasn't until he had taken the last remaining sip of his coffee that Gibbs realized how much time had passed already.
"Holli, if you don't come out now, you won't catch that plane." Gibbs impatiently sounded the horn once again and tossed off the empty container.
He sighed as he decided to leave the car to go over to the house to find out what was taking her this long.
For a brief second Gibbs even pondered the possibility that she might already have left. He wouldn´t put it past her. She had behaved strangely the other day. Strangely reserved. And cold.
That wasn't the Hollis he had known before.
It made him sad, yet there was no point denying that it had actually been him, disappointing her.
The front door was slightly ajar, so Gibbs dismissed the idea that Hollis could have left already. He slowly pushed the door open, calling her name.
"Holl?" Her travelling bag was sitting in the entrance hall. "Holl, you'll miss your plane. I can drive fast, but we should really leave now."
Gibbs listened.
Had there just been a noise?
"Hmm... ." There it was again, he hadn't been wrong.
It was coming from the far side of the hall, from around the corner.
"Hollis?" Gibbs quickly crossed the entrance hall.
"Mmmm... . Ow... ." Hollis was moaning lowly as she tried to bring herself into a half sitting position, leaning against the wall for support.
"Easy, Holl, easy. Let me help you." Gibbs suggested, crouching down beside her at the lower landing of the stairs.
Hollis was cradling her right arm. It seemed she had just been coming around from an unconscious state.
"Are you in pain?" Gibbs asked, though it was quite obvious, running a look over her body, one hand reaching for her arm, the other for her head to remove some strands of hair out of her face. Her fringe was sticky with blood and she winced as Gibbs gently brushed it aside.
"Shhh..., it's okay," Gibbs told her in a soothing voice while taking a closer look to the laceration on her forehead.
Hollis closed her eyes against the dizziness.
"What happened, Hollis?" Gibbs wanted to know. He glanced up the stairs, already knowing what her answer would be and he fought down the lump that was forming in his throat.
Falling down the stairs could end up in so many different, so many unpleasant ways.
"I fai...," Hollis slurred, but stopped mid-word, hesitating for a second before starting anew. "I tripped and fell down a few steps. What are you doing, Jethro?" she asked as she noticed Gibbs was pulling out his cell phone.
"I'm calling an ambulance," Gibbs stated matter-of-factly, without even looking at her.
"No!" Hollis exclaimed.
Her panic-stricken voice almost made Gibbs drop his cell phone. He glanced at her, trying to understand her reaction.
"Listen, it probably looks worse than it is, but you should really see a doctor. Your arm could be broken and you may have a concussion...." Though he was utterly worried, Gibbs somehow managed to stay all calm.
"I'm fine." Hollis said stubbornly, moving to get up. "I have a plane to catch!"
"The hell you have!" Gibbs snapped, the harsh tone in his voice making her freeze.
He hadn't wanted to be rude, but he never would have thought her that foolish.
"Sorry," Gibbs eventually voiced under his breath. After putting away his cell, he focused on the laceration on Hollis's forehead.
She let him.
"I'm going to look for something to clean this wound," he said in a reconciliatory voice and stood up. "Stay where you are, okay? I'll be back in a second."
Pffft! As if she had been able to get up by herself. Yes, she wanted to. She wanted to get up and run away as fast as she could. But she wasn't even able to get up on her own. Gibbs had only taken a guess, but Hollis was pretty sure that her arm was broken and her ankle did hurt as well. Letting her head rest against the wall, she closed her eyes, biting back the tears that threatened to fall from her eyes.
To be continued...
