Tony lurched forward and almost skewered his forehead on the sharp corner of the reception desk.
'Careful,' Abby scolded, guiding him towards the stairs. With Abby's firm help, Tony made it to the first floor landing before tripping.
'Fuck.'
Abby rolled her eyes at his filthy tongue and grabbed his shoulders, pulling him roughly to his feet. Tony stumbled down the corridor, running his hands along the wall. Abby pulled him back as he went straight past his room.
She opened the door using his key before throwing it onto the bedside table, her aim surprisingly accurate. She pushed him gently towards the bed, too tired to tuck him in and sing him a lullaby.
He turned to face her. 'Thank you, Abby,' he said, slurring each word. He rubbed his eyes and smiled goofily. 'Nobody's ever...helped me before.' He swallowed and closed his eyes, his slapstick smile stuck onto his face. 'Usually they just...shout at me and...tell me to move...on.' He sniffed and looked at her proudly.
She smiled ruefully and backed out of the door. 'Good night, Tony,' she said firmly.
'Night,' he replied, taking a step backwards and falling over.
Abby pulled the door shut with a quiet click. She leaned on the door for a second, breathing in relief, before heading towards her own room.
On an impulse, she knocked on McGee's door. She had made a point of asking him where his room was during dinner; not with the purpose of calling in on him but merely to spite the snooty receptionist.
There was no answer so she continued despondently towards her own room. She did not stumble. Despite her initial plan of drinking away her troubles, she had ended up fussing around Tony as he threw back shot after shot and glass after glass of all different kinds of alcohol. At least he liked to mix it up, she reasoned. Gibbs had always just drunk one type of drink. Tony was more adventurous. Although, she added rationally, Gibbs had never drunk himself into a stupor.
The stories that Tony had burbled in between drinks had stunned Abby. When he had first started relaying his drunken exploits, she had expected them to consist mostly of fraternity style binges on the hunt for sex and a good time.
Instead, Tony had relayed depressing accounts of stumbling lonely through Philadelphian streets, heading home on his own with a bloody eye from an ill-fated bar fight. Pissing in bins on the corners of streets because he couldn't quite remember where the nearest public toilet was and no taxi would pick him up to get him home faster. Waking up with his head throbbing and his stomach lurching with no soiled condom on his floor. Dragging his miserable ass into work to get through the day with no enjoyment before heading off to a different bar – the one from the previous night rarely took him back – to repeat the cycle.
Abby reached her door and unlocked it quickly, not fumbling with the keys due to her dry, sober state. She pushed it open and stopped short. Standing by the window was...McGee. His back was to her and he didn't seem to have heard her come in.
'McGee.' Her voice was flat and void of surprise or curiosity.
He started, turning sharply and almost tripping over. She raised one black, perfectly tweezed eyebrow. He grinned sheepishly. 'Sorry,' he muttered. 'I got bored in my room.'
She didn't comment on her room being equally dull and sat down on the bed, eyeing him interestedly. He came and plonked his fat ass next to her, making her petite frame bounce on the spongy mattress.
'Your probation officer called,' he said nervously, his chunky fingers fidgeting in his lap. 'Three times, actually.'
She sighed, wondering how to play this. She had always been a fan of truthfulness and honesty but her candour had wavered in recent years. Her hatred of court rooms had intensified as well although the reasons for her dislike had changed. The frumpy, uptight dress code did not bother her anymore and the tedium had ceased to push her almost the point of being suicidal. Instead, it was the memories and consequences that it reminded her of that she detested so virally.
McGee looked at her sidelong. 'Why do you have a probation officer?'
Abby sighed once more. 'I got arrested,' she replied shortly.
McGee's mouth twitched. 'I guessed that,' he shot back. 'What for?' His short-lived confidence died. 'If you don't mind me asking, of course,' he added politely.
Abby looked at him, judging his mood. She longed to tell someone. Her philosophy about secrets gnawing away at you was still a fervently held belief but she was also reluctant to cripple a once strong friendship. McGee's face was placid and the trust which she had once laid ceremoniously on him resurfaced.
'Hey, Abby!'
Abby spun round, the grin already in place before she saw him. He loped towards her, his shoulder length brown hair flapping up and down in time with his body. He reached her and enveloped her in a tight hug.
He pulled at his loose green T-shirt proudly, bringing her attention to its bold slogan. SAVE THE WHALES. He held out an identical one, pushing it at Abby. 'I brought you one. Put it on.'
Abby grinned and pulled it over her head. She twirled for him, laughing with him. 'What do you think?'
He pulled her into him and kissed her before replying. 'Passable.'
She grinned and leaned in for one more kiss before pulling away. 'We're going to be late,' she scolded.
He grinned. 'That's why I keep you, Abby. Someone has to keep me on time.'
She punched his arm lightly. 'You keep me because you...' She stopped. She had been about to say: 'love me,' but, since he hadn't said that to her yet, despite almost a year of them sleeping together, she caught herself just in time. He hadn't even called her his girlfriend yet.
But, Abby was patient and she was willing to wait for him to get his head straight enough to commit to her. It was only a matter of time as she assured herself nightly.
'Billy,' another woman called, rushing over. Billy spun round and grinned broadly, leaning in and kissing the woman's cheek. She slapped him away and thrust a couple of placards reading the same as their T-shirts.
Billy took them. 'Thanks,' he smiled, kissing her cheek, moving a little closer to her mouth this time. She blushed and hurried away, throwing him glances over her shoulder.
Abby forced a smile, determined not to be overly possessive or jealous. She was a free, fun-loving girl who didn't need to be tied down to a man. Why should she care if other women looked at him? She didn't. Not even when he kissed them just as he had kissed her that morning before he left. She didn't care.
He handed the placards to her and moved away, shouting over his shoulder to her without turning round. 'Put them in the back of the van and take them to the end of West Roosevelt Street. I'll meet you there.'
She nodded, guessing that he would be travelling with someone else even though he had not told her. Ah well, she sighed. That was the way Billy worked. Who was she to try and change him?
An hour later, she saw him swaggering towards her. She stood up and pulled the placards from the back of the van.
'You got here on time,' she noted. With five minutes to spare, the devil on her shoulder added sourly. Abby ignored him.
Billy grinned and ruffled her poker straight hair. She forced a smile, despite the hour that she had spent that morning getting it perfect for the march. He wasn't to know how long she had agonised over it. He was just being affectionate, wasn't he?
She handed him a placard and they walked towards the group gathering, all wearing the same T-shirts as them.
Billy moved off to walk with his buddies at the front, shouting and waving the placards more aggressively than the rest. Abby kept where she could see him; in case he needed her, not because of any suspicious jealousy. She trusted him. All the same...
Her friend appeared beside her and grabbed Abby's arm. 'I haven't seen you in ages,' she cried.
Abby smiled weakly. 'I know. I'm sorry. But Billy...'
Her friend's sunny face darkened, her smile overcast. 'What about Billy?' she snapped. 'I don't know why you stay with him, Abby. You could find someone much better than him. You've had better people before him and you could find someone easily if you just dumped him.' Her face contorted bitterly. 'In fact, you don't even need to dump him. Because you aren't even together.'
Abby shook her head. 'It isn't like that,' she assured her friend vehemently. 'Billy is a good guy. You don't even know him. If you just got to know him...'
She was cut off by urgent shouts and screams. People began to run away from whatever was going on; not wanting to be associated with any trouble. Abby's breath caught in her throat as she was the scene in front of her. Driven only by her blind love for Billy, she ran forward to help him. That was where everything went severely wrong for her.
I'll continue with Abby tomorrow. This whole story would go so much faster if there was only one character's back story to focus on but I have five characters and Gibbs's death to get through so bear with me. If anyone has any ideas on how Gibbs died, I would appreciate any help as I'm kinda stuck right now. I have the backbone of an idea but I need to bones to fill it out. Please?
