A/N: I've been loving the reviews everybody (thanks for the support on my MoH status, lol) and here's the next chap! I'm not very happy with it, lots of expostion and it didn't come out quite the way I wanted, but I hope you enjoy it anyway. -pj
Abby wasn't one of those people who remembered her dreams. She almost never did. But this was more like a nightmare and, unfortunately, she always remembered those.
O'day stood beside her in the observation room, occasionally glancing in her direction while they waited for Gibbs to come in and begin interrogation.
They didn't have to wait long.
---
When the door to Interrogation 2 opened, Gibbs walked in with a manila folder under one arm and moved to sit in the chair opposite Zoe's. The girl's eyes remained fixed on the one-way mirror until the last moment when they snapped to Gibbs' face. Her expression was a cross between bored and suspicious but despite her young age and seemingly innocent appearance there was a decidedly cold and apathetic quality to her stare that seemed to belie her years.
Gibbs didn't looked up as he opened the folder and slid photos across the table toward her, one after the other.
---
On the other side of the glass O'day shifted and glanced at Abby. Knowing what was in the pictures his first instinct was to protect her from seeing them, to usher her from the room. Abby swallowed hard, her eyes burning and filling with tears. She didn't even give him the chance to suggest it.
"No," she said, her voice barely audible, "I'm staying." She had to.
O'day sighed but nodded, returning his gaze to the suspect.
---
Zoe dropped her eyes to the photos lined up in front of her. Autopsy photos of what was left of Abby's grandfather and father, along with the missing person's picture Abby had created of her younger brother, and a photo of her mother taken while she was in the Burn Unit.
Her lip began to quiver and she shook her head.
"Poor Abby," she said, her voice lined with tears, "I can't imagine," she lifted one hand to gently touch the photo of Bobby with such tenderness that Gibbs narrowed his eyes and tilted his head.
---
Every muscle in Abby's body tensed and she held her breath to keep from cursing.
---
"How is she?" she asked desperately, bringing her gaze back to Gibbs, "is anyone with her?"
Gibbs pursed his lips and didn't respond. He'd seen a lot of good acts in his time, but this had to top the list.
"What happened, Zoe?" He asked quietly.
She shook her head again, lifting her hand to swipe at her eyes, "so stupid."
"What is?"
"You mean who. My brother," she looked angry as she continued, "he's so stupid. I told him to leave it alone. That I would handle it but…" she paused a moment and then shrugged, "he's my big brother, you know? He just wanted to protect me."
Gibbs folded his hands to lean closer, "from what?"
Zoe paused and dropped her eyes, picking at a loose thread in her jeans, "Abby I guess," she mumbled.
---
O'day saw in his peripheral vision the way Abby's eyes widened and her jaw fell and took a small step closer to her, though he doubted she noticed.
---
When Gibbs didn't respond Zoe continued, "She always wanted everything that was mine. My clothes, my friends, my grades. I tried to help her as much as I could but…I just couldn't do everything. I – I went crying to my brother one day and," she shrugged again, looking as if the admission had cost her dearly, "I guess he decided to fix the problem once and for all."
Both rooms were silent for several long moments. Gibbs sat perfectly still, his eyes boring into Zoe's, but the girl never shifted.
---
Abby's her whole body trembled with barely contained rage and O'day glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.
"That's a lie," Abby whispered, sounding dismayed, "those are all lies."
---
"We got a warrant for your house on base," Gibbs said finally, reaching back into his file folder and, this time pulling out an evidence photo of a power drill and a pair of leather gloves, "found these."
Zoe shifted in her seat when she glanced at them but her neutral mask never slipped.
"What are those?"
"I think you know what they are." Gibbs stated coolly, "We matched the tampering marks on the Admiral's vehicle to this drill, and fibers from these gloves to both the drill and the Admiral's home."
"My brother-"
"Your brother was at a training in Norfolk on the day of the murders," Gibbs interrupted, trading the careful neutrality of his voice for hard-edged anger, "you did this."
Zoe almost seemed physically struck by his words, and she dropped her chin to her chest, seemingly to compose herself. A moment later, she looked up again, this time her blue eyes cold and devoid of all emotion except disgust as she sat back in her chair, crossing her arms over her chest.
"My brother," she spat, "my idiot brother who couldn't follow two simple instructions. 'Stay in the house'. 'Burn the gloves'," she scoffed and looked at the ceiling, "I always said he was useless."
"I don't think your brother wears nail polish."
She seemed surprised by that, "what?"
He pulled one last photo from the folder and grabbed her hand to set it beside the blown up photo of a greenish-purple nail polish chip. The exact same shade painting Zoe's fingers.
"Perfect match."
Zoe looked up, glaring, but didn't say anything.
"Why," Gibbs asked, folding his suddenly homicidal hands tightly to keep them occupied.
Zoe gave him a bored look, "does it matter? I'm going to jail anyway."
"You'll be lucky not to get the chair," Gibbs countered.
Zoe thought about this and then shrugged again, "not worried. No jury will convict me."
Gibbs stood and moved to the far corner of the room to decrease the temptation to leap across the table. This girl had caused so much harm, so much death. He'd been watching Abby self destruct for days, cry until she had no more tears, stare into the black abyss of guilt for hours on end and sitting across from a killer, a friend turned enemy, so nonchalant about their actions, was proving to be too much. "You don't think so?"
"I know so," she stated confidently, "a little lace collar, long blonde hair and watery blue eyes. Parents are dead, brother in the navy? C'mon. Juries eat that stuff up. At most I'll get parole and a few mandated visits to a shrink."
Gibbs didn't have time to form a response before the door flew open and a streak of black attacked the suspect.
---
O'day had never seen someone move so fast. One moment Abby was standing beside him, breathing hard and fighting tears, but there. The next, she was gone and the door to the observation room was closing peacefully in her wake.
"It was your nail polish!" Abby's small fists pummeled into Zoe's lithe frame, pulling at her hair as they both tumbled across the table, "You were the one that tampered with grandpa's brakes and you were the one that started the fire that killed my family. You killed my family!"
Too soon Abby felt strong hands around her waist, lifting her off the other girl. Zoe lunged after her but O'day was already there, grabbing her from behind and swiftly slapping cuffs onto her wrists.
"What did I ever do to you?!" Abby screamed, hysterical and red-faced from the effort, "what did I ever do??" She sounded broken.
Zoe pulled hard against O'days grip on her arms, "you slept with my boyfriend you slut!" she shouted, "and I swear I'd kill them all over again if I could." She only sounded angry.
Abby could feel Gibbs' presence at her back, his chest vibrating as he spoke, but for some reason she couldn't hear him. Couldn't hear anything, couldn't think or feel.
She'd stopped struggling against him and realized it was because all she could process in that moment was the sound of Zoe's voice.
The same voice that had comforted her, brought her back from the edge just over an hour ago now sliced so deep she could feel herself bleeding from the inside out.
I swear I'd kill them all over again if I could.
Stopped moving and breathing.
All over again if I could.
She watched as O'day lead Zoe from the room. Her expression was cold and hard, her eyes flooded with hatred, holding Abby's gaze.
Without a thought, Abby followed out into the hallway.
"I don't know what's sadder," she heard herself say and watched as Zoe turned around, "the fact that you have no idea what it's like to be really loved, so that you would think I would do something like that…or the fact that now you have ruined so many lives because you were jealous of someone that was never even a threat."
"What are you talking about?" Zoe asked scornfully.
Abby took a ragged breath and took a small step forward, but Gibbs wasn't relinquishing his grip.
"He did come on to me. During one of our tutoring lessons," Abby said, aware that their display had attracted a small group of spectators of agents passing by, "But I didn't sleep with him. I told him I-" her voice cracked and she bit her lip, "I couldn't do that to a friend." She dropped her head to her chest and took a deep breath. They seemed harder to come by these days.
For a moment her mind was flooded with all the anger and hurt and guilt and betrayal that had been her life for the past week. The faces of her mother and father and grandfather and Bobby.
And suddenly she wasn't sad anymore
"But if I had, I guarantee you I would have been so good, he never would've thought of you ever again. Just like he's not going to now." Abby's chin trembled but only the raw edged fury was audible in her voice.
I'd kill them all over again.
"When you're away in prison, and that psychotic brain of yours is idle and rotting away and you know four padded white walls and a straight jacket better than your own name, I'll still be here. Still living. But you won't be. Because now you've not only ruined my life, but you've screwed up your brothers and yours too," Abby shook her head, a note of pity in her eyes, "You're parents would be so proud."
If I could.
She took another step forward, unbridled rage trembling in her voice. Her usually frenetic mind was single-mindedly focused on Zoe as she continued, "And you know what I hope? I hope you live a long, long, long time. And that you get to suffer through the maddening guilt and heartache of knowing that you ruined so many lives...for no reason at all. You're a sad person and you'll be getting off easy if you rot in hell."
With that she turned away, aware of shouting behind her as she took off at a full run through mounds of hands and chests and voices and slammed past someone getting off the elevator and jammed her fist against the buttons, willing to go anywhere, everwhere, and never come back.
But the elevator wasn't moving. The door wasn't closing. The world wasn't ending so she kept hitting the stupid elevator buttons until she could feel warm blood on her fingertips, but still couldn't bring herself to stop. Balled up fists of rage and desperation slammed against the panel in time with the pounding in her skull. Her vision was blurry and her legs felt weak and she was sure she was drowning because she just couldn't seem to breathe or think or talk.
If she had been able to do any of that she would have realized the warm, safe, solid body surrounding her wasn't a dream and she would have believed him when he said the nightmare was finally over.
TBC