Sorry it took soooo long to get this next chapter out. Hope you all like it.

Chapter 10- The Lingering Silence

"Gibbs, what's wrong with Tony?" Asked a quiet and fearful voice as it came towards Gibbs.

Gibbs, himself, whished he had an answer. He'd been asking himself that very question for hours. However, he still questioned the person sat quietly beside him.

"What do ya mean Abby?" Though if he was honest he knew exactly why he was asking, he could have just been imagining things after the long day and night from trying to find Tony, Abby being more about emotions may not have seen what he had seen. The person next to him sighed heavily and responded, her voice increasing with worry as she spoke.

"You can't say you didn't see it Gibbs," She was barely able to keep her volume down now she was out of the room, "That isn't Tony in there, Not our Tony, what did that guy do? What did we do?" By this point Abby would have usually been getting hysterical. Yet, she wasn't. Nothing was as it should be and nobody knew what to do. Gibbs settled for the usual response.

"He'll be okay Abby, this is Tony we are talking about."

A nurse came out of their friend's room and offered them both a small smile. Silence followed the Nurse's soft footsteps and Abby answered the statement with a question that neither wanted to believe.

"But what if he's not?" the other questions lost in the depth of the desperation in the tone. And the silence lingered again.

Both of the people waiting in the waiting room simply stared at a room directly in front of them, the room holding one of the most important people to them. Yet the person it contained seemed unaware of their affections, simply putting on a show for them, like when they had first met, as if he was trying to convince himself that everything was fine, even if it wasn't. They saw right though it but didn't know how to fix it. It had taken Tony being put in hospital when he'd been on the team a month or two before he had really started to trust them.

In her head Abby was going over and over stepping into Tony's room when she had finally been allowed. The first thing she had done was hug him, just so that she could feel he was still alive, still there. The lack of reaction from him signalled something was wrong and it made her release her hold on him and look deep in to his eyes. There was something missing and she didn't know how to fix it. Tony had tried to laugh it off of course but Abby hadn't fallen for it or the obsessive movie references. He'd been a little too Tony, if that made sense Abby thought.

The fact that no matter how much they pestered the nurses, they still weren't allowed to stay in the room with Tony as if he didn't want them there; was harder for Abby as she hadn't heard Tony's responses to the rest of the team finding him. She didn't know that he had tried to run away from them all. Gibbs hadn't had the heart to tell her. They both looked up as they heard footsteps coming towards them. McGee and Ducky had glum looks on their faces, before either of the two sat down could ask anything, Ducky started to speak in a soft tone.

"Ah, Jethro, any word on Anthony?" he questioned and didn't miss the slight grimace on his friends face.

"They have his temperature down; other than that, no change." Abby looked between all three of them and sensed something was 'hinky'.

"What's going on guys? What aren't you telling me?" Her voice wavered ever so slightly. Were they hiding something about Tony?

"Nothing." Replied McGee a little too quickly. Abby's eyes flared, she got up swiftly and started poking at McGee's chest each time she said a word, as if to emphasize what she said.

"You can't honestly look in his eyes and tell me it is nothing! What. Aren't. You. Telling. Me!"

"Abby." Gibbs warned. She spun round and faced him, a deadly look in her eye.

"No, Gibbs. I need to know. I need to know so that I can at least try and fix it!" By now Abby was shouting and fighting the tears in her bright eyes from falling, she needed to know how to fix her friend, or maybe, even if it was possible. Gibbs sighed and motioned for Abby to sit next to him, mirroring the positions they had previously sat in. McGee and Ducky kept silent, hoping that Gibbs' next words wouldn't distress their friend more so than she already was.

"Abby," Gibbs started but then wasn't sure whether to continue or not, seeing the look in her eye now however forced him to, "he didn't want to be rescued." He saw the confusion spread across her face as he said it.

"What do you mean, didn't want to be rescued. Of course he did. Oh my god, Green made him not want to live. Didn't he? Made him think that he wasn't worth rescuing-" Gibbs could barely get a word in while Abby was ranting so he placed his hands on her flailing arms. She stopped immediately and looked directly at him; a frown appearing on her face.

It took a moment but all the looks between the other three now Tony was in hospital, and what she had said when she had originally been told about Tony being fired, all fell into place. Gibbs heart ached at the way her expression turned from angry ranting to complete desperation and almost pleading.

"But, he….he wouldn't not want to be rescued by us….we….we're his family…" She tried to rationalize it in her mind, but she couldn't, she couldn't lose part of her family because of a mistake they had made.

"Abby, I'm sorry." Gibbs spoke softly. Abby's expression suddenly changed to fury.

"No Gibbs! You did this! You didn't listen to him! He won't do it. He needs us and we need him!" She really didn't know who to be angrier at. Tony, no she couldn't blame him, he hadn't been given a chance to explain what had happened. Gibbs, for not listening to Tony or Vance for giving Gibbs the idea that Tony was a traitor in the first place. Speaking of Vance, she would have to do something about him. All of a sudden Abby was up and moving towards Tony's room, anger clear on her face.

Gibbs, Ducky, and McGee were too shocked at her actions to stop her in time. When they had shaken off the shock they followed. They got there just in time to see her grab Tony, making him flinch away from her, and started to shout at him.

"Come on Tony, you have to see that we care, you're part of our family." Tears were streaming down her face. She looked in his eyes to find something that she could salvage, he blinked but the walls remained behind his eyes and he didn't express anything on his face.

Tony had been surprised at finding Abby storming into his room, though he had also expected it if she were to ever find out why he had run away from them.

Yet, even with Abby here, right in front of him telling him that they cared, telling him he was part of their family, he still couldn't believe it. Abby hadn't done anything wrong, but hadn't helped either. Though he couldn't hurt her, never could. He looked down and picked at the sheet covering him with the hand that wasn't plastered. Abby only heard him because she was so close to him. They were both unaware of the three other people in the room; hoping that Abby could get through to Tony.

"I'm sorry Abby-" But he was cut off when she stopped him, she knew where this was going and didn't like it one bit. Fighting back more tears she lowered her voice a little.

"Don't do this Tony, don't say goodbye, please. We need you. I need you." She pleaded with him.

It killed him to be doing this to Abby but she needed to hear it. "Even if you did, would it change anything? Would it change what Vance thought."

"No, but-" Abby started to argue back, trying to reason with him. Trying anything.

"Then what can you do?" He asked. Showing nothing on his face, as if all the emotion had escaped through the breath he had just taken. Not even a slither of the Tony they knew was present in the room.

It was a simple enough question but everyone in the room knew that the answer was harder to get to than they knew. The atmosphere became tense; nobody spoke as they tried to find an answer to the question that was on all their lips…

TBC

This seemed a good place to stop, though I'm sure this isn't my best chapter. Enjoy it though, I will try and post again ASAP, the exams start next week so I'm not sure how much time I will have. Thanks for reading and please review!