A/N: I see, you are enjoying this :-) Let's try to clear things up a little... or not. Did Abby notice anything?
Chapter 10
He blinked. Emerald green eyes were staring at him; beautiful and shocked. The pale skin of Abby's face was framed by her long black tousled hair. Trembling with agitation, he didn't even try to fight the coughing fit caused by his labored breathing.
When the coughing had eased down again, he felt Abby's palm lying on his forehead. Cool. Pleasant and yet unpleasant. Welcomed and unwanted at the same time.
She was crouching beside the couch. Did she notice anything? Did he moan? Had he spoken in his sleep? His breathing still was unsteady and he was noticeably aroused. She had to have noticed something.
"You are feverish again," she whispered. Her voice was thin and shaky.
He didn't dare to look at her. It had been the most vivid dream he had ever had about her. This time, however, it had happened to be very intense at the very wrong time.
Groaning, Gibbs propped up his leg, bending his knee, to try to hide his aching hard member from Abby's view. Backing away from her touch, he turned his face away from her. He had difficulties shaking away the pictures that were still buzzing around in his head.
Moving her hand from his forehead, Abby stood up. With a sad look on her face and fighting back tears, she went into the kitchen to get a cool cloth for him.
Writhing in anguish, Gibbs turned to lie on his side, facing away from the room and burying his face in his pillow. He still felt shaky with arousal. Damn, this had only been a dream, but it had simply come around at a very wrong time. Gibbs tried to grab hold of a coherent thought, but his vision blurred and he closed his eyes, swallowing hard and fighting against his racing pulse.
Before Abby returned with a cool cloth, that she thoughtfully ran over his neck and forehead, he had drifted off to sleep again; a welcomed distraction from an otherwise pleasurable way of waking up. But since he had fallen asleep on the couch, this upcoming day was already doomed. Days like this, when he had fallen asleep on the couch the previous night, always used to end up miserably.
And sure enough the day turned out strange.
-x-
Gibbs woke to bright daylight, feeling exhausted. He remembered having woken up on the couch earlier, when it still had been dark, with Abby staring at him and telling him, he was running a fever again. He didn't doubt that his skin had been heated. It felt as if it still was. Maybe she had been right; maybe he had suffered a relapse.
He got up and shuffled to the kitchen. His muscles were hurting again.
Abby was standing at the counter, pouring a mug of coffee. When she turned around, to walk over to the kitchen table, she was so startled seeing him standing in the door frame, that she dropped the mug full with coffee.
Gibbs narrowed his eyes, watching as Abby cleaned up the mess. She hadn't expected him to wake up so soon.
"Hey, you okay?" Gibbs asked with a raspy voice.
"Yeah." Her answer came all too quick. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why ... why are you asking?" She tried to sound as if nothing had happened. But her nervousness was all too obvious.
"You're jumpy." He slowly dragged himself across the kitchen and sat down at the kitchen table.
"You were sneaking up on me." Nervously, Abby was looking for excuses.
"You didn't get much sleep recently," Gibbs croaked back carefully.
"I did sleep well, last night. In fact it was the best sleep I've had in days," Abby told him, while avoiding looking at him. She quickly turned around, hiding her face from him deliberately. "Want me to make you coffee?" she changed the subject.
Coffee? Gibbs drew a face.
"Share your tea with me?" he asked.
He had decided to not mention last night's incident. Even if nothing had given away that it had been Abby he had been dreaming about - and unfortunately he couldn't even be completely sure about that count of indictment - she obviously had picked up enough of it to feel uncomfortable.
He couldn't blame her. He hoped that if he never addressed it, if he simply sat it out, it would not affect their friendship.
And Abby? Abby had made a decision as well. Should her silver-haired fox ever address what had happened last night, she'd deny it.
He had. Been running. A fever!
Tbc..