Gibbs's death story begins...now. I have to thank TiVa WaS AlWaYs MeAnt 2 Be for the idea of Gibbs's death. It was all her/him.

Jimmy appeared in the Days Inn breakfast room with smudged rings around his bloodshot eyes and unbrushed hair sticking up at all angles. He looked around the small room and frowned. Ziva was sitting in the corner, at a table for two, and Abby was munching on a croissant with three empty seats around her on the other side of the room.

Since he still hated Ziva, he headed for Abby's table, taking a seat opposite her.

'Breena blames me,' he said despondently as he sat down. 'And she's right.'

Abby wavered for a second between agreeing and consoling him. In the end, her deeply buried good nature came out and she patted his arm. 'She's not right, Jimmy. You did nothing wrong. Some person wants to blackmail you using your kids. What did you do to deserve that?'

Jimmy sighed, his eyes welling up with tears. 'Oh, I'm sure I've done things to deserve that but they haven't. They're just kids; they haven't hurt anything.' He dissolved into a sobbing wreck, burying his face in his arms. 'Why would someone take innocent kids?'

Abby shushed him in what she hoped was a comforting manner. The company she had been keeping since her departure from NCIS had not been the kind that you worried about or consoled. Hard men with hard reputations to keep up did not want some girl's sympathy. She was out of practise with the whole there-there thing that she used to be so good at.

'He doesn't want to hurt them, though, right? He needs them for leverage, not to fulfil some sadistic desire.' She swallowed, lowering her eyes respectfully. 'Not like the guy who...killed...Gibbs.'

Jimmy looked up. 'Thanks Abby,' he whispered, large tears still rolling gluttonously down his stained cheeks.

He had spent the whole evening comforting his ex-wife and accepting the blame for the loss of their children. She had been too distraught to look after Georgia, their only remaining free child, so he had consoled a hysterical toddler as well. Of course, the three year old didn't understand that her siblings had gone, possibly forever, but any child senses when her mother is wailing and screaming and sobbing and yelling. And Jimmy had been left with the pieces of a broken family.

He needed Gibbs's old team to care about Arthur and Poppy's plight. He knew that they possessed compassion; he had seen it in them with so many of their cases with Gibbs. He was pretty sure that Gibbs had a rule against getting personally involved in a case, Rule 10, or something. Jimmy tried to pay as much attention as possible but Gibbs's intimidating presence always distracted Jimmy.

'I really appreciate you being here, Abby. I can't find them without you.' He looked up. 'Where is everyone?'

Abby shrugged. 'Still sleeping, I guess.'

Jimmy's eyes flashed in a way that Abby didn't think was possible from the submissive ME. 'Don't they understand that two children, two innocent lives are at risk? Two kids could die and they are sleeping? Who are they?'

Abby laid a hand on Jimmy's shoulder. 'They do care,' she assured him. 'It's just...I'm sure that NCIS are doing all they can...We are really just the back-up crew.'

Jimmy visibly deflated. He had pinned all his hopes on a group of life-weary people. 'You would have given everything up to find them when Gibbs was still alive,' he muttered. 'Did his death really change you that much?'

Abby lowered her eyes to hide the tears which automatically sprung into her eyes whenever he was mentioned. Because Gibbs, her beloved rock, was dead and she could never speak to him again, never feel his reluctant arms around her, never hear his gruff 'What've you got, Abbs?' again.

He was gone. In one instant, taken from all of them. The life snuffed out of him. And she could never get over the way it happened. It was sickening.

Gibbs came up behind Abby and walked round to squint at the screen on her wall. She moved next to him, their shoulders brushing together.

'So,' Gibbs said, nodding towards the picture of a white, scrawny guy with a severe case of acne. 'This is our guy?'

'This,' she told him theatrically, 'is Sidney Latimer, 39 years old.'

Gibbs screwed up his eyes even more and shifted closer to the screen. 'What did he get arrested for?'

Abby pursed her lips. 'Murder,' she revealed. 'He killed a man six years ago.' She raised her eyebrows. 'The victim insulted his mother. You know, how people say 'so's your mum' to everything nowadays...'

Gibbs looked blankly at her and Abby sighed.

'You really need to keep up with the times, come out of your basement more often.'

Gibbs looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to return to the point.

She complied, knowing that nothing she said would change Gibbs's diehard habits. 'Anyway, that's what this guy said to Sidney here and Sid killed him for it.' She frowned. 'Very protective of his mum, obviously. But, then, they say that most boys are. Were you a mummy's boy, Gibbs?'

Gibbs turned to her. 'Why is he out already?'

Abby walked back round to her computer and clicked on her mouse for a second. 'He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and got ten years.' She sighed and her face clouded over. 'He was released due to overcrowding. That's so awful, Gibbs. They just let murderers out on the street with no punishment. We go to all the trouble of catching them and then...'

Gibbs kissed her forehead. 'Good work, Abs.' Then he was gone. The last time she ever saw him. And she didn't even say goodbye.

Ziva munched on a piece of toast, her eyes glazing over. She had circles, similar to Jimmy's dark rings, around her eyes. She hadn't got much sleep the last night. Seeing the old team again had brought back memories which were hard, almost impossible, to stifle. The last few hours of Gibbs's life were replayed over and over in her mind.

Her stomach twisted every time his face appeared in front of her eyes. He was dead. And it was all her fault.

Oh, of course she knew that everyone blamed themselves. It was natural. But it hadn't been Abby's fault and it hadn't been McGee's fault and it certainly hadn't been Tony's fault whatever he insisted: no, it was truly her fault.

Nobody else was to blame. What if's kept running through her mind. If only she had...If only she hadn't...If this had happened Gibbs would still be alive...If that hadn't happened Gibbs would still be alive...If Gibbs was still alive they would still be together and Ziva's heart wouldn't have a gaping hole in it. They would be happy, together as a team. Like they had been. Not like now.

Tony and McGee next time. I had to leave Tony out of this chapter because, I swear, writing in a character who smokes just makes me crave cigarettes. If he comes into every chapter, I'm going to become a chain smoker. Perhaps if I get him to quit, I'll quit. Mmmm...unlikely. But, since he had bad lungs, though, perhaps it would be in the interests of the story, as well as my health, to get him to quit?