Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Warning: Attempted Rape in the last part of this chapter. It's small but it is there. Just a warning.
Gibbs leaned back in his chair contentedly, having greatly enjoyed watching Vance being led away by armed men, the Sec-Nav following closely. He had made a speech to the NCIS employees, saying that Vance was being investigated in connection to a crime, but that he was innocent until proven guilty. Tony had shouted out that he was scum and they all knew he was guilty as sin, before being drowned out by the voices of the rest of NCIS, who were all agreeing with him. Jethro had never felt more proud of his team, and in fact everyone he worked with, than in that moment. They were all going out to celebrate that justice had been done to Vance and Gibbs had been invited, he had been floating on the high from the arrest, so he had agreed. Now though he wasn't so sure he wanted to go. He had a bottle of bourbon in his basement and a half finished, well mostly finished, Kelly waiting for him to work on.
"Gibbs! Come on you'll be late!" Abby skipped up to his desk and excitedly jumped on the spot, her long black coat covering her tiny skirt, which Gibbs had been worrying about. Surely she must be freezing on a night out wearing something so short? It couldn't be healthy. The coat gave him a little more hope that Abby did actually take her health seriously, you should never disregard your body, you never know when you may contract a deadly illness… She's not dead; she never had an illness, stop being silly! Gibbs blinked up in to Abby's animated face and then smiled despite himself. Her happiness was contagious.
"Yeah, Abby will drink all the booze if we don't get there fast." DiNozzo said pulling on his own coat, his head shooting forwards as Ziva slapped him. "Hey!" he spun around, disbelief etched on his face. Hadn't she just been in front of him putting her coat on? How the hell? Ziva chuckled and pulled her bag from her desk.
"You said you would come, Gibbs…" Abby's face fell as she realised he was wondering how he could get out of it and her expression took on that of a kicked dog. Gibbs felt his conscience scream at him and he realised she had him wrapped around her finger. He let out a sigh and she quite rightly took it as surrender. She began jumping up and down squealing gleefully again, grabbing a passing McGee and pulling him into a jumping Abby hug. Gibbs stood, taking pity on McGee, who looked like his head was being gradually uncorked in Abby's arms.
"Alright Abs, let's go."
--
Jenny brushed her hair, quickly pulling it up in a ponytail and pulling her hood up. She glanced at herself in the mirror to make sure her distinctive hair couldn't be seen and then smiled; putting her gun in her bag. If she was discovered, they wouldn't get a visual ID unless they got close enough to pull off her hood. She checked her concealed weapons just in case she needed them, the knife at her waist and the tiny blade in her boot present and accounted for. She packed the pictures of her targets, just in case she needed them and the extra ammo that Gregory had gotten for her, and then swung her bag over her shoulder. She was ready and this time she had no excuse for failure. Trent wanted them dead so she would kill them.
First up tonight was the Goth, she would be the easy target and once she was dead she would review her options. The girl tended to work late, although tonight she may be going to the pub with the other traitors. An inebriated target would be easy, they can't formulate an argument for why they should live and the girl had no danger senses like the Hamas terrorist. She walked through the door to her bedroom and flicked off the light, closing the door behind herself. She sneaked down the hallway and began to walk down the stairs, pausing when she heard voices coming from the kitchen. Three male voices, all familiar and yet she could only put a name to two; Trent and Gregory. What they were saying finally reached her ears and she became rooted to the stairs, straining to hear more. This was important and more than likely connected to her mission.
"…collected enough evidence to identify not only you, but Jenny as well." The strange voice said sternly, like he was scalding an errant child.
"I trust you stopped them pursuing us?" Trent said, the steel in his voice making it clear he didn't appreciate the new person's tone.
"Of course, but the damage is done. They got hold of the fake autopsy report and somehow discovered the drugs."
"How? You were supposed to sterilise the room and everything in it."
"I 'suggested' it to Vance. He thought it was symbolic." They shared a laugh. "The good news is they think he did it so we are safe for now."
"What are you going to do with him?" Gregory asked, a slight tremor in his voice, almost like he was empathising with this Vance.
"I'm keeping him in jail, what I do depends on how successful our little executioner is."
They began to move from the kitchen to the living room so Jenny sank back into the shadows and remained perfectly still as the men walked through the hall, past her hiding place. That man, she thought, I know him, I'm sure I do. He was quite tall and expensively dressed with the general air of the self important, who know they are invaluable. She narrowed her eyes at him, trying to remember where she had seen him before, but nothing came. She let out the breath she had been holding and carefully descended the rest of the stairs, pulling out her key and unlocking the door and then pausing to listen for discovery. The only sound was male laughter from the living room, so she pulled open the door and slipped out in to the night.
It was dark outside, not true dark though, the sun had barely set so there was still a little colour in the sky. Jenny took a deep breath of the cool crisp air and then set off towards the Navy yard. The pub they went to was quite close to work, so they would more than likely go together. She would have to watch and wait for the Goth girl to come out, and then she could follow her home, or take her out in the alleyway. Perhaps she could attract her attention and lead her away from the group. The walk was quite a long one and so Jenny couldn't help her mind wandering to the other targets.
Timothy; the man she had failed to shoot twice. She couldn't kill him then, she couldn't kill him now. The Hamas terrorist; she had tried to shoot her but missed, hitting another person by mistake. She refused to believe that she had aimed for the other person because it made no sense to her at all. Why would she do that? The Goth girl; she was her next target and there was nothing that could save her, she would make it quick so she couldn't speak or dodge. The Italian; she would have no difficulty taking him out; he seemed very superficial like he's hiding who he really is. And last but not least the mystery grey haired man; he seemed to be the leader of the terrorist traitors and he was the one Trent needed her to kill. Well she was definitely going to go for him tonight; she wanted to prove herself to Trent, whose faith in her abilities was failing. Trent, he was another problem. She had brought a syringe with her in the hopes she could find out what it was. All she had to do was spill some at the scene of the murder of one of her targets and then listen for Trent's associate to tell them what they had found. She would know what to do then. If he was helping her with the drug, she would finally be able to put her mind at rest. If not, she would put a bullet in his head herself.
--
Abby knocked back another shot of the blue stuff, once again beating McGee, only Tony and Ziva were keeping up with her. Ziva carefully placed her glass back on the bar for a refill, the alcohol appearing to not have affected her at all. The bartender poured more in the shot glasses, this time something green. He said the name of it, but Abby wasn't listening to him. She reached for her glass, clanking it with the others, while trying to keep the liquid in the glass and giggling as the effects of ten shots made it seem like much more effort than it should be. Knocking back that one quickly, she grinned fully at the bartender, who smiled suggestively back. Yikes that was fast, she thought, the alcohol making the guy seem much more attractive than he would have been had she still been sober. McGee seemed to take offense at the guy's blatant interest and proceeded to drink Abby's next shot, which she didn't appreciate one bit. She stood up and grabbed his arm, pulling him to face her and angrily shouted at him.
"Hey! What did you do that for?" he stared her down for a second before losing his nerve and quietly mumbling something back. She blinked at him uncomprehendingly so he said it louder.
"I thought I saw him put something in it." her eyes widened a little in shock and gratitude until common sense penetrated her brain.
"So… why did you drink it?" McGee looked stricken for a moment, his head dropping in his hands.
"Oh no." Abby pulled him into a hug and then waved Gibbs over to her. He nodded in acknowledgement and she signed to him what had happened. He stood up and walked to them, the anger radiating from him seeming to part the drunks like the red sea, so he didn't even get jostled.
"I'll take him home; you can come with me too. I'll drop you off on the way."
"No Gibbs, I don't want to go home yet! I'll stay here with Tony and Ziva." At Gibbs' less than happy glare at his very fresh Senior Field Agent, Abby hastily added. "And Ducky, I'll stay with Ducky!" the old ME raised a small glass of Scotch to him, his hand steady and his mind clear, making Gibbs waver. "I promise I'll be good." The innocent statement made him agree and Abby cheered, dashing over to Ducky before Gibbs changed his mind. She watched him walk out with McGee and then quietly told Ducky what had happened.
"Ah, well I think it is about time our Agents did some arresting then, don't you?" he tapped Tony's shoulder and whispered in his ear, making the young man jump up from his seat and turn a concerned eye on her.
"You ok Abby?" she nodded and he returned the gesture, whispering loudly in Ziva's ear, the two rounding the bar from opposite ends so the tender couldn't escape.
The tender looked up just then and saw them advancing. He knew who they were so he didn't even give them a second glance as he vaulted the bar and raced out the door. Tony and Ziva raced after him and Abby decided to join them. She never got to see the good stuff, the arrests and the chases, this would be fun! Her fuzzy mind told her that was an excellent decision so she ran out in to the night after them, Ducky calling her name. She ignored him and ran down the alleyway opposite the bar, where the guy must have gone. She ran for a few minutes until she realised she couldn't hear anyone around her. In fact, there was no noise at all, except the distant sound of cars.
"Darn, lost them!" she cursed and turned around, wondering where exactly she was. Oh god I'm lost, Gibbs is going to kill me… She started back down the alley she had just run down, not sure how far she had come from the bar. She reached into her pocket for her phone, only to realise she wasn't wearing her coat and therefore didn't have a pocket. Just then a shuffle to her left made her spin around and a figure emerged from the shadows, the light spilling on quite a large man.
"You lost honey?" Abby's blood ran cold and she did a quick inventory of what she had with her. A short sleeved shirt and a mini skirt. Shit. She hadn't even worn the one with a chain around it; she would then have at least had some sort of weapon. The guy moved closer and looked around, noting that she was alone. Very alone. Abby moved away from him slowly, trying to make her way to the exit of the alleyway. He stalked closer to her, his casual lope making Abby even more terrified. That was not the walk of someone who hadn't done this before. She had picked a bad time to run away from the pub. Gibbs and McGee were gone, Tony and Ziva were chasing someone and Ducky was old and quite slow. Even if he was following her, he wouldn't get there in time to save her. She felt a scream bubbling up in her throat as the guy decided he had had enough fun intimidating her and walked straight for her. Abby turned and bolted for safety, knowing she wouldn't make it. The guy grabbed her from behind a second later, her scream finally ripping its way out of her throat as he threw his weight on her, pushing her to the floor. He pulled her around on to her back and covered her mouth with his hand, his other trying to catch both her arms and pin them above her head.
"Shhh there's no one around. Who do you think can hear you? The only people around here are more like me. Want me to share you with them?" she shook her head, tears running from her eyes as his twisted logic entered her mind. She didn't want this to happen even once, more would be unbearable.
He grabbed her short skirt and made as if he was going to pull it off, but an ear shattering sound made him stop. He sat up and put a shaking hand to his neck, where Abby realised blood was pouring out of a small hole. She screamed again and wriggled away from him, trying to avoid the blood that was splattering her. He choked and then fell sideways, his choking stopping and his eyes fixing on a point somewhere above her head before closing, his breathing stopping completely. Abby stared at him her sobs loud in the night. She turned around looking for the person that had saved her from a fate worse than death and spotted another figure in the darkness. She shrank back, the man's words of others like him resounding in her head until she realised the figure was a woman. The gun was still raised, in no particular direction but ready to fire again regardless. In that second Abby realised who it was and said the first thing that came to mind, and coincidentally, the only thing that would save her from being shot.
"Mommy?" the gun lowered as the figure recoiled and then ran away. At first Abby thought she had scared her away, but then a sound penetrated her ears.
"Abigail?!" Ducky was calling her name frantically, footfalls loud and regular were approaching her position and she realised there were too many to be just Ducky. She froze up again. Was she going to get Ducky killed by the other rapists out tonight?
"Abby! Abby?" Ziva and Tony were calling for her too. She tried to shout out to them, to let them know where she was but she couldn't. She was shaking and her throat was tight with crying, the last thing she saw before passing out was her family running towards her from the alley mouth.
