CHAPTER 14
It took Vance a few days to realise that he never saw all of Team Gibbs in the same place at the same time, any other team and he probably wouldn't have noticed but that lot were usually joined at the hip. Standing at the top of the stairs his eyes swept the room and seeing no-one but McGee he hurried down.
"Agent McGee, where are the rest of your team?"
"Uh, Gibbs and Tony are out running down a lead, Ziva is interviewing witnesses"
"Leaving you here alone to do what?"
McGee looked confused "Um, run down financial records"
"So I should see all of you here in a few hours?"
"Don't see why not, Sir"
Vance walked away but McGee knew he would be watching closely so rather than reach for his cell, he sent a high priority e-mail from his PC "Vance expects to see you all back here later today"
Tony grimaced when he saw the message and called Gibbs.
"Damn that man! Pick me up on the way back to the Yard"
Gibbs quickly ruled out Ducky, he'd be up to his eyes in the double autopsy so he called Fornell, who promised to juggle things around and be there as soon as he could be.
Fornell and Tony arrived at the same time.
"Ziva's already back and Vance is prowling" Tony was quick to update his boss.
"Let's get going then, Tobias, one of us will be back as soon as we can"
"I don't understand why you don't just tell the man Jethro, but I'll play this your way"
The smirk was wiped off Vance's face when he saw Gibbs and Tony breeze into the office together.
Shortly after the triumphant return, McGee left to take over from Fornell.
McGee was nervous around Abby, scrap that he was absolutely terrified. Terrified of saying or doing the wrong thing, terrified that he would be the one that made her worse, terrified that if she tried to leave or to hurt herself he wouldn't be able to stop her.
He sat with her in an un-natural and uncomfortable silence. When this became unbearable he started to talk, his words started out as a hesitant trickle but rapidly became an unintelligible babble. He talked about anything and everything previous cases, tech, games, anything and everything except the things he really wanted to say.
After a while he realised that nothing he was saying was making any sense and was getting no reaction from Abby so he lapsed back into silence letting his thoughts drift.
He was supposed to be an investigator but he had missed every clue that something was different in Abby's life. He'd missed all the signs that something was wrong with the woman he had once believed he would marry.
His incompetence has caused this, he worried that she would never forgive him, that the rest of the team would never forgive him.
Gibbs had to blame him, he was supposed to be her friend and he had let her down, he hadn't had her six and in his bosses eyes that was a crime with no hope of forgiveness.
Tony would hold this against him for the rest of his life. Using it, rightfully, to destroy any confidence he might build up.
He worried most about Ziva, his cowardice had forced her to go back into her past and become someone she thought she had left behind.
This whole thing was his fault, maybe he should just quit, leave, they would probably be thankful, not having to wonder when his next screw up would happen, wondering when the next person would be damaged by his incompetence.
McGee looked up to find Gibbs standing, looking at him, a strange expression on his face, an expression of compassion, of understanding.
No, he would stay; he would find a way to make this up to Abby, to make it up to all of them.