A/N: Last chapter in Stillwater (I almost typed Sweetwater! Seriously brain?!). I'm not sure about the last scene, it wasn't finished and I left it until the last minute. If it's awful I'll try and fix it at some point.

Chapter Fourteen: Memories and Promises

Rule #45: Never leave behind loose ends.

Abby was sitting in a rocker on the front porch, drinking lemonade and reading McGee's book when Gibbs walked up to the house.

"Hey!" she said, stopping the gentle back and forth rock she'd been enjoying. "You're back early." It had only been a couple hours since Gibbs had gone with Jackson to the store.

Gibbs paused at the bottom of the steps, pushing his hands into the pockets of his jeans. He tilted his head and stared at her with a look on his face that she couldn't quite read.

Abby waited a few seconds, then started to squirm. "What?" she asked, glancing down to make sure she hadn't spilled something on her shirt earlier.

"The porch, the rocking chair." Gibbs paused. "It suits you."

Abby felt her cheeks getting hot. "In what way?" she asked.

He didn't move. "Just does."

"You going to join me or just stare?" Abby set her book and glass of lemonade on the porch beside her.

"Nah." Gibbs pulled his hands out of his pockets. "Thought I'd show my new wife around town. If she wants."

If she wants? Abby squealed and jumped out of the chair, something that would have been a lot faster and more graceful had she not been six months pregnant. When she was finally upright she glared back at the rocking chair as if it had been its fault.

She heard Gibbs chuckle and leveled her glare down at him. He only smiled, inclining his head.

"C'mon."

Abby accepted the hand he offered her as she walked down the porch steps. She got a little smile on her face when Gibbs didn't let go and the two started walking down the street, hand in hand.

"So," Abby said as they walked, "you grew up in this house?"

"I did."

A breeze blew by, ruffling their hair and making the leaves on the trees dance. The neighborhood was beautiful, almost rural yet close to town. "Has Stillwater changed much since you were last here?" she asked, looking up at Gibbs.

He seemed to let out an involuntary chuff of laughter. "No, it hasn't changed much."

"So, tell me what has changed," Abby suggested as they turned onto a new street.

Gibbs pointed to a gnarled old tree off to the right. "That tree used to be a lot smaller."

"Gibbs!" she squealed, bumping him with her hip and leaning her head onto his shoulder.

He laughed again. "What? I don't remember every little thing, Abby."

"Remember something," she instructed him, determined to learn something from their walk.

Gibbs was quiet for a minute, then pointed. "The kid who lived in that house stole my first girlfriend."

Oooh, now this could be good. "How old were you?"

"Seven."

"Seven!" Abby squeaked. "Our son is not having a girlfriend until he's, at least, thirteen."

Gibbs looked amused.

They walked quietly down several streets until they reached Main Street. There, Gibbs paused and stared off into the distance.

Abby didn't press, this time, seeing something in his expression that made her think whatever he was thinking about was painful.

"There used to be a thrift store there," he said finally. Pointing across the street to an empty storefront for rent. "That's where I first saw Shannon."

The whole world seemed to slow down as Abby reflected on what a huge step this was for Gibbs. "Did she work there?" she questioned softly.

A single nod. "Used to change the clothes on the mannequin."

"She was beautiful," Abby murmured without thinking.

Gibbs was suddenly looking down at her with a frown on his face.

"Jackson has photo albums," Abby confessed, looking down at her feet. She was lousy at keeping secrets anyway. Hopefully, he wouldn't be too mad.

To her surprise, Gibbs didn't say anything, just tugged at her hand until she followed him down the street. She noticed him stiffen as they passed the General Store and very carefully not look inside. Abby glanced behind as they were passing and noticed Jackson doing the same thing from inside the store.

Obviously, something had happened between the two of them earlier. She bit her lip. Maybe she shouldn't have suggested that Gibbs go with Jackson earlier. She'd been hoping the two would talk and maybe make up, but apparently things hadn't gone so well.

She didn't want them to fight, didn't want them to be mad at each other. She just wanted everyone to get along. Was that so much to ask?

When they reached the edge of town, Abby could see overgrown train tracks and wooden benches under an overhang by what apparently used to be a train station. Gibbs led her over to the benches and pulled her down onto one of the seats. He let go of her hand, causing her to frown until he settled his arm over her shoulders.

She didn't hesitate to snuggle into his chest.

"Don't talk about my past much," Gibbs remarked.

Abby looked up at him. "Gibbs! I had no idea!"

He simply raised his eyebrows. "You wanna hear what I got to say or not?"

"Sorry," she murmured, settling her head back down on his chest. "Go on."

She felt his chest rise and fall with a deep breath. "That didn't seem to work well in my other marriages, but it's who I am."

"I don't expect you to change." Maybe other women expected that from their significant others, but Abby never had. How could she expect someone to accept her for who she was if she couldn't accept them for who they were?

"I'm gonna try," Gibbs said to her surprise. "Don't promise to do it often, but maybe if I talk a little I won't screw this one up."

Abby pulled away again, this time, to look up at him in shock. "You are not going to mess this up, Jethro. How could you think that?"

He tilted his head. "Gonna let me talk, Abbs?"

"Sorry." Abby pecks him on the cheek and returned to her former position, waiting patiently for Gibbs to begin.

"Joined the corps in '76." Abby could feel Gibbs' voice vibrate through his chest. "Met Shannon here, waiting for the train."

As much as Abby wanted Gibbs to talk to her about his past, things suddenly felt too serious and she couldn't stop herself from trying to inject some humor into the situation. "Wait, you left on a train? Just how old are you, anyway?"

He squeezed her side, not quite a pinch but harder than a tweak. Either way, it made Abby squeal. He was still staring off somewhere in the distance, but his lips twitched upward.

"Wait, you two didn't meet until you were eighteen?" Abby looked up at him. "How did you two live in the same small town and never meet?"

"Her parents moved away when she was small and they didn't move back until my senior year," Gibbs explained. "Wasn't real smooth with the ladies back then, so we'd never spoken."

"That's hard to believe," Abby said sincerely.

He looked down at her and smiled. "It's the truth."

Abby closed her eyes. "I know. You always tell me the truth."

"I try." She felt Gibbs' lips press against her forehead, his beard gently brushing against her face. She nuzzled closer, loving the roughness of it. She made a mental note to talk to him later, to make sure he wasn't planning on shaving it off anytime soon. Abby had come to love that beard.

She fiddled with one of the buttons on his shirt. "Jethro?" she asked softly, biting her lip. She felt rather than heard him try to look at her, but she kept her face angled down.

"Yeah?"

"What happened today?" she asked. "With Jack I mean."

Gibbs took a deep breath. "Nothing that hasn't happened a dozen times before," he finally said.

Abby pulled away, still tucked under his arm but able to sit up and look him in the eye. "Do we need to leave?" There wasn't an ounce of accusation in her tone, she did her best to show with those words that she would be on her husband's side, no matter what.

Even if she thought he was being an idiot and should just make up with his father.

Gibbs shook his head slowly. "Was planning on heading home tomorrow, no need to go until then."

She nodded slowly. "Okay." It hadn't really answered her question, but she supposed this was as much as she could realistically expect out of her husband. She'd known who he was when she married him, it would be stupid to think he'd change now.

He tugged on one of her braids and Abby put her head back down on his chest, closing her eyes to listen to the steady beat of his heart. She felt him take a deep inhale before speaking.

"After Mom left, things were okay."

Abby focused on relaxing her body when every cell wanted to jump up and do some kind of dance because Gibbs was opening up to her! Without a knife to his throat!

"I was still pretty young," Gibbs continued, pausing from time to time to nuzzle Abby's hair. "I lived with Dad, but I saw her all the time. When she got sick, she moved back in with us. Things were…tough after that. When she died, I was angry. I don't know if that will ever go away."

"I can understand that," Abby said slowly.

"Can't promise we'll be close, but I promise I won't let things go this long again."

Abby looked up at him with tears in her eyes. "I couldn't ask for anything more than that," she told him sincerely.

Gibbs smiled down at her and Abby couldn't look away from his clear blue eyes. She felt like she'd learned more about him in the past ten minutes than she had as long as she'd known him.

"Can we stop talkin' now?" He asked, raising his eyebrows.

Abby leaned up and brushed her lips across his. "Yeah," she murmured against his lips. "I'm okay with that."

xxx

Gibbs wandered into the garage after dinner, hoping for a few minutes to himself. Abby seemed to be getting along real well with his father, not that he'd expected otherwise. Abby loved everyone, and Jack had never had problems talking to women.

He sat down on a sawhorse off to one side of the freestanding building, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his thighs. Damn if being back here didn't make him feel like he was seventeen again.

And that fight with his father! It hadn't changed much over the years either. Gibbs was still angry and Jackson still didn't get it.

He knew Abby had really been hoping that he and his father would make up and be best friends during this trip, but Gibbs doubted that would ever be an option for them. They were just too volatile.

The best he could hope for was to make peace.

Maybe he could still be angry, but let it go. What had seemed like an impossible task shortly after losing Shannon and Kelly seemed much more reasonable now. He just needed to accept that he and Jackson were never going to see eye to eye on certain issues and maybe they could get past it.

If that was something his father even wanted.

Jackson hadn't really tried to keep in touch over the years either. It had been a kind of mutually agreed upon silence. If it hadn't been for Abby, who knows how much longer it would have gone on. Maybe until one of them was gone, who knew?

Gibbs sighed, looking around the garage. He hadn't bothered turning on a light, so everything was shrouded in shadows. Nearly dusk outside, not much light came in through the windows, but it was enough to see that most things were as they had been when he'd left.

This garage was full of memories to Gibbs. When he'd been fighting with Jackson, when he'd been having trouble with school, when his mother had been slowly withering away this was where he had come to escape. He'd tinkered around with an old 1971 Dodge Challenger RT Hemi he'd spent most of his money on. He'd had such plans for that car. He'd had every detail figured out, right down to how he would paint it when it was finished.

But he'd joined the Navy before that happened, and not long after had been married and then had a baby on the way. He'd pushed all thoughts of his teenage sports car dreams out of his head.

Gibbs barely registered the sound of the door opening before a light was flicked on and the entire room was flooded with bright yellow light.

"Leroy? You in here?" he heard his father call.

With a sigh, Gibbs stood up. Across the room, his father stood less than two feet from the door. "Right here."

Jackson shuffled across the room, dodging tools and, at least, three lawn mowers on his way to where Gibbs had been sitting. "Thought I'd find you out here."

Gibbs remained silent. He'd spent a lot of time out here in this garage, and not just working on his car. It was where he used to escape to when his parents were fighting. He used to quiet to collect his thoughts when things were tough, where he went to think about a certain redhead that hadn't known he was alive.

"You put in electricity," he remarked.

"Can't live in the dark ages." Jackson chuffed. "Gotta keep up with the times." He seemed to look pointedly at his son.

Gibbs sighed.

"Your wife told me I couldn't come back in the house until we kissed and made up. So Thanksgiving won't be awkward." Jackson chuckled. "Haven't been kicked out of my own house since your mother was alive."

Before he could think about it, Gibbs smiled. That was his Abby, getting people to do what they didn't want to.

Jackson's smile slowly faded into a more serious expression. "Why'd you come here, Leroy? I'm not necessarily complaining, just didn't expect to see ya after all these years."

"She wanted to meet you," Gibbs said. "Family's important to Abby."

Jackson nodded slowly. "Suppose it's hard to say no to that pretty little face."

He grunted in acknowledgment.

"Didn't think you wanted any more kids," Jackson remarked, looking at Gibbs through the side of his eyes.

"I didn't," Gibbs admitted. "Not until now."

Jackson thought out his next words. "I get the feeling there's a lot more to that story than either of you have told me."

Gibbs stayed quiet. Abby had been fairly open with everyone else about the baby's true parentage, but they hadn't talked about what to tell Jackson. As far as he was concerned, the choice was Abby's if she wanted him to know this wasn't his biological grandchild, or if she wanted to explain about Mikel. Gibbs had eluded to it when Jackson had asked if the baby was his, but nothing definite had been said and the rest was Abby's story to tell if she wanted it told at all.

Likely realizing that Gibbs wasn't going to respond, Jackson nodded slightly and spoke. "Don't want to fight anymore, Leroy. That girl of yours is right, family's important. I want to see my grandson grow up."

For a moment, Gibbs felt a tightness in his chest. So did he.

"How about a peace offering?" Jackson suggested.

Gibbs raised his eyebrows. "Peace offering?"

Jackson nodded and walked over to one side of the garage where a large dust cloth covered something vaguely car-shaped. He looked directly at his son as he pulled the cloth away.

Gibbs stared at the bright yellow car Jackson uncovered in shock. It was exactly the way he'd imagined it, completely finished with a glossy shine. The fact that Jackson had kept it stunned him, the fact that he'd fixed it up the exact way Gibbs had always wanted it left him downright flabbergasted.

He swallowed hard, trailing his fingertips lightly over the hood. "Dad," he said, his voice catching.

"Thought someday you might come back for it," Jackson remarked.

Gibbs looked up at his father. "I don't know what to say."

"Of course, you can't fit a car seat in it." Jackson leaned his hip against the car. "Didn't realize you were going to be expanding the family."

"Neither did I," Gibbs responded.

Jackson reached into his pocket and tossed Gibbs a set of keys. "You wanna take her for a ride?"

Gibbs couldn't stop the wide smile spreading over his face. "Can't think of anything I'd like more."

xxx

Abby stared at the yellow blur as it passed by the kitchen window. Elbow deep in suds as she washed up the dishes from dinner, she could have sworn she heard a shout of glee coming from the car.

She heard the door open and close before Jackson entered the kitchen, his shuffling steps having become familiar to her.

She rinsed off her hands and dried them on a dish towel that had an orange and avocado green floral design on it. "What on God's green earth was that, Jackson?" she demanded to know.

The man in question had a smug smile on his face. "A peace offering."

Abby looked out the window again, but the yellow vehicle was long gone. "That was the car Gibbs was fixing up, wasn't it?" she asked, knowing the answer even before Jackson answered.

"Sure is."

She flung her arms around Jackson with tears glittering in her eyes. "Thank you," she murmured, squeezing him tight.

"Didn't do nothin'," was Jackson's glib response.

"Shut up," Abby muttered, pulling away from him. "You made him happy. That's a lot."

Jackson's face softened, looking down at the floor with a wry smile. "It's never been easy," he agreed.

"No," Abby said softly. "It hasn't."

Jackson put his arm around Abby and led her over to the kitchen table, where they sat down across from each other. "You make him smile," he told her. "You make him happy."

Abby blushed. That was what she wanted, to make Gibbs happy. "Sometimes I just frustrate him."

"Wouldn't be love if you didn't. Hate isn't the opposite of love, you know, it's indifference. Knew my marriage was over when I just didn't care anymore what she did."

Abby stared at the gruff man sitting across from her in amazement. "How is it that you can say things like that and yet produced a son who communicates solely in grunts?"

Jackson gave a bark of laughter. "He may have gotten his stubbornness from me, but he got his communication skills from his mother. I was never quite sure where I stood with that woman."

"He is getting better," Abby said, not wanting Jackson to think she and Gibbs never talked. "I doubt he'll ever be a big talker, though."

"Probably not." Jackson reached out and covered Abby's hands with his own.

"I don't know what I'd do without him," Abby found herself saying. "I haven't had a problem in years that he didn't help solve in one way or another."

Jackson was quiet, his papery hands giving hers a gentle squeeze.

"He isn't the baby's father," Abby blurted out.

"That's not what he told me."

Abby sighed. "Not the biological father anyway."

Jackson didn't break eye contact. "You don't have to tell me, Abby."

"I know." She shrugged. "It's not like it's a secret anyway."

Jackson waited, showing no outward signs of impatience as Abby struggled to collect her words. It was harder telling someone who didn't really know her. She didn't want Jackson to think badly of her.

"My last boyfriend wasn't exactly stable." Abby took a deep breath. "When we broke up he started stalking me."

Jackson's grip on her hands tightened.

"Normally I would have gone to Gibbs," she continued, "but he was dealing with his own stuff. So I got a restraining order, which he ignored, and tried to handle it on my own. When I found out I was pregnant, I just wanted to run away. So I did."

Jackson looked puzzled, and Abby remembered that he didn't know anything that had gone on in Gibbs' life the past few years.

"Gibbs was in Mexico," Abby explained, "so I went to Mexico."

"What was he doing in Mexico?" Jackson leaned forward.

Abby smiled. "The Director called it his 'Margarita Safari'. He was doing the same thing I wanted to; hiding from life."

Abby continued on in the story, telling Jackson about her time in Mexico and her father's heart attack. When she reached the part about her asking to come meet him, he looked awestruck.

"That boy doesn't treat you right, you tell me and I'll tan his hide," Jackson stated firmly. "I'm not kidding either."

"I know you aren't."

Jackson pulled his hands away when the front door screen slammed shut. Abby's mouth twitched upwards when Gibbs entered the room, looking about ten years younger with windswept hair and bright pink cheeks.

Jackson pushed away from the table and stood up. "I'd better make sure the car gets put away properly." He took the keys from Gibbs on his way out the door.

Gibbs walked across the kitchen and took Jackson's place across the table from Abby. He raised his eyebrows and waited.

"You are not driving my son around in a racecar," Abby teased him.

"You can change the subject all you want, Abbs. Still know you two were talkin' about me."

She decided to ignore him. "Do we have to leave tomorrow?" she asked wistfully. She loved Stillwater. And Jackson. She was going to miss them both.

Gibbs nodded. "Don't want to bring trouble here."

"Oh." Abby frowned, knowing Gibbs was right. Even after confiding in Jackson, it was easy to forget the ever present threat of Mikel. If he showed up and Jackson got hurt she'd never forgive herself.

Gibbs heaved a sigh. "We can come back sometime if ya want."

A smile immediately spread across Abby's face. She hadn't expected him to agree to another visit for at least a month or two after they left. "After the baby's born?" she suggested.

"We'll see." Gibbs clearly wasn't ready to commit to anything, but Abby still viewed this as a win.

Her smile slowly drifted away. "Have you heard from McGee today?" she asked, thinking about Mikel again.

Gibbs nodded. "Nothing new."

Abby took a deep breath and sat up in her chair. She was not going to let Mikel ruin her last night in Gibbs' hometown. "Jackson told me about the diner in town. I thought maybe we could all go there for dinner?" She fixed her sweetest smile on her husband.

Gibbs groaned. "They all know me there, Abbs."

"That's the point." Abby beamed at him.

Since this chapter wasn't super exciting, here's a sneak peek of what's coming up next:

As she opened the door she knew instantly that she should have checked who it was before answering.

"Mikel." Abby took a step back, her hands instinctively covering her stomach. "You, you shouldn't be here."