Disclaimer: not mine never was and never will be….

Rating T

Not beta-ed

Once again, Thank you guys for all the kind words, I'm dedicating this chapter to all of you who reviewed and encouraged me!! I hug you all in my mind.

This is the last chapter of this story; I hope you all liked it!

I also want to thank all of you guys who kept coming back to read the story till the end :)

One last time: R&R! Enjoy.!

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Chapter 20

The first think he noticed was the smell of disinfectant, the telltale sign of a hospital.

He felt the presence of someone else in the room, but he wasn't ready to open his eyes yet.

He wasn't ready for the bad news he might get, so he did what seemed easier at that time; he let the rest of the anesthesia in his body drag back into the darkness of sleep.

-

She woke up when she felt a hand softly touch hers.

She tried to move back, away from whoever was near her, to afraid to open her eyes; not before she heard Ducky's voice she relaxed.

"Abigail dear it's me."

"Ducky" Her voice seemed even strange in her ears.

She opened her eyes and was greeted with a smile.

The black haired woman struggled to get up, but Ducky placed his bandaged hand upon her shoulder.

"Don't move."

She relaxed back into the white sheets of the bed.

"What happened?" She asked weakly.

"You had luck my dear, thanks to Timothy, he stopped the bullet that was reserved for you with his upper arm, he is in surgery now." He paused and took her hand in his.

"Oh God." Her eyes were full of unshed tears. "What about Ziva, Tony, you and Gibbs."

Ducky wasn't able to say something.

She sat up with a force, which caught Ducky off guard.

Her voice loud in the room, her face showed sorrow. "Gibbs."

"My dear calm down, he is fine, we all are fine. Lie back and try to relax I get a doctor."

"I want to see him, where is he and Tony and Ziva where are they?" She said still with a firm voice but lay back down.

"First let the doctor has a look, and then we see."

-

Ten minutes later she knew for sure that she had not one but two broken ribs, a concussion and a cracked arm plus dozens of bruises.

That explained the plaster around her arm she thought, while listening.

She was lucky, even though the ribs were completely through they had stayed in place.

Now she had extreme firm bandages around her torso.

She was ordered to stay in bed for at least 24 hours without sitting up to much, but with Ducky's help she was allowed to wait with the others in the wake up room of Gibbs and McGee; both men had needed a surgery to remove the bullet but were otherwise just fine.

Abby had to stay in a bed but nonetheless she would be in the same room.

----

Tony was pacing in front of a closed door, the door that separated Ziva and him from Ducky and Abby.

For ten minutes she let him move from one side to another before she stopped him.

"Tony, please they are going to need a new floor surface, when you keep that up."

He looked at the woman in front of him and pulled her into a tight embrace.

Ziva's arms moved more than willingly around his torso.

His mouth was at the level of her ear.

"Abby isn't supposed to get hurt, Ziva."

"I know, anyone of us would have traded the place with her, but we couldn't."

"That's the point, we couldn't help her…" He trailed off, bent down and kissed softly Ziva's lips.

-

The door opened unnoticed by the couple, not before they heard Abby's voice they broke apart. "Hey you two lovebirds, get a hotel room."

"Abby." Both said in unison.

She smiled at them. "In flesh and blood, …, though I'm done with blood for a while, I want to keep the rest that I've left in my body for myself."

Both friends moved away from the door frame to give the nurse space to move the bed out of the room.

Before the nurse could move the bed any further Tony and Ziva were at her one side Ducky on the other, smiling when they both bent down to hug Abby, first Ziva and afterwards Tony, who gave his "little sister" a soft kiss on her forehead.

"Be careful you two, she has two broken ribs and isn't allowed to move too much."

Ducky said.

"No they didn't hurt me Ducky, can we go to Gibbs and Tim now?" The nurse nodded smiling.

----

He heard soft murmurs the next time he woke up. Suppressing a groan he opened his eyes and was greeted by Ducky who stood in front of his bed with a soft smile on his lips.

"Good morning Jethro."

He heard rustling of fabric, and then Tony and Ziva came into his field of vision, tightly embraced. Both had bruises at their face.

"Tim and Abby?" He asked with fear in his voice.

Tony answered before anyone could react. "Our dear Timothy McGeek is still on his narcosis trip." Ducky continued. "Abby is asleep over there." He pointed right.

Gibbs struggled to sit up. "Jethro, relax she is fine." "I need to see it for myself."

Abby woke up when she heard Gibbs speak louder.

While the others were busy keeping him were he was, in bed, nobody noticed that Abby got slowly out of her bed, she walked around her friends and finally came to a halt at the free side of his bed.

Her hand touched his and he stopped immediately with the movements.

He looked at her face, a constant stream of tears were leaving her eyes while she stood there in a hospital gown.

"Abigail, you heard what the doctor said you need to rest in bed."

Instead of turning around she sat down on Gibbs bed lifted her legs to the mattress and cautiously laid down next to her man, who held her as tight as he dared, without hurting her or himself.

"You two are made for each other, both equally stubborn" Ducky murmured smiling, while getting the blanket from Abby's bed and placing it above her.

"We're going to get a doctor."

As soon as the doors of the room had closed, Abby had started to sob loud and freely into the white cotton of his hospital gown.

"Shh, everything is fine now."

She moved her plastered arm cautiously across his chest. Her sobbing continued for some time.

While he enjoyed the warmth of her body, something he thought he'd never feel again.

"What did the doctor say?"

She looked up into his eyes.

"I've two broken ribs, a cracked arm, a concussion and bruises, thanks to Tim and you I'm still alive."

His eyes watered. "Remind me to thank him."

Without hurting him or herself she moved a bit upwards. She looked into his eyes. "I thought I lost you, I was so scared that I never see you again." Her eyes were filled with tears. "Me, too" he whispered. She bent down and pecked his lips.

-

Timothy smiled towards the ceiling, glad himself that everything ended in a relatively good way. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep again.

By the time the rest of the team, including Tobias, Franks and Abby's and Ducky's mother, came back to the hospital room, all occupants were fast asleep, starting to recover from the late events, glad that they still had time left to enjoy the time with their "family."

FIN.

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