Me: I have some bad news...
Tim: What?
Me: My funny line breaks...they need to come to a stop.
Tim: They're coming back, right?
Me: Not this time.
Tim: Then what-
Me: *sigh* Stop. Just stop. I'd like to move onto the next chapter before you read too much into this. The linebreaks were a tension break from the story and I kind of overdid it last time. That's all.
Tim: You really need to stop worrying about what other people think.
Me: It is too early for a lecture.
Disclaimer: Blah
"Timmy...this shouldn't still be happening," Abby said as she came out of the bathroom. "I'm at almost fourteen weeks."
"Have you been getting enough to eat?" McGee asked, concerned for her. She looked thin and pale. Abby shook her head, her eyes filling up with tears.
"Everything I eat...it just comes right back up," She started sobbing into his shoulder. Tim just held her, not knowing what else to do.
"Look, we can go talk to Ducky today and see what he has to say about this, okay? Just calm down, stress isn't good for the baby, remember? I'll be in the car waiting." Abby sniffed and wiped her tears then approached the mirror in the bathroom. She looked much thinner than she should this far along in her pregnancy due to major weight loss, and pale from constantly throwing up everything she ate. She felt a jolt in her stomach. More tears slid down her cheeks as she dry heaved into the toilet. But her stomach was empty, so nothing happened during the next few minutes. Finally she was able to breathe, so she went into her bedroom to get ready. An outfit waited for her, draped elagently and carefully over the closed lid of a coffin used for something more conventional than a funeral. Abby slipped into light, dark fabric without paying much attention to it. After putting her hair up in its usual pigtails and ignoring the makeup for now, she thought she was ready to go. As she left the bedroom, a sudden round of dizziness hit her. It took her so off gaurd that she didn't find the time to let the wall support her weight as she slid to the floor.
"Yes?"
"Duck, we've got a problem." He gathered up Abby's lifeless frame in his arms. "I'm coming over."
"What happened?"
"I'll tell you on the way. You are there, right?"
"Always, Timothy. What happened?"
"Well, Abby's been having morning sickness...and things have been escalating out of control lately."
"Defne out of control."
"She hasn't been able to keep anything down for the past week or so. I've tried to get her to eat, but...she's just been too sick. I told her to get ready to come with me to NCIS so you could check on her. I waited in the car and had a feeling something was wrong. Ducky, she fainted. I'm terrified. If this continues, she could lose the baby."
"Wait in autopsy for me. I think I know something that might help. Do you think she'd be able to keep down any medication?"
"I'm not sure."
"If not, we'll have to get her to Bethesda and put her on an IV drip. She needs nutrients for herself and the child."
"Almost there, Duck. See you soon."
"Timmy..." He hung up the phone.
"What, Abs?"
"I don't feel so good."
"I know, I know. But we're going to make sure you get better."
"We?" Abby asked dully from the back of the car.
"Yeah, Ducky's helping me out." Abby had nothing to say to this.
Line break
"Looks like he's on the move," Fornell said. "Hades is coming back into town...searching for something. He discarded his revolver in exchange for a rifle, so we better be on the lookout for different bullets."
"Where's he headed?" Gibbs asked.
"I doubt he knows where Abby lives now, but I imagine that is the general direction he is going. Make sure Abby is still under serviallance with McGee."
"Already covered," Vance said. "Dr. Mallard sent me a message telling me he just entered the building with Miss Sciuto."
"Wait...Ducky?" Fornell echoed in confusion.
"Did I stutter, Tobias?" Vance asked mockingly. Gibbs rolled his eyes and went to go get more coffee before things got out of control.
"Really, Director, one would expect more out of you," the FBI agent responded with a slight sigh.
"As it has it, I got word from Dr. Mallard that something has been going on with Miss Sciuto lately. He would not disclose the details, but he did tell me it had something to do with her pregnancy."
"I hope there aren't any complications. There is enough to deal with at the moment withou-"
"Tony, for the last time, w are not having a Final Fanasty theme song for our wedding march!" Ziva growled as she stormed into the squad room, Tony right behind her.
"It was the first thing I could think of!" Tony protested. "I'm sorry, I promise to take this seriously from now on. Just calm down for two seconds so I can think."
"Do either of you have word on Abby's status?" Fornell inquired.
"Nope," Tony said. "McInLove might, though." Fornell was aware of the many nicknames that Tony gave his friend. In fact, sometimes, they amused him to no end. However, today, he found no humor in the tradition.
"Right. Could you two continue your conversation elsewhere? We could actually be onto something with Hades's recent actions here."
"You said he killed his father?" Ziva asked. Fornell nodded. "I can look up Hades to see if I find any envidence of his father to see if there was any sort of motivation behind the murder."
"Good idea. Dinozzo, could you keep an eye on this for me?" He pointed at the MCRT screen. "I need to make a run back to my office real quick and make a phone call. I trust that you can handle a simple task like this one." He was gone before Tony could make any sort of reply or protest.
Line break- a broken heart stitched back together looks like this: XxxXxxX
"We've got to catch the bastard."
"How do we do that if he can barely be seen on camera?"
"What is he looking for? There is a path of destruction in his wake."
Hades ignored the voices, pretending they were talking about someone else. Oh, he knew he was being watched. But he knew that they had to look away eventually...so, if they thought he was doing one thing, while they cleaned up his messes, he coud set the true plan in action. Pure genius. Anyone with half a brain could have come up with that kind of loophole to twenty-four hour survalliance.
He kept moving, acting all casual and puropseful as he pretended to search, endlessly search for something. I have to stop this at some point. They need to think I've got a goal of some sort. Little did he know that NCIS was smarter than he thought.
Line break
"Something's not right about this..." Tony gazed at the screen. "He's not going to do anything the longer I stare at him."
"Perhaps he knows that he is being watched," Ziva said. "Turn off the camera for one hour then see where he is after that. We have to stay one step ahead in order for us to catch him."
"Have I ever told you that I love you?" Tony replied with a grateful smile. He shut off the camera.
"More times than I could ever count, but I never tire of hearing the words." Tony felt his heart melt upon hearing that from the love of his life.
Line break
"Where's Abby?" Jewel asked her antisocial daughter. Daniela shrugged and set aside her newest book.
"I haven't seen her at all today. Maybe McGee knows?"
"Brought you guys some donuts," Adien announced, setting the Dunkin' Donuts box down. He grinned at the conversing girls.
"Have you seen Abby?" Jewel inquired. "She was supposed to come in today and help me with something."
"'Fraid I haven't, but I can ask around. I'm sure someone has seen our bonita Abigail someplace."
Line break
"Where's Abby?" Jimmy asked, coming into the squad room. "I came in today to ask Dr. Mallard a question and he just walked out the door before I even said two words."
"Seems like nobody knows," Tony said with a shrug. Gibbs looked over at him, wondering whether he deserved a headslap or not.
"Call McGee, then," Gibbs said at last, thinking now was not the time to reprove Tony's behavior.
"Already on it," Ziva told him, holding up her phone for proof. "Hello? McGee, where are you? Alright. Is Abby there? What happened? Is she okay? Be right there." She hung up and looked at an expectant Gibbs and a confused Tony.
"Well?" Gibbs pressed.
"They are at Bethesda." That was all it took to send everyone fighting for the best corner of the elevator, where Gibbs found it hard to reach over anyone for extra headslaps from his usual spot.
Line break
Abby woke up to the familiar smell of anesthetic and the sound of beeping monitors. The next thing she registered was whiteness all around her. She tried moving her arm but found that she was on an IV drip. That could mean only one thing...Abby tried to sit up, but felt so dizzy that she fell back onto the pillows. It also made her stomach hurt with more nausea. Moving aroumd, a bad idea for sure.
"Abs, you're awake!" McGee said. "How are you feeling?"
"Hollow," she admitted.
"That would be because you haven't had a full meal since that night at the resturaunt." She was quiet for a moment.
"Do the others know I'm here?" she asked finally.
"Ziva just called me. Apparently you gave everyone quite a scare. Nobody knew where you were."
Line break
Hades stomped the timy camera into the dirt and set his eyes on the apartment complex ahead of him.
"Soon, very soon now..." One foot in front of the other, he made his way in competely unnoticed. Depsite his obvious destruction of half of D.C. nobody had ever seen his face, giving him the clear to go anywhere he pleased. The directions to Abby's apartment were scrawled hastily down on a dirty scrap of paper. Hades squinted at it, trying to make sense of his hadnwriting.
"Almost there." So close. Up some steps. Down one hallway, then another. A left, a right, and then he was there. Her apartment. This was where she slept, ate, and relaxed each evening. This was way too easy. He kicked the door open...and found that he was too late. Think. Where could she be? Everything was in place. He wandered into the bedoom and found a book on pregnancy. Suddenly it all made sense. In that moment he knew where to find her. Meanwhile, a certain Director gazed at the MTRC screen and knew something was wrong.
AN: Pretty short...but I don't have a whole lot of time on my hands. Let me know what you think so far.