I do not own NCIS...

Chapter 11

2 Months Later

Abby turned the lights on in her lab, and started turning on all of her equipment. It was early, just past 6AM, and the building was still quiet. As she went through her morning ritual, she was suddenly struck with a wave of nausea. She grabbed the nearest trashcan and emptied her stomach into it. "Abby Sciuto, you cannot be sick now!..." she thought to herself, and then froze in panic. Her period was late, and her last one was very light, her boobs hurt, she was tired after a full nights sleep, and she was nauseous early in the morning. "Oh God... Oh my God..." Was all she managed to say before running out of the lab.

Like Abby, Ducky was always in early. He liked the extra time to sit and work on any reports left over from the previous day. As he sipped his tea and reviewed an autopsy report, he was surprised by the sound of his doors opening. It was too early for Mr. Palmer, and unless they were working a big case, no one ever came to see him this early. He stood and turned around to see Abby walking towards him, looking somewhat bewildered and slightly green.

"Dear heavens Abby, forgive me, but you look terrible, are you ill?"

"Ducky... I think I might... I mean, what I mean is... Look, can you just draw some of my blood and give it to me?" She asked, before slapping her hand over her mouth and running to throw up in his trashcan.

Ducky raised an eyebrow at her, "Abigail... My first thought would be that you have a stomach flu, however..."

Before he could finish, Abby cut him off, "Ducky, I think I'm pregnant! I need a blood sample, please!"

Ducky placed a hand gently on her shoulder, "Abigail... Are you ok?"

"No! Yes! I mean... I don't know, but please don't tell anyone, Ducky! Not even Gibbs. I want to run the test first to confirm."

"I would never dream of divulging your personal medical information to anyone," he assured, "Come sit down. I'll make you some tea and get that sample for you."

"Thank you, Ducky. And before you ask any more questions, can you just let me run the results and then we can talk after I know more?"

"Of course, my dear." Ducky said with an understanding smile.

20 minutes later, Abby was back in the lab and waiting for her test results to come back, and feeling better than before. She paced around until she heard the software beep and then ran to the monitor. She sucked in a deep breath when she saw the results. She was pregnant. Her mind raced, and she was so overwhelmed that she did not hear the ding of the elevator. She continued to stare at the monitor as Gibbs walked up to her with a coffee in one hand and a Caf-POW! in the other.

"Morning, beautiful," he said as he set her drink down in front of her, and she jumped in surprise.

"Gibbs! Hi! Good morning!" She tried to smile brightly, but the fear in her eyes gave her away immediately.

"Abbs? What's the matter?"

"Uh... Nothing!" She grabbed the Caf-POW! and took a sip, then looked startled and put it down quickly as if it was burning her hand.

"Abby? Is there something wrong with the Caf-POW!?" Gibbs asked, looking worried.

"No! It's fine! Everything is fine!" She lied.

Gibbs smiled at her, "You've always been a terrible liar."

She smiled at him and sighed, wringing her hands together, "Gibbs... I'm... I'm... I'm pregnant."

Gibbs felt his gut twist into a knot, but couldn't stop the smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. He was going to be a dad again. "Really? That's... Well... That's wonderful!"

"Gibbs, this is totally unexpected! My birth control failed! I mean, I totally should've anticipated you having superhuman, birth control resistant sperm somehow, even though scientifically speaking that doesn't even make sense... but oh my God! Gibbs, honestly... I don't know how I feel about this yet... I... I don't know if I'm ready..."

Gibbs pulled her into his arms, "It's gonna be ok, Abbs. It's gonna be more than ok."

She squeezed him once, then pulled away and said, "I can't work today. I need some time off, Gibbs. Call in one of my backups, and tell Vance I'm putting in for vacation time. I just... I need to think. I need to be alone right now. I'll call you later. I love you." She kissed him quickly and then ran out of the lab, not looking back as she ran.

Tony and Tim knew that something was off as soon as they saw Gibbs in the bullpen later that morning.

"Everything ok, Boss?" Tony asked.

Gibbs ignored the question, "You solve the Harris case yet?"

"Boss, I just started working that one yesterday, it's been cold for 9 years."

"Better get to it, then." He replied before finishing his coffee and heading down to autopsy.

"Hey, Duck." Gibbs greeted.

"Good morning, Jethro."

"Can I talk to you a second?"

"Of course, come into the office." Ducky sat at his desk and looked up at Gibbs.

Gibbs got right to the point. "Abby's pregnant."

"Yes, I figured as much. She came to me early this morning with nausea and asked me to draw a blood sample for her. She also asked me not to say anything to anyone. How is she doing?"

"I think she's scared more than anything, Duck. She told me she was pregnant, said she didn't know if she was ready... Then she left. Said she needed vacation time to think and wanted to be alone. Now I don't know what to think."

Ducky thought for a moment before replying, "Jethro, I think the only thing that you should be thinking about in this moment is Abigail and her feelings. This was obviously not planned, she's scared and likely doesn't know what she wants to do yet. It's understandable that she wants time to herself. If I remember correctly, Abigail has always been on the fence, as it were, regarding having children at all." Gibbs just nodded and Ducky continued, "Jethro, you must be prepared for the possibility that Abigail may choose not to have this child, or not to raise it. And if she does make that decision, you must support her, regardless of how you feel."

"And just how in the the hell am I supposed to do that?"

"You must find a way, I'm afraid you don't have a choice in this matter. I understand that it takes a man and a woman to create life, but the woman must bear the physical burden if it all. And as it is her body, the choice is inevitably hers, whether we "like" the decision or not."

Gibbs sighed deeply, "I should go see her."

"Give her time, Jethro. Call her tonight after work, I'm sure she'll be in a better frame of mind by then."

"I hope so. Thanks, Duck."

"You're welcome. My door is always open."

The rest of the day dragged on for the team. Everyone knew something was off with the way Gibbs was acting and Abby being out of work, but no one dared to ask Gibbs yet.

Finally, at the end of the day, Gibbs surprised everyone by being the first to leave. He went straight to his car, and, ignoring Ducky's advice, drove towards Abby's apartment.

He was relieved to see her car parked in its usual spot, and went upstairs and knocked on the door. His heart started pounding when no one answered. He took out his key, let himself in, and then searched the house to no avail. He picked up his phone and dialed her number, and she answered after the second ring.

"Hey, Gibbs!"

"Hey Abbs, I'm at your place, where are you?"

"I'm not home!" She said quickly.

"Yeah, I can see that," he chuckled, "Your car is still here. Are you gonna tell me where you are so we can talk?"

"I'm in, um... Louisiana?

"Louisiana? What the hell are ya doing there?"

"I'm at Luca's house, Gibbs. I'm sorry, I should have told you I was coming here, but I just panicked and I really needed to see my brother."

"Are you ok, Abbs?"

"I'm ok, Gibbs, I just... Please just give me some time to figure out what I want to do."

"Do you even care what I want?" Gibbs asked.

Abby gasped, "Gibbs, how could you even ask me that! Of course I care what you want! When I told you I was pregnant, you said it was wonderful. I already know what you want! Now it's my turn to figure out what I want! I can't make decisions as quickly as you can!" She snapped.

"You're right, Abby. I'm..."

She cut him off, "Don't go breaking the rules now, Gibbs, my hormones just can't take it. I don't think you understand how hard this is for me! If I decide to keep the baby, we'll stay together and hopefully everything will be good, but then we still have to think about our careers, and then what if I'm not ready? What if I can't? You're going to hate me. You'll hate me if I have an abortion, and even if I don't have an abortion, I'd need your consent to give the baby up for adoption, and we both know you'll never agree to that, so you'd end up being a single dad and resenting me for abandoning you! Because we can't raise a baby together and be together if one of us doesn't want it!"

"I'll never hate you, Abbs,"

"And Gibbs, I'm not saying that it's definitely going to happen that way, but I mean, I just don't know! There are serious consequences here, regardless of what my decision is."

"You're right, Abby. There are consequences regardless. You already know what I want, so I'm not going to pretend that I'm going to like it if... I just... I just want you to be happy. I may not like the decision, but I'll support you in it because I love you. Take all the time you need. When you've made a decision, you know where I am."

Abby sighed with relief, "Thank you. I really do need to take time just to think about this. I'll call you when I know what's going on, and until then I'll just text you everyday so that you know I'm still alive and vice versa. I love you, Gibbs."

"Ok, Abbs. I love you."

TBC...