A/N: Gosh, I am really sorry youguys. I tried to post more on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, but it was telling me that I couldn't upload because of a server virus. So then I tried on Thursday and Friday to log on, but the server was 'busy'. So I thought that maybe my parents had blocked the site or something (which didn't make too much sense, because I could still read stories and stuff, but I couldn't log on) so, naturally, I hacked down all 4 firewalls (they're a bit overprotective of the computer...) only to discover today that I didn't have to. hope I can now find and re-enable the firewalls. Whoops. I guess there's a reason I want Abby's job... Anyways, I just wanted to appologize to all of you. I'm almost done typing Chapter 6, so I shouold post it by... tomorrow? Maybe, or else Tuesday. Unless I somehow destroy the computer before then... It could happen!

"Gibbs, wait for me!" Abby called down the hallway. She turned around the corner and ran right into him. He held her body tightly against his own and she began to squirm in his arms. "Gibbs, let me go!"

"Do you promise me that you're not going to run away Abbs?"

She tried to duck back out of his arms and once again failed. She made an attempt to ignore the fact that all she really wanted was for someone to hold her, though she wasn't quite sure why exactly. Probably just to reassure herself that she was indeed loved by someone. "Shouldn't I be asking you that question? You're the one who ran away from me, remember?"

He let go of her reluctantly. Apparently holding her wasn't the way to comfort her right now. That was fine; he would do whatever was necessary. "Okay, so if I was so horrible, why did you come after me?" he asked reasonably.

Why had she come after him? She blurted the first thing that came into her head. "Don't kill McGee!" Where on earth had that come from? Surely Gibbs wouldn't kill a member of his own team, would he?

"Abby, as far as I'm aware, McGee's not even here… However, if he dares to come back anytime soon, first he's fired, and then I'm going to strangle him-literally." He saw the unasked question in her eyes and answered it. "As far as I'm concerned, McGee is no longer one of my 'team.'" Gibbs never once lost his serious demeanor.

"Gibbs, he didn't do anything wrong! Did you not listen to me? I took advantage of him… If you're going to kill somebody, then it sure as hell had better be me!" She glared angrily at him.

Gibbs looked at her sympathetically. He hadn't wanted it to have to come to this, but before he even really thought about what he was doing, he had said it. "He raped you, didn't he?" He could scarcely believe that he had actually asked her that. What was he? Some kind of sick psychopath? God, he hoped not.

Abby looked at him incredulously. "What the-? No!" Why in the hell would McGee rape her? Had Gibbs gone completely mental?

"Please don't protect him Abbs…"

"Protect him? There's nothing to protect him from! Listen to me: McGee. Did. Not. Rape. Me. Do you get it now?"

"So then how did you get your bruises? Did you just randomly wake up and decide to punch yourself in the face?" He caught a glimpse of her wrists, which were also quite purple. "And what about your wrists? It's virtually impossible to bruise your own wrists, as you know all too well. And do I really need to mention the fact that you're limping, which is also quite hard to inflict upon yourself?"

"Gibbs, I'm not in your head, so I don't know exactly what you're thinking, but I do know that I was not raped. McGee did not rape me. God, what are you so mad at him for?"

Gibbs studied her carefully. Clearly Abby really did believe that McGee had done nothing wrong. But how else could those bruises have appeared, quite literally, overnight? He hadn't been lying when he told her that it was hard to bruise yourself. He knew all too well. After all, hadn't he tried to tell Ducky that he had literally beaten himself up when it had really been his third wife after he had told her that they should get a divorce? He had been lectured not only on self inflicted bruises, but also on lying to friends. Needless to say, that had never happened again.

"You can't even admit it to yourself, can you? My God Abbs, can't you see that this is the exact reaction he wanted from you? He wants you to be upset; he wants you to think that this is entirely your fault; he wants you to stand in front of me and defend him and his motives! I refuse to let him do this to you, damn it! He's a sick freak who finds some sort of perverse pleasure in torturing you and allowing you to blame yourself." McGee was definitely going to regret this the next time that he came into contact with a certain Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

"Gibbs, he loves me! He told me that he loved me!" she yelled, trembling ever so slightly.

'Oh my God, please no… Not this,' he thought frantically. He didn't want to tell her; he knew he was about to break her heart into a billion tiny pieces. "No Abby, he doesn't love you. All he wants is to get inside of your pants. And somewhere, deep down inside of you, you know that." He wiped away the tears that were slowly trickling down her cheeks, feeling guilty for causing them, even though what he had told her was true. "That isn't love Abbs…"

He pulled her into his arms and started stroking her hair softly. She buried her head in his shoulder, wanting him to take back his words. Gibbs settled his gently on top of hers. "This, Abbs, is love," he whispered.

She looked up at him with a startled expression, not quite sure that she had heard him correctly. Had Gibbs really just told her that he loved her?

He smiled sadly, knowing that he could never admit that he loved her so much; more than life itself, and he would do anything for her. "I love you; Kate loves you; Ducky loves you; even Tony loves you… Do you know why?"

She had known that he could mean that he actually loved her. Abby shook her head slowly. Just what was Gibbs getting at?

"It's because we're like a family. We care about you Abbs, more than you'll ever know. We hate seeing you like this. We hate the fact that the one who did this to you was once a member of this 'family'. And if McGee really loved you, he would be the one who was standing here comforting you, instead of me." Gibbs let her go and sighed. "Until you face the reality of what really happened, nobody except Ducky can help you."

Abby frowned thoughtfully. "Okay, I give up. Unless you're planning on killing me, I don't really see how Ducky could help me. So help me out a little bit; tell me how Ducky can help me."

Gibbs didn't answer as he gently but forcefully took her hand in his and pulled her towards the elevator and into it with him.

"Gibbs, what in the hell is going on? Where are you taking me? I should be in my lab, doing something useful; you know- something work related?" she reminded him as she tried to jerk her hand free of his grip. She finally gave up when she realized that he had no intentions of letting her go. "Okay, so can you at least inform as to where we're going?"

He sighed. "We aren't going anywhere. Or in any case, I'm not staying. I am, however, taking you to Ducky so that he can- ah- assess the damages, as the case may be."

She glared at him. "You set me up for this, didn't you? All of it- the hug and the sympathy and the- that accusation; it was all a ploy to get me down to Ducky, wasn't it? I don't want him poking and prodding me, just so that you can prove yourself wrong. I can do that just fine on my own, thank you!"

Gibbs was startled; Abby never yelled at anyone. Funnily enough, he wasn't in the least bit angry with her. Any other person would've been yelled back at, if they were lucky. Oh well, that was the advantage of being Abby, he supposed. "I hate to break it to you, but I'm not really giving you much of a choice in the matter. But as long as you're more or less okay, you can go back to your lab. If you're not, I'm taking you straight home, fair enough?"

Abby stuck her tongue out at him then turned her back to him the rest of the way down. Of course, he could still see her and she could still see him due to the mirrored walls in the elevator, but that didn't make her any less satisfied.