Okay, here it is. Chapter 2. Thanks for the reviews and ideas. I know you all aren't thrilled with us killing Kate. Sorry, that would be my fault. :D But, hang in there. Watch us play this out. With 6 authors, things may not end up as you think. This could get pretty twisted. Oh, this is mine, (cheezmunky.) I said we'd post bi-weekly, so we're doing it. Now we have 2 days to come up with the next chapter. Fun. And jtbwriter, it won't be totally disappointing, so just skim it or something. (The story, that is.)
Okies, here we go.
"I hate to say this, but we still have to do an autopsy." Gibbs softly said.
Abby violently pulled out of his arms. "No! You can't do that to her!" She screamed.
"Abby, we have to. There's no way around it. We have a procedure to follow."
"Procedure my ass!" Abby sobbed, putting herself between the men and Kate's body. "You won't touch her. I won't let you!" Gibbs moved forward, his arms opened to her.
"Stop. She won't be autopsied, damn it!" Abby's eyes blazed as she stared Gibbs down.
He lifted his hands in surrender and backed up a step. "You can't stay with her all night, Abby."
"Watch me." She determinedly gritted through clenched teeth.
Walking away, Gibbs nodded. "Alright. You have an hour to say goodbye. Then she has to go in the fridge."
With a final look back at Abby, the three men left the woman alone with her lost friend.
Tony woke up 30 minutes later on the stairs. 'Maybe it was just a nightmare.' He thought and dazedly began his descent back to autopsy. But the doors whooshing shut behind him coincided with the sinking of his heart. On the last table lay his partner, body bag unzipped down to her chest, and a pale hand rested in her hair. Tony's frown dissipated as he neared the table. Abby had fallen asleep, her head on the table next to Kate. Her eyes were swollen and her cheeks were tearstained. She too had cried herself to sleep. He tentatively reached out to touch Kate, then stopped halfway there.
'If I don't touch her, maybe it'll go away. Maybe I'm still sleeping. Maybe..' Maybe was such an empty word. Full of unfounded hope. Tony's hand dropped back down to his side as he turned to leave the morgue. Abby was going to feel like hell when she woke up, but he wasn't going to make her face reality any sooner than she had too.
Abby tried to blink the light from her eyes as she sat up on the futon. 'Futon? What am I doing back in my lab- Kate!'
"Gibbs!" She yelled as she clambered to her feet and tore off running for the autopsy bay. Slamming the stair door open, she barreled into her boss.
"Don't touch her!" She yelled. Gibbs wrapped his arms around Abby, successfully restraining her.
"I'm sorry, Abby. It's already done. Ducky had Dr. Peterson do it after I carried you upstairs."
"Ducky? He let them cut Kate?!"
"We need to know how it happened. Why it happened. They found hay in her hair. We- I need you to run some tests."
Abby gave in with a shuddering sigh, tears once again trickling down her cheeks. "Fine. Let's nail the bastard. For Kate."
"That-a-girl." Gibbs murmured. Wiping the tears from her face, he let her go, and took her hand.
"Let's go get something to eat. It's 1000 and you haven't eaten since lunch yesterday…" He trailed off.
Abby's eyes widened. "10? I guess we should eat then." She muttered as she tried to peek into the morgue.
"Could I just-" She pleaded.
Gibbs shook his head. "No. Not right now. She's at the funeral home. The services are tomorrow."
The lab tech nodded. "I'm just gonna put some makeup on, then. I'm probably covered in mascara."
"Meet you out front in 5 minutes."
McGee sat up on the bullpen floor and groggily looked around. No one had gone home last night. No one had wanted to be alone. "Ducky?" McGee called out. "Dr. Mallard?"
A tousled graying head popped up from behind Gibbs' desk. "Yes, Agent McGee? Do you need something?" The pathologist asked as he fumbled around for his glasses.
"I was just wondering if you were still here. Agent Gibbs is already gone…Uh, did Tony go with him?"
"Probably not, my boy. Anthony didn't come back last night. We may not see him for a while."
McGee frowned in confusion. "But won't Gibbs be mad?"
Ducky sighed. "You don't understand Jethro. Or Anthony. They've just lost their closest friend. Jethro will let Anthony's absence go. As for Anthony, he needs time to contemplate what happened. He can't just-"
"'Morning, Ducky. Mornin' McGee. Is Gibbs out with Abby?"
The two men just stared up at Tony in shock. His eyes were bloodshot and his hair was in disarray, but he was his usual cheery self. Unless they'd been told, no one could possibly tell that he'd just lost his partner. "We..don't know. Anthony, what are you-?"
Tony waved Ducky off as he headed toward the elevator. "When he gets back, tell him I've gone to Kate's. I'm gonna find out what happened."
Ducky stared after Tony as the doors closed behind him. "He seems fine to me, Ducky." McGee said with a shrug.
Ducky shook his head and deeply sighed. "No, my dear boy. Anthony wears his heart on his sleeve. This is worse than any of us thought. Call Jethro."