Chapter 16

Abby grinned as the lock finally gave, but the grin left rapidly as a bump in the road caused the door to start to roll upwards, Abby threw herself at the door and managed to stop it before it went to far. But the effort left her head pounding and her stomach threatening to spill its contents again but by sheer force of will she stopped herself blacking out or throwing up but her heart pounded loudly in her ears and chest, fear that she had been heard, fear that she was about to fall out of the truck, fear that she wouldn't succeed in her plan and fear that she was about to kill herself coursed through her veins.
After what seemed like an eternity her heart slowly calmed to a canter and Abby dared to breathe again sure that she hadn't been heard. Abby slowly stood, pushing the door up inch by slow inch, trying to minimise the noise, glad that the truck was a noisy older model. Eventually though the door was open and Abby stood staring out at the black hard top, speeding along in the wake of the truck, Abby clung onto the hand strap inside the doorway and debated the wisdom of her plan.
Abby stared hypnotised at the road and the lines on it flashing dizzily past and then she turned to look back at the closed cab of the truck, her mind conjuring up the dark charismatic eyes of Ari and without further debate Abby tuned her body into the rhythm of the truck and praying her timing was right she threw herself out the moving truck, her mind picturing Gibbs as she flew through the air, her voice crying his name as her body hit the cold hard black tarmac.

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Gibbs stood outside of Abby's apartment building his eyes staring down the road as if he could see where Ari had taken her, praying that she was alive knowing that Ari would soon be dead.
"McGee!" Gibbs yelled suddenly, causing the agent in question to jump and hurry over his eyes nervous.
"Boss?" McGee asked not sure he wanted to be standing this close to Gibbs when hea was armed and his eyes looked liked he wanted to kill the nearest living thing to him.
"Get me some coffee" he said turning and striding away, leaving a happily still breathing McGee staring after him "Now McGee!" Gibbs called back in anger, not turning around but instinctively knowing that McGee hadn't moved.
Liz watched Gibbs move off and then followed him back into the building, wondering absently if anyone would ever care that much if she were missing.

Gibbs entered Abby's silent and empty apartment, the scene was being wound up and they had found nothing, Gibbs crossed to the wall and stood staring up at the picture on the wall; he had no idea when it had been take but somehow Abby had a picture of all of them on her wall. Kate was in the centre of it, her arm slung around Tony laughing at something he had said or done, McGee stood behind them his eyes nervous as was normal for him. Ducky stood beside him, his head turned towards Palmer who stood on the edge of the group, and it looked as if Ducky was talking but Gibbs would swear that Palmer wasn't listening to a word of it. Gibbs turned to look at the last two in the picture, Abby had managed to capture a rare moment when Gibbs was smiling, looking down at Abby, his hand resting on her shoulder. Gibbs moved closer to the picture and smiled again, remembering when this section had been taken, Tony had had the camera in Abby's lab when Abby had been having a crisis of hair, she had been debating dying it purple at the ends, Gibbs remembered how she had turned and asked him what he thought, Tony piping up that Gibbs would prefer red. He remembered shooting Tony a glance that had quelled any further discussion, then turning back to a worried looking Abby who had taken Tony seriously, Gibbs remembered putting his hand on her shoulder and squeezing it gently as he told her anything she did would look perfect because she was Abby and unique. Tony must have taken the picture as Abby had smiled happily back at him, crisis over. Gibbs stared silently at the picture for a moment, before turning away. Thinking that it was just another illusion that it was just a generated photo, each piece taken at different times and then moulded into what Abby had wanted. Much as Gibbs himself was a lie.
The image of the tough marine, who knew what he was doing who had the answers, only this time he had failed twice and each time the consequences were more than he could bear. The price was too high he thought in despair spinning around and slamming his fist into the wall next to the photo.
Liz watched Gibbs silently for a moment, seeing the way his body had stilled as he looked at the photo on the wall, how his shoulders had hunched and then as he had turned she had seen the despair in his eyes, followed by the anger and pain. As Gibbs slammed his hand into the wall Liz paused, waiting to make sure he was ok then satisfied she turned silently away knowing that he wouldn't want anyone to witness his pain, his weakness. Liz just hoped that the weakness wouldn't cost them Ari or Abby her life.

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Abby tried to move, but the pain radiating from her body was too intense and she wondered if she was going to die soon, but she was pretty sure much as she might want to she wasn't going to. Slowly Abby moved her legs, pleased when they responded with little more than a dull throbbing which she was sure meant they weren't broken, her left arm though was a different matter, the pain radiating from that was washing over her body in waves and she was damn sure it was busted.
"Great" she muttered, managing to push herself into a sitting position on the road, praying that no cars came just yet because she really didn't feel able to move any further, every muscle bone and inch of skin was screaming in pain and Abby knew she was going to be some interesting colours soon, but at least she was alive she thought with a grin that caused her grazed cheek to hurt more. Abby looked up to the stars twinkling in the night time sky and offered a silent pray of thanks for whoever had been looking out for her as she had dived out of the truck, having waited for it to change into a lower gear, its speed dropping as it had lumbered up a hill.
Abby looked up at the sound of an engine heading towards her, she saw the headlight in the distance and realised that it was either a motor bike or a car with a broken headlight. She looked down at her black clothes and grimaced
"Better move it or I'm going to be squished like a tomato" she muttered realising that whoever it was wouldn't see her in the pitch black night until it was too late. Slowly Abby managed to get to her feet, her breathing laboured from the pain her bruised body was suffering and slowly lumbered over to the side of the road, noticing as she did the rip in her long black leather coat
"Bummer, MacGyver never ripped his clothes" she muttered as she reached the side of the road and sat down, her jellified legs no longer able to support her. Abby watched the headlight approach and hoped that whoever it was had a cell phone so she could call Gibbs to come and get her, just as Abby finished the thought a memory of something Kate had said about Ari owning a motorbike flicked into Abby's brain and she started to scramble towards the tree line set further back from the road, praying she would make it before the motorbike reached her, hearing the sound of its engine roaring louder and louder, and the trees seeming to be getting no closer as she stumbled along, her legs no longer obeying her commands.
Abby threw herself to the ground as the huge motorbike roared into sight, the headlights breaking the darkness like some obscene monster devouring the night, the engine breaking the stillness of the silent air its noise seeming to be louder than anything Abby had ever heard before.