Kate woke up and looked around taking a few minutes to come to terms where she was and why she was there. Tony and Gibbs were gone and Ziva was asleep in a chair. Kate got up and stretched before making her way over to Abby's room. She peeked and noticed Tim asleep but Abby was awake.
"Hey. How are you holding up?" Kate asked as she sat down next to her friend.
"I'm looking forward to having the baby in my arms" Abby said and she smiled at Kate.
"Yeah I bet, still cant really believe your going to be a mom. I wish I could have been there for you Abby." Kate said as her eyes dropped slightly.
"Kate I really need to know what happened, Gibbs told me slightly that you were shot and well you didn't make it to hospital." Abby said obviously not liking to ask the question.
"Well I was wearing something on top of my vest that made it look like I had been shot, Gibbs knew of course but Tony didn't, so Gibbs made sure Tony didn't try to pull back my jacket, the paramedics were FBI agents undercover…they were the top of their league and trusted to work with such an operation, so then Gibbs told everyone that I had died and that I was sent off the have a cremation and then my funeral and I had my ashes scattered, so I went off to live a different life in Hawaii." Kate said and she noticed slight tears in Abby's eyes.
"I'm glad you have come back Kate, I really did think you were dead." Abby said.
"That was kinda the point." Kate said.
"Yeah I guess so." Abby sounded unsure and uncomfortable about remembering Kate's death.
"Hey I'm going to see if Tony and Gibbs have gotten back are you ok?" Kate asked.
"Yeah sure, I'll see you later." Abby said as she smiled at Kate.
After Kate said goodbye to Abby she went out to see Tony and Gibbs just getting back, coffee in hand. Tony handed Kate a coffee she thanked before she sat back down again. Ziva was still asleep and Gibbs put a coffee next to her.
"Is she good?" Kate asked Tony gesturing towards Ziva.
"Yeah she's damn good." Tony said quietly.
"That's good." Kate said as she turned her attention back to everything else in the hospital.
"Kate, a word." Kate looked up to see Gibbs.
"Yeah sure." Kate got up and followed Gibbs to a hallway where Tony and Ziva were out of view.
"I just got off the phone to the director and she said that as McGee is going to have some time off to help Abby she wants you to come back for a while until he comes back." Gibbs explained.
"Why cant I just come back to work Gibbs I mean what's going to hurt me? If I am working now can't I stay?" Kate asked confused.
"You won't be working in the field, you're on desk work." Gibbs said firmly.
"What? Gibbs why can't I just damn work the way I have always worked?" Kate practically yelled.
"Because…I don't want to loose you." Gibbs admitted.
Kate stared at him, before suddenly relaxing a little. "Gibbs there's a chance that any one of us could die in this job, we understood that when we signed on. You don't want to loose me? Well I hope you don't want to loose Tim, Tony or Ziva as well because you've got a chance to loose them to Gibbs, this job is dangerous and we wouldn't be in the field if we didn't understand that."