Woot. Five reviews in less than 2 days. I'm tempted to experiment and not update for a week, but that would be cruel. And I'm bored. So...I'm continuing. Yay for all of us. Onwards!
She was floating in the dark...it was oddly comforting, really, she thought distractedly. She vaguely remembered waking up from the darkness, seeing Gibbs and McGee, and saying...something. She didn't remember what. It had hurt too much. Way too much. Then the whole thing had gone black again, thankfully...although now, she could see a bright light overhead, penetrating the blackness of her closed eyelids. She groaned, rolling over and hitting her side. The knife was pushed an inch deeper. Ow. She gasped in pain, coughing, and tried to move. Didn't work. Someone was crying...she couldn't tell who, as she had yet to open her eyelids. They seemed too heavy to even contemplate blinking with, so she left them as they were. What else could she think of moving? Her legs. They felt like lead. Something smaller, then. She tapped her finger, feeling it leave the surface she was lying on, and touch back down again. Good. Motion established, she turned her attention to what she could hear outside her small dark fog.
The crying was continuing. I'm fine, look, I'm fine, can't you see me? I'm fine, she tried to say.
But nothing came out of her mouth except a rasping breath, as well as something warm and slightly metallic.
Blood.
There was a clenching feeling in her chest, and then a feeling so painful it was indescribable...the knife had been wrenched free of her body. Then the pain began to intensify. There were voices everywhere, floating in the air above where she lay, but she couldn't make out the words. Someone was stabbing her body.
Not again.
Immediately after each knife thrust, though, came the cool feel of antiseptic and gauze, so that was alright. She drifted in and out of the darkness, sometimes feeling someone's warm hands on her, soothing her bleeding skin, and sometimes feeling more alone than she had previously thought possible. Finally, the voices faded, and the calming hands left. McGee, she thought, struggling to come up with names. He had taken the glass out of her skin, had cried over her, had caressed her face. And that other voice, the one that had called her Abigail...that would have been Ducky. Gibbs, she had felt more than heard, his commanding presence filling the very air. And she was sure that the soft, disbelieving 'no' she had heard had been DiNozzo. Good old Tony. Not much of a welcome - back party. Sorry I ruined it.
She felt herself being lifted from the floor, and put onto a stretcher. The person raising her body up jostled her arm, and she screamed. Apparently that fall had done more damage than she thought. Oops. Sorry, Ducky. Ziva and the Director, she heard someone mutter as she was loaded into the ambulance, were taking care of the paperwork, and Tony and McGee had left. Good. Wouldn't want them to lose any sleep for me. I'm just the forensic analyst. Gibbs would, undoubtably, be staying overnight, imagining killing Chip himself and getting himself depressed. Her thoughts in order, Abby let herself sleep.
The next morning, McGee awoke with a sore neck and a face full of pillow.
Evidently he had attempted to suffocate himself in his sleep.
Rolling over, he allowed himself to simply fall off the bed, in an effort to wake up more. Looking at the clock, he discovered that it was only three in the morning. The agent stumbled into his bathroom and took a boiling hot shower, scrubbing his blood - smeared face and arms with the soap, and throwing out his stained clothes from the previous day. When he emerged outside, he realized that his car was still at NCIS. Ah well. He couldn't really bring himself to care.
Deciding to just walk to the hospital, he headed off down Second Street. It was still only four, and the hospital probably wouldn't be open to visitors, but he had his badge, if all else failed. Along the way, he realized that he would pass conveniently close to Abby's house; making a split decision, he decided to grab her a couple of sets of clothes and some of her other possessions...he tried to picture the girl in a clean, gleaming, sterile white room and shuddered.
Walking around the house, he spied a partially open window. Grabbing a branch of a nearby tree, he stuck it through the gap and fished around for the catch. Hearing it click, he slid the window up the rest of the way and slid inside the house. A quick survey of her room rendered up a few pairs of pants, a skirt, and three tops. McGee gingerly reached into her lingerie drawer and grabbed a handful of fabric, pulling it out and shoving it into the Hot Topic bag he had found on her bed. He was, ridiculously, blushing, although there was no one to see. Calm down, Timmy.
He looked around for something else to bring, and settled for shampoo and soap, a hairbrush, her MP3 player, a deck of cards, and a scary - looking doll in the corner of the room. Slipping out the window, he latched it firmly behind him. Abby, he knew, was usually a beast about security, so she must have been incredibly distracted to leave something so obviously open. That made sense; she had been anxious about Tony's case, stressing and obsessing over her forensics for a week.
Continuing on towards the hospital, he lost himself in his thoughts. He had come so close to losing her...in a way, he had lost her, for a moment. And he never wanted to again. Oh, Abby...I don't know what I'd do without you...if I walked in one morning and didn't see your smile, hear your voice...I dunno what I'd do.
Abby stirred in her sleep, rolling over and thoroughly entangling herself in the sheets. She tossed around, hands flailing and breathing labored.
Searching NCIS, looking for her coworkers; she was scared.
"Kate? McGee? Gibbs? Tony?" she called desperately.
"Over here!" came Kate's clear voice, hailing from the bullpen. Thank god...she had found them...as she ran towards her friends' desks, she was relieved to see them sitting there, looking perfectly normal. Then Kate turned around. There was a small bullet hole in her forehead.
"What's the matter, Abby?" Blood began to pour from the hole; Abby stumbled backwards in horror.
"Can't you help us, Abby?" asked Tony. His face was pale and sweaty, his green eyes glazed over in sickness.
"You're the only one who can," said Gibbs, standing behind her with his wrists slit, dripping wet.
"Help us, Abby, help us!" begged McGee, his body soaked red with blood. "They're going to kill us, Abby! All of us!"
"No, no...I can't, I'm sorry, I can't help you!" cried Abby, staggering forward and touching McGee's bloody face. "I'm sorry!"
"You've condemned us all, Abby," Gibbs said, fading away and leaving only a puddle of water where he had once stood.
"Ashes, ashes, Abby," whispered Tony, sinking to the floor and dissipating into dust, which blew in a nonexistent wind, forming the grisly image of a flower before fluttering away.
"It's all you, Abby..." Kate murmured, a strange reddish light playing around her form and turning her into a small girl, skipping in a field and singing softly. As the sound dwindled, so did the image, leaving her alone with McGee.
"Goodbye, Abby," he said sadly. "Why didn't you help us?" He turned and walked away, leaving a trail of blood behind, that was pooling around Abby herself now...except it wasn't McGee's blood.
"No!" she screamed. Then she looked down. The knife was there, sticking out of her chest, bleeding her dry. The blood was hers.
"NO!"
She sat bolt upright in bed, her head connecting with something solid. She was breathing heavily, disoriented and confused.
"Ow," said a muffled voice, conversationally.
"McGee? What are you doing here?" she asked, still fearful.
"Yeah, id's me, Abby. I dink you broke by nose. And in case you habn't nobiced, you're in de hosbital."
"Oh my god, McGee, I'm so sorry!"
"It's good. How do you feel, Abbs?" he asked, fingering his nose tenderly. Ow.
"OK, I guess...doesn't hurt too much. If you wouldn't mind telling me...what the hell happened?"
"You first."
"Fine. Er...I was in my lab, figured out that Petry had an accomplice, figured out it was Chip, Chip came after me with a knife, cut my shoulder, I kicked him, he stabbed me, I shoved him through the wall, blacked out. You?" she said, all in one breath.
"Wow. Impressive," McGee commented. "Gibbs saw the case file with a picture of Chip on it... figured it out, ran to your lab, I followed. You were just sitting in the swivel chair..." he swallowed. "The knife was stuck in your chest... you asked if you could work alone, then blacked out... god, Abby, we all thought you were gone..." he suddenly grabbed her wrists, holding them so tightly that she was afraid for a moment. "Don't ever do that again, Abbs, I can't do it, I can't...I thought I was the one who had died," he said hoarsely, and Abby was struck by the flashes of force that had appeared in the usually meek McGee. She reached up, gently removing his hands from her wrists, and softly caressed his face.
"I am never leaving you, McGee," she said quietly, looking into his worried brown eyes. He gazed back into her green ones, and before she knew what was happening, he was kissing her. It was soft, sweet, and gentle, with a hint of danger...like McGee himself. Abby made no move to pull away, and, in fact, regretted it when McGee did. He looked ashamed of himself.
"I'm sorry, Abby, I shouldn't ha-mmph!" She decided to shut him up. When they broke apart again, this time slightly breathless, she said, "Timothy McGee, you are, quite possibly, the best thing that has happened to me in a very long time. And I'm not letting you go. Savvy?"
"You do know that this is a complete violation of Rule #12, right?" McGee inquired, grinning nonetheless.
"Rules, Timmy, were made to be broken. Even Gibbs'." Abby returned. "What's in the bag?"
"Oh," McGee stuttered. "I, um, hope you don't mind...I kinda broke into your house and got you some clothes, shampoo, soap, your MP3 player, and...um...this?' he said, pulling the doll out of the bag.
"Oh my god! You found Morticia!"
"Um...yeah...Morticia?"
"I thought I'd lost her years ago!"
"This is a...good thing, then?"
"Right, Timmy!" Abby exclaimed, bouncing on the bed.
"Oh-kay..."
"Sorry," Abby said, still smiling.
"Abby. I know you. It's nothing to apologize for. When do you get out?"
"Er...I think the doctor said I could leave in three days...he said it was practically a miracle...the knife slid directly between my lungs and ribs, so the damage was minimized. I just need to be careful of my ribs, and keep the bandage on...apparently, three of them are broken. Other than that, I broke my arm and have numerous lacerations, severe in nature. Ducky's words, not mine. I feel fine, though..."
"Right," McGee said, disbelieving.
"How did you get in, anyway? It's only five, and visiting hours don't start until...eleven."
"Fire escape. Plus this." McGee said, flashing his badge.
"Ooh. Abusing your position, Timmy?"
"For a good cause," he said, blushing a bit.
"Well...thanks, McGee," Abby said, reddening a little, too.
He smiled.
And when the nurse came in three hours later, she found a federal agent asleep on top of the bed, next to her injured patient and a creepy doll."Uh...sir? You're going to have to leave now. I'm not sure how you got in, but if you don't leave now, I'll have to call the police."
"Fire escape. You should put a better alarm system on that...way too easy to crack," McGee mumbled, waking slowly from one of the best sleeps he'd ever had. "And I am the police," he said, flashing his badge. "NCIS. Don't ask, I'm really sick of making the speech. Bye, Abbs," he said, kissing the still - sleeping girl on the temple. "Gibbs'll have my skin if I don't go in today... he probably wants me to take over your lab until you get back, but I'll come by tonight, okay?" Abby mumbled something that sounded like 'mmm'k' before rolling over again. "Love you, Abbs," he whispered, nodding at the nurse as he left the room. Abby sat up in bed abruptly. "Did he just say...?" she asked the nurse, who had watched the proceedings in confusion.
"Er, yes, I think so, miss..." the woman answered, bewildered.
"YES!" Abby flopped back on the pillows, and grinned. "Love you too, McGee," she whispered.
"Sorry I'm late, Boss!" McGee called, entering the bullpen.
"How's Abby?" Tony asked in an undertone as he settled into his desk.
"She's fine. I, uhm, broke into her house, got her some clothes and stuff...had to climb into the hospital by the fire escape and hot-wire the alarms."
"Nice one, Probie," Tony said appreciatively.
"MIT tech training comes in handy sometimes. Gibbs?" McGee inquired.
"Been here all night. Has approximately 73 creases in his suit, and has consumed...14 cups of coffee at last count. 15," Tony amended, watching Gibbs pour himself another cup.
"Wow. That bad, eh?"
"Yep," said Ziva, walking over to his desk. "We have a situation."
"Besides the fact that we have no forensic scientist for the next three days?" McGee asked.
"No, you're filling in for Abby." Gibbs called from the other side of the room. "The situation, McGee, is that we have a rat somewhere."
"Huh?" McGee asked, confused. Rodents? "What's happened?"
"Abby was stabbed. By Chip."
"Really, Tony? I had no idea." McGee was a little stressed; he still hadn't gotten over Abby's 'death'.
"NCIS does incredibly invasive background checks on anyone they hire. Someone must have let Chip into this department for a reason...and this reason, guaranteed, has something to do with Abby," said Gibbs, coming over to stand by the team. McGee paled. "Our best guess is that they wanted Abby taken out. She's one of the best forensic analysts on the continent...if they were hiding a crime, there's a good chance she would have been assigned the case. And she would have solved it."
"So...our mole helps Chip get in and work on his own plan, knowing that Abby would crack it open, and Chip would kill her. Getting someone to do the dirty work. But...Chip failed," McGee realized.
"Exactly." Ziva said. "So, whoever it is will try again."
Well, this one was un poco shorter...I found a good stopping point, and... stopped. Yep. So...REVIEW! I want 10 reviews before I post again. I know, meanie, right? Oh well. Hope y'all loved it!
There is no choice: thanks for reviewing and putting me on your alert...I wrote more, so you'll have to read more!
Graysen–glad you liked it, and thanks for putting me on your alert list!
Jtbwriter–thanks for reviewing! I'm more of a Harry Potter writer...so yeah, comparatively, NCIS, although the show kicks ass, has a much smaller bunch of readers. Pity. And yeah, I loved Frame - Up...it had a lot of great plot twists. Plus, it had loads of Abby. Gotta love it.
Little Eirtae–wow...I made you cry? Yay! My friend cried too when she read it, and she doesn't even watch NCIS. Though, maybe that's a little pathetic. I got depressed writing the reaction scenes...lol.
655321 - Continuing! Yeah, it's from a real episode...I don't remember which, but I'm too lazy to look it up. Psh.
FINAL NOTE: I'm pretty sure I stole parts of that dream. Sorry, whoever owns those bits of it. And don't worry, I didn't just forget about McGee wittnessing it (the dream.)