Disclaimer: See chapter one...
A/N: Hey guys, I'm sorry it took a while. This one is a bit longer to make up formy semi-short chapter five, lol. Enjoy!
Abby slowly stirred awake at seven-thirty that morning, emotionally drained. She felt arms around her waist and she tilted her head to see McGee sleeping soundly beside her. Smiling to herself, she gently pulled away from his grasp and climbed out of bed. Undisturbed, McGee simply rolled over and continued to sleep. Abby sniffed thickly, her head was locked up from all the crying she had done. She went straight into her kitchen and popped a couple sinus pills. She turned back and walked to her bathroom, grabbing a towel on the way. She needed a hot shower, and was greatly looking forward to one.
Fifteen minutes later, Abby left the steamy bathroom, soaking wet, and wrapped in a dark red bath robe. She walked quietly into her room and chuckled to herself when she saw McGee still sound asleep, snoring softly. Deciding not to risk waking him, she grabbed the clothes she intended to wear and left to change in another room.
Fully dressed and made up, Abby heard a cell phone ring as she walked down hallway. It was coming from her living room and it didn't sound like hers. It must have been McGee's. She followed the sound and bounded forward when she saw it on her end table.
She flipped it open and said jokingly, "Super Special Agent, Timothy Maxwell McGee's phone."
She heard a soft chuckle on the other end. "Morning Abs," Gibbs said. "McGee's middle name is not 'Maxwell', you know."
"I know, but isn't 'Maxwell' a cool name? I think it fits him," Abby replied, grinning. "What's up Gibbs?"
"You two need to get down here ASAP," Gibbs said. "We've hit a break and we need everyone here now."
"Right, Gibbs, I'll get him up. We'll be there soon."
"How are you feeling Abs?" Gibbs asked.
Abby sighed. She was open with McGee, she might as well be open with everyone else. "I'm okay Gibbs...scared, but okay."
"I know you are, we all are too. Get McGee up and you two get down here."
"Yes, sir," Abby replied.
"Abby...don't call me 'sir'," Gibbs said, then he hung up the phone.
Giggling, Abby closed McGee's phone then rushed up to her bedroom. Aww, poor McGee, he looked so peaceful, she hated to have to do this.
"McGee?" she called gently. He didn't stir. "McGee?" she called louder. Still, no response. He just mumbled slightly and rolled over, facing her. Abby bent down quickly and grabbed up a couple of her socks that were lying on the floor. She wadded them up into a big ball.
"McGee!" she yelled, throwing the socks at him. Perfect hit...right in the face!
He startled awake and groaned, "What?"
"Get up. Gibbs just called, he needs us there as soon as possible," Abby explained.
McGee groaned sleepily and climbed out of the bed, still in his clothes from the day and night before.
Looking down at himself, he asked, "You still have some of my clothes here?"
"Yep, bottom drawer," he heard Abby say from the hallway. She returned carrying a towel, which she tossed to him. "Here. Shower and change and I'll have breakfast ready when you get out."
McGee was in and out of the shower and dressed in less than five minutes. He had learned to do his usual activites in a breakneck pace once he joined NCIS, and it's proven handy on several occasions. McGee rushed down the hall past the kitchen when he was pelted in the chest with what look like a silver streak that was thrown with a good amount of force.
He looked down at what hit him and recognized it. "Pop Tarts?" he questioned. "This is breakfast to you?"
Abby looked insulted. "Yes. Plus, it's the only stuff I can make in five minutes time. Now, come on, you'll eat it in the car, we need to go." She grabbed her lunch box on the counter and walked toward the door.
McGee chuckled. "First, you hit me in the face with your dirty socks, then you throw Pop Tarts at me." McGee said sarcastically, grinning broadly. "'Only stuff you can make', you just pull them out of the box Abs."
"Come on Timmy!" Abby cried playfully, pushing him out of the door and closing it behind them.
As Abby and McGee approached the elevator at NCIS Headquarters, McGee's cell phone rang once more.
When McGee opened his phone, he didn't have a chance to answer before he heard Gibbs yell, "Where the hell are you?"
"I'm two floors above you," McGee quickly replied. "I'll be down in two minutes."
He shut the phone and looked at Abby, who was trying to stifle her laughter. "Ooooh...Timmy's in trouble!" she said, like she was back on the elementary school playground.
"Oh, shut up," McGee said laughingly.
Abby stuck out her tongue at him and he reciprocated, as they had done so many times before. The elevator dinged open, and the two entered. When the doors shut behind them, McGee took hold of Abby's hand. He bent down toward her and they shared a soft, loving kiss. When the elevator slowed to a stop they had to separate, much to both party's displeasure.
"I'll be down to see you sometime today," McGee whispered.
"You better," Abby replied. McGee departed the elevator, leaving Abby to travel down two more floors to her lab.
He wasn't five feet into the bullpen when Gibbs barked, "McGee, our guy just contacted us. I need a trace on his cell phone!"
"On it Boss." Finally, a break in the case from hell. McGee quickly sat down at his desk and worked furiously at his computer.
Abby exited the elevator with a little giddy bounce in her step. she felt so relieved after her breakdown to McGee. However cliche it sounded, Abby felt that massive weight of burden lift off her shoulders. Despite her happier mood, there was still that little twinge of nervousness within her. Like there was one solitary butterfly moving about in the pit of her stomach. She knew that any minute either her cell phone or the phone in her lab could ring and her doctor would be on the other end, delivering her fate. And yet...it didn't terrify her as much as it did the day before.
She grinned and chuckled out loud when she walked up to a large cup of Caf-Pow sitting on her worktable. It had a small note attached to it, and she bend over to look at it.
"Normalcy is the necessity of chaos," she read aloud. "Hope this helps you feel better."
"Aww, Gibbs," Abby whispered to herself, then taking a long drink from the straw. It did help...her caffiene addiction could continue.
She had only a few items on her to-do list to catch up on her once-massive workload. She grabbed what she needed and set to work immediately. Thirty minutes later, Abby skipped over to the printer and removed the results from her latest lab test...her final lab test.
She placed the paper inside a folder, then cried joyfully, "I'm done!"
"Not yet Abs." She spun around to see Gibbs and McGee walking toward her. "I need one more thing."
"And that would be, mon capitan?" Abby asked.
"I need an exact pinpoint location for this bastard," Gibbs said. "McGee's got what you need."
With that, McGee showed Abby the generalized location he derived from the cell phone trace. They both then fed and crunched numbers furiously on her computer, narrowing their search radius a little more each time, until finally...
"Got it, Gibbs!" Abby cried as alert signals flashed on the computer monitor.
"Where is he?" Gibbs asked, pulling out his cell phone and dialing.
"He is in the fourth quadrant of the harbor, storage unit six," McGee replied.
"Good work guys," Gibbs said, then into the phone he said, "Dinozzo, get the car ready, we're going to the harbor." He turned back to Abby. "I need you to upload the map on Tony's PDA."
"Done and done, Gibbs," Abby replied, finishing typing the computer sequence.
"Let's go McGee," Gibbs said, rushing toward to elevator.
"Be careful," Abby whispered to McGee as he left.
"I will," he replied.
"Go get 'im boys!" Abby called to their retreating backs.
Since Abby was no longer bound to her lab by impending lab reports, she had gone down to the morgue to hang out with Ducky and Jimmy, who were also at an impass in their duties. They both inquired as to how she was feeling, and that they knew that things were going to turn out okay. While waiting for Gibbs and the team to return, they shared stories and anecdotes about themselves and life in general. Ducky went off on one particularly long tangent while Abby and Jimmy just smiled and nodded as they listened, then giggled silently when his back was turned.
Several hours later, right at the moment when Abby was beginning to worry about them, her cell phone rang. She reached for it, then stopped suddenly, a cold wave sweeping over her.
Seeing this, Jimmy asked, "Abby? You okay?"
"This could be the hospital," Abby replied, somewhat shakily. Ducky immediately went to her grasped her hand, while Jimmy did the same to her shoulder.
She looked at her caller ID and breathed a sigh of relief when she read the name. "It's McGee," she said, opening her phone. Ducky and Jimmy both sighed gratefully and stepped away to give Abby some privacy with her call.
"Did you get him McGee?" Abby asked.
"In a sense," he replied.
"How do you mean?"
"Gibbs shot him. He opened fire on us, so we shot back," McGee replied.
"Are you okay? Are all of you okay?" Abby asked immediately.
"We're fine Abs. We're heading back to NCIS now."
"All right, see you in a bit."
When she hung up, she shuddered lightly. She looked up at Ducky and Jimmy and said, "I guess I'm more scared about these test results that I thought I was."
She left her friends in the morgue to meet the team as they came back to the squadroom. She walked over and sat down in Gibbs' chair, knowing full well he wouldn't yell at her for doing so, and spun around in it.
"This is a good chair," she said aloud to herself. "I doubt Gibbs knows the fun on spinning in a desk chair."
She heard the elevator door ding and she watched as Gibbs, Kate, Tony, and McGee trudge out. Gibbs spied Abby and smiled. Smiling back, she stood and allowed Gibbs to sit in his own chair. She walked over and stood beside McGee.
"I could use a beer," Tony said, falling heavily into his chair.
"Me too," Kate replied.
"This case has been absolute hell," McGee groaned. "A beer would be the minimum consolation."
"I wouldn't turn one down," Gibbs said.
"And I've been wanting one since Thursday," Abby said. "Do I take it we're going bar hopping tonight?"
"Sounds that way to me," Gibbs replied. "Abs, do you have anything else to do downstairs?" Abby shook her head. "Okay, then go home and rest a while. We've got to write up our reports, then we'll go out this afternoon."
"I'm at McGee's mercy for a ride, so I'll just be down in my office resting," Abby replied.
"I'll call you when we're leaving," McGee said.
"Works for me. See you guys later." Abby walked to the elevator, and after waiting several minutes for it to reach their floor, she stepped on.
Once inside her lab, Abby shut herself into her office. She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, and started to turn it off for a little peace and quiet. She stopped, remembering that McGee was going to call her...and that the hospital could call at anytime. The lone butterfly was back in her stomach...but now some of his friends had joined the party. Abby slowly walked to her CD player on her desk and turned it on. She smiled as the music played and at the memories it brought back. Evanescence--the only group that she and McGee could agree on. It had the hard, driving tunes she loved, and McGee could actually understand what they were saying. It was the perfect compromise.
She laid out on the small couch she had in her office and placed her cell phone on her stomach, which she had put on vibrate. She felt her eyes get heavy, and soon she fell into a light sleep.
Ninety minutes later, she stirred when she felt her belly buzzing and she lifted her head sleepily. Realizing that it was her cell phone ringing, she nervously checked the caller ID. It was McGee...she sighed once more.
"Get a grip Sciuto," she scolded herself before answering the phone. "Hey McGee."
"Hey Abby, did I wake you?"
"Yeah," she replied.
"Sorry," he said sincerely.
"Did you call to tell me that we're leaving for the bar?" she asked, smiling.
"Yes..."
"Then you havenothing to be sorry for," Abby laughed. "I'll be right up."
She jumped off her couch, stuffed her cell phone into her back pocket, and shut off her still rocking CD player. She grabbed her stuff and rushed to the elevator to meet the group up in the bullpen.
After much heated deliberation on whether to stick with their traditional bar hangout or to try a new one, they all found themselves at their usual bar just a few streets down from the navy yard.Everybody was there...including Ducky and Jimmy. Everyone had worked themselves nearly to death on this case, so everyone was there to wind down. Abby and McGee entered hand-in-hand amongst the group and, after spotting an open table large enough to accomidate them all, the group sat down.
A young woman carrying a tray came to the table and took their orders. Beers all around...of all different brands. Gibbs got a Bud; Tony, a Heineken; Kate, a Coors Light; McGee and Abby both got a Sam Adams; Jimmy, a Miller; and Ducky ordered a British lager of a brand no one at the table knew.
They sat there for hours, just drinking together, laughing together, and trying to de-stress themselves. Abby had joined into the conversations adamantly all night, forgetting about all her troubles...her pain, her worries, everything. All that mattered to her at this particular moment in time was that she was sitting with the man that she loved and with the group of people she called her family, having the time of her life.
This night, as all Saturday nights were at that local bar, was karaoke night. The makeshift MC of all karaoke activities took a microphone and announced that those who wanted to participate needed only to write their name and the song they were singing on a piece of paper.
Tony looked over at Gibbs' seat...he had left momentarily for the bathroom...then around to the group. "Hey guys," he said with a slight, but noticeable, slur. "We should get Gibbs to sing something. He would be the hit of the bar. Abs, get a napkin and sign him up for 'Natural Woman' or something like that. Ow!"
Tony's head shot forward as Gibbs, who was walking up behind Tony and had heard the whole thing, smacked the back of it. "Over your dead body, DiNozzo."
"Don't you mean, 'overmy dead body', Boss?" Tony asked.
"No Tony," Gibbs said, moving to within an inch of Tony's nose. "Yours."
They continued their night with another round and watching the poor drunken fools singing onstage. Every now and then, they'd get a sober one with a decent voice, but mainly they heard completely smashed people wailing hilariously into the microphone. They particuarly enjoyed the version of 'Bohemian Rhapsody' sung by four equally drunk men. Gibbs even joined in with everyone at the table singing along.
"You know this song, Jethro?" Ducky called from across the table. He was the only one at the table who was unfamiliar with it.
"Everyone knows this song Duck," Gibbs called back, smiling. "It's Queen."
"You know," Tony said, "this reminds me of that movie 'Wayne's World' when they're all in the car and they start singing this song. That must be how you know this one, Boss."
"Yeah,that's it," Gibbs said sarcastically.
Abby sat there, holding McGee's hand with her head on his shoulder, watching and enjoying her friend's company. She felt happy and content for the first time in days. McGee looked over at her and was grateful that he was able to see her smiling like that again. Abby startled suddenly when she felt her butt start to vibrate. She pulled out her cell phone and read the number...she didn't recognize it.
Glad that the karaoke fun had taken a short break, Abby opened her phone and said, "Abby Sciuto."
"Miss Sciuto, this is Dr. Henderson, we have your biospy results."
Her eyes widened and her stomach plummeted as she pulled the phone away from her face and covered the receiver. "It's the hospital!" She cried. All seven heads snapped up and stared intently at her, McGee tightening his grasp of her hand.
McGee watched her bring the phone back to her ear and tell the doctor to go on. She gasped, clapping her hand to her mouth and he felt his heart break when he saw her eyes mist over.
"Oh, God," McGee whispered. "No..."
"Y-yes doctor," Abby said shakily. "I'll, uh...I'll be there tomorrow afternoon." She closed her phone, placed it on the table, in utter shock.
McGee placed his other hand on her shoulder. "Abby?"
"What is it Abs?" Tony said.
"What'd he say?" Kate added.
"Abby, tell us." Gibbs looked fearful.
Abby looked around at every single face at the table. She exhaled sharply and her face split in a large grin. "It's benign!" she said with a small joyful sob. "I'm okay!"
To be continued...
A/N: Y'all have no idea how long it took me to decide whether to be EVIL with a potential cliffhanger, but I decided to be nice, lol. Once more chapter to go, and I promise I'll get this one done as fast as possible. )