A/N: Okay,I know I've been behind with this one. I'm sorry everyone! Thanks to everyone who keeps pushing me for more, LOL. Anyways, thanks for putting up with me... Here you all go. Please review, or there will be no more!
With just under eighteen hours left on his deadline, Gibbs finally pulled his black Dodge Intrepid quietly into a long gravel driveway. Stones crunched almost noiselessly under his tyres. Although the most important thing on his mind was getting to Abby, he was still taking the necessary precautions to ensure that he would not be caught. Halfway down the drive, he spotted a large willow tree. A strange silhouette was vaguely outlined underneath it. Thinking that he would park his car there, out of sight in the rapidly dwindling sunlight, and then quickly determine what was there before rushing in to save Abby. Of course, that was assuming that she was actually in there, and Gibbs had a nagging feeling that she wouldn't be. Still, he was more than willing to check it out if there was even the slightest chance that she would be there.
He turned slowly under the willow tree and parked next to what turned out to be another car. He carefully opened his car door and shut it behind him, being doubly sure not to make too much noise as he did so. As he noticed that the sky was getting increasingly darker, he was thankful that he had remembered his flashlight. Gibbs flicked it on and directed it towards the car.
His heart leaped at the sight of another Dodge Intrepid. With a frantically hopeful glance at the licence plate, he confirmed what he had already suspected. The car belonged to no other than his very own Abby Sciuto. His breath caught in his throat and it was all he could do not to burst into the old, rust coloured and abandoned farmhouse.
Gibbs slowly shined the flashlight inside of her car. By its pale yellow light, he slowly searched her car for any traces of her body, bracing himself for the worst. When the soft glow revealed nothing other than Abby's typical CD collection and her purse, Gibbs pulled open the door on the driver's side and climbed in. He wasn't worried about leaving prints or anything. They had countless prints from both Ari and McGee, and it did them no good, especially when Abby was missing.
As he sat in her seat and shut the door behind him, he was met with the unmistakable scent that could only be attributed to Abby. There was a lingering scent of gunpowder, which under any other circumstances would have worried him. As it was, gunpowder was Abby's trademark scent, along with a more subtle scent of roses. Abby was one of kind, there was no denying that. He sat in her chair, wondering how long it had been since she was in it. As he ran his fingers along the soft, black leather, he wondered if it was anything like as soft as her skin. Her scent was soothing in the confined space; almost as though he could sense her presence reassuring him that she was alive and unhurt.
"Oh Abby," he whispered softly. "What will it take before I can get you back in your lab where you belong?"
He smiled at the neatly symmetrical stacks of CDs, before suddenly noticing that one was missing from one of the stacks. After doing a cursory scan of the car, he leaned down and reached under her front seat. His fingers brushed against something soft and cottony. With a puzzled sense of curiosity, he tugged on the clothing. As he gently placed the neatly folded shirt and skirt on his lap, he found himself wondering why Abby kept extra clothes in her car. He carefully unfolded the shirt and decided it would be safer, not to mention smarter, not to ask. Gibbs suddenly recognized the shirt and stared at in disbelief. Unless he was very much mistaken, which he rarely ever was, this was the same shirt Abby had been wearing at work earlier that day. As for the skirt, he couldn't believe it had taken him so long to recognize it. Unless Abby had two identical skirts, she had been wearing this earlier. He held the shirt up to his nose and breathed in softly. It smelled strongly of Abby's unique scent, and he knew that he could not let himself lose her.
Gibbs glanced at the suddenly ominous and foreboding farmhouse. In the virtually non-existent light, it seemed to radiating a sinister yellow glow like the ones used in the movies to backlight demons. Gibbs had learned at a very young age to fear nothing but fear itself, but now he was terrified of what he might find. Still, the only thing left to do was go inside and hope he found Abby there, alive and unharmed.
He opened her door quietly, still feeling hopeful that she was waiting inside for him. As he shut it carefully behind him, the faint outline of a man could be seen fumbling in the sudden darkness. Gibbs quickly dropped flat by the car and crawled underneath it, hoping he hadn't been spotted.
The man turned quickly and Gibbs was sure that he had made some sort of noise or had been spotted. Whoever it was stared long and hard at the willow tree. Gibbs held his breath as though that would make him less likely to be seen. Just when Gibbs thought he could hold his breath no more, the man abruptly turned and walked off into the woods.
Gibbs breathed a sigh of relief and crawled out from under Abby's car. He brushed himself off and pulled the leaves and twigs from his hair. As he pulled out a twig and received a slight burst of tingling, he remembered the real reason he was there in the first place. Abby could possibly be inside of there and being tortured. Every minute he wasted out here was another minute of intense agony for Abby.
As silently as possible, Gibbs withdrew his gun and crept towards the farmhouse. By now, the moon was up and lighting the grounds all too brightly. Gibbs had been hoping for a bit of an overcast night to cover him. As it was, he had to dart from shadow to shadow.
While he desperately wanted to march right up to the front door and demand that Abby was released to him, Gibbs knew better than to attempt an attack such as that. He would only set himself up to get stuck there with her, and by the time Kate and Tony figured out what had happened, it would be too late. He had adamantly refused to have either of them along for backup, claiming that this was something he had to do on his own.
As he found himself almost wishing that he had brought someone with him, Gibbs suddenly found himself at the very back of the farmhouse. He saw the lights on inside and hoped that that meant Abby was in there somewhere. Kate had said that the actual house was well furnished and he hoped that Abby was comfortable. If she wasn't, there would be Hell to pay.
He snuck to the back door of the actual barn and kicked it open, making a loud splintering noise. The door opened slowly, almost like a scene from an obscure horror movie. Inside the barn, Gibbs saw nothing but the inky-black darkness, which threatened to swallow him whole if he dared to enter.
With no hesitations and a fresh image of Abby in his mind, Gibbs moved quickly from the well lit night and into the complete darkness of the barn. The door closed ominously behind him, as if it was sealing his fate.
