A/N: I know it's not much guys, but I have the next chapter nearly ready. I promise to post it before I go to school tomorrow. Sorry it took so long, but when I got back from my Forensics Conference in DC I had over 300 emails. Needless to say, I've been trying to manage that. I know, I know, no excuses. Anyway, I apologize for the delay.
Summary: Basically, what's happend so far is that Abby was kidnapped by McGee and Ari combined. Gibbs and the rest (but mainly Gibbs, obviously) were involved in a race against time. Even though Gibbs is still within his time frame of Abby not being hurt, they've found her body. Gibbs called Ducky, and now he, Kate and Tony are all there as well.
Before Gibbs was even out of the door, Ducky opened it and walked in. Tony followed him closely, supporting Kate with an arm around her shoulders. When she walked through the door, her face paled noticeably and she gripped Tony's arm. Gibbs turned away, rejecting himself for allowing her to come. For several minutes, no one asked the inevitable question. They all simply stood in the living room with the door wide open. Gibbs could hear Kate fighting back sobs, as well as Ducky's deep breathing. As for Tony, Gibbs wasn't even sure he was breathing.
Finally, Kate spoke up timidly. "Where is she Gibbs?"
Gibbs tried to answer her, but found that his voice was sticking in his throat. After several feeble attempts to tell her where Abby was, Gibbs just pointed his finger at the door.
Kate disentangled herself from Tony and headed towards it, a grim but determined look on her face. When they all started to follow her, she turned and looked them squarely in the eye. "I need to do this on my own first," she began strongly. "Please… She was- She was my best friend," she whispered, almost inaudibly.
Gibbs gave her a long, hard look and stared back at him, equally searching. Finally he nodded. "Let her go."
Kate turned once more towards the door. She paused, taking the time to breathe deeply and square her shoulders. She was ready.
…Or so she had thought. As she opened the door and saw Abby lying on the table, she nearly threw up. Kate had never had a queasy stomach and has always assumed that no dead body would affect her. She had been wrong, and as much as she wanted to turn and run, she found that she simply could not look away.
Abby lay peacefully on the table, almost as though she were sleeping. She wore a white dress that contrasted stunningly with her dark hair. One arm lay across her stomach, while the other dangled off the edge of the table. The only things indicating that she was dead were the colour of her skin and the fact that her chest didn't rise and fall gently. Kate couldn't help thinking that Abby would make a beautiful bride. Would have made a beautiful bride, rather.
Without so much as thinking about what she was doing, Kate reached out and brushed a stray strand of Abby's hair back. When her fingers brushed against the cold and slightly clammy skin, she froze and pulled her hand away quickly.
"Oh God Abby, I'm so sorry," she whispered. "It should have been me, not you."
"It shouldn't have been any of us Katie," replied Tony from the door.
Kate turned quickly and ran to him. He pulled her into his arms and she buried her face in his chest. "Why her? Why did he have to kill Abby?" Kate began sobbing as she wrapped her arms around his neck.
Gibbs stood off to one side, determined not to cry, but he wasn't sure how much longer he would be able to manage it. He was asking the same questions. Why Abby? Why not himself? Abby would never get married. She would never come in to work, bursting with joy because she was pregnant. He would never see her laughing again; never see her smile bright up the room. She was… gone.
"It's not fair Tony! It's not fair! She was…" Kate's voice faltered. "She was my best friend…"
Tony felt his heart breaking all over again. Abby, his surrogate little sister, was dead. And now Kate, his… Well, now Kate thought it was at least partially her fault. Ari had undoubtedly been trying to tear them all apart, and Tony knew, without ever looking at the rest of the team, that he had succeeded.
Gibbs was about to open his mouth and say something, but decided against it. He couldn't stand the fact that Ari had won. He had destroyed his team, just as he had planned. And even worse, McGee had helped him do it. They had trusted him, and he had gone and let a god dammed terrorist ruin them all… Had everyone else been less shocked, Gibbs would have stormed out of the house and torn across the entire state, the entire country, even the entire world, until he finally found Ari and gave him exactly what he deserved.
Ducky, who had been standing where he knew there was no chance of him seeing Abby, now moved slightly closer to Gibbs and put a hand on his shoulder. "It's not your fault Jethro," he whispered.
"Sure it is Duck," he replied, staring fixedly at the white figure on the table. He turned abruptly. "If it hadn't been for me, Ari would have taken someone else."
"Jethro-" began Ducky, softly at first. He cleared his throat. "Jethro, it is not your fault."
Gibbs merely shrugged, deciding that this was not the time to get into an argument with Ducky.
Ducky sighed loudly and pushed past him, suddenly needing to see Abby, if only to prove to himself that she was in fact gone.
At the sight of her still and lifeless body, Ducky nearly turned and bolted out of the house. And yet, at the same time, there was something there that would not let him look away.
For several moments, there was no sound other than the muffled sobs of Kate and the gentle murmuring of Tony's voice in her ear. Finally, Ducky spoke up.
"We have to get her out of here."
Gibbs turned to him sharply, realizing what he was going to do. "No! Ducky, no."
Ducky tore his eyes from the table, yet did not look Gibbs in the eye. "Jethro, you know what we have to do."
"But we don't Duck! We can just go home and give her a nice funeral… The funeral she deserves." His voice broke halfway through his last sentence, but he didn't care. How could Ducky, one of his own team members, even suggest that they… He shuddered, not even wanting to think about it.
"Jethro, how else do you propose that we find this bastard?" The pain was evident on Ducky's face and in his voice, but Gibbs hardly noticed or cared. All he knew was that if a knife was being used on Abby's body, it would have to cut his heart out first.
"We search the entire planet or even the entire universe if we have to!"
At Gibbs' yelling, Kate and Tony turned to watch, curious as to how things would play out despite themselves and the circumstances. Kate looked over at Abby's body and squeezed her eyes shut at the image that unwillingly came to her mind. She didn't want them to cut Abby open anymore than Gibbs did, but she also knew that they would probably have to.
"You know that we can't do that."
"And what if it does nothing? What if we do all of that to her body and there's absolutely nothing useful there? Then we'll have violated her for nothing and we'll have wasted all that time."
Ducky bit his lip and considered his colleague for a minute. "What if we just take her back… Back to the labs, where she belongs? Then we can see if there might be a reason to…?" He let his voice trail off, hating himself for what he was doing.
Gibbs looked thoughtfully from Abby, to Ducky, then back to Abby. "You won't so much as touch her with a scalpel or anything?"
"Not unless I have the okay from you first." He promised. In truth, Ducky was glad that someone was putting up a fight, because the last thing he was willing to do was put Abby on that cold table and cut her open. Still he had known that someone would have to make the argument, and as the oldest, he had taken the miserable task upon himself.
During the time that they had been arguing, no one other than Tony had noticed Kate moving to stand angrily by Abby's body, and he had wisely chosen not to say anything. They turned now, prepared to carry Abby back to the truck, and saw her.
Kate levelled her eyes with Ducky and Gibbs. "If you go near her with a knife, I swear to God I will kill you. Never mind Gibbs giving his okay, you won't do it," she snarled dangerously.
Gibbs finally snapped out of his self-loathing and became the cool and collected Boss-man again. "Tony, take Kate outside please."
Kate didn't protest as Tony took her wrist in his hand, but her eyes never left Gibbs as she let him take her away. "I swear it Gibbs, I will kill you."
"Yeah," he murmured softly. "Yeah, I know you will Kate."
