Note: this is mostly a story about Abby and Gibbs, but I put it in my profile the profile series also because it involves Gibbs chatting with Jack about his memories of Abby. There are a lot of references to Abby-episodes in this story – please let me know what you think of it and ENJOY.

Jack walks down the stairs to the bullpen. It is late, and the case is wrapped up. The team has gone home for the day. Jack is heading home too. She walks by the bullpen looking down at her phone, responding to an email when she notices the light is on at Gibbs's desk, and he is sitting at his desk. The bullpen is entirely dark except for the desk light at Gibbs's desk. She puts her phone in her purse and walks over to Gibbs. He is looking at a tiny piece of paper and on the table in front of him. It is a drawing of Abby on a sketchbook. It has been nearly a week since Abby left the team, and since Clayton Reeves died. The team has been a little shaken up since then, but Gibbs has seemed to be held together pretty well for someone who just lost someone who appeared to be like a daughter to him.

"Gibbs?" she asks when he does not seem to notice her presence. He looks lost in his thoughts.

"you are not leaving?" she asks. Gibbs finally looks up at her.

"Hey, Jack." He says as she looks back down on the sketchbook.

"who made this one?" Jack asks, referring to the sketchbook.

"Kate." He answers as he sounds distant. "Kate Todd. She was a former secret service. Ziva found this sketchbook of hers after Kate's death."

"may I see?" Jack asks, and Gibbs pushes the sketchbook towards her without a word. She walks around the desk and leans against it next to Gibbs as she looks at the sketches of Abby, Tony, Ducky, and Gibbs.

"these are really great," Jack says and places the sketchbook back in the table. She then notices the tiny piece of paper that he has been holding in between his fingers.

"What is that?"

"today's new friend is tomorrow's family" Gibbs reads from the tiny piece of paper. "it is a fortune from a fortune cookie," Gibbs says with a small smile on his lips, remembering when Abby gave it to him. "Abby gave it to me on the first case we worked together."

"you held on to it ever since?" Jack asks.

Gibbs nods. "she gave it to me because she wanted it to be about me, and she was right."

"you two had a pretty special bond." Gibbs looks at the fortune and smiles.

"Yeah. Abbs…" Gibbs smiles. He looks up at Jack with a smile and then stands up and grabs his coat.

"you got any plans tonight?" he asks.

"not really."

"come one. I want to show you something."

Jack look bewildered but is also curious about what he is up to and follows him to the elevator. They step into the elevator, and Gibbs presses the ground floor level button.

"Why did you become an agent, Gibbs?" Jack asks as Gibbs parks the car in his driveway.

"I don't know." He calmly answers as they walk through the front door. He turns on the light in the living room and throws his keys on the table and takes off his jacket.

"come on, Gibbs. You can do better than that."

"All I ever wanted in life was to be a good marine, a good husband, and a good father and son." He says while he moves around the living room.

"and you did." She says. He looks over at her with a sad smile.

"I feel like I failed in at least 2 of those things."

"well… you never failed, but you lost the 2 people you loved the most, and they can never be replaced but… I think…" Gibbs suddenly gives a very tiring look. "hear me out." She pleads. "I think you joined NCIS and became an Agent to find a sense of belonging after you left the marines, and you lost your family. Today's new friend is tomorrow's family. It might have been Abby's wish for it to come true, but I think it was just as much a wish for you, and you sure as hell made it come true. I have never seen any working relationship like the one you and Abby have." it makes Gibbs smile. "we are just coworkers, Jack." Gibbs says casually and walks towards the door to the basement. Jack follows him down the stairs.

"you kiss her on the cheek, bring her caf pow every day. Uses a nickname for her. sure… You are close to all your agents, but it isn't like with Abby. The bond that the two of you share is unlike any other relationship I have ever seen."

Gibbs starts moving some boxes that are stacked against the back wall. He finally takes one out and places it on the table. Jack is just observing, but she steps closer to see the content of the box, once Gibbs opens it.

"What is this?" jack curiously asks and looks down in the box.

"it is stuff I have collected over the years related to my team," Gibbs explains. He takes out a wooden box with a button in the middle. He presses the button, and Gibbs's own voice is heard saying. "thanks, Abbs." It makes both Gibbs and Jack laugh.

"What is that?"

"Abbs made it. for when I was absent on a case." It clearly makes Gibbs smile from memory. "when she made it, I was dealing with some stuff with my dad. She asked me to give it to him. I found it in my dad's house when he passed away."

Jack enjoys the sweet smile on Gibbs's face from the memory of clearly 2 very important people in his life. A woman who was like a daughter to him and his late father. Jack presses the button and the sound of Gibbs's voice saying: "what ya got Abbs?" is coming out, and it makes Jack smile.

Jack looks into the box and finds a picture of Abby and a man who seems to be about the same age as Abby.

"who is this?" Jack asks and takes out the picture.

"that is Abby's biological brother, Kyle."

"biological?" Jack asks, confused.

"Abby found out a few years ago, while she was signing up for being a kidney donor that she was adopted. Kyle is her biological brother. It took her about a year to actually get in touch with him."

"and she introduced him to you?"

"well… more specifically…" Gibbs says while he is finding 2 glass jaws on the table and a bottle of bourbon. "she told him who she was and told him he was adopted too, and then she dragged him here for him to meet me."

Gibbs pours a glass of bourbon and hands it to Jack.

"you see what I mean? Your relationship with Abby is unlike any other."

"I guess." Gibbs just simply says and takes a sip of his liquor. "I used to take her out for dinner on her birthday every year. One year I didn't because we were busy on a framing case, and she got mad because she thought I had forgotten her birthday, so she was snappy for 2 days."

"did you?" Jack asks. Gibbs looks confused at her. "did you forget her birthday?"

Gibbs shakes her head. "Nope. I had just snug past her and placed her birthday present on her desk without her noticing."

"well, that sounds like you." Jack says with a smile. "do you take all of your colleagues out for dinner on their birthday?"

"nope. Just Abbs."

"why?" Jack asks, curious about how this tradition started.

"her parents had passed away, and she was sad that she was going to be alone on her birthday, so I offered her to take her out for dinner on her birthday. It became a tradition."

"you are a very good man, Agent Gibbs," Jack says and smiles. It just merely generates a shy smile on Gibbs's face. Jack looks into the box where there is a sniper projectile at the bottom of the box. Jack picks it up. She can see something is changing in Gibbs's eyes once he sees it. There is sadness in his eyes. He looks down on the floor.

"I promised Abby to always keep her safe." He says after a moment of silence. There is so much sadness in his voice now. "I couldn't. she got hurt, Jack." He says with so much pain in his voice. Jack places the bullet back into the box and walks over to Gibbs.

"Ari, Mikel Mawher, Spooner, Sergent King, Chip, The phantom, Alejandro Rivera and Harper Dearing. Most of those scumbags were my fault. They went after Abby because of me." Gibbs throws his glass into the wall, and it shatters. It shocks Jack.

"it wasn't your fault."

"Rivera and Ari went after Abby because of me. I didn't stop King or that freak, Chip. I could have stopped them before they hurt Abby."

Jack is just observing silently. Gibbs is standing with his back to her in the opposite end of the basement. He is clearly trying to calm himself down. Jack hasn't seen Gibbs this emotional and worked up before. Clearly, Abby was a substitute daughter to him.

"Gibbs," Jack says when she senses he has calmed down enough again. He looks back at her over his shoulder. He notices she is standing with a pair of handcuffs in her hand. The cuffs are taped to the back of a picture of Gibbs's face. It makes Gibbs smile when he turns around.

"are you going to explain why a photo of you are taped to a pair of handcuffs? Or why it says flight risk on the back of the photo?"

"I retired once from NCIS." Jack looks shocked at him. "I went down to Mexico for a couple of months to stay with an old friend, Mike Franks. Abby missed me a lot, so she put my picture on all of her monitors. When I came back to help Ziva out, Abby handcuffed herself to me. She told me she wasn't going to let me leave. She told me I was a flight risk."

It makes Jack smile. "she loves you. she can't go without you."

"I think she can. Abby is a very strong person. She is incredibly smart. She can handle herself. She was once stalked by an ex-boyfriend. She handled her stalker just perfectly fine." Gibbs says and chuckles by the memory of Abby in her monkey suit with black-framed glasses standing in the back of a van while shocking her attacker with a stun gun.

"I didn't mean to say she can't handle herself, but everyone needs support from a parental figure everyone's in a while." Gibbs nods and walks back to the box on the table, and Jack follows. He finds a crumbled picture at the bottom of the box and picks it up. It is an old picture of Tony, Ziva, McGee, Abby, and Gibbs. Jack notice there is an elderly man with white hair and shining blue eyes, just like Gibbs's standing next to Gibbs in the picture. Everyone is standing with their arms around each other and smiling in the image.

"who is that?" Jack asks, pointing at the older man next to Gibbs.

"my father, Jackson Gibbs. It was a case we worked in Stillwater many years ago. The team meets my father, and he and I reconnected after we hadn't spoken for nearly 10 years."

"When was it taken?"

"2008."

"Your father and your team. It seems to me like this is a picture of where you belong, Gibbs. A picture of your family." Gibbs just smiles at the picture. He is about to put it back in the box but decides against it and places it on the table.

"I got another one for ya," Jack says and takes out her phone and finds a picture and shows it to Gibbs. It makes Gibbs smile. It is a photo taken the day the McGee-twins were born. When the whole team was gathered at the hospital.

"I'll make you an analog copy. It is more your style." She jokes, and Gibbs nods.

"thank you," Gibbs says with sincerity in his eyes. As he closes the box, he remembers the moment he came back from Paraguay together with McGee. The look on Abby's face right before she hugged him. She refused to let go for a long time. She just held on to him for dear life for a long time. Just like she did when he came back from Mexico over 10 years ago. Abby has been one constant in his life for many years. She has been like a daughter to him. Watching her grow as a person over the years has made the pain from losing Kelly a bit more bearable. Abby has been challenging him many times almost daily over the years, but he has always managed to put a smile on his face. She always gave him a feeling of pride, like a father's pride in his daughter. Abby has annoyed the heck out of him like when Abby referred to him and Jen as mom and dad that fights or when Abby was playing music way too loud for his taste but… She always made him proud. He has always been proud of her forensic skills, but most importantly he has been proud of her way of still being her self in a world filled with judgment, she has always stayed true to her self no matter what she faced over the years.

"you asked me why I became an agent, Jack," Gibbs says as he closes the box. Jack nods.

"to find a sense of belonging. The same reason Abby is now leaving NCIS. To find the next place for her to belong in the world."

Gibbs puts the box back where he took it, and they walk up the stairs to the living room. Jack sees the letter from Abby on Gibbs coffee table.

"you got mail?" Jack says when she notices the letter.

"yeah, it is from Abby." Jack looks surprised. Gibbs nods the go-ahead for her to read it while he goes to the kitchen to make some dinner for them.

"Hey, Gibbs. You're probably wondering what's with the retro communication. Truth is, I chickened out. I was afraid that if you asked me to stay, I might waiver because there's nothing I wouldn't do for you. When I think back on when things in my life got difficult, you were always there to tell me that it would be okay. And it would be because you would make it okay. But Gibbs, Reeves is gone, and it's not something anyone can fix. Not even you. I hope you know what you mean to me, Gibbs. Every moment, every lesson, every hug. I'm thankful for it all. No matter what we faced over the years, there was only ever one thing I needed to hear from you."

While Jack reads the letter, Gibbs is in the kitchen cooking up some quick dinner for them. He comes into the living room and places the two plates on the dining table.

"it is a beautiful letter." Gibbs nods.

"yeah."

Jack notices how Gibbs looks out the window like he is looking for someone standing outside the window when he puts the letter down on the coffee table. "I love ya, Abbs." He whispers as he places the letter down on the table. Then he walks over to have dinner with Jack.

Note: I have 2 Abby stories in the process right now based on some requests, but I am waiting for my muse to hit me with a good idea. Stay tuned.