note: I hope you liked the first chapter and are ready for the second. this one involves a scene from Abbys last episode (1522) so I hope you like it. please let me know what you think. this is a bit of an experiment.

2018 – hospital

Gibbs is standing in the ICU-room where Abby is lying in bed. She is hooked up to wires and a tube in her mouth. He feels so powerless seeing her like that. She has never been the one to give up or stop fighting.

"keep fighting, Abby." He says and holds her hand. Her hand is warm, but she doesn't move at all. As he is standing there. Looking at her, he remembers the first case she worked with him as an NCIS-forensics expert.

Flashback

Gibbs and Tony drove to the crime scene together in the NCIS truck. Tony couldn't stop talking about the new forensics-girl. He didn't think she would last for long. She was too different from being with NCIS. Gibbs had to admit he had his thoughts to. The case turned out to be messy. It was shooting with 3 dead at a back alley with a lot of evidence to process by Abby. When Gibbs and Tony first brought boxes of evidence back to Abby, she was as excited as a kid on Christmas morning, who is about to open presents, but when Tony had brought in box number 10, her smile had faded a bit. She was all alone on the processing, and she was on a tight timeline to prove herself to the team.

Abby's lab

It has been about 4 hours since they brought in the evidence boxes for processing. Gibbs steps out of the elevator and walks into the forensics lab. All the evidence seems like a complete mess all over the room, and in the backroom, he can hear the forensics Tec yelling.

"come on." She yells. Gibbs walks into her to see what is going on.

"what is going on, Abby?" he asks, remembering what he told her to call him.

"I'm so sorry I have completely screwed up." She says as she looks really frustrated and apologetic at the same time.

"rule nr. 6. never say you are sorry. It is a sign of weakness." He says and steps closer to her. "what is going on?" he asks again.

"This weapon is the murder weapon on the petty officer Whitney and Lieutenant Sweeney. I test fired it. the bullet is a match."

"so, what is the problem?" he asks, not sure why she would be yelling.

"because the bullet I found in the chamber is brand new, but I found rust on the bullets from the victims that Dr. Mallard sends up here. It doesn't make any sense. so, I was trying to take the gun apart to find the reason for why the gun didn't fire the last bullet and which could explain why the last victim was strangled and not shot."

"That sounds like a brilliant idea," Gibbs says and takes a sip of his coffee.

"Thanks." She says with a small smile. "there is just one problem. I can't take the gun apart."

"why?" he asks.

"it is rusty. Who puts new bullets in a gun that are so rusty and banged up?" She asks and then realizes when she notices the smile on his face what she just said.

"Sorry bad choice of words."

She leaves the gun on the table and takes off her gloves, and they walk back into the central part of the lab.

"what else do you have?" he asks. They stand at the table where most of the evidence bags are piled up.

"trash." She simply responds. He looks at her with a look that tells her to elaborate.

"I'm sorry, Gibbs, but this is just plain old trash. It got nothing. Old pizza boxes, beer bottles, used condoms. Nothing useful. Well, at least not anymore." She says and places the evidence bag with the condom back on the table.

"the fingerprints I found on the beer bottles near the victims could have been there for days. It could be a random dude who doesn't care about the environment who throws it there, or it could be the killer. There is no way to tell, Gibbs." Abby says, resignedly.

"I'm sorry I let you down." She says and walks over to the computer, where she runs fingerprints. Gibbs steps over next to her.

"you haven't. you will find something that can help bring justice to these marines." He says with a sweet smile as she looks over at him.

"I don't know if I can do this job. I am used to doing things my way and…"

"then do it your way." He interrupts her. She looks confused at him.

"do things down here your way. Make this your space. Make it your lab. Put on your music. Do things your way."

"other people usually think that I am weird when I do things my way. My professor once told me that once I got a job, I should start doing things the normal way; otherwise, no one would hire me."

"no one is going to think you are weird." He says and leaves the lab. On his way out of the door, he places a red cup on the table next to the door. Abby walks over and looks t it. She sniffs and recognizes the familiar smell of her favorite drink, Caf pow.

"my way?" Abby says and turns around on her heels. She looks over at the CD-player in the corner. Abby grabs her Cd and puts in on, and the music starts blasting out in the lab. She put on a fresh pair of gloves.

"Okay, listen up, people. I'm Abby. I'm your new boss, and we are going to work together and solve crimes we are going to bring justice to those marines." Abby says in a demanding tone, obviously trying to sound like a commanding officer. Gibbs is still standing outside the lab, and it amuses him to listen to it, but it also gives him an excellent feeling about this new lab-tech.

Hospital 2015

"you have always found your own way of doing things, Abs. You are going to pull through this in your own way too." He says and leans down and places a kiss on her temple.