A/N: This is a rather slow chapter. I apologize beforehand. Thanks to all you wonderful reviewers. You make my day!

Chapter 4

The rest of the night went by smoothly. Gibbs slept the rest of the night, but Abby kept waking up to check on him. She knew it wasn't a necessary thing to do, but couldn't help it. When it got to 7 a.m., she went to work. She had too much to do to sit around and listen to Gibbs' incoherent ramblings. Besides, the nurse told her he would most likely be out the rest of the day. If Gibbs did well today, they would start taking him off the morphine.

The team got a case that morning. A female Naval officer was found murdered in a cheap motel room. Abby spent nearly all day trying to separate the different bodily fluids found on multiple things in the room, including a lamp shade. She didn't want to think about how that happened.

As usual in the boss' absence, Tony started to impersonate Gibbs. He came down every hour to see if she had anything for him. The third time he came down and she still didn't have anything he asked, "How do you always have something for Gibbs when he comes down but I get nothing?"

"For starters, Gibbs always bring me a Caf-Pow! which highly motivates me. Second, he doesn't come down and distract me every five minutes. So, if you leave me be, I may be able to get this done faster. There was a lot, and I mean an obscene amount, of fluids on the things you brought me. And not all of it is from the same person. So far I've got fluids from 8 different people. 8, Tony! That's disgusting! From now on I'm bringing my own sheets, blankets, and pillows to a hotel with me. That's another reason Gibbs gets results. He would have stopped that rant sentences ago forcing my focus back to the task at hand." Silence filled the room.

"So…you want a Caf-Pow!?"

"That's what I'm saying."

Abby was able to sneak away from the lab for an hour around 7 p.m. to go to the hospital. Gibbs was sleeping when she got there. The nurse said he had been doing well today and would start taking him off the morphine tomorrow.

She stayed at NCIS all night separating various bodily fluids. When she was finally finished she ran all 11 of them through police DNA files.

"Run them through the military records, too, Abby," Tony said when he came down to deliver her a fresh Caf-Pow!.

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because, technically, those are only used to identify bodies."

"Do it anyway. No one has to know."

"Tony! It would send up red flags and alerts to everyone we wouldn't want paying attention! I would totally get fired! If I get fired who would you bribe for results then?"

"Calvin."

Abby's jaw dropped and she gasped. "Calvin?! He's a putz! You'd have him running out of here crying in less than a week! Besides, what would Gibbs do to you if you caused me to get fired?"

That made Tony pause and think. He'd kill me and then have Abby help him get rid of the body. "So what now then?"

"Well," Abby said, "I'm running it through police records now, but if you find a suspect, I could take a cheek swab and see if it matches."

Later that afternoon, Tony and Ziva brought in 5 suspects. Abby suspected it was a bit overkill and Tony was just bringing in people to match the DNA with. She thought that he would probably go through ever military branch until he found who he was looking for. It did work though. By 6:54 p.m. that night, they had their guy.

Abby felt a little guilty not being there today while Gibbs was being weaned off his morphine, but she couldn't let Calvin handle the case. He would for sure have messed something up. She knew Gibbs would understand. At least she hoped he would. Besides, Ducky said he would stop by during lunch. She hadn't talked to him since then.

When she walked into his room, her heart stopped. Frozen in place, she just stared. The bed was empty. Gibbs was gone. Ohmygod ohmygod, ohmygod! Oh no, oh no, oh no. This cannot be happening! He can't be gone. He just can't! Someone would have called me, right? What if they did and I answered the phone 'Abby Sciuto' and then they knew I wasn't Gibbs's sister and they hung up? But I didn't get any hang ups today, so that can't be it. Oh God, Gibbs! Where are-."

"Miss Gibbs?" Abby turned around to see the same nurse that had kicked Tony out 2 nights before. She wanted to stay calm when talking to the nurse, but her mind wouldn't let her. It all came out in one big rush.

"Where's Gibbs? I mean, Jethro. What's going on? Is he ok? What happened? When did it happen? Its alright, you can tell me the truth. No you can't. I don't think I could handle it. Lie to me. Why didn't anybody call me-."

"Miss Gibbs! Its alright just take a breath and calm down. Mr. Gibbs is fine."

"He is?" she softly asked, a little embarrassed about her outburst. It seemed all that caffeine she had today had caught up with her.

"Yes," she said with a friendly smile. "They moved him out of the ICU about an hour ago. If you want to walk up to the nurses' station with me I can look up what room he is currently in." Abby nodded and followed the nurse up to the desk. After a few seconds of typing at her keyboard she told Abby Gibbs was now in room 314 on the third floor.

"Is it alright if his friends come visit him now?"

"Yes, that will be fine."

"Thank you," Abby said and headed for the elevator. After a few steps, she turned back for the nurses' station. "I have a confession to make," she told the nurse. "I'm not really his sister."

"I kind of figured," the nurse said with a small chuckle.