AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, so someone told me the last chapter was a little slashy; I am assuming they were talking about the bathroom scene. I didn't mean it to be, so I did a couple of changes, but I do want to remind everyone that we've seen Gibbs get into Tony's space exactly like that before, so I didn't think it was overly slashy. (After all, as far as I have seen, there's no slash on the actual show.) It was not meant to be slashy; more like parental, like when you were a kid in public and your dad would grab your arm and say something in your ear that let you know exactly how much trouble you were in. Again. Feel free to reread it and see if it's any better. I tried.
Abby sat in the passenger seat and tried not to squirm. It was un-lady-like and undignified, and anyway, she didn't want Gibbs to know that she was nervous.
Of course, he knew that already. She'd been talking a mile a minute from the moment he'd ducked into her lab and told her they were going home until about a half-mile ago, when she'd fallen into silence. And now, she was squirming and picking at her nails.
"Gibbs..." she whined finally.
"What, Abby?" he asked. He didn't sound mad, but he wasn't his usual self either. He almost sounded tired. Abby didn't know what to do with that.
"Can't you just act normally?" she asked after a moment. It was a gutsy thing to say, but Gibbs rarely seemed to mind gutsy. At least, not from her.
"Normally?" Gibbs echoed. There was a pause. "Was today normal, Abby?"
She didn't reply. She didn't have to. He'd gotten his point across.
He pulled into his driveway, and Abby saw Tony's car. "Tony!" she said.
"I told you both to be here," Gibbs reminded her. "You were in on it together."
Tony was sitting on the front stoop, his elbows on his knees. Abby noticed that he'd changed clothes between work and now; he was dressed in a sweater and jeans. When had he left work?
Gibbs turned off the car and stepped out. "Why didn't you let yourself in, DiNozzo? Door's not locked," he said mildly.
"I know, boss," Tony said. He stood and dusted himself off. Expensive clothes, too, Abby noted, seeing the label etched into the leather of Tony's belt. Well, of course. Tony never bought cheap.
She walked up to him, and he held the door for her like a true gentleman. She smiled at him, but he couldn't smile back; all she got was a slight quirk of his lips. He followed her inside.
"Living room," Gibbs intoned from behind them. They went in silence. Abby could hear Gibbs make his way into the kitchen.
She sat down first, her legs crossed at the ankles, hands folded in her lap. Tony sat next to her, just as stiffly. "It's funny that I feel so nervous, since I know we did the right thing. You know? You'd think that having that on your side would help you not be so nervous, but no. It doesn't really." She knew she was babbling, but her mouth always started going faster than her brain when she got nervous.
Tony just nodded curtly, his eyes on his hands, which were tightly clasped between his knees.
"Maybe that's because I get the terrible, awful feeling that Gibbs has something that I definitely wouldn't sign up for on my own planned—"
"That is the point of punishment, Abby," Gibbs said from the entrance to the living room. Abby jumped.
"Right. Of course, Gibbs. I mean, otherwise it wouldn't be punishment, right? And so then what would be the point? Unless you're, you know, into that, but I don't think—uh, sorry Gibbs," Abby shut her mouth tightly when she saw the look on his face.
He stood in front of the couch and stared down at them; it was deja vu. He looked exactly the same as he had in her office today. Abby found she felt much more nervous now than she had then.
Gibbs took a deep breath. "You two..."
Abby could feel Tony's tension next to her. She reached over and grabbed his hand.
"You've got a choice," Gibbs said. His eyes swept over them. "I'm not going to force you. But I've decided on a punishment. A physical punishment."
Abby felt Tony's tension rise; he was practically vibrating. Her eyebrows shot up.
"Physical? As in...it's going to hurt? Physically? " Abby asked.
"Yes." Gibbs didn't add anything more.
"And if we decide no?" Abby asked. Her mind was racing. Tony's fingers tightened around her palm.
"I've got an alternative; it's also a physical punishment. You won't like that either." His face was grim.
"What if neither of them is acceptable?" Abby asked. She couldn't imagine that Gibbs would come up with two separate punishments that she absolutely could not handle, but she wanted to know what would happen if, by some chance, he had.
Gibbs locked eyes with her. "Then you get to explain your actions to the director, and we're all going down."
Abby swallowed hard. Now THAT was an unacceptable punishment. She couldn't do that, not to the people she loved.
Gibbs looked down at the pair of them, sitting on his couch. Tony's face was blank, while Abby looked nervous enough to spit nails. Might as well get this done with, he thought. No need to drag it out. He didn't need them to know that he wasn't any happier about this than they were.
"I'm going to spank you," he said quietly. Abby's wide, round eyes got wider and rounder. Tony's eyes widened also before he looked away. Gibbs hadn't missed the anxiety in them. He'd caught their attention now.
"Boss," Tony mumbled, staring at the tops of his knees. "Boss, tell me you're kidding." His voice was flat.
"Do I look like I'm kidding, DiNozzo?" he asked.
He saw Abby lick her lips. "Can I ask what the other punishment is, Gibbs?" she asked.
"Only if you're positive that you can't take this one," he answered. "You don't get to hear them both and then choose the one you like better." Kneeling on rice would be equally if not more painful, he knew, but it wouldn't let them know how personally upset the idea of losing them made him. And anyway, he hated the idea. His father had made him do it a few times during his childhood, but he never would have subjected Kelly to it. His daughter, never emotionally fragile, would have none-the-less been devastated by such a distant and distancing punishment.
"Is it worse?" Abby asked. He raised an eyebrow at her.
"Abby," he warned. She was digging.
"Right," she said. "Sorry."
He looked at them.
"Guest room, DiNozzo," he said. "Abby's first. Unless you're going to talk to the director, in which case you can both go home."
He saw Abby gulp. She shook her head. Tony's eyes flicked over to her, and he shook his head. "No, Boss," he said, and squeezed her hand before standing. It took him less than three seconds to be out of the room. Gibbs could hear his footsteps as he made his way to the end of the hall and shut the door. He turned his attention back to the young lady in front of him.
"So, Abby?" he asked.
Abby wasn't looking at him any longer. "Gibbs," she pleaded quietly.
"Yes?"
"Please don't do this." She was almost whining.
"Do you really, truly think you shouldn't be punished, Abby? Truly? If you lost your job at NCIS because of your stunt today, would you be okay with it?"
"It was for the right reason," she whispered.
"It was. But you didn't bother to think things through; doing the wrong thing for the right reason isn't acceptable if you can do the right thing and get the same end result. We probably could have petitioned the judge and gotten the boy back by the end of the workday, and no one would have to be at risk of being fired."
"Probably isn't good enough!" Abby cried.
"If we'd passed those pictures along to child protection, they would have pulled him by now, and you know it," Gibbs said.
"Ziva couldn't get them on the phone!"
"She did eventually," Gibbs said. "It was an unacceptable risk, Abby, and you knew it!" He took a breath. He was very near to yelling at her, and he wasn't going to yell. Not at Abby. "Would you have been okay with losing your job, Abby?"
Her eyes were starting to fill. Wordlessly, she shook her head.
"Neither would I," Gibbs said. "Come on, stand up."
Abby licked her lips again, and then stood. She looked very young, and more than a little nervous. "Gibbs?" she asked.
He cocked his head to the side, waiting.
Her hands began to move. Are you going to make me her hands paused take off my skirt? Her face bloomed bright red.
He shook his head. No, he signed back. This is a punishment, but it's not meant to humiliate you. You're a young lady; too old for that. He'd never done that to his own daughter either; it seemed more like a way to humiliate, not to teach.
Young lady? Now I really know I'm in trouble. She smiled weakly at him. Thank you for not embarrassing me.
He nodded again. You're stalling, Abs.
"Caught me," she said quietly, biting on her lower lip. "I don't like being spanked. I mean, unless it's for fun, but this is definitely not fun and really, I'm kind of freaking out." Her voice rose a little. "And by kind of, I mean really. I'm really, really freaking out right now."
He looked at her and she fell silent again. He contemplated the logistics. She was tall; nearly as tall as him. He could sit down and put her across his knee, but that seemed more difficult than was necessary, and anyway, she'd probably get carpet burn on her knees if she squirmed. Instead, he put his foot on the edge of the couch. It was old and worn anyway, his foot wouldn't hurt it any. "Come here."
"Yes, sir." She took a few steps towards him. He lightly took her arm and pulled her closer, showing her where he wanted her. She complied.
He caught the slightest hint of an accent on her words; a souvenir from her Southern childhood, as was the 'sir'. Both of which only came out when she was joking...or very nervous.
"Bend over," he told her, placing his hand on her back. She did so, but he could feel the tension in her muscles. Her long arms stretched out and rested on the couch, supporting some of her weight.
He brought his hand back, and then down hard on her butt. He heard her gasp. He swatted her again, and again. And then he started to speak.
"You do not try to pull off some poorly thought out, harebrained stunt. You especially do not try to pull off a scheme like that without getting me involved. And you DO NOT risk your job when there are other ways of accomplishing the same goals." He emphasized his words with corresponding smacks. "Do you understand?" SMACK!
She'd been holding her breath through all those swats; he could tell from the giant gasp she took before letting out a wail. "Oww!" Her hands were grasping onto the couch for dear life.
That was what he'd been waiting for.
SMACK! "Abby, you said that you weren't going to be sorry. And you shouldn't be sorry for wanting to help that kid." She was squirming now, and breathing hard, yelping every time he dropped his hand. He kept up the steady rhythm, ignoring her protests. "But you'd better be sorry that you risked your job today; that you did something unnecessarily foolish."
And then he didn't speak, and just spanked. She was struggling now, her feet digging into the carpet, hands desperately clinging to the couch cushion. Her cries had escalated into something closer to a wail. She threw her hand back. He'd figured it was coming, and caught her wrist.
"P-please! Stop!" Abby wailed. "P-please!" She was twisting, fighting to get away from the pain. But it was the pain in her voice and the shaking of her back that was getting to him more than anything. He squared his shoulders, mentally trying to disregard it. But damn it, there was nothing he liked about making Abby cry. "Ow! Gibbs, please!"
"You risked your job," he said sternly, but he stopped smacking for a moment. "You could have lost it. If Vance found out, you'd be gone."
"Wh-what do you want m-me to say?" Abby whimpered.
"Three guesses, Abby." Was she being dense on purpose?
He heard her let out another breath. "Th—thought you d-d-didn't like apologies," she stuttered.
"Don't be smart," he told her, laying down a particularly hard swat to emphasize. She let out a little yelp and shook her head, pigtails flying.
"Not be-be-being smart!" she protested desperately. "Please!"
"I'm willing to bend that rule today," he said. His hand was starting to smart. He paused for a moment, shaking it. C'mon, Abs, he thought. If his hand couldn't take much more, surely her butt felt the same way.
"Well, then, I'm s-s-sorry!" Abby whimpered. "I'm sorry! I d-didn't think about losing my j-j-job; I j-j-just wanted to help!" He heard her begin to sob. That was enough.
He helped her stand on shaky feet, and looked at her. She was crying; mascara was flowing down her cheeks. Her eyes met his. He ran his thumb over her cheek, sweeping away some of the salt and mascara. "You okay?" he asked roughly.
Her mouth dipped further downward, and the tears increased. He fought back something akin to panic. Was she going to lose it on him? "Abby?" he asked.
And then she had her arms around him and her head in his shoulder, and he realized. "Oh," he murmured into her hair. "I see." He held her, letting her squeeze him to the point of shortness of breath. "Shh. It's okay, Abs."
She mumbled something into his shoulder that he didn't catch. "What was that?" he asked.
She moved her head to the side. "I'm not going to lose my job, am I, Gibbs?" she pleaded. "I l-love my job! I love you g-g-guys. Please, I don't want to lose my job."
Gibbs took a deep breath. "If you do, we all will," he said. "But I have faith. Tony and I will do our part, you'll do yours. It'll work out. "
He felt her nod against his shoulder. "It will," she stated.
He kissed her head. "That's my girl," he said softly. He held her for awhile, knowing that she needed it, and if he'd admit it, he needed it too. He'd never found it easy to spank his daughter; it still wasn't.
"Are you still mad at me?" Abby asked quietly.
He sighed. "I wasn't mad, Abby."
"You sure s-spanked like you were," she said sincerely. "Not mad? At all?"
"Some. But mostly scared," he admitted softly. "I don't want to lose you."
"I wouldn't have d-died, Gibbs. We still would see each other if I lost my job." She sounded a little exasperated.
"In another situation, acting foolishly and without thinking could be life or death. And even if it isn't, I don't want to have to visit you in prison," he replied. He felt her shrink.
"Oh," she said.
"Yeah. Oh."
He held her for a long time. Finally, she sighed, squeezed him hard and took a step back. "Ugh. S-sorry about your shirt," she said, trying to dust it off. He looked down to see eye makeup and a rather damp, snotty puddle.
"It's not a big deal," he said. "It'll wash."
She swallowed and nodded, wiping at her eyes. "Go, clean up," he said. "I've got to go talk to Tony before he climbs out the window."
Abby snorted. "He might be gone already," she said, with another sniff. "With all that yelling I was doing."
"Go," he repeated, not unkindly. He didn't really think DiNozzo would climb out the window, but the man had done more unlikely things over the course of his career. There was no need to make him sit and stew any longer than was unavoidable.
"Yes sir," she said with a mock salute. He felt the corners of his mouth attempting to lift and forced them downwards.
"Wrong hand, Abs," he said.
"Oh. Whoops." She switched hands, saluted again, and then headed for the bathroom.
He looked down at his shirt again, and sighed. One down...one to go.
He'd change, and then go talk to DiNozzo.