Chapter 4 is up!!! Like I said, this is where everyone is wondering if Abby'll survive, and if she doesn't just what in the world would they do without her? ENJOY!!!

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"You think she's gonna make it?" Tony eventually asked, and both Ziva and McGee were silent for a moment, but then Ziva said,

"She has to."

"Yeah." McGee echoed in a quiet voice as they continued to process Abby's lab. Tony nodded, and got back to work. He collected samples of the blood pool on the ground, and thought about his Abby, the woman he protectively thought of as his younger sister, lying on an operating table, fighting for her life. He was wishing like hell that he could take her place, as she didn't deserve this.

She was so sweet in her odd kind of way, but Tony liked that about her. That was what made her different, what made her Abby. "Why does she have to fight for her life?" Tony asked quietly, and Ziva added,

"Why indeed."

"Why do we care so freakin' much?" Tony said angrily, standing up and throwing the swab containing Abby's blood, the stuff that flowing in her veins, keeping her alive, onto the floor. Ziva placed his hand on Tony's shoulder and said softly,

"Calm down, Tony. Do not be mad at Abby, be mad at the jerk who is trying to kill her."

Tony nodded, and clenched and unclenched his fists a few times, and McGee kept searching for a shell casing, going outside. When he couldn't find it, he swore quietly under his breath, and stood up. He spotted a gleam of metal, and with a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth, he picked it up and stuck it in an evidence bag. He took it inside, and found Tony and Ziva reading Abby's handbook, trying to figure out how to process the evidence

They all took a deep breath, looked at each other, and dove into the evidence and all the confusing chemicals.

About 3 hours later, the casing was identified as a nine-millimeter, and it had a fingerprint burned onto it, with burnt skin left behind. The shooter had tried to pick the casing up, but had dropped it instead and left it behind in his rush to get out, as the casing was piping hot when it was ejected from the gun, so it burnt the shooter's finger. The fingerprint was running through AFIS, and the DNA was running through CODIS.

As they were checking the bullet for any kind of trace, Gibbs strode in. "Uh, Boss." McGee said, surprised, and Ziva didn't say anything, just looked at Gibbs with a mixture of disbelief and disappointment, but she wasn't going to say anything.

But Tony did. He strode up to Gibbs, and looked at him in incredulous disbelief. "What, DiNozzo?" Gibbs snapped, and Tony demanded

"What're you doing here?" Gibbs looked at him for a long moment, and then shrugged, saying,

"Catching this bastard."

"You don't belong here." Tony said lowly, and before Gibbs could retort and move to smack him, he added, "You belong at that hospital, with Abby." Tony pointed in the direction of the hospital, and Gibbs said,

"I'm the bo…"

"I don't care," Tony said quietly, his voice vibrating with emotion as he said, "What do you think Abby will do when she wakes up alone? Not to mention that she's in danger until we catch this sick jerk."

Gibbs opened his mouth to say something, but McGee said, "We've got the scene under control, Boss." Everyone looked at him, and he shrugged, going back to the bullet. Ziva's voice came to her and she said,

"Abby needs you more than any of us do. Go, Gibbs."

Gibbs' gaze switched to Ziva, who stared back, and then to McGee, who met his eyes for a moment and then went back to work, and then Tony, who stared back unblinkingly. Gibbs nodded almost imperceptibly, and said,

"Call me with any update, huge or small."

With that he turned on his heel, and called, "Talk to me like that again over something that doesn't concern Abby, DiNozzo, and you'll have a concussion."

"Will do, Boss." Tony called, and Ziva shot a smile at Tony. "What?" He asked of her, and she shrugged, saying,

"It's nice seeing you stand up to Gibbs. It was also very brave of you, Tony. He could've and would've taken you down in an instant. I am proud of you, Tony."

"Good. Tell me that later. Can we get back to work?" Tony said, a little sheepishly, and Ziva raised an eyebrow, saying in his ear,

"Don't you dare start acting like Gibbs. None of us need another Leroy Jethro Gibbs on our hides."

Tony let himself smile for a moment, and the joined McGee at looking at the bullets, while Ziva checked on the progress of the CODIS and AFIS searches.

Gibbs strode to his car, smiling at the way his team stood up to him. He liked it when they stood up to him, it showed him that he had taught them well, that they had backbone, and that was critical in their line of work. As Gibbs sat in his car, he remembered all the times he had sworn to protect Abby, no matter if he had actually said that to her, or he had told himself that silently, which was almost every night when he went to sleep.

But now, he could've broken that promise. Whenever he had tried to protect her before, she hadn't needed his protection, but he was glad she hadn't, but when she really needed his protection, when she was vulnerable, what had he done? He had run off, trying to catch the guy, when the guy could be at the hospital, having another go at Abby's life.

Without hesitation Gibbs' foot slammed on the accelerator, and the car shot forward, speeding towards the hospital. All Gibbs could think was, "I hope I'm not about to let you down, Abbs."

He squealed to a stop in a doctor's parking spot, and as a security guard came up, he flashed his badge, saying, "Matter of life or death, I need to go!" The guard didn't question him, for which Gibbs was grateful. He dashed into the hospital, and asked the head nurse for Abby's room number.

When he got it, he decided to run up the stairs, and reached Abby's floor in a matter of minutes. He quickly strode down the hall, his hand resting on his gun, just in case. When he got to the room, he opened it with a twist of the knob and went into the darkened room, silently and with his gun drawn. A body was on the bed, but no one else. Gibbs cleared the room, and sighed in relief as he lifted the sheet up.

He froze. It wasn't Abby. He was in the wrong room.

Gibbs dashed back out into the hallway, and realized that he was in room 354, not 345. He turned the other way and found 345, and silently walked in, seeing the door open. He kept his gun out, and with a jolt of terror he saw a figure of a man shoving a pillow over Abby's face, and Abby was trying to fight him off, while trying to say something, but the pillow made that impossible.

"NCIS, drop the pillow!" Gibbs yelled in fear, and saw the glint of metal that told him the figure was carrying a gun. With a silencer. He was going to shoot Abby.

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What a cliff-hanger, huh? And you all are going to hate me for what I'm going to tell you next! I can't update until next weekend, because I'm going on a school trip, and they won't let us bring cell phones, let alone computers! (Not that I have a laptop anyways, nice thought though!) So, no internet, so I'll have to resort to paper and pen, and after I sleep through Friday, I'll type it up and have it to you, no later than Monday night! I am so sorry, but, I can't wait to go to New York!!!! Thanks for reading, and adios for now!!!