Gibbs opened the door to the interrogation room where Abby was pacing up and down and wringing her hands worriedly.

"Abby."

She spun to face him and he walked over to her.

"Gibbs, look, about a minute ago with Ziva. . .well. . .it wasn't really. . .I didn't. . .I tried. . ."

He held up a hand to stop her. "Did you ask Ziva to come in here?"

"No."

"Did you tell her that she should leave?"

"Yes, but she wouldn't. . ."

"Then it's not your fault. It was Ziva's mistake and so it's Ziva who's responsible, not you."

Abby threw her arms around Gibbs and started to mumble into his shoulder. Unable to hear what she was trying to say, he pushed her back a little and she looked down at her feet.

"I'm sorry Gibbs."

"I know."

"I was just trying to help Ziva."

"I know."

"I was so mean to her, I was trying to make it up."

"I know."

Abby shifted from one foot to the other.

"Maybe I should have tried to help her another way."

Gibbs raised an eyebrow. "Ya think Abby?"

"Okay, so I definitely should have tried to help her in a different way."

Gibbs said nothing and Abby continued to fidget.

"I didn't think that it would make her so unwell."

"I think the operative words in that sentence were 'didn't' and 'think'. She suffered a major head trauma and you allowed her to convince you that she was fine! You're a smart girl Abby, you knew she had to get checked out. And even if you didn't, you should still have brought her to the hospital because that's what I told you to do."

"You're never gonna trust me again are you?" Abby whispered, before bursting into tears.

"Hey, hey," Gibbs said, reaching out to rub her back. "I never said that. So you made a mistake, that's life Abby, people make mistakes. The question is whether you learn from them."

Abby continued to cry, but nodded in acknowledgement of what he had said.

"Okay," Gibbs said, when her sobs started to lessen. "Let's get this over with."

He pulled a chair out from under the table and sat down on it, pulling Abby to stand I front of him.

"Okay Abby, do you understand why you're getting this spanking?" Gibbs asked, keen to ensure that there wasn't anything else she was needlessly blaming herself for.

Abby nodded.

"Why Abby?"

"Because I was bad."

Gibbs rolled his eyes, Abby was infuriating sometimes. When he wanted her to get to the point she rambled for ages, and when he wanted her to elaborate she barely said a word.

"Specifically Abby."

"I did the wrong thing."

"More specific than that."

"I did the wrong thing lots of times."

His patience finally running out, Gibbs reached around her and swatted her backside.

"Dragging this out isn't going to make it any easier Abigail."

Pouting and sniffling slightly, Abby finally complied with his request.

"I didn't take Ziva to the hospital even though she was really badly hurt and that was disobeying you and Ducky."

He waited, but she said nothing else.

"And?" he prompted eventually.

"And what?"

"And what else?"

"There wasn't anything else! That's all I did!"

"What about the lying, Abs?"

"The lying? I didn't lie! Only Ziva lied!"

"And you stood there while she did so and didn't tell me the truth. That's a lie of omission, it's the same thing."

"But. . ." Abby started to argue, but stopped when she realised that he was right.

"And the fighting."

"What fight. . . oh that," she bit her lip nervously. "I'm sorry Gibbs. For disobeying and lying and fighting and everything."

Gibbs nodded to her. "I know Abs."

He held his hand out to her and she took it. He helped her get into position across his lap, then took a deep breath and brought his hand down on her upturned backside.

Abby let out a piercing shriek at that first smack and was sobbing by the third. Gibbs took another couple of deep breaths before continuing. Though he abhorred spanking any of his surrogate 'children' spanking Abby was always the hardest because, whilst the others tried as hard as possible to keep their composure and take their punishment like troopers, Abby. . .well, Abby was Abby and she kicked and cried and screamed blue murder.

Finally, Gibbs tipped her forwards and landed the last flurry of hard swats to her sit spots and then it was over, and the hand that had caused so much pain just moments before now rubbed soothing circles into her back.

When Abby had calmed down a little, Gibbs lifted her and sat her gently on his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck and mumbled apologies into his shoulder.

"Shh, shh," he soothed kissing the top of her head. "It's okay, it's all over baby girl. You're forgiven."

When Abby had eventually stopped crying, Gibbs gave her a final kiss and sent her to clean herself up.

He sat back down in the chair and sighed, knowing that the biggest challenge was still before him. Dealing with Ziva.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter!