Disclaimer: Sadly, Christmas and Mother's Day has come and gone and I still haven't gotten the rights to NCIS... though my birthday IS coming up soon. :)

In the evening, a few days later, Gibbs was busy starting on his newest project, a rocking chair, when he heard footsteps above him. Not wanting to take any sort of a chance, he quietly strode over to his workbench, slid open the top drawer, and pulled out the gun he had hidden there. Everyone knew that his door was always open, but since the Port-to-Port killer, he had started to lock it. There was only one person that had the key, otherwise the only way to get in was through a skilled lockpick. Gibbs hid in the shadows, waiting to see if the possible intruder was going to come downstairs. He heard the door at the top of the stairs open and loud thumps down the stairs. He spotted a pair of knee-high platformed boots and fishnet stockings and knew it was the only person with his other key.

"Abby," he said, right as her face appeared, "What are you doing here?"

"Oh Gibbs," she responded, running to him and giving him one of her huge hugs. "It's just awful. I heard about Mike and then you left and I was worried sick about you the past few days."

"If you were so worried, Abs, why didn't you stop by sooner?"

"Because Gibbs," she responded, "We had been working day and night to catch this guy. We caught him yesterday evening and I was going to stop by and see you but I was so tired, I had very little sleep, and then when I woke up I realized it was tonight and I rushed over here as fast as I could!"

"Slow down, Abs."

"Plus," Abby said sheepishly, "I know what you almost did. Gibbs, why would you want to do something like that? You have people here that love you, Gibbs."

Gibbs shook his head. "Not now, Abs, please? All I want to do is spend the next three days without having to think about that. Besides, how do you know what happened?"

Abby blushed and chose to ignore Gibbs' question. "Now that I know that you're okay, you have to come with me. I texted Tony and Ziva and they're going to meet us at a bar for a few drinks."

"Where's McGee?" asked Gibbs.

"Oh, hehe," Abby giggled and blushed slightly, "he slept over last night. It was too long of a drive to get to his place."

Gibbs nodded and then sighed. "Abby, I just don't have any desire to go to one of your rock clubs."

"Oh, but it's not one of those clubs, Gibbs!" she cried out. "It's just a normal, everyday bar complete with pool tables and sometimes karaoke. Please Gibbs? Please please please please pleeeeaaaaaasssse?"

Gibbs didn't know what it was about this girl, but he could never really tell her no when it came to outside of work. Perhaps it was because she reminded him so much of his daughter, Kelly.

"All right, all right," he said, throwing up his hands. "But you are not going to be getting me to sing karaoke."

"Oh, don't worry," Abby said. "I think there's some professional singer performing tonight."

There wasn't many people at the bar, Gibbs noticed. Well, it was technically called O'Malley's Irish Pub, but at that point in time, Gibbs didn't give a flying crap if it was named "Monkey Poo." He was itching for a shot, or five, of bourbon, maybe a little bit of whiskey. He followed Abby and McGee into the pub, looking all around him. For what exactly, he wasn't sure. They found Tony and Ziva inside, already waiting with drinks in hand. From the looks of it, they had already had a few. Ziva's hair was starting to come out of its tight ponytail and Tony's shirt had somehow become unbuttoned... about three times. Enough so that a little bit of chest hair was visible.

"Hey, Dinozzo," Gibbs said gruffly. "You wanna spare us the chest hair?"

Tony looked confused for a moment, looked down, and blushed slightly, quickly buttoning up his shirt.

"How are you feeling?" asked Ziva.

Gibbs shrugged. "As best as anyone else would be. Holding on."

For awhile afterwards, the only words that were spoken were their drink orders. Everyone seemed lost in some sort of reverie: Abby's head was leaning on McGee's shoulder, McGee leaning his head on top of hers. Tony was staring at the television, where some college team was losing horribly, and Ziva was simply leaning back into her chair, staring at the table in front of her. Gibbs was glancing around the bar, looking at the unfamiliar faces around them. He was uncomfortable, drinking in a bar like this. He hadn't done it in a long time, not since he went to Mexico with Mike.

Oh no, he couldn't think about Mike. Not right now, not around all these people. He quickly looked around the room for something to look at to distract his mind. His eyes fell onto the pretty girl who was singing in the back. She had been singing ever since they entered the bar, but he hadn't really noticed her until now. She had rich, burgundy colored hair and a long, black dress hugged her curves in just the right way. She had just finished up a song and was starting a new one. Gibbs decided to lose himself in the sound of her voice.

"In this world you tried, by leaving me a lonely heart.

There's no other way, I pray to the gods 'let him stay.'

The memories ease the pain inside, now I know why.

All of my memories keep you here, inside of my mind, imagine you here.

All of my memories keep you here, inside of this place, silent tears.

You made me promise I'd try, to find my way back in this life.

Hope there is a way, to give me a sign you're okay.

Reminds me again it's worth it all, so I can go home.

All of my memories keep you here, inside of my mind, imagine you here.

All of my memories keep you here, inside of this place, silent tears.

Together in all these memories, I see your smile.

All the memories I hold dear, darling you know I'll love you til the end of time.

All of my memories keep you here, inside of my mind, imagine you here.

All of my memories keep you here, inside of this place, silent tears.

All of my memories..."

The music was haunting, her voice nearly angelic, matching perfectly. The words spoke directly to Gibbs, shook him down to the core. Then, with a slight shock of surprise, he realized who was singing; it was the same girl who had stopped him from pulling the trigger. Lydia.

"Hey guys," said McGee, bringing everyone out of their reverie, nodding towards the redheaded singer, "isn't that Ducky's new intern?"

"Yeah," said Tony. "Yeah it is. What's her name again? Lila? Luna? Lynnette?"

"Lydia," said Gibbs hoarsely. The other four stared at him like he had just announced that he had just gone bungee jumping.

"How do you know her? She didn't start 'til the day after you left," asked Abby.

Gibbs sighed. He assumed that the rest of his team, minus Abby, didn't know what had happened down in autopsy, but he still didn't want them to know. Not just yet.

"I met her while I was down talking to Ducky," he said shortly and left it at that.

The team seemed to accept this answer and relaxed slightly; well, almost all of them. Abby was giving him a strange look: at first, it was like she was thinking extremely hard, then it changed to almost realization. She relaxed back into her seat and put her head back onto McGee's shoulder.

"That's a beautiful song that she's singing," noted Ziva. "And she has got a lovely voice."

Lovely wasn't the term that Gibbs would have used, but he nodded anyways. "She is definitely interesting."

Nobody seemed to notice his comment, but it was true. He'd seen this girl a whole of maybe an hour total, but she was absolutely intriguing. He watched the way she moved, holding herself elegantly, making her waves of burgundy hair flow around her like a waterfall down to her hips. The long black dress that she wore sometimes sparkled when she moved and it had kind of a low neckline, but instead of looking like a whore, she looked beautiful and incredibly sexy. It was then that he realized that she had finished singing and was bowing to the applause that she was receiving from the bar. She got down from the small stage set up and began to walk towards the bar, a slight flush across her cheeks and chest; it seemed to Gibbs that she was trying very hard to hide her limp. He could barely notice it himself.

Gibbs drained the rest of his bourbon. "Anyone else need another?" he asked. A chorus of no's answered him, so he got up from his chair and went to the bar, standing a few feet from Lydia. He didn't want anyone to think that he specifically went up there to talk to her, considering he barely knew her, so he pretended he didn't notice her.

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "Agent Gibbs! What are you doing here?" Her face was lifted up by her smile; simply radiant.

Not wanting to put a huge damper on her smile, Gibbs responded, "Just getting a drink with my team. In memoriam."

Lydia nodded. "I completely understand." She looked at the bartender making up someone else's drink for a few moments then leaned towards Gibbs.

"How are you feeling after everything?" she murmered.

"As good as anyone else would be," he said softly and felt Lydia put her hand on his arm.

"That's good to hear. Oh, that reminds me," she said and pulled out a small pen and piece of paper from a tiny bag on her waist that Gibbs hadn't noticed before. She began writing two phone numbers on it; Gibbs noticed how loopy and elegant her writing was.

"Here is my house phone and my cell phone numbers in case you need to talk to someone," she said, pressing the paper into his hand and looking into his eyes. "I didn't know him, but I do know exactly how it feels to lose somebody you love."

Gibbs nodded and put the paper in his pocket. At that time, the bartender placed their drinks in front of them: Gibbs' bourbon and Lydia's white wine. She held up her glass to Gibbs and said, "Cheers." He clinked his glass against hers and they drank. After about two minutes, Lydia placed her (empty) glass on the counter and turned to Gibbs.

"Well, I had better be going. We're on-call and it always seems that we get called in at all hours of the night, so I'd better get some sleep," she told Gibbs and placed a hand on his cheek. "Keep your head up. Like my mom used to tell me, 'It will all come out in the wash.' Have a good night, Agent Gibbs."

With that, she turned, grabbed what apparently was her coat from a chair close by, and went out the doors into the night, leaving Gibbs wondering: did she go home to anyone? Was she constantly alone? If no to the first and yes to the second, how would she have felt about his company? He shook his head at his thoughts. He shouldn't be thinking about someone like that, especially when he barely knew her. But, he had to admit, she had so much charm, she could outdo DiNozzo at his best.

Sorry for taking so long to update this story; lots of things have come up since the last chapter was posted. In that amount of time, we moved to another state, among other things. But now I should be able to update regularly, so long as my writer's block doesn't constantly pop up. Oh, the song that Lydia sung is actually a song by Within Temptation, called 'Memories.' It's absolutely beautiful. Go look it up and tell me what you think: did it fit the Gibbs situation perfectly or no? Until next time, happy trails!