Half an hour later Abby heard a knock at the door.
"Abby?" Gibbs strong voice said.
"It's open," Abby replied in a very nasally voice.
Gibbs opened the door and strode in as the rest of the team noisily piled in behind him.
"Oh Abby you poor girl," Ducky said concernedly.
Hearing the familiar voice, Abby lifted her head off the pillow and turned towards her door and saw Ducky standing there surrounded by Gibbs, Tony, Ziva and McGee.
She smiled and then sneezed. She grabbed a tissue out of her tissue box and tried to blow her nose. Once she tried and failed since it was blocked, she then threw the used tissue in the bin.
"Aww Gibbs...you brought the whole family with you," she said with a small smile.
Gibbs smiled back at her.
"Well...we are a family Abby," Ziva told her with another smile.
Abby smiled as everyone walked over to her. Abby sat up, wrapping the blanket around her and moving the pillow and placing the tissue box on the small coffee table that was in front of her.
McGee came over and sat next to Abby on the couch. He then grabbed the pillow and placed it on his legs. He patted the pillow telling Abby to lie down on him. Abby looked at him and smiled as she then laid her head back on the pillow.
Ducky came over and sat in the black arm chair that was next to the couch on the right side. Gibbs came over with the shopping as well as Abby's cafe pow , he sat down on the other black arm chair that was on the left side. He placed the shopping bag on the ground and gave Abby her drink.
"Here Abs," he said as he held out the cafe pow.
Abby lifted her head up off the pillow and then smiled at Gibbs as she took her cafe pow off him.
"Thanks...Gibbs" Abby said. Gibbs smiled and got out of the shopping bag the block of chocolate and the extra box of tissues and placed them on the coffee table.
"I have the ingredients to make you my famous chicken soup," he told her with a smile as he stood up and went to the kitchen.
Abby took a sip of her cafe pow and then placed it down by Gibbs's chair. Her arm then disappeared back under the warm blanket.
Tony and Ziva then sat down on either arm of the couch and Ducky took a seat next to the couch.
"Abby when did you start to feel like this?" McGee asked her.
"Last night I started to feel a little off and I thought I was just coming down with a cold but when I woke up this morning I felt terrible and I knew it was the flu," Abby said quietly ending with a sneeze.
Tony passed her the box of tissues and Abby grabbed one out of the box.
"Thank you Tony," Abby said as she tried to blow her nose.
Tony smiled at her and placed the box of tissues down beside him just in case Abby needed them again.
"You guys do know…sniff… that you didn't have to come look after me," she told them all just as Gibbs came back with drinks for everyone else.
"Abby, we wanted to," McGee told her.
"We're your family." Tony continued.
"And family look after family, no matter what." Gibbs added.
Abby smiled.
"Hey Abby have you got any DVDs that we can watch?" Tony asked her.
"Yeah I do...underneath the TV in the cupboard is the complete series of friends," she replied sounding more blocked up.
"You watch friends Abby?" Ziva asked as Tony put a DVD into the player.
Yeah Ziva, I love friends," Abby told her.
"Abs we so have to have a movie marathon together sometime," Tony said returning his seat.
"Yeah we do," Abby replies to him.
"Wait, Tony you watch friends" Ziva asked, surprised. "I mean I can understand why Abby would, but you?" asked Ziva.
"Of course I do Ziiiiiiiva. I love Friends. Me and Abby use to have marathons together all the time," Tony replied to him with a smile as Abby coughed.
"God I hate being sick," she told them burying her face into the pillow.
"I know my dear girl and you will get better," Ducky told her soothingly.
"What episode are you putting on?" Abby asked Tony.
"The one where joey and Chandler vs against Monica and Rachel for the apartment," Tony told her.
"Oh... The one with the embryos. I love that episode," Abby said as Tony turned the episode on.
A while later while the episode was underway, Abby looked around the room at the people who she had known for so long.
Ducky was talking to Ziva and Tony, the three of them in a deep conversation with Tony saying friends quotes here and there and Ziva just rolling her eyes at him with a smile on her face. Occasionally Ziva would laugh at whatever Tony was talking about.
She then turned her head to look up at McGee. He was watching the episode. Occasionally he would stroke Abby's hair and play with her pigtails.
Last of all she turned her head to look at the one and only Leroy Jethro Gibbs. He treated Abby like a daughter, over protective of her and to Abby, Gibbs is like a father. To everyone else Gibbs scared them but to Abby he was like a big teddy bear that she had wrapped around her little finger.
Looking at him, Gibbs turned to Abby and smiled. He hated that Abby was sick.
With a smile he asked her, "How are you feeling?"
After sneezing again and the whole team going " bless you" which made Abby smile, Abby replied back to Gibbs.
"I'm feeling much better thank you" she told him.
With both of them returning their glances back to the TV, Abby thought for a moment.
They really are a family. Gibbs the father figure, Ducky the wise grandfather, Tony and Ziva were the annoying brother and sisters , and McGee...well McGee was the protective guy who loved Abby and would do anything for her.
Family are the most important thing in life. They will be there for you in sickness and in health, through good times and in bad, no matter what you need, they were always there for you and that, well that's what Abby loved the most, and that's what put a smile on her face every day.
FIN