---

Returning home, Abby shut and locked the door behind her.

Ah, silence, she thought.

The majority of her day had been telling and retelling the story of the evening before. Surprisingly, most people weren't as interested in the fact that she had been held with a knife to her neck compared to her experience on stage. The women wanted to learn to dance like her, and the men in the office just wanted her to dance for them.

Pulling out the tea pot she had received as a gift from Ducky, Abby put the water on to boil. A nice cup of tea at the end of the day would make going to bed easier. Abby moved slowly around her kitchen, one hand up at her neck. She wasn't scared, or in pain, but every time she closed her eyes or allowed her thoughts to go to the night before she could feel the tip of the knife poking against her skin.

Two cups of tea later, Abby was tightly tucked under her blankets.

Two hours of tossing and turning later, Abby sat up and brushed the hair out of her face. "This isn't going to work."

Pulling on a pair of jeans and a black hoodie over her night shirt Abby made the decision to drive over to Gibbs house.

She parked across the street and sat watching his house. His car was parked outside, alone, so it was likely that Hollis wasn't over. Hollis hadn't been over the night before and she hoped like hell she wasn't inside now. It would lead to a very awkward moment if she was. Abby would deal with that if need be. The lights were off except the single light bulb above the door.

She wasn't surprised to find the front door unlocked so she let herself in quietly. She locked the door behind her, he might be comfortable with unlocked doors, but after all the excitement, it was one less thing to worry about if the door was locked. She stood silently for a moment, letting her eyes adjust to the dark. She listened for the sounds of footsteps, but heard none. She flipped on the light in the living room and went to sit on Gibbs' sofa. She pulled her knees up to her chest and looked around. Gibbs had been seeing Mann for a little while, so Abby had expected Mann to add a bit of a feminine touch to his living space, but smiled to herself when she realized that everything looked exactly the same from before Mann entered his life. His living room was the quintessential bachelor-pad; a comfortable, although not exactly 'pretty' sofa, a few books on the bookshelf, a framed photo of the team that he had received as a gift from her a few years back and a rather large TV. The TV had been an impulse buy three years ago after she had stayed with him for a week after being stalked by her crazy ex-boyfriend.

Abby stood and walked to the bookshelf. Most of the books she found were uninteresting to her, books about the marines, the history of the U.S. Navy, and a few biographies of people she'd never heard about. Her finger traced across the spines of the books until it stopped at a familiar title. The basics of Forensics. Abby smiled and pulled the book out and traced the words on the cover. She had given it to him three weeks after she had first started working for him. He had kept asking her to speak English when she was explaining the results. She had finally bought the book, given it to him and told him to study up.

As she went to put the book back on the shelf something drifted to the floor and landed at her feet. It was a photo. Abby slid the book back into the space on the shelf and the picked up the photo. It was of her, a candid photo taken in her lab. She was spinning in circles on her chair, her eyes closed and a big smile on her face. It had been taken by Tony, she remembered chasing him back to the elevator trying to get the camera from him, but his size and strength kept her from victory. Rather than place the photo back in the book, Abby left it on the shelf. She walked past the TV but stopped to check out the DVDs stacked atop the DVD player. The titles looked familiar and she thought back… wait, these are my DVDs. She smiled as she looked around the room again. Mann hadn't left any touches around his place, but there were signs of her everywhere.

Abby flipped the light off again and went upstairs.

---

"Gibbs?"

Abby's voice roused him from slumber. "Ab… Abby!"

"Relax, Gibbs. I'm ok, I just can't sleep." She stepped up to the bed and lay down on her stomach, on top of the comforter. Abby slid her arms under the pillow and snuggled her face into the soft cushion before turning her face to look at Gibbs. "Will it ever go away?"

"Will what go away?" Gibbs rolled onto his side to face her.

"The feel of the knife on my neck?"

Gibbs reached out and traced his thumb down along her cheek bone, to her jaw and finally along her neck, and answered honestly, "It will fade, but I don't know if it will ever completely go away."

"Well that's reassuring." Abby rolled her eyes and then smiled at him through the dark.

"I'm sorry Abby."

"There is nothing for you to apologize for. Go figure, the one time you do apologize and you don't need too."

"I should've stopped the whole thing. I never should've let you get involved in this. I shouldn't have let you get hurt."

"Gibbs, you didn't let me get hurt. It's not your fault. I agreed to do it, and up until the end of the evening I actually had a lot of fun. It was nice to do something different for a while. It certainly made me appreciate my lab all the more. And there was nothing you could've done about… well… Brent. But you did help me, you taught me to take care of myself and I did. He had a knife to my throat and I figured out what to do. And I did it. I took care of myself Gibbs. Don't be sorry, be proud of me."

"I am proud of you, Abby. Always have been."

Gibbs let his hand trail from her neck to her back. He rubbed his hand gently, making soft circles around her back. Abby lay silent for a minute, enjoying the contact and then let out a small laugh "Remember when I took down that creep Chip? I took care of myself then too."

"Uh huh, you did."

"This one time, when I was six, this girl in my class announced she was going to jump on the castle I had built in the sandbox on the playground. I had her flat on her back before she was close enough to breathe on it."

"I bet you did." He could easily visualize a young Abby, hands on hips, standing guard in front of her sand castle.

"Oh, and a few years ago, when that guy in accounting took one of my Caf-Pows, he walked funny for a week."

"Is that why Ben won't deliver anything to our office? He used to bring over all the papers himself. Now that I think about it, I haven't seen him since 2006."

"See, I'm not as weak as I may seem."

"No one thinks you're weak."

Their conversation continued for awhile, switching from topic to topic. They exchanged stories about growing up; he laughed at the impossible situations she had often found herself in as a young girl, and she listened quietly as he recalled life in Stillwater Pennsylvania. Gibbs watched as her eyelids fluttered, and she struggled to keep them open.

His hand still rubbed gently back and forth across her back.

Pushing himself up on his elbow, Gibbs brought his hand from her back up to move a section of hair that had spilled onto her face. Her eyes watched him and he rested his palm on her cheek and with a slight sweeping motion, his thumb brushed down on one of her eyelids, causing her eyes to close. Gibbs leaned forward and kissed her forehead, letting his lips linger on her smooth skin.

"Sleep Abby."

---

Abby woke in the same position she had fallen asleep in. On her stomach, her arms folded under her head and under the pillow. She was facing Gibbs and he her, his eyes were closed, his lips slightly parted. His hand still cupped her cheek and one of his fingers rested over her ear. Heat radiated from his palm. Abby rested in comfort a few moments longer before placing her hand over his and pulling it down towards her lips. She pressed her lips against his palm before gently placing his hand down on the bed. Slowly, so as not to wake the man sleeping beside her, Abby moved from the bed and out to the bathroom across the hall.

When she was done she stood and looked at herself in the mirror. She laughed at her choice of clothing, black jeans under a large oversized t-shirt which she normally wore on its own at night and a little hoodie zipped up over it. Her pigtails were undone; she never slept with them in. She actually preferred to have her hair down, but it was more practical in the lab to have her hair up and out of her face. The pigtails had started one day, just for fun, but so many people had commented that she repeated them the next day, and the day after, and soon people just expected it. She didn't like to disappoint.

Abby's eyes shifted as the mirror showed Gibbs approaching. He didn't look fully awake yet. Sleepy-Gibbs is adorable, Abby mused. He stood a few steps behind her and rubbed his eyes. With his hands covering his eyes, Abby took the opportunity to get a good look at him. He was in dark blue boxers and a simple white T-shirt. A T-shirt from sears, Abby smiled remembering a comment that Tony had once made about Gibb's wardrobe.

She admired his legs, they looked strong and lean. She knew he could easily chase down a majority of the guys they went after. Heck, he was her superhero. He could chase down all of the bad guys, no problem. Her eyes traveled up his calves to his thighs and then she cursed silently when the material of his boxers broke her view of skin.

Her eyes skipped to his arms. She had always loved his arms and his hands, and she knew every inch. She had felt his fingers against her cheek 773, no 774 times, as of this morning, since she started working with him all those years ago. His hands dropped from his face and she met his eyes in the reflection of the mirror.

Gibbs stepped forward until he was directly behind Abby. His hands went to her hips and he automatically kissed the top of her head. It felt natural. "Did you sleep ok?"

"Yeah, I slept great. Thanks for letting me come over." Abby smiled at the look on his face, "Ok, well thanks for not kicking me out after I came over on my own accord."

"Any time, Abbs." He took his hands off her hips and wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug. "Now, if you'll excuse me…" Gibbs nodded at the door.

"Oh, right." Abby left him in the bathroom and went down stairs. She went to the kitchen and started Gibbs coffee machine. She knew he liked his coffee strong, so she added an extra little scoop of coffee grounds.

Abby was sitting on his kitchen counter clutching a cup of coffee in her hands when he found her. He had taken a quick shower and was dressed for work. Abby was slightly disappointed at the lack of skin, but knew they had to get going. Gibbs was never late.

Abby picked up the cup of coffee beside her and reached out to hand it to Gibbs. "Strong. Hot. Tasty. Just the way you like it." There was a deep thread of flirtatiousness in her voice.

Gibbs head dropped and he let a smile play on his lips as he pushed himself up onto the counter beside her.

"Abby, about the night before…"

"Gibbs," Abby interrupted him. "I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to think about the knife and Brent."

"I'm not talking about Brent. I'm talking about before that. I'm talking about the show…" This time Gibbs phone interrupted him. He listened, frowned and then snapped his phone shut. "Dead sailor. You drove here last night? Or do you need me to drop you off at your place to change?"

"I drove." Abby jumped off the counter and drank the last of the coffee in her cup before setting it in the sink. "I guess I'll see you back at the lab."

Gibbs followed her out to her car and opened the door for her. Before she ducked into her car, Gibbs wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "You're right, strong, hot and tasty."

Abby shook her head and laughed as she pulled the seatbelt across her shoulder while Gibbs closed the door for her. She gave a little wave and then pulled away from the curb.

---

Abby was typing at a rapid pace when Gibbs finally made it down to the lab, Caf-Pow in hand. "Oh, thanks Gibbs."

Gibbs stood by her side and watched her work. She was obviously concentrating hard on whatever she was doing, but it was unusual that she would keep working without pausing long enough to give him a signature Abby-smile. He lowered his head a bit and peered down at her, cocking and eyebrow.

She finally registered that he was trying to make eye contact. "Hold on… just have to… one second. Damn it!"

"Abby?"

"Sorry, I was just trying to crack into… never mind, computer stuff, not important. What can I do for you?"

"Just checking in, I haven't been in the lab much lately. You ok? I've got time if you aren't."

"Better not let DiNozzo catch you showing your soft side. He'd have a field day. But no, I'm fine. Really, I am. I promise."

"But if you're not…?"

"You are second on my list to know."

"Second? Should I be hurt?"

"Gibbs, you know Bert hears everything before you. I'm sorry, but you'll just have to learn to accept it. Plus, haven't you heard that poem-thing, first the worst, second the best…?"

"I'll take your word for it." Gibbs kissed her cheek. "And Abby, stop trying to crack into the FBI database, Fornell is always looking for a reason to get in my face."

As Gibbs walked away Abby gave him a sloppy salute as she spun in a circle on her chair.

At the end of the day Tony, Ziva and McGee arrived to take her to dinner. Gibbs was left at the Navy Yard to go over the budget with Jen and a few other high up 'suits', as he liked to call them.

---

It was midnight by the time Gibbs was finally able to pull out of the parking garage. He was exhausted. The day itself hadn't been a challenging one, but the meeting to go over the budget had taken a toll on his patience. As usual, it seemed as though his opinion didn't matter to those higher up. Jen had fought on his side and was able to win a few issues; the biggest was that they were able to get sensitivity training dropped. New agents could be sent to the FBI to take the day-long course, and NCIS would save the cost of bringing in the instructor twice a year.

Pressing his foot onto the gas pedal, his thoughts drifted to Abby. He wanted to talk to her about her performance, the songs that she wrote and the other songs that she chose. He wondered if she knew the effect she had on him, understood the jealousy he had felt at the sight of another man with his hands on her flesh.

He wanted to ask her all those questions and more, but was unsure how to actually ask. With anyone else, if he wanted answers to a question, he just asked. With Abby he felt the need to dance around the subject lightly. They openly flirted, but until her comment that morning, and the suggestive tone of some of the songs, it had always been in the safety the lab or at a restaurant out for dinner. She had spent time in his basement, but thinking back on those times, she had never been flirtatious. But then again, the basement was his space; his space to remember his first love and his daughter. As far as he was concerned, she was showing much more than friendship by allowing him to have his space to remember. He did have that ugly pink teddy bear down there, watching him from the shelf. Whenever the memories became too much, he would look at that ugly thing and smile, remembering the look on Abby's face as they spun round and round on the spinning teacups at the fair.

He pulled up to his house, put the car in park and turned off the engine. Inside Gibbs closed the door behind him, but startled and reached for his gun instinctively when he heard Hi Gibbs coming from his living room. He set the gun back on the table with his badge, rounded the corner and flipped on the light.

"Abby, what are you doing?"

Abby sat cross-legged on his couch with a carton of chocolate ice cream in her hand. She smiled and pulled the spoon out of her mouth. "I'm eating chocolate ice cream."

"At mid-night, in my living room and in the dark?"

She frowned. "Well, when you say it like that, I guess it does sound a little sad. Want some?"

Gibbs gave small nod of his head and walked around the coffee table and took his place next to her on the couch. Once he had sat down, and the ice cream had been handed over, Abby swiveled slightly so that her back was against the arm of the couch and swung her legs up across Gibbs lap. He let the spoon rest in the carton and with this free hand, gave her knee a small squeeze.

"It's not that I don't want you here, but why exactly are you here?"

Abby took the ice cream back and ate a spoonful while she thought about her answer. "I…"

Gibbs interrupted her. "And I want the truth, Abbs."

"Would I lie to you?"

"Lie? No. Dance around the truth? Yes."

Abby rolled her eyes, but he was right. Her original response fell along the lines of I had a craving for ice cream and… and… yeah, he would've seen right though. "I don't know. I just feel safe when I'm here, when I'm around you. Whenever I'm home or even just alone the only thing I can think of is that damn knife at my neck."

"Oh, Abbs."

"I'm sorry, I'll stop showing up at random times at night. I just need to work past all this."

"My door is always open to you. If you need to show up at random times, you are more than welcome. Or if you'd like to stay here for a while you are welcome to do that as well. I just want you to feel safe."

"Thanks, Gibbs. I'm sure I'll figure something out."

Gibbs took the spoon from her hand, and took a bite of ice cream. "Abby, can we talk?"

"Sure, did you have a topic in mind, or would you like to hear about the new book Tony gave me on forensic entomology?"

"Abby, as much as I'd love to hear all about your forensic ento-whatever…"

"Sure, who's lying now?" Gibbs silenced her with a finger to her lips.

"…But I'd like to talk about the show you did."

Abby flushed slightly. "Really? Because I'm pretty much over that embarrassment. But ok, what would you like to talk about?"

Gibbs thought for a moment, he didn't like to dance around a subject but he wanted to word everything perfect. "First of all, did you really write those three songs yourself?"

"Yeah, Brittany helped me, she wrote the music but for the most part I wrote the lyrics myself."

"They are beautiful songs. I couldn't help but think… I mean… Are they…?"

Abby took back the ice cream and brought the spoon to her lips. "Are you asking if some of those songs were directed at you?"

"I… yes."

"Well not all of them, 'Womanizer' isn't exactly your cup of tea, or coffee. Brittany suggested it, and well, it just screams Tony's name. Also, the song 'When I grow up' not really directed at you either. The song starts out with boys call you sexy. No offense, but… well, that was for me, and so was circus. I like that song."

"The other songs? Explain those."

Abby's eyes shifted to the dark TV screen. "Well, Rehab is about how I felt when you left for Mexico. I don't really want to think about it, but it tore me apart, Gibbs, and that song was spot on."

"I know." Gibbs held out his arm, and Abby scooted closer to him, wrapping her arms around his torso.

"Abby, I…" He didn't know how to finish.

"Having a hard time talking tonight, huh?"

"Apparently, but it's getting late. We'll finish later."

"Go to bed, Gibbs. I'm going to finish my ice cream. I don't need a babysitter."

Gibbs gave her a questioning look, but said nothing. He slid her legs off his lap and stood. He chuckled softly when Abby brought a big spoonful of ice cream to her lips. He kissed the top of her head and walked back to the hallway. He hoped Abby heard him locking the door; he wanted her to know it was ok for her to stay.

After climbing into bed he listened quietly for sounds of Abby moving around, but heard nothing.

---

To follow Gibbs to bed or not 'tis the question… one more chapter… for now.

Review, review, review….