t was 0900 by the time Tony and Ziva arrived back at the hospital, McGee having arrived shortly before. Jack stepped away from the bed, letting Tony stand close to Abby, smiling at the way Tony kissed her forehead softly. "Hey babe, how are you feeling today?"

"Like a truck ran me over."

"Have the doctors said anything?"

"No. No change with Gibbs either."

"We stopped by the office, thought you might like this." Ziva held out Bert and Abby reached for him gratefully, holding him softly to her chest.

The rest of the afternoon was uneventful. Ducky returned, and they all took shifts waiting with Gibbs, and then rotating back to sit with Abby. Tony wheeled her to Gibbs' room three times during the day, allowing her ten minutes alone with him before returning her to her bed to rest.

Sometimes she would talk to him, other times she would just sit quietly holding his hand. For some reason she found it hard to talk to him, she didn't know what to say; She was relatively unharmed and he had fought tooth and nail to make it this far.

"Jethro," Abby cringed. "Sorry, I just can't do it… not with you in a hospital bed. Gibbs," she smiled as his last name rolled off her tongue with practiced ease. "You need to wake up now. Remember how you said you would always keep me safe? You can't do that with your eyes closed. I need you; I need to see your eyes. Baby, please." She always tried to sound happy or hopeful, and she kept the tears that rolled down her cheeks from splashing onto his hand.

She always ended her visit with a soft kiss to the side of his mouth, and then whispering he love in his ear. "I love you Gibbs, come back to me."

By Friday night, the agents seemingly rotated on an unspoken schedule, only occasionally heading home for a shower and a few hours sleep before returning to the hospital. Vance had visited twice, once on his own, and once with his wife. His wife was fond of Abby, and stayed for awhile giving the agents a chance to step out and talk to Vance about the investigation.

"I spoke to Fornell. You were right, this wasn't an accident. While looking through the dead driver's apartment, we found a photo of Gibbs' car, his home address and various other things that make it clear that this was intentional. We also found suspicious deposits from an off-shore bank account. At this point, we haven't found anything to connect Gibbs and the dead driver, no cases… nothing."

Tony sighed. We need to be with Abby a while longer, but once she's released, I figure Ducky can stay with her and Gibbs during the day, and we'll be back at work. This is my first priority; I won't take on any other cases until we figure this out."

"Understood." There was no way Vance was going to even try to get them to work a different case. He had to admit, the loyalty of Gibbs' team was impressive.

Tony had stayed the night watching over Gibbs so that Jackson could get some real sleep in a decent bed. Abby had told him to go to the house she shared with Gibbs, but he dismissed the idea, instead getting a room at a hotel just a few blocks down the road.

Ziva spent the night in Abby's room, having sent both McGee and Ducky home for the evening. It was shortly after seven am on Saturday when Tony came tearing into Abby's room. "Abby!"

Ziva startled awake and instinctively reached for her gun before she recognized that it was Tony.

"Tony?" Abby struggled to sit up. "What is it?"

"Gibbs is awake, but-"

"Oh God, he doesn't remember me."

"Let a guy finish, Abbs. He does remember you. I was just going to say that the doctors don't think he's strong enough to take off the ventilator, so he can't talk." Tony explained.

"If he can't talk, how do you know he remembers me?" Abby was certain that this would be a replay of the last time he was seriously injured. She was mentally preparing her bags for Mexico.

"I might not know much, Abby, but I can recognize the finger spelling of your name. He wants you."

Abby winced at the ache of the bruises as she sat up quickly. She had already pulled the IV from her arm before Tony could open his mouth in protest.

"At least let me get you a wheel chair."

Abby stood and swayed as her legs adjusted to holding her weight. "I can't go in there in a wheel chair, Tony. I can't."

Tony wrapped an arm around her gently to help steady her. "You know he's going to kill me once he gets out of here for this, you know that right?"

"Yes." Abby took a tentative step forward and then another. Her legs ached with every step, but she ignored it and kept on towards Gibbs room.

"Miss Sciuto!" One of the nurses rushed towards her. "Your IV? What happened?"

"I took it out, I need to see Gibbs. Now."

As they approached, Abby could hear voices coming from Gibbs' room. "Sir, you need to leave the ventilator tube alone, it's helping you breathe. Mr. DiNozzo said you could sign. Nurse Sasha here can sign, if you could…"

Tony rolled his eyes; he knew there was no way that Gibbs would sign to anyone but Abby. He had Abby nearly to Gibbs' bedside before he spoke and nodded to Abby. "He'll sign to her."

As they neared the bed, Abby could see one hand continuously spelling out her name as the other obviously itched to remove the tube from his throat. He hadn't noticed her come in, and she could see that he had closed his eyes again in an attempt to calm down, though his fingers continued their pattern: A-B-B-Y, A-B-B-Y, A-B-B-Y...

Once she was at his side, Abby covered his hand with her own to stop the spelling and let him know that she was there.

His eyes fluttered softly before he opened his eyes to look at her. Abby stared down at the blue eyes she thought she'd never see again. Leaning forward, Abby pressed a soft kiss to his forehead and then moved closer to his ear. "You scared the shit out of me."

Abby straightened; suddenly subconscious about the bruising visible around the neckline of the hospital gown she was wearing. Tony had brought a pair of pj bottoms so she didn't have to worry about anything hanging out. But she didn't want Gibbs to see the shades of brown, blue and purple that still covered her skin.

First pawing at the tube in jutting from his mouth, Abby quietly scolded him, pulling his hand away. Gibbs' eyebrows furrowed and then his fingers moved slowly in her hand as he spelled. You okay?

Abby nodded. "I'm okay." Abby chewed nervously on her lower lip and fought the urge to cry. She had been so sure she had lost him, and the fact that he was awake and looking back at her had her throat tightening and her eyes welling up.

A single tear escaped her tight hold as his middle and ring finger curled into a familiar sign. Abby let out a soft laugh. "Yeah, I love you too."

"Miss Sciuto," the nurse from Abby's wing stepped in. "We need to get you back into bed, and get that IV back in your arm."

"I don't want… I want to be discharged."

"We need to get another CT-Scan."

"And then what?"

"If the scan comes back clear, then we can talk about discharge papers."

"You can come and get me when it's time for the scan. Otherwise I'm not leaving."

The nurse stared at Abby, but then left with a defeated sigh, leaving Abby with a triumphant smirk on her face. The first time Tony had seen her smile in days.

"Good morning everyone." Dr. Williams greeted. "Rumor has it that Mr. Gibbs is awake." He circled around to the other side of the bed and looked down at Gibbs. "Welcome back. I wasn't sure you'd make it this far, but you sure are a fighter." The doctor looked over the various monitors and then returned his gaze to Gibbs when Gibbs motioned at the tube.

"I'm not 100% convinced you're out of the woods yet. We're going to leave that in overnight, and then try weaning you off. If all goes well we can try, maybe tomorrow afternoon, or else the following morning." The doctor looked up at Abby. "I saw Dr. Sheen in the hallway. He's ordered a CT for you, and someone should be up within a half an hour to take you down."

Abby nodded, but kept looking down at Gibbs, her hands wrapped tightly around his.

----

TBC…

He's awake… is he out of the woods..?