Later that afternoon, Abby found Gibbs standing on the roof of the House.

The Widow's Walk was a unique feature of the House that they'd found several weeks after moving in. They usually kept it locked so that Tali could not find her way up there, but every so often, when Gibbs needed a quiet place to think during the day, that was where he went.

She joined him as soon as she spotted his silhouette against the late afternoon sun. He didn't say anything as she climbed onto the balconied rooftop, but he didn't move away from her either, which she took as a good sign. When she leaned against the same rail he was, and gazed out at the Residents doing their Tasks, Abby made the first move.

"Fornell told me what you guys talked about this morning."

Gibbs said nothing.

"He also told me what you asked him." She turned to look at him directly. "There's only one reason you would ask him something like that, Gibbs."

"Yeah?" There was something in Gibbs' tone that Abby did not like. It told her that he was indeed thinking what she assumed he'd been thinking, and his monosyllabic reply challenged her to try and talk him out of it.

"No. No way, Gibbs. Don't—"

"Don't tell me what I should or shouldn't do, Abs." Gibbs' voice was razor sharp. "Something needs to change, and this is the best way to do it."

"That load of bull is not going to fly with me, Gibbs," Abby returned, not budging an inch. "You think going into the heart of Blood territory to kill their damn boss and getting yourself killed in the process is the best way to help us? No way. Let someone else take the suicide mission."

"If you know someone better qualified, point 'em out."

"Sergei, for one. He would jump at the chance to get back at—" She paused, realization flooding her. "That's what this is about, isn't it? You want to hit back at them for what they did to—"

"Don't say it, Abs."

"Say what, Gibbs? What we've known for years now? She's gone, Gibbs. And you know that I didn't want to accept it either, but she would have shown up by now if she were alive to do so. That's the truth, no matter how much we don't like it."

"It shouldn't have been her."

Gibbs' voice was so tender it nearly broke Abby's heart. She knew he had been hurting, ever since he started the Evacuation. He probably blamed himself for what happened, for not finding another way. But Abby had come to accept that there had been no other way.

When she replied, her tone had softened.

"No, it shouldn't have. But it was, Gibbs. And doing this is not going to bring her back. She's dead."

Gibbs' face hardened. "But someone needs to answer for it."

"Why does it have to be you? Because the Residents do not need to lose another leader, Gibbs. They don't. And if you do this, it will be you who answers in the end. No one has ever escaped them, Gibbs, no one. You might succeed in killing whoever leads the Bloods, but you'll die too."

"The Residents are strong. They'll manage. You'll manage."

"Yeah, maybe," Abby replied sarcastically. "But what about Tali, huh? What about her? She's already lost three of her parents. You want to make her lose another? If you don't want to stay for me or the Residents, fine. But stay for Tali. She loves you. And you love her."

"I do," he agreed. "But I want her to have the peace she has here to last forever. It won't if I don't do something to stop the Bloods."

"Enough of that horse crap, Gibbs. Now you're just insulting me. The noble streak was real great and everything when we were safe at the Navy Yard, but things are different now, and you're making up excuses to try and justify that you want to go die and leave Tali all alone—"

Her growing hysteria was halted by Gibbs' arms wrapping around her, pulling her close against him. There was no longer any wash of bourbon or sawdust or coffee to his person, only fresh scent of pine that pervaded every other corner and Resident of Sanctuary. But the warmth was all Gibbs, and it soothed her against her will.

"I have to do this, Abby," he whispered in her ear. "I have to." There was a moment where he tried to keep his voice steady, but when he spoke Abby could hear the sadness and heartbreak as clearly as if he were sobbing. "For her."

Abby wanted to protest, to tell him none of that mattered anymore. That the only thing that mattered was Tali and Sanctuary. But she couldn't. She couldn't, because she could still feel her own pain over the death of her best friend, the best friend she had slowly accepted and slowly come to believe was invincible. It had been a comfort that her once-frightening skills were so prolific, because it meant that she was that much more unlikely to end up like Kate.

But that had all changed, hadn't it? Ziva had died too, even more horribly than Kate had. At least Kate had had the benefit of not knowing her death was coming. She never saw the bullet, never knew who was behind it. She died in an instant, and after doing the research, Abby had decided that Kate hadn't even felt any pain. Ziva hadn't had that blessing. She'd known exactly what would happen when she sent Sergei away.

And Abby had been there that night in the Tunnels too. She'd seen her Tentmate at the time get hacked to pieces, while five feet away a man she'd met the day before was gutted like a fish before being burned alive. She still had nightmares about them, still heard their screams. Only now, they often turned into Ziva's screams, and she would wake to echoes of her best friend crying out in agony. And the worst part of it all was that she still felt anger burn in her heart at the thought of the bastards who had done that to Ziva. That they had killed one the best people in Abby's life without having to pay for it, and that they were still alive to hurt more people.

Had the Incident never happened, and someone murdered Ziva, then Gibbs would have immediately hunted them down and killed them with his bare hands. Abby would have been there also, to help him properly dispose of the evidence. But that couldn't happen here. Not now. Now all they could do was run and hide.

It angered her, and she hated that it did. She hated that she was too scared to even think about doing something about the Bloods. And above all, she hated that she hated them.

"Okay," she whispered finally. Gibbs sighed softly against her, his relief evident. "I understand. But promise me you aren't trying to kill yourself. Promise me that you'll at least try to come back to us. To Tali." She felt tears leak from the corners of her eyes. "Promise me."

Gibbs hugged her tighter, and this time she returned the gesture, wrapping her arms around him. His hand came up to smooth her hair, as he pressed a kiss to her cheek.

"I promise."