She didn't.

Instead, feeling guilty about cutting her visit to McGee so short, she drove to Bethesda. Hurrying down the familiar hallways to his room, she felt her excitement growing. So much had happened since she left last night; she couldn't wait to fill him in. Reaching his room, she flung open the door and burst in impulsively.

"Timmy, you were...right..." her voice trailed off as she took in his appearance. His eyes were half closed, there were beads of sweat on his forehead, and his face was an awful shade of grey. She rushed to the bed. "Timmy, what's wrong? Are you ok?"

"Just give me a minute" he said faintly. She waited, hovering over his bed, watching as the colour slowly returned to his face. Finally he pulled himself up a little straighter in the bed and opened his eyes.

"Tim, what happened?"

"I'm fine." She gave him a sceptical look. "Really, Abs, I'm ok. Just leave it." Seeing that she wasn't about to, he sighed. "I had my first round of physio" he explained.

"Oh" was all she could come up with in reply. Surely it wasn't supposed to hurt that much? He'd been in a lot of pain, that was obvious. And shouldn't they wait until he'd healed a bit more?

Seemingly anxious to change the subject, he asked "You said I was right?"

It took her a second to recover her train of thought. "Oh! Yeah you were right. Well, sort of cause I haven't had time to look at Adams' computers yet, but-"

He interrupted her rambling. "Abs."

"Sorry. He definitely hacked into the lockup computer. I back traced it back to his personal IP address. So then they got there and Keating pulled on that stupid tripwire, and"

...

He watched her in amusement as she paced. He loved her in this mood; idly he wondered just how many Caf-Pows she'd had today. Then what she was saying sunk in

"Hang on. Keating pulled on a tripwire?"

"Yeah; Adams booby trapped his basement. Weren't you listening?"

He disregarded that. "Was anybody hurt?" he asked anxiously. He was relieved when she shook her head. "Tony has a few scrapes, that's all."

"And Keating?"

"Keating got bounced" she announced gleefully. He grinned; he couldn't pretend to be unhappy about that.

"Anyway, I've been reconstructing the bombs from Adams' basement so I haven't had a chance to look at his computers yet so I don't know if you were totally right yet."

"Abby, how many Caf-Pows have you had today?" he asked. She kept breaking into rambling mode; and it hadn't escaped him that she was wearing the same clothes as last night. "And what are you doing here? Not that I don't want you here or anything."

She thought for a moment. "I don't know, 8 or 10 maybe. And Gibbs told me to go home."

"You should get some sleep, Abs" he told her. He knew it was probably futile. She hadn't been nicknamed 'Energiser Abby' for no reason. Sure enough, she planted her hands on her hips and gave him that stubborn look. "Not until I finish with his computers, Timmy."

Neither of them noticed the door opening and people entering until someone spoke. "Are we interrupting?"

He knew that voice. He whipped around, hissing a little as the sudden movement jarred his shoulder. His parents stood framed in the doorway. Surprise made him momentarily speechless. Standing behind his mother was Sarah, grinning. He knew she was in on it. "Mum, Dad... what are you doing here?" he asked.

"We flew back as soon as we heard" his mother replied.

"I didn't even know Sarah had gotten in touch with you... and what about your cruise?"

"There'll be other cruises" his dad told him.

Abby touched his injured hand gently, saying "I should go, McGee." He turned his wrist and grasped her hand, stopping her from leaving. "Stay" he told her softly. Raising his voice a little, he introduced her. "Mum, Dad, this is Abby. Abs, these are my parents; Matthew and Elaine McGee."

Instantly his dad went towards Abby, his hand outstretched. "So you're Abby; we've heard a lot about you. This family owes you a lot."

"Tim told us how you saved Sarah. And now you've saved Tim as well. We can't thank you enough."

A little embarrassed by their gratitude, Abby tried to protest, explaining that it'd been Tim's insistence that Sarah had been drugged that had made her run the tests, same as she'd explained to Sarah a few days ago. She could see they didn't really believe her. And somehow the decision not to amputate was too fresh, too raw for her to discuss. She knew she'd made the right choice; but until today she hadn't really appreciated how much pain it would cause him or understand how much work it was going to take for him to return to the team. She took her leave a few minutes later, wanting to let the McGee family have some time together.

She wandered idly down the hallway, contemplating going home and getting some sleep. She knew she should; but she got in her hearse and drove back to the Navy Yard. She really wanted to find out what was on those computers.

...

Elaine waited until she was sure Abby had gone before she asked the question she been wanting to ask.

"So; how long have you and Abby been dating?" She tried to keep it as casual as she could, knowing her only son hated it when she pried. Sure enough, she got the expected response of rolled eyes. "We're not" he answered shortly. This surprised her a little.

"But... she's your next of kin. And you two seem close." Tim shot her a slightly irritated glance. In the manner of someone who's had to repeat something several times he explained "Abby and I are close; she's my best friend. That's all." Drawing her own conclusions from the vehemence in his tone she let the subject drop, asking when he'd be released instead.

...

Sending Abby home would slow them down. Gibbs accepted that even while he got more and more impatient. They had a link between Adams and the tip line call now, sure, but it was tenuous at best. He needed Abby to find the evidence that would strengthen that link. And he wanted that evidence; he could probably charge Adams now, but he wanted to make sure the bastard went away without any doubt. Adams had gone after two of his people now, and he burned to knock the smug smile off his face. However, an exhausted Abby wouldn't help him in any way.

He could still question Adams about the bombs in his basement; so he had him brought up from the holding cell they'd locked him in and taken to Interrogation. He'd invoke the Patriot Act to keep Adams in custody until he had Abby's evidence if he needed to.

His cell rang just as he was about to open the Interrogation room door. Pulling it out, he looked at the caller ID. Abby. When he answered, she sounded strange, not her usual excited self.

"Gibbs. Can you come down here straight away?"

"On our way."

He opened the Observation room door, sticking just his head into the room. "Abs has something for us. Let's go." He left the door open, knowing that Tony and Ziva would be right on his heels.

Abby was watching for them as they got off the elevator, her expression unusually grave.

"Thought I told you to get some sleep, Abby." Gibbs commented.

She looked a little guilty. "You did, but...this was more important, Gibbs. Adams' basement bombs, they were bothering me. Why would he use so much explosive on one room?"

"Maybe because he's a homicidal maniac, Abs" Tony interjected. Abby ignored him.

"But then, I figured it out. He wasn't trying to booby trap the place, Gibbs. Well, he was, but it wasn't the only thing he was trying to do." Seeing Gibbs' impatience rise she hurried to get to the point. "He was trying to destroy what else he'd been building, so we couldn't find it. It was a bomb Gibbs, a really big one. And that's not all. When I searched his laptop I found these." She hit a button and sent an image to the plasma.

"Building plans" Tony commented.

"What building, Abs?" Gibbs asked.

"This one. NCIS headquarters."