Title: Dream
Rating: T to be safe
Spoilers: Twilight
Author's Note: From Chirugal's Hiatus Week 14 prompt "Dream".
Disclaimer: I don't own anything except what I write. NCIS and all its characters, plots, and quotes are all Mr. Bellisario's…I just play with them every now and then.
To die, to sleep—
To sleep—perchance to dream.
- Hamlet
Gibbs woke instantly when he felt her tensing against him. He'd been expecting this, subconsciously, for a week, and realized earlier that day that it would happen that night – the sight of the date on his cellphone when he flipped it open to check for messages in the night had hit him like a physical blow, and he knew it would be worse for Abby.
His hand stroked up and down her arm, gently, trying not to wake her but rather to soothe her back into sleep. It almost worked – she didn't wake, but she did roll to curl into his chest, shaking violently. He rocked her slowly, pressing kisses into her hair, signing my girl against her cheek and sleep ever so softly across her face.
She certainly needed the sleep – it had been a busy few days, working a tough case, and Abby had been almost overwhelmed with evidence. Which was good, up to a point – it kept her from thinking too much about other things, and she would say it was good because it also kept her from sleeping, when she might dream about her best friend. On the other hand, it kept her from thinking about other things, processing them, and kept her from sleeping. Now, when she so desperately needed it, her sleep was anything but peaceful. He'd hoped that the exhaustion, combined with the span of years since Kate's death, might keep the dreams away, but he'd been wrong.
All he could do was protect her from them, as he hadn't been able to protect Kate, and remind her how much she was loved.