Abby picked up the phone after half a ring. "Abby's lab!" she shouted, excitement and nervousness boiling over.
"Ms. Sciuto, Director Vance wanted me to call and tell you that Agent Gibbs' plane just landed at Andrews Air Force Base and they are on their way-," Vance's secretary informed her but she never heard the last word the woman spoke. She was already at the elevator by then.
When the doors opened, she was unsurprised to find Ducky inside already. The medical examiner looked up at her as she stepped in. "I assume the director's assistant informed you they were on their way," he said. She merely nodded as the elevator lifted but a moment later, it stopped and grew dark.
"What-?" That caught her by surprise.
"Abigail, I think we should have a talk before they get back," he began, his voice slipping into a professorial tone. "I know you have been worried about the lot of them for months now, as have I. But I also remember your reaction when Jethro and Anthony initially returned from Israel without Ziva." She was going to protest what he was saying, but he raised a finger at her, silencing her. "I too was upset with Ziva's actions, from the fatal fight between Anthony and Agent Rivkin to her staying in Israel. But we must put it aside now."
"But how could she, Ducky? How could she betray us like that? How could she...think so little of Tony that he'd kill someone because he was jealous?" Abby wasn't angry right now. She was pleading for answers.
Ducky always had an amazing insight into people's psyches, even before he'd added his degree in forensic psychology. He had decades of experience in dealing with people and situations from around the world that allowed him insight Abby could never have.
He smiled kindly at her, but it was a sad smile. "She was raised with a very different mindset than any of us. She was raised with the specter of suspicion surrounding her. Life may have been privileged for her, being the daughter of someone in the position her father was in, but when you can believe your own brother capable of cold-blooded murder, it will chip away at even the strongest of faiths," Ducky told her. "I have long been intrigued that Jethro had as much trust in her as he exhibited these last few years." Then he sighed. "And, in a way, I do not believe that she was entirely off the mark regarding Agent DiNozzo's feelings for her."
She had to agree with him. Abby recalled a conversation she had had one night this past summer with Tim. He recalled a dinner he and Tony had shared where the Senior Field Agent was distracted, barely paying attention to his companion. There were other incidents over the last four years that Abby could also take as indications that Tony's feelings for Ziva ran deeper than merely a partnership.
"Do you think it was out of jealousy that Tony killed Rivkin?" Abby had to know the answer to that question, to see if others were thinking like she was thinking.
"No, I do not think it was foremost on Anthony's mind," Ducky replied with a shake of his head. "Tony's paramount concern for any of you is to protect you. It's the policeman in him. He, perhaps correctly, took Michael Rivkin as a threat to Ziva, even if she did not see it as well."
"But why trust Rivkin at all? She didn't know him that long to begin with, right?"
"Because, they were alike. Both were raised with a...paranoia that only flourished within Mossad. For all the quirks we brought with us, we all had a significant amount of time within loving households, where we felt protected. I have read about Director David and I suspect that, even though he loved his children, he brought his work home with him too often for it not to have an effect on young Ziva," Ducky explained. "And now, she is returning to us, to those who have exhibited a great affection for her, but there will be scars."
Abby understood what the elderly doctor was saying without him saying it out loud. After Director Vance had gotten off a call with Director David, he had received a call from the medical staff onboard the Seahawk. He had relayed their findings to Abby, Ducky and Jimmy at drinks later that night. Abby's stomach had turned as she read the report, though she was grateful there would be no long-term consequences. It had quelled the outrage that flared up occasionally thinking about the last few months.
Ducky was right. She'd been angry. She'd been angry for a long time. And one thing Abigail Sciuto was good at was holding a grudge. Normally, at least. There was the time that Mavis Woolrich took her favorite toy and then broke it. But then Abby learned that it was really her brother John-Bob who had taken it and since he was only four at the time and had little concept of what stealing meant, Abby had forgiven them, a few days after the incident.
Thinking back, Abby had gotten over her anger at Ziva's treachery quickly. But when it burned, it burned hot and fast.
Without her three musketeers around, Abby didn't have much to do and a lot of time to think. That was bad because, without anything to keep her occupied, she had nothing else to distract herself with. She could only mull over stuff. Gather wool. And right now, that was a terrible thing for Abby to be doing.
It had only been five days since the team had left on their mission in Africa. But from the moment they had left NCIS headquarters, she had been worried. It was not as severe as it tended to be when they were out, which was kind of ironic considering this assignment was much more dangerous than their usual ones. But with nothing to do, no other cases to comb over the evidence of, it left Abby pacing, lost in her own thoughts.
That was probably why she didn't hear the elevator ping or the footsteps behind her. "Miss Sciuto..?" the voice called out to her.
"GAH!" she screamed, jumping up at the surprise of the company. "I didn't do it, I swear!" she said next, for no reason she could think of. Then she turned around.
Standing there, with his hands behind his back and the customary toothpick in his mouth, was Director Leon Vance. He raised his eyebrows at her, seemingly perplexed by what she was saying. But he usually wasn't one to want to know anything further on comments like that, and this time was no exception. "Do you have a couple of reports on the Downing case?"
"The Downing case?" Still recuperating from her unexpected visitor, she was taking a while to place his exact request. Then, it came to her and she hurried to her desk, the boss following her. She picked up a few piles, but found it quickly. Handing it off to the man, she blushed, now embarrassed by her reactions. "Sorry, Director. I got this done a week ago and I must have forgotten to get it to Agent Francis."
Vance took it and leafed through a few pages. He looked at her again, and gave her a smile. "I can understand why this may have slipped your mind."
He was preparing to leave when she had to ask the question that was begging for an answer. "Have you heard from them yet?"
Vance turned back to her. "You know they're in a communications blackout for the duration," he replied, kinder than she would have thought, given that the minute he had said it, she remembered.
"Sorry, it's just…"
"You're worried. I can understand that," Vance said.
He turned around again when another question burst forth from her, more out of anger than concern. "Why did they have to go?" When Vance looked at her this time, he seemed to not understand what she was asking or why she was asking it. "Why couldn't it be Mossad? Isn't she back with them? Wasn't all this their screw-up?"
Now he turned back to her, giving her his full attention. "You're still pissed at her." It was a statement.
She sighed. If she were being truthful with herself, she was. All these months and it still rankled her. Vance stood there, waiting for an answer. "Yes," she said at last.
His hands returned to his back. "So am I." He put the report back on her desk after pulling a chair next to it. "But we're doing this because, as Agent DINozzo said, we have a duty to her and her memory to stop this son of a bitch."
Tim had told her Tony had said something similar in the bullpen to Gibbs a couple of months back. McGee said he was waiting for the explosion to come from their boss, but instead, he had allowed Tony to say his piece. After she had been called to MTAC with the rest of them, Tony laid it all out, all the theories, all the evidence that had been collected. And he did it with no hesitation about why it had to be done and for whom they were doing it.
Tony had been right. He usually was, even if no one tended to notice.
"Even if she betrayed us?" That still niggled at her, what she had seemed to have been in communication with Michael Rivkin, up until his death. Tony had been injured fighting the Mossad operative, but when Ziva had returned to work, it seemed like she didn't care about that.
"Abby," Vance began. That was unusual. He rarely referred to her first name. "Abby, she has been conflicted ever since she stepped into this building. It was an unintended consequence of her assignment. Remember, she still worked for Mossad."
"I know," Abby grumbled. "But I thought that after all these years, she'd feel some...loyalty to us."
"You and Gibbs," he replied with a half-smile, "He thought she'd come back to us, given some time to think things over."
"And now, that's never going to happen." That was what it came down to in the end. She was never coming back. Abby couldn't hug her or yell at her. She couldn't ask her what the hell she was thinking, about Michael, about Tony. And it wasn't that Abby thought she deserved those answers, she just wanted to understand what her friend had been dealing with, those last few days in DC.
And now she never would. Abby had lost another friend. She just prayed she wouldn't lose anymore when all was said and done.