So...I think somewhere along the line, there's some unwritten rule that oneshots should contain more emotion than action. Oops. Oh well. I felt like writing a bit of action during History yesterday, so here it is. Takes place during Frame - Up...which was, by the way, an awesome episode. This is kinda like an alternate ending...with more details that we didn't get to see. This is my first NCIS fic, so...be kind! Yeah, I know I screwed with some of the quotes. Work with me here, people! McAbby.
Something was wrong. McGee could feel it in his bones. Something was going wrong, and he didn't know what. Everything should have been perfect. Tony's name had been cleared, and Gibbs' whole team was gathered around the man's desk, celebrating his return with a large, extra - cheese pizza. Abby was in her lab, sleeping of the 20 or so Caff - Pows she had consumed while working on Tony's case. It should have been a carefree time...but something still nagged him. He shrugged it off. Gibbs' gut was the one NCIS relied on, and Jethro looked as much at ease as he ever was. McGee turned his thoughts back to the party (Tony was heatedly denying his involvement with the female warden on duty at the detainment area), and resolved to buy Abbs a week's worth of Caff - Pow once she woke up.
Meanwhile, Abby herself was under enough stress to be fully appreciating the excessive caffeine coursing through her veins.
Having a knife at your throat tended to have that effect.
"You're the one," she said. Duh. Way to go, Abbs. Her voice was hoarse with lack of sleep.
"Yes," came Chip's voice, distorted with anger. Psychopath. "It was me. I framed DiNozzo. The perfect way to get rid of the man who ruined my life. But then you had to interfere."
"You took this job just to get Petry?" Abby asked in disbelief.
"Yep. It's amazing what you'll do just to get revenge. Not that you'll ever find out; you ruined my plan, you know, so now I'm going to kill you."
Oh - kay, Abby thought. 100 percent bonkers.
She was quickly distracted, though, by the knife that was slicing into her shoulder
Um...ow?
She cried out, turning away, and lashed out with her foot, feeling her combat boot connect satisfyingly with Chip's jaw. Bastard.
She righted herself quickly and stumbled backwards as Chip came forward, nursing his jaw but wielding the knife all the same.
Abby didn't bother trying to yell for help; her lab was completely soundproof.
For the first time, she cursed her attraction to Metallica.
Officially cutting back on the metal, she thought.
Her arm was throbbing from the deep gash, but she ignored it as Chip circled her.
Backing up, she nearly tripped over the lab table, which had fallen over sometime during the fight.
She was pinned to the glass wall of her lab, now, with nowhere to turn.
Abby pounded on the wall desperately, but the area beyond it was empty and the glass held solid.
The knife came down again, and she twisted aside as it impacted the glass, leaving a spiderweb of cracks on the smooth surface.
She kicked it as hard as she could with the back of her heel, still facing Chip and his sadistic smile, and heard it shatter.
None of that mattered though, because the knife had finally, finally, lodged itself in between her ribs...she screamed as she felt the bones move. Even if it had managed to miss the heart, the location didn't matter, she would die from blood loss anyway, she knew, and Chip would make his escape...she staggered away from the jagged hole in the glass, pushing a hand to her wound, and watched as Chip grinned.
No.
She shoved him with all her force, and he fell through the wall, landing underneath her.
She could feel shards of glass cutting their way through her body, and the knife, which had been pushed further into her body, up to the hilt now, was screaming in pain, or maybe that was her, but none of that mattered, no, all she could see was Chip's surprised expression and the slivers of glass protruding from his chest...she rolled off him, not feeling the glass splinters stuck in her own skin, and stumbled over to her chair...she had the feeling that if she got there everything would be fine...and why the hell was the room blurring?
It slid in and out of focus, like a badly taken film.
The room flickered once, twice, as she sank into the chair, and winked into darkness.
Catch me as I fall
Say you're here and it's all over now
Speaking to the atmosphere
No one's here and I fall into myself
This truth drives me into madness
I know I can stop the pain if I will it all away
Don't turn away
Don't give in to the pain
Don't try to hide
Though they're screaming your name
Don't
close your eyes
God knows what lies behind them
Don't turn
out the light
Never sleep never die
Fallen angels at my
feet
Whispered voices at my ear
Death before my eyes
Lying
next to me I fear
She beckons me - shall I give in?
Upon my
end shall I begin?
Forsaking all I've fallen for
I rise to meet the end.
"So...what the hell did you do to that woman who put you on the National Herpes Alert website? Did she find you with some trowel?"
"Uh...Ziva? Do you mean hoe?"
"Same difference."
"Ah, Zee-vah Da-veed, what will we do with you?" Tony smirked.
It was good to be back.
McGee watched the two agents with a small smile, willing away the worry inside his mind.
It all came back full force, though, when Gibbs, who had been looking over the case file, went ashen and vaulted over Tony's desk, heading towards the forensics lab.
McGee felt his heart plummet to the floor.
Dammit, Abbs, please – he glanced at the folder, opened to a picture of – Chip.
He was already off and sprinting towards the lab, hurtling up the stairs, hearing the splintering of glass and a muffled scream, unmistakably Abby's, and fearing the worst.
"Dammit." It was Gibbs, who had reached the lab first.
He was staring at Chip's body, skewered by a hundred shards of glass.
McGee pushed past him.
"Abbs?" he called urgently into the lab.
For some reason, the power was out, transforming the wrecked room into a vast shadowy expanse of jagged darkness and shining instruments broken beyond repair.
He saw her sitting in her favorite chair, the swivel one, the one she used to twirl in, whipping around the lab and occasionally slapping him from. She turned to face him.
"Now can I work alone?" she asked hoarsely, eyes glazed and feverish with pain.
McGee noticed absently that she was deathly pale.
"Thank God, you're alive...I thought --" McGee began. He stopped, falling silent in horror, as Abby fell over, out of the chair, and slumped onto the floor in a movement that could have been described as graceful, if it hadn't been so macabre. It was only then that he noticed the knife sticking out of her chest. He ran forward, cradling her limp form against his body, sobbing. "Abby!"
Tony backed away slowly from the lab and Abby's unmoving form, disbelieving. Abby wasn't...she couldn't be...she had been there from the start, flirting shamelessly with him just for the fun of it, always just around the corner and up a flight of stairs, coming through with the information just when they needed it, blasting music in her lab, joking with Ducky and Gibbs...she couldn't be...no. He dimly heard Ziva and the Director leave the room, giving the remaining team members time to grieve while they took care of the paperwork.
"A guy ran a motorcycle through your living room?"
"Yeah. No. It was his living room, my Harley. Billy Bob had, uhm, intimacy issues."
"You know what this movie reminds me of?" he asked.
"The wizard of Oz?" asked Kate.
"I'll get you, my pretty!" Abby cackled.
"No, I meant the ones you watch in high school; 30 minutes of cops pulling dead teenagers out of car wrecks."
"Oh my God!" Abby exclaimed. "I love those! Blood on the highway. Drink, Drive, Die. I keep hoping they're going to release them on DVD."
You look like one of them, Abbs, you look like the kids in the movies...I never thanked you for the black roses...
Gibbs stared at the scene before him, uncomprehending. Abby...he had failed again. First with Kate...now Abby, innocent Abby, who loved her tattoos, Caff - Pows, New Orleans funeral jazz, heavy metal, Abby, who talked unintelligable Tech-Speak with the McGee and loved him, even though she hadn't realized it...Abby, who said what she wanted, lightened their days with her facetious routines and stood on her head when working on difficult problems, whose belief in science had led her to become one of the greatest forensics experts in North America, whose adorable habit of banging her knuckles together when she was anxious had made him smile, who never ever ever cried...he had failed. He could have protected her, could have saved her, and Kate...they were his girls, his team, and now...they were dead.
"Thank you sir!"
"Don't call me sir."
"Thank you ma'am!"
She was pushing McGee out of her lab, on the swivel chair that was now soaked in her own blood.
"How many times have I told you he's not a toy, Abbs?"
"But Gibbs, he's so pretty!"
"Ready to have your world rocked again, Gibbs?"
"I'm barely over the last time."
No. No no no no no no no no. This was Abby, his Abby, she couldn't be dead, she couldn't...McGee thought in anguish as he held her against his body. Abby Abby Abby, what have you done, wake up, please, wake up...I hate seeing you like this, open your eyes, stop it, Abbs, it's not funny anymore, just please, stop it, stop, wake up, it's fine, I'm here, everything's fine, please wake up, please...her voice sounded in the back of his mind. She's gone, McGee, she's gone, she's gone, she's gone, it echoed. "No..." sobbed McGee, letting his head drop so he was forehead to forehead with her still-warm body. Abby...
"See anything you like, McGee?"asked Abby, pulling a tight black shirt down over the expansive tattoo covering her back.
"No! Uh, I mean...yes?"he stuttered.
"Better."
"Aren't you listening to me, McGee? I'm pregnant...it's twins. I haven't told the father yet. It's Gibbs. Something about his silver hair makes me all tingly inside."
"Eww...OK, I'm gonna go throw up now," Tony said.
"Don't worry," Abby said, seeing his startled reaction as he looked up from the screen. "I'm kidding. Except for the part about Gibbs' hair."
Hold on to me love
You know I can't stay long
All I wanted to say was I love you and I'm not afraid
Can you hear me?
Can you feel me in your arms?
Holding my last breath
Safe inside myself
Are all my thoughts of you
Sweet raptured light it ends here
tonight
I'll miss you in the winter
A world of fragile
things
Look for me in the white forest
Hiding in a hollow
tree
I know you can hear me
I can taste it in your tears
Closing your eyes to disappear
You pray your dreams will
leave you here
But still you wake and know the truth
No
one's there
Say goodnight
Don't be afraid
Calling me
Calling me as you fade
to black
"McGee, sometimes I think I love you."
Hands were prying her body from his arms, and he was forced to let go as a kind voice, one he dimly recognized as Ziva's, spoke to him from far away. He couldn't make out the words, but it didn't matter...Abby's body rolled from his grasp limply, and as her side hit the floor, she gave a great shuddering gasp and coughed, blood puddling on the floor around her face.
"Abby?" McGee asked. It had to be a trick, to make him die all over again when he found out it was just a hoax, that she hadn't really just taken a breath..."Oh, God, please, Abby...Boss! I think she might be- " But Gibbs was already at his side, rolling Abby over while McGee straightened. "Ziva, get Ducky. Now!" he barked, feeling a bit like Gibbs. He saw the Israeli's worried face disappear, and soon the pounding of feet on the metal floor of the lab could be heard.
"Oh, Abigail, child..." it was Ducky, and McGee felt a surge of relief - the elderly man might have been used to working on dead bodies, but Abby was nearly dead now anyway, and the doctor was the best chance they had.
"We can't move her, the damage to her chest is too severe; get me a number two scalpel from the outer pocket of my bag, Jethro...now a number four and a half, as well as that gauze...hold her steady now..." With a sickening sound, he withdrew the knife from the girl's chest, dropping it into Gibbs' hands. The doctor immediately pushed a wad of gauze onto Abby's ribs, ripping off the bottom portion of her blood - soaked shirt before doing so. Thanks for keeping me covered, Ducky, he heard Kate's voice, in the back of his mind. Shaking it off, he focused on his young patient. Too much blood, he thought. There was no way to get her a transplant in the time that she needed it, so they would have to hope that she was able to produce enough blood naturally. "McGee," he snapped. "Tweezers. Pull out the biggest pieces of glass you can, and bandage the cuts up. She's losing too much blood." Seeing McGee's fearful frozen expression, he put extra urgency into his tone. "Now, man!"
"Right," said McGee, grabbing the proffered gauze and pair of pincers. He began selecting the worst of her cuts to bandage, glad that Chip's body had been between her and the worst of the damage. All that son of a bitch was good for, he thought savagely. Abby screamed in pain as he extracted the glass from her pale skin ( sorry sorry sorry ) but he continued. I'm not letting you die. Abbs, not now and not ever...
An hour later, he stood up to stretch, the area around Abby littered with glass shards. He felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Come on, Probie," he heard Tony's voice say near his ear. "We have to stay out of Ducky's way." McGee allowed himself to be towed away from the lab and downstairs to Tony's desk, still covered in the remains of the pizza they had been eating triumphantly mere hours earlier. He sat down and buried his head in his hands, unaware that he was smearing blood over his face. He let his head drop to the desk, too numb to feel the impact.
"Come on, Tim, we're gonna get you home, Abbs'll be fine, she always is..." Tony said, knowing that his young friend was in no way capable to drive. McGee looked up, startled by the use of his first name.
"I think I loved her, you know," he said hoarsely, as if this explained everything. "I think I loved her..."
"Love, Probie, not loved. Present tense. She's alive, and she's staying that way. Ducky said she was stable...you wanna stay at my place tonight?" McGee shook his head.
"No thanks, Tony. I need - "
"I know," the agent replied. "Me too. But there is no way in hell you can drive right now, so you're getting a ride."
An hour later, McGee fell asleep on his bed, fully clothed, blood caking his face, and dreamed of Abby.
OK, I officially had WAY too much fun writing that. If you want it to continue...REVIEW! There is a very small fandom for NCIS, so I need everyone who reads this to review! Thanks. Now click that little button.