I do not own NCIS, but I wish I owned McGee…sigh

I'm baaaaack! Prepare for stomach flips and Loop de loops!

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Special Agent Ziva David watched as Tony seemed to inhale his scrambled eggs. she knew it wasn't attractive to her usually, the way he ate, but since they had begun to date, or more accurately sleep together, suddenly it was. No one else seemed to find it attractive. Everyone but Abby was sitting at Gibbs' kitchen table, enjoying breakfast.

"Come on Tony" McGee voiced, "Save some for Abby" The empty seat next to him was for her, just in case she awoke and wanted breakfast.

"I left her some" Tony responded as he indicated to the bowl that had the last remnants of scrambled eggs. "Besides, Ducky made enough to feed a small army. I doubt she'll be starving anytime soon."

It was true, there was a lot of food. Before anyone else was even awake Ducky had gone to the supermarket and stocked up on breakfast supplies. By the time everyone else was up he had made a full breakfast with eggs, sausage, toast, pancakes and coffee and tea. He had forgotten nothing. Even the tofu bacon that Tony didn't know was Tofu.

"If she gets any!" Palmer interjected

"Go back to your pancakes Autopsy Gremlin!" Tony responded as he took yet another piece of toast.

Palmer was about to reply but stopped. Abby had entered the kitchen and all conversations and clattering forks had stopped. Abby hated the feeling that she was on display, even if it was with everyone she knew and at one time had loved-no! She still loved them, no matter what!

"Are you hungry, Abs?" Gibbs broke the awkward silence, "We can make up a plate for you." After that everyone went back to their tasks of eating and chattering.

Abby took the chair next to McGee without a word and watched as he abandoned his own food to feed her. She hated that. She wished she could take care of herself so he wouldn't keep abandoning his own body. She suffered through a few bites, the food was wonderful, but she couldn't stand to see McGee neglecting himself any longer.

"I'm going to shower" She finally spoke before she left the table by herself.

Tony instantly perked up, a reflex from his womanizing days. Some of his best fantasies involved showers and naked women. Ziva knew this, Gibbs knew it too.

"Ziva" He spoke, "Go help Abby." He wasn't about to take any chances with Tony, or even McGee, in Abby's fragile state. "I'll show you how to work the shower." With that he and Ziva left the table.

"Well I've got a golf game calling" Ducky spoke as he stood, "Mr. Palmer, whenever you are ready."

"Yes Doctor" And with that they were going from the table too, leaving Tony and McGee.

"Can you imagine it, McGee?" Tony asked, "Ziva and Abby, showering together?" Tony seemed too excited for McGee's liking.

"Tony" McGee responded, "She's injured, there's nothing even remotely sexual about it. Ziva's just helping her." Truthfully, he had thought about it.

"Come on McPrude!" Tony exclaimed, "Tell me you can't imagine it!" He changed to his announcer voice. "In a world of fluffy fluffy loufas and sudsy sudsy bubbles, the sexy ninja chick and the smokin' forensics scientist in the steamy throws of passion that is-"

Gibbs was suddenly there, head slapping Tony. "Don't even go there, DiNozzo!" he voiced, "It's not that kind of shower and never will be." Tony's face dropped, "So go do those dishes" Tony knew not to argue and started to clear the table. "McGee" He voiced next, "You get up there and you talk to Abby. I don't care what it takes you just tell her what we talked about." He reached the freezer and pulled out a small caf-pow, he knew just that was pushing it. "Tony seems to have 'eavesdropper' written all over his face." McGee couldn't agree more, it was either that or "voyeur".

McGee headed up to the master bedroom and sat on the bed, where Abby would see him when she got out of the shower. He didn't know how he would get Ziva to leave but he'd figure that out when he came to it.

Forty-five minutes later Ziva lead Abby out of the bathroom in nothing but a towel. She had not intended McGee to be there. She knew by the look on his face that she should leave. She was gone within seconds leaving Abby and McGee alone.

From the minute she saw him, Abby avoided his eyes. She instantly drifted to the window and would not move. McGee knew she was planning something, an escape perhaps, so he locked the door and stood in front of it. He didn't think she'd jump out the second story window.

He knew he should probably speak first, since she obviously wasn't going to. "Abby" he spoke, "Listen to me," She barely even moved, she was adamant not to, no matter what he said. "I know that this is all my fault. I know that because of me you got hurt and nearly killed." He sounded so pained, so sincere. "I am so sorry." How many times had he apologized already? "I know I can't change what happened or make it any better but I would do anything to change it, take it all back. Take it all back and make it me in that chamber instead. I wish it was me there." He paused, realizing what he had actually said, "I wish it was me." he repeated, more conviction in his voice.

He paused, he didn't know where to go from there. What more could he say? He expected her to at least say something by then, but she had remained absolutely silent, and as cold as a forgotten statue. McGee was about to give up and let her stay silent, face Gibbs' ire by himself, but something stopped him.

"I don't" Abby responded, not turning from the window quite yet. She watched as Ziva threw the tennis ball for Jethro and he brought it back to her. That happened three more times before she spoke again. McGee was stunned, just those two words seemed to fill him with such hope, though he didn't exactly know why. "If she had taken you I'd never see you again." She went on, "She would have killed me but she would have taken you away forever." She watched as Jethro dug to bury the ball for later. "It had to be me." She was doing her best to cope with the current situation. She still loved McGee, that was for certain, but she knew she had to let him go. She was only dragging him down as she slowly died from the inside out. She refused to face him, it would just make it that much harder to do the already impossible.

McGee knew he had to say something more. She wasn't convinced. She had to know that he felt just the same as she did, about so many things. "I know I've lost-" he paused, that wasn't right, "You've lost-" That wasn't right either, sure she had lost ,and lost a lot but that wasn't where he was going. He knew it was a bit too soon but he needed to get the point across. "We've lost so much." He placed a gentle hand on her bare shoulder and she collapsed into sobs. It was the topic that neither of them wanted to bring up but that needed to be addressed. Their child that would never get the chance to be born.

"I'm so sorry Tim" Abby wailed through hysterics and water works, "I meant to tell you, I meant for you to know and then it was all gone." McGee pulled her into a gentle embrace since she didn't have all of her usual padding, just a towel, "I never meant for any of this to happen." She continued on, wailing still.

McGee quieted her gently, "None of that matters now" He spoke gently, "I would have loved you and that child with all of my heart," He testified, it was the truth, "But I love you all the more for surviving, for living through that hell, for sticking it to that bitch and surviving whatever it took." He could feel the tears welling up in his eyes but he held them back. "I love you Abigail Sciuto and I'm not going anywhere." he meant that, every word he said.

"But Tim," She sniffed quietly, "You don't deserve this." In her mind that was what she truly thought. "You deserve a beautiful, natural, unscarred, untutored, blonde woman that can take care of your needs the way that I can't. Who doesn't look like a rag doll and has the use of her hands." Deep down, she knew it would always end that way, they were never meant to last long, no matter how many times they dated, it would always end, and never really on the best terms.

McGee was flabbergasted. Was she breaking up with him, again? In a way she was, by trying to push him away. In the back of his mind he knew he had played the "love" card too soon, again. He couldn't stand that. "Do you think that's all that matters to me?" He asked, "Beauty and an ass?" he couldn't help but laugh at the severity of the situation, "Who do you think I am, DiNozzo?" She was silent again, unresponsive. "No Abby" He spoke, all trace of joke gone. "I love you for you, whether you're scarred or not, tattooed or not, natural or not. I love you for you. I always have." He smiled, "The sex is just a bonus, a bonus level if you will." he admitted. "And what's wrong with me taking care of your needs?" he continued, he could feel her aversion to it. "I love you, I will always love you no matter what you or anyone else says. I will never leave you." She had to know that he was standing his ground, for once.

Abby was still silent. She could think of various things to say but none of them seemed right. She knew that the only way she could let her trauma go was to reveal everything, if McGee meant what he had said and he wasn't lying he would hopefully stay. She knew she had to take that chance.

McGee waited anxiously in the silence of the morning. He could feel the stitches on her bare back through the towel and he knew her tattoos and her body would never be the same but he didn't care. He had meant what he said.

Finally Abby spoke, McGee could feel the salty tears soaking into his shirt and he could hear her sniffles but he could hear her just fine through his shirt. "He raped me, Tim" she exclaimed, "Over and over and over again!"

McGee just held her. He was unsure of what he should say or do, so he just held her as she continued to sob. She needed to know that he wasn't going anywhere, no matter what. He had said what he meant and meant what he had said. Minutes later the thought struck him. "We have to tell-"

Abby cut him off. "I already told Gibbs" she explained, could that be why he was so goal oriented at the hospital, and why Abby had been alone with the female doctors? "There was no evidence, no trace at all, no proof that he existed. It had all been washed away."

That infuriated McGee to no end. He was starting to understand how Gibbs felt. "I will personally kill that son of a bitch!" he fumed, "With my bare hands!" the same carnal rage flowed through his veins as when he had hit Tony. He had to remember not to crush Abby in his arms.

Suddenly he was on the bed, Abby on top of him, giving him the best kiss of his life, better than he had ever remembered any of her other kisses. His rage had dissipated and her towel had slipped down. He could feel her bandaged useless hands reaching for his boxers waistband. He had to remind himself to stop.

"Abby what are you doing?" he asked as he removed his mouth from her hungry counterpart. It wasn't that he didn't like it, it was just it wasn't the right time.

"I want to prove to you-"

"Abby" he voiced "You don't have to prove anything to me, or anyone else." He told her as he kissed her forehead. "I already know." He pulled the towel back over her, where it had slipped down. A few seconds passed before he went on. "Let's get you dressed" it wasn't that he wasn't enjoying it, it was the fact that Pneumonia was the last thing she needed.

McGee went to the medicine cabinet to get the gauze and then wrapped Abby's wounds, giving special attention to the Y incision. He had noticed how gruesome it really was, even after a few days. The incisions were still red and puckered and ghastly looking. The incision had been much larger than needed, starting from her clavicles and continuing way past her naval and below. McGee couldn't even imagine the pain she was in. After she was all wrapped up and secured, McGee dressed her in a loose pair of boxers and one of Gibbs' old t-shirts. That was when he remembered the caf-pow.

"I brought you something to cheer you up" He voiced, even though he was fairly sure she had already seen it.

"Would that be a caf-pow?" Abby responded as her eyes shifted to the bedside table and the caffeine drink.

"Yes it would be," McGee answered, "Feel free to enjoy as I shower."

"Oooh!" She exclaimed, "The two things I love: shower fantasies and Caf-pows!" Abby answered slowly getting back to her old self.

"You will be ok while I shower, right?" McGee asked, unsure.

"Oh it will be tough" Abby spoke, "With just my small small caf-pow and my quite stimulated imagination." She winked and McGee knew she would be just fine.

McGee was quite happy, things had been fixed with Abby, she was safe and loved him again. He couldn't help but hum as he headed for the shower. Things were going to be just fine.

The fifteen minutes that he was away from her to shower and dress seemed like an eternity, even though he knew he had been away from her for much longer before. He couldn't imagine being away from her again. He loved her too much.

When he came out of the bathroom, clean, refreshed and dressed, he found her on her back, the caf-pow abandoned, her face in a grimace of pain. He instantly rushed to her.

"Abby, what's wrong?" He asked as he stretched an arm out to her, unsure if he would only make the pain worse.

Abby pouted it in her pain. "He turned me into an addict!" She unfolded her arm to reveal the several raised needle marks. "I have a headache, I'm colder than an icicle, dizzier than a cyclone, I feel like crap and I can't take anything for it."

McGee sat down next to her, "Well let's fix that" He responded as he pulled the blankets down so she could get into bed. She moved under the blankets and he tucked her in before he went to the other side and got in. "Just call me your personal heater. I'm yours for the rest of eternity."

Abby was silent for a while, so long that McGee thought she had finally fallen asleep again. Finally she spoke. "You know I'd warm up a lot faster if we were naked." That was general knowledge and McGee was not impressed, she knew they couldn't because of a "strenuous activity" ban and it was only slightly torturing him; he was, after all, a male and breathing.

" I thought you had a headache and were dizzy" McGee responded in a whisper.

"I do" Abby whispered back, "What are you going to do about it?" That was a good question, what would he do about it?

McGee took his warmed hands and put them to her face, gently holding her face in his hands. "Close your eyes" he whispered again. She closed her eyes. "Imagine yourself in a vast green field" He began, "It has no beginning, it has no end, just field for miles. You lay down in the grass and it's the warmest you've ever been. All your pain melts away. Starting at the top of your head and slowly moving to the tips of your toes. You are completely pain free. Next all of your worries fade away, they slip from your mind all the way down to your toes and exit out the soles of your feet as the gentle sun above warms you" She was asleep again. "You are completely safe in my arms." He whispered before he closed his eyes to sleep. All of his pain and worries had melted away too.

Xxx NCIS xxx

Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs sanded his boat gently. Working on his boat was the next best thing to working on a woman, or maybe he'd been single too long. Either way it cleared his mind.

He could hear Jethro barking in the backyard, and Tony belting Sinatra as he rinsed the dishes, he actually wasn't too bad. He heard the door slam as Ziva came into the house, leaving Jethro to dig. To him those were the sounds of family. The sounds of safety and security. The sounds that he had missed since Shannon and Kelly had been taken from him.

He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't see Fornell enter his basement, no gun or badge to catch the light and alert his entry. "You know, Jethro" Fornell began, "I am not your personal errand boy that you can call on a whim." He was wearing a really bad toupee along with an expensive suit, and growing a mustache.

Gibbs couldn't help but laugh. "I'm flattered but you don't have to dress up on my account." It was the kind of joke that they played on each other in their younger years.

"Undercover work, Jethro" Fornell grumbled, "I don't like it either. What is so urgent that I had to come over here ASAP?"

Gibbs tossed him the file on Jackie Peterson-Mayer, formerly known as Reagan Mask. "I wanna know what you have on her." He voiced, "Especially her male contacts." It was the best way to find the second half of Abby's captors, if there even was a second half.

"Do you know how long that will take?" Fornell asked, "Weeks… Months…even years."

"Just do it!" Gibbs barked back. He was tired of Fornell telling him no, tired of everyone telling him no.

"I'll have Sax get right on that" Fornell voiced, dejected.

"No" Gibbs responded, "You do it. I don't want this getting all over the FBI."

Fornell practically cussed Gibbs out but refrained, "I'll see what I can do, Jethro," He voiced, "But no promises."

Then he was gone and Gibbs went back to his boat, as usual.

Xxx NCIS xxx

Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo dried his hands as he made his way to the front door. The bell had rung and it looked like the UPS guy. No one else was around so it was up to Tony to answer the door.

"Hello" The UPS guy began, "I'm looking for Abby Sciuto."

Tony was a little wary. How many times had terrorists used disguises like UPS guys and mail persons? "She's not here right now," He voiced, the guy didn't seem dangerous, but just in case he was, "I'll sign for it"

"Whatever" The UPS guy handed him the electronic signer and Tony signed, then he traded the UPS guy for the package. The guy looked at the signature, "Thank you Tranny DiNosy."

Tony stopped, there was no way he was a terrorist. "It's Tony DiNozzo" He answered, how could he be called a Tranny, of all people.

"Looks like Tranny to me sir." The UPS guy answered, " Enjoy your package" He laughed, "And have a nice day, Tranny."

"It's Tony!" Tony responded, "And your electronic pen sticks!" He closed the door and began to take the average sized package to Abby and McGee.

That was when the doorbell rang again. "Boss is gonna kill me if this many people keep ringing the bell! Abby will never sleep!" To his surprise it was the UPS guy again.

"Hey Tranny" He began again. "Got another package for you. Bet you love those." he was having too much fun.

"It's Tony" Tony responded, "And just give it to me already."

"That's what she said!" The UPS guy laughed, he was just making it too easy.

Tony received the think manila envelope and looked at it. "What the hell is this?" he asked. There was no return address. The only thing on the envelope was Abby's name.

"Some guy just paid me 20 bucks to bring it to Abby Sciuto." The UPS guy explained, "Said she would know who it was from." Then he left.

Tony figured it must have been one of McGee's tricks to try and cheer Abby up. Though he still didn't trust the mail after the SWAK incident, so he took them both to Gibbs. He would know what to do.

Xxx NCIS xxx

Special Agent Timothy McGee awoke to a gentle knocking on the bedroom door. He blinked a few times and saw that Abby was waking too. "I'll be right back" he whispered to her before he got up and unlocked the door, and opened it to reveal Gibbs, looking quite serious. "Boss?" McGee asked, still fighting the urge to crawl back to bed and sleep again. "What is it?"

"Wake Abby and get yourselves down to the basement." Gibbs voiced. "Don't come back up until I come and get you." What the hell had happened?

Abby instantly sat up as she heard Gibbs unholster his weapon. Had Dylan finally found her? She looked to Gibbs and McGee and Back.

"Come On Abby" Gibbs continued, "Let's go, and keep your head down." What was going on?

McGee didn't need to be told twice. He went over to Abby and picked her up. Then he took her down to the basement as Gibbs and Tony and Ziva spread out across the grounds.

The UPS truck was still parked in the driveway, but the driver was nowhere to be found. After a quick search of the truck they moved to the surrounding area, within the trees and shrubs.

The silence was unbearable. Especially when McGee had no idea what was going on. He watched as Abby paced, adrenaline coursing through her veins along with several thoughts running through her head.

Could it be Dylan? What if he was just as crazy as she was and killed Tony and Ziva and Gibbs? What if he got to McGee? How would she live with herself? She could only hope that he would kill her too and spare her the pain of living alone for the rest of her life.

McGee knew he had to calm her down, so he stopped her pacing by pulling her into a gentle embrace. He knew she was terrified and so was he but he couldn't let her see that, he had to be strong for her. "No one is going to get you Abs." he voiced, "No one even stands a chance." He knew he was right but all they could do was wait in the darkness of the basement. He hoped he was right.

Sorry this update took so long. I think I've reached a slump in the narrative and school is tough. Reviews help!