Fall of Recovery

A/N: Part 2 of the 'Seasons' series. Was going to start from episode 2, Recovery but I got swamped by cabin bunnies following the season 10 finale! So the first few chapters will start right from the end of Summer of Extremes. I mean, come on... Gibbs... cabin... it's a no brainer!

Fall will be a series of tags / missing scenes right up to Gone. Some will be short tags (yes, really… short!) and other episodes will probably cover a few chapters. The rest of Season 10 be covered in the next two bits of this series: Winter Squall and Chasing Spring.

This chapter was originally written for the Gabby Shipper Forum Hiatus prompt – water. Huge thanks to Gibbsredhoodie for being an awesome beta, Bamacrush for the cabin back story and With the Grain for the location and anything cabin related coz she's got one of her own, although sadly without a resident Gibbs! Almost ready with a Tibbs story to start posting too – Slow Burn.

Chapter 1 – Building for the Future

"You're not going to tell me where we're going, are you?"

Abby stared at the man beside her, taking in the twinkle in his blue eyes as he briefly took his attention off the road to glance over before shaking his head, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"Nope."

"Hmm... I could torture you until you begged and worm it out of you that way," she warned him, laying a hand on his thigh, nails scraping lightly over the material of his jeans, leaving him in no doubt about the kind of torture she was referring to.

Abby felt the muscle jump under her fingers as Gibbs replied, chuckling, "You could try."

"And succeed usually... what was it you were growling at me this morning? Oh yeah, I remember now," she lowered her voice. "Don't stop... And I would've answered but I had a mouthful at the time."

The look she got was full of heat and his hand came off the steering wheel to cover hers where it still rested on his thigh, squeezing her fingers. "As much as I love what you can do with that tongue, I'd probably wreck the truck if we tried that while I was driving."

"Hmm... point taken." She leaned her head on his shoulder and felt him press a kiss to her hair. "We'll christen it some other day then."

She was sitting in her favorite spot in the truck, right in the middle, smooshed up against him, touching from shoulder to thigh. They were heading out of D.C. on one of their rare weekends not on call and he'd told her to pack an overnight bag.

But she had no idea where they were heading or where they'd be staying overnight, because the dratted man wouldn't tell her... which brought her back to her original thought.

"Okay, stop distracting me... rewind to my original question."

"Which I answered," he pointed out, smirking.

"No, you didn't," Abby protested before reluctantly conceding. "Well, okay, strictly speaking you did answer the letter of my question but not exactly the spirit of it. So, replay, repeat, rewind. Where... are... we... going?"

Gibbs glanced her way again, an eyebrow arching. "You can work it out... work the evidence."

"The evidence, huh?" Abby eyed him for a moment, gazing at his profile. "You mean other than that insufferably smug grin on your face?"

"Yeah, other than that."

Her eyes roamed over his face, taking in his relaxed expression, the way his eyes crinkled at the corners, as his mouth curved in a boyish grin that she was tempted to kiss it off his face.

The sleeves of his plaid shirt were rolled up tanned forearms, drawing attention to those large hands, and the ever present white T-shirt peeked through at the neck, and he was wearing snugger than usual cargo pants.

She dragged her eyes away from him reluctantly. "Okay then, the evidence... leaving aside the fact that you look good enough to eat."

"Thought you did that this morning."

They exchanged grins, Abby's mind going back to how she'd woken him up that morning.

"Moving on... for now." She ticked off the points on her fingers as she thought it through. "Okay... exhibit A, we have enough camping gear in the back to hole up somewhere for weeks just like Grizzly Adams... and I'm pleased to see, a double sleeping bag."

"Of course."

"Nice to see you've got your priorities right there, Gibbs. I approve." She patted his leg. "And did I see fishing gear packed away back there... so with one of those huge deductive leaps I'm famous for, I'm guessing we might be going fishing at some point this weekend."

Gibbs tilted his head, smiling. "There might be fishing."

"Lake or river?"

Gibbs considered for a minute as if deciding how much to reveal. "Lake."

Abby opened her mouth before closing it again and rolling her eyes at him. "Well, there's a few of those we could reach out this way, so that doesn't really help... large or small?"

"We talking about the lake now?"

"We are... behave!" Abby protested, and he merely shot her an amused glance as he answered. "C'mon... large or small?"

"Medium."

"Medium, huh?" She stared out of the window for a few minutes.

"Waiting, Abbs."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm thinking."

"Thought I could hear the wheels turning," he replied, a slight grin tugging at his mouth.

"Just let me think and stop interrupting. Okay, we also have water with us, a lot of water," Abby glanced through the back window where the large water containers were strapped down in the flatbed of the truck. "So we're not heading for a recognised campsite with facilities... which is good, coz I can't see you tolerating any neighbours when you go camping, but things can get seriously noisy with me at night and the neighbours might complain."

"No kidding."

"And that's before you start begging," she grinned as he chuckled. "So... no running water then... or should I say we're not within easy reach of safe running water, hmm?" she peered at his face but he merely raised an eyebrow at her. "Stop trying to look innocent coz it's totally not working. C'mon, Gibbs, you gotta give me some clues here."

"Okay... you got that right. No safe water supply... yet," he added.

"Yet?" She narrowed her eyes at him, seeing the smirk. "Hmm... did you just give me a clue there, Special Agent Gibbs?"

"Maybe," he conceded.

"Not much of one. And you've got food with us, so I'm guessing we're not gonna get a pizza delivery later?"

Gibbs grinned. "Knew there was something missing from this place."

"Okay... camping in the middle of nowhere, with maybe fishing and we've got our own food and water. That's the what. What about the where?" She looked at him and he inclined his head and she huffed, rolling her eyes. "Okay... I know, work the evidence. Alright, the evidence is we're heading west so we're clearly not going to Rock Creek Park, which I'm pleased about coz that would hardly be a restful weekend, the place is full of dead petty officers."

Gibbs laughed. "Think we only see its bad side, Abbs."

"Mmm, maybe... jury's out on that one." She waved her hand. "But we're heading too far north of west to be going to Shenandoah and I'm glad about that too coz, seriously Gibbs, that should be another no sail zone for the Navy... there should be a sign outside saying, abandon hope all Navy personnel who enter here. That place is a death trap..."

"Well, now you've trashed that tourist spot too, where else?... c'mon, where d'ya think?"

Abby held up her hands as she thought furiously, before slumping in defeat, folding her arms. "I have absolutely no idea. You haven't given me nearly enough clues. We could be going anywhere... and the way you drive, it could be a fairly wide search area... like as far as Wisconsin."

He snorted, nudging her. "Then close your eyes and I'll tell ya when we get there."

Abby giggled. "Oh, are we back to last night again when you blindfolded me and kept me hanging on the edge?" She held up a finger as he gave her a lop-sided grin. "I know... why didn't I think of it before. I'm a total idiot."

She grabbed her bag off the floor and rummaged inside, triumphantly pulling out with her phone. "I can use the GPS on my phone as we travel... compare it to Google maps and work it out from there when we get... wherever it is we're going."

"Or... you could look out the window."

Abby poked her tongue out at him. "Spoilsport. It's much more fun this way."

After several wrong guesses as they drove west, which only increased Gibbs' amusement and Abby's exasperation, she eventually narrowed it down purely by having nothing else on the map but this lake as they turned off the main highway onto a minor road.

"Aha! I've got it." She compared her flashing phone screen with the sign they'd just passed. "So... what's at Lake Oliver?"

"A lake," came the dry reply.

"Funny guy." She examined the map on her phone again. "Well, it's gotta be there we're heading for coz this is a dead end."

"Is it?" He asked innocently, grinning at Abby.

She poked his side. "You are having way too much fun with this, y'know."

"Uh-huh." Gibbs turned the truck off the minor road into a rough track into the woods.

They drove down the gravelly surface for about a quarter of a mile, eventually pulling up in a clearing with enough space for several vehicles and Gibbs stopped the truck at the end of the track.

He turned off the engine, turning to Abby with a grin. "We're here."

Abby unbuckled her safety belt, pushing at him and fumbling to undo his belt. "Well, let me out then... I want to see where here is."

"You could get out your side, y'know." Gibbs smothered a grin as Abby virtually shoved him out of the truck ahead of her, clambering out behind him.

"Too much effort... get moving." She gazed round eagerly as Gibbs closed the truck door behind her.

They were completely surrounded by trees, with a narrower track heading off from where the road ended but still just wide enough for a vehicle.

In the distance, Abby could see the sun glinting off water, barely showing through the trees further round the slope of the hill. "Is that the lake? Lake Oliver?"

"Yup."

"Can we go see... I wanna see." Abby started off in that direction and Gibbs grabbed her hand.

He reeled her back into his side. "In a bit... something else I wanna show ya first."

"Okay, cool..." She turned to face him, entwining their fingers. "You been here before?"

Gibbs nodded. "Came here fishing with Mike." He gestured around him. "He used to come here and unwind... try and get his head straight after bad cases."

"Mike's basement," she said softly, gazing around her with new eyes.

Gibbs nodded, pleased she'd made the connection. "Yeah... he loved it here. So do I."

Abby grinned widely at the reminder of their friend and moved closer to slide her arms round his waist. "You come here often still?"

"Yeah... off and on. More so lately." He settled his own arms round her, resting his hands on her lower back.

"And now you've brought me here too... I love that thought. Can we go fishing later?" She kissed him softly and he cupped her face in his hands as he drew out the kiss.

When he pulled back, he murmured against her mouth. "Sure. That's why I brought the gear. Come see this first."

Gibbs tugged on her hand and led her along the narrow track, Abby asking questions all the way with barely a breath in between. He ignored most of them, shaking his head in amusement at her excitement.

Abby looked round her eagerly as they walked through the trees, taking in the quiet and tranquillity of the place, imagining Mike here.

While she could see the lake at a distance through the trees, she couldn't hear any boat noise and judging by the distance from the paved road and the lack of any other obvious access roads to other buildings nearby, wherever they were seemed to be a fair way from any neighbours... which she knew would have suited both men.

And Gibbs was obviously up to something, beyond teasing her about where they were going.

Gibbs had a boyish enthusiasm and playfulness about him today that she loved to see. And since they'd gotten together, she seemed to be seeing it more and more and it warmed her heart more than she could say that she might be even partly responsible for it.

She came out of her thoughts when they emerged from the track into another clearing, which looked recently cleared, the felled trees stacked off to one side and the ground levelled.

Gibbs came up behind her as she gazed round at her surroundings, wrapping his arms round her waist and she leaned back into his solid warmth as he began to explain. "Mike bought the land stretching from back there and going on down to the lake. He meant to build on it some day."

"But he never got round to it?"

She felt him shake his head. "He was gonna retire here... before he got pissed off with this country and decided on Baja instead."

"So did Mike clear all this at some point before he left and do the road as well?" She answered her own question as she examined her surroundings more closely. "No, this is all newly done... you did it?"

"Yup." He rested his chin on her shoulder. "Well, a Marine buddy did it for me when I took it over."

Abby twisted her head to see his face. "What are you planning to do?... Wait, you mean this is all yours now?"

There was that crooked grin again. "Mike left it to me. While he was in D.C., he kept bugging me to build a cabin on it for him... then when he retired, he just held onto the land."

"Maybe he was intending to leave it to you all along?" she suggested quietly.

Gibbs shrugged. "Maybe... Had no idea he was gonna do that. Thought he was gonna leave it to Leyla and Amira."

"You'd think maybe Leyla would wanna sell it... get some money," Abby added.

"Yeah," Gibbs agreed. "S'what I thought but Leyla didn't wanna do that... seems okay with me having it."

"Wow, that's so awesome... and so Mike."

And even more awesome was that Gibbs was not only telling her about it but he'd brought her here to this place that must have been a special get-away for both men.

Gibbs chuckled, kissing her cheek. "Yeah... it is."

She turned in his arms and kissed him. "Thank you for showing me... for sharing it with me."

"Gonna do more than that, Abbs... at least I hope so." He fished a bunch of papers out of his back pocket and handed it to her and she could see his piercing blue eyes twinkling with an almost boyish enthusiasm.

Abby opened the papers and her eyes widened as she saw the neatly drawn up plans for a cabin.

She gazed up at him, astonished and he grinned, spinning her round again and gesturing at the clearing in front of them, moving her hand so the drawing was in her line of sight so she could picture what he was showing her in the flesh.

"Gonna build that, there." His arms came round her again and he murmured in her ear. "Wanna help?"

TBC...