Chapter Six: If You Want To Be Given Everything…

Gibbs was driving back from the hospital, and Abby had just fallen asleep in the passenger's seat. She had been silently crying, that much was clear. Her tears were already dry, but their tracks were still visible.

Gibbs looked at her sleeping form. He ached to touch her: he wanted to feel her skin, to pull a strand of hair away from her face, to caress her cheek, even to hug her. He could tell she needed that as well, because she was shivering and holding herself in her sleep. He angrily tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

Just a couple of days ago they were in a similar situation, but for way better reasons. He took her out for dinner the night before her birthday, as usual. The memories made him smile nostalgically. He wished he could go back in time and change the circumstances so it could all go the way it was going to, the way it was supposed to.

--- Flashback ---

"Staying with the nuns again, Abbs?" Gibbs asked while he poured her wine, with a somewhat demanding tone in his voice.

"My apartment's flooded again. I already know what you're gonna say: 'See? I told you, Abbs!' And you're right, completely right. But this is my birthday. You wouldn't scold me on my birthday, would you?" she answered, looking at him with puppy eyes.

"I'd never do that. I'm just saying, that apartment's not very safe. You really should move out of it."

"Yeah, but it's so hard to find a good place where my coffin fits, and a landlord that doesn't get scared by all my stuff…"

"As I've been saying for so long, stay at my place. There's more than enough room for you and all your stuff in my house."

"That's not true. You don't have the spare room anymore, remember?"

"I do remember. But you can put your stuff in my basement. You'll sleep in my bed and I'll take the couch".

"You can't sleep on the couch in your own house, Gibbs!"

"Well, you certainly won't sleep on it, it's uncomfortable as hell. We will share the bed."

"Wouldn't that be uncomfortable for you, too?"

"I'd be comfortable with you sleeping in my arms for the rest of my life if that was the case," he said, trying to sound cheeky, to hide the sincerity of his statement. "Come on, that way I'll have you trapped to teach you how to work with wood without breaking it first." That statement earned him an annoyed look from Abby. "You can get a dog.You've always wanted to have a dog, haven't you?"

"Really? Seriously?" she asked excitedly, "Would you be okay with a dog in your house? And a guest for more than a week? Wouldn't it disrupt, you know, your way of life? What if you want to bring a girl home?"

"I don't need to 'bring a girl home' anytime soon. I mean, other than you. Seriously! Think about it."

In that moment, the waiters brought a tiny chocolate cake with the words 'Happy Birthday, Abbs' on it. Gibbs poured wine into his and Abby's glasses and made a toast.

"For your birthday, so this year is better than the last one."

"For the best birthday ever!" she chanted, and he hugged her and kissed her cheek while the glasses clashed together. They were laughing with joy. The future couldn't look brighter for both of them.

-- End of Flashback –

They made it to his house, and Abby woke up. They went inside, Gibbs carrying her bag from the hospital. He had already picked up the rest of her stuff from the convent: There was no way he would let her stay alone at her place or with the nuns (which in many ways would equal staying alone, anyway). She needed someone to watch over her in case she needed anything, or something happened.

He fixed them both dinner and went to work on his new project. She decided to just watch him from the stairs. She had never seen him working on anything other than boats, so to see him building toys was weird and heartwarming at the same time. He definitely had his gentle, soft side. It was just that not everyone had the key to it.

Her cell phone beeped. It was the alarm, letting her know it was time to change her bandages.

"Here, let me help you with that."

"Stay away! I got it, don't worry" she replied defensively, and set to the task.

When she took off the bandages and the gauze, both she and Gibbs found out her wound was still bleeding uncontrollably. Gibbs ran to help her, but she didn't want him near her; let alone near her open, bleeding wound. "Stay away, stay away!" she kept yelling, nervous at the thought of him being exposed to the same virus that would most likely claim her life sooner or later.

"Let me help you there, Abbs! You need help!"

"I got it! I got it, I promise…"

Suddenly, Abby felt something pressing her down. In a matter of seconds, Gibbs had cut his right hand with one of his tools and came down on to her, taking her injured hand in his and not letting go.

"What are you doing?! Are you crazy?!" She looked at their hands clasped together. Abby was mute, she wasn't able to do anything other than look at them in sheer horror. He wasn't an impulsive man, how could he be so reckless?

"We can't be like this anymore! We'll go through this together. If you're good, I'm good. If we're not, well, we'll figure this out and if someday you must leave, I'll leave with you."

Gibbs cupped her face with his hands and covered her in butterfly kisses. "I'm so sorry, my Abbs…" he whispered into her ear, crying, while continuing his trail across her face and her neck. Abby held on to him for dear life.

-oo-

They did sleep in each other's arms from then on, including the night they went to sleep forever. By then, her name had changed to Abigail Gibbs ("She's not my fifth wife," Gibbs told Ducky one day, "she's my second wife. The other three are my exes."), and between them, they had already filled the basement with wooden toys and then given them away more than once.

The whole team knew Gibbs wasn't a fan of honors and Abby didn't like formalities, but they also knew he'd always wanted to sail one of his boats and she wanted to know the world, so they decided to just rent a sailboat on the beach, and keep the ceremony simple.

Whether it was a boat shaped like a coffin or a coffin shaped like a boat, no one knew for sure. But it certainly was a work of art. It was merely 20 inches long, made of the finest cedar wood, extremely soft to the touch and oddly enough, with splashes of color here and there, and little painted gothic figures that without a doubt were Abby's work. It also had a mechanism so you could pull a string and the boat/coffin would go for almost a mile. You could tell this was the work of two people; it was made out of love.

Tony and Ziva opened the bags that contained Gibbs' and Abby's ashes and poured them carefully into the interior part, then put on the cap and locked it. Then, they all wrote little goodbye notes on it's exterior. Tony filled his with movie references and jokes for them, Ducky and Palmer wrote as much as they could, giving them advice and something to think about on their trip, and Ziva, while more contained, still had well wishes and farewells. McGee, on the other side, was more concise. "R.I.P., I'll miss you," was his message for Abby, and to Gibbs he wrote a simple "Well played." Jackson wrote his messages as well, thanking Abby for being such a good daughter in law, and Gibbs for giving them the chance to be a family again.

They were as far from the shore as they could safely get, so they decided to let them go right there. Without any more ceremony or ornamented speeches, McGee put the boat/coffin down in the water, Ziva pulled the string and then it drifted away, sailing the sea, disappearing under the violet colors of sunset.

In the bottom of the boat/coffin there were painted initials: L.J.G. and A.S.G., and a little inscription they'd made themselves:

"If you want to be given everything, give everything up."

The End

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