(no subject)
For: driftingatdusk
Title: Letters
Author: curia_regis
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Abby gets threatening letters and Gibbs comforts her.
Pairing: Gibbs/Abby
Disclaimer: Not my universe; just playing!
Warnings: None
Author Notes: Thank you to B for the beta! I hope you like this driftingatdusk!
Abby ignored the first letter. After all, it was just another threatening letter. Everybody on the team had gotten them. Sure, Tim had only gotten fake ones because of his publisher. Tony mostly got his from ex-girlfriends, generally those who didn't quite know they were 'ex' girlfriends yet. She wasn't sure whether Ziva had ever gotten any, but she suspected the other woman would have. Even Abby herself had gotten her fair share of them in the past from crazy stalker ex-boyfriends.
So she put away the letter and ignored the shiver of fear that trickled down her back. She was a big girl. She could handle nasty anonymous letter.
--
By the time Abby had gotten the fifth letter, she was a little freaked. The mysterious letter writer seemed to know her entire daily routine. Last night, there was a single red rose left on her porch.
"What's the matter?"
Abby gasped and spun around in her chair. "Oh Gibbs," she said in relief. "You always do that!"
He gave her that quirky half-grin that he always used when he wanted something. "Got anything yet on the unknown substance?"
Abby bit her lip and fiddled with the chains on her belt. "Now wouldn't I have called you down if I did?" she said, trying to keep a teasing tone in her voice, while shoving the note she had been reading under a pile of papers.
Gibbs wasn't fooled. He lunged forward and grabbed the note. Abby watched as his face darkened as he read it.
"You should have come to me," Gibbs said quietly.
"But Gibbs," she argued.
"No buts. You're coming right now." He turned on his heel and walked off.
Abby pouted and followed.
--
“Why did you not show us this?” Ziva demanded, as she waved the letter in the air.
Abby grimaced. Sometimes Ziva could still annoy her immensely. They were friends now, but somehow Abby felt like she could never have the same comradeship she had with Kate. They could never talk about girly things and trade make-up tips. And then there was the whole tough Mossad Agent façade Ziva put on. Abby just couldn’t see the point of doing something like that. She ignored the small voice that told her she was doing the exact same thing now.
“It’s nothing,” she argued.
“Someone is threatening your life,” Ziva snapped. “It is not nothing.”
“Ziva’s right,” Tim put in.
Abby rolled her eyes. Even though she had stopped dating Tim years ago, she still felt annoyed whenever he sided with Ziva over her. It wasn’t as though she was jealous. It was just irritating.
“You guys were busy,” she said. “The murder of the Admiral. The one you can’t solve? The one the Director needs solved ASAP?”
“We always have time to help you, Abby,” Gibbs told her. “DiNozzo, McGee, David!”
It always amused Abby to see them snap to attention. Inevitably, they all straightened to look more like soldiers whenever Gibbs talked to them like that. Well, she amended, like marines anyway.
“DiNozzo, go with Abby and get all the previous letters and their envelopes,” Gibbs ordered. “McGee and David stay with the Admiral case.”
--
Abby handed the letters over. She scuffed the ground with her boot while fidgeting. “They’re not that bad,” she muttered.
Tony just stared at her. “The guy’s threatening to eviscerate you. He seems to know everything about your routine!”
Abby tried to breathe normally. She always had a rather overactive imagination and right now she had this image of her own dead body lying in autopsy with Ducky talking to it. His quirk of talking to dead people had always seemed a little creepy to her. Not to mention her slight phobia of the autopsy room. “I don’t have any more stalker ex boyfriends, Tony,” she said, trying to sound light-hearted. “Gibbs is over-reacting. Nothing’s happened so far!”
He just stared at her.
“Well okay,” she amended. “Gibbs never over-reacts.” Abby could feel her lower lip tremble. She went over and hugged Tony, feeling him stiffen slightly and then return her hug.
“Abby,” he said quietly into her ear. “You’ll be fine.”
As she hugged him, Abby realised she liked hugs from Gibbs better. He smelt of pine cones and pepper whereas Tony always smelt of expensive cologne.
-
For the rest of the day Abby tried her best to concentrate on her work but it didn’t seem to be working. She knew the Admiral case was really important. Apparently he was shot while he was out jogging and at the same time, his house had exploded. It was exactly the sort of mystery she normally craved.
Tim had looked really surprised when he told her about the case and she’d just shrugged instead of expounding on how fascinating the coincidence was. She’d snapped at him and told him to go away.
When she was about to pack up and go home, Abby heard a light footstep behind her. She grabbed the first thing nearest to her hand, which happened to be a test tube and whirled around brandishing it in front of her.
Gibbs grabbed her wrist in mid-air. “Careful,” he said, with that twisted little smile of his, “you might hurt yourself.”
Abby almost collapsed with relief. “I thought you were…” she trailed off.
Gibbs nodded. “I know.”
She looked up at him. “Can I come and stay with you tonight?”
Gibbs made a noise that Abby interpreted as a grunt of assent. “Well come on then,” he said.
“So,” she said, as she grabbed her coat and bag and then hurried after him, “what did you come down here for anyway?”
He didn’t answer and Abby wondered if he was about to offer to let her stay with him. A slow smile crossed her face.
-
Abby was determined not to get as drunk as she did last time. There was something so easy about downing his entire bottle of scotch but she had woken up with a whopping huge headache the next morning.
She went upstairs and grabbed a couple of glasses from the kitchen. Filling them with scotch she told Gibbs that they were going to be civilised.
He raised an eyebrow.
“I’m so scared,” Abby said softly as they started drinking. “I don’t even know who it could be this time. Who could hate me that much?”
Gibbs leant forward and brushed a strand of her hair away from her face. She shivered. “We’ll find who sent those letters,” he told her.
Abby couldn’t help but believe him.
-
“This reminds me of a case I had back in the sixties,” Ducky said as he looked the body over. His brow was furrowed.
Abby sighed. The autopsy room still felt weird to her, even after so many years. She couldn’t stay here for a long time without feeling an irrational sense of fear. She just couldn’t understand why Ducky spent all of his time down here. It wasn’t as though she was terrified of death. It was just the autopsy room.
“Are you alright, Abigail?” Ducky looked concerned. He walked around the body and placed his hands on hers. “I’m concerned.”
“I’m fine,” she snapped and then blushed. “Sorry Ducky, I didn’t mean to do that. Have you found anything yet?”
“It seems like your average heart attack, from the outside anyway,” Ducky said. “Of course, I haven’t started the autopsy yet.”
“Ah,” Abby said. “I’d better leave now.” She really didn’t think she wanted to see the actual autopsy.
-
“There’s a small device attached to his heart. It’s like a pacemaker, but he never had a history of heart problems,” Ducky said. “I suppose he must have, given his heart attack.”
Abby frowned. “That sounds really hinky,” she said, but her heart wasn’t in it.
“You need a day off,” Ducky told her gently.
She glared at him. “I’m completely fine.”
“Then why,” he pointed out, “is there no music on? Why aren’t you wearing makeup?”
Abby sighed. “I don’t know why it’s so scary this time. I’ve gone through this before. It’s just, this time, I have no clue who it could be. I’ve had no creepy ex-boyfriends. At least not recently. And this case! It’s fascinating but I just don’t seem to be able to concentrate on it.”
There was a sound behind her. Abby spun around and saw Gibbs standing there. “I’m going to take you home,” Gibbs said. “You need a break.”
-
They ended up sitting on Abby’s large, black squishy couch that was shaped like a coffin. Large orange bats hung about the ceiling and black candles sat in shiny candle-holders. Abby loved the room. It was perfect for everyday affairs and even better when Halloween rolled around.
Gibbs raised an eyebrow. “Interesting,” he commented.
She poked him. “What did you expect?” With a sigh, she turned and sank back into her couch. “You should probably go back to work now. I’ll be fine. I’ll come back to work tomorrow, all fit and perky.”
“I’ll better stay a little longer,” Gibbs sounded a little hesitant.
“Thank you,” she said quietly. She turned towards him and leaned over, hugging him tightly. “Thank you.”
Gibbs slowly wrapped his arms around her and pressed a kiss on her forehead.
Abby shivered slightly at the tingle that ran through her.
-
The next day at work, Abby kept on remembering the feeling of Gibbs’ arms around her and his lips pressed against her forehead. She shivered. Gibbs was old enough to be her father. Yes, she had gone out with older men, but still! She was just being ridiculous! Yet, there was still a part of her that felt like she was keeping some delicious secret from everybody else. She couldn’t remember feeling like this since high school.
“You look happy,” Ziva commented.
Abby’s head snapped up. “Don’t do that!”
Ziva smiled. “You look happy,” she repeated, “yet you have no music on.”
Abby frowned. Ziva was right. She didn’t have any music on. “What’d you want?”
“I wanted to know if had finished the tests on the Admiral’s jacket yet?”
Abby looked guilty. She had been so torn up that morning both over the notes and over what happened with Gibbs the previous night. “I’ll get the results to you in two hours!” she promised.
Ziva had a hesitant expression on her face. To Abby’s surprise she walked forward and tentatively hugged her. “We won’t let anybody hurt you.”
Abby hugged her back. “I know.” She especially knew that Gibbs would never let anything happen to her.
-
The next day, Gibbs slapped a file on her desk, making Abby jump. She had barely gotten any sleep the night before and she knew that dark circles were under her eyes. Dark circles that even her makeup couldn’t hide. “Gibbs!” she exclaimed.
“We have the guy,” he said shortly.
Abby raised an eyebrow. “You mean the guy who killed the Admiral? That’s great! I didn’t hear anything about it from Tim when we had breakfast this morning though.”
“You and McGee had breakfast?”
Was it just Abby’s imagination or did Gibbs sound just slightly jealous.
She rolled her eyes. “We have breakfast once every week.”
Gibbs looked at her. “We have the guy who sent you the letters.”
Abby felt her knees go weak and trembly. She clutched at the table to steady herself. She felt beads of sweat down her back. “Who is he?” she managed to ask. Gibbs opened the file in front of her. There, staring at her was the guy who had sent her the horrible letters. She blinked. “I don’t recognise him.”
“He’s a nobody. All he said was that a man in uniform paid him to send those letters and gave him the information.”
Abby felt a shiver slide down her back. “A man in uniform?” she echoed. “Do you think this had anything to do with the Admiral case?”
Gibbs was silent.
Abby bit her lip. “I’m getting right back on that case,” she vowed.
-
Abby was surprised when Gibbs invited her back to his house that night. “Just in case,” he had said with that quirky smile of his.
“Just in case, what?” she demanded, but he didn’t respond. He simply walked away to his car. A part of her fumed at his arrogance. Gibbs expected her to just follow him.
But still. A part of her knew she was going to regret it if she didn’t follow.
-
They tumbled into bed. Abby gasped as he slowly unbuttoned her shirt. She was amused to see that he had candles out on the bedside table.
“Who would have thought,” she teased afterwards. “Jethro Gibbs is a romantic!”
-
“I just realised something,” Abby said as she sat up in bed. The clock on the bedside table read 4:24 am. She stretched slightly.
Gibbs sat up as well. “About?” he said, as he kissed a trail across her neck.
“The case.”
Gibbs stopped.
Abby was somewhat disappointed. She wanted him to continue, but she knew that what she had to say was more important. “I think I’ve solved the case. The Admiral’s heart had a transmitter that exploded his house! That’s what the pacemaker was. We need to find out who put that transmitter on his heart. That’ll lead us to his murderer and the person who blew up his house!”
Gibbs was already up and pulling on his trousers.
With a sigh, Abby swung her legs out of bed. “I knew I should have waited until morning,” she grumbled good-naturedly.
Gibbs pulled her up and kissed her, long and deeply. “You wouldn’t have, Abby. And that’s what I like about you.”
Wow, Abby thought as she saw him head towards the shower. Just wow.
-
Abby turned her head and saw Ziva, Tony and Tim look away surreptitiously. She turned to Gibbs. “Do you think they know?” she asked.
Gibbs shrugged. “Does it matter?”
“I guess not,” she said cautiously. She suspected that Gibbs would prefer it to be kept a secret anyway. She had tried to kiss him earlier in the lab today, but he had turned his head so she had gotten the cheek. Yet, when they were in the elevator, he had kissed her passionately and pushed her up against the wall.
“Good work on the Admiral case, team,” Gibbs told the team as they walked by.
They all looked surprised. Gibbs was rare with his praise.
As they walked away together, Abby could hear whispers behind them. She smiled.
Title: Letters
Author: curia_regis
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Abby gets threatening letters and Gibbs comforts her.
Pairing: Gibbs/Abby
Disclaimer: Not my universe; just playing!
Warnings: None
Author Notes: Thank you to B for the beta! I hope you like this driftingatdusk!
Abby ignored the first letter. After all, it was just another threatening letter. Everybody on the team had gotten them. Sure, Tim had only gotten fake ones because of his publisher. Tony mostly got his from ex-girlfriends, generally those who didn't quite know they were 'ex' girlfriends yet. She wasn't sure whether Ziva had ever gotten any, but she suspected the other woman would have. Even Abby herself had gotten her fair share of them in the past from crazy stalker ex-boyfriends.
So she put away the letter and ignored the shiver of fear that trickled down her back. She was a big girl. She could handle nasty anonymous letter.
--
By the time Abby had gotten the fifth letter, she was a little freaked. The mysterious letter writer seemed to know her entire daily routine. Last night, there was a single red rose left on her porch.
"What's the matter?"
Abby gasped and spun around in her chair. "Oh Gibbs," she said in relief. "You always do that!"
He gave her that quirky half-grin that he always used when he wanted something. "Got anything yet on the unknown substance?"
Abby bit her lip and fiddled with the chains on her belt. "Now wouldn't I have called you down if I did?" she said, trying to keep a teasing tone in her voice, while shoving the note she had been reading under a pile of papers.
Gibbs wasn't fooled. He lunged forward and grabbed the note. Abby watched as his face darkened as he read it.
"You should have come to me," Gibbs said quietly.
"But Gibbs," she argued.
"No buts. You're coming right now." He turned on his heel and walked off.
Abby pouted and followed.
--
“Why did you not show us this?” Ziva demanded, as she waved the letter in the air.
Abby grimaced. Sometimes Ziva could still annoy her immensely. They were friends now, but somehow Abby felt like she could never have the same comradeship she had with Kate. They could never talk about girly things and trade make-up tips. And then there was the whole tough Mossad Agent façade Ziva put on. Abby just couldn’t see the point of doing something like that. She ignored the small voice that told her she was doing the exact same thing now.
“It’s nothing,” she argued.
“Someone is threatening your life,” Ziva snapped. “It is not nothing.”
“Ziva’s right,” Tim put in.
Abby rolled her eyes. Even though she had stopped dating Tim years ago, she still felt annoyed whenever he sided with Ziva over her. It wasn’t as though she was jealous. It was just irritating.
“You guys were busy,” she said. “The murder of the Admiral. The one you can’t solve? The one the Director needs solved ASAP?”
“We always have time to help you, Abby,” Gibbs told her. “DiNozzo, McGee, David!”
It always amused Abby to see them snap to attention. Inevitably, they all straightened to look more like soldiers whenever Gibbs talked to them like that. Well, she amended, like marines anyway.
“DiNozzo, go with Abby and get all the previous letters and their envelopes,” Gibbs ordered. “McGee and David stay with the Admiral case.”
--
Abby handed the letters over. She scuffed the ground with her boot while fidgeting. “They’re not that bad,” she muttered.
Tony just stared at her. “The guy’s threatening to eviscerate you. He seems to know everything about your routine!”
Abby tried to breathe normally. She always had a rather overactive imagination and right now she had this image of her own dead body lying in autopsy with Ducky talking to it. His quirk of talking to dead people had always seemed a little creepy to her. Not to mention her slight phobia of the autopsy room. “I don’t have any more stalker ex boyfriends, Tony,” she said, trying to sound light-hearted. “Gibbs is over-reacting. Nothing’s happened so far!”
He just stared at her.
“Well okay,” she amended. “Gibbs never over-reacts.” Abby could feel her lower lip tremble. She went over and hugged Tony, feeling him stiffen slightly and then return her hug.
“Abby,” he said quietly into her ear. “You’ll be fine.”
As she hugged him, Abby realised she liked hugs from Gibbs better. He smelt of pine cones and pepper whereas Tony always smelt of expensive cologne.
-
For the rest of the day Abby tried her best to concentrate on her work but it didn’t seem to be working. She knew the Admiral case was really important. Apparently he was shot while he was out jogging and at the same time, his house had exploded. It was exactly the sort of mystery she normally craved.
Tim had looked really surprised when he told her about the case and she’d just shrugged instead of expounding on how fascinating the coincidence was. She’d snapped at him and told him to go away.
When she was about to pack up and go home, Abby heard a light footstep behind her. She grabbed the first thing nearest to her hand, which happened to be a test tube and whirled around brandishing it in front of her.
Gibbs grabbed her wrist in mid-air. “Careful,” he said, with that twisted little smile of his, “you might hurt yourself.”
Abby almost collapsed with relief. “I thought you were…” she trailed off.
Gibbs nodded. “I know.”
She looked up at him. “Can I come and stay with you tonight?”
Gibbs made a noise that Abby interpreted as a grunt of assent. “Well come on then,” he said.
“So,” she said, as she grabbed her coat and bag and then hurried after him, “what did you come down here for anyway?”
He didn’t answer and Abby wondered if he was about to offer to let her stay with him. A slow smile crossed her face.
-
Abby was determined not to get as drunk as she did last time. There was something so easy about downing his entire bottle of scotch but she had woken up with a whopping huge headache the next morning.
She went upstairs and grabbed a couple of glasses from the kitchen. Filling them with scotch she told Gibbs that they were going to be civilised.
He raised an eyebrow.
“I’m so scared,” Abby said softly as they started drinking. “I don’t even know who it could be this time. Who could hate me that much?”
Gibbs leant forward and brushed a strand of her hair away from her face. She shivered. “We’ll find who sent those letters,” he told her.
Abby couldn’t help but believe him.
-
“This reminds me of a case I had back in the sixties,” Ducky said as he looked the body over. His brow was furrowed.
Abby sighed. The autopsy room still felt weird to her, even after so many years. She couldn’t stay here for a long time without feeling an irrational sense of fear. She just couldn’t understand why Ducky spent all of his time down here. It wasn’t as though she was terrified of death. It was just the autopsy room.
“Are you alright, Abigail?” Ducky looked concerned. He walked around the body and placed his hands on hers. “I’m concerned.”
“I’m fine,” she snapped and then blushed. “Sorry Ducky, I didn’t mean to do that. Have you found anything yet?”
“It seems like your average heart attack, from the outside anyway,” Ducky said. “Of course, I haven’t started the autopsy yet.”
“Ah,” Abby said. “I’d better leave now.” She really didn’t think she wanted to see the actual autopsy.
-
“There’s a small device attached to his heart. It’s like a pacemaker, but he never had a history of heart problems,” Ducky said. “I suppose he must have, given his heart attack.”
Abby frowned. “That sounds really hinky,” she said, but her heart wasn’t in it.
“You need a day off,” Ducky told her gently.
She glared at him. “I’m completely fine.”
“Then why,” he pointed out, “is there no music on? Why aren’t you wearing makeup?”
Abby sighed. “I don’t know why it’s so scary this time. I’ve gone through this before. It’s just, this time, I have no clue who it could be. I’ve had no creepy ex-boyfriends. At least not recently. And this case! It’s fascinating but I just don’t seem to be able to concentrate on it.”
There was a sound behind her. Abby spun around and saw Gibbs standing there. “I’m going to take you home,” Gibbs said. “You need a break.”
-
They ended up sitting on Abby’s large, black squishy couch that was shaped like a coffin. Large orange bats hung about the ceiling and black candles sat in shiny candle-holders. Abby loved the room. It was perfect for everyday affairs and even better when Halloween rolled around.
Gibbs raised an eyebrow. “Interesting,” he commented.
She poked him. “What did you expect?” With a sigh, she turned and sank back into her couch. “You should probably go back to work now. I’ll be fine. I’ll come back to work tomorrow, all fit and perky.”
“I’ll better stay a little longer,” Gibbs sounded a little hesitant.
“Thank you,” she said quietly. She turned towards him and leaned over, hugging him tightly. “Thank you.”
Gibbs slowly wrapped his arms around her and pressed a kiss on her forehead.
Abby shivered slightly at the tingle that ran through her.
-
The next day at work, Abby kept on remembering the feeling of Gibbs’ arms around her and his lips pressed against her forehead. She shivered. Gibbs was old enough to be her father. Yes, she had gone out with older men, but still! She was just being ridiculous! Yet, there was still a part of her that felt like she was keeping some delicious secret from everybody else. She couldn’t remember feeling like this since high school.
“You look happy,” Ziva commented.
Abby’s head snapped up. “Don’t do that!”
Ziva smiled. “You look happy,” she repeated, “yet you have no music on.”
Abby frowned. Ziva was right. She didn’t have any music on. “What’d you want?”
“I wanted to know if had finished the tests on the Admiral’s jacket yet?”
Abby looked guilty. She had been so torn up that morning both over the notes and over what happened with Gibbs the previous night. “I’ll get the results to you in two hours!” she promised.
Ziva had a hesitant expression on her face. To Abby’s surprise she walked forward and tentatively hugged her. “We won’t let anybody hurt you.”
Abby hugged her back. “I know.” She especially knew that Gibbs would never let anything happen to her.
-
The next day, Gibbs slapped a file on her desk, making Abby jump. She had barely gotten any sleep the night before and she knew that dark circles were under her eyes. Dark circles that even her makeup couldn’t hide. “Gibbs!” she exclaimed.
“We have the guy,” he said shortly.
Abby raised an eyebrow. “You mean the guy who killed the Admiral? That’s great! I didn’t hear anything about it from Tim when we had breakfast this morning though.”
“You and McGee had breakfast?”
Was it just Abby’s imagination or did Gibbs sound just slightly jealous.
She rolled her eyes. “We have breakfast once every week.”
Gibbs looked at her. “We have the guy who sent you the letters.”
Abby felt her knees go weak and trembly. She clutched at the table to steady herself. She felt beads of sweat down her back. “Who is he?” she managed to ask. Gibbs opened the file in front of her. There, staring at her was the guy who had sent her the horrible letters. She blinked. “I don’t recognise him.”
“He’s a nobody. All he said was that a man in uniform paid him to send those letters and gave him the information.”
Abby felt a shiver slide down her back. “A man in uniform?” she echoed. “Do you think this had anything to do with the Admiral case?”
Gibbs was silent.
Abby bit her lip. “I’m getting right back on that case,” she vowed.
-
Abby was surprised when Gibbs invited her back to his house that night. “Just in case,” he had said with that quirky smile of his.
“Just in case, what?” she demanded, but he didn’t respond. He simply walked away to his car. A part of her fumed at his arrogance. Gibbs expected her to just follow him.
But still. A part of her knew she was going to regret it if she didn’t follow.
-
They tumbled into bed. Abby gasped as he slowly unbuttoned her shirt. She was amused to see that he had candles out on the bedside table.
“Who would have thought,” she teased afterwards. “Jethro Gibbs is a romantic!”
-
“I just realised something,” Abby said as she sat up in bed. The clock on the bedside table read 4:24 am. She stretched slightly.
Gibbs sat up as well. “About?” he said, as he kissed a trail across her neck.
“The case.”
Gibbs stopped.
Abby was somewhat disappointed. She wanted him to continue, but she knew that what she had to say was more important. “I think I’ve solved the case. The Admiral’s heart had a transmitter that exploded his house! That’s what the pacemaker was. We need to find out who put that transmitter on his heart. That’ll lead us to his murderer and the person who blew up his house!”
Gibbs was already up and pulling on his trousers.
With a sigh, Abby swung her legs out of bed. “I knew I should have waited until morning,” she grumbled good-naturedly.
Gibbs pulled her up and kissed her, long and deeply. “You wouldn’t have, Abby. And that’s what I like about you.”
Wow, Abby thought as she saw him head towards the shower. Just wow.
-
Abby turned her head and saw Ziva, Tony and Tim look away surreptitiously. She turned to Gibbs. “Do you think they know?” she asked.
Gibbs shrugged. “Does it matter?”
“I guess not,” she said cautiously. She suspected that Gibbs would prefer it to be kept a secret anyway. She had tried to kiss him earlier in the lab today, but he had turned his head so she had gotten the cheek. Yet, when they were in the elevator, he had kissed her passionately and pushed her up against the wall.
“Good work on the Admiral case, team,” Gibbs told the team as they walked by.
They all looked surprised. Gibbs was rare with his praise.
As they walked away together, Abby could hear whispers behind them. She smiled.