------------"All or Nothing, Pt. 1"------------
Story by R. O. Knight
based on the hit television series "NCIS"
Created by Donald P. Bellisario
Gibbs sat at his desk rifling through some paper work that had somehow gotten stacked up on his desk.
It had been an okay day, and Gibbs was just ready to go home with Abby. Ziva had already left and so had McGee. Tony had gone down stairs to help Abby finish up in the lab. So the squad room was relatively quiet.
Abby had insisted that she could do it all on her own, but Gibbs had insisted that she was nine months pregnant and really wasn't even supposed to be at work--and was definitely not going to do any heavy lifting.
"Working late Jethro?"
Gibbs looked up to see Jenny Shepherd standing, arms folded across her chest, in front of his desk.
"Well yeah Jen, its not like I can ask you to do my job for me." Gibbs said flashing that trademark "Gibbs" grin.
"Why don't you take Abby and go home for the night...it'll be here for you in the morning." Jenny said softly.
"Don't worry I will--just waitin' on Abs." Gibbs said. "DiNozzo's helpin' her get everything in order."
"So will you be takin' some personal time off when the baby comes?" Jenny asked.
"I don't know...do you really think the director will go for it?" Gibbs said sarcastically.
"I can always order you to take time off." Jenny said with a grin.
Gibbs laid the papers down and pushed away from his desk. "You don't have to tell me twice, Jen."
Ring! Ring! Ring! Came the sound of the telephone at Gibbs' desk. Gibbs reached down and picked up the phone. "Gibbs."
"Hello...Special Agent Gibbs. You may not remember me, but I sure do remember you." the voice on the phone said with a slight chuckle.
The voice, Gibbs could tell, was male and had an accent of some kind--middle eastern he thought was probably most likely. Also the person sounded quite calm and collected when he spoke.
"Who is this?" Gibbs asked.
"You'll know soon enough Agent Gibbs." the voice replied. "What is important though, is that you know that your actions DO have consequences." the voice continued.
"I can't talk long, Agent Gibbs, but I just thought I should warn you."
Gibbs looked at Jenny, arching a brow, and looking quite confused.
"Warn me about what?" Gibbs asked.
"You killed my brother, and for that...you will suffer." the voice said, threateningly.
"I don't understand, what're you talking about?" Gibbs asked, shifting in his seat.
There was a pause on the line for a moment or two, and then Gibbs' cell phone started to ring. Gibbs pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and read the caller ID. It said DiNozzo. He flipped it open.
"Yeah hold one second." he told Tony over the phone.
The mysterious voice came back on the line.
"I have to go now, but we will be in touch." the voice said.
"For now please enjoy your gift, Special Agent Gibbs." the voice said with a chuckle.
Click! Gibbs heard the mysterious man on the phone hang up. Gibbs looked at the phone, still confused.
"What gift?" Gibbs said aloud.
"Who was it?" Jenny asked.
"Don't know...prank call I guess." Gibbs said with a shrug of his shoulders.
Gibbs then answered his cell phone. "DiNozzo."
"Boss, you need to get down here!" Tony said quickly.
"What'd she do?" Gibbs asked, expecting to hear Tony say that Abby had hurt herself trying to do something that she knew she shouldn't.
"Shots fired, Abby's been hit." Tony informed Gibbs in an urgent tone of voice.
"Stay There!" Gibbs growled. Gibbs slammed the phone down. He quickly grabbed his Sig from his desk drawer and then leaped from his desk and sprinted towards the stairs.
"Jethro what's wrong?" Jenny called after him.
Gibbs didn't answer. He just bolted through the door near the elevator and then practically ran the entire length of the stairs all the way down.
Jenny knew something was wrong. So she decided to follow Gibbs, but not before grabbing her gun from her office upstairs.
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Gibbs ran into Abby's lab with his Sig in his hand.
"DiNozzo!" Gibbs barked as he entered the lab.
Gibbs looked around and then spotted them on the far side of the lab.
"Abs!" Gibbs cried out in shock as he ran to her side and then dropped to his knees beside her.
Abby was lying in the middle of the floor in the lab, Tony knelt over her, with a cell phone in one hand and the other hand holding his shirt--which he removed from his body--over the right side of her chest. There is some blood visible.
"Just get me a damn ambulance down here now!" Tony shouted into the cell phone.
Click! Tony hung up the cell phone and tossed it to the floor upon seeing his boss enter the room.
"DiNozzo, what happened?" Gibbs barked.
Gibbs motioned for Tony to switch places with him. Gibbs took over holding pressure on Abby's gun shot wound.
"I was moving something in here...I heard the shot, looked up, and saw Abby on the floor..." Tony began.
.........FLASHBACK SEQUENCE.........
Tony is standing in the office portion of Abby's lab. He sets a small microscope down on her desk. He's talking to her while he does it too.
"...It's just weird ya know-" Tony says to Abby from inside the office.
A shot is heard, out in the main area of the lab, along with the sounds of glass shattering and Abby yelping in pain.
Tony instinctively hit the deck, and then looked up after a moment and saw Abby lying on the floor not moving.
"Abby!" Tony shouted as he climbed to his knees and drew his Sig with lightning reflexes.
"Hang on Abs, I'm comin' for ya!" Tony assured her as he began to carefully and yet quickly make his way across the lab to her side.
.........END OF FLASHBACK SEQUENCE.........
Just then Jenny entered the lab, gun drawn, and then she saw Gibbs, Abby, and Tony. She moved over to where they were at.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"Oh my God." Jenny said when she saw Abby on the floor.
"Jethro!" Jenny demanded.
Gibbs looked up at Jenny with a look that said "I'm really not in the mood to put up with you".
"Someone's trying to kill Abby." Gibbs said angrily.
"Lock down the navy yard, and get Ziva and McGee back down here." Gibbs instructed rather hastily.
"Tony go outside...when the ambulance gets here show'em in." Gibbs barked.
"On it Boss!" Tony exclaimed as he jumped up, still without a shirt on, and ran out of the lab.
Jenny pulled out her cell phone and dialed a number. "Cynthia...lock down the building and the entire navy yard!" she instructed her secretary.
"I don't care Cynthia...just do it!" Jenny snapped at her secretary, and then she hung up her phone.
Gibbs leaned over Abby and kissed her forehead gently as he held pressure on her gun shot wound. "Hang in there Abs...hang in there."
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Gibbs stood in the hallway right outside the operating room, pacing back and forth when Ducky, Ziva, and McGee spotted him from down the hall.
Jenny was off else where in the building. supposedly giving the hospital's administrators a heads-up on the situation.
"Jethro!" Ducky called to his friend as he, Ziva, and McGee strolled quickly down the hall.
Gibbs looked up and spotted Ducky and the others coming towards him.
"W-Where is she...i-is she-?" McGee stumbled nervously over his words, slightly out of breath and frightened, as they approached Gibbs.
"She's in surgery now." Gibbs said quietly.
"We came as soon as Tony called." Ziva added.
"Thank you." Gibbs replied silently.
Ducky put his arms around Gibbs and hugged him as best as he could, and then pulled back and looked into Gibbs' worried eyes.
"How is she Jethro?" Ducky asked urgently.
"I-I don't...I don't know." Gibbs said hoarsely.
Gibbs was close to tears--eyes red and all.
"Well what happened exactly?" Ducky pressed, a slight urgency in his voice.
"I-I don't...know Ducky." Gibbs repeated.
All around them doctors and nurses passed by--some even came in and out of the operating room, but didn't really say anything to anyone.
"Tony said that Abby was shot." McGee interjected without thinking.
"Where was she shot Jethro!" Ducky pressed him.
Gibbs became overwhelmed by the barrage of questions that was being fired at him.
"I Don't Know!" Gibbs growled in frustration, as he sank to the ground against the wall.
Gibbs suddenly succumbed to the tears that he'd been fighting for the last little while.
"I just...I just want her to be okay Duck." Gibbs said as he looked up at his friend.
In all of their years Ducky, Ziva, and McGee had never really seen Leroy Jethro Gibbs this way before.
"I know," Ducky said calmly and soothingly as he squatted beside his friend. "We all want Abby to be okay...and I'm sorry."
"Have the doctors said anything?" Ducky asked calmly.
"They won't tell me anything Duck...they just walk by and don't say anything...I try and try and...and I-"
"I can't lose her Ducky...I just..can't." Gibbs confided in his friend.
Ducky tried to comfort and reassure his friend that everything would be okay.
"You won't lose her, Jethro. Our Abigail is a fighter...she always has been." Ducky said softly.
"Thanks, Duck." Gibbs replied.
Ducky patted his friend on the shoulder, smiled, and then stood up as a nurse walked out of the operating room.
"Excuse me, miss, could you help us. We're trying to find out..." Ducky tried, but the nurse just kept walking and didn't stop. "...about our friend."
"Well, that was certainly quite rude...wasn't it." Ducky said.
Ducky tried a few more times, but to no avail.
Just then the nurse from before came walking back towards the operating room. They spotted her, and Ducky made ready to intercept her but Ziva stopped him.
"Here Ducky, let me try." Ziva said as she motioned him back, and then shot him a wink.
The nurse got closer and closer until finally Ziva pounced.
"Hey!" Ziva called to the nurse. Ziva then proceeded to grab the nurse with lightning fast reflexes, and pinned her to the wall--holding her there by pressing her fore arm into the nurses throat.
"Now, that we have your attention...perhaps you can answer some questions for us. Hmm?" Ziva whispered into the nurses ear.
"Okay...sure...whatever...just don't...kill me." the frightened nurse choked out.
"Good." Ziva said with a mischievous smile.
Ziva motioned for Ducky to do his thing, as she released the frightened nurse from her "death-grip".
"Yes, well, sorry about that." Ducky apologized to the nurse, who rubbed her now sore throat.
"Our friend...the woman you have in surgery right now..." Ducky began.
"Yes...what about her?" the nurse asked.
"How is she?" Ducky asked.
The nurse looked at Ducky, and then at Gibbs, Ziva, and McGee, and then back at Ducky.
"The bullet was lodged pretty deep...it took awhile to find at first, and she lost a considerable amount of blood." the nurse informed them.
"The bullet doesn't seem to have caused any visible damage to any vital organs...the doctors are patching her up now. She should pull through just fine, but we won't know anything right away."
"And the baby?" Gibbs asked quietly, now standing up.
"Like I said...we won't know anything right away, and there's always that chance." the nurse said quietly.
"That's all I know--for now. And I really need to get back." she informed them.
"Oh...yes, of course...and thank you." Ducky said to the nurse just before she nodded and then headed back into the operating room.
Gibbs sank back against the wall once more with horrible thoughts running through his mind. He could lose everything...right here...right now. He could lose the woman that he loved, and their unborn child. He wasn't sure that his heart could handle it.
The others gathered near/next to him.
"Do we know who shot her? Or Why?" Ziva asked, softly.
"No I-..." Gibbs started, but then a thought occured to him. He remembered the phone call that he'd gotten just a few minutes prior to Abby being shot. "It was him." Gibbs said, whispering at first, and then repeating it again louder so that the others could hear him.
Gibbs then proceeded to explain what had happened back at NCIS HQ, as Ziva and McGee helped him to his feet.
"Right now Jethro, there's nothing you can do here. But you can do what you do best...find the Blackheart that did this to poor Abigail, and see that justice is done." Ducky said to his friend.
Gibbs tried as best as he could to collect himself and regain his composure.
"Yeah...I left DiNozzo at NCIS to process the crime scene, so I should probably get back and see what he's found." Gibbs said.
Just then Jenny walked up to the group.
"Jen?" Gibbs asked.
"I talked to the hospital's administrator and informed her of our situation, and she's agreed to release Abby to Bethesda Naval Hospital as soon as the doctors clear her for transport." Jenny informed Gibbs and the rest of the group.
"Did you find out anything?" Jenny asked Gibbs.
Ducky took the liberty of answering for Gibbs, so that Gibbs wouldn't have to. He explained to Jenny what the nurse had told them just a few minutes earlier.
"Jethro I-" Jenny started.
"Save it, Jen. Now's not the time." Gibbs silenced her, not trying to sound rude or disrespectful in any way.
Jenny and Gibbs stared at each other for a moment, until Jenny finally broke the silence.
"Well, we'll set up round-the-clock security detail outside her room once they assign her one. And we'll also post a security detail outside the hospital--at least until we can get her moved to Bethesda. At which time I'm sure we will all feel somewhat more at ease." Jenny offered.
"Thanks Jen." Gibbs said quietly.
Then suddenly everyone saw Gibbs transform again right before their very eyes.
"Ducky, I want you to stay here with Abby. You call me as soon as you hear something."
"As soon as I know something, Jethro, I will let you know." Ducky replied.
"Ziva! McGee! With Me." Gibbs barked.
Ziva and McGee hastily moved to join Gibbs. Gibbs turned back to face Jenny.
"Jen, you do whatever IT IS that you...do."
Jenny stopped Gibbs before he could walk away.
"I know how your feeling right now, Jethro...but be careful." she warned him, knowing full well what he was prone to do in the mood that he was in.
Gibbs looked into Jenny's eyes for a moment and then responded. "The bastard that did this to Abby...is the one who needs to be careful." Gibbs snapped.
Jenny watched as Gibbs turned on his heel and walked away towards Ziva and McGee who were waiting for him not too far down the hall.
------------To Be Continued in "All or Nothing, Pt. 2"------------
Author's Chapter Notes:
Abby is shot. Someone's out for revenge against Gibbs. How far will Gibbs go to protect Abby and everyone else that he cares about.
Chapter End Notes:
This is Chapter 10 of the series "Together". This chapter will actually be part one of a 3 or 4 part mini-series story arc, that will end with the birth of the new baby. It is sure to be thrilling, action-packed, exciting, and very emotional. So remember to check in regularly for updates. Enjoy and God Bless!!!