Chapter 14
The streets were still the same and Gibbs found himself navigating to Abby’s place without any huge snafus. They pulled up to a place that Gibbs felt screamed Abbs. Tim had fallen quiet after they’d spoken and Gibbs knew that he’d given the younger man a lot to chew on. He drove silently until they arrived and then he turned to McGee. “You ready for this, Tim?”
“Not particularly, but what the hell?” He shrugged, opening the car door and stepping out into the New Orleans sunshine and humidity.
“She doesn’t bite"hard,” Gibbs said with a small smile. Seeing Abby again"any Abby"was perking him up as much as having McGee here was. “Let’s do it then, Tim.”
Gibbs strode up to the door and knocked briskly, wondering what he might find.
The door swung slowly open as a husky voice from inside called out, “Come in, gentlemen. I’ve been waiting a long time to see you together.”
Gibbs turned and gave Tim a small smile. “Hang on, I think we have a hell of a ride ahead.” He walked inside, looking around. “Where are ya, Abby? Brought a friend.” But she knew that.
“What am I?” Tim hissed. “A sacrifice?” He didn’t like the look of the place, too much darkness and something else he couldn’t identify.
“You do not need to yell, Jethro. I can hear quite well,” Abigail said, stepping out from the shadows. In this world, she was on the curvier side, full breasts and hips, though her hair was still dark and her legs long. She wore a muu-muu common to housewives, though the dark blue fabric was decorated with glittering moons and stars.
“Welcome,” she said as she greeted them.
Gibbs checked her out approvingly. She wasn’t stick thin here but well-rounded, soft, lush. “Not a sacrifice, Tim.” He stepped inside, feeling that the place had the essence of Abbs. It was natural to pull her into a hug and kiss her cheek, even as his gut screamed that she was not his Abbs and he needed to proceed with caution.
He motioned to McGee. “You know my friend here?”
Blushing at the unexpected kiss from the handsome man, Abigail stepped forward, holding out her hand to greet the other. “Of course I do. This is the counterpart to your own Timothy McGee. Welcome to my home, gentlemen. Please, make yourself at comfortable.”
Tim shook her hand slowly, shock at his surroundings starting to overwhelm him. He was on the edge of the bayou in New Orleans, at the home of a strange woman who by the looks of her house believed in some form of the dark arts, with a man who claimed to be from another dimension. He could already feel the headache coming.
Gibbs squeezed Tim’s shoulder. “Remember, I didn’t tell her your name.” He turned back to Abby"this Abby. “Did you bring me here, Abbs? Hell of a trip for a kiss on the cheek…or even if you wanted more.”
“Ah, Jethro. I see you’re turning up the charm for me.” Leaning closer to him, she whispered conspiratorially, “Not that I’m against it, mind you. Feel free to continue using your charm. I do believe it’s working.”
Gesturing to the overstuffed chairs in the living room, she spoke to them both. “Why don’t you take a seat, gentlemen, and get comfortable. Can I offer you something to drink? Water? Tea? Lemonade? Something stronger, perhaps?”
“Coffee, black, New Orleans style, Abbs.” Gibbs gave her another appraising look, liking what he saw in her eyes. There was some of his Abby there, and that made her safe. Or at least that was what his gut said. He arched a brow. “But you know what I drink, don’t you? Gonna need some answers.”
“Oh, I know what you drink, handsome. But it is good manners to ask. Will coffee do for you as well, Mr. McGee?” she asked over her shoulder as she was leaving. Pouring the coffee into the serving kettle, she set it along with cups, sugar and cream, onto a tray, before coming back into room where the men waited.
Putting the tray down in front of them, she sat back in her chair and waited, not needing to be a precog to know what questions were coming.
Gibbs poured a cup and sipped deeply, eyeing her. “Gonna tell me how this happened or ya gonna make me interrogate you?”
“Maybe I want to be interrogated, Special Agent Gibbs. I believe there would be something to be had, having you in an interrogation room. I wonder who would be on the other side of the two-way mirror…”
“Maybe you want to be strip searched,” he retorted, the flirting coming easy to him, even though he was mentally head slapping himself. This was a distraction he didn’t need. “If you had me in an interrogation room, I wouldn’t make you smile, Abigail.”
“You don’t know what gets me off, Gibbs. So don’t be so sure that I wouldn’t be smiling in that interrogation room.” Winking at him, she turned her focus on the other man.
Gibbs arched a brow, giving her a challenging look and nodding. “Give something to Tim to go on, he doesn’t know you’re for real. What are his sisters’ names?
“This McGee or the other?” Seeing the growing frustration, Abby held out her ring-decked hand and stopped the game. “The other McGee, the one from your dimension, has only one sister, Sarah. However, the McGee you brought to me has two sisters. Or had, rather. I am sorry for that, Tim. No young boy should have to live through the death of a sister.”
Tim shot up from his chair. “What in the hell kind of game is this? Did you bring me here as some sort of sick, twisted game? Do you two get your rocks off screwing with people like this?”
Abby watched the violent outburst from the previously quiet man. There was something to be said for her counterpart's original attraction to McGee. Intriguing.
Gibbs stood over Tim, sitting him down by the shoulders. “Shut up and listen, Tim. You want to see your sister again? Abby is the key! I need to get home and she is the answer and you are not screwing this up for me, McGee. You’re staying if I have to hold you down, and in the shape you’re in, it wouldn’t be a fight with one hand tied behind my back!”
Gibbs moved behind Tim, keeping him in the chair with hands clamped onto shoulders.
“How about quitting the foreplay and getting to the main event, Abbs?”
“Ah, that’s too bad. Was always a fan of foreplay. Nevertheless.” Grabbing a remote control from the table next to her, she fielded the confused looks on the men’s faces. “I may be a psychic, gentlemen, but that doesn’t mean I can’t use the modern advances of our society.”
Settling back into her chair, she paused a moment before beginning. “As you probably figured out by now, Gibbs, you’re from a parallel dimension. And while your Abby is currently torturing herself thinking she’s the one who sent you here, I will admit that it was actually me; though I had to wait for her to find the instructions I set up on your Internet. Without her aid on that side, I couldn’t have had the opportunity to pull you through. Correction.” She stopped her explanation, pointing her index finger as she reconsidered. “I should say that I would be able to do it. But that kind of transfer would take far more energy than I would be comfortable with giving.”
Eyeing both men, she continued. “For fun, I sent the other Gibbs in your place. Interesting developments have come up from that. Your Abby has formed quite the attachment already. Our two hearts have always been open like that. But I digress.”
Holding up her hand to bar the questions she saw in Gibbs’ interrogator brain, she continued. “No, I don’t need to wait for your Abbs to open her end again to be able to switch you. Before I get to that part, do you have any questions?”
“You caused this?” Gibbs asked, rounding on her. “How? Why? What the hell tune am I supposed to dance to please you, Mistress?” he asked sarcastically. “And why the hell do you care about having me here? What did my counterpart do, turn you down or something? This a woman scorned thing?” He was used to those.
Rounding on her, he stalked in close, pulling her roughly to her feet. “Tell me why you’re fucking with my life,” he roared.
Clicking the remote in her hand, she pulled up a video on the large flat screen, a video that had been the cause of the whole situation in the first place, the video that had spurred Abigail to change the lives of the two men. “I thought, Special Agent Gibbs, you might be interested in rescuing your wife.”
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