Chapter Two: What Does Your Gut Tell You?
A/N: Thanks a lot to Chirugal for being my Beta!
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“Who knows about this?” Gibbs asked, once he regained some composure.
“Besides us? Just the Director " and Abby, of course,” Ducky replied.
“No one else needs to know. Not even Palmer. This must be kept a secret.”
Ducky nodded in agreement. “However,” he added, “wouldn’t that be exposing the team to the virus?”
“No, it wouldn’t. They know better than to touch evidence or go to a crime scene without their gloves on, and that’s what Abby’s lab is right now,” answered Gibbs, then wondered, his voice threatening to break, “…Is there a chance that Abby can get out of this without infection?”
The two men looked at each other. “She will have to wait for three months before taking the test. Until then, we won’t know. But Jethro, don’t get your hopes up.” Ducky warned, seeing Gibbs pleading with his eyes, willing to hang on to even the smallest thread of hope his old friend could offer. “Keep in mind that the knife remained stabbed in her hand until she got here, and that’s quite a long time.” Gibbs looked down; he understood.
Right then his cell phone rang. “Gibbs?”
“Hey Boss, it’s me, Tony. How’s Abby doing?”
“She’s… under observation right now. No visitors allowed, except for Ducky and me. You got something for me?”
“The janitor didn’t wanna talk. Not even Ziva could force a word out of his mouth. We took his prints and we’re running them through AFIS, but no luck as of now. According to his employer, his name is James Turner, but the address he gave us turned out to be false, so it wouldn’t be strange if his name was false as well.”
“The guy was hired. His real name is Jules Greenberg.”
“How do you know that?”
“I just… do.” ‘Ducky told me they found him on a hospital database where’s he’s been treated for AIDS’ was definitely not something he would tell Tony. “Do a full background check on him. Also look for everyone who may have a grudge against Abby; both personally and professionally. Look in her contacts list; all the cases she has testified in court for; check if Mawher’s still in jail; check everywhere you can think of, understood?”
“But Boss, she has a lot of friends and acquaintances, and she has testified in too many cases, it would take forever to…”
“DiNozzo!”
“…So of course we’ll start looking right now. But there’s one more thing.”
“What is it?”
“The knife came with a bouquet of black roses in gift wrap. The card says: ‘Happy Birthday, Abigail Sciuto. From Hollis Mann.’“ Tony gulped, sensing that all hell was about to break loose.
“I see,” Gibbs sighed heavily. “But as far as I know, she’s in Hawaii…”
“That’s not an obstacle to hiring a hitman, as long as she has the money. Besides, she came back to D.C. two months ago, same address as before she moved out.”
“…And you were planning to tell me when?”
“Actually, I was…”
“Check all her financial transactions, her phone calls, see if she has made or tried to make contact with Abby or the janitor, or if she has made any suspicious movements at all.” And with that, he hung up.
--- ooo ---
The doorbell rang, and Hollis opened the door, a surprised smile crossing her face. “Jethro! How nice to see you again! Come on in,” she told him, stepping back to let him inside. “How did you know I was back here?”
“Word gets around,” replied Gibbs, getting comfortable on the couch. “We need to talk.”
Hollis sat down as well. “About us?”
“There’s not an ‘us’ to begin with,” he shot back dryly.
“Believe me, I’ve known that all along,” she said, looking a little melancholy, “ever since we supposedly got together. I’ve always been an independent person with an agenda of my own, so I never minded your long work schedule or your fixation with boats. ‘It comes with the territory,’ I kept telling myself, so I kept trying to make you mine, to make ‘us’ possible. But when I saw you in the lab and when I heard that tape, it just confirmed my suspicions. Your heart has always been somewhere else. I know that. I can’t replace Shannon, I can’t replace Kelly.” She rubbed her abdomen. “I certainly can’t replace Miss Sciuto,” she finished, giving him a pointed look.
He winced internally, but kept his cold exterior. “She’s the reason I came here to talk.”
“Oh, imagine that…” she snarked.
“Are you angry at her? Is there any reason for you to have anything against her?”
“I’m getting the feeling that this is not a social visit.”
“That’s very clever of you.”
“Did you hear what I’ve just said? Of course I’m angry at her! Or frustrated… I don’t know anymore.”
“Frustrated enough to hurt her?”
“Oh, come on! I don’t like her. There it is; you know it. But from that to doing something to hurt her, there’s a long way.”
“Somebody attacked her with a weapon that came in a gift box with your name on it. What does that mean?”
“What does your gut tell you?”
“It tells me she doesn’t deserve any of this. It tells me I have to find whoever did this to her and make them pay.”
“Well, in that case, if it’s all as you say it is, I have some useful information for you: I didn’t do anything. Someone must be trying to frame me, either to damage me or to throw you off. You have to look elsewhere, you’re barking up the wrong tree.”
“I really, really hope so,” Gibbs replied and went towards the door. When he opened to leave, Hollis spoke again:
“Jethro…”
“Yes?”
“Be careful. If you want to let your world revolve around Miss Sciuto, there’s a big chance you won’t be able to go on with your life; you won’t even be able to date successfully anymore.”
He gave her one last look: it cut the atmosphere like a knife. “Then I guess I’ll just have to stop dating,” he replied, then closed the door and left.
Author's Chapter Notes:
An unexpected gift for one Abigail Sciuto...
Chapter End Notes:
A/N: Thanks a lot to Chirugal for being my Beta!