Gibbs waited until he heard the elevator arrive before he left the observation room. McGee didn't look back as he entered the elevator, but Vance did with a look of sadness that did not bode well for what Tim was telling him. A few hours ago he would have followed them, insisting on being the one to help his troubled agent. Now all he could do was damage control and hope that McGee would be around long enough for them to work through what had happened.
As he entered the interrogation room he gave a brief nod to Jeffries and Thompson before sitting across from Abby. She was still writing on the pad he'd given her, stopping occasionally to wipe at the tears on her face. Her body had tensed when he sat down, but she gave no overt acknowledgment that he was there. He waited and watched for a few minutes before he had to ask. "Why, Abby? Just tell me why."
Abby very carefully laid the pen down on the paper and started twisting her heavy, black ring, never looking up at Gibbs. "Roger's family moved down the street from ours when we were both in the third grade. I was the tallest girl in my grade, I liked science and my parents were deaf. I was an outcast until Roger showed up and then I was his best friend. We wore outrageous clothes and came up with wild experiments. He said that I was the only person in the world that understood him."
She finally looked up at Gibbs and he could see the sorrow on her face. "I hadn't seen him in almost ten years and then he called about a month ago, said he was in town. We went out, danced, had a few drinks, he said he had lousy luck dating, challenged me to pick out a woman that he'd like. It was a game, Gibbs. I'd point out someone I thought he'd like. I didn't stay long because I'd have to be at work early, but he'd stay and try to pick her up. It was supposed to be harmless. I mean it was Roger, the guy who helped me put a tarantula in Mrs. Goldstien's desk."
As angry as Gibbs was, he felt sorry for her. For all her brilliance, Abby was clueless at times, allowing herself to be defined by the men she surrounded herself with. Marty, who abandoned her because she was too tall; Mikel, whose possessiveness thrilled her until his obsession became deadly; and now Roger, whose childhood antics still colored everything she saw. For not the first time he wished she'd built a relationship with McGee. Good, kind, dependable McGee who had been her intellectual equal, but in the end too normal, too traditional for the Goth. He had pined for her for years. Even now, years after she had broken it off with him, McGee would have done anything for Abby, until this, until now. Gibbs had to know, if he had any chance of helping any of them.
"Why Sarah, Abs?" When Abby looked down at the tabletop and didn't answer him, he repeated himself. "Why Sarah?"
Abby used her fingernail to trace the woodgrain on the table top. "Timmy's not right for me. He drinks white wine instead of Red Bull and vodka. He likes old jazz and classical music. He wanted the house with the picket fence and the two point five kids. Can you imagine me living like that, driving a minivan? That's why I broke it off, we're not right for each other."
"But you still love him."
Abby continued on as if she hadn't heard him. "It wasn't so bad when he kept dating those women who didn't appreciate him, didn't know what a great guy he is. We'd still hang out, commiserate, but lately he's getting so confident and I realized that he didn't need me anymore. Not like that. And then Roger wanted me to find him the perfect woman and I thought that if he and Sarah got together, then the four of us could double date and..."
"And he'd fall back in love with you."
She looked up and shrugged. "Stupid, right?"
"No, not stupid. It was... God, Abby, I don't know." Gibbs rubbed his eyes as the words escaped him. "I honestly don't know."
In the corner of the room, Jeffries closed his phone. He certainly understood Gibbs' dilemma. Part of him wanted to slap the cuffs on her, while part of him wanted to wrap her in a blanket and give her hot chocolate. What he had to tell her wasn't going to make it any easier. He sat next to Gibbs and waited for her to look at him.
Abby was clinging to her last hopes. "You found something that proves this is all a big mistake, right? That Roger isn't the one that hurt Sarah?"
"Abby, the reason you hadn't heard from him in almost ten years... he just finished serving an eight year sentence in Alabama for sexual assault."
"No... no, no, no. There has to be a mistake."
"He's not in the national databank because they're so backlogged, but the authorities in Alabama sent us his DNA profile. It's a match, he's the one that raped Sarah."
For a moment Gibbs thought she was hyperventilating, but then Abby forced herself to calm down. "I have to talk to Sarah, Gibbs. I have to tell her how sorry I am."
"I don't think that's possible right now, Abby."
"But Gibbs..."
"Abby, Sarah is in the hospital." Gibbs didn't want to tell her, but she needed to know. "When Tony went to McGee's apartment to check on him, Sarah thought it was her rapist coming back for her and she tried to kill herself."
"Oh, God, oh God. Gibbs, how do I fix this?" She had her arms wrapped around her middle as she rocked in her chair. "How do I fix it?"
"I don't know if you can, Abby." Gibbs turned and looked back at the mirror, at the shattered remains of his team that he knew were back there. "I don't know if any of us can."
Author's Chapter Notes:
When McGee finds it necessary to protect his sister from people he though were his friends, the consequences are far reaching.