**Chapter Ten -- Make Up Your Mind**
**September 26, 2010 -- Tony's Hotel**
The shrill beeping of the alarm clock startled him awake. Sitting upright in the unfamiliar bed, Tony ran a hand over his tired face, forcing the last remnants of his dreams from his mind as he squinted at the tiny numbers on the clock.
0900. Despite the fact that he'd made it back to the hotel at a decent time, he'd only fallen asleep a few hours ago. The conversation he'd had with Britty had replayed in his mind all night, making sleep nearly impossible.
She'd given him an opportunity to correct the mistakes he'd made, but now, as he fell back against the scratchy pillows, he didn't know if he could take it.
Showing up at the lingerie shop she owned with her husband seemed like a risky move. Even though the redhead assured him that Bradley would be spending the day at home with his son, that man had somewhat of a sixth sense when it came to his little sister. It would be just his luck that the man would show up and attempt to kick his ass again.
Releasing a tortured sigh, he rolled onto his side and plucked the phone from the spot on the night stand, his fingers poised to dial his Goth's number and ramble off an apology and a promise that she wouldn't see him again. But he couldn't bring himself to do it.
Dropping the phone onto the mattress, he pushed himself up and headed for the bathroom before he could change his mind again. Abby had very nearly destroyed him when she'd left three months earlier. It wasn't something he was willing to do to her, Bradley be damned.
He showered and shaved quickly before he hurried into the bedroom and dressed comfortably in a pair of jeans and a t shirt. If he was going to get his ass kicked, he at least wanted to be comfortable when it happened. Heading down to where his rental car was parked, he got in and pulled away from the hotel, driving the short distance to the lingerie shop. Once he got there, he shifted the car into park and looked over at the once small shop.
It had doubled in size since the last time he had seen it, with Bradley purchasing the building next door and knocking down the common wall so they could expand. He could see Abby sitting next to the register through the large windows, her laptop on the counter next to her. Climbing out of the car, he walked across the street and hesitated only slightly outside of the door before going inside.
The Goth looked up and rolled her eyes as soon as he walked in, closing the lid on her laptop and picking it up, preparing to move into the back room. "I'll have someone to help you in a minute."
"Abby..." He pleaded, touching her shoulder gently as she turned away from him. "Please."
"What could you possibly have to say to me, Tony?" She said coldly, turning to face him.
He looked her over quickly, noting that she wasn't wearing her typical 3-inch tall boots that he was used to. It wasn't very often he had the opportunity to see her at her natural height, and it made him smile sadly. Her pigtails were down, her long wavy hair spilling over her shoulders and making her look like some kind of goddess. He wondered momentarily if his reaction was due to the fact that he missed her, or if he had always seen her this way and just didn't want to admit it to himself.
"I know. I look bad, coming here." Tony watched as she leaned against the counter, placing her free hand on her growing belly. "Things have changed."
"I don't know."
"Why not?" He asked, his eyes searching hers for an answer.
"Because there's a much simpler explanation. You only wanted to see that I was as miserable as you hoped. That this truly was eating at me."
"Then why would I be here trying to get you back?" He sighed, running a hand over his face and taking a step closer to her. "Can we please get some dinner tonight?"
"I'm sorry, Tony." She said, pushing herself off the counter and starting for the back room again.
"Wait. I...I have something for you."
The Goth turned back to him, setting the laptop down on the counter and putting her hand on her hip, waiting expectantly for him to say something more.
"I...I know it's not much, but it's the thing that helped me the most these past few months." He pulled out a thin gift wrapped in black paper and she knew immediately that it was a DVD. Rolling her eyes and cracking a small smile, she accepted it, turning it over in her hands as he continued to talk. "Go on, open it."
She started pulling the paper off gingerly, taking her time as he flashed a half smile. "Jack told me that the baby...our baby...makes you pretty tired in the afternoons and you like to watch TV while you rest. I...thought that maybe you'd enjoy watching this. You know...remember how we used to be."
Abby could feel the tears pricking at the backs of her eyes as she finished unwrapping the well-worn copy of 'Evil Dead'. Shaking her head, she offered him the first genuine grin he had seen from her in the last 4 months.
"Most people send chocolates." She giggled, looking up at him as a single tear ran down her face.
"I'd stand outside your bedroom all night holding up a boom box, except you don't like 80's music."
She chuckled, meeting his eyes cautiously. "So...about dinner. I'm free tomorrow night."
"Great! I...I'll come pick you up at 7. We'll go...we'll go wherever you want."
"It's...probably not a great idea for you to come by the house until I get a chance to talk to BB. He's still wound pretty tight about the whole thing." She explained, writing an address on a piece of paper. "I'll meet you here at 7 tomorrow night, okay?"
Tony accepted the scrap of paper and read the address before looking back to her. "Okay." He smiled, taking a few steps toward her. He leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to her cheek, lingering for a moment before pulling away. "I...I guess I'll see you tomorrow then?"
"Definitely." She smiled, watching as he turned around and left the shop.
**NCIS Headquarters**
"Morning Ziva." McGee greeted, walking into the bullpen and noticing the Israeli already sitting at her desk hard at work. "Where's Gibbs?"
"Out getting coffee." She said, smiling at her partner. "He should be back shortly."
"Ah." He barely had time to drop his backpack behind the desk before Gibbs' desk phone started ringing impatiently. Stepping around his desk, he picked up the phone and greeted the caller. "Agent Gibbs' desk."
"Hey...McGee, right?"
"Yeah, may I ask who's calling?" He replied, looking over to Ziva, who simply shrugged at him.
"It's Bradley, Abby's brother? Is Gibbs there?"
"No, he's not right now, but he'll be back in a few minutes...is everything okay with Abby? Is the baby okay?"
"They're both fine, I just wanted to talk to Gibbs. Could you have him call me when he gets back?"
"Sure..." McGee hesitated, looking up when he heard the elevator doors open. "He just got back, hold on a second." Cupping his hand over the receiver, he held the phone out to the silver-haired man. "It's Bradley, said he wants to talk to you."
Gibbs snatched the phone from McGee's hand and put it to his ear. "Gibbs."
The younger man on the phone started shouting almost immediately, not even giving Gibbs and opportunity to speak. "Abby's had a hard enough time dealing with all this crap that's been going on, between deciding to quit a job she loved and giving everything up to have the baby of a man that doesn't even love her! She was finally starting to heal, Gibbs, and then you had to go and send the source of all her pain out here? And for what? Just to break her again?!"
"Are you done?" Gibbs growled, ignoring the questioning looks that both McGee and Ziva were throwing at him.
"No, I'm not fuckin' done!"
"That's too damn bad, Bradley. It's my turn." He could hear him sigh on the other line before he started speaking. "I know you're lookin' out for your sister, but you're not the only one who cares about her. She left a lot of people here in DC that aren't willing to let her shut them out without a fight."
"Then why didn't you come to talk to her? You didn't have to send him. All it did was put her in a tailspin."
"You really think that I want to see Abby hurt? She's practically my daughter, Bradley. I wouldn't have sent Tony if I thought he was gonna do anything to hurt her. He cares about her more than his own well-being, and I bet that if you'd talk to him, without throwing punches, for more than 3 minutes, you'd figure that out too."
Bradley was silent, taking Gibbs' words into consideration. "She's been buyin' plane tickets for the last month or so. Told me she can't bring herself to get on the plane."
"See?" Gibbs said, shaking his head at the younger man's sudden change in tone. "He's been doin' the same thing."
"They're the definition of soulmates, aren't they?"
The older man chuckled lightly. "I don't know about that. You should ask your sister, she's the one into all that stuff. I will tell you though, Bradley. They've been dancin' around this for a long time. It's about damn time they had a chance to get it right."
"Yeah." Bradley sighed again. "Talk to you later."
Gibbs hung up the phone and looked between his two remaining agents. "What?" He barked, smirking to himself when they both quickly busied themselves with their ROI's. He received another call a second later, from Ducky, about their case, so he decided to head to autopsy, leaving the two agents alone in the squad room.
McGee picked up his phone and immediately dialed Tony's number, while Ziva did the same, calling Abby. She had been the only contact with DC the Goth had made since her departure to New Orleans besides Ducky, seeing as she was upset with the remaining men on the team for varying reasons.
Gibbs hadn't given her the leave time she requested, forcing her to leave her job behind, and McGee had sided with Tony in the whole situation, choosing not to speak to the young woman despite their once close friendship. Her resentment toward her lover was far more obvious, not returning his calls or emails, leaving things that would have reminded her of them behind for him to keep.
Ziva could only hope they would patch things up, and soon, for all their sakes.
**New Orleans**
"DiNozzo." Tony answered his phone, a smile on his face as he slipped into the rental car across from the lingerie shop.
"How's everything goin'?" McGee asked, watching Ziva talking animatedly with the Goth from across the bullpen.
"You just call to ask that? What's goin' on, the apocalypse?"
"No. Bradley just called Gibbs, and from the sound of our end of the conversation, he tried to tear him a new one for sending you down there."
"Really? Well, I think my bruised jaw can attest to his anger." The Italian smirked.
"What's going on down there, Tony?"
"Stop being such a girl, McWorry. I'm fine. Better than fine, in fact. Abby and I are having dinner tomorrow night."
"Well, that's good news."
"Yeah, it is. Hey, I gotta go, Probie. I'll call after dinner tomorrow, let you know how it went."
McGee didn't have a chance to repsond before he heard the dial tone, hanging the receiver up at the same time Ziva was wrapping up her call.
They spoke at the same time, both smiling brightly. "They're getting dinner tomorrow."
"This is good, yes?" Ziva asked.
"It's very good. They may be home sooner than we thought."
**The Next Night -- La Bella Luna Restaurant**
Tony stood outside of the restaurant, glancing at his watch nervously. He was 10 minutes early, but he didn't want to keep Abby waiting in case she had gotten there before him. He tugged at the collar of his leather jacket, releasing a relieved sigh when he saw her hearse pull up across the street
"Hey." He greeted, pressing a kiss to her cheek. "Thought for a second I got stood up."
"I can't say I didn't think about it." She said, frowning when she noticed his face fall slightly. "I'm sorry...I didn't mean..."
"Don't worry about it, okay?" He asked, plastering a smile on his face. "I just wanna have a nice dinner with you."
The Goth allowed him to pull her arm through his, leading her toward the door to the restaurant. They got a table quickly and sat next to each other, looking over their menus.
"Everthing okay?" Abby asked, wrapping her thin sweater around her body self consciously as she felt Tony's eyes on her. "I know I've gained some weight..."
"You're gorgeous." The Italian replied, reaching over and squeezing her hand lightly. "You have nothing to be ashamed of."
They chatted awkwardly throughout dinner, talking mostly about what had been going on at work since she had resigned, avoiding anything to do with their personal relationship. It wasn't particularly hard, both of them were damn near professionals at avoiding topics they weren't ready to handle, and neither of them were willing to call the other on it.
"I really appreciate you meeting me tonight. I have to say it was unexpected." Tony said, nodding to the waiter who came to clear their salad plates.
"Yeah...well, after what happened the other day, I can't really believe I'm here either."
"I'm really sorry about that, Abby. Bradley's the one who started it though. You know that. I didn't mean to hurt him."
She sighed, cocking an eyebrow at the Italian. "You're a cop, Tony. You could have restrained him without hurting him. He overreacted, but you didn't make things better by hitting him back."
"You always side with him! It's never about which one of us is right or wrong, you always side with him regardless!"
"He's my brother, Tony. What do you want me to do? He's the only family I have."
Tony frowned, his hazel eyes darkening as the waiter brought their dinners. "You have me. You have Gibbs, Ziva, McGee and Ducky. Are you telling me that we don't count? That after all the years that we've been there for you...it's all been for nothing? So you can throw us aside like yesterday's newspaper?"
"This is why we don't work, Tony." Abby scoffed, wiping a stray tear from her eye. "What happened to us? We were friends for years without this fighting. Now...it's like we can't stop. We can't help ourselves."
"You wanna go back in time?"
"I wanna make this work. I wanna understand you. You know how you make me feel." She paused, looking across the table at him. "But I don't wanna fight all the time. If you could do it again, if we could start over..."
He knew what she wanted him to say, but he couldn't bring himself to lie to her. He had always been as honest as he could with her, and he wasn't going to stop now. "I'm not so sure it would end up differently."
Abby looked away, frowning. "I knew this was a mistake. Goodbye, Tony." She said, touching his hand gently before she stood and walked out, leaving Tony sitting at the table alone in the middle of the restaurant.
He watched her walk away, knowing that he should probably go after her and continue the conversation, but he couldn't make himself move. Subconsciously, he knew that the amount of stress she had been under the past 3 months, not to mention the last few days that he had been in town, was enormous, and he probably wasn't helping things by dredging up their sordid relationship problems.
**2300 Hours -- Bradley's house**
Tony cursed as he pulled up outside the large house, slamming his hand on the steering wheel. He hadn't wanted to come back here tonight, not after the fight they had in the restaurant. After she left him sitting alone, he ordered himself a drink and considered the situation he found himself in. He wanted nothing more than to be with her, but his brain was screaming at him to cut and run. To leave her behind, because he had a feeling that was the only way that they would both ultimately end up happy.
Climbing out of the car, he approached the door and knocked, only worrying about the late hour after he heard the approaching footsteps on the hardwood floor. Bradley opened the door a second later and leaned against the frame, eying the younger man quietly.
"Could this night get any worse?" Tony mumbled, moving to walk away when he heard Bradley's voice behind him.
"Wait here. I'll go get her."
"Really, it's not..." He was cut off by the sound of the door closing, and considered taking the opportunity to leave before Bradley could drag his sister downstairs.
The heavy door opened again a minute later and a pajama-clad Abby was being shoved gently onto the porch. She saw Tony and immediately tried to open the door, only to find that it was locked. "Damn it." She cursed, wrapping her light summer robe around her tighter despite the warm late night air. "What do you want?"
"To talk."
"Well, I don't want to, so you should consider just leavin' it alone." The Goth said, cringing at the light southern accent she could hear returning to her voice.
"You know I can't do that, Abby."
She sighed, leaning her back against the door. "Your movie references are lost on me, Tony."
"You got that it was a movie reference, so it wasn't all that lost." He smirked, sitting on the porch railing. "Look, I know I haven't always been the greatest guy, and I...I took you for granted. I just...I wanna try and make it up to you."
"We had our chance." Abby said, turning away from him. "It ended with me leaving, remember?"
Tony scoffed, hopping off his perch and approaching her slowly. "Oh come on, we never gave it a chance. We both know that."
"You're right. I thought you were more than you are, but you aren't. Clearly." The Goth said, moving over to sit down on the porch swing.
"Oh yeah? What does that mean?"
"You never invested yourself fully. You were always 'I'm Tony DiNozzo. Don't fall in love, it's scary'." She mocked, playing absently with the chain that attached the swing to the ceiling.
"Yeah, it is scary. It's terrifying. Especially when I'm in love with a psycho like you."
Abby looked up, pointing an accusing finger at the Italian. "I am not a psycho."
"I just told you that I love you and all you heard was psycho. You're the definition of neurotic."
"No. The definition of neurotic is a person who suffers from anxiety, obsessive thoughts, compulsive acts and physical ailments without any objective evidence of..."
"Abby! Shut up!" He snapped, running a hand through his hair, trying to calm his voice. "Yet again, I just told you I'm in love with you, and you're sitting there giving me a vocabulary lesson."
They sat in silence for a moment, neither of them making eye contact until Abby spoke up, her green eyes burning into his hazel ones, desperate for an answer.
"You're in love with me. Why?"
Tony sighed, moving to sit next to his girl on the small swing. "Beats the shit outta me, but I am."
She looked up at him for a moment before sighing heavily and dropping her head to his shoulder. "I love you too."
Chapter End Notes:
"Make Up Your Mind" by Theory of a Deadman