Chapter 2
They spent a fairly enjoyable afternoon with Abby, telling her about herself and some of the quirky and hilarious things that she had said and done. Everyone seemed to be having a good time, everyone except for Gibbs, it seemed. He sat in a corner, watching the fun, but never joining in. After a while he got up and left, unnoticed by everyone but Abby.
"Wait," she called after him, but he didn't hear her over McGee's latest story.
"…and you said, Gibbs isn't a scientist," They all cracked up over her juvenile behavior, but soon the conversation turned somber.
"So you really don't remember anything?" McGee asked, still not able to quite grasp this concept.
"No," she said, "I mean, I still remember some things, like movies and stuff, but all of you, everything you've told me, it's all new."
"I thought you said we'd be able to run her memory," said Ziva, turning to Ducky.
"Jog," corrected McGee automatically, sounding like Tony.
"I had hoped we would, we'll just have to keep trying," Ducky replied. To Abby he said, " When you're cleared to go, we'll take you home, and to work. Maybe you'll remember."
"Maybe," she echoed half-heartedly. Ducky felt a deep sense of sympathy for the young woman that he had come to know and love. Their relationship was much like that of a favorite uncle, and niece.
"Well we had better be going," said Ziva standing. McGee and Ducky followed suit, "Good to see you alive, Abby," and with that they departed, leaving Abby more confused than ever. Alive? No one had bothered to tell her why she was in the hospital, or how she had received her injuries.
When Gibbs had left the room, he decided to go and visit Tony again, before he went home. He hadn't told the younger man what was going on with Abby, and because Ducky had caught them leaving the room, the agent was still oblivious.
Tony was staring out of the window, bored, when he was jolted out of his daydreams, as usual, by his boss' voice.
"You alright DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked from the doorway. Tony ignored this question and asked his own.
"How's Abby?" He looked into the older agent's eyes.
"The surgery went well," said Gibbs coming the rest of the way into the room, "shouldn't be any lasting damage," he said, not knowing why he was lying. Was it because he didn't want to worry the still recovering agent, or because saying it aloud would make it even more inexplicably true, and somehow even more his fault than he already felt that it was?
"Why do your eyes say that's crap?" Tony asked him boldly.
"She has amnesia," he told him flatly.
"What?!?" gasped Tony, taken aback. He hadn't been expecting a real answer.
"She doesn't remember any of it…any of us…herself," Gibbs answered, the guilt clear in his voice.
"Oh, God," said Tony worriedly.
"That's what I said," Gibbs told him gravely, and for a moment they sat, in a stunned and worried silence.
Author's Chapter Notes:
They try to jog her memory, but to no avail. Gibbs is still blaming himself for the whole ordeal.