No amount of sugar and Caff-Pow could remove the feel of Gibbs finger from her lips the day he walked out without telling her good-bye. He wouldn't let her speak, as if he knew he wouldn't be able to deal with it. She hadn't been able to speak knowing she couldn't burden him with the way she felt. For that is what her love for him would have been at that moment, a burden. Fifteen years after the actual loss of his wife and daughter, he was once again dealing with that loss as if it were as fresh as yesterday. Add to that the fact that his government had let a ship full of his own countrymen die to avoid public knowledge of a terrorist attack, he had to leave. She could see that now, just as she could see that knowing of her love then would have put him in a place he didn't want to be.

He came back. Scruffy and tan and surly as ever. He came back to help Ziva. He put his house on the market and while packing up, his friend Tobias needed his help. She was in the lab on the phone with security trying to talk them into keeping him in the building when he walked in. She hugged him tight and handcuffed his arm to hers. Once she realized he wasn't leaving right away, she let him go again without a word of her true feelings for him. They had left as a team, Tony, McGee, Ziva and Gibbs to confront a criminal and arrest him. When they got back, Gibbs walked out again and this time Abby couldn't let him go.

As she drove up to his house she saw Director Shepard leaving and for a moment jealousy burned in her chest. She saw Gibbs in the doorway and knew with a certainty she couldn't explain that nothing had happened to rekindle their old relationship. Jen drove away and Gibbs closed the door with his scotch still in his hand. Taking a deep breath and gathering her courage, she stepped out of her car and walked up the steps of his house. Just as she was about to knock, the door flew open, Gibbs grabbed her hand and pulled her inside.

He slammed the door closed and locked it even as he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her lips. When he pulled back, she saw the desire in his eyes and something else she couldn't quite define.

"Are you here to talk me out of leaving?" He wanted to know.

Shaking her head she realized her voice had left her. She signed to him, ‘No. You have to do what's right for you Gibbs; I understand that now. I just couldn't let you go again without…' She paused in her signing and stared at him.

"Without what, Abs?" He asked.

Her throat tight with the knowledge that he might reject her love, she signed ‘I want you to know I love you Gibbs. YOU. All of you: your smiles and laughter, your pain and tears, your faults and mistakes and even your grief.' Finally the tightness in her throat eased and she was able to whisper, "I love you, Gibbs. And that won't change whether you stay or go. I just wanted you to know."

Gibbs closed his eyes and then opened them again to meet her gaze head-on. "I want you to know that I love you Abby. And there's no way in hell I can walk away from you again. I'm just not that strong."