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“Can you believe Gibbs let us use his cabin?”
“Hm?” Tony murmured distracted.
“Tony!” Abby complained, stomping her foot. “What’s wrong with you? You’re so distracted. This is a vacation. You should be having fun.”
“What?”
Abby shook Tony’s shoulders lightly.
“Sorry, Abs. I’m just thinking about something.”
“That much was obvious, Tony! Now, tell sister Abby all about it.”
Tony shook his head. “I’m not ready to talk about it, Abbs.”
Abby stared deep into Tony’s eyes, seeing the truth there she dropped it, “Fine, but you’ll come to sister Abby when you are, ok?”
Tony smiled slightly, “Ok, Abbs.”
Abby looped her arm through Tony’s and dragged him happily towards the cabin. She glanced around at the various pretty colors as fall was in full bloom. Many leaves were falling to the ground in yellow, orange, and red colors.
She stopped, bringing Tony to a halt with her as she spotted an adventitious leaf. “That’s a strange place for a leaf to grow.”
Tony blinked looking around for what Abby spotted. “What are you talking about?”
Abby pointed to a leaf growing from a tree root. “That green leaf there.”
“Green? Shouldn’t it be changing colors by now?”
“Not necessarily. That depends on the tree.”
“Wait. Don’t leaves grow from branches not the roots?”
“Usually they do, but apparently this leaf is special for more than one reason.” Abby bounced excitedly.
Tony shook his head. “Let’s just go to the cabin and settle in, ok, Abbs?”
They came to the wood cabin that Gibbs had built with his own hands after he lost his wife and child. Tony knew that Gibbs had needed the distraction during that hard time, but it made this trip even more difficult. He’d considered canceling, but knew that Abby was really looking forward to it and he hadn’t wanted to hurt her feelings.
He knew that he would end up confiding in Abby before the trip was over, but he hoped that it wouldn’t ruin Abby’s fun when he did. She’d always seen the best in both of them. Tony had tried to talk Gibbs out of it, but he’d failed miserably.
He didn’t know what he was going to do now. He’d really thought that Gibbs and him would be together forever. To be fair, he wasn’t sure that Gibbs’ decision would prevent that, but it would mean giving up the MCRT for both of them. Tony wasn’t sure that either of them were ready for the consequences if he made that decision.
Everything would be so much easier if Shepard wasn’t trying to drag him into an undercover operation. Something felt off about it, he couldn’t help wondering if he should have Abby dig into it. The operation was supposed to be classified, so he’d have to be careful, but he thought he could have Abby do some digging without breaking the classified nature of the op.
It would be a hard line to walk, but he would do it if he had to. Before he could even think about Jeanne or whatever her name was, though, he had to figure out what he wanted to do about Gibbs. Everyone knew that Gibbs had left the team to him, but no one really knew what that meant.
They’d found out more about Gibbs’ past during the time he’d been in the hospital than anyone except Tony had ever known. Tony had been in a relationship with Gibbs ever since he’d started at NCIS. Of course, no one in the office had any idea what they got up to outside of work.
Tony knew that if McGee or Ziva were aware that Gibbs himself had broken rule 12 that it would change their view of him entirely despite the fact that he’d been breaking that rule the entire time they’d known him. Before Gibbs’ amnesia, Tony had talked with him about that rule and what they were going to do about it. He knew that Tim had broken things off with Abby over that rule and couldn’t imagine Tim taking the news that the rule didn’t matter well.
Though, since Gibbs was on his way to Mexico, right now, it might be a moot point. Tony didn’t know. He’d used Jenny’s desire to have him on this undercover op to get the team and Abby the weekend off, so that he could take Abby to the cabin. For all he knew, this might be his last time visiting the cabin.
He couldn’t imagine Gibbs staying in Mexico permanently, but he’d never actually expected him to leave either. Tony understood why he did, but it still hurt. He couldn’t help feeling like Gibbs loved Shannon and Kelly more than he loved him.
He needed this vacation. He needed the time to sort through his feelings and figure out what he was going to do. He needed to figure out if he was actually going to take on Jenny’s undercover op or call her bluff on it.
Shaking his head, Tony refocused on unpacking his things into his side of the room. There was only one bed in the cabin and Abby had agreed to share it with him. He’d told her she could bring her portable coffin, but she’d just shook her head and called him silly.
Technically, there was a pull out couch downstairs that could be used, but it was uncomfortable as fuck and generally reserved for people that had to be put up that they didn’t really like, like Fornell. If Ziva or Tim knew that he would be sharing the bed with Abby, they would assume that there was more going on between Abby and him than there actually was. He saw Abby as a sister and knew that Abby saw him as a brother.
With his things finally put away, Tony headed down the stairs to start supper. He’d promised Abby one of his home cooked meals. He moved around the kitchen in silence or at least as much silence as there could be with the banging of pots and pans as he worked on creating his masterpiece for tonight.
Abby watched Tony cook with a worried frown on her face. Tony was never silent when he cooked. He was always chatting if there was someone else around or if he was alone he would have his iPod going and sing to himself.
The silence was unnatural. She was really starting to get worried about Tony. She’d known that he would take Gibbs leaving hard, which is why she’d suggested the vacation, but she hadn’t expected him to be so distracted.
She knew better than to distract him while he was cooking, but she would definitely be cornering him as soon as he finished. She hoped that whatever was bothering him would be quick to resolve, so that they could enjoy the rest of the vacation before they both had to be back at work. As Tony started setting food out on the table, Abby shook her head, “You’ve outdone yourself again, Tony.”
Tony smiled softly, though it was tinged with sadness, “Dig in, Abbs.”
”What’s going on with you and Gibbs, Tony?”
Tony hung his head slightly at that question. “I don’t know, Abbs. I tried to talk him out of leaving for you, but he wasn’t interested in listening.”
Abby had started to shovel the food into her mouth, but stopped at that. “For me? What about for you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh sweetie, I’ve known for a long time that you and Gibbs are together.”
Tony looked away. “I didn’t realize he’d told anyone.”
Abby laughed as she continued to eat. “He didn’t have to tell me, silly. I could see it in the way he interacted with you.”
“Oh.” Tony frowned as he considered that.
Abby took advantage of his distraction to gesture towards his plate, “Eat. It’s amazing. You can’t let it go to waste.”
Tony raised an eyebrow watching as Abby ate more of her serving before finally taking a bite of his. The truth was he wasn’t really hungry. His stomach was all tied up in knots over Gibbs leaving, but he would try for Abby’s sake. He didn’t want to worry her.
“Who else knows about us?” Tony asked, hoping to distract Abby.
“I couldn’t say. I’m pretty sure Tim and Ziva don’t know. Ducky probably does. He’s known Gibbs a long time, but we’ve never actually talked about it, so I don’t know for sure if he does.”
Tony hummed noncommittally, mostly pushing the food around on his plate rather than eating it. Abby eyed him worriedly. “I’m not sure there will be an us much longer, Abby.”
“What?” Abby gasped. “Tony, you can’t leave him.”
“He’s the one who left, Abby.”
“You mean his trip to Mexico to see Franks? That’s nothing to worry about. You know Franks is as straight as an arrow.”
“I’m not worried about Franks, Abbs.”
“Then what’s the issue? You know Gibbs loves you. He won’t leave you for good, Tony.”
“Are you sure about that, Abbs? It seems to me that he loves Shannon and Kelly more.”
Abby glared, gesturing at him to eat his food. “You can’t be serious, Tony. There’s no way Gibbs loves them more.”
“He’s leaving to deal with their memories, Abbs.”
“He’s leaving because he knows it’s not fair to you to have to watch him grieve for an ex that he should be long over. He’s not leaving because you’re less important, but because you’re more important, Tony. He wants to be able to focus on the relationship with you and that is what he will come back for.”
“I don’t know, Abbs.”
“Well, I do. Believe me, Tony. There’s no way Shannon and Kelly are more important than you. He just knows he needs to get his head on straight so that he can focus on the relationship that really matters to him and that’s you.”
“I’ll try, Abbs, but it’s hard.”
“Well that’s why we have this vacation. Let Abby help you forget your troubles.”
“I’m not sure even you can do that, Abby.” Tony couldn’t help the small smile that ghosted across his face.
Abby noticed it and counted it a win. She didn’t know how, yet, but she would make this the most fun vacation that Tony had ever had. By the time they returned to the office, Tony would be ready to wait for Gibbs to return and ready to face the world.
Then as fall turned into winter, Gibbs would return having dealt with his memories of Shannon and Kelly and all would be right with the world. Abby was sure of this. As sure as she was of her science.