In Case Of Emergency, Call Abby

The Beginning

Abigail "Abby" Aria Sciuto had always considered herself to be a smart person. A little strange because she marched to her own drum and spent many of her childhood hours wandering through junkyards to investigate damaged cars just for fun, but still quite smart. 

She did, after all, grow up to be a forensic scientist with a total of three degrees. She also worked with the best people she'd ever known in her entire life, and together, they worked on chasing down an extra special brand of bad guy. Working for NCIS could be very scary at times, but she wouldn't trade it for anything else, especially when she thought about how protective she and her team were of each other. Her friends were her life, her family. She could never imagine working anywhere else.

But now, because of a 'hiccup' she'd recently experienced, Abby was on the front stoop of Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs' house, positively soaked to the bone from getting caught in the rain pour that had started just as she'd exited the taxicab that had dropped her off, and she was beginning to question her life choices, and just how smart she actually was.

"Gibbs?" Abby called out as she entered and closed the door behind her. "Are you here? It's Abby, and I came here because I don't want to be alone and..."

Overwhelmed by the heaviness of her situation, Abby dropped the overnight bag she'd been carrying and broke down into tears. Her family, her actual family that had adopted her when she was a baby and raised her, was all the way down in Louisiana. She wanted very much to be with them at her childhood home of Number 18 Willoughby Place in Jefferson Parish, but up here, seeking out Gibbs at his house, which was a safe haven, was the next best thing. However, now that she had arrived, her floodgates were crashing open. 

"Abby?"

She just about jumped out of her skin at the sound of her name being spoken, but that was because it had been said by the last person she was expecting—Director Jennifer "Jenny" Maeve Shepard had appeared in the front hall, having come in from the kitchen, and to top it all off, she was was wearing pajamas, a dressing gown, and slippers. In a word, Abby felt like her brain was melting.

"D-Director Shepard?" Abby stammered. "What are you doing here, dressed like that? Where is Gibbs?"

Realizing immediately that Abby was in some kind of trouble and that she was definitely distraught, especially because she had yet to move out of the darkened front hall, Jenny decided to be patient.

"I stay the night here sometimes, but please keep that to yourself. As for Jethro, he's down in the basement, working on the boat and probably didn't hear you because he's kind of in La La Land right now."

Abby couldn't help herself and asked, "Why's that?"

Jenny deflected Abby's question by taking a small step backwards into the living room and beckoning to her. "Why don't you come join me over in the light, Abby? Just leave your bag there there."

"Promise you won't judge me?"

"I promise I won't judge you." Jenny beckoned to her a second time. "Come on."

Stepping out of her rain boots, Abby walked from the hall to where Jenny was waiting.

When Jenny saw Abby, she finally understood why the younger woman had hid in the shadows—not only because was completely soaked from the rainstorm, but also because she looked like she'd been crying recently. She also had a darkening hand-shaped bruise across the right side of her face, lips, and chin.