"Tony!" Abby called loudly, muting her music as she skittered over to him. "And Gibbs!" she called in her slightly raspy voice, her pigtails swinging as she met them in the middle of her lab, in front of the desk of computers. One was blinking with a green sign that read POSITIVE MATCH.

Agent Tony DiNozzo and Special Agent Jethro Gibbs stood in front of her, Tony looking around at the various things in her lab, as he usually did. None of it he understood, but it perked his curiosity anyway. Gibbs' blue eyes, so fitting for his demeanor, tracked Tony for a moment before flicking back to Abby's smiling face, her cheekbones, her bright green eyes, her full, lipstick covered lips. As close to him as a daughter.

"What have you got for me, Abbs?" he questioned her, turning his attention back to Tony. Once Tony turned and noticed Gibbs looking at him, he gave a sheepish/charming smile as he himself joined Gibbs, watching Abby. The two men were serious as they looked at their top forensic scientist.

"The melted piece of metal you found? The fingerprints were burned away, but I was able to examine the alloy—"

"In English, Abbs," Gibbs requested patiently.

"Oh yeah." She gave them her small smile as she continued, using the hand gestures she usually did, waving her hands around and touching her glove-covered fingers together now and then. "The individual pieces of metal found was an alloy that I was able to trace back to the Life Saving Knife company."

"Irony…" Tony mumbled with a grin, earning himself a slap on the back of the head from Gibbs.

Abby simply smiled, tilting her head slightly. "Soooo, I tried emailing them explaining the situation, but I got an auto-response saying they weren't at work on weekends. I didn't want to waste any time, so I took the liberty of hacking into their system," she earned a quick disapproving look from Gibbs, but continued anyway, "and viewed their list of recent customers and their stock. On the morning of the murder, a normal but sharp kitchen knife was stolen," she emphasized. It only took a moment before realization registered on their faces.

"We've got him in custody," Gibbs explained. "DiNozzo, go arrest him," he said as Tony nodded with a "yes boss" and exited the lab.

"Nice work, Abbs," Gibbs said, giving her a light kiss on the cheek and handing her a Caf-Pow, seemingly from out of nowhere. She wasn't one to complain though.

"Aw, thanks Gibbs!" she said, following him up the stairs, her lab coat billowing out behind her as she ran to keep up with him in her tied up boots. They made clunky sounds on the stairs as she followed, only to hang out in the bullpen, since she had finished all of her reports and cases in record time.

"Case closed, we got our guy," Gibbs announced, sitting down behind his desk. Abby instead stood by the entrance to the bullpen, leaning against the wall.

Ziva turned her head from behind her desk to the forensic scientist, who was grinning victoriously, her red lips pulled tight. "Nice job, Abby," she complimented, returning her smile. McGee was out on dinner duty tonight, since they hadn't exactly planned on finishing the case so fast. Tony was still arresting their newest murderer, so it was just the three of them.

Ziva and Abby struck up a conversation, something about the annoyance of jury duty, when Tony finally came down in the elevator and joined them, sitting behind his desk and propping his feet up.

"I guess that's it then," he smiled, "no more cas—"

Just before he could finish, Gibbs' office phone rang and he raised an eyebrow at Tony before picking it up. After just a few brief moments, he responded, "Be there in 5." He hung up the phone and stood up, grabbing his bag. "You guys know the drill. David, DiNozzo, with me," he said, quickly exiting the bullpen as Ziva and Tony gathered their things.

"Way to jinx it, DiNozzo," Abby taunted from her perch, grinning from ear to ear. Tony just glanced at her before following Gibbs out, quickly followed by Ziva.

When the three agents arrived on the scene, there were lights flashing and the night was nearly pitch black. Only a street light showed them the way to the crime scene, where a great pool of blood appeared black in the moonlight. The victim was wearing a navy green hoodie and black jeans, laying facedown in his own pool of blood. Some dried had collected at his mouth, his eyes frozen open in terror.

"What happened?" Gibbs questioned the NCIS agents that had already appeared on the scene, Tony and Ziva standing behind him as they glanced around, Ziva with her camera at the ready.

"No witnesses. It looks like he was on his way to the building, actually," a female agent reported, her dark blonde hair pulled up in a ponytail under her NCIS cap.

Ziva knelt down on one side of the body, the side his head was facing and started snapping pictures. Ducky flanked his other side, prodding softly with his latex gloves at various parts of the body. Nodding, he and Ziva flipped him onto his back, his head lifelessly flipping to the other side, his mouth frozen open. There was an obvious stab wound in his chest, but it was longer than it should be.

Ducky offered an explanation. "It appears as if this cold hearted killer dug his knife into him," Ducky closely examined to make sure his theory was correct before continuing, "and literally tore a hole in this poor boy." Indeed, there was a gaping, bloody line from his shoulder to the middle of his stomach, obvious through his stained hoodie. Ziva snapped some more pictures before standing up.

"Time of death?" Gibbs asked, as per usual.

Ducky scanned him quickly before coming up with an answer. "Oh my," he said softly, double checking to make sure his results were correct.

"What's the problem, Ducky?" Gibbs asked, kneeling down next to him.

"Time of death… just twenty minutes ago," he murmured, gently holding up the victim's hand. Indeed, it was mostly cold, but there was still a tinge of life hanging on in there, quickly flickering out.

Unfortunately, they didn't bother to look at his face. Maybe for them, fortunately, otherwise they might have been scared out of their skins. Instead, after the time of death was read, they flipped him over and into a body bag to be transferred back. Not even Ziva had closely examined her pictures yet, leaving that for Abby to take care of. She, too, would have been deeply perturbed.

However, it would have given them the best damn clue they'd ever had.

"What happened?" Abby questioned as Gibbs entered her lab.

"A boy was murdered."

"Any evidence?"

"Only the blood to identify him," Gibbs sighed, giving her a little vial they had collected at the scene. Strangely enough, that was all they could find. However, they did have his clothes in an evidence bag, in case nothing could be found.

"Stay here, I'll find him in a jiffy," she smiled, applying the blood in the proper place and having the machines scan and match it. She started to whistle, but after a sharp look from Gibbs she stopped, just in time to look at the screen as an ID popped up.

Her eyes widened for a moment, but then frowned. "A little screw up. Happens. I'll run it again," she said, typing a command quickly and letting it load. Gibbs raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. It was silent for a moment before she got her results.

She glanced hopefully at the screen, but instantly her smile tugged downwards instead. Her eyes widened visibly, her face struck in shock.

"What's wrong, Abbs?" Gibbs questioned, trying to stand behind her, but she hurriedly typed another command.

"This can't be, Gibbs! It can't!"

Meanwhile, Ducky was bent over the naked body, cold now, and still. Ducky had since closed his eyes, ashamed that another man could do this. Or woman, but usually women didn't kill coldly.

"Poor lad," Ducky murmured, examining his body before cutting into him. "Wouldn't have died instantly. He would have been in excruciating pain." Dr. Palmer, beside him, looked a bit sickened, but kept quiet.

"Flip him over, maybe there's something on his back," Ducky suggested, reaching up to rearrange the overhead lamp while Dr. Palmer carefully turned him over.

When the young doctor gasped sharply, Ducky looked down. There was fabric covering his back, but a line was carved by his shoulder blades, delicately and precisely into his back. There was no mistaking this was no accident. Ducky put a latex finger to the area, gently pressing around it. A little blood trickled out.

"This was done after death," he pronounced. His assistant, afraid to pull up the sheet, instead walked over to the other side. Ducky sighed, gently tugging at the cloth, peeling it off slowly. The line turned out to be a big capital A, looking rather menacing. Ducky put on a brave face and slowly peeled the rest of it off.

"A…B…" Dr. Palmer spelled out slowly, his face slowly paling.

"Oh dear," Ducky gasped himself, having fully revealed the first part of the message, carefully carved into the boy's back.

ABBY

"Maybe it's a different Abby?" Dr. Palmer suggested shakily, but the cloth wasn't fully off. Ducky finished pulling it off to reveal the last part of the message. It now read:

ABBY SCIUTO…

"Call Abby's lab, Dr. Palmer," Ducky said softly. "Get her up here, now. Bring the rest of the team."

Jimmy Palmer obeyed, first calling the bullpen, and they said they'd go pick up Abby and Gibbs from her lab. Jimmy didn't mention why, unable to bring himself to say. His face was still sickeningly pale, and Ducky was practically frozen in horror.

Within a quick minute the team streamed in, tailed by a fidgeting Abby, her hands swooping this way and that, her eyes darting, an extra bounce in her step that didn't seem happy. It just looked like she had had one too many Caf-Pows. With all the work she had been doing, the rest of the team paid no mind.

Ducky quickly covered up the message before they could see. "What's wrong, Duck," Gibbs inquired, him and his team surrounding the clothed body, Abby fidgeting in the back, trying to appear distracted.

"Abigail," he called over, his voice on the verge of cracking. Jimmy stood behind him, looking sick and scared.

"Duck," Gibbs ordered, but Ducky ignored him.

"Abigail, come here," Ducky ordered as best as he could. Abby made her way over to the table, in between Gibbs and Tony. She took a deep breath and focused. Ducky glanced up at her, meeting her eyes quickly before glancing back down. They all turned their eyes back to the body.

Ducky peeled off the cloth yet again, slowly.

Abby covered her mouth.

ABBY SCIUTO…

A muffled scream escaped Abby behind her gloved hands, and the other agents weren't sure what to think. First they glanced uncertainly at Ducky, then Jimmy, then at the body again, then at each other. When they finally settled their gaze back on Abby, she was shaking.

Gibbs draped his arm over her shoulders and pulled her close. It was as if she didn't even acknowledge him, her eyes were glued to the message directed at her.

"Abigail, do you recognize this young man?" Ducky asked, slowly turning him over. Gibbs felt Abby's knees give out and her weight sag down as soon as she saw the face of the victim, and he grabbed her by the waist and hauled her back up. By now, she had stopped shaking, and assumed a calm posture, while her eyes and mouth were full of fear. Just as she had been when she was kidnapped by the killer-that-left-no-traces she had tracked down with the help of the Los Angeles team, The Phantom. When he held the ax to her neck. She could still feel the cold metal against her skin. The team had since seen that video over and over again, though it made them sick, they recognized the look instantly.

"Abigail?" Ducky questioned when she didn't respond after a few tense seconds.

She nodded slowly.

"I'd imagine you guys would, too," she said softly, averting her gaze. The rest of the team looked at her, and then down at the face. As they studied, they realized what Abby was referring to.

His hair was a dark shade, long, shaggy, and glossy. He had cheekbones that made his silent face look full of emotion, yet calm. Even his jaw line, though more masculine, resembled Abby's. Tony could almost imagine him twisting his mouth to the side, just like Abby was currently doing. Even the kid's eyes had the same shape, and when Ducky softly pulled his lids up, they were nearly the same color as Abby's, just with more flecks of gray in them.

"Abby, this cannot be," Ziva started to say.

"Yep, it is," she said nervously, her fingers twitching.

"Is this what you were hiding from me?" Gibbs questioned, tilting his head to get a look at her, but all he could see was the back of her nodding head.

"It's your younger brother," McGee mentioned quietly, when nobody else could.

"Yeah…" she nodded slowly, "and I know exactly who the killer is." Without another word, or hesitation, she ran out of the Autopsy room, her lab coat billowing behind her yet again as she ran up the stairs, leaving the team behind, stunned, and afraid.