Her hearse sat in the parking garage adjacent to NCIS, keys on the seat next to her. Her fingernails had found their way into her mouth, and now she was chewing on them – a habit she had yet to kick when she felt nervous or scared.
As she stared at the slip of paper in her hand, only one thought came to mind.
Shit. I am so dead.
Abby Sciuto enjoyed driving… fast. She had absolutely no patience going the speed limit when she could go faster. And it wasn't as if it was that big of a deal… She merely went with the speed of traffic…
Except no one else on the road was going twenty over the limit, Abby, a little voice inside her head reminded her.
A $200 speeding ticket would've been a big deal for just about anyone. But for Abby, it was worse, because she knew how Special Agent Tim McGee was going to act when he found out. She was toast… or at least, her butt was.
Unfortunately, it wasn't her first speeding ticket. Abby had earned another ticket not two months before, for a little over $100. She hadn't worried about Tim's reaction then, not realizing he might have a problem with her speed demon tendencies. It had come as a surprise to Abby, then, when Tim had practically hit the roof. She could still remember his tone of voice as he alternated between ranting over the ticket and scolding her for driving recklessly. His final words on the subject were just as clear in her mind.
"If I find out you've gone more than five miles over the speed limit again, Abby, you won't be sitting comfortably for a while."
There was no mistaking his threat. He was going to spank her, and it was going to be one hell of a spanking.
If only Abby could find a way to keep it from Tim. What he didn't know wouldn't hurt him, right? She could pay it off quietly, and he'd be none the wiser. All she had to do was figure out where to hide the actual ticket so he or anyone else wouldn't find it. She couldn't throw it away, of course, but if someone else were to find the ticket (such as Tony, Ziva, Palmer, Ducky, or cringe Gibbs), news would inevitably travel back to Tim. No one knew how to keep his or her mouth shut.
Abby thought about leaving the ticket in a drawer in her lab. No one dared to search the cabinets and drawers in her lab, not knowing what they might find and not brave enough to incur Abby's wrath at having her "space" messed with. However, Abby was going to have to pay for that ticket without anyone finding out, and leaving it in the lab would mean more time she'd have to carry it in her handbag or pocket and that meant a greater chance of someone seeing it. No, as protected as the ticket would be IN her lab, it would be far less protected in transit between her lab and her hearse.
…The hearse!
Of course! She would simply leave the ticket in her hearse… the glove compartment would probably be the safest place there. No one else ever rode in the hearse with Abby, and if Abby went anywhere with anyone, they always took their car. (Something about being seen in a hearse seemed to make people nervous… Abby thought it was rather silly.) Tim certainly never stepped foot in Abby's vehicle, so he'd have no occasion to find it there. It was perfect, really.
Relieved, Abby tucked the ticket neatly inside her glove compartment before grabbing her keys and handbag, sliding out of the hearse, and heading for the NCIS building and her lab.