She'd noticed it within... god, the first six solid hours of working with the both of them. Not the oddly endearing sort of mental voodoo thing they did. Not the affectionate way they leaned closer and closer and playfully teased and touched and how in the hell was that fair? That Abby got smiles and kisses and caffeine as rewards and she got a brand spankin' new pile of paperwork to plod through?

(He liked to toy with her ego, play the 'but you're the profiler' card right before he dumped a stack of musty folders on her desk. Frankly, it was damn near as annoying as some of DiNozzo's lesser disturbing habits. Or, well, it would have been if he didn't always tip her a look that said he needed it done, fast and thorough and with some blindly infinite trust.)

Not that she was jealous... Sweet Christ, only a curmudgeon could be jealous of Abby's infectious and exuberant passion for what she did, for what all of them did.

Hell, maybe even a curmudgeon couldn't fault her.

Because even Gibbs liked to lean kisses on her cheek when she was especially brilliant.

It was the signing that caught her attention. The manual language, all tactile and silent in its tethering between the two of them. That's what made her a little jealous, actually. That Abby could fluently speak an entire language of words with the man she couldn't pry two or three complimentary comments out of on any given day. That he was perfectly comfortable sharing secreted silliness with the scientist right out in front of all of them, as if to remind them that he had so many secrets, so many facets, and so many parts that they just weren't privy to... that made her a bit jealous.

Because she'd wanted more and more and to know all of it from the beginning.

And the only answers she seemed to be able to find were in the indecipherable movement of his hands (which, were exceptionally gorgeous and strong if it came right down to it).


Pretty.

Yes. That was definitely 'pretty'.

She'd caught that one. She'd seen enough crappy late night television while folding laundry and trying to wind down from work. Gotten enough pop culture exposure to know that whatever movement Abby had circled around her face meant 'pretty'.

He'd just half smiled on a shrugging, head angled slightly downward as he'd made other motions before repeating the same one.

Pretty.

Kate frowned and lifted her glance toward the screen they were standing in front of, blinking as she silently studied the photo of the missing Petty Officer. Sure, okay... yeah, sorta pretty. In a very blonde and blue-eyed and corn-fed All American way.

Too not-a-redhead for him, too wholesome looking for Abby.

But if they were gonna just comment on the woman's looks she wasn't necessarily needed anymore.

"Kate?" Gibbs' was jerking his jaw higher as she started away from the both of them. "She's not done yet."

"I assumed I wasn't needed for this part."

Abby made a slowly seething noise through her teeth, matching the surprised smirk that Gibbs shot between the two of them.

And then he made two sharp motions with his hands in Abby's directions that made the scientist laugh and had Kate rolling her eyes.

"You guys know that's rude, right?"

"He just said you need more coffee." Abby turned back toward the screen with a jaunty nod. "Okay, so Petty Officer Latham's DNA carries a certain..."

He was still smirking at her even as she lost track of the other woman's commentary, his head turned back bemused by the prickly sharpness of her retort.

'What?' Kate mouthed defensively.

He shook his head minutely before giving her one brief sign, crooking his pointer finger near the corner of his smile and jerking it down before he swung his attention back into Abby's explanation of some evidentiary genetic miracle of blah, blah, blah...

She had no idea what he'd said and he damn well knew it.

She was hoping it was the sign for 'Insufferable Bastard'.


Tony's half leering smirk was bright with a kind of near knowledge, like he knew she was half hiding the book she was reading while they waited for Ducky. "Whatcha reading?"

She kicked farther back in the marginal space of the truck, shifting her feet to bridge up the space between where she was seated on the floor and the swung open door. "Mind your own business."

Like that'll work...

She caught the shift of his hand as he reached forward, slapping at it and catching his prying fingers up just before he could tug the book away from her. "DiNozzo! Back off."

She couldn't help but grin as Tony's body thumped forward a little, his shoulders crouching inward after a full strong palm had clapped against his back and jerked into his jacket. "Leave 'er alone, DiNozzo."

"I just asked a question." He let the older agent draw him farther out of the opening, his shoulders swinging around to lean up into the door as he flashed Gibbs a shrugging smile. "She's being antisocial."

"Yeah?" Gibbs turned a quick glance over the way she'd drawn her knees up, the book cradled into her lap, its cover hidden pressed into her thighs. "I wouldn't wanna socialize with you either. Go get more photos."

He jerked his head back toward the crime scene, impatience at Ducky's delay (and Tony's uninhibited boisterousness) starting to wear his age over his features. He watched the younger man move back in the direction they'd come from before turning an oddly quirked look over her. A blink led the tip of his head as he searched over the drawn up way she was sitting on the floor, her back to the storage bins as she fiddled against the edges of the pages.

"What?" She shrugged up into his quiet watching.

"You good?" Gibbs asked softly, the gentleness implying concern in his mild confusion.

She would have laughed if it hadn't seemed so sweet a pause, so generally uncharacteristic of him and with more trepidation than expected. It wasn't as though she hadn't read in front of them before – on planes, in the truck, at her desk, in Forensics while she waited for Abby to make a miracle... She figured it was probably the fact that she'd stowed herself quietly away in the back of the truck for some privacy while she'd worked her fingers through the symbols and signs that she was trying to memorize and why did they have to keep interrupting? Now she'd completely forgotten 'potato'.

Abby would have been able to teach her if she'd asked... But Abby would have told him.

(In a bidding war of affection between Anyone-Else and Gibbs, Abby would have sold souls for him.)

And then he'd know that she was so... interested.

She glanced down into the open pages of the book she had across her legs and nodded, peeking a glance back up to find him still watching her with a cautious concern, his eyes darker than normal as he tipped farther into the shadows of the truck.

"Studying." Kate glanced over the diagram images of the Sign Language guide before flicking a glance back up and nodding toward the door. "You need me to - "

"He's got it." He was already pressing away from the back of the truck, starting to turn as he dragged his glance from the mostly grasped up and hidden book. "Front and center when Ducky gets here."

She just smirked into the confusion that had stifled his normal smile. "I will be."


** 'Jealous'. He told her she was jealous.