The transcript grew heavier and heavier in her hands as she stared down at it with tears in her eyes and fearful regret in her stomach. There was no music screeching throughout the lab and Bert the Hippo lay discarded, dramatically splayed on his side. A single tear forced its way out of its watery cage and splashed upon the condemning ink. Watching it dry, Abby found her will to live seep away with it. She'd never failed a class in her entire life. Not a one. Let alone five classes. Worrying her lip, she felt panic well up inside her like a straining dam. Working through the entire, wretched scenario in her head, the first of what would be many sobs ripped from her throat. Gibbs was going to kill her. It had all started so promisingly, and had ended so heinously. The Agency had initiated a new upskilling drive, targeted specifically at ancillary resources. She had been selected to receive an entirely free, intensive, six month crash course in new haematology identification methods. At NYU's Grad school no less. The only catch, it would obviously involve a leave of absence that would have to be authorised by her supervising agent.
Gibbs had been reluctant. He'd been very reluctant indeed. In fact, he'd flat out forbidden it.
He had hummed and hawed. It was too dangerous in New York, and it was too far away. The crime rates there were sky high. The student accommodation on offer was far from secure and involved a common room full of chronically drunk twenty-something's. Moreover, how would they cope without her for six months? But Abby had pleaded and wheedled with him, citing the progression in her education as being an utterly invaluable tool and how an intensive semester at NYU would be a challenge she had been lacking for a long time. After a week of near tearful pleading, he had relented. But on a series of stringent conditions. The most non negotiable being that she was to be safe and sensible at all times and that she apply herself to her fullest potential. Gibbs had warned her that she wasn't getting a six month break from work to go off and live a carefree grad school life. An initial consultation with the course head had assessed Abby's ability as an across the board A student, provided she put the work in.
They had both agreed that her grades were never to go below a B, at the very least.
That hadn't concerned Abby much, if at all at the time. She had always been an A student, with very little effort. Her intelligence was the only thing that matched her quirkiness in intensity and academics had come as naturally to her as walking. So she had squealed with joy when she'd agreed to Gibbs' conditions and flung her arms around his neck, suffocating him with glee. And then she'd arrived full of anticipation at the gates of NYU, fully expecting to rock it. Diligence had also come easy to her at school and college and so she'd had no qualms in applying herself during her short stint at grad school. But then, life had happened. Continuing to stare in horror down at her transcript, Abby couldn't quite believe just how very hard life had happened. Her first week, she'd been a model student. She'd gone to every class, completed every reading. But then she'd gradually gotten to know the people in her class, the extremely likeminded people. She loved Gibbs and the team, of course she did. But besides Tim, none of them really got her and how exciting she found all things science.
But it was so different at NYU.
So they'd all started hanging out. They'd started hanging out a lot. Somehow, along the way, classes had seemed easy to skip with all the intentions of making them up. Somehow, along the way, assignments seemed non-urgent, easily redeemable over a crash-cram weekend. Somehow, along the way, she had entirely screwed herself in a haze of late night dancing and copious, potent tequila. So much so, that when it came to finals week, she hadn't the foggiest clue of anything. Her base knowledge of haematology was far from sufficient to carry her through the intense exams and she had bombed every single one like a nuclear combustion. Of course she had known she'd flunked the course, but she still after arriving back home, held out tentative hope that she had scraped through. It had been just a week in between arriving home and the dreaded mail she clutched, but it had felt like an eternity.
Lying straight to Gibbs' face always felt like an eternal moment.
Her warning alarm system suddenly triggered and she jolted to her senses. Stuffing the transcript under a pile of files she held her breath as Gibbs himself swept into the lab, dropping a kiss on her head and a Caf-Pow into her hands. "Hey Abbs, I know it's early but any chance you got something for me? We've backed into a brick wall upstairs and if I have to confiscate one more elastic band ball from DiNozzo because he has no leads, I will take it apart and strangle him with it." He paused then and seemed to just notice Abby's red face and watery eyes. He instantly cupped her chin in his hand and adopted a much more gentle tone. "Abbs? Have you been crying? What's the matter?" She looked up at him with an impossible guilt and fear icing in her veins and nodded before intending to nod, lying before intending to lie.
"What? Oh no, I'm fine. It's just…you know, that uhh time of the month, and what not."
Gibbs stared in confusion for a moment, before dropping his hand. His face took on a moderately scarlet hue as he nodded with a clearing of his throat. "Oh, yeah, ok. Of course." He looked desperately around the room for motivation before scrubbing a hand across his eyes. "Can I get you a hot water bottle?" She stared at him, wondering if it was physically possible to die from guilt and hoping that if it was, it happened quick. Shaking her head violently and hoping he would let the matter drop, a small droplet of relief dripped down when he did just that, looking just as relieved as she felt. "So, do you? Have anything for me on the case? I'm losing my mind up there." Staring blankly for a moment, Abby jerked-to. "Uhh, no. Not yet. I'm running tests now on the fibres you pulled from the trunk, but it doesn't look promising."
He nodded, having expected as much.
"Ok," he sighed. "Let me know when you have something, your friends lives depend on it." He grinned, making her sick with regret. "But no pressure." Pressing another kiss on her head and tucking her under the chin, he strode from the room before pausing in the door, stricken by a sudden thought. "Abbs, I signed for that courier mail for you. The mail kid said he'd bring it down. Was it your school results? I wanted to bring you out for a nice dinner to celebrate when you got them." Closing her eyes briefly and wishing a lightning bolt would strike her down, she made a decision that she didn't really put any thought into. Her instinct of self preservation was overriding her moral compass as he shook her head in the negative. "No Gibbs," she lied in a croaking voice, that he sympathetically attributed to her…business, "Nothing yet. I'll let you know when they arrive. But there might be no need for a celebratory dinner." She laughed then, a sort of hysterical coughing chuckle. "Maybe I failed everything, there'd definitely be no dinner then right?" Gibbs shook his head with a grin, pride blossoming in his gut as he strode out with a parting comment.
"You? Fail? C'mon Abbs, be serious. Your brains and hard work will have you at that the top of that class, you mark my words. Good hard work always pays off and I'm proud of you, kid."
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A/N: Random two/three-shot.
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