Disclaimer: I don't own them, I just use them for my own entertainment.
Nestled in safe arms, the tiny child slept, her thumb tucked gently within her mouth, steady breaths causing her chest to rise and fall in a regular rhythm. She was unaware of the uproar her presence caused to the people around her, unaware of the world at this time, entranced in her dreams. The safest place this girl had.
"She's so cuuuute!" Abby's squeal was soft, measured so as not to wake the sleeping infant, though she couldn't resist stroking a gentle finger across the child's cheek, revelling at how vulnerable she seemed, how her maternal instincts jumped immediately, her first thought being to protect the tiny bundle.
"She's a child, not a plaything, Abbs." His voice was soft as he shifted the tiny girl, rocking her in his arms while she slept.
"Why did you bring her here, Gibbs?" the curiosity in her eyes was bright; her gaze soft as she watched the baby, knowing there would be a reason to her question. With Gibbs, there was a reason for everything, even if on some occasions it was merely 'because I said so'.
"She didn't have anywhere else to go." The ex-Marine answered flatly, pain evident in his voice. Whoever this child was, she was important to him, yet having her here was causing him pain.
"Where are her parents?"
"Dead."
"Who were her parents?" She knew that if Gibbs didn't want to answer, he wouldn't.
He answered simply again, emotion evident in his tone. "Family. That's all you need to know."
She blew a soft, frustrated breath past her lips, her hands automatically straying to her hips, an indignant look settling across her features, her lower lip peeking out slightly, a little girl pout being formed. "You bring me a baby and all you say is she's family? What am I meant to do with a baby?"
He could hardly resist her when she pulled that look, the little girl whose Daddy was being mean. But he shook his head anyway. "I'll tell you more, later. For now, look after her. Please."
Gibbs pushed the baby into her arms, brushing a stray lock of blonde hair away from the infant's closed eyes in a gentle gesture, then he turned brusquely, departed from her lab – leaving Abby in a situation she didn't enter often: alone with a child. Who of course chose that moment to awaken from her slumber and make her lung capacity known.