Title- Blissed Out
In Progress
Author- PTBvisiongrrl
Part- 1/3
Date- 7/19/12
Rating – M
Pairings/Characters- Abby/Tony/Gibbs, because I just can't help myself. So if slash or threesomes aren't your thing, don't read this.
Warnings- mature themes, language
Spoilers- None. Completely AU.
Disclaimers- Unfortunately, I don't own any of these characters, and make absolutely no profit from taking them out to play…
Author's Note: I know I have a gazillion unfinished stories out there, but the muse writes what the muse writes, sometimes. I know exactly where this one is going (SMUT) and will keep it short for me, to just three chapters. I will try and post a chapter a week.
Chapter 1
Abby knew it was a rookie move as soon as it happened.
In her rush to process the suspect's possessions—a suspect currently sitting in an interrogation room waiting to be broken by Gibbs- she was sloppy. She had whipped the plastic evidence bag out of the white cardboard box and didn't pay enough attention. In her defense, who put a bottle of hand sanitizer into an evidence bag without closing it first? Because the bottle had been open, and laying on its side, the contents had pooled in the evidence bag and slowly seeped out a tiny hole in the plastic. When she picked the bag up, it had oozed out.
And it spilled down her leg, bare beneath her usual short skirt, before she could stop it.
Cursing under her breath, and surveying the backed up evidence lining her lab table, all waiting to be processed for several hot cases, Abby sighed. Protocol said to shut the lab down, to take a de-con shower, and call someone in to analyze the liquid before continuing with any of the work she had piled up.
But it was just hand sanitizer, dammit, and she did not want to cause all that fuss for a stupid error on her part. There were some really bad guys out there that needed to be caught. Sniffing the goop, and reading the label, she really thought it was hand sanitizer, and decided to pull a Gibbs.
What was breaking one small rule, if it was for the greater good?
Following protocol enough to at least run a sample of it through Mass Spec, Abby washed the rest off her leg and dumped the trash into Bio-Waste. It took about fifteen minutes for her to realize her second big mistake of the day.
A slow burn had begun to build up in the muscle of her leg and flicker like a flame toward her body. At first she had written the sensation off as her mind playing tricks on her; when it didn't go away, she blamed it on her conscience chastising her for flaunting rules.
Then the tingle began low in her belly, the sense of being able to feel her blood flowing through her flesh, the mental rose-colored glasses slipping on. While all of these were familiar and usually welcome when they happened, they were most decidedly not welcome here, or now. And, checking the clock on the wall and calculating how fast this reaction was following exposure, she knew that she had to take action quickly before this situation progressed from simply "not good" to "really, really bad."
Calling Ducky on her cell-phone, she told him she was on the way to Autopsy and that she needed him to check something out for her. He, of course, immediately agreed. Locking the lab up behind her to preserve chain of custody, but leaving everything else as it was, she clutched the re-bagged, drug-laced sanitizer and impatiently slapped at the down button. As the elevator door finally swooshed open for her, she texted Tony to please meet her down in autopsy immediately.
~~~~~NCISNCISNCISNCISNCIS~~~~~
Ducky's exam only confirmed what Abby could already tell. Her body temperature was rising, and her heart rate was elevated. In addition, she was becoming extremely sensitive to touch and texture. The rough wool of her plaid skirt pressed against her heated flesh and the still-cool steel of Ducky's table was distracting and making it difficult to concentrate. The speed at which the side effects were kicking in—not the side effects themselves—troubled her.
She asked Ducky to draw blood, and Palmer to run it through Mass Spec. She didn't trust herself to set up the test to run properly, and she wanted to be sure to preserve this evidence in case it was needed, as much as she truly hoped it would not be. She did not want this one mistake to further damage her professional image in this office or to jeopardize her value as a forensics expert in court.
Ducky drew the blood quickly, handed it off, and sat back on his wheeled stool to study her intently. "Abigail, how did this exposure happen?"
Shaking her head so hard that the pigtails slapped against her head, she sighed. "I spilled a sample. I wasn't paying enough attention. I didn't think it was anything bad, and I wanted to finish my work."
"Abigail," Ducky's disapproval of ignoring protocol was clear in his tone of voice. "What was the sample?"
"It was in a hand sanitizer bottle. Looked like it, smelled like it, so I figured that's all it was." Abby crossed her arms and rubbed her hands up and down the skin exposed by her thin, cotton t-shirt. "I didn't think, I should have realized, he's a drug dealer and we've been trying to figure out how he was dosing the girls without them knowing it…I mean, its not just slipping something into their drink. If you can process the drug to a slightly different state, you can change the delivery system, and this was a brilliant way, I mean just use the hand sanitizer in front of the girl, offer it to her nonchalantly, she's not going to think twice, really. I mean, any guy using hand sanitizer and worried about germs has to be a decent guy, right, who wouldn't drug you?"
Ducky went to the sink to wet and wring out a towel, returning to place it on Abby's forehead. Her usual babble, he noted, had been intensified by whatever she had been exposed to. "So what drug is it, Abby?"
Gibbs came barreling through autopsy with Tony at his heels, looking highly concerned. "What drug, Abby?" Gibbs barked.
Abby shrieked in frustration. "Tony! Why did you bring Gibbs?"
Gibbs stopped in front of Abby, forcing her to meet his eyes with a finger under her chin when she wouldn't do it on her own. "As soon as he tried to go by himself, it was obvious you didn't want me here. That told me I needed to be here."
Oh, god, oh, god, oh, god… was all that Abby could think in that moment. She was too far gone already to be around those blue eyes and that commanding presence. Licking her lips, trying to speak, Abby only managed to get out, "Damn."
"What were you exposed to, Abs?" Gibbs began a visual check on her, turning to Duck when it was complete.
"She hasn't told me, Jethro," Ducky shook his head. "You interrupted my questions before I got an answer."
Throwing a beseeching look over Gibbs's shoulder at Tony, she tried to ask for help with her eyes, but Tony's forward motion was stopped by Gibbs's immovable force. The man had positioned himself between her legs, one hand on either side of her, and wasn't moving.
Abby found that she couldn't fight his demand. "I was working on your suspect's evidence, Gibbs. It was in a hand sanitizer bottle, so I'm not sure what it was. The tests are going to take a little bit—" was all she managed to get out through sheer force of will. Her words died off, though, as she was distracted by the proximity of Gibbs's mouth to her own.
Understanding dawned on Tony's face, and then horror, too. He full well knew what their suspect had been dosing female petty officers with. "How long ago were you exposed, and how long before you realized it, Abs?" Tony asked carefully. If it was what he thought it was, Abby needed to get out of here; he and Abby had gone clubbing—and had enough 'friends with benefits' sex afterwards—for him to be able to know when she would hit the bliss stage and for how long, as well as how quickly it would be followed by the horny-as-hell stage. He knew she would not want to be at NCIS when that happened.
"Fifteen minutes, give or take, from dose to effect." Abby mumbled. The designer ecstasy this dealer had used must be very highly concentrated, because it usually took over an hour for ecstasy to hit her. They were working on a very sharp and dangerous new timeline. By normal hour three she was usually aggressively looking for a hook up; by hour four, she was getting fucked hard by either Tony or a temporary stud for the night; and if it was a particularly strong dose, Tony and the temporary stud together.
That meant that she had about forty-five minutes, tops, before she would be uncontrollably hands-y, and an hour before she jumped someone's bones. She knew that Ducky would never sedate her, the only other option to get through this, without knowing precisely what she had been dosed with for fear of interactions. Tony had done the math quickly in his head as well, had come to the same conclusion she had, but he was able to avoid the hemming and hawing she was going through because she didn't want to tell Gibbs the truth. While Tony wasn't looking forward to the head slap that would be his shortly, nor the punch Abby would give him for spilling the beans later, he knew it had to be done.
He willingly took the bullet. "It was probably E, and its got to be a high dose and very powerful," Tony stated. "It normally takes a lot longer for her to feel it."
Gibbs eyes widened, and his head swung around to look at Tony as if Gibbs were possessed. "And exactly how do you know that, DiNozzo?"
Tony, foolish friend and brave man that he was, stood up to Gibbs's wrath for Abby's sake. Holding his ground, meeting Gibbs's eyes, he contritely said, "I know her timetable down to a five-minute window. I'll answer any questions that you have after she's worked it out of her system, at home. But she can't stay here."
"You better than an MD now, DiNozzo?" The hard tone made Abby cringe, but Tony didn't give an inch.
"Didn't say that, Boss," Tony moved a step closer and around Gibbs, to try and get to Abby. "But I know Abby. She doesn't want to be here when the full dose hits."
"I don't, Gibbs, I really don't," Abby added, her voice raspy. "I can't be here when it does. Please. Send me home with Tony, now."
"There's a story here, Abby," Gibbs ground out. "I want to know why—why do it at all, why do it with DiNozzo?" He turned back to her. "You broke 12 with him?"
"She did not," Tony tried to defend her but Gibbs wasn't biting.
"I am well aware of what E does, DiNozzo," Gibbs spat at him. "And there is no way I am sending you home with her now."
Abby gripped Gibbs's arm, hard. "Please, Gibbs, give me some dignity here. I feel stupid enough that I allowed myself to be exposed. I certainly didn't want to tell you why I know what this is, either. Don't make me suffer through it here, let people who already don't look at me like I'm a competent professional see me like this. Please. And if I go to the hospital, there will be an official record of my incompetence. I don't want that."
"Let Ducky give you something to help with the effects," Gibbs growled out.
"I can't do that, Jethro," Ducky regretfully shook his head. "Until we know the specifics, I'd consider any other drugs, prescription or not, too risky. Given the side effects of the drug, I would rather she did not go home alone, either. Someone needs to monitor her vitals, and if her body temperature, pulse, or blood pressure continue to rise, she WILL have to go to the hospital, no argument."
Abby felt Gibbs's hesitation through the slight tremor in his arm muscles, before he sighed and gave in. "Take her home, Tony. Check in with Duck every hour, and he has final say on any hospital visit."
Tony nodded, but Abby stopped him with her words. "Someone else has to come with us, Gibbs."
Tony would never have volunteered THAT information without asking Abby's permission; he had just assumed that he should stop and buy batteries on the way to her apartment and that he would be damn exhausted once babysitting Abby was over . On a good high, Abby needed more than one guy. Tony had no problems with that, especially when at least half the time the other guy ended up a girl. But Tony was Abby's go-to guy from work. There was no one else to send home with them. She wasn't interested in Ziva that way, and McGee was a barrel of entangling issue-monkeys she didn't want to handle, because just sex wouldn't be what McGee wanted.
Gibbs, well, Gibbs was Gibbs. As much as Abby lusted after the Silver Haired Fox, as did Tony, both of them also knew that Gibbs would never see them that way. That avenue wasn't even under construction. Who could she mean?
"What?" Gibbs asked.
Abby's hand had begun sliding up and down Gibbs's arm, and she was momentarily distracted by the smooth weave of his suit jacket. Once she could refocus, her answer was incredibly uncomfortable but honest. "This guy's drugs are awfully strong, Gibbs. I've never had anything work this fast." Pressing against Gibbs's broad chest and leaning in to smell Gibbs's unique coffee and sawdust scent, Abby whispered into his ear, "A really good batch, normal strength, and I'm insatiable. Just Tony isn't going to be able to handle this, Gibbs."
Gibbs's face had gone impassive. "Who?" he asked, voice low and tense.
Abby laughed, playing with Gibbs's lapel. "I don't want more people to know about this than have to, so it has to be someone from the team. McGee—this isn't something McGee can manage without causing more issues than any of us would like to have to deal with."
"Agreed," Gibbs nodded. He didn't need to deal with McGee afterwards. The boy loved Abby, and had finally gotten over her crushing of his heart and accepted that it was never meant to be. Gibbs didn't want McGee to have to go through all that a second time—nor did he want to have to deal with the boy acting like a love-sick puppy who had been kicked for endless months again.
"No offense, Ducky, but it isn't happening. It would feel…incestuous." Abby smiled weakly at Ducky, who did not, in fact, take any offense. He was just as weirded out at the thought as she was herself. Abby's hand had begun its lazy travels up and down Gibbs's sleeve again. "Jimmy is taken. I don't want to be the cause of any problems there. You know I like girls, too, Gibbs. I've never hidden that. Ziva will do what she has to for a mission. She just needs to think of sex with me like a mission. That's all it will be for me."
Tony saw the muscle twinge in Gibbs's jaw at Abby's words. He wondered if Abby even realized that she hadn't discounted Gibbs yet. Maybe she couldn't come up with a good-enough sounding reason in her quickly altering state.
"What about me?" Gibbs asked, his voice low and barely audible, even to Tony's excellent hearing.
Abby's breath caught in her throat, her eyes gone deer-in-headlights. "You are in the middle of an investigation. You can't leave NCIS."
Gibbs's stance slumped. The reaction was almost imperceptible, but Tony was studying their interactions closely enough that he didn't miss it. He wondered what it meant. "But my SFA and one of my agents can?"
"You are you, Gibbs!" Abby snapped, desperate to replace the idea of him going home with them in his head before it took over hers and made her do something she would regret more than what had already happened today. In a drug-induced frenzy, she knew that she would never be able to keep her true feelings about him hidden—and she was equally sure that he would not return those feelings. It would just make things…weird. "I know you and the job."
Gibbs's eyes softened. "You are more important. Ziva and McGee can handle the rest of the case for now. He's just going to lock-up for the night. We know we have the right guy now; building the case shouldn't be too difficult."
Abby closed her eyes, distracted by Gibbs's closeness and the sound of the lights overhead. "Yeah, I guess I am proof how he drugged those girls."
"This is not going into any official report, Abs," Gibbs sighed, wrapping his arms around her. "We bluff him. If he confesses, we don't need to tell anybody about this."
"But you'll know. You won't ever forget," Abby muttered, more or less to herself. "I didn't want you to know."
"I can tell," he said dryly, resting his chin against the top of head, he met DiNozzo's eyes. There was a hard set to them, brittleness Gibbs had never seen before. "I want to keep you safe, Abs. I'm not judging you."
Tony's voice cut through the quiet moment. "A minute, Boss. Alone."
Abby's eyes opened. "Tony, don't you dare talk about me behind my back!" She was worried what others of her secrets he might give away.
"Gibbs?" Tony questioned, tilting his head to towards the elevator and completely ignoring Abby's imploring look.
"I do need to finish my exam, Jethro," Ducky interrupted. "Why don't you and Anthony go talk? Abigail should be ready to go home by the time you come back."
The two men stepped out.
~~~~~NCISNCISNCISNCISNCIS~~~~~
Once the elevator doors had closed and the car began its ascent, Tony hit to stop button and turned to Gibbs. "You can't help her with this, Gibbs."
Immediately feeling his ire rise, Gibbs barked, "But you can? Rule 12 is there for a reason, DiNozzo. You think you can break it and then start telling me what to do about it?"
Tony sighed, looking at the ceiling. "Abby and I are not, have not, and never will be 'dating.' She's my best friend. She's also sexy and hot as hell, and likes to sleep with guys, no strings attached. She trusts me to watch her back when she can't do it herself."
Gibbs crossed his arms, waiting for more. "Sounds like 12 to me."
"12 is dating a coworker, if we go by the book. You've never phrased it any other way." Tony began pacing in the small space, nervous. "Abby and I talked about it, and decided what we do isn't against the rules."
"You were both wrong," Gibbs emphatically stated. "You shouldn't have gotten involved with Abby."
"We are not 'involved,' Gibbs. You can't tell me who to be friends with, and that is what Abby and I are," Tony barked back. "But I know how she gets when she's high on E, and I know how to take care of it, what she likes, what is too much. When she's high, she has no real control. She doesn't think through the consequences."
"I do know what the drug does, Tony," Gibbs leaned back against the shiny metal wall. "What's your point?"
"Its not just the sex." Tony rubbed his eyes, not sure how to make Gibbs understand without exposing things he had no right exposing. "Well, it is. She needs simple sex, a release from the drugs. She doesn't need a mind-fuck, and her sleeping with you will be a major mind-fuck."
Even Gibbs, the master of inscrutability, couldn't hide his angry reaction to Tony's words. "Didn't think sex with me would mentally scar her."
Tony could tell that this was more than protecting Abby, more than Tony having slept with Abby. When it dawned on him, he couldn't keep it to himself. "Oh my God, you are in love with her!"
Found out, finally, Gibbs didn't even try to defend himself or challenge Tony's statement. "She never knows, DiNozzo. An Agent Afloat posting to Antarctica doesn't even enter the realm of what I will do to you if she finds out."
Tony stared dumbly at Gibbs. "You are in love with Abby and you don't want her to know. Why the hell not?"
Gibbs sighed and ran a tired hand through his high-and-tight gray hair. "I don't want to have this conversation, DiNozzo," he stated, standing up and hitting the elevator button back on.
Tony smacked it back off, bathing them in shadows. "You have to tell her."
"No," Gibbs answered.
Tony crossed his arm and assumed his casual interrogation stance, blocking the off/on switch. "Why not? And I don't care that you don't want to have this conversation, because I certainly didn't want to have that one about me sleeping with Abby."
"Yes, I love her. No, I won't tell her." Gibbs tried to shove past DiNozzo to hit the button, but Tony was no lightweight. Unless Gibbs wanted to hurt him, Tony wasn't moving. Exasperated, Gibbs yelled, "It won't work between her and I, Tony, and I'd rather be her friend than not have her at all."
"Why wouldn't it work? She adores you, and you know it!" Tony yelled back.
"Three ex-wives don't tell you something about me and relationships?" Gibbs asked, turning from Tony to pace in the little bit of space left to him. "I am set in my anti-social, border-line alcoholic ways. I can't understand half of what she says to me. And I am old enough to be her father. I am the complete opposite of what she wants or needs."
"Needs, maybe," Tony agreed. "Wants, I have to argue that one—because I know she has feelings for you." Tony felt a moment of guilt for so easily diming Abby out, but only for a moment. After all, how many conversations had he and Abby had about this very possibility?
Gibbs looked at Tony in disbelief.
"She loves you," Tony shrugged. "She never thought you would feel the same, and she would rather have you as a friend than lose you altogether, too. You see how complicated this makes you two sleeping together."
"I can handle it. You keep your lips sealed." Gibbs reached for the switch, and this time Tony let him hit it back on.
"It wasn't you I was worried about, Boss," Tony muttered.
~~~~~NCISNCISNCISNCISNCIS~~~~~
By the time the two men made it back to autopsy, nothing much settled but secrets revealed, Abby was ready to head out, as Ducky has promised. "I have a bag of medication, IVs, and such that you might need, if we are to prevent a trip to the ER," Ducky added. "Check in with me every half-hour with her vitals."
"Thanks, Ducky," Abby smiled serenely at the older man as she slid down over the metal lip of the autopsy table and reached for Tony's hand. "Is Ziva meeting us in the garage?"
"Gibbs is going to go talk to Ziva and McGee right now, Abs," Tony answered. "Let's head to the garage and wait there."
Gibbs raised an eyebrow at Tony's misdirection, but Tony only shrugged. Tony knew it would be easier to tell Abby that Ziva wasn't coming back with them if Tony could get her into the car and somewhat distracted. Gibbs tossed Tony the keys to his truck, knowing that Tony always parked his latest "baby" in clear view of the cameras. Gibbs himself parked away from surveillance, some instincts too firmly engrained in him to break now. Easing Abby out the door, Tony took her to the lab to gather her things, allowing Gibbs to go deal with the team.
Fifteen minutes later, Tony had managed to subtly manhandle Abby—eluding her roving hands forcibly at one point—to Gibbs's truck. Her attention was so fixated on getting into Tony's pants that she didn't realize how much farther the walk to the car was compared to usual, nor did she realize that the car Tony pressed and kissed her senseless against was not green. She didn't comment on the huge step-up that was necessary to get in, either. Settling onto the passenger side of the bucket seat and pulling Abby into his lap, Tony attempted to keep her occupied and fully oblivious, leaning over to put the keys into the steering column while never letting go or stopping.