In honor of Sean Murray FINALLY signing his contract this week (yayayay! Multiple more seasons of my favorite cast! Now, writers, just keep giving them good stuff...) here's a little McGee-centric piece I've been tweaking for a while.

The scene I've always wanted to see from "Friends and Lovers" (aka How McGee Ended Up at One Club), plus some extras. With a teensy smidge of McGee/Abby for good measure. :-)

(P.S. - whoever nominated my two stories for the NCIS Fanfiction Awards over at LiveJournal, thanks! I really appreciate it. And everyone should go check them out, and nominate stuff you like, and vote once the voting gets started!)

"McGee."

McGee looked up from his computer. "Yeah boss?"

Gibbs was studying him with an expression that made him slightly nervous. "Exactly how famous is 'Thom E. Gemcity'?" He placed an ever-so-slight sarcastic emphasis on the pen name.

"Uh…" McGee glanced quickly at Ziva, who shrugged microscopically – she didn't know where Gibbs was going with this one. "It depends on whether you're talking to people who read."

"You got a..." Gibbs waved vaguely, "publicity…manager? Something like that?"

"The publisher assigned me a publicist. He arranges signings, one or two interviews, stuff like that. Why?"

Gibbs leaned back in his chair. "So he might have connections then. How about getting Mr. Gemcity into a very exclusive club?"

The light was beginning to dawn. "…possibly…" McGee answered slowly.

"I think Thom E. Gemcity would enjoy a night out at One Club. He might want to give his publicist a call." McGee stared at him for a second. "Now, McGee!"

Twenty minutes later, McGee hung up his phone. "Well, he thinks he managed to get me on the list. Hopefully the guy at the door has read Deep Six. He said as many…attractive…women as I could take along would help."

"Ziver," Gibbs said without looking up from the file he was reading.

Ziva sighed and rolled her eyes. "I'll go change. Do we have anyone else?"

McGee looked at his watch. "It's late…I don't know who's still here. Do we have time to call anyone?"

"Take me!" Abby rounded the corner, her eyes wide with excitement. "I've got a dress in my car, I can be ready in fifteen minutes. Please can I go?"

Gibbs frowned at her. "Abby, this isn't a social outing. If things don't go well, it could get dangerous."

She sighed. "Come on, Gibbs, I'll be with Ziva and McGee. And it's not like they're going in there to shoot the place up. They're just going to find the girl and grab her, right? So I'm just, like, window dressing. It'll be fine."

He studied her for a minute, and then gave a curt nod. "Fine. But only because it's an emergency. And –" he shifted his gaze to McGee "– if anything happens to her I will be holding you personally responsible."

McGee swallowed nervously. "Yes, boss."

But Gibbs' attention was already elsewhere. "Lee!" he barked, and a startled-looking Agent Lee halted in her slightly furtive progress towards the elevator.

"Yes si- Agent Gibbs?" she said nervously.

"Go with Ziva and Abby. Get changed. You're part of Gemcity's escort."

Michelle blinked and looked bewilderedly from one person to the next. "Um…"

Abby laughed. "C'mon, I'll explain on the way," she said, linking her arm through Lee's and steering her away from the elevator. "Coming, Ziva?"

"Right behind you," Ziva responded, grabbing her gun out of her desk drawer.

Gibbs glanced over at McGee as he picked up the phone. "Think three will do it, Mr. Gemcity?"

"Hope so," McGee said, retrieving his own weapon. "Who're you calling, boss?"

"Getting you a car. Get yourself changed, McGee, I want you all ready to go in thirty minutes."

When McGee walked into the garage, it was empty except for a long black limo. Nice, he thought appreciatively, and decided that while he really didn't want to be a full-time celebrity, he might as well enjoy this while it lasted.

"Whoah," came Abby's voice from behind him. "Sweet ride, Mr. Gemcity."

He glanced over his shoulder and did a double take. Black dress, black hair, white skin, red lips, and about five miles of leg.

He was…used to her. She was one of his best friends, they could finish each other's sentences with alarming regularity, and almost nothing she did shocked him any more – which, with Abby, was saying something.

And yet, every once in a while, he looked at her and everything about her caught him in the gut like a sucker punch. "Nice," he managed after a bout of throat-clearing.

Abby grinned. "Thanks," she said, crossing over to him and adjusting the scarf around his neck. "You're looking pretty nice yourself."

"You just happened to have that dress in your car?" he asked curiously.

"I was supposed to go out to dinner with some friends tonight, but this sounded way more interesting," she told him. "And kind of more important, you know, with the whole murder aspect and everything."

The elevator doors slid open and Gibbs entered, followed closely by Ziva and Michelle, both dressed to the nines. McGee wondered briefly why, since he actually was a famous novelist, more of his evenings didn't go like this. "Earwigs," Gibbs said shortly, tossing him a couple of boxes. Ziva and Michelle were already putting theirs in. "Abby too."

Abby made a face. "I hate those things."

Gibbs gave her a look that said if she argued, she wouldn't make it out of the garage, and she sighed and opened up the box, inserting the tiny earbud.

"Strictly low profile," Gibbs instructed them as they slid into the back of the limo. "Get in, see if the girl's there. And you," he pointed to Abby, "are stuck to him like glue."

"Yes sir, Special Agent Gibbs, sir!" Abby said with a mock salute.

Judging by the way Gibbs slammed the car door shut, he didn't find it particularly amusing.

They'd managed to get a spot near the bar and Ziva was finishing up her first sweep of the club – slightly hampered by the number of men intent on hitting on her – when Gibbs' voice came in their ears. "Out back," he said, sounding tired. "We've got her."

They stood at the top of the stairs for a moment, looking over the three dead bodies in the alley. Ziva went to where Tony stood over John, resting her hand on his shoulder and asking him a question. McGee saw Tony's lips shape the word "Fine," but Ziva didn't move her hand immediately.

Abby was still stuck to him like glue, but not because of Gibbs' orders. She wasn't the type to avoid the sight of the bodies, but she squeezed his arm a little tighter. "He was a nice guy," she said softly.

"Yeah, he was," McGee responded.

"Could've been Tony." She was cutting off his circulation, but he didn't pull away.

"It wasn't," he told her instead. "He's fine."

"Could've been Gibbs. Or Ziva. Or Lee," Abby continued, glancing to where Michelle stood a few steps away. "Or you," she finished, her voice almost inaudible.

"But it wasn't," he said again, despite the fact that it was what he was thinking himself. It was what he always thought in situations like this. "It wasn't," he repeated, as much for his own benefit as for hers.

"McGee! Lee! Get down here." Gibbs' voice was sharp and angry, but the anger wasn't directed at them. McGee finally dislodged his arm gently from Abby's grip, stuffed his scarf in his pocket and shrugged out of his coat, wrapping it around her shoulders. "I've got to go start processing, okay?" he said, getting a good look at her face. A little shaken up, he decided, but not too bad. "Ducky and Palmer should be here soon for the bodies. You can get a ride back with them." He stopped and thought about what he'd just said. "With Ducky and Palmer, I mean, not the – well, I guess the bodies will be there too, but that's not what –"

At least it got him a smile. "I know what you meant," she said, pulling his coat closer around herself. "Go to work, I'm fine."

"It would make a good book," he said thoughtfully, and immediately knew it had been a mistake.

Ziva's withering look and the boot to the arm merely confirmed it.

He decided to try and redeem himself. "So, since you two are already all dressed up…how about a drink? And maybe dessert. On me. To thank you for managing to make me look like someone who belonged at One Club."

The two women looked at him speculatively. "You realize he probably just wants people to think that he's a big shot with women hanging off of him," Abby told Ziva, who narrowed her eyes.

"True, but he did make himself useful tonight. And he is buying."

Abby grinned. "Okay, but I say we get to pick where we're going. Think Thom E. Gemcity's publisher can get us in anywhere special?"

McGee felt his – or rather, Thom E. Gemcity's – credit card wince in anticipation, and then decided it was worth it to spend Valentine's Day with his two favorite women.

Speaking of women… "Where's Lee? We should invite her."

Ziva rolled her eyes. "I think she ran off to see if Palmer is 'working late' tonight. Probably wanted to show him her outfit. Honestly, who do those two think they are fooling?"

McGee blinked. "Lee and Palmer?"

"I know!" Abby said. "They're about as subtle as a couple of rabbits."

"Wait," McGee said, trying to catch up. "Jimmy Palmer. And Lee?"

Abby gave him a patient look. "Hi McGee. Welcome to the conversation. Lee and Palmer? Totally doing it."

He turned to Ziva, who nodded in confirmation. McGee mentally rearranged a few pieces of his world, and then decided to move on. "Anyway. Shall we head out? We can stop at my desk to grab my keys, and you two can decide where we're going on the way." He stood and offered one arm to each of them.

The girls smiled at each other, and managed to land simultaneous kisses on both of his cheeks as they laced their arms through his.

All in all, he decided, not a bad ending to his Valentine's Day.

FIN