I do not own anything of NCIS. If you would like to give me some feedback, I would really appreciate it. Enjoy :)

It's funny where our lives can take us. It's almost like we have control, and then, well, then we don't. Abby and Tim know far too much about this.

It was a regular day at NCIS, Abby was in her lab running finger prints, and Mcgee was in the bullpen doing a background check on a suspect. Gibbs peered up from his desk and cleared his throat, in a way that would catch most people's attention, but Mcgee didn't notice.

"Mcgee," Gibbs said, louder than his usual voice, but it wasn't like Mcgee was being quite as attentive as usual.

"Yeah boss?" Mcgee's eyes rose up to face Gibbs' stern face.

"I'd like you to go down to the lab and help out Abby for the day, I think you've been working yourself far too hard."

"Okay Gibbs, are you sure?" Mcgee questioned, even though he would love to spend the day with Abby, he just had to make sure.

"Tony and Ziva can handle work for today"

A small sigh came from Tony's direction, and Gibbs rolled his eyes.

Mcgee got up from his desk. As he walked past Ziva and Tony's desks, they both raised their eyebrows in jealousy, and then quickly went back to work.

*Ping* The music was blaring in Abby's lab, and as the elevator doors opened, Mcgee's eyes went straight to Abby's dress, she was typing away when she turned off the music.

"See something you like, Timmy?" She spun around gracefully, her pigtails were not so graceful though, they hit the sides of her face and she giggled. Mcgee walked up next to Abby, as she made a face Mcgee had never seen Abby make before.

"What's up Abs?"

"Oh, I'm just thinking.."

"About what?"

"Well, about what you would say if I asked you something…"

Mcgee stared at Abby contently, waiting for her to finish what she was about to say. She knew there was no turning back now.

"Well I've been wondering for a while whether,"

She turned towards Tim, her hands out in front of her chest, palms upwards. Tim took hold of her hands gently, and she carried on.

"Whether you still love me"

Those words ran through Mcgee's mind multiple times before he fully understood what she had just said. Of course he loved her, he loved her so much more than she could ever know.

"Abby, I've loved you since the first day I met you. I've been thinking the same thing, all this time I thought you had moved on from me."

Tears welled up in Abby's eyes. She stared at Mcgee, and then suddenly embraced him in the most heartfelt hug she had ever given. She pulled back, and with her hands on Tim's shoulders, she leaned in closer, nuzzled her nose next to Mcgee's, and gently kissed him on the lips. She pulled her head away, moved her hands up to Mcgee's neck, placing her fingers behind his ears.

"I love you Mcgee"

Then she kissed him again, this time he kissed back. They were stopped mid make-out session by the ping of the elevator, but before Mcgee and Abby could pull their hands away from each other, they were faced by Tony. Everything was suddenly silent, and Tony's expression was a mixture of confused and shocked.

"It's not what it looks like, Tony" Mcgee had said this really fast, like he thought that he had to quickly think up a way to cover it up.

Tony chuckled, he took 3 steps towards Mcgee and Abby, who were both standing separately now.

"Well, well, well, what have we got here? Hmm?"

"Tony, we were just-"

"Guys, I was kidding! Congratulations!" Tony said, his eyes lit up, he threw his arms up into the air and pulled them both into a hug.

"I knew you two loved each other!"

Mcgee and Abby were both blushing, and Tony knew that this wasn't the ideal way for him to find out, but it was too late now.

"Ahh, my little lovebirds, how long has this been going on for?" Tony was ecstatic, of course. He'd been waiting for this.

"Well, it only just happened now…" Abby said, staring at the ground.

Tony Tilted up Abby's head playfully, and nudged Mcgee in the shoulder with his knuckles.

"Well I'll leave you two to it, but you've also got work to do."

Tony turned around, and picked up the box of evidence that was at the elevator, placed it on the table, and left.

Mcgee and Abby got back to work. Abby ran an analysis on a bloodied swab, and Mcgee was researching where the exact model of the murder weapon could be bought online. They both turned to each other, and said at the exact same time, "What do we do now?" They smiled at the way they knew what each other were thinking, but then they became serious again.

"I really don't know."

"Are you changing your mind Timmy?" Abby said, resting her hand on his shoulder.

"Of course not, it's just that, well, how are we going to tell Gibbs?"

"Well, I thought maybe we could wait a couple weeks, you know? Get settled and then we can find an appropriate time to tell him, but for now, we can't let him know."

"I sort of think that he set us up, he insisted that I spend the day with you, and well, Tony didn't whine as much as usual"

"Even if he did set us up, I think we need to wait, but that won't change anything, I promise to make this work"

"Me too Abby, me too"

They hugged for what felt like forever, and they both didn't want to let go.

It was the day after the two had officially got back together, and Mcgee was in an especially good mood.

"You seem very happy today Mcgee, it's refreshing to see someone who's not grumpy" Ziva proceeded to tip her head in the direction of Gibbs, who had been reading at the time.

"I heard that, Ziva" Gibbs said, without even looking up from his book.

"Sorry Gibbs, I uh, I did not think you could hear, I did not mean to offend you" Ziva looked down at her desk, but slowly looked back up towards Mcgee, and snuck him a cheeky smile.

Tony got up and yelled to Gibbs, "Ah, boss? Mcgee and I are going to go and check how Abby's going with those fingerprints."

Tony pulled Mcgee towards the elevator, so they were both inside and out of ears reach.

"How are things going with Abby?"

"Everything's going great, we IM'ed for 3 hours last night"

"Mcgee! I didn't need to know THAT!"

"No, it's not what you're thinking, IM'ing is just chatting online, its short for instant messaging."

"Oh, right, yeah I knew that… Anyway, have you told Ziva?"

"You didn't tell her?" Mcgee was thinking about how strange this was of Tony, he was being… polite.

"It wasn't my secret to tell I guess."

"Gee Tony, you've been really good with this."

"What are friends for?" Tony flashed Mcgee his brightest smile, as the elevator stopped at Abby's lab.

*Ping* The doors of the elevators opened slowly. But suddenly Mcgee's brightened mood was shattered. Tony and Mcgee stared in shock at Abby. Everything started spinning as Tony and himself ran to Abby's unconscious body. Tony felt for her pulse, and Mcgee was trying to wake her. "please wake up! Abby, please." Mcgee pleaded. Tony noticed a puddle of water on the ground, and he looked up higher and saw a tipped over beaker on Abby's lab table.

"Tim, she slipped over, check her for any head injuries."

Tim lifted Abby's head gently, and gasped as he spotted a deep cut in her head.

"Tony, look" Mcgee said, his voice was strained as he fought back tears.

Tony cursed under his breath. "We got to call Ducky and Gibbs."

Tony and Mcgee both pulled out their phones, Tony called Gibbs and Mcgee called Ducky.

Gibbs ran out of the stairway door and next to Abby's side.

"How on earth did this happen?" Gibbs was mad, but Tony and Mcgee were feeling mad too.

"We only just got here, she was just lying on the floor, she's got a big gash at the back of her head." Mcgee had said, looking at Gibbs and Tony and then back to Abby.

One minute later Ducky was at the lab with his medical bag. "My, what's happened to our poor Abby?" Ducky looked down at her and the small pool of blood under her head, he also saw Gibbs holding Abby's hand tightly. He was whispering to her too, begging her to wake up, to move, anything.

Ducky kneeled down next to Abby, and started evaluating her condition. He wrote down on his notebook every bruise, every cut, her heart beat, and her pulse was recorded. He gently lifted Abby's head to place a folded piece of some sort of fabric, to stop the bleeding. He then opened the lids of her eyes and flashed a torch in her eyes. There was no response. She was certainly unconscious. But there was a chance of underlying brain injury, and they all knew it.

Before Ducky came to look over Abby, Gibbs had frantically called an ambulance and they had just arrived. They put Abby on a stretcher, and everyone joined them in the elevator. Ducky gave his findings to the older paramedic, and Tony and Mcgee explained the story of what had happened to another younger paramedic.

Abby was in the ambulance now. But she wasn't out of the clear. Gibbs was the only person allowed to accompany Abby in the back of the Ambulance, and the rest of the team hopped into a car and followed as best they could.

"I should be with her!" Mcgee was frantic, and Ziva was trying to calm him down.

"It is going to be okay Mcgee, it wasn not your fault" Ziva had said, rubbing his shoulder.

"But we couldn't help her, we couldn't. I should be with her to hold her hand and now-"

"Mcgee, There's nothing we can do about that, we can't let Gibbs know."

Tony passed a backwards glance at Mcgee, Ziva and Ducky. Shit, he thought, that gave it away. Ziva, Ducky and Jimmy all turned to look at Mcgee and Tony.

"What exactly can't Gibbs know?" Ziva had turned towards Mcgee suspiciously.

"Well, this wasn't exactly the way we planned it, but okay. Me and Abby are dating."

There was only silence in the car, and then there was some congratulations, some very serious congratulations, to be exact.

"Wait, how did Tony, why did Tony know before us?"

"Well, Abby and I were kiss-"

"I caught them kissing in Abby's lab yesterday, it's a pretty funny story actually" Tony interjected.

"It is really not the time for "funny" stories" Ziva stared at him.

"Look guys, we can't be fighting right now, we have to all be strong for Abby, she wouldn't want us to be fighting." Palmer had said.

This was something they all could agree on.

The ambulance had got to the hospital faster than Tony and the rest of the team. They all got out of the car and met up with Gibbs and followed behind the rushing paramedics into the hospital, and then through the doors of intensive care. The team were not allowed to be with her Abby while the doctors and nurses worked on her, so they all went to the waiting room.

Gibbs had a coffee, Mcgee was pacing up and down, and the rest of the team had settled down into some chairs reading whatever was available, pamphlets, magazines, and newspapers. Jimmy looked up towards Gibbs and Mcgee.

"I hope she's going to be alright." Jimmy said, then he looked back down at the pamphlet he was holding.

"We all do, Jimmy. But we're not going to know how badly she's injured until the doctors are done."Ducky said Calmly, but no one in that waiting room was actually calm. Everyone had thoughts on how they could have prevented this from happening. They all loved Abby, and Abby loved all of them.

Suddenly Gibbs' phone rang and snapped them all out of silence.

"Director?"

"Gibbs, any updates on Abby?"

"No not yet, but it doesn't look good." Gibbs turned away from everyone and walked a little further towards the hallway.

"Give her my best, I'll call later for an update."

Gibbs shut his phone and turned back around to face the team. Then he took a seat next to Tony and put his face into his palms. How could this happen? Abby was the closest thing he had to a daughter, and now she was in danger.

Two hours after all of this, a nurse came out of intensive care to give an update. "We've stabilized her, took her in for an MRI, stitched up the cut, she's all fine. You can go and see her now, but I'd prefer that you try not to ask her too much, she's very exhausted and groggy. We'll be moving her out of intensive care in a couple hours, so be aware that tomorrow she won't be here, you'll have to see the ladies at the front desk"

Everyone immediately stood up to go and see Abby. Ziva thanked the nurse on her way into the room with everyone else.

"Hello Abby" Gibbs was first in the room, he was by her side straight away, and he reached out to stroke her arm. Mcgee and Tony were next in line to gather around Abby, then Ziva, Jimmy and Ducky. They all stared for a while as Abby looked around.

"I'm so glad you're he-here." Abby slowly blinked and lifted her arm to touch her stiches.

Ducky reached for her arm and placed it back into Gibbs hands.

"You must not touch those stitches yet Abby."

"I- I have stitches… cooool." Abby said slowly.

Ziva fixed Abby's messy hair away from eyes.

"You can go back to sleep now Abby." Ziva said with a smile. It was nice to see everyone happy and smiling.

Abby's head lolled to the side as she fell asleep and let go of Gibbs' hand.

It was late, so everyone left Abby in the hands of the nurses and went back to NCIS, got into their own separate cars and went home.

The next day, everyone, minus Abby, turned up for work as usual. Today was a slow case, Ducky and Palmer had a few bodies to autopsy today though.

Two hours into work, Gibbs got a phone call from the hospital.

"Hello, I'm Catherine, Abby's nurse for today. I was told to give you a call when Abby was relocated out of intensive care. You can find her in room 75, on the 3rd floor."

"Okay thanks, my team and I will be there to see her soon"

"Okay, thank you."

Gibbs hung up his phone and took the car keys from his desk drawer. He headed towards the elevator, before he pressed the button, he turned around towards Mcgee, Tony and Ziva. They stared at him like lost puppies.

"Well what are you three waiting for? An invitation?"

The three of them rushed from their desks and into the elevator with Gibbs.

Half an hour later, Gibbs Tony, Mcgee and Ziva were by Abby's side. Today was different though. Abby was in her hospital bed, reading a magazine when the team walked in.

"Hi guys!"

They all smiled.

"How are you feeling?" Tony asked Abby.

"I'm feeling better, you wanna see my stitches?"

Before they could answer, she had tilted her head down so the stitches were visible. At that moment, Tony and Ziva left, not wanting to admit that the sight of Abby's stitched up skin had made them nauseous.

"There's 14 stitches in total. My nurse said I was lucky to have been asleep while they did it" Abby smiled at Gibbs and Mcgee.

*beep beep* Gibbs had an incoming call on his mobile, so he left the room to answer it.

"Abby, I know this is early," Timothy held Abby's hand.

"I think it's time to tell Gibbs that we're dating."

"You know what, I think that's a good idea."

"So we'll tell him?"

"Yep."

It was settled, Abby and Mcgee were going to tell Gibbs. Mcgee kissed Abby, and she hugged him.

Straight after they let go, Gibbs walked in. "Good timing" Mcgee said under his breath, and Abby giggled.

"What's going on?" Gibbs was more curious than demanding, but the question had to be answered.

"Gibbs, we have something to talk about." Mcgee looked towards Abby.

"Gibbs, don't get mad, but me and Mcgee are dating." Abby reached for Mcgee, and he smiled and held her hand.

They both looked up at Gibbs, not knowing what Gibbs' next move would be.

"Puppy love" Gibbs smiled.

"What?" Abby and Mcgee said in unison.

"I said puppy love. You look after her Mcgee."

"Wait, so you don't care?"

"Nope."

But what about rule-"

"Every rule has an exception."

That was it. He didn't care. No yelling, no stern wisdom. Abby and Mcgee turned to each other, they both had the biggest smiles on their faces, and that was the way it should be.