Acanthostichus arizonensis

Summary: When the team is sent across the country they find unexpected confessions outside the interrogation room. Zabby.

Chapter 1

"Abby." Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs spoke behind said girl.

Forensic scientist Abigail Sciuto jumped. "Gibbs! I swear you're like a ninja sometimes." Something red catches her eye. "Ooh, yay! You brought me a Caf-pow! You never bring me one when there's no case." She took a sip as Gibbs turned around and headed towards the door.

"Come on, we haven't got all day, Abs." He spoke loudly from the hallway.

Abby got a quizzical look before she followed him outside her lab and into the elevator.

"Do you know what's going on Tony?" Special Agent Timothy McGee asked.

"Why would I know, probie?" Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo asked, somewhat annoyed.

"Well you are the one who keeps ragging about being senior field agent." Special Agent Ziva David stated with a smirk.

"Bragging, Ziva." Abby smiled stepping beside the Israeli. Ziva flashed a quick smile back.

"Boss, what are we-"he got suddenly head slapped.

"Got a dead marine in Washington. Pack your bags and report back here at 1530." He took a sip of his coffee, threw it away, and walked out.

"This is Washington, is it not?"

"State, Zee-Vah, Washington state." Tony said and left the bullpen behind McGee, complaining about the needless head slap.

"Well, that explains this." Abby lifted up her Caf-Pow. "Do you think he meant me too?" She asked to no one in particular.

"Well of course Abigail. Why else would you be brought up here?" Dr. Donald 'Ducky' Mallard said.

"Makes sense, but I won't be of any use without my lab.

"I am sure Gibbs has already thought of that. There is most likely a lab over there you can use, yes?"

"Yeah, good point, Zee." Abby took a rather large sip, grinned, and then left with a bye to the both of them.

"Uh, boss, why are we going there? There are closer NCIS agencies."

"Our team was requested by the wife, McGee."

"Why?"

"Does it matter?" He gives him 'the Gibbs look'. McGee shook his head and looked away.

XXXXX

"American Airlines flight 1301 is now boarding rows 30-40." The intercom boomed. They all stood up and headed for the already forming line.

"Abby? What is the matter?" Ziva asked.

Abby's head shot up from its fixated position towards the ground. "Huh? Noth- nothing's wrong. I'm fine. I'm better than fine. I'm… fine and dandy." She let out a nervous laugh.

Ziva gave her a non-believing look before she had to show her ticket and board the plane.

"Jethro, do you mind if I have the window seat?" Ducky asked as he put his bag in the overhead compartment. "There is an interesting story about how windows on airplanes came about, you see…"

"Abby sit, I will put your bag up here." She took the bag from the scientist. Abby plopped down in the middle seat. "Hmm… I had you pigged as a window seat type of girl."

Abby gave Ziva a nervous-shy smile before replying. "Pegged. And I'm kinda afraid of flying."

"You, Abby? You sleep in a coffin and drive a hearse." She said in a disbelieving tone as she took a seat next to the window.

"Well, when I was five, Uncle Fred took me and my cousin Alex on a trip to Disneyland. On the way there it was really turbulent and the plane got struck by lightning. We fell for like 600 feet. I've been afraid of flying ever since."

"Why did you not say so before?"

"Well, I'm embarrassed to tell you something like that."

"Me? Why?"

"Seriously? You're Ziva! You were trained to kill! You're not afraid of anything and I thought that if I told you I was afraid, you'd make fun of me, like you would to McGee."

"Hey!" McGee said, insulted, next to Abby.

"Sorry Timmy, but it's true. Right Ziva?" Abby asked.

She laughed. "Yes. But I would never make fun of you, Abigail."

Abby froze, suddenly struck with an intense feeling. She had never heard someone say her full name so… beautifully before.

"Abby?" Ziva leaned a little towards her, worried at the silence that overcame the normally talkative girl.

Said girl snapped back to reality. She blushed at the close proximity of the other girl. "Oh! Uh… sorry, I just kinda spaced out a little."

Ziva smiled, then leaned back into her seat and looked out the window. "And that is not true… about me not being afraid of anything."

"Wha-" Abby started but got cut off by the intercom.

"This is your captain speaking. Please be sure your seats and trays are in the upright and locked position. We will be landing in Seattle in approximately four hours and forty-five minutes. Please buckle your seatbelts and remain seated until the indicator light is off. Enjoy your flight."

As the plane started to taxi down the runway, Abby's nervousness grew. She scooted closer towards Ziva, reached out and hugged the Israeli's arm close to her. Ziva tensed up and Abby pulled away with a pink tint to her cheeks. "Oh! I'm sorry I don't even know what I was doing, I jus-"

"It is fine, Abby. You surprised me, is all." She said then, blushing, offered her arm to Abby.

"Thanks, Zee." She smiled and hugged the given arm tighter.

"It is not a problem." Ziva smiled back.

"Psst… Probie." Tony whispered from the seat across the aisle.

"What?"He looked towards him.

"You seein' what I think I'm seein'?" he points to the girls.

"If you are seeing a scared Abby being comforted by Ziva, then yes."

"If I weren't buckled in I'd head slap you right now. You gotta look closer. The smiles, blushing. C'mon I'm all the way over here and I can feel the sexual tension."

"That's because you are still stuck in frat boy mode, Tony. Everything is surrounded in that to you. And just a warning, I wouldn't let Ziva hear what you are saying if you value your life."

"Would not let me hear what, McGee?"

"Uh… Ask Tony. I'm not getting in the middle of this."

"Tony?" She said as she looked over at him testily.

"Uh… Boss! What are we gon-"he looked behind Ziva and saw Gibbs asleep. He paled and tried to think of a way to diffuse the very dangerous situation he put himself in when a ding signaled the seatbelt light being turned off.

"You are in luck, Tony. I need to use the restroom. You should find a way to pass the time that does not involve digging your own grave, yes?"

Tony breathed a sigh of relief.

Ziva unbuckled her seatbelt. "I will be right back, Abby. I am sure, if you need to, McGee will allow you to hold onto him." She looked over at him. "Correct?"

"Yeah, Abby. It's alright, I'm here." He gave Abby a reassuring smile.

Ziva stood up and attempted to pass by Abby's seat when there was a sudden episode of turbulence. She fell forward and caught herself by placing both hands on either side of Abby's head. She found herself mere inches from the other girl.

Abby's eyes widened and her breathing hitched. She looked at Ziva's eyes and saw them dart from her eyes to her black lipstick-covered lips, which caused her heart rate to increase even further.

"Ziva, you okay?" Their trance was broken by McGee's voice. He took his hand away from her shoulder which he had stuck out to try and stop her fall.

Ziva shot up, blushing madly. She muttered out an 'I am fine, thank you' and made her way to the restroom wondering what had gotten into her, she surely had never reacted like that to anything before.

"Do you – Uh…" McGee started to ask while lifting up his arm towards Abby. She nodded and hugged the arm, while trying to figure out what just happened.

Meanwhile, Tony, who saw the whole event, was about to make a typical DiNozzo remark about the scene until he realized that, if Ziva found out, he'd be dead. He made a mental note to head slap probie later for interrupting what he thought was going to happen.

Ziva came back from the restroom, still trying to figure out what she was feeling. She sat down and, noticing Abby hugging onto McGee, made no move to offer her arm back to her. She felt something. Something she knew she had felt before. But she knew this was different somehow. Why is she feeling jealousy? There was nothing to be jealous of, was there? Her inner rant was interrupted by her arm being yanked from the spot close to her body and being hugged by the girl next to her.

"I feel safer with you." Abby smiled at Ziva, which tugged at the latter girl's heart. Her jealousy was gone. She was confused. Was she jealous of McGee? She couldn't understand why until she looked at the still fairly scared girl sitting next to her. She was violently struck with a very pleasant emotion and knew she had felt something like this before but defiantly not to this extreme.

Almost half the flight went by with her mind working furiously to solve this puzzle when Abby nodded asleep on her shoulder, still hugging her arm tightly. Ziva wanted to stay like this forever. It was definitely an odd thought for the ex- Mossad officer but she felt as if she needed to stay close to Abby. Suddenly something dawned on her. Did she like Abby? She could never imagine being without the ever cheerful goth. She never entertained the idea of being with another woman until now but she knew she wanted to be with the other girl. Is it at all possible Abby would want to be with her as well? She continued that line of thinking for quite some time until the pilot interrupted her thoughts.

"This is your captain speaking. We are about to begin our descent, so please put all seats and trays to their upright and locked position. It is a lovely evening here in Seattle at 72 degrees. The time is six oh two pacific. I hope you enjoyed your flight on American Airlines."