Author's note: Ok, so this one has a tag to 'Designated Target'. I was just thinking to myself, what if Abby had meant what she said to McGee a little differently?

Italics is direct quotes from the episode

Disclaimer: All characters etc belong to Belisarius Productions, and not to me.

"I kinda dig it, you know?"

She forced herself to smile and give him some advice, as any good friend would

"Love is never having to read her her Miranda rights, but she's going to do this to someone else. Throw her psycho ass in the brig. I love you McGee, that should be enough."

She walked away, leaving him at his desk. She needed to escape before she lost her self control. It had already slipped enough that she'd just told Tim how she felt about him. With luck, he would take it as a friendly emotion, not the deep seated longing it actually was.

It had taken her a long time to realise exactly what it was that she felt for Tim. She'd be working with him, or just hanging out with the guy that had quickly become her best friend, and she'd notice something about him and think to herself that it was one of the things she loved about Tim. Gradually it occurred to her that she was adding more and more things to her mental list. So she'd forced herself to sit down and think about it one weekend when she was alone, and she'd come to the inescapable conclusion. She was in love with Timothy McGee. She had no idea what to do with the knowledge, so she'd pushed it to the back of her mind as much as she could. It surfaced occasionally; this psycho girl he'd been dating had brought it all back.

She took the 365 steps to her lab as quickly as she could without running, hoping that no one would come find her for a while.

...

She let herself wallow for a little bit, before telling herself she had to get back to work and stop thinking about McGee and his new hinky girlfriend. Soon she was absorbed in her tests, taking refuge in the science that at least made sense to her.

She worked steadily for hours, finally noticing that the windows of her lab were darkened and the usual flow of passersby had slowed to a trickle. She silently marvelled at her attention span. Normally by now she would have gotten distracted by something. Maybe giving up the caffeine was actually helping. It was time to call it a day. She set the last computer search to run overnight, and then started shutting down her equipment for the night. As she turned to power down Major Mass Spec, a figure leaning against her refrigerator caught her eye. She jumped back a little, startled

"Geez McGee, how long have you been standing there?" she demanded

"I dunno, a couple of minutes" he shrugged, sounding a little down. He wandered over to her computer desk, sitting down on one of the chairs. Obviously he had something on his mind, and she could hazard a guess as to what it was. She went back to the desk and sat down next to him. He needed to talk, and he'd come to her. Just because it was about his crazy, hopefully ex-, girlfriend didn't mean she wouldn't help him.

"I took your advice" he told her "You were right; I wasn't the first guy she'd done this to, and I wasn't going to be the last. At least I know to keep my financial details a little better protected, huh?" he gave her a wan smile

"Is there something wrong with me, Abby? It seems like every woman I've dated has some serious flaw. Except you, of course"

Her heart went out to him. He sounded so frustrated and sad

"McGee, there is nothing wrong with you. It's not your fault that psychos are attracted to you" she told him. "Don't forget, Tony's had his fair share of crazy women too" she tried to keep it light hearted, but she could see that it wasn't helping

"Seriously, Tim, this is absolutely not your fault. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with you. You're smart, funny, kind... you just need to find the right woman"

"Thanks Abs" his smile this time was closer to normal "I needed that"

They sat in silence for a moment, each lost in thought before he spoke again

"You know Abs, for once it would be great to have a date with a nice normal woman"

Without thinking, she blurted out

"What about me?"

He looked extremely taken aback

"Excuse me?"

"What about a date with me?"

...

He stared at her in disbelief. For a moment his heart soared. The prospect of a date with Abby was like a dream come true. But just as quickly, reality returned. This was Abby. As much as he loved her, she wasn't looking for a relationship, at least not the kind he had in mind. He'd found that out the hard way before, and it had taken him a very long time to get over her. Well, as far over her as he could get. And so as much as he wanted to throw caution to the winds, he shook his head.

"I can't be the kind of guy you're looking for, Abby" he told her seriously. Then without waiting to see her reaction, he turned and walked out of her lab.

He headed back to the bullpen to grab his gear, pausing as he heard his cell phone beep. Pulling it out of his pocket, he saw he had a text message from Abby. Opening it, he read the single line

'You already are'

What was that supposed to mean? Was that really what she thought, that he was after something casual with her? That had been the whole point of them breaking up the first time, that he wasn't after a casual relationship. He tried to frame a reply, but nothing came to mind. Suddenly annoyed with her, he locked the phone and dropped it back into his pocket without responding. It was time to go home.