Title: A Shift of Focus
Description: Over their years working together, Abby and McGee have matured. As Abby begins to think about what she wants in the future, her priorities shift. Perhaps the mutual attraction, which has always simmered beneath the surface of their friendship can finally become something more.
Disclaimer: None of this belongs to me!
A/N: I like McAbby as a couple, but I know that right now that is something they just aren't ready for. This is my idea of how it could happen eventually.
I have used a combination of introspective writing and action writing, to keep things interesting, although the whole story remains in third person.
I have most of the story written, and it should be finished by the end of the week. I am planning on 4 substantial chapters. I am pretty happy with where it is going, that's why I am posting it.
Abby's POV
The Weekend
Her brother's wedding had been perfect. He was so happy, and his new bride was absolutely glowing. Abby was overjoyed for them. But for the first time in her life she had been filled with longing to be a bride, to adore someone that much.
It dawned on her as she watched her brother and his wife-to-be pledge their forever-love and faithfulness, that she wanted a forever-man. She had dated many men, and she had connected with some of them deeply. She had even loved before. But she had never met anyone worth pledging her eternal devotion to. Truth be told, she wasn't even looking. She preferred to live her life moment by blissful moment. Maybe it was the fact that she was getting older, or maybe she was starting to realize how fleeting life really was, but she was starting to think about what she wanted for the future.
It was at the reception that the cutting questions from her family and old friends started. "I guess you're up next, huh Abigail?" "When are we going to see you walk down the aisle?" "Are you even dating anyone?"
Abby silently screamed inside every time someone came up to speak with her. Apparently at weddings, marital status was the only thing on anybody's mind. She would try and casually shift conversations towards her work, her recent publications, and the numerous evil men she had helped incarcerate recently. People, however, politely wandered off rather quickly when she tried to bring up such things. She ended up very buzzed, describing in great detail the chemical process of breaking down DNA to enamored fourteen year-old boy.
Feeling pensive, it was on the drive home the next day that she began considering what she really wanted in a husband. A man she would even consider pledging herself too. He would of course have to be cute, caring, smart, and strong. Someone loyal and who would be a good father, but also fun and adventurous.
Much to her chagrin, as she contemplated what she wanted in a man, one face kept floating to the surface of her mind. When she first dated him, he was younger. But since he had been at NCIS, he had blossomed from a bumbling, naive young man, into a strong confident agent. "Who still sometimes bumbled," she amended, but smiled to herself.
He challenged her intellectually and understood what she was saying (most of the time). And sure he was geeky, but she loved that about him. He was a faithful friend, compassionate, a gentleman, so many things. She found herself waxing on about him, mentally. A strange emotion surfaced in her heart.
"Oh goodness, no!" Abby thought, "Not him!" Of all the guys to like, why him? Their muddled past and current working relationship certainly did not lend itself to simplicity. How could she even begin to tell him? What if he did not feel the same way?
She stared out into the vast sky that spread out before her. She loved the night. Everything seemed much more quiet and simple, especially juxtaposed to the turmoil she felt in her heart. She considered the man who she had cared about for more years than any other who had come and gone out of her life.
"I think I might love Mcgee," Abby said the words out loud in the solitude of her car. Their weight fell heavily in the silence
Monday Morning
McGee walked into Abby's lab, a Caf-Pow and an evidence box in tow. He was struck the familiar bouquet of chemicals that was always heavy in the room.
He found Abby hunched over her computer, typing. Her loud music throbbed throughout the lab. A typical Monday.
"Hey Abby," McGee shouted over the music, "Caf-Pow! Evidence from the drug bust!" He set down the box on the lab table, and placed the Caf-Pow in front of her.
"Oh! Huh?" Abby exclaimed. She turned around, saw McGee, and for a brief moment pain flashed in her eyes. She turned down the music, but began typing again. "Hey McGee," she said, in a somber tone. Her shoulders were hunched, and she made no more effort to look at McGee again.
"Is anything wrong, Abs?" McGee asked. He moved closer to her, trying to force her to look at him.
"No," she said determinedly. But still, her eyes remained fixed on her computer screen.
On a hunch, McGee asked, "How was your brother's wedding this weekend? How was it being back home with all your family?"
Abby sighed deeply. And slowly she turned to face McGee. "It was wonderful," she said, but her voice was monotone, and her face remain fixed.
McGee gave her an incredulous look. "Abby?"
"It really was wonderful McGee," her voice sounded more upbeat. "I love my family, and I hardly ever get to see them. And my brother and his new wife looked so happy…" she trailed off.
"But," McGee asked, unconsciously moving a step closer to her.
"But," she sighed again. She stared into his eyes for a moment too long, and for some reason McGee's heart started racing. She finally said, "never mind."
McGee stood there, eyes locked with hers, debating whether to walk away or push her into talking.
After only a brief second she said, "But I am almost thirty and my younger brother just got married." She became more animated as she spoke, " It is strange. My family always supported me. They don't care how I dress. They don't care how I live my life. But all of a sudden, everyone is wondering why I'm not married." Abby paused, and turned away from McGee again.
She began fidgeting with one of the goth dolls she had displayed by her computer, focusing intensely on the toy, smoothing out its outfit. "I guess I realized I never think about the future. I like living in the moment, but I know that I want more out of my life. I realized I have never really thought about…" Abby turned her head to face McGee, "who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with."
There was something about the intensity in Abby's eyes that made McGee falter. Suddenly the close proximity they shared, that usually seemed so benign, became fiercely uncomfortable. An obvious frisson filled the air between them. Abby could smell his cologne and his spearmint toothpaste. McGee could almost taste her cherry lip-gloss. And they stood there, mere inches between them, for a long moment. Their eyes remained locked, neither moving, neither breathing.
It was McGee who finally broke silence. "Well," he said, but his voice was flustered, "you should, uhm, maybe, uh, start thinking about that." He swallowed hard and stepped back about a foot. Abby's face dropped.
"I think I should probably go," he mumbled.
And for what seemed like the thousandth time that morning, Abby sighed deeply. "Thanks for the Caf-Pow, McGee. I will call you when I find something."
McGee muttered something that vaguely sounded like, "bronamagh," and walked out the door.
McGee's POV
Immediately Following
"What just happened?" asked an incredibly befuddled McGee, to himself. "What could have possibly happened to Abby at that wedding to make her so, so," McGee stopped when he could not think of a word to complete the sentence.
Abby's being upset wasn't unusual. She was passionate, and very outward in her displays of emotion. McGee liked that about her, it seemed honest and he was certainly never confused about how she was really feeling.
He could even understand her bout of depression after a wedding. Sure they were happy occasions, but also a not-too-pleasant reminder for single people that their lives are void of romantic love and commitment.
But that look he had given her. That was what had left McGee floored. And what had she said? She was thinking of who she would spend the rest of her life with. Was he imagining the intensity of her stare? The heat? Did her heart start beating faster? Did adrenaline rush though her veins? Or was it just him?
He was over Abby, he had been for years. Sure there were moments when something sparked between them, when the worked in sync, when they had a good laugh, and he would feel a moment of longing. Those were just residual feelings, he had rationalized. You can't sleep with someone without such complications.
Today, however, what he felt was so intense, he was still reeling. His heart was still beating faster, the passion of the moment still tangible in his skin. She must have felt the same way, right? McGee was certainly no expert on this kind of thing. Certainly she had felt the blazing fervor, the connection.
"Get your head out of the clouds," he chided himself, "it was nothing." Residual feelings, that is all, he reminded himself.