It's Personal

By: Trivette Lover Heather

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"Did Gibbs tell either of you he wouldn't be here today?" Agent DiNozzo was getting a little nervous, but also a little excited. If Gibbs wasn't in, that usually meant he would be taking over the team for the day, and that was something he always looked forward to. After all, practice does make perfect.

Timothy McGee was off in his own world and hadn't noticed that Gibbs was late; he searched his mind for anything his boss may have mentioned to him. "Not me." He offered, and then continued staring into space.

Ziva David had better things to do then be concerned with Gibbs's lateness. "Not a big deal Tony…I'm sure he'll call."

"Yeah, not a big deal? Just cuz he is never late, never misses a day of work and never does not call? How is this not a big deal to you guys?"

Each of them ignored his response and continued on whatever it was they were doing. Tony put his hands up in defeat. "Fine, you know what, I'm just gonna go talk to Abby, she'll know." He attempted to scoff at his two friends, but they didn't even acknowledge his comment. He walked in the direction of the elevator, and as he pressed the button down, he secretly became, well, worried.

"Abs, Gibbs is late, got any idea…" He stopped himself short as he noticed her in the back office, slow dancing alone. He approached the room and as the door opened she screeched in surprise.

"Ah! Anthony DiNozzo, haven't you ever heard of knocking?"

"It's an automatic door Abs."

She huffed and ran to turn off the music. "Can I help you with something?"

Tony was taken aback. She would normally offer a good morning or at least a how are you. But not today. Why was everyone acting so strange? He thought.

"That was really nice dancing Abs, you taking lessons or something?"

"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not…now did you need something?"

Tony scratched his head and smiled. "Okay well, Gibbs is late, he say anything about not coming in today?"

Abby got a worried look on her face and Tony immediately reassured her. "I'm sure it's nothing, just wanted to come down and see if he mentioned a dentist appointment and we just all forgot."

She clasped her hands together and jittered a bit. "Tony, whenever somebody is missing, it's bad…"

"He's not missing Abby; just cant get a hold of him is all."

"Right."

"Actually, it's probably just something private, and you know how he doesn't do the whole opening up thing much."

She nodded but the worried look remained. "Call him, I'll GPS it."

Tony shrugged. "He's probably at the dentist Abs."

"Fine, I'll call." She strutted by him, and headed towards her main computers. As she dialed on the phone, Tony couldn't help but glance at the CD case near the stereo and let out a short laugh.

As she typed away, Tony stood over her shoulder. "New perfume too Abs?"

Abby ignored him and continued her typing. "I'll have a fix in a minute."

Tony almost missed her comment as he was mesmerized by the smell of her perfume. "I thought wearing perfume was against a Goths religion or something?"

Again she didn't respond and only stared mouth agape as the result came up on the screen.

"Where?" Tony asked, squinting to look at the screen.

Before Abby could finish her response, Tony was racing out of her lab towards the elevator. Abby followed but only to give him a final look of fear as the doors closed between them.