Title: Her Silver Fox
Genre: NCIS
Pairing: Gibbs and Abby (Dr Ryan in the background) Abby POV
Rating: T.
Timeline: Latter part of Season 9
Spoilers: None.
Summary: No one ever really understands why she calls him her silver fox….
Disclaimer: Sigh, I only get to play.
A/N: I sincerely want to apologize for my extended hiatus, however circumstances are at the root cause thereof and not my lack of enthusiasm. I have had to put two people within my immediate acquaintance into the ground in the last six months and, as we all know, that can do quite a number on anyone – emotionally. So I have not had either the time nor the inclination to punch out anything other than what was necessary. But then this one popped up and my muse for the first time in weeks actually pricked her ears. I realize that the theme has been overused and in all likelihood abused but it just needed to get out. Hopefully Missy will soon be back to playing with everyone….
Written: June 2014
Language: International English.
Word Count:
*·.·´¯`·.·* *·.·´¯`·. GABBY .·´¯`·.·* *·.·´¯`·.·*
Abby sat at her desk staring blindly at the screen while the facial recognition software ran through a series of images, attempting to identify the suspect in the video. She had set it up to emulate the actual computer in the main lab because she simply had to sit down, needing some time to gather her wayward thoughts. Not that her wayward thoughts were ever the problem, they helped her to make connections, important connections that helped Gibbs, but this time it was the direction her wayward thoughts had taken which had caused her mal-ease.
This time they were not geared to connecting probables, they all pointed towards Gibbs and this thing he had going with a certain doctor.
Few understood the depth of her feelings for Gibbs, at times she didn't either, although everyone was well familiar with the open affection they displayed towards one another. To most they were just that, Abby and Gibbs.
She was the one who could ask him the type of questions the others were too scared of asking – and she more often than not got answers. He trusted her, confided in her, just as she did in return. That was the foundation of their relationship, for they knew nothing they ever confided in each other would be disclosed elsewhere – even if others thought she could not keep secrets.
She was his girl and he was her silver fox… although few ever understood why she referred to him as such. It was symbolic of what he was, the same way as she knew that its very meaning was threatened…. by the women who tried to get in her head, even after she's told her to get out.
Even after all the years and all the women that he had dated, and even been married to, he still remained her silver fox. For you see that was what he was, a cunning little fox that could maneuver his way out of everything. He could take charge, push boundaries, people and would always get away with it – sometimes injured, not that she wanted to think about those times… but he always came back, to her. His years of practice and application is what made him a silver fox – for silver foxes were those who had eluded capture long enough to actually turn silver.
Just as no woman really held his interest for very long. They were his playthings. She knew the pattern… they would show interest, he would respond. At first she had disliked them, because it was never easy to watch the proceedings, but she had learnt to read the signs. Even when the others had sought him a partner, which she knew to be foolish, because his heart… No, that was not something she had wanted to think of either. Because he had changed after that case with the boy in the diner, and he had not been willing to talk about it either. In fact his distance from her had started around about then…
Just as his current behavior concerned her. In the past the pattern had been predictable, she could actually tick boxes on a list of milestones his relationships took. Some took longer to achieve, others were quicker, but they remained the same… until this one, this woman.
In certain ways she was exactly like the others, nice up front, but soon enough they would try to change him… only she was changing him – and not in a good way. At first she had not thought much about his interest. The woman was intelligent, had a way about her, and was within his dating age range… even though she tried to get into everyone's head, to get the upper hand. Something Abby did not like and that is what she feared this woman had done with Gibbs, gotten in his head.
Looking back, there was always something that gave her an indication as to the depth of his interest in a particular woman. Just as Ducky had once told her, "He always chooses the wrong type of woman, ensuring that he will remain single." Only this time she was wholly excluded. He did not talk to her, the kisses and touches had stopped. Never, but absolutely never before had that happened. No matter who he was dating, he was always willing to talk to her, be affectionate to her.
Only this time it had stopped the morning that woman had made a comment about him needing more sex!
Was the woman nuts! That was the last thing Abby needed to have thrown in her face with him so close. It was the one aspect of his life she had tried hardest not to think of. A Pandora's Box she was unwilling to open. And all that just because he had kissed her on the cheek for a job well done! Something he's done it hundreds of times before!
Besides, sex and Gibbs were two words she never, never, placed in the same sentence – or even though in relation of. Over the years they had teased one another, flirted and her mind had gone there…. But with everything they had gone through during those years, their interaction had become a comfortable, familiar pattern. There was no expectation for more from either side… at least that's what she thought.
She had seen far too many a woman fall for his charm, that natural authority that just extruded off him in waves. He was an alpha male, one who led with actions rather than words or threats. It had been that which had drawn her to him at first. His masculinity, the ease with which he led his team, without needing to ram his authority down their throats, is what set him apart from the others. Just as she understood the attraction women had to power, understood the chemical responses that happened in a woman's body when they came into contact with a strong, virulent male. One as passionate about looking after those he cared for as Gibbs was. She too had fallen prey to it, having recognized the gem in the rough, one who would look after her – and he did, in his own way.
She too had felt the stirrings of sexual arousal when he was near her. Ever since that first time he'd kissed her on the cheek and knocked her speechless… which after he'd thankfully left the lab, because she still thought it pretty pathetic that she could be rendered speechless by a kiss, by a simple peck her cheek, which had left a burning awareness for the entire afternoon.
For some time after that, she had felt confused, uncertain, but they had flirted – because it was fun and they could. They had developed an openly affectionate relationship, where she had accepted her role in his life as that of a friend and confidant.
And just like the crush she had had for her ninth grade science teacher, the feelings had dulled, familiarity with one another had lessen any expectation from her side, but never the intense awareness of him or her need to please him (or tease him if the situation called for it).
He was the one man who did not see her as easy, just as she knew there would never be more between them than that, and that it was not just an age thing either… she just didn't do it for him. He had certain expectations of his women, and she had seen him with quite a few over the years, but none scared her more than Doctor Ryan.
She knew he was sleeping with the woman, even without telling her – there were certain signs she picked-up on.
Even though she had, to a larger extent, managed to still the initial sense of envy she felt towards the women in his life, the constant and niggling thoughts, along with the desire and want to know what it is like, or to actually know whether he was as good in bed as she imagined him being… Abby shook her head wanting to shake off that particular train of thought, and returned them to the woman in question. She was not even certain whether it was Doctor Ryan's interest in Gibbs or the woman's attempt to get into her head which she disliked her for most – because her head was just not one you wanted to get in to. The tornado of thoughts and though processes that went through it could drive any average human insane, if they did not know how the mapping within her brain worked. Many had proclaimed it as eerie. But, like Gibbs, she followed her gut most times, she trusted her instincts, and her instincts told her something was wrong.
She was not all that convinced that the woman's interests in Gibbs were what they appeared to be. Something niggled her and she feared that her cunning fox was about to get caught in a very carefully constructed trap. But felt incapable of warning him, because she didn't really know, had no viable evidence to prove it. It was just a feeling. Just as she knew there could lapses in one's gut sense, especially when one is biased in any way, that sometimes one's instincts could cause one to drift to shift away from the known, the safe, into deeper darker waters … like Gibbs was now.
All she could do was wait and watch. Hopefully she was wrong, and her silver fox would remain that, hers.
*·.·´¯`·.·* *·.·´¯`·. GABBY .·´¯`·.·* *·.·´¯`·.·*
