"No way, Abs. No way."
She pouted, and he rolled his eyes at her. "Please, Gibbs? It'll be fun, I promise, and, you know, team building and stuff."
He raised his eyebrows. "Fun?"
"Oh, come on, Gibbs. It's one night. It's a Halloween party. It's not gonna kill you."
He gave her a dark look. "It might."
"Pleeeeease?"
"Abs, I'm not a party kind of guy. This... it's just not my thing. Crowds of strangers, loud music..."
A small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.
"What?"
"It's all NCIS people." Her look of triumph was unmistakable. "You'll know everyone there, in fact it'll be full of people who you actually like and who won't be stupid enough to try and make small talk with you. Even Ducky is coming. There'll be coffee and bourbon and..." She'd worked out her sales pitch in advance, he realised.
"You know we always get crazy cases this time of year..."
"You get a case that night, you don't have to come."
He sighed. He was really running out of excuses. At least they were practically guaranteed to have a case - they almost always did. A ready made excuse to leave, or just not to go...
"OK."
She clasped her hands together. "Really?"
"Yeah, really."
She squealed and threw herself at him for a hug. He had to laugh. "Calm down, Abs."
When she stepped back, her face was alight, eyes sparkling. It was almost worth the possibility of having to keep that promise to see her so excited.
"It'll be fun Gibbs. You'll enjoy it. I promise."
He merely smiled indulgently. "OK, OK, enough, I said I'll come. Can you tell me what we got on this case, now?"
She dropped a curtsy and flicked her hand up in salute at the same time. "Request permission to refuel, sir."
Laughing, he passed her a fresh Caf Pow. "Permission granted."
She took a long swig. "Much better. OK, so you were right about the Petty Officer, definitely hinky, and his commanding officer? Even worse..."
