They looked as though they needed a few beers, maybe a few shots, and a lot of sleep if they were going to be functioning in the morning. By contrast, Abby was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed due to her continued supply of Caf-Pows delivered to her by members of the beleaguered team. Bouncing her way to the bullpen, she nearly ran over McGee as he staggered his way toward the elevator.
"McGee! You can't leave yet...I have to show you what I found!"
He raised a brow. "What is it, Abby?"
"There's no time to explain, Timothy, you'll just have to trust me." Grabbing his hand, she started to drag him toward the elevator.
"Trust you about what, Abbs?" Even at this late hour, Gibbs wasn't without a cup of coffee in his hand.
"Gibbs! You need to see this too."
"You still haven't told me what -this- is, Abby." But, it was Abby, and Gibbs did have the tendency to indulge her eccentricities more than any other member of his team. So, he went willingly, the coffee cup hiding his smile.
As soon as the elevator door opened, Abby bounced out, leading the way into her lab. McGee and Gibbs followed behind. McGee was curious as to what was so important at this late hour. It couldn't be case-related, since they'd solved the last one two hours ago while Gibbs' face remained unreadable.
"It's right over here." Stopping at her computer, Abby pushed a few buttons and her computer monitor flashed to life. "You see, I've been doing a study comparing murders investigated by NCIS." She paused momentarily to glance over at Gibbs with a grin. "Only during my downtime, of course. Anyway, I've been analyzing weapons used, method of death, motivations, accomplice involvement, staging of the scene, and what I've discovered is actually quite fascinating. The first thing I learned is that..."
Suddenly, the power went out, plunging the lab into darkness. There was a loud clang as the security doors to the lab closed. When the lights came back on a few seconds later, the doors remained closed. Tim grabbed one handle and started jerking the door in a futile effort when Abby interrupted. "You're not going to be able to open them, Tim."
With a sigh, he rubbed his forehead. "Shouldn't they have opened when the power came back on?"
Abby shrugged. "Maybe there's a short somewhere."
"So what do we do now?" he asked to no one in particular. Abby grinned mischevously at Gibbs. "Remember what happened last time?"
Gibbs nodded. "I do."
McGee sighed. "Shouldn't we call someone?"
"Call who, McGee? Nobody's here." Abby replied.
"What we're going to do is wait until the morning until we can be let out of here." Gibbs declared, sitting down in one of Abby's chairs, placing his coffee on the desktop. "You two might want to get some sleep."
"Sleep?" Abby laughed. "I'm too wired to sleep, Gibbs." Reaching into one of the many cabinets, she pulled out a bottle of whiskey and three glasses. Placing them on the table, she poured drinks for herself, McGee, and Gibbs.
McGee blinked. "Since when do you keep booze in the lab?"
"Since the Merriweather case. I had to test so much alcohol to determine what the deadly combo was, there was guaranteed to be leftovers." Raising her glass, Abby drank it without hesitation. "Drink up, McGee." She poured herself another one.
McGee glanced sideways at Gibbs. In all the years of working together, he'd never drank in front of the boss. In fact, he was a little surprised to see Abby doing it. As he stood there, glass in hand, Gibbs muttered under his breath. "Just drink it, McGee." Then, Gibbs drank half of his own glass.
Tim needed no further motivation and quickly downed his glass. Abby refilled it before he had a chance to argue with her. "So, what do we do now?"
"I've got an idea." Abby's mischevous grin was back. "We are going to play a game. It's called 'I Never', and it's a drinking game. You go around the circle saying things like 'I never dyed my hair...' If it is something you've never done, you don't do anything. But if you did dye your hair, you take a drink. You don't have to go into detail if you don't want to, either."
Again, McGee found himself glancing back and forth between Gibbs and Abby, wondering what alternate universe he found himself in where this was a good idea. "Abby, I'm not sure this is such a-"
"McGee." All it took was one word from Gibbs to make McGee fall silent. Abby remained unfazed, almost bouncing in her seat. "Excellent. I'll go first!"
"I never dyed my hair." In response, both Abby and McGee took a drink. Gibbs watched impassively as Abby's eyes grew wide.
"McGee! When did you dye your hair?" Abby couldn't imagine him with different-colored hair, it was just wrong.
"I was in high school. There was this girl who I had a crush on. She only dated blonde guys, so I dyed my hair." He half-smiled, remembering her. "It didn't help."
Abby nodded sagely. "Then, she was an idiot. It's your turn.."
He paused for a moment, trying to decide what question to ask. His eyes darted over to Gibbs, who just sat there silently. "I never hacked into a government server -before- I started working at NCIS." Once again, both Tim and Abby drank.
"Well, that's interesting to know." Gibbs commented, before finishing his coffee and pitching the cup into the nearby trashcan.
"It wasn't nearly as big a deal then as it is now, Gibbs, honest. I didn't steal anything, just looked around." Rather than looking contrite, Abby looked quite pleased with herself.
"That's good to hear, Abbs."
"Me too." McGee piped up.
"That's also good, McGee. I guess that makes it my turn." Gibbs didn't waste any time in asking his question.
"I never called in sick to work when I wasn't really sick."
With an audible sigh, both McGee and Abby drank. But to their surprise, so did Gibbs.
"When was this, Gibbs?" Abby asked, with a smirk on her face. McGee couldn't believe what he was seeing. Gibbs skipping work to play hooky was like Ziva doing silly dances, it just didn't happen.
"I believe the rules stated that I don't have to tell you." Gibbs answered, but there was a hint of a smile. "It's your turn, Abbs."
"I'm making a new rule. At the end of a round, everybody drinks what's left." Without argument, they downed their glasses, and waited for Abby to refill them. When she finished, she continued. "I never wrote a book using my coworkers as characters."
McGee glared at her briefly, but drank. He'd get her back. "I never had sex in a cemetary."
Now it was Abby's turn to glare at him, but she drank as well. Gibbs simply observed the two of them bickering like children without saying a word. When it was time for him to ask his question, he cleared his throat to get their attention. They both abruptly turned to face him.
"I never made up a study to trap people in the lab so I could play drinking games at work." The hint of a smile was back, as he stared straight at Abby. McGee blinked, entirely caught off-guard by this revelation. Abby just grinned, but her glass remained untouched.
"The study is real, Gibbs.." Only then did she raise her glass, and drink what was left. "But, you're right about the rest."
McGee turned to Gibbs. "How did you know?"
"Simple, McGee. I know Abbs.."
Still in shock, McGee downed the rest of his drink as Abby went to her computer, tapped a few keys, and the doors reopened.
"You could have just asked, Abbs."
"And you would have said no, Gibbs. I know you." She grinned.
Rising from his seat, Gibbs put an arm around Abby and kissed her on the temple. "You do at that. G'night, Abbs. Night, McGee. I'll see you two tomorrow, bright and early."
Then, with no further goodbyes, he left the lab. It was only after Gibbs left that Abby came up behind McGee, wrapping her arms around her neck.
"Wasn't that fun?"
He turned to look at her as best he could. "Fun? Drinking games with Gibbs?" He shook his head. "Tony's not going to believe this."
"I guarantee he will. That's what happened last time. Of course then, we were actually trapped for several hours. The drinking game was his idea, too."
"I should have known." Tim rubbed his forehead with a hand.
Abby's face screwed up into a mock pout. "You're not mad at me, are you, Tim?"
He laughed. "No, Abby, I'm not."
"Good." Then, she kissed him, and Tim couldn't think of a better way to end an evening.