Chapter 1, or Abby gets a super-big surprise

"Hey Abby!" Tony called as he saw her rollerblading down the hallway. Gibbs must not be in yet- he was definitely not on the "rollerblading-through-NCIS" bandwagon.

"What Tony? I'm up to my elbows in DNA assignments!" she called over her shoulder. "We don't have a case, so Gibbs told me to update the Team's DNA security."

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about," Tony said. "Here." He gave her a little container that doctor's offices use to take pee samples, but this one had blood.

"What's this, Tony? I've had your blood since yesterday morning."

"Oh, it's not mine," he said. "It's our transfer's. He's coming in today and Gibbs wants him cleared."

"Transfer? Why do we need a transfer?"

"Well, since McGee had to move to Vermont for a couple months to take care of his sister, Gibbs needs a techie hacker. So the Director got him one."

"Yeah. Who is this guy? Assuming it is a guy. I mean, it could be a girl, but I don't know many fabulous girl hackers. Assuming I know him. Or her," Abby asked/added in her usual stream-of-consciousness fashion. "I mean, do I know him?"

"Oh, you might know him," Tony replied, and smirked as though he found that statement extremely amusing. Which to Abby was infuriating.

"Who is it, Tony?"

"It's a surprise, Abs. Now just go and get it done," Gibbs told her, appearing as always, from nowhere. "And take those skates off while you're at it!"

"Aye-aye sir," Abby said, and bent over to unlatch the blades, but not before she heard Gibbs make a comment to Tony.

"DiNozzo, you lost your mind?" Gibbs asked, smacking him. "The only way- the only way- that he would take this job was if she didn't know it was him until he could talk to her. I'm already down McGee, DiNozzo. I need him."

"Okay, boss. I'll be more careful."

Weird, Abby thought, but she walked toward the elevator to get down to her lab.

When she got there, Ziva was waiting outside the door.

Double weird, she thought.

"Hey Ziva. What's up?"

"Oh, just stopping by to see how the DNA was going," Ziva said casually, and then she noticed the container in Abby's hand. "Oh! You got the Transfer's sample."

"Would everyone just tell me who this stupid transfer is? Because I know you know," Abby vented.

"Really, Abby, I do not know what it is you are talking about."

"Abby rule #1: Don't lie to Abby."

"Okay, I do know. But Gibbs told me I was forbidden to tell you. Something about "simulations" of his transfer," Ziva told her.

"Stipulation, Ziva," Tony said as he entered.

"And you wonder why everyone hates English, Tony," Ziva said huffily.

"Gibbs wants us upstairs," Tony said, quickly changing the subject.

Abby set down the container and her rollerblades to follow Ziva.

"Only me and Ziva, Abs," Tony said. "You just ID our 'mystery' transfer."

"Took the idea from my head," she said. Why couldn't she know this guy?

She was running DNA recognition through the server when her lab door opened. She turned to give Gibbs a piece of her mind.

"Gibbs I don't know what's going on here, but I want to know who-"

Only it wasn't Gibbs. It was the nerdy, thick-framed glasses-wearer with blond hair she'd wished for over every birthday candle since the "Phantom Incident". He used ASL to sign, "Hi Abby."

Abby was so shocked to see him so close she just looked at him before signing back, "Hi Eric."

"Eric? What are you doing here? Hetty and Callen and Nate and Sam and Kensi need you!" Abby exclaimed after the longest silence in her life. Sure she was happy to see him, but the LA crew had to be missing him.

"I'm here because-"

But he didn't get to finish because Abby's computer dinged.

"Sorry Eric, but I have to do this," she told him. "There's this new transfer coming in today and I need to get his DNA cleared before he gets here. But he's really weird because supposedly I know him, but he didn't want Gibbs to tell me he was coming , which is stupid because if I knew him he would have told me he was coming, which means I actually don't know him, so I'm going to smack Tony when I see him because he lied to me and-"

"Abby, breathe," he told her, putting his hands on her shoulders and sending a chill through her spine. She maneuvered out of his arms and turned. She wasn't going to be a part of this game he was playing. Sure, he was the guy she wished for on the Evening Star and all, and he saved her from the Phantom, but after that…

She turned and saw Eric's face from his NCIS ID staring back at her from the computer screen.

"Eric? But you-"

But Abby's lab phone rang.

"Abby's forensic lab and resident pizza parlor, where a CafPOW is always on the menu- What can I do for you?"

"Abs?"

"Gibbs, I want to know what's going on," she told him.

"And you will know, in a bit. Send Beal up here," Gibbs ordered.

"Who?"

"Eric Beal, Abs. I know he's down there."

She hung up.

"Gibbs wants you upstairs, Eric," she told him matter-of-factly. The overall shock of Eric appearing in her lab had worn off, and she could how remember what he had done after she left LA. And she wasn't going to let him get away with it.

"Abby?"

"Yeah?"

"I missed you." That hit her like their emergency van.

"Go upstairs, Eric. Gibbs gets impatient." She was NOT going to respond to his comment. Not when he couldn't possibly miss her more than she missed him. Not with what he had done.

Eric looked a little startled, but nodded and left. The door slid shut behind him, and Abby slid down the wall to sit on the floor.

"I missed you too, Eric. More than you know."

(A/N) Hi. I'm LinaBeal, and I will be talking down here at the end of every chapter. Well, not every chapter.

Eric: More like rambling.
ME: Don't make me murder you.
Abby: Why would you do that?
ME: To be able to write your reaction to it.
Abby: I'm just some writing exercise to you?
ME: Well, somewhat. But tell you what- if 10 people review, I won't talk to you down here for a whole 3 chapters.
Eric: I would pay you.
Tony: No you wouldn't. You like fame just as much as the rest of us.
Ziva: Well, Tony more than the rest of us.
ME: 'Kay, review please!