Dislaimer: I do not own NCIS
A/N: I have a lot of the details in this completely wrong, but deal with it please, Gibbs is still married to Stephanie, but is working in DC office Not Moscow my idea of what if this was the reason they split. (And you best believe it had something to do with Abbs) before Tony…caution: Really long so IT'S A TWO chapter story…. Read Enjoy Review…
All for the Best
Stephanie didn't come to her husband's work too often, and he rarely spoke of it. Which she didn't mind, knowing fully that most crime scene personnel couldn't talk of their jobs most of the time. Considering Jethro worked with the Navy's crimes, she knew most were top secret, need to know.
Today she knew that he was working a very low priority case, and would have time for lunch. She walked out of the elevator, into the squad room, this much she of the layout of the building she knew from the diagram in the elevator. She walked out and into a cluster of desks. A young man, beady eyed, with black hair greeted her as she walked up.
"Hello," He said, he seemed nice enough, Stephanie shrugged.
"Can you help me? I'm looking for special Agent Jethro Gibbs," She said, he gave a little smile.
"Ah, boss," He said checking his watch, "It's about twelve-thirty, he'll be down making the rounds, check on evidence and the autopsy. Most likely you can catch him in the forensics lab now."
"And that is where?" said Stephanie giving him a confused expression.
"Take the elevator you used to come up, down to the second to last floor," said the man, "You'll get off and walk right into the lab."
"Thank you…" said Stephanie wondering his name.
"Special Agent Fortenger," he said with the same goofy smile, and Stephanie reentered the elevator, and she waved good bye to him.
Abby was rambling in her usual, over caffeinated style to Gibbs as Stephanie's elevator arrived, unnoticed. She decided to watch to see for herself what exactly her Jethro did all day. The cute little forensic scientist in a black mini skirt was rambling on about the case, and what she had had for breakfast that day, to him. He smiled and took it silently until it reached a point.
"Abbs." He said shortly and slightly impatiently.
"Sorry, Gibbsey," said Abby, "Through the finger print on the murder weapon, Commander Mark Lawrence."
"That's good work, Abbs," He said, and gave her a sweet little kiss on the cheek, before turning and noticing Stephanie.
"Hey, what're you doing here?" asked Gibbs casually as Abby turned to see her too, she was beaming.
"Hey!" She said over excitedly bouncing over to her, "You must be the Mrs!"
Abby got so close, Stephanie thought Abby was going to hug her, but the last second Abby held out her hand. Gibbs chuckled at Stephanie's slightly scared face.
"Hey, I'm Abby, but most everyone calls me Abbs," she said then she looked thoughtful, "Well, except Ducky, he usually calls me Abigail, don't know why though…"
Stephanie wasn't really paying attention to Abby's rambling. She was watching Jethro's face. He had his full attention on the rambling forensic scientist, she couldn't help but notice the twinkle and caring look on his face, he was hanging on every word she said. If only he paid that much attention to her.
"You wanna grab lunch?" Gibbs asked Stephanie as soon as Abby was done.
"Yeah," said Stephanie.
He took her by the hand and led her over to the elevator.
"Bye, Abbs," said Gibbs, and he boarded the elevator with Stephanie.
"Have a good lunch, Gibbs," Abby said, "Nice meeting you Stephanie. And Gibbs, I'm gonna need a new Caf Pow! soon, I'm running low."
Gibbs shook his head dismissively.
"Never a problem, Abbs," said Gibbs, and he smiled, "It's already on your desk."
Abby smiled at the two of them until the elevator doors closed and they disappeared. At which point she whipped around and ran to her desk, snatched the Caf Pow! and started sucking it down.
"Caf Pow?" Stephanie said questioningly to Gibbs, hiding her suspicions.
"It's an energy drink, tastes horrible, but Abbs is addicted to it, sometimes I think if she got cut she would bleed it out," said Gibbs with a mischievous smile, and Stephanie chuckled.
That night, Stephanie sat on the couch in the living room, waiting for Gibbs to come home. She had put his dinner in the fridge and she was curled up by the fire reading her book. He finally walked into the room at about quarter to eleven.
"Hey, sorry, interrogation took longer than expected," said Gibbs and he walked over, and kissed her forehead.
"No problems, I made you dinner, it's in the fridge, I'll go heat it up," She said, "Then maybe we could watch a movie or something?"
Gibbs shook his head.
"Sorry again, I'm wiped," He said, his eyes were closing, "I'm just gonna go to bed. Night."
"Wait, coming too, you're right, it's late, and I'm not going to stay up if you're going to bed," said Stephanie and she followed him up the stairs to the bedroom.
Once they crossed the threshold into the bedroom, Gibbs cell phone started to ring. He exhaled loudly before taking it out of his pocket, and he checked the caller ID.
"Hey, Abbs," He answered, and Stephanie noticed a dramatic change in his voice, it was full of affection and tenderness, and she heard a frantic voice on the other side, "Whoa, Abbs, slow down, you ok? Breathe."
Stephanie heard a more relaxed voice explaining something, but she didn't hear what. Gibbs put his hand over the microphone in his phone and looked over at Stephanie. He seemed wide awake now.
"Is she ok?" said Stephanie.
"Yeah, she's fine," said Gibbs, "I'm gonna talk to her for a while, make sure she's ok, so I'll go into the other room, you get some rest ok?"
Gibbs put the phone back to his ear with not so much as a kiss or "good night." Stephanie lay under the covers for hours waiting for him to come to bed.
Gibbs walked down to the living room with his phone to his hear.
"It's ok, Abby," He said, "You want me to come over there? If it's any consolation I didn't like him much anyways."
"He broke up with me, Gibbs," said Abby tears rolling down her cheeks, as she sat down on her own couch, "And no, don't come, I think Stephanie already hates me."
"She doesn't hate you," said Gibbs rolling his eyes, "You want me to go pay him a visit?"
"No, I'll be fine," said Abby and her voice seemed to cheer up, "I'll be fine. See you tomorrow?"
"I'll be there," said Gibbs, and they hung up and Gibbs wandered down to the basement to work on his boat.
She watched the clock; it was past three in the morning by the time he came back in. She pretended to be asleep as he walked back into the room. He stripped down to his boxers and undershirt before collapsing onto his side of the bed, immediately falling asleep.
Stephanie lay awake for a couple more hours, her mind racing. He had gotten late calls before, mostly from work, and some from Abby. She had never thought twice about them, so why was she now? Was it because she now knew how much attention he really showed her? Was she really jealous of his co – worker? Had she really stooped that low? Why did she dress in Mini skirts and boots? She was already beautiful without it. She couldn't fall asleep; she ended up being wide awake all night, as Gibbs snored loudly a few inches away.
The next morning, for some reason Stephanie pretended to be sleeping once more as Gibbs's alarm went off. He shot up and soon she heard the shower going. Once she heard his car screeching out of the driveway, she got out of bed and got her own shower. Her mind was still racing. She finally burst into tears and fell onto the chair. Her mind just kept going to the fact he was there, with her, and she had her suspicions. What had he been talking about with her until three in the morning?
Her few minutes of self wallowing was interrupted by a knock on the door. She pulled herself together as much as she could, and went to the door. She opened it and her neighbor Eric was standing there; he had a bunch of firewood in his arms.
"Hey." He said, "Where does Jethro want these?"
"By the fireplace, I guess," said Stephanie, her voice was shaky.
"You ok?" asked Eric as he set the firewood by the fireplace and turned around to face her.
"No," She admitted about to burst into tears again.
"What's wrong?" said Eric, his face filling with concern.
She sank to the couch and just wept into the cushion, and Eric sank down beside her. He took her in his arms and gave her a hug.
"Steph," He said, "You can tell me, you know."
She sat back, and looked at her neighbor. Although Eric was only a year younger than Jethro, he had retained his hair color. He was very, fatally attractive. He was the neighborhood handy man, usually delivering firewood and fixing things. He was still clinging to his boyish charm, and his arms had the circumference of at least a foot and a half each, from his muscles. He had Native American ancestry, and it showed clearly in his complexion.
"I think Jethro's having an affair," said Stephanie quietly, Eric immediately gave her a questioning look.
"Steph, I've known Jethro since we were kids," said Eric, "There's no way…"
"You haven't met her, the way he looks at her, the way he lets her talk to him, the way he pays attention," said Stephanie sobering up, "That stupid kiss he gave her on the cheek. He came home last night too tired to hang with me, but the minute she called he was wide awake, he disappeared until three, presumably talking to her on the phone. She's young and beautiful…"
Eric sat there and listened to her ramble, processing every word she said, trying to make sense of it all. He knew in the back of his mind that Jethro was only human, but for some reason he had always held his buddy to a higher standard. He knew that Jethro had in fact been married before, but never thought he'd cheat. He shook his head no, he couldn't believe it.
"I bet he's with her right now, her name's Abby," said Stephanie, "Call Ducky and ask him where Jethro is."
Eric did as he was told; he hadn't talked to dear Doctor Mallard in a while anyway.