"Not lie," Jimmy corrected, "Think of it as...keeping a secret. You don't have to tell Ducky everything."
"He's going to mention your grades, Jimmy," Abby whined, "It is lying if I just go along with it."
He established a firm grip o her shoulders and urged her to look him in the eye.
"If he brings it up, all you have to do is bob your head to your music in a way that may, or may not be mistaken for nodding. Can you do that?"
She fidgeted in indecision.
"I don't know..."
"Come on, Abby," he sighed, "What are you afraid of?"
Abby blushed and glared at him. She knew exactly what would happen if she got caught, and it wasn't good news for her butt. And, chances were that she would get caught. Lying wasn't a skill that she was particularly adept at. Although, she'd never tried to lie to Ducky before. There was a slight chance that he'd never know.
"Fine, Palmer. Leave it here."
~*~
Jimmy was very impressed with Abby's work when she thrust it under his nose the next day. It looked exactly like the first one, but it had the correct changes. They might just be able to pull this off.
What worried him though, was Abby herself. She had been literally squirming with guilt when he saw her that morning, and anyone with the half a mind could tell that something was wrong. Fortunately, not even Gibbs' team could figure out just what was going on.
~*~
"You're acting weird."
Abby spun on her heel and aimed a punch at McGee's shoulder.
"Ow! What was that for?"
"For calling me weird."
"I technically did not call you weird, I simply-"
He shut up when a second punch landed next to the first one.
"You have to admit, Abby, you do seem like you're up to something."
Tony snickered when his comment earned poor McGee another blow.
"I didn't even say anything that time! It was Tony!"
"Well, I couldn't reach Tony."
"That's hardly fai- Ouch, would you stop doing that?!"
Any other time, Abby probably wouldn't have been abusing McGee, but she'd been wound tight all morning, just waiting for her lie to blow up in her face.
McGee raised his fist to strike back, albeit gentler than any of her punches. It paused in midair at his boss's stern tone.
"Don't you do it, McGee."
"Gibbs, she's been hitting me all-Never mind. I'll get over it."
It really was impossible to pick on Abby with Gibbs there.
By midday, most of the visitors had filtered out of the lab, leaving Abby alone with Ducky for the first time since Jimmy told her about the grades. Immediately, she began to babble about anything in her lab that caught her eye, knowing that any silence was an opportunity to let something slip. Of course, that fact that she nearly swallowed her own tongue when he brought up that fact that Jimmy had brought in his new transcript might have led him to believe that something was bothering her.
"Abigail? Are you alright?"
Abby remembered Palmer's earlier words and nodded her head enthusiastically, bottom lip clenched tightly between her teeth to keep her secrets in.
Ducky stared at her in concern.
"You don't seem alright, my dear."
She let out a tiny shriek as she felt a searing pain in her lip, and her hand flew up to stop the bleeding. In her nervousness, she had bitten through her own lip. Shaking her head vigorously, she let out a low whine an resisted Ducky's efforts to remove her hand from her face.
"Abby! Abby, you need to let me have a look!"'
And so, when Ducky left her ten minutes later, she was in pain, but she hadn't let Jimmy's secret slip. That man was so going to owe her when this was all over.
~*~
As it turned out, Abby wasn't the one who ended up letting the cat out of the bag. It wasn't even an accident.
You see, when one is left to stew in their own guilt for any period of time, they are liable to either go entirely insane, go partially insane, or confess. If you're lucky, the confessing thing usually gets rid if the guilt without the use of extensive therapy.
"Dr. Mallard? The transcript. It's fake."
Well, at least Palmer had some good luck this week.
"Pardon?"
Hardening his resolve, Palmer related his entire story, refusing to look at his mentor until he was done. Finally, after he had explained everything, leaving Abby out of it, he looked up into sad eyes.
"I'm very disappointed in you, Mr. Palmer."
Jimmy nodded and turned to leave autopsy.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"U-um, Doctor? We're done for the day. I-I thought you wouldn't want to talk."
Ducky stared at him sternly.
"You thought wrong."
The younger man nodded, relieved that his boss was still on speaking terms with him.
"If you would be so kind as to go get it, Mr. Palmer, I believe that your belt would be most useful for this particular talk."
_-_-_-_
Okay! Next chapter ought to be up soon. I had the strangest flashbacks of my older brothers getting me into trouble when I wrote the scene with Abby and Jimmy. Originally, I had Gibbs handling Abby and Ducky taking care of Jimmy. However, the more I thought about it, I realized that Ducky really should be the one to talk to Abby. Any objections to that? I thought it might be fun to write Ducky's reaction to having to discipline her. It's not set in stone, so it could go either way.
Thanks for reading!
