II: You Play With Fire

The atmosphere in the elevator was tense. Gibbs' hand still rested on Lily's back and Lily had no idea how to react. She just stayed silent. When the doors pinged open again he moved his hand abruptly and stepped out into the bullpen. Lily followed, utterly bewildered.

'McGee, you got anything on that SUV yet?' Gibbs barked.

'I ran the plate, it's registered to a James Marcombe. The description the witness gave us is a pretty good match for him.' McGee tapped some more keys and two pictures appeared on the screen, comparing Marcombe's DMV photo to the picture the sketch artist had drawn according to the witness's description.

'Bring him in,' Gibbs said. 'DiNozzo, go with McGee. Ziva, I want to know anywhere he might have gone with the girl, anywhere she could be. Harris, we're going to see Abby.'

'On it, boss,' Tony said, hurrying after McGee.

'Yes, Gibbs.' Ziva nodded and turned to her computer, fingers flying across the keyboard.

'Yes, boss,' Lily said, trailing Gibbs back to the elevator.

The elevator ride to Abby's lab was just as fun as it had been on the way up from Autopsy - although Gibbs kept his hands to himself this time. Lily was utterly bemused. What did the touching mean? Everything he did confused her: how he stroked her hair; kissed her forehead; rested his hand on her back. It all meant something but she couldn't work out what. She'd have to talk to Abby again.

Abby's ear-shattering music was still playing. Instead of trying to get her attention, Gibbs just strolled in and hit the pause button on the remote.

'What've you got, Abbs?' he asked.

'DNA from the blood on the sidewalk outside the house is a match to the girl. Prints on the door matched the print on the knife and we got a match in AFIS; James Marcombe,' Abby said, bringing up the same DMV picture McGee had shown them.

'I've already got DiNozzo and McGee bringing him in,' Gibbs said. 'Good work, Abbs.' He kissed her cheek and turned to Lily. 'You get to stay here and help Abby with something. I'll be in Autopsy.'

With that he breezed out.

'What did you do to him?' Abby asked.

'I didn't do anything,' Lily frowned.

'Well somebody has. He's grumpy and sidetracked.'

'Isn't he always like this?'

'Sure but it's been worse the last couple of months. Ever since… oh,' Abby fell silent.

'Since when?'

'Since you got here.'

'So do you think he…?' Lily asked, hopeful.

'I'd be surprised if he didn't. Look at you, you're gorgeous and you're just his type.'

'His type?' Abby caught Lily's gaze, recognizing both worry and fear in the redhead's shining green eyes.

'You have red hair. Very, very pretty red hair. Gibbs loves redheads. He's married four of them.'

Lily had nothing to say to that. Four marriages?

'So you said you'd keep me posted. Anything else happened?' Abby pressed.

Lily looked blank for a second. 'Oh, right. Yeah. Um, when we were leaving Autopsy he put his hand on my back. Like, just above my butt. And he didn't move it the whole time until we got out of the elevator.'

'What, like here?' Abby pressed her hand just below the middle of Lily's back.

'Lower. Like just above my butt.' Lily clarified.

Abby raised her eyebrows. 'He definitely likes you.'

'Are you sure? And even if he does, what am I supposed to do? What about his rules? Isn't there one about dating co-workers?' Lily babbled.

'Yeah, rule number twelve. Never date a co-worker. Sounds to me like he's already right on the edge of that one though.'

'Surely he wouldn't break his own rules?' Lily ran her hands through her thick red hair, twisting it into a ponytail then shaking it loose again.

'He's broken them before. He's probably broken number six about ten times,' Abby said.

'Which one's rule six?' Lily asked.

'Never apologise - it's a sign of weakness. But he says it's okay to apologise to friends.'

'Oh. But that doesn't mean he'll break rule twelve. What am I supposed to do?'

'Give it a few days. See what he does. Or you can jump straight in and tell him you're crazy about him,' Abby shrugged. 'If he's worried about rule twelve, tell him you don't have to date, it can just be casual sex.'

'I don't want casual sex,' Lily said.

'I know you don't but if that's what it takes,' Abby said. 'You can always reel him in later.'

'I guess.'

'You guess right. Now get your butt back up there and start reeling.'

Lily smiled and thanked Abby before heading out to the elevator. The doors opened to reveal Gibbs standing inside.

'Learn anything, Lily?' he asked.

'Yeah, actually, I learned a lot,' she replied with a smile.