Gibbs was busy sanding his boat, but his thoughts kept drifting back to his team. He kept remembering Abby's forlorn face as she had asked him if he had seen Tony and then explained that he had spent barely any time down there in two weeks. When she had mentioned it, he had cast his mind back as well, and realised how absentminded his senior agent had been lately. Whenever he had a free second, DiNozzo's eyes seemed to glaze over as he appeared to transport to a whole other world. When called or slapped upside the head he appeared disorientated or surprised to find them all staring at him. Gibbs had just assumed that DiNozzo had yet another woman who was causing him to zone out at work. Lately it had been quiet, case-wise, and they had been doing back to back cold cases and paperwork from cases of the previous month, and he hadn't realised just how much work DiNozzo had done. When Abby had mentioned it, Gibbs had looked it up on the network and found that DiNozzo had finished all of his catch-up paperwork, and was going through cold cases, looking for discrepancies. He had done more work than Ziva and Tim put together, and didn't look like he was about to stop. Gibbs wanted to think this was a good thing – but he had a deep sense of unease about his senior agent's sudden efficiency. There was a reason for it, and he wanted to find out what.
-
Ziva was well aware what was wrong with her partner. She was, after all, trained to observe. Tony was in love. More in love than when he had fallen for Jeanne. This was deeper – something he would never walk away from. Would never give up on. And this week, evidence had come to light that had made Ziva almost sure she knew who the 'lucky' girl was.
Abby.
She had complained that Tony had been practically ignoring her – and Ziva now knew why.
He didn't trust himself to be around her. Not without saying or doing something he shouldn't.
Sometimes she just delighted in being able to read her partner like a book.
-
McGee knew there was something up with Tony. There had been for weeks. And Abby seemed upset and quieter than usual. There was something going on that he didn't know about, and that surprised him. He wasn't Timothy McGee for nothing. Or more likely Thom. E. Gemcity. He had studied his co-workers for years before he had enough to embark on his literary adventure, and could now tell their mood by a slight change in their behaviour. The only one he struggled with was Gibbs. Now he was hard to read. The man was an enigma. Abby had recently been frowning a lot – meaning she had guy troubles.