From the outside the condo looked pretty run of the mill. Tony had been there a couple of times to pick her up or to drop her of after work, but he never had actually been inside her flat. He couldn't help but feel a little curious. It had an air of mysterious to it, since McGee as well as Gibbs had occasionally commented on Abby's peculiar decorative taste. When Abby unlocked the door to her apartment and he stepped inside after her, he could see they had not been exaggerating.

The walls were painted in a dramatic dark red and the furniture was mostly made of dark wood. The coffin in the middle of her living room, in which she claimed to occasionally sleep, was like a grim exclamation mark in the midst of cute stuffed animals and a collection of bizarre figurines, wooden masks and technical equipment. Amazingly this strange array of object managed to make you feel at home and creep you out at the same time, but judging from what he knew about her, this was precisely the desired effect.

Abby noticed him stopping behind her. He was observing his surroundings from his position at the doorstep. His face held the excited expression of little Charlie inside the Chocolate Factory. She liked the way people reacted differently towards her apartment. Gibbs had just frowned briefly and quickly gone back to normal, whereas McGee had just gaped shamelessly and then started gushing over her computer. Tony's reaction was completely unprecedented though.

"To come in you actually would have to step across the sill. I'd leave the door open all night, I'm afraid to catch a draft," she said teasingly.

"Sorry," he said somewhat distractedly, his eyes focusing on a new detail every other moment. "I was just…."

"Staring?"

"More like marveling at the beauty that is your apartment…Wow, is that a Boris Karloff collectible?!" he walked passed her, suddenly not so shy anymore and picked up Frankenstein's monster that sat there on the sideboard among a vast collection of other figurines. He waggled it around playfully accompanied by the almost mandatory words; "It's alive, alive!" spoken in the bad imitation of a German accent.

"I was going to say make yourself at home, but I think you've already got this part covered," she chuckled softly, "I'm going to get you a towel, before you get poor Boris here all soggy," Abby admonished good-humouredly.

Her announcement was only acknowledged with a small nod, since he was still engrossed in playing with the doll. She had Godzilla, too. A face-off between Frankenstein's monster and the big lizard, now that would be fun! When she was gone, he picked up Godzilla as well. Tony tried to adjust Boris's arms, so that they were stretched out before his body (the typical Frankenstein's monster pose), but unfortunately the left arm broke of. Tony cringed and cursed silently under his breath, desperately trying to repair the damage done to the figurine, but to no avail. He placed it back on the sideboard cursing some more and whipped around abruptly when Abby came back with a black towel in her hands.

"DiNozzo, what have you been doing?" she narrowed her eyes and looked at him disapprovingly when she noticed his suspicious behaviour.

"Nothing?" he asked sheepishly, scratching the back of his head.

"Doesn't look like it," she threw the towel at him with a little bit of extra gusto. Still he neatly caught it in midair which added to her irritation.

She tried to look around him, but he shifted and successfully managed to block her view at the sideboard. "Okay, I did do something, but I'm going to take care of it. I promise," he looked at her pleadingly.

"I don't know. Depends on what you did," she already had a slight suspicion what it could have been he had done. McGee had broken off the arms of the Frankenstein monster on his first night over. Since that incident they came of prettily easily.

"It's nothing too bad. I'm going to get it fixed just leave me a day or two," the choice of his words verified her suspicion. It was probably a bad thing to do, but for now she decided to forgo telling him that it wasn't his fault the arms of the doll had come off.

"Alright, I'll have mercy on you just this once….just. this. once," she said before she turned to go again.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to slip into something more comfortable," she told him in a sultry voice.

He looked at her like a deer caught in the headlights and gulped heavily. Apparently the patented Dinozzo wit was on vacation or else he would have come up with an equally suggestive comeback. She decided to clarify the situation, "Relax, I had nothing kinky in mind. I was just going to put on my pjs."

True to her word she returned seconds later clad in black pajamas. He narrowed his eyes to make out the print on it. Aha! The tiny counterfeits of at least a hundred Jack Pumpkin Heads grinned at him.

"Cute, but you'd have to take this off if you want to turn me on," his wit was back; apparently he had recovered from the little dismemberment incident.

She gave him a dirty smile and patted her eyes, "Why Tony if I wanted to turn you on I wouldn't even have to take my clothes off."

"Promises, promises," he sat down on the chair in front Abby's computer and amused himself by spinning around in it. Out of his peripheral vision he saw her shaking her head amusedly, and then she was gone. There was the black leather sofa next to the desk. The opposite wall, then there she was again – only this time much closer. She reached out, placing her hands on his shoulders thereby effectively stopping him from spinning. Her face was now on level with his. It was hard to focus on it, since he felt slightly dizzy from spinning around. He noticed the lack of make-up though. Any other woman would probably have felt naked without it or would have self-consciously worried that she was sharing something entirely too private. Abby didn't seem to care and he had to admit to himself that he really liked it, which wasn't such a big surprise (Beautiful, self-confident women were his thing)

"What…do you want?" Abby asked him in a low voice. She leaned closer and he could see a shimmer of white skin peak out underneath the collar of her pajamas. His eyes focused on her pink lips whose corners were slightly quirked up in a little smile. He gulped heavily.

"To drink," Abby clarified, now smirking impishly. She stood up, crossing her arms over her chest looking at him with a triumphant gaze that screamed 'I told you'.

It took him a moment to recover, "Nothing with caffeine," his voice sounded slightly grumpy. "I still have my hopes up for a little nap before Monday."

She nodded her consent and disappeared inside the kitchen. He could hear her rummaging inside the freezer, while she called out the inventory to him, "Beer? Water? Orange-juice? Milk…," he heard a sound of disgust, "Forget about the milk…Hey! There's some left-over pizza...interested?"

"Hmmm left-over pizza's my favourite," Tony smirked to himself and rubbed his hand together in anticipation. "I'll think I'll have a beer with it," he added on an afterthought.

"Good choice," the clanging of bottles and the sound of two taps being removed followed her answer shortly after.

Abby returned and without even thinking about asking his permission she sat down on his lap, deposited the pizza box on the desk in front of them and passed him his bottle of beer. They clanged the bottles together before they drank and he could see her smiling a little before she turned around to switch on the computer.

"What are you up to?" he asked after his second swing from the bottle.

"I've got something you're going to like…definitely," she told him enthusiastically.

"Oh, goody! Internet porn!" Tony exclaimed in a mock cheerful voice.

Abby laughed a little, "Nope, something much better." She clicked with her mouse on an icon on the desktop and a program started. Tony's interest was immediately captured when he heard the theme of the 'Godfather' coming out of the speakers.

"There's a game based on the 'Godfather'?! Why didn't anyone tell me?" he asked automatically leaning closer to the monitor and thereby into Abby's back. She could feel his body warm radiating through her thin cotton pajamas. It felt nice. Physical proximity didn't scare her like it did most people. She was an emotional person and liked to hug her friends whenever she felt like it. Therefore the fact that Tony invaded her personal bubble didn't bother her at all. It was something they both were quite comfortable with. They knew it meant nothing. There was no subtext implied.

"Why didn't anyone tell you, Tony?" she echoed his words, "For starters, because you said Timmy and I were geeks because we like to play Halo…"

"But this is something completely different. This is 'the Godfather'….the Godfather," he gesticulated with his arms exasperatedly, "the treasure trove of wisdom! The epitome of cool! I'm Italian for crying out loud…do you honestly want to deprive me of my cultural heritage?"

"Of course not! I would never be that cruel. That's why I'm showing it to you now," the cool light of monitor illuminated the amused expression on her face. "So I'm guessing you want to play?"

"Do I want to play?! What kind of question is that? Of course I want to play."

"Okay, okay, steady, my little Italian stallion!" she raised her hands in the air, wiggled her fingers and made a point out of pulling back her sleeves, "First we'll have to create a new character," Abby explained, all business by now.

They spend the next half an hour with creating a character. After they had amused themselves by messing around with his physical attributes for a while (they let him inflate and deflate, changed his hair colour to green and then let him loose his hair all together etc.), they were finally ready to start playing. Tony and Abby took their turns at the keyboard. The vote who was going to control the character at which point of the game, was not entirely democratic. It was decided by means of dirty tricks, basically tickling, theft of food, distraction tactics, but somehow they managed to both enjoyed themselves immensely in the process.

It turned out that Abby was almaringly good at the sneaking around part and the stealth kills. He watched her admiringly and noticed the exited glint in her eye and the way she chewed her bottom lip in concentration, while she played. It was kind of cute. She raised her arms in triumph when she completed the mission successfully and he found himself cheering with her.

At some point Abby declared she was too tired to keep playing, so she crawled over on the couch and watched him. In the course of time she was having more and more trouble concentrating. Tony's eyes were also getting heavier by the minute. He stiffled a yawn, as he felt the numbing feeling of sleepiness spreading in his body. Tony managed to drag himself over to the couch and as soon as he stretched out next to her they both fell asleep.

Ah, so comfortable and warm…he nuzzled closer to the source of the warmth that was wrapped around him like a blanket and buried his face in its soft hair. The smell was so nice each time he inhaled it, it made his stomach tingle happily.

Reality was insistently calling him back out of his sleepy daze via a shrill chirping noise. He inwardly protested, trying to fall asleep again or at least to maintain this pleasant state of semi-consciousness, but unfortunately the persistent ringing drew him further and further towards the state of being awake. He blindly reached out his hand and felt around for his jacket he knew had to be lying on the floor next to the couch. His fingers connected with its leather material, he reached inside and circumstantially produced the cell phone. Its chirping had gotten louder now and sounded almost accusatory. Abby shifted in her sleep.

For the first time today he slowly opened his eyes, squinting against the brightness of the sun that shone in through the window. He could vaguely make out the number on the display and read the name above it…McGee. What could McGee possibly…Work! He opened the phone and drowsily mumbled, "DiNozzo," into the earpiece.

"Tony, we've got ourselves a new case. Gibbs said to call you…," he heard McGee sigh over the line, "I've tried to reach Abby, but she won't answer. Could you try…"

"It's alright, she's here with me," Tony rubbed his face sleepily.

"She's here with you?!" he could practically see McGee's astonished and outraged face. He was probably already starting to get those tiny red dots all over his face, that always seemed to appear when he got embarrassed or fluster or angry... which happened a lot, since Tony made a point of giving him a hard time at work. It was just too much fun. This time he could not amuse himself with the mental image. It caused him to be suddenly fully awake and alert instead.

"Umm…look McGee," Tony cringed inwardly, struggling to find an explanation that would not compromise him any further, but the younger man interrupted him before he could concoct a decent excuse.

"Just spare me the sordid details this time, okay?" McGee sounded pissed. It was clearly evident from his tone of voice that was a mixture of professionalism and suppressed anger, "Try to be quick and bring Abby with you."

"It's not like you…," 'think' he wanted to say – the famous last words. He did not get to complete his sentence, because the line went dead before he could. He made a face and threw his phone on his jacket disdainfully.

tbc