Wow! This chapter is about a half of the material I had wanted to include. I really found my "Abby" ideas and went to it. Now we get to see a bit of why Abby was so upset in the last chapter.

A very morose Abby was seated at a tiny table in a shadowy corner of the lavishly decorated Chinese restaurant. It was her favourite restaurant and she was eating her favourite vegetarian egg roll, but despite that she was no longer her favourite mood - which would be happy. Instead she was sad - very, very sad - because she had discovered something that broke her heart.

She was no longer Gibbs' favourite.

Abby knew that Gibbs never really said that she was his favourite. He definitely treated her differently than his field agents, perhaps even spoiling her a bit, Abby admitted. No one had seemed to mind, and she certainly had not. She missed her own father so much that when Gibbs treated her like his daughter it was very easy for her to fall back into her old role of Daddy's girl. There was really not much that could match the contented feeling she always had when Gibbs praised her. The NCIS could have paid her with pennies and praise and she would have been perfectly content - until today.

Because no longer was she not Gibbs' "favourite" - now he did not even love her.

It was so obvious. He was Santa Claus, one of Abby's favourite people in the world. Well, not exactly a person. He used to be a person - a really good person, the nuns had said - and it was funny for Gibbs to be Santa because she really loved Gibbs and Santa so it made sense that they should be the same person, because Gibbs was like her own personal Santa always bringing her cases to play with and Caf-Pows to drink and she was always good - well, tried to be good….

Abby sighed, wringing her hands. A lonely tear slipped down her check. Her check where Gibbs used to kiss her when she was his favourite. The tear landed on her egg roll, making it appear just as miserable as she was.

Abby grabbed her napkin and scrubbed at her cheek with sudden anger. Why did that Ziva David have to come and steal Gibbs? Now it was obvious that he loved her much more than he loved Abby. After all, who did he choose to be his elf? An elf was like Santa's sidekick. Ziva was like his real sidekick in real life. Why would he not give Abby a turn? Why, did Ziva even celebrate Christmas?!

It was just NOT fair!

Despite herself, Abby felt her anger dissolve with several other tears spilling out of the corner of her eyes.

If only Kate was here. She'd help me. Whenever I'd get upset about something that Gibbs or the boys did, she'd talk to me and help me understand and she'd just let me cry and give me a big hug and wait until I felt better….

That was the true sting in the whole problem.

Deep down inside, Abby knew that she was being silly.

No, being honest, she was being selfish. She wanted to be the one that Gibbs worried about and favoured. She wanted to be by his side.

She just wanted a hug.

She was scared.

She was lonely.

She was grieving.

Abby had been willing to share Gibbs with Kate. After all, Kate was a friend. However, Ziva was not a real friend and Abby was not willing to share Gibbs with someone who was not a friend. Especially not when the non-friend was trying to take the place of the friend.

Even though in her heart she did not really doubt Gibbs' love for her, past loss had made her very sensitive in situations like this. And with all of the changes in her life over the last few months it had been tremendously difficult. Having one of her very best special friends get shot in front of her other special friends, then having an overly confident and tactless assassin come in and try to take her place was like sandpaper on a wound. The whole situation had easily set up Ziva as an "enemy" for Abby to direct her multitude of negative emotions toward. Now Gibbs clearly favouring that assassin, that … intruder, well, it was just ….

Abby wiped at her eyes again, blinking away the tears so that she could see clearly again. And there, by the door, she saw what she least wanted to see - Gibbs leading Ziva into Abby's favourite restaurant.

Abby's heart nearly stopped as she realized what was going on in that moment. Here she was, crying her eyes out because she was hurting, and suddenly Gibbs arrived with the "thing" that was hurting her most. At least that was how she would think about Ziva. It was a lot easier to blame everything on Ziva than get angry that Gibbs and Tony had not been able to rescue Kate, or that sometimes the good guys did not win, or that Gibbs did not seem to notice how much Abby was missing her big sister.

And only that morning Abby had decided to try her best at starting a friendship with Ziva by inviting her to go shopping at the mall. A quietly-made entreaty from McGee had been the catalyst, but Abby had seriously started getting tired of blocking out the new girl. After all, she did miss having another woman around for talks and girls nights and all the special little things that she could not really share with Tim, Tony, and definitely not Gibbs. Well, something went wrong with that plan!

Now it was time for another plan - one that would keep the stone-hearted co-workers from seeing her like this, with streaked make-up and weakness. It was time for action - Abby action.

That was why she immediately dropped to the floor.

"Excuse me, Miss, can I help you?" Abby looked up at the waitress and shook her head.

"No," she whispered in a raspy voice. "Just ... going to the bathroom. I'll be back for my egg roll in a minute. Like, one minute, okay?"

"Uh, okay," the waitress said, stepping back as Abby crawled past. Abby watched Gibbs and Ziva carefully before jumping up behind a fake potted plant. She then slid along the wall, attempting to "blend with the shadows", as she whispered to herself. She received a few strange looks - nothing abnormal. She then let herself into the ladies room and looked at herself in the mirror. In the next two minutes, she had to create a disguise for herself.

Thankfully she had her purse with her.

What do you think will happen next? Will Abby be able to create a disguise? What kind of disguise? And will she be able to get past Ziva and Gibbs? Leave your answers in the comments - who knows? If I really like your ideas I might add them to my story! :)