Jan 20
The miracle of friendship usually begins with a simple smile.
The elevator doors opened, and Tony found himself assaulted by the blaring music.
It was only his second week as a federal agent, and between his new boss hitting the back of his head every two minutes and the Medical Examiner giving him extremely long winded explanations, he had been glad to be dispatched to 'Abby's Lab'.
Now, it appeared that his hope was about to be extinguished.
He walked into the room, evidence bag in hand, and prepared to meet the monster within.
He wasn't expecting to be attacked by a black blur.
He took a few steps backwards reflexively, trying to regain his balance. The blur either didn't notice or didn't care. Just as suddenly, he was released and he stared at the person in front of him.
Definitely a Goth. Long, black pigtails, black lipstick, extra mascara. Her skirt was far shorter than the regulations allowed, and her top was incredibly tight.
"Whathaveyougot?" she squealed. It took him a moment to separate the sounds out.
"Erm, this." He held up the bag and she snatched it from his fingers. The Goth ran towards her equipment as fast as she could, while signing the chain of evidence log and talking as fast as she could.
"Oh, paint flecks, I love paint flecks, they're so cool, they show how many times the vehicle has been painted and sprayed and how good a job was done every time, but this should take almost no time at all, which is great because I've already got another four jobs for the bossman and they are going to take ages and he doesn't like to have to wait –"
He tuned her excited babbling out. She didn't seem to need to breathe. He was supposed to work with this madwoman? Was everyone around here crazy? He knew he should have gone somewhere else. Maybe somewhere warm, like Hawaii…
He finally noticed that she had stopped speaking and was staring at him.
"Hi," he told her.
"Hi," she replied. "I'm Abby, and you must be DiNardo."
"DiNozzo," he corrected, wincing slightly. Gibbs was having serious problems with his name.
"Okay, DiNozzo. Got a first name?"
"Tony."
"Cool! I'll call you Tony then." She turned back to her computer. "Don't worry; Gibbs will remember your name at some stage."
He assumed it was his signal to leave, and he headed back towards the relative safety of the elevator.
"Tony!" came a call.
He stuck his head round the door.
"Nice to meet you," she smiled.