Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS, it's characters, or its scripts.
---

"Anything wrong?" Ziva asks, noticing Tony's crabby attitude.
"Well, yeah, there's actually quite a lot wrong Ziva," he snaps. "Aside from McGee's teeth."

The probationary agent frowns at that. He is very sensitive about his, now over-bleached, teeth.

"We have a dead man who shouldn't be dead, and innocent man who isn't really innocent, and a trail that's about to run cold because our perp has managed to stay one step ahead of us since this whole thing started."

The team tries not to let Tony's anger fuel their own.

Gibbs walks into the bullpen and grabs Tony's Dictaphone. "You just noticing that now, DiNozzo?"
"It's kinda' been a theme."

The whole team watches as Gibbs takes out his knife.
But that's only after he bangs the defenseless electronic on the table a few times.
He puts his knife into the seam of the device.

"Careful, Boss," Tony says, knowing that Aggravated Gibbs + Knife + Electronic Device = Broken Electronic Device. "That's easy to-"

Snap!
"…Break."
---

"It's a Short Wave RF Bug," Abby tells Tony in her lab. "Paulson probably planted it in your Dictaphone when he stole your car. And I've been burning campfires to CD. The Dictaphone has been in my lab…pretty much the entire day."
"At least now we know how Paulson tracked down Russel Nash," Tony responds.
"There's the little bugger," Abby picks the bug out of the electronic device with a pair of tweezers.

"Can you backtrack it, Abbs?" Gibbs asks.
"It's impossible without a private cipher. But, I think I know where we can get one." She hands the tweezers to Tony so she can type on her keyboard. "Paulson's crew bugged the bank's general manager for two weeks before the robbery. It was a custom job, just like this one. The cops interviewed the bug maker, cleared him of any involvement. I," she says, "would bet a decaf coffee," Gibbs smiles at that, "that this, came from the same guy."

"How can you tell?" Tony questions.

Abby zooms in on the inscription on the metal. 'SS'
"He signed his name."

"That's good work, Abbs," Gibbs says and kisses her cheek before he leaves with Tony.

Abby sighed as she watched the elevator doors close.
She really needed to take her mind off of her current predicament, or the outcome would not be good for her little Gibblet.

She sat down on the futon and closed her eyes for a moment. Then she popped one eye open, and stared at some leftover paint swatches. 'This has to be some sort of disease…'

She grabbed them and started skimming through the colors. Pastel colors, to calm colors, to dark colors, to Earth tones, to historical colors, to-

Abby dropped the papers on her lap.
This had really lost its appeal, somehow.

Sighing, Abby tried to think about anything other than Gibbs. She absentmindedly drummed on her belly.

She didn't even know she was doing it until she felt the baby copy her actions by kicking to the same beat.
Abby smiled brightly.

The little girl hadn't even been born yet, but she had still induced most of Abby's smiles.

Abby looked at the swatches again and saw a tea color shade.
'Mmm. Now I really want some tea…'

Ducky could definitely fulfill her craving.

Abby used the arm of the futon to help her stand. She quickly flipped over the swatches, lest she develop a craving for some bizarre, purple colored food.

She walked to the elevator and was greeted by some other scientists in the forensic department. Their sides of the conversation consisted mostly of 'What are you doing here?' or 'Well, look who it is.'

Abby was surprised that she didn't get a 'You didn't pop, yet?'
But she was pleased about it at the same time.

She walked into the elevator and pressed the button for autopsy.
The elevator doors opened to Jimmy Palmer.

"Hi, Abby." His eyes wandered to her stomach. "You didn't pop yet?"

It seemed that she had spoken too soon.
All Abby had to do was squint at him.
"Oh - I - Uh… sorry."
She kept squinting, causing Jimmy to get even more nervous. 'Hey, this is kinda' fun!'
"I'll just - uh - move, then." He moved out of her way. Abby exited the lift to give Jimmy access to it.
"Thank you, Palmer," she called over her shoulder.

The doors to autopsy opened with their usual and familiar swoosh and caused Ducky to look up from some paperwork he had been finishing up.
"Why, hello, Abigail," he smiled, causing Abby to smile as well. "What brings you here?"
"I just wanted to see you, Ducky!" Ducky gave her a look, which she tried not to laugh at. "Okay, well I had a craving for some tea. But that was just a plus, Duck-man! I really came down here for you."
Ducky chuckles at this. "Of course you did."

He stands and gestures for her to sit down in his seat. "Why, thank you, Ducky," she says then attempts to bow. "Yikes, remind me not to do that again." Abby rubs her lower back a bit.
Ducky laughs again and gets their favorite type of tea from one of the drawers of his desk.

After the tea is made, he hands Abby her own cup, pulls a chair over for himself and sips at his own.
"Mmm, thanks Duck. You curbed my urge," she smiles.
"You're quite welcome, Dear," he returns her expression. "How's the little one?"
"Active," she responds, patting her abdomen like she always did.
"I'll bet, just like her mother." Abby enjoyed Ducky's fatherly outlook. "Have you thought of a name for her?"

They continued to converse even as Jimmy comes in and continues reading an autopsy journal he had began the week prior, which was written by none other than Doctor Donald Mallard. Sometimes, even though he was concentrating on the journal, he would hear something Abby said and grin down at his book.

"Thanks so much for the tea, Ducky," Abby says, about forty-five minutes later.
"Thank you for your lovely presence, Abigail."

She gives him a hug, which he happily returns.
"See you later, Ducky."
"Take care, Abby."

"Jimmy?" She taps him on the shoulder. He looks up from his book. "Would you care to escort me out?" She teases and holds out her arm.
Palmer smiles brightly at the offer. "Why, I would love to." He puts down the book, stands, and links arms with her.

Abby waves to the older doctor, who waves back. He smiles at the friends as they leave the room to enter the elevator.
"You are quite the lady, Abigail, quite the lady indeed," he chuckles as he returns to his paperwork.
===

"Thanks for coming down here, Palmer," Abby says.
"Any time, Abby."

She notices that Palmer is looking at something. "Palmer?"
"Can I have those paint swatches?"
"Is there some sort of link between cherry-almond hand moisturizer and paint swatches that I don't know about?"
"I just really like those colors…"

'Oh, Jimmy, you really need to get laid.' "Uhh, sure. You can have them. Don't know why you'd want 'em, but you can have 'em."
"Thanks."

He takes them from the arm of the futon and looks through them, mumbling 'Ooooh', 'Calming', and 'Spunky!' when he comes across a color he likes.
"I have some more if you want them…?"
Jimmy's head snaps up. "Really?"
"Yeah." Abby was trying so hard not to pee her pants laughing. "I could get them if you want." She gestures toward her office.
"Yeah, sure, sure."

Abby knew she was just supporting the poor boy's addiction to fine, assorted paint swatches, but it was so much fun!

She walked into her office and was about to rummage through her desk drawers when she felt it.

Did she just pee her pants laughing? No, but she knew why it felt like she just did…

Her water just broke.
She was having the baby.
---

A/N: I wrote the part about Abby's back hurting from bowing before I looked up some of the things that can happen in pregnancy. It turns out that most women experience lower-back pain before they realize that they are about to have the baby. It's kind of like a psycic thing, I guess, haha.
I have never been pregnant before (I am only 12!), so forgive me if anything in the next chapter is inaccurate.
Lol, cliffie!

Review!