Ducky ran into the lab and found Steve tied to a table leg, his face soaked in a familiar cherry flavored beverage. Abby stepped away from her handiwork and looked up at the medical examiner.
"Is Gibbs back yet?" she asked casually. "I think I can handle only so many criminals on my own." Steve glared at her, but she ignored him.
"Oh, Abigail..." Ducky led her out of the lab, hoping she wasn't injured. She remained oddly quiet the whole way down to autopsy, barely acknoledging Jimmy's presence when they arrived.
"Where's Gibbs?" she demanded some time later.
"I don't know."
"I'd like to know where he is, and my husband too! Do you have any idea what it's like to not know-"
"Calm down," Gibbs interrupted, appearing behind her. Abby spun around and gasped in shock. Gibbs, Tony, Ziva, and Tim all looked dirty and exhusted, as if they had walked a very long way.
"Lost the evidence," Tony said. "Some idiot in a dark blue minivan tried to run us down and we slammed into the silo, which slammed back like the Whomping Willow."
"You mean the one from Harry Potter?" Ziva asked. McGee tried his hardest to keep a neutral expression. Abby pulled McGee into a hug first, then Gibbs, Tony, and Ziva.
"I was so worried!"
"Yeah, I can tell," Tony snorted. Gibbs gave him a look.
"Oh, by the way you have a little surprise waiting for you down in my lab," she added. "I'll be right back." She ran off, giving McGee a knowing look.
"That was strange," Tony commented. He shrugged and turned to Ziva.
"I just heard from Jewel before we came here. She'll be back with our kids and Abby's son in half an hour. Apparently, Daniela had a little date with Nate earlier today while we were on our little excursion on the farm."
"That sounds fine," Ziva replied. "I do miss holding each of my children. Have you seen Jane sit up at all?"
"Actually, she's started creeping," Tony said with a huge grin on his face. During all of this, Ducky noticed McGee quietly slip away. Gibbs didn't appear to be aware of it, but then again, it was hard to read the man most of the time, and that was on a good day. Ducky frowned, but did not mention what he saw.
"Dr. Mallard, since they didn't bring back the evidence, what are we supposed to do?" Palmer piped up.
"What, indeed," Vance said. "Gibbs, come with me." The silver haired man went off without complaint.
"I'll take care of Abby's...surprise in the lab." Jimmy muttered something about his wife and left as well. Tony was gone seconds afterward, leaving Ziva alone with Ducky.
"I trust that I am not the only one who has noticed something different about Abby," Ziva started cautiously. Ducky looked at her curiously.
"You are not wrong, my dear. What have you noticed?"
"Mood swings, such as the other night at dinner. Then there was her sudden request from Tim." She relayed everything that she knew had occured that day. "Honestly, I'm not sure how Tim doesn't notice what's going on, let alone Abby herself."
"I'm sure you and I both know of her current condition," Ducky said suggestively. The clues all came together and suddenly it dawned on Ziva exactly what secret Abby had managed to keep for who knows how long.
"I've got to hand it to her," Ducky continued happily. "That girl has learned the art of keeping a secret."
"Rule four," Ziva said, nodding in understanding. "What I can't believe is that Gibbs hasn't had that conversation with her again the second he found out."
"Perhaps he has not." Ducky looked thoughtful. "You may think Jethro knows all but in fact that is not true. He happens to have excellent observation and absorption skills. Then there's the matter of his years of experience and remarkable memory, save for the explosion several years ago that brought him into a coma for a week, as we both are aware of. Jethro is merely a man when you come down to it. Perhaps his mind has been elsewhere lately, such as a certain lost redhead whom we dearly miss. Do you know what today is?"
"Of course, " Ziva said softly. "How could I forget? I was planning to visit her grave later today with Tony and the triplets. It would be good for them to know about a Director that can never be replaced." With that, she turned and went off to the bull pen, her thoughts far away from the prospect of Abby having another child and instead focused on her plans for this evening.
NCIS
Tony wandered into Abby's lab, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary except for some cut ropes, an empty Caf-Pow! and spilled Caf-Pow! on the floor. He looked up and saw Steve was half out of the already broken window. Shards of bloody glass littered the floor. Tony made no hesitation in whipping out his gun and pointing it up at Steve.
"NCIS, get down here now!" he yelled. Steve dropped to the floor in surprise, groaning in pain upon his landing. Tony wondered whether he should just shoot the man or bring him in for interrogation. Then again, he actually hadn't done anything incriminating yet, so it probably would be smarter to do the latter.
"You're coming with me," Tony said firmly.
NCIS
"I hate this part of being pregnant," Abby grumbled as she left the restroom with her husband. "I'd like to actually be able to eat something for once."
"It'll all be over soon," Tim said, trying to reassure her. "Before you know it, we'll be introducing Rylan to his new baby brother or sister." Abby managed a small smile, though she was still feeling the after effects of morning sickness. She tried her best not to let it get to her, though. They came into the bullpen and saw Ziva trying to feed her three children. Jewel was currently playing with Rylan. She looked up when they came in.
"Abby, so good to see you!" she enthused. "Here you go, little guy. Your mommy's here." She took Rylan from Jewel, automatically placing him in her arms properly.
"Thank you for watching him," Abby said. "Things get pretty crazy around here..."
"I know," Jewel said, laughing slightly. "I remember over the weekend that Tony had come over asking if I had ordered that pinapple pizza from last night. As it turns out, he was terribly drunk. Ziva had to come over and collect him. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have known what to do. He does very strange things when he's drunk..." Jewel trailed off wistfully.
"That really isn't what I was talking about." Abby frowned. "But that's a pretty funny story! You'll have to go into more detail later about that." She leaned into McGee, feeling slightly dizzy. She handed off the baby to him and went to sit at Tony's desk in an attempt to hide her sudden vertigo sensation. Ziva glanced at her but otherwise gave no sign that she knew what was going on.
"So, where's Daniela and Adien?" McGee asked Jewel, changing the subject. She suddenly got a sad, regretful look in her eyes.
"At home," she replied softly. "Adien got laid off a couple weeks ago, and he's having a hard time finding a job."
"That's terrible," Abby cried out. "I hope he finds another job."
"Me too," Jewel murmured, mostly to herself.
Meanwhile, in interrogation room seven...
Steve blinked when the light clicked on. Anthony Dinozzo Junior sat down across from him, looking uncharacteristicly serious. It was unnerving to see no expression on this man's face.
"So," Tony said, gazing steadily at Steve. "What brings you so unexpectedly by NCIS? Unexpectedly enough, in fact, to have you arrested not only for trespassing, but destruction of federal property." Steve knew what was coming: a round of questions that would point to his purpose and overall land him in jail. Even if he lied, they'd catch him eventually. There was just no running anymore. Besides, at least there he would be alive. So he told Tony everything, not leaving out a single detail. From a nice, safe cell he could plan his revenge. And this time he knew who to kill. Tony was the one who fired the gun, not Abby, according to his sources.
"You're under arrest for..." The list went on and on. Steve ignored it. The handcuffs weren't so bad. Maybe he should rot in jail just out of spite.
NCIS
"I understand you have lost track of the evidence of our most recent case," Vance said. Gibbs remained silent, predictably. "Would you care to explain what happened, exactly?" He sat down at his desk. Instead of Gibbs providing short, clipped sentences, he told Vance everything that had happened earlier that day.
"We also caught a security breach in the building not too long ago. Looks like Abby and Dinozzo detained Steve properly, though. He'll be behind bars for some time now." Gibbs stared in shock. When had this happened? Why wasn't he told about this sooner? He remembered Abby saying something about a surprise in her lab...he should've paid more attention to what was meant behind the words.
"Is that it, then?" Gibbs asked. "What about the evidence?"
"I had Fornell's team go take a look at your described crash site for any remains...some evidence is better than none. I take it that Ducky finally got the body from the FBI after having it examined?"
"There was a delay for some reason," Gibbs noted. "I'll have Ziva look into that."
"Well, there are some aspects that aren't in your field, Gibbs. He may be a Marine, but that's the only reason you even have this case."
"The victim is a woman," Gibbs stated gruffly.
"I see. Well, if Fornell doesn't come up with anything, you and the FBI are going back to the crime scene. If nothing else remains, you're explaining this to SecNav Wednesday in MTAC."
AN: Ooh, Ziva and Ducky know Abby's secret now! Who should be next to find out?
