Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS, its characters, or its scripts.
Spoilers: About Face
A/N: Sorry, but it's mostly script. Hope it's worth it though!
Some information was left out in the story or was summarized in a sentence or two due to the lack of time I had. But I trust all of you have seen the episode, ;)
Due to a minor snafu when I was writing, I nearly completed the next chapter instead of putting my full attention onto this one, which is why this is a bit late. Either way, I believe the next chapter will be much better than this one!
---X---

"It's alright. Just take your time, Jimmy," Abby told Palmer as she tried to get an accurate description of the shooter out of him.
He nodded. Just thinking about that incident got him jittery and nervous, he'd already knocked a few things over. What was wrong with him? Why couldn't he just remember? The only thing he knew about the man was average height, average weight, average everything. And…He had two eyes. But knowing that didn't help the situation much.

Abby's lab phone started ringing. She sighed.
"Just try to remember as best as you can, Palmer." She had to keep reminding herself that she was talking to an adult.
She pushed off from her desk to get to the office where her phone was, then she answered.

"Abby's labby."
[Hey Abbs,] Gibbs spoke from the phone. [You get a description from Palmer yet?]
She lowered her voice so that Jimmy couldn't hear her. "Sorry, nothing very useful yet," Abby informed him as she took a glance over at Palmer, who looked as if he was desperately trying to remember.
Gibbs nodded and sighed. [Anything on that substance that the victim was breathing?]
"No, but I'll probably be getting a ding in a few hours."

Ding!

Abby jumped. Then she saw that it was just someone stepping out of the elevator.
"Did you plan that?" She smiled. Even if it was far fetched, she still wouldn't put it past him.
He laughed. [Sometimes things just work out that way…Call me when you get anything, Abby.]
She could still hear the smile in his voice. "Will do, my Silver Haired Fox."

Abby ended the call with a smile and went back over to Palmer.
"Okay, Jimmy. Did you think of anything while I was on the phone?"
Palmer took a second to collect his thoughts. "Flare his nostrils."
Abby made the nostrils on the image larger.
"Now split the difference," he said and watched as she did so.
"What about the ears?"
"Uhh…Bigger?" Abby increased the size ten fold and smiled at him. "Well not that big." She made them a normal proportion. "Yeah, like that."

Jimmy looked over the image. "Now increase the density of the orbicularis oris area."
Abby gave him a strange look.
"The space between the nose and the upper lip…?"
"Oh! We call that a cupid's bow…One time I got my lip stuck in a vacuum cleaner display at a department store. I lost like, a quart of saliva before my cousin pulled the plug. I still have nightmares about it. Can't be alone with a HEPA filter."
He gave her a strange look. "How old were you?"
"Twenty-two. It was like Fat Tuesday, or Arbor Day…"

"That's him! That is the guy!" Jimmy exclaimed.
Abby looked at the image skeptically. "You're sure? That's the guy who picked up the passport?"
"Positive!"
She looked at him sadly. "You were shot at by Doctor Jekyll?"
"Well, I think you're referring to Mister Hyde, Doctor Jekyll just invented the potion, but- Look, you have captured his essence perfectly, his anger, his intent…"
"His likeness? It's his likeness. That's kind of the point here."
He looked as if he was about to say something, then he took another look at the picture. Who was he kidding? That looked nothing like any kind of shooter, not even like a human being.
Palmer's features turned sad.
"Maybe we should just start over then…"
Abby sighed. "He was a white guy, right?"

Palmer exhaled in frustration. "First, I can't catch him, now, I can't even identify him! Gibbs must think I'm useless!"

"No way, Jimmy! You went after a bad guy! He had a gun! Face it, Palmer, you…are a stud-muffin."
He looked up. "Really?"
"No… You know what? You, are baby Gibbs!"
Palmer grinned.
"Come on. Let's start over on this." She refreshed the picture.
Jimmy put on his poker face and got to work. "Now make the bridge of his nose flatter…"
---X---

"I'm really trying here, McGee."
"Jimmy, I know. Focus, passport."
Palmer took a deep breath. "Uhh. Okay. Blue? Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was dark blue."
"Yes, you have narrowed it down to the most popular passport color in the world."
"Sorry, McGee." Palmer was disappointed in himself.
"It's all right. Don't worry. We're gonna' get this guy. Again, these represent every dark blue passport in the world from Argentina, to Zimbabwe."
"There's so many…"
"Seventy-two. With each country averaging ten percent of the population with passports, we're looking at approximately two hundred million suspects…Give or take a few million."

Palmer stood and walked around the room a little bit. "You know, I took a two week survival course. Two weeks alone. I even encountered a bear. I have a ten second encounter with a bad guy and I go blank… I do not understand."
"Was that bear in the woods packing heat?" McGee asked.
Jimmy smiled. "No."
"There you go," McGee smiled back.
"I guess you never know, do you."
"What?"
"How you'll respond. In a moment of crisis, you have a split second to make a decision."
"Jimmy, someone was pointing a gun at you; in that split second you chose to duck. I think you passed with flying colors."

"It's like it fried my brain circuitry," Jimmy told him sitting down and massaging a would-be migraine away.
Tim patted him on the shoulder. "We're gonna' fix that, okay?"
"You mind if I ask you a personal question?"
"Go ahead."
"How did you handle getting shot at the first time?"
"Well you know I'm a trained federal agent, it's not really a fair comparison," Tim swiftly dodged the question.
"I'm not a lot of help am I?"
"You know, there is something else that we could try…"
---X---
Abby's Lab

"Your eyes are getting heavy. All information is recorded in the subconscious mind. I'm gonna' count down from three, as I'm counting down, you're going to enter a state of relaxation. Three, you're getting calmed and relaxed, two, you're going to a deeper state of comfort, one, you're in a deep-" Abby leaned forward and tapped on his nose with her palm, "-sleep." His head fell back as if he'd fallen asleep.

"You're at peace. You have the ability to retrieve any information at will. You have total recall. If at any time you feel a block to your memory, take a deep breath and the block will melt away. Understand?" He nodded. "Okay, I'm going to take you back to yesterday. You're at the crime scene. You look down, and see a passport. It's vinyl, dark blue."
"Vinyl?"
"Yes."
"Dark blue?"
"Yes. Now pick it up."
"No, I'm gonna' get hurt!" He said like a child.
"You're safe here, Jimmy. Now take a deep breath." He did so. "Okay, you're at the crime scene, you look down, and what do you see?"

"Leather," he responded dreamily. "Light brown."
"What?" Abby asked, getting out of her calm, peaceful mood.
Tim shrugged.
"Okay," she went on. "Pick it up and look at it. Are you doing it?"
"Mhmmm."
"What does it say?"
"Cole Haan, low boot, size seven and a half."

Abby looked over at McGee, bewildered. "Sounds like a woman's boot," he said.
Abby exhaled, frustrated. "Jimmy, put Ziva's boot down," she told him sternly. "Do you hear me? This is Abby."
"Oh, Abby. Black high platforms, Demonia, size ten…"
"Jimmy!"

"Wha-What?! Did we catch him? Did we learn anything about this guy?"
"No but we definitely learned something about you."
"Whatever it is, it's not what you think."
"If the shoe fits," Tim said.
"Wait! Where are you going?"
"These boots were made for walking."
"You can't just give up!"

"We're not giving up, Jimmy." Abby frowned.
"We're moving on," Tim finished for her.

"We've got to get this guy! Please, just try again. Just one more time?"
McGee and Abby exchanged glances then Abby made up her mind and pulled out her lighter for another round of hypnosis.
---X---

Just after another failed attempt at a description, Abby's mass spectrometer told her it had identified the substance from the victim by it's lovely Ding!.
After reviewing the results, she sent Palmer upstairs to find Gibbs to tell him what the substance was.
This lead to a discovery of a body in the pillars at the construction site and crime scene that they were at a day before.

Later, Gibbs entered Abby's lab to receive information about the weapon that was used to kill Baxter, the body found in the support column.

"Hi Gibbs!" Abby said cheerfully, without looking behind her.
"Impressive," Gibbs said walking up to her, smirking.
"Well I learned from the master. That would be you, the master, and I would be the apprentice. The master's apprentice, the apprentice to the master."
Gibbs gave her an amused look.
"Okay, I said 'Hi Gibbs' every ten seconds because I called you down here five minutes ago."
"Mhmm, to tell me what?"
"I took a photo of Baxter's head wound using a oblique angled light source. It makes the impression from the blunt force weapon even clearer. Weapon of choice, bolt cutters."
"A lot of those on a construction site," Gibbs said.
"You bring them to me, and I'll tell you exactly which one. And- that's not all. Ducky found a microscopic piece of metal, in the victim's wound." She walked over to the printer which printed out the results of the metal scan. "It's ninety-nine percent pure copper, zero-point-four phosphorus. I matched it to an electric cable. Do you know what the spot price is for copper, Gibbs?"

"I know our killer does," Gibbs said. He leaned towards Abby and gave her a soft kiss on the cheek. "Thanks, Abbs," he called leaving the room.

"Ahh," she said, recalling a similar event. "I really do love my job."
---X---

"You know, there was a time when I thought I would be an archeologist," Ducky said, putting away the power tools they used to get to the body.
"Really?" Palmer said, genuinely interested.
"Yes, I was in the upper sixth at school. Summer holidays, I volunteered for a dig in Tanzania."
"Well what happened? Why did you decide to go to medical school?"
"Although archeology carried a certain romantic appeal, I soon realized it wasn't in my bones, so to speak. You have to decide what's in your bones, Mister Palmer."
"Not a spine."
"Nonsense. You just have a well developed sense of self-preservation. You're training to be a medical examiner, not an NCIS field agent." He sighed when he saw it only made Jimmy feel worse. "I have no doubt that you had it in you to die a hero's death, but, for the time being I'd appreciate it if you could stay alive to help me examine the dead."
Jimmy gave a small smile at this.

Ding!
"Sorry to interrupt," McGee said, exiting the elevator. "I need to borrow Palmer."
"What's happening?" Jimmy asked.
"We have a suspect."
"What? A suspect?" He asked walking with Tim to the lift. "What did you find out?"

"Sometimes I worry about that young man," Ducky said, ironically, this was directed towards a dead body.
---X---
Later, after Jimmy was able to trap his shooter using the car so that the team can arrest him, they all get the rest of the day off.
---X---
Gibbs' and Abby's house

"Palmer's gallery showing is tonight," Abby said to Gibbs as she walked downstairs to the basement.
"It is?" Gibbs asked, moving the sanding block up and down the boat.
"Mhmm."
"Are you sure he's up to it today? It's been a…rough day." He stopped sanding and leaned on the boat.
"I talked to him about it, he said he wouldn't skip it for the world. And plus, Eunice really wants to know how it goes."
"Eunice?"
She smiled. "His mom."
"Of course." He laughed a bit. "When is it?"
"Eight-thirty. The last time I saw him, he was nearly jumping up and down," she grinned.
He looked to the clock out of habit, he'd been doing that for years, but it hadn't worked for a long time.
"Maybe you should put some batteries in that thing," she told him.
"I haven't gotten around to it."
She took out her bat-phone. "7:15 if you're wondering," she smiled. He nodded.

"Is there something wrong between you and Ducky?" Abby asked suddenly. "You two have been acting hinky around each other lately. I just thought maybe there was a falling out or something…"
"No, nothing like that," he dismissed it. He didn't want her to know why he'd been somewhat avoiding Ducky. When he'd asked him about what he felt for Abby, he closed up. He couldn't help it. He was taught as a Marine to avoid showing emotion like that, but he was never totally comfortable talking about his feelings anyway. "Just a little disagreement."
She nodded. When he was ready to share, he would.

Meanwhile, she decided to go upstairs and pick out what to wear for that night.
---X---

"Palmer must be so excited," Abby told Gibbs as he drove them to the gallery. She was excited as well. She was a bustling ball of energy when it came to something like this.
"I can imagine," Gibbs said his mind clearly had less running through it then Abby's did.
"He said not to call him while we're on our way over because he'd be to nervous. That, and the line would probably be tied up from talking to his mom," she snickered.
Gibbs smirked at that. He'd found Palmer writing an email to his mom earlier that day.

Soon, they arrived at the gallery, with Abby still jumping for joy. Despite that, Abby still waited for him to walk around and open her door for her like she knew he would.

Once they showed their invitations to the man at the door, they went in and saw Palmer waiting for the first people to arrive.
"Jimmy!" Abby said excitedly.
"Hey, Abby!" He called and walked over to them. He was greeted by a massive hug from Abby. After catching his breath, he managed to get a word out. "You both look nice." Abby was in a simple black dress that Gibbs swore he'd seen her wear somewhere else, while Gibbs was wearing what he usually did, only in darker, more formal colors.
Abby smiled at Gibbs, still giddy. "Thanks. You look nice too! Like a photographer." She winked at him.
He blushed a bit. "Hehe, well…"
"When do we start seeing all of your pictures?"
"You can look now if you want. Or you can wait. As long as you tell me your honest opinion when you're done." He smiled, a different smile without his glasses.

"I think we'll look now," she grinned, grabbing Gibbs hand. He knew this was important to her.
"I'm glad you're excited," he said genuinely.
Just as they moved into the room where Jimmy's photos were being displayed Tony and Ziva walked in.

Abby and Gibbs walked around the room, filled with pictures in color, and in black and white. Most pictures were of things at NCIS, specifically people. There was a little bit of everyone really.
As they continued around the room, the rest of the attendants arrived at the gallery. Including Tim and Fiona, Ducky, and the director, not to mention many others. Even Fornell was in attendance. He couldn't pass up, seeing as he was in one or two of the photographs on display.

The first picture that was in line was a picture of Ducky in black and white, observing something carefully under a microscope and taking notes.
"I didn't even see you there," Ducky told Palmer as he walked around with him.

The second was a photo was one of the bullpen. Gibbs was noticeably absent, most likely on a coffee run. Tony had tossed a crumpled piece of paper at Ziva which had frozen midway through its journey across the room. McGee was in it, watching them, amused.
"You should be an agent with all of this sneakiness going on with you," Tony said to Jimmy.

Another one was of Abby, with her bulging baby belly doing what she usually did when she was pregnant in the lab. Looking at paint swatches with one hand on her stomach.
She giggled. "I remember when I used to do that."

There was also one that was taken when Fiona was filling in for Abby. She was looking at something carefully in a test tube. McGee was on the side working on something on the computer, but the picture showed him glancing back at Fiona. The only things that were in color was the green substance in the tube and McGee's eyes.
"I love the effect! But to get that angle, you would have had to be cramped up in the corner, against the desk…"
"I have my ways."

One that really stood out was the picture of when everyone had been putting their hand-prints on the wall of Anna's nursery. Some of the hand-prints were in color, as well as the paint that Fornell had on his nose thanks to Anna.
"What can I say?" Fornell told Gibbs, who hadn't been there. "Kids love me."

One of the photos toward the end showed Gibbs holding Anna.
The memory came back to him vividly.

"Hi, Anna," He whispers lovingly. "I…I'm not your Daddy, I wish I was, but I'm not. I'll probably be the closest thing you'll get to one though…" He smiles. "Sorry."

The memory came with a rush of emotion, but he kept a hold on it. Though it was so much to handle…

The last picture in line, and one of the most popular ones in the gallery, was a picture with almost everyone. Tony, Ziva, and McGee stood in the lab by the plasma, contemplating the image on the screen. Abby and Gibbs were much closer to the camera probably less than a foot away. Not that they would have noticed it, since they were so focused on each other. Gibbs had his arm around Abby while smiling at her, and she was looking up at him with a large grin on her face while she accepted the Caf-Pow! that he handed to her.

Abby smiled sadly at the picture. Gibbs had zoned out while looking at it. She looked at him.
"I…I don't remember this. It looks familiar, but I don't remember it. Do you?"
"Not exactly," he said to her. "I think…I think this is in our house somewhere? I don't know."
"Yeah! I remember framing it once, well I think." She smiled. "Palmer's pretty good at this isn't he?"
"Yeah. Very good. Better than I expected," Gibbs said.
He noticed that they were standing the exact same way they were in the picture.
'What are you trying to tell me?' he looked up in the air and imagined someone was looking back at him.

There always is.
---X---

On the way back Abby had fallen asleep in her seat. Gibbs had picked up Anna from Gertie's like he always did. And all three of them drove home together like they always did. And he watched them both from the corner of his eye, and in the mirror, or even in the windshield's reflection.

Like he always did.

When they arrived home, Gibbs was forced to awaken the sleeping beauty beside him.
"Abbs…" He shook her gently. "Abby, we're home."
She took a deep breath as she woke up from her catnap.
"Hey, Gibbs."
He smiled a little. "Hey Abby."
"Did you like all of the pictures at the gallery?"
"They were great."
"You had a good time?" She asked sleepily.
"Mhmm."

"Good…Maybe one day he'll tell us how he managed to do all that," she said, with a large, tired grin.
"I don't think he'll give it away just yet, Abbs." He took a lock of her hair and swirled it around his calloused fingertips.
"Hm. He's like a magician. They never reveal their secrets."
He dropped her hair and rubbed her shoulder. "That may be so Abbs, but we both know it always gets out. One way, or another...No matter what you're hiding."
---X---