Strings 2
Spoilers: The Immortals, The Curse.
A/N: I love Abby. She's just so absolutely aw. It makes me want to cuddle her.

I realized this fic is gonna be a little longer then I planned. And I know many people thought the first chapter was rather sad. Well, I planed on a drama but it won't be like that all the time. There will be some romance (yay) angst, fluffly and humor if I can do it. I totally suck at humor.

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As she re-entered the house she saw Tony immediately raise his head and look at her, giving her that questioning look and as far as she could tell he held a worried face; sweet, she thought. Lately she was receiving from him more than only his attempts to flirt and those annoying little things he did only to get a rise out of her. She hated that with all her life just as much as she loved it, because in a weird way it meant he cared and he noticed her and the fact he did notice -in any way- made her feel foolishly girly and most of the time she was in deeply denial about that. And she liked to play with him; besides, she wouldn't just let Tony get way with his ridiculous talk and nonsense babbling about hot women.

She gave him only a shrug in response and a deep sigh only herself heard, and searched for Gibbs with her eyes, finding him talking to a cop. Tucking her hands inside her jacket pockets, she strolled towards him, taking her sweet time until she finally reached them and had to face Gibbs, give him nothing. She hated that part, when she had to give him her report and all she had was an empty answer, just like the conversation with the girl. Gibbs would give her that look similar to disappointed, to the 'I expected more from you' crap. Sometimes Gibbs could make her really angry.

God, she felt so nervous. She keenly hoped what she felt inside wasn't plastered over her face. The last thing she needed was Gibbs giving her the 'don't let your feelings interfere in your job' speech; she had heard that before, and she had defended herself then, giving Gibbs the reasons why she felt the way she did, trying to let it clear she wasn't letting her opinions and beliefs cloud her judgment.

Gibbs dismissed the cop with a nod, finished writing down whatever the strong looking cop said that was of importance then turned to Kate and asked her how things went with his looks first, then he spoke. "How did it go?"

Kate shrugged and took her hands out of the pockets to put them on her hips. "She's too scared to say anything. She barely told me her name."

"We're gonna have to get back to her later. She's the only one who saw what happened and can ID the killer."

"I know, but don't you think she needs a little time? She probably saw her parents be murdered. She may never talk at all."

Gibbs crossed his arms and stared deeply at Kate, as if studying her, reading her and she honestly hated when he did that. It made her feel as if she wasn't doing her job right and even if Gibbs was only wanting the best of his team and get the criminals faster it still made her feel incompetent under his scrutinizing eyes. She had to constantly prove him -and herself sometimes- she was capable. "Do you have a problem with that, Agent Todd? You know we need her statement. The sooner we do that the sooner we have the guy nailed."

"I know." She spoke like a true agent, her voice firm and aimed to please. "I just thought..."

"You do what I tell you to do. Is that clear?"

Kate couldn't help but almost let her mouth fall all the way to the floor, a frown on her face and a feeling of that of a child who had just done something terribly wrong and their parent was giving one of those never ending speech; she felt as if she had just been sent to her bedroom. And she had no idea why. "Yeah.."

Gibbs gave her one more look and left the room. Kate didn't really care to follow his way with her eyes, only stood where she was, looking at nothing and trying hard to understand what had happened. Kate harshly pulled the NCIS cap off her head and brought her hand down with another harsh move as the other hand smoothed the dark hair she was sure was spiked in all directions.

"It's not you." Came a soothing voice from somewhere, which didn't click right away and she didn't recognize it with the anger boiling up inside her. When the voice's beholder stepped in front of her with that sun blinding smile that seemed to be always on, she relaxed a little and left herself -even for only two seconds- feel calmed by his eyes, then she noticed what she was doing and snapped out of it. "He's in a bad mood."

"I can see that..." She muttered and this time turned and looked the way Gibbs had gone. Maybe if the reason of his verbal lashing on her was good enough she could very well let it go. "What happened?"

"We may be dealing with a serial killer."

Kate's head snapped up and her eyes met Tony's, seeing in there the same feelings she had right now. "A serial...?"

"Possibly. What is not good at all, especially because Gibbs is all moody with us." The attempt to lighten the mood fell flatten between them though for Kate didn't think it was funny at all. She was deeply in thought, her face held an expression of worry and hurt and still flabbergasted by Gibbs' previous outburst with her. "Hey, you ok?" He asked softly as he put one hand on her shoulder, squeezing it gently.

Both of them were caught completely off guard, Tony literally widening his eyes by the spontaneous gesture and just as quickly taking his hand away seeing the startled look on Kate's face. It just had felt so natural to comfort her, so normal to simply make this bodily contact. But when their skin -or his skin on her shirt- touched she practically could feel the heat irradiating from him and enveloping her through her clothing. It was so nerving, she was starting to get irritated by these little things. Before she was able to dismiss these little moments and forget about them until the next one happened, but now, now Tony just seemed to be causing them more, to be touching her more, to be so much more sweet and caring than he ever was.

It was confusing her.

"Yeah," She murmured and averted her eyes from his. "I'm great."

Now that was just wonderful. Besides this rough case they had to work on she had to deal with all these mixed signals; she had to deal with Tony more than she was used. How wonderful.

Just peachy...

XxXxXxX

"Hey Abbs"

She shifted her look from the microscope to the person -or the persons, Kate and Tony- coming inside her home-like lab. She smiled at Tony's always flirting nature and gave him just as equal comeback, the words crawled out with that hint of seduction. "Hey Tony."

"For your never ending happiness we got you some goodies." He said and put the plastic bags with the evidences over the table letting her take a good look at them. Then, out of habit Tony turned to give Kate a look only to find her glaring at him, that 'You-sure-is-having-fun' hard glare she usually held especially for him. He responded with a mock face and a shrug; she simply rolled her eyes. No use in arguing with him right now.

When Kate focused again on what they were doing at the moment she found Abby smiling widely and curiously at her but switching her eyes between Kate and Tony, trying to catch something. Kate looked at Tony and as always he seemed unaware to the situation at hand. He didn't even seem to notice the weird look and much delighted smile Abby had on her face.

Kate rolled her eyes again. Figures.

"Now, Kate," Abby spoke and much to Kate's unhappiness, she sounded way too cheerful, and, although Abby was regarding the contents inside the bags, Kate could feel the promise in her voice as she went on, "We're gonna get back to that later."

Gonna get back to -what- later? "Huh..." She started, ready to say 'I don't know what you're talking about', but Abby interrupted her thoughts as well as her line as she snapped latex gloves on.

"What do you got for me, hotshot?"

Tony was more than glad to answer that one. "Run the fingerprints, we need to know everyone that was inside the McCole's house and maybe get the ID of the killer." Tony stopped for a second as a though crossed his mind. "But to be honest, are we ever that lucky?" Then the sun-blinding grin was on.

Abby chuckled and raised an eyebrow as she carefully checked the fingerprints. "Nah, either we are cursed or we just ain't the luckiest people in the world."

"Don't say curse. You make me remember of the pretty woman I didn't get to interview."

"Tony," Kate finally spoke after watching the juvenile exchange between him and Abby, "She was married. How many times do I have to say this? Can you have at least SOME respect?"

"Geez, Kate, can't I even look? It never killed anyone only looking." And he gave her a meaning look a he gave her an once over and that huge bright smile, one that she felt so many times impelled to shove away with her hand or made her smile herself. Right now she didn't know which one she wanted to do. As she thought back and forth between punching him or simply smiling back, the decision, however, was made by Abby as she started speaking again.

"Anyways," She said firmly, looking between Kate and Tony, "What else?"

"Gibbs wants the DNA on the blond hair found on the Colonel McCole's body. I think it's from their daughter, though."

"Is she blond?" Abby asked rhetorically as she examined the bag containing the hair against the light.

"Breathing Barbie doll, may I add." Tony said, but with no sarcasm or meaning to offend whatsoever, it only came out because she did look like a Barbie, the cutest Barbie he had ever seen, but Kate seemed to take that more seriously then he intended to sound.

"How can you be so mean, Tony?" She sighed in displeasure and gave him one of her coldest glares, challenging him, daring him to say something, to defend himself.

"I..." He started but was forced to stop when Kate didn't stop talking.

"She's just a 6 years old little girl who just lost her parents and you talk about her as if she's some kind of toy? Don't you have any heart inside this horny body? All you can think about is getting laid? You really should have some consideration now and then, you know." She crossed her arms and gave him another cold glare, her face annoyed and angry and hurt even, which caught Tony absolutely off guard and Abby too, who was surprised by her sudden outburst.

"Kate, I didn't mean..."

She didn't let him finish, though, as she threw her hands up and let them fall harshly around her body. "You know what? I'm outta here." And before either of them could say anything she had stormed out of Abby's lab, leaving Tony and Abby to stare shocked at each other.

"What the hell...?" Tony murmured half to himself, half to Abby, who in return only shrugged.

XxXxXxX

She sensed him throw a look at her for the tenth time in five minutes and this time it lingered on her a little longer than the last few. She was trying hard not to look up and stare at him, give him a warning glare to stop it. It was making her very annoyed and getting on the edge of irritated. She was considering just pretending he wasn't there or just giving him the damn glare already and getting this over with.

Truth was, she didn't want to look him on the face. Not after her ridiculous out burst.

Things were really messed up. It was absolutely amazing how things could come crashing down everything at once. And now, to add to her perfect day a major headache was forming inside her skull. Kate brought her hands up and pressed two fingers onto her temples, massaging softly in a hopeful attempt to keep it from getting bigger. Lame, lame... and there it was again, Tony's eyes on her... "Tony," She hissed between clenched teeth. "Will you STOP that..." Then she made the mistake of looking at him.

He held that innocent face, one that had no idea what she was talking about, which he probably wasn't sure. "Doing what? I'm not doing anything." The important fact was, to Tony, she was talking to him, sounding very mad, but talking to him. This had to be a good sign, right?

She let out a big, noisy sigh and closed her eyes, wishing all her irritation and pain out of her systems. Either that or she'd end up killing someone. Most likely Tony. She didn't bother to answer him, though, instead started going through her desk drawers and purse in search of any pain killer, an aspirin, anything to make that damned headache go away. "Damn it." She cursed under her breath when her search turned out to be result less.

Tony gave her a sideways glance, careful not to look for too long, and raised an eyebrow. Now he really wanted to know what was going on with her. Before he could say anything, though, Gibbs stormed inside the office and stopped in the middle of their desks; carrying, as always, a cup of coffee.

"You all know we may be dealing with a serial killer." Gibbs stopped to take a long drink of his coffee and the rest of the NCIS team used the opportunity exchange looks between them. Tony gave Kate a look she didn't really understood the meaning but before she could read more into it he looked at McGee and raised his eyebrows as if torturing the poor guy now that he would have to work harder. And Tony would make sure of that. McGee quickly shifted his look to Kate in a silent plea but she only shrugged and gave him a sympathetic smile. You're on your own, McGee. "We're gonna be sure of that, though, when Ducky is done with the autopsy."

"What makes you think we can be dealing with a serial?" Tony asked carefully, shifting nervously in his chair when Gibbs looked at him and their eyes met.

"The stabbing is what called our attention more. Similar to other four deaths, two couples. They weren't in the Navy, though."

"Well, that's..."

Gibbs didn't wait for Tony to finish as he looked at Kate and spoke to her, "Kate, do you have a profile on the couple?"

Kate sighed and got up, slowly, retrieving a file from her desk. The frown on her face was clearly visible but Gibbs decided not to ask. "Yeah." She crawled the words out and started reading what was in the file. "They were married for eight years now, husband was working on the Navy and wife was with the Marine Corps. Commander Robert McCole, 32 years old, got in at age of 18. Colonel Elizabeth McCole was in the joined the Marine Corps ten years ago. She got in when she was 21 after she was caught stealing a drugstore. She was given the option of joining the military or going to prison."

"Does she have a past? Anything that would get her killed? Drugs?"

"No." She closed the file and tucked it under her arm. "Besides the fact she stole a drugstore there is nothing that would stain her file. She wasn't even stealing drugs. It says that she stole basic medication, first aid kit, vitamins, aspirin, this kind of things. No other record on her file. Never arrested or caught drugged. Nothing. That's why she was given that option."

"What about Commander McCole?"

"Clear. He has a clean file, never done a single fault, it was pretty amazing actually. He had a great career ahead. Same to his wife. After she joined the Marine Corps all her file ever got were thumbs up."

"McGee, I want you to go talk to the lady who called the cops again, make sure nothing is left out. I want a sketch of the killer, or anything she's able to give." McGee was quick to get up and nod. "If we get nothing and Ducky's autopsy comes out to be a stand alone murder we're gonna have to talk to the kid." His look was directioned to Kate, hard and firm, almost as if daring her to disagree, which she didn't. She simple nodded along with everyone else.

Gibbs took another drink of his coffee and was quite for a moment. There was something more there, both to the case and Kate. And if she kept on with that attitude he'd have to give her a call. Get off her whatever was bothering her, even if he had to make it an order. And as she looked at his agents and saw and felt the thick tension between, he hoped they hadn't argued again, and that if it was what was causing Kate to act like that he would have to tell them to get a grip and fix whatever was going on between them.

As much as he didn't like any other kind of relationship in the office other then the working one, he cared about his agents and this game of tiptoeing each other around and not looking in each other eyes, or even on the face was getting on Gibbs nerves.

The sound of light steps took Gibbs out of his thoughts and he realized Kate was moving. "I'm going to get something to drink." She whispered as she passed by him.

Gibbs barely nodded and not even cared to watch her go, as his eyes were fixed on Tony. "DiNozzo." He said as soon as Kate was out of earshot. The sound of his voice, firm and slightly impatient too made Tony nearly jump out of his chair. "What did you do this time?"

Tony's mouth opened and closed a few times as he looked the way Kate had gone and back to Gibbs. Why did everyone have to assume he had something to do with Kate when she was in a mood? "Me? Nothing." He shook his head a little to fast trying to make Gibbs believe him. "I didn't do anything!"

"Right" Gibbs said as he regarded Tony, looking at him for so long that made Tony's ear go red and he looked at anywhere but Gibbs direction. "Whatever it is, fix it." He said, or basically ordered and before Tony could even argue in his defense, Gibbs was out of earshot. Unless he yelled, which wasn't an option.

Tony stared after Gibbs, and crossed his arms. Again, why did everyone have to assume he had something to do with Kate when she was in a mood? And now he was the one who would have to fix whatever was going on with her. 'Well,' He thought, women always liked to be right... right? So all he would have to do was say he was sorry, he wouldn't do that again and voila! It would be all good again. Or so he hoped, unless, of course he found out what was bothering her so much.

With the thought in mind, Tony grabbed his jacket and run to the elevator. Maybe he could catch Kate and get her to talk. Just maybe for once they would be able to figure things out without the always present bickering, though, Tony couldn't deny, it was fun.

Tormenting her was fun.

Because he couldn't have it the other way.

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TBC.

A/N 2: So, I think I didn't forget anything this time, did I? I sure hope not lol.

Thank you so muchfor the reviews!