Chapter 2

"Hey, Timmy," Abby greeted him warmly, as he and Tony strolled in to the break room. "I saved you a seat," she said, patting the chair beside her. They all looked up as Jimmy, and then Ducky, entered the room as well, soon followed by Ziva.

The group raided the food, set out quickly in a makeshift buffet style in the middle of the big table, then settled down for lunch.

McGee sat quietly, smiling at Abby now and then, as the group engaged in small talk. Finally, he said, "Boss, what's your opinion on marriage?"

Abby giggled. "That was random, McGee," she commented lightly, with a wink. McGee glanced at her briefly, then said "I'm serious, Abs," turning back to Gibbs.

Gibbs took a moment to chew and swallow, then shrugged, with both his shoulders, and his eyebrows. "Been there, done that. I guess it's okay for some people. Just make sure you're married to your spouse, and not your career. I made that mistake more times than I can count."

"What about you, Tony?" McGee asked. Tony stopped mid-chew, and looked up, surprised. "I dunno, McGee," he said, then paused to swallow. "I'd avoid it, myself. Well, I mean, I would have before. Maybe with Faith… who knows. Never say never, I guess."

"Ah, 'Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments,' Ducky said thoughtfully. "Shakespeare, right Doctor?" Jimmy asked, green eyes shining with curiosity, and a slight 'surprised-himself-that-he-knew-that' expression. "Why, yes, Mr. Palmer. Indeed. One of the sonnets, in fact."

"So then, what's your opinion, Ducky?" McGee was on a roll, and seemed truly interested in what his friends and colleagues thought.

"Never pass up the opportunity for something that can be so wonderful as to share your life with someone. I, too, passed up the opportunity at true love, for my career. I suppose, being so young, with such a great number of years still ahead of me, I thought at the time that I had all the time in the world for such things as love and marriage. Of course, I didn't. And now, I suppose it's too late. Ah-well. Such is life, Timothy." McGee smiled at this. "So, you have regrets then, Ducky? That you didn't marry when you could have?"

"Oh, I suppose I do. Sometimes I do wonder what it would have been like to have married, and have had children. Of course, working with the lot of you, it's like I do have children, after all." The older man's blue eyes sparkled as he grinned and chuckled softly.

"What about you, Palmer? What do you think?"

Jimmy glanced up, surprised. "I… uh…" he hesitated, seemingly surprised to be asked his opinion on the weather, let alone something like this.

"Well, I think I'm too young to have an opinion." McGee scowled at him, with an Eyebrow and a glare. "We're the same age, Jimmy. You're not too young, trust me." Jimmy cleared his throat. "Well, admittedly, maybe I'm not too young… but personally, I mean, speaking strictly for myself, I've got a lot of work ahead of me to get my career on track. I really don't have time to think about something that seems so far into the future."

"Oh, but don't do like Ducky did, Jimmy," Ziva said, suddenly. "You don't want to have regrets over what might have been." Jimmy shrugged. "I suppose not. But there's no point in putting the cart before the horse, either. In a few years, once I've got time to have a social life, we'll ask my opinion again, shall we?"

"What do you think, Ziva?" McGee asked, turning to their Mossad liaison officer. Ziva smiled bashfully. "In Mossad, you make a choice. There usually isn't room for that, and marriage, both. But, I'm not in Israel anymore. It would be nice, I suppose. If the right man came along, I'd be open to the idea. Like Tony says… never say never." She smiled warmly at the group, then took another bite of her lunch.

"Abs, what about you?" McGee turned to her. This was getting a little too close for comfort, but if you wanted an omelette, you had to break a few eggs, and maybe get a little on yourself while you were cooking.

Abby stopped what she was doing, and put down her fork. "I guess I never thought about it, Timmy," she said, thoughtfully, after a moment's pondering. "I know that when I think about my future, I only see one person in my life, in that way." She reached over and touched his face softly, then turned back to her meal.

McGee took a deep breath. Tony's eyes grew wide and began to shine, as he saw McGee pause a moment, seemingly making a decision, then reach into his pocket and pull out the small blue box. "Go, McGee," he thought to himself, silently cheering his friend on.

"Well," McGee said, blinking several times and all but passing out before getting the words out of his mouth. "Abby, when I think about my future, I only see one person, too. So… how about we think about it, together?"

The room grew silent as theteam at the table stopped dead, mid-chew, and forks in mid-air. Jimmy glanced at Abby, then at Ducky, and the two morgue personnel grinned. Gibbs' blue eyes began to sparkle, as Ziva's eyes began to mist over.

McGee stood up suddenly, pushing his chair away with the backs of his legs, and got down on one knee. He swallowed hard, and Abby stared at him, in total, utter disbelief.

"Abby, you know how much I love you. I've loved you… well, pretty much since I transferred here from Norfolk." Abby's jaw dropped, and her eyes grew wider than McGee ever thought possible, even for Abby – and she'd mastered the big wide, green eyed look. She stared at his hands, as they popped open the small box and pulled out the ring. "Will you marry me?"

"Uh…" she stammered. "Umm…" Immediately, McGee took on the stricken, guilty look of a little boy, caught doing something he shouldn't have been doing. He swallowed hard, then stood up. "Oh, I'm sorry, Abby… I didn't mean to… I mean… I put you on the spot… just, uh… forg-"

Abby's eyes never left him as he stood up. She smiled up at him as she seemed to find her voice, and her bearings, as well. "Shut up, McGee," she said, as she stood up herself, pushing her own chair away. "Are you gonna let me get a word in edgewise so I can say yes, or what?"

Tony chuckled softly, watching the expression on McGee's face morph from utter mortification, to the purest joy and surprised delight.

Gibbs smiled, thinking that he really needed to be more clear about Rule 12. This display was in serious breech of that particular law... Ah, hell... they looked so happy... who the hell really cared about that stupid rule, anyway?

Ziva grabbed for a napkin, dabbing her eyes, and blowing her nose with a shockingly resounding honk.

Jimmy grinned. Abby was more like a sister to him, anyway. Sure, he loved her too – but not anything like McGee did. Life had been a hell of a lot simpler at work once he'd gotten his head around that concept.

Ducky smiled as well, thinking that perhaps it would have been more proper if Timothy had asked his blessing first… but no, Abigail wasn't really his daughter – it only felt like she was.

Abby held out her hand and watched as he slipped the ring on to her finger – a perfect fit. She wondered how he'd done that, then she remembered an oddly placed ink mark on one of his fingers, several months prior. She hadn't given it any thought back then, but now realized, he'd been measuring one of her rings, for size. So, this wasn't entirely spontaneous. She just wasn't sure that he'd planned to ask her now, like this.

She threw her arms around his neck and squeezed him hard, completely oblivious to the others around them. "Ungh… Abby… honey… can't… breathe…" he gasped, shocked at her strength.

Well, loving Abby was easy, but surrounded by friends and colleagues, he admitted to himself, with more than a little relief, that proposal part hadn't been so hard, after all.