Chapter 6 - Ziva gets the Dirt and Abby comes clean

Abby flushed the toilet for what seemed like the fiftieth time for the day and opened the stall door. She stopped short as she ran into Ziva.

"Why haven't you told McGee about the baby?" she asked levelly.

"What, are you talking about?" Abby said hurriedly dodging around her and heading for the basin.

"Don't try to deny this," Ziva started. "I am a trained liar and a trained observer and you," she rounded on Abby and poked her in the arm, "are in this bathroom ten times an hour, you've gone up two cup sizes, you've put water in your Caf-Pow container, you're getting forgetful, touchy and, let's not mince words, hormonal."

Abby looked down with tears in her eyes. "How did you know it was McGee?"

"Oh come on!" exclaimed Ziva in exasperation. "You've been ripping him to shreds for weeks. He has no idea what's going on. Do you know that he has been surfing for places to rent in Norfolk in his lunchtime? He's even lining up jobs there. You don't see him in car when we go out. Do you know we see him cry in the rear vision mirror? You've got to tell him."

Abby was shocked. She had shut him out to protect him. Well, no to protect herself. Well, not really, at first she was really mad at him, and wanted him to suffer as she was suffering, then she was sure there was some protecting going on somewhere but she couldn't remember where that fell in the scheme of things. Ziva was talking again.

"You do realise there are places you can go to abort."

That snapped Abby back to reality. "Yeah, I thought about that but my priest pretty much told me it was a one way guaranteed ticket to hell."

"Don't you use any sort of protection?" Ziva was incredulous.

"Well of course I do," Abby explained patiently. "I have everyone scaled. For example Billy-Bob, well, with him I use two condoms and I douche in disinfectant afterwards, but McGee's on the good list. I told him to not bother with the condoms. He was a bit iffy at first but I told him a girl doesn't get to have the real 'in flesh'; experience much these days and I really trusted him."

"So statistics finally got you?"

"No, I used a diaphragm, with the jelly and everything."

"So what happened?"

"Well, I was probably OK for the first two times but I think it was the morning quickie that sort sealed my fate. I hadn't put any new jelly in and I took out the diaphragm in the shower."

"Hmm," Ziva said thoughtfully. "That was careless." Then she looked up suddenly. "You did it with McGee three times in less than 12 hours?"

"Yeah, but it was a work night," Abby explained.

"But….McGee?"

"Still waters, cum deep, Ziva," Abby said mischievously.

Ziva looked her in the eyes. "I'm sending him up to your lab. Tell, him now, or I'll tell him for you." She left banging the door behind her.

"McGee," Ziva said firmly as she entered the bullpen. "You need to go talk to Abby".

"You've got to be kidding me," he replied looking back down at his work.

"Now, McGee, this is your chance to get all the answers."

He looked up confused. "What?"

Ziva leant over and whispered closely in his ear. "Before you make any rash decisions to leave here and head back to Norfolk, you need to find out why Abby has been treating you the way she has. Go now."

Then she jerked her head back as McGee jumped up, his chair shooting back to slam into the bookshelf behind him, and sprinted for the elevator.

"What the hell did you say to him to make him go near the Queen of the Undead?" asked Tony.

"Just wait and see," Ziva replied smugly.

For all his haste, McGee slowed cautiously as his neared Abby's liar. No lab, he corrected himself. He could hear music blaring from way down the corridor but as he approached he could also hear Abby crying. Something was up, Abby never cried.

The dread that he had recently acquired on entering the lab was still hanging on doggedly, but curiosity was fast overtaking it. He searched the lab carefully, trying to follow the sounds of crying that were barely audible over the loud music.

"Abby?" he said quietly when he found her under a desk hugging her beloved farting hippo.

"I'm so sorry Timmy," she sniffed hugging her hippo tighter.

He sat down on the floor next to her resting his back against the bench, bringing his knees up and resting his forearms on his knees. He looked across at her hiding under the bench. Mascara was radiating out in star shaped patterns from her eyes and she looked like some bizarre clown.

"You OK?" he asked.

"I'm so sorry for all the mean things I said," she said quietly and a small sob escaped her.

"I think we both said things we regret," he soothed.

"Yeah, but I'm so much better at it than you. Really McGee, we're going to have to work on that."

He gave her a gentle snort.

"It wasn't all bad," said McGee lightly. "You haven't hit me for weeks. The bruises on my arms have pretty much healed….OW!" He tried to direct a frown at her but it dissolved into a smile. It was the first physical contact they had had for a long time and he was going to treasure it, no matter how painful.

"Abbs, what's going on?" he asked gently.

"Promise you won't get mad?"

"I don't think I have any anger left in me Abbs. It can't possibly be worse than the last few weeks. Can it?" his thoughts suddenly flew to the possibilities: plague, rabies, maybe she had killed someone….

Abby took a deep breath. "I've been practising this for a while," she smiled nervously at him. She shut her eyes and said: "McGee, I'm pregnant".

He paused for a moment. "Well, …..ahh, congratulations."

She looked up and smiled at him. It was her first real smile in longer than he could remember.

"I'd forgotten how sweet you are sometimes," she sniffed.

"Come, here," he held up his left arm invitingly and she crawled from under the desk and snuggled up next to him. He laid his arm around her shoulders.

"You're taking this much better than I thought you would," she congratulated him and he gave her a gentle squeeze.

"You do realise we have a great maternity policy here," he started. "You get paid maternity leave, entitlement to part-time work. I'm sure Gibbs would be very supportive. We're one of the few places that actually offers paternity leave."

"So you could take time off too?"

He laughed lightly. "No, that's only for the baby's father, Abs".

She stared at him in silence until he noticed. She saw his face travel the route from confusion to realisation.

"Abby," he gasped, wide-eyed.

"Bingo!" thought Abby, she thought he was taking this far too well.

"Remember the quickie?" He nodded silently, his breath coming in short pants. "Well, I sort of got careless"

"Oh, I'm so sorry Abbs, I knew we shouldn't have gone without condoms. I've ruined your life, haven't I? No wonder you hate me." He would have said more but he was finding it hard to talk since his heart had relocated to his throat.

"I could never hate you McGee," she said.

He looked at her with his eyebrows raised in surprise. After the last few weeks, he had considerable doubts and it showed.

"Really," she affirmed. "I've just been kind of stressed out lately."

"Uh hu," still not convinced he rested his head back against the bench trying to still his breathing and the thumping panic in his head. "Oh wow!" he said quietly.

They sat in silence for a few minutes until McGee gathered himself again.

"So should we get married?"

Abby laughed out loud. "Ever heard the saying about a fish may love a bird but where would they build a home together? No, that is so not happening."

"Oh, OK then." He looked down and the silence descended again.

"Wow, you've ah…really grown, haven't you?" he said a few minutes later looking down at her breasts.

"Yeah, you can look but don't touch. They're really painful and they feel like rocks."

There was another pause as McGee sighed deeply.

"You do know you don't have to go through this alone?" he began as Abby looked up at him. "I can help financially and even help look after the baby. We can make this work Abbs. I really want to give this kid a good life."

Abby smiled at him. "You're too good for me McGee," she said as she hoisted herself up from the floor with McGee trying to push inelegantly from underneath.

McGee struggled to his feet to stand next to her. "We'll be fine," he told her rubbing his hands up and down her arms reassuringly.

"I know," she said and kissed him lightly on the lips. "Now back to work before Gibbs kills you."

"I'm pretty sure I signed my death warrant a couple of months ago," he said ruefully touching her stomach.

By the time he reached the elevator he was congratulating himself on being so cool and calm in the face of such life changing news. As the doors shut, however, he felt an icy shower wash down his entire body, his breath seemed to be coming in short gasps and he couldn't swallow properly. The large pool of saliva currently gathering in his mouth threatened to leak out in a long drool.

By the time the doors opened again, he was a shaking so hard he could hardly stand. His desk looked ridiculously far away. Then he found Tony's face right in front of him.

"Hey McGee," Tony was just too jovial right now. "Why don't we have a little sit down over here."

Firmly but gently, Tony guided McGee to his chair and made sure he was sitting. He was just giving Ziva a 'see how easy it is' shrug with his arms open wide when he saw Ziva squeeze her eyes shut. He turned to see McGee pitch forward, crack his head on the desk on the way down and land in a crumpled mass on the floor.

"Ohhh," Tony winced. "So close."

He and Ziva peered together over the side of the desk at McGee. When they looked back Gibbs was right between them.

"What are you two looking at?"

Then he looked down and saw McGee lying on the floor. "Get Abby up here now," he muttered ominously, "and Ducky."

"Gibbs, it's not what you think," Ziva began.

"I have an agent down and a psychotic forensic scientist who is hell bent on killing him. That's what I'm thinking. Any advances on that?"

"Actually, that's a pretty good summary," Ziva admitted. "But they sort of worked it out".

"Oh, I can see that," said Gibbs sarcastically.