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Dr. Mallard casually walked into the break room of NCIS headquarters in the hopes of a respite from the nonsensical blatherings of his assistant, Mr. Palmer, but what he found there was slightly disturbing to him. Seated at the table, holding her chin in her hands and a horribly dejected expression on her face, Ducky found Abby.
Ducky tucked his own chin down and stood beside Abby when he placed a caring hand upon her shoulder, "Why the long face, my dear?"
Abby looked up at Ducky with the saddest of eyes, "Ducky, I am such a jerk."
Ducky chuckled a bit at her self-derision, "Now, now, Abigail… I doubt that very much, so just tell me what has caused this latest bout of melancholy." He patted her gently on the head as he took the seat beside her.
Abby leaned her head on Ducky's shoulder and heaved a deep sigh when he brought his arm around her. "I really did it this time, Ducky… I mean really did it."
Ducky just continued to pat her arm, "From the sounds of it, I imagine this involves Timothy, again."
"AH… Ducky not everything I do wrong involves McGee…" Abby sat up, attempting to rebuke Ducky's assumption. "Well, not all of it anyway." And she sunk back down into his shoulder.
"Of course, my dear… Of course; now why don't you just talk to me about it and let us see if we can find a way to fix things, shall we?" Ducky just held her tighter and waited for her to begin.
She took another deep breath and quickly exhaled it, "Ducky, I made a total ass of myself with the Major. I mean big time, big time, Duck."
Now it was Ducky's turn to sigh, "Ah yes, well then, perhaps we should both devise horrible punishments for ourselves." Abby turned to look Ducky in the eye to show him her confusion, "I am afraid that I too, behaved quite poorly for the Major."
"You too, Ducky? What happened?"
"Well, let us just say that the old fellow felt a bit threatened by the young hot shot coming in to review his work… And perhaps I went a little too far in defending my findings." Abby was shocked to hear Ducky's confession. "Once I realized the error of my ways, I made certain to apologize to the young woman, but I am still feeling a bit iniquitous in regards to my behavior."
Abby wrapped her arms around Ducky and hugged him tight, "That's okay, Duckman… At least you had a good reason for going off on the Major. Me? I was just being a jerk." Abby let go of Ducky and got up from her seat. "I really did it this time, Ducky… Plus, I couldn't even stop at being a jerk to the Major, I had to take it out on poor McGee." She had started pacing back and forth, "First of all, I pulled a Gibbs and totally tried to interrogate her. That was bad, but that was the amateur stuff, Duck… I was just warming up for being a complete idiot, ya know."
She was chewing on her fingernails as she continued to pace and talk, "I mean, she just took me by surprise, ya know. I wasn't expecting her to ask about Kate. And I sure didn't have any idea she knew what she was talking about. So, ya know, I went off and said like terrible things, Ducky…" Her arm was gesturing wildly as she spoke, "As soon as I actually thought about it I realized what was going on, and then I felt like total crap, ya know. But before I could figure it all out, McGee came in and I was like totally embarrassed and a little freaked out and I just jumped on him from out of nowhere. He looked like I just shot his dog, but I was just so angry at myself, ya know, and I didn't have time to think before he came in and I just spewed out my anger at him and totally took him by surprise. And then I felt even worse when the Major totally covered for me and got McGee to go to her side of the room."
Abby turned and stood facing Ducky dead on and tried to put even more emphasis in her statement, "Ducky I was like completely horrible to her and she was trying to help me save face with McGee!" Her eyes were now wide with her astonishment, "How could I have been such a jerk to someone like that?!" With her energy expended in her explanation she dropped back into the chair once more.
Ducky, again, placed his caring hand upon her shoulder and tried to calm the young Goth down, "Oh my dear, I am quite certain that the Major understood what was really happening. I doubt that she would hold any such thing against, Abigail."
Abby looked up at him with a tragic and worrisome expression, "I was just so mean, Ducky… And so wrong… How can I make up for something like that? To either of them?"
Ducky just patted her hand and shook his head, "I am certain that we shall think of something, my dear… We shall think of something for the both of us."