Disclaimer: NCIS or any character is not mine. Tho, it would be nice to keep McGee in my back pocket )

Spoilers: None

A/N: This is McAbby, but everyone's involved too. Pre-Twilight, so Kate is alive and well. I have several chapers written already and will post a new chapter each night, but when I get to the point where I am actaully writing a bit each night, things will slow down. Having two jobs does that, so please bear with me when the time comes. Enjoy!

It was 0530 hours Thursday morning when Abby Sciuto woke with a start to her alarm clock blaring. She groaned sleepily as she rolled over and shut off the offensive machine. She sat up yawning, and winced slightly. She had a horrible night of sleep...like so many nights the past 2 weeks. This was due to a constant dull, aching pain on her right side. She was usually able to work thru it down at NCIS Headquarters, but at night, she had no distractions and therefore, it kept her awake.

It was 0630 by the time she walked through the doors of her forensics lab, Caf-Pow in hand, and ready to start her day. She immeditately went to her medicine cabinent and took four tablets of Ibuprofen, hoping to alleivate her discomfort enough to get through the majority of her day without incident. She didn't stop to think about the possible ramifications of the combination of pain medication and the massive amount of caffiene she was about to consume, but she was at a point to where she didn't really care.

She was so behind on her workload, and it was killing her that she was. The constant pain in her side had caused many temporary breaks in her workload,and now all that she could do was try to catch up as much as possible. And Gibbs wasn't helping things by his incessant yelling about it. She prepared her workspace...Caf-Pow on her left side and the samples on her right...and continued her work.

Meanwhile, upstairs in the bullpen, Special Agents McGee and DiNozzo were already at their desks, sifting throught various file folders and papers relating to past cases. They were soon joined by their female counterpart, Special Agent Kate Todd.

"Kate, you're looking as beautiful as always," DiNozzo said, throwing her his most charming smile.

She glanced sharply at him. "What do you want, Tony?"

"Can't I just compliment my co-worker?" Tony asked, in feigned shock.

"No, Tony, you never can."

"Never can what?" they all heard Gibbs say as he rounded the corner from the elevator to the bullpen.

"Nothing Boss," DiNozzo said.

"Has Abby finished those samples yet?" Gibbs asked, sitting down and taking a long drink from his coffee.

"Not yet Boss, but I'll go check," McGee said, standing up. Tony and Kate exchanged a quick, knowing smile. McGee would take any opportunity to go visit Abby,

He made his way down into the forensics lab. He couldnt help but grin when he could begin to hear the driving tunes of her death metal music three floors away. The elevator doors opened and he was assaulted with the full blast of the unintelligable screaming she called "music". He saw her hunched over her work station, her back to him, and he smiled.

"Stop staring at my butt, McGee, and tell me what's up," Abby said, grinning from ear to ear. She always seemed to know when her geek was in the room

McGee faltered. "Oh, uh...right. Sorry. Gibbs wants to know if you've got that information for him."

"I'm almost done," she said, turning down her stereo and then turning to face him. "It'll just take me however long it takes for me to get to the printer."

McGee chuckled softly. Abby turned away to head to the printer, but she stopped suddenly and audibly winced in pain.

"Abby?" McGee said worriedly, moving toward her. "Are you okay? What's wrong?

She waved him off saying, "Yeah, I'm fine. I've just had this pain in my side for the past couple weeks. It's been murder on my sleeping at night. It's no big deal."

"Have you talked to Ducky about this?"

"Are you kidding? I'm not going to bother Ducky with something like..." she gasped as her right side exploded in pain. She cried out loudly and collasped to the ground, clutching her side.

McGee was at her side in an instant. "Abby? What's wrong? Abby!" he cried. She was writhing in pain, unable to speak exept to cry out in pain.

"Oh, God, Abby. Help! HELP!" McGee screamed, desperate to get anyone's attention.

The elevator door dinged open and Gibbs walked out, bent on riding McGee and Abby's ass on why he didn't have the information he needed. However, upon hearing McGee's screams for help, he ran to the lab, pistol drawn, to see his forensics analyst screaming in agony and a very terrified McGee.

"What happened!" he cried, holstering his weapon.

"I don't know boss, she just fell down. She was saying her side was hurting her and then he just went down!" McGee cried.

Tears streaming from her eyes, Abby cried aloud again as another wave of searing pain swept over her.

"Call an ambulance McGee, I'll stay with her."

To be continued...