CHAPTER 2

Gibbs walks into his house to find Abby in the kitchen with her music blaring and her pigtails bouncing. He walks up behind her and plants a kiss on the back of her head.

Abby whirls around. "Jeez Gibbs! You shouldn't sneak up on people like that."

Gibbs turns down her music and holds out a file folder "Does this make up for it?"

"YES!" She snatches the folder away from him and walks into the living room, already pouring over the information.

"So does that mean you don't want your sandwich?" Gibbs calls after her.

Abby walks back into the kitchen with her head in the folder, picks up the sandwich and walks back into the living room.

Gibbs walks into the living room and watches Abby for a minute. She looks so beautiful to him even at 8 ½ months pregnant.

"Okay, so the body was found in a warehouse. Ducky said that the cause of death was asphyxia due to strangulation, no I.D. yet," Abby says to herself, "It says that there were fibers found in the wound. Oh, polypropylene rope. They couldn't have made it easy could they? That is i the /i most common type of rope."

Gibbs sits down next to her and begins to stroke her stomach.

"Mmmm, that feels good. Oh my God, I'm so sorry Jethro. I'm totally ignoring you."

It still amazed him how much he liked hearing her say his given name. She still called him Gibbs, but usually only at work. The second they were home, she switched to saying Jethro.

"Don't worry Abs. I know how much you miss working."

"But you're home and if I had to guess, I'd say you have to go back tonight."

"You'd be right." Gibbs replies

"Well, do you want something to eat while you're here, or to drink? I could get you a…"

"Sit down Abs. You need to rest for our baby and I'm not totally incapable of making myself something to eat."

Abby grins at him. She remembers when she found out he could cook and that he's actually pretty good in the kitchen. Breakfast would always be special for her after that morning. "Alright, but only because I think I hurt in places I didn't know I had. Your child is ginormous."

"My child? I like to think you had something to do with that too." Gibbs wiggles his eyebrows suggestively.

"I did have something to do with this, but right now it's your child."

Gibbs shakes his head and goes into the kitchen. Abby picks up the file again and goes over the reports and munches on her sandwich.

After they have both eaten, Abby's head jerks up. "Hey Gibbs, the rope fibers they found, they're oxidized."

"And?"

"Well that means the rope was exposed to UV-Rays for an extended amount of time. Rope like this oxidizes after being outside in the sun for over a year. No one ran an analysis for anything else on the fibers other than blood. Is Michael still in my lab?"

"Umm..nope."

"Oh Gibbs, you didn't scare him away, did you?"

"Not this time."

Abby looks pointedly at him.

"I did not scare Michael off."

"Well if it wasn't you then…..oh Tony! I'm gonna have to have a chat with him."

"Go easy on him Abs." Gibbs smiles at her.

"So who is in there now?"

"Sean I think his name is. He's still at the lab if you want to call."

"Yeah I will. I think we may be able to tell you where the rope came from the strangled the victim."