Chapter 3: The Bomb Bursts

...and began to drink. Nothing happened.

Both Abby and Kate let out a breath that they hadn't realized they'd been holding.

"Well, that was anti-climatic." Abby muttered darkly under her breath.

"Tell me about it," Kate whispered to Abby.

"Actually, I could go on for hours about how your brain interprets things and how it makes things seem anti-climatic."

"Learn that at college?"

"Nope. From Ducky." Abby paused. "Hold on Kate! I know why it didn't work!" She whipser-shouted. "He's sitting down! He has to be standing up to trigger the balloon!"

"It looks like we won't have to wait much longer then."

They both turned their attention to Gibbs. Slowly (they both figured that his knee must be bothering him again) he clambered up out of his chair. To Abby and Kate it seemed like the next few seconds were in intense slo mo. And then...

ZING-SPLAT! Gibbs had picked up the coffee cup Kate had given him and it immediately pulled on the transparent, flexible, strong string that was made out of a plastic-like material. The string launched the humongous water balloon that was sitting on the edge of where two cubicles met straight into Gibbs muscular chest. The force of the jumbo balloon made Gibbs stumble, taking a step back and nearly falling on his butt. Of course, as is the way of water balloons, it burst as soon as it struck him.

He was soaked to the skin, totally drenched. The look on his face was of pure astonishment, a look Kate had never seen on his face before. Abby had burst out laughing, and Tony, hearing the commotion, looked up from his computer screen, and even though he looked very confused, he started laughing hysterically too.

If Kate had been focusing her attention on them instead of Gibbs, she probably would have peed her pants from laughing at the sight of Abbs and Tony, tears streaming down their face, unable to breathe from laughing so hard at the sight of Gibbs, soaked through and through, a look of bewilderment on his face.

But she wasn't. Kate's attention was focused solely on the soaked Special Agent. And if Kate had been looking at her two friends, she would have seen the looks on their faces change from hysteria to great..terror. That's the only way to describe the look on their faces. Not that you could blame them. Because if you had seen the look on Gibbs face, you probably would have fainted right then and there. Abby and Tony were looking at Gibbs too. But not his whole body. Like Kate was. No, they were looking at his face. And it was not a pretty sight. Abby and Tony had never seen Gibbs looking as mad as he did right now. And we all know how mad Gibbs can get.

Finally Kate noticed Gibbs' expression. And she was scared. Terrified. And not too many things scare Caitlyn Todd. But angry Gibbs was one of those few things, and boy, was he angry. It didn't help matters either that she was the reason why he was so infuriated.

"Who the hell did this!" Gibbs shouted so loudly that everyone jumped back in surprise.

Kate was scared practically out of her mind. Everything had gone all wrong, and now Gibbs was mad at her and she would lose her job on top if it all. It wasn't supposed to be like this. Kate couldn't fess up. But one look at Abby's face told her otherwise. Abby looked so terrified, like a little girl in pigtails when the big bully stole her cupcake. Kate knew what she had to do.

"It-it was me Gibbs."

"Kate? You're the one that's responsible for this?"

"Yes."

"Conference room. NOW!" Gibbs stalked off towards the elevator. Kate followed his hesitantly, unsure of what was going to happen. She'd never seen him the angry before. Her little joke had gone terribly wrong.

TBC