A/N: Okay you guys, I've had one person make a guess as to who gets kidnapped and I've had one person guess who it is. I want at least 3 guesses for each thing before I tell you if anyone's right... Of course, if no one can guess both who's kidnapped and who kidnaps him/her, then you'll just have to find out with the characters. If you want to know who's kidnapped before it acutally happens, you're going to have to guess right before Chapter...13? Wow... You guys had better start guessing, huh?
"Are you going to tell me what you needed Gibbs for earlier?" asked McGee in her ear as she wondered who was being all touchy this time.
She jumped about a foot in the air and spun her chair around quickly. "How many times do I have to remind you not to sneak up on me like that?" she retorted, somewhat angrily- though not for the reason he would suspect. Still, she had thought that McGee would've forgotten about her earlier game of hide-and-seek with Gibbs. As if any of that mattered now?
He ignored her momentary outburst of anger and looked at her computer screen suspiciously. "What is all of this?" he questioned her stonily.
She sighed exasperatedly, knowing that the only reason he was being like this was because he loved her. "McGee, it's case stuff. Would you please stop worrying about me? I'm not seeing anyone online; I'm not having cybersex; and you're the only guy that I'll even let into my house right now! You can check every electronic device I own, but I swear to you that it would just be a waste of your time..." she reminded him sweetly. She wanted to yell at him, but that was out of the question. Still- how dare he even think that she was messing around like that- especially at work? Clearly he had a reason to think that she was doing that kind of thing... but why?
"What's the case?" he wanted to know. His voice was still edgy, but he had stopped with the accusations; at least for now.
"Special Agent Carol was found dead outside of one of the labs down the hall and around the corner," she informed him, feeling quite relieved that the topic was now off of her and what she could be doing while she was at work.
He wandered curiously around her lab, occasionally stopping to examine things more closely. "Inside job?" he asked finally as he stopped to look at the bullet lying underneath her microscope.
"Well, we- that is, Kate and I- think so..." she replied with a sudden sneeze. She wrinkled her nose and shook her head. "Why?" she added thoughtfully.
"Because it's my job to think about these things," he answered as if it should have been the most obvious thing in the world. "So what are you doing on the computer?" he tried again, this time sounding more curious than accusing or demanding, which Abby decided was a major improvement and deserved a more specific answer.
"Ducky found the bullet still in Carol's body. I'm running the serial number through a database now," she explained with a shrug.
"I assume you'll figure out what agency it was with first, right?" he deduced distractedly. Abby wondered what he was thinking about, but knew better than to interrupt his thought process.
"Yeah, well, it's a whole lot easier that way," she agreed with a smile as she turned back to the computer.
"Who do you think it was?" he wondered.
"What is this? Twenty questions? Because I hate that game," she babbled as she so often did when she was happy or excited... or just bored.
"Abby, I was being serious. I want to know what you think," McGee reprimanded her. It reminded her vaguely of when her mother told her to eat her vegetables or something.
She looked at him mischievously. "I think you killed her," she teased him playfully.
He gave her an odd look that she couldn't quite place the meaning of. She decided it had to be hurt, or else sadness, which was odd, because nothing she said ever seemed to bother him. She immediately felt guilty.
"Really?" he asked, sounding more than a little dejected.
She rolled her eyes to cover her slight guilt. "Of course not!" she answered him with a sigh.
"Then who do you think it was?" he persisted.
"Honestly? I haven't got a damn clue!" she admitted as she sneezed again. "The evidence hasn't helped me yet. But I'm hoping that I'm not going to have to guess and that eventually one of these accursed databases will give me an answer!"
"So what you're saying is that all you have to do now is wait for the results of the agency and then the results of the actual person?" McGee asked her hopefully.
"No, I was going to do a full tox scan on the blood samples from Ducky, just in case, and then I was going to have lunch with Kate, because it's a Tuesday," she replied. He just stared at her, so she explained. "Kate always brings me lunch on Tuesdays and then we eat in here and discuss cases and life and get into big debates, even if we're both on the same side..."
His face fell.
"What's wrong?" she asked worriedly.
"Oh, nothing really. I was just going to ask you if you wanted to join me for lunch somewhere," he told her wistfully.
She sighed reluctantly; lunch with McGee sounded like a nice break from all of her problems and now mixed up emotions. He was only over protective and suspicious at work. Abby secretly suspected that he was either jealous of Gibbs, which made no sense, or else Gibbs had told him to keep an eye out for her. At the moment she was leaning more towards the later. "You're welcome to eat lunch with me, if you want," she offered. "But I'm warning you now- Kate and I talk about some things that most guys don't want to hear. I remember once, when Kate had just started working here, Tony came in and- Well, let's just say he learned his lesson about coming into the lab on Tuesdays at lunchtime..."
McGee shook his head with an amused smile and considered her offer. "Lunch with you and Kate in the lab sounds wonderful," he decided.
She grinned and sat back in her chair. She crossed her arms behind her head and stared up at him for a moment. "Do you think I need a shrink?" she wondered as she studied him curiously.
"Who told you that you need a shrink Abby?" he asked quickly.
"Take a wild guess..." she muttered bitterly.
He thought a moment. "Gibbs?" he guessed.
"No, I might have actually considered the idea if it had been Gibbs- after all, he's my boss, I have to at least pretend to listen to him," she told him without thinking.
"Tony?" he tried again.
"If Tony told me that I needed a shrink, he wouldn't be out to lunch right now... And I don't think that he'd really like to be castrated anytime soon," she replied.
"Well, it couldn't have been Kate or Ducky," he reminded her.
"And what made you think that it could've been Gibbs or Tony?" she asked incredulously.
"Fine- I give up. Who was it?"
She spun her chair in a complete circle as she thought. "Weren't you here when my mother came?" she asked with a frown.
He sighed and his voice softened. "Is that what all of this is about?" He walked over to her and pulled her out of her chair. "Abbs, you can't let her get to you like this. I hate seeing you so miserable," McGee told her with a comforting hug.
Abby buried her head in his shoulder. "I hate her!" she muttered angrily. He held her close and began to absently stroke her hair. "I hate her!" She sneezed loudly.
"It'll get better Abbs. You can't hate her forever," he reminded her as he gently kissed the top of her head.
"Yeah, but she actually likes you!" Abby protested.
"Abbs, she's your mother. Whether she wants to or not, she has to love you," he told her.
"I don't care if she's my boss! I hate her and she hates me," she screamed into his shirt.
"Abbs please don't yell. And she can't possibly hate you... It's impossible to hate you," he murmured soothingly in her ear.
She smiled half-heartedly. "Don't lie... I'm sure I could find someone else who hates me, if I really wanted to..." She quickly turned her head and sneezed three times in rapid succession.
"No you couldn't," he argued back with his arms still around her. "And you know that. But if you don't want to take my word for it, go and ask Kate or Gibbs or Tony or Ducky. I can guarantee you that they'll back me up, on this one, at least..."
Abby pulled out of his arms and looked up at him incredulously. "Why are we even having this conversation?" she wondered reasonably. She let out a disbelieving mix between a giggle and a snort.
"Abby we're having this conversation because I refuse to let the sun set on another day of you feeling miserable because you think people hate you," he informed her seriously.
She rolled her eyes at him and shook her head.
"You don't believe me?" he asked as his eyes bored into hers.
"Well, it's not that it's your fault or anything, but I kind of have a hard time-" Abby assumed McGee had grown tired of her babbling when he cut her off by pulling her back to him and kissing her.
McGee let her go and she sneezed again. He frowned at her. "Abby, do you have a cold or something? That's the seventh time that you've sneezed since I got in here!"
"Well, I don't feel sick... And I wasn't sneezing earlier!" she told him as she sneezed again.
"Abby let me take you to a doctor- or at least back to your house," requested McGee firmly.
"McGee, I'm fine and I don't need a doctor!" she protested. She was fine! And the only way she would ever leave work before six would be either in a body bag or while she was unconscious.
"Then let me at least take you back home..." he tried again.
"McGee, you know that the only two ways to get me to leave work early are to kill me, to knock me out or to threaten me with losing my job!" She paused and counted the reasons she had listed on her fingers. "That was three ways, wasn't it? Except that you can't really threaten to fire me because you're not Gibbs..."
"Then can I at least get you a drink?"
"No, Kate'll be here soon with our lunches. And besides, I'm not really thirsty," she protested.
"Abby, if you're sick you need to make sure that you drink lots of fluids. Let me go and get you some Sprite or something," he attempted.
"McGee, I'm not sick and I'm not thirsty! And you should go and get yourself something for lunch because Kate won't know that you're eating with us so she won't get you anything. And she always leaves at 11:30, which means that you literally just missed her," Abby enlightened him. She was feeling incredibly special though- McGee seemed to be genuinely concerned about her. Of course, technically, he was supposed to be, but that didn't guarantee that he always would be...
"Are you trying to get rid of me Abby?"
"Of course I'm not! But I really want to eat lunch with you and if you're not quick then Kate and I will have already finished our lunches. And while you'll still be welcome to eat in here with me, I won't be able to actually sit down with you while you eat because I'll have to get back to work and do my job. So if I were you- which I'm not- but if I was, I'd go and get something to bring back here. But I guess I can't really tell you what you- Well, you ought to go..." she advised, stopping herself before she ended up saying something offensive.
"Alright, I'll be back as soon as possible. Do you want me to bring you back something to eat?"
"McGee, Kate's bringing me lunch, remember? And we all know that I won't be able to eat two lunches! Of course, I know I'm going to regret not accepting your offer because, knowing my luck, Kate'll end up bringing me a salad," she rambled.
"Well, that settles it then- I'll bring you a Big Mac and a Sprite from McDonald's," he decided.
"Ew!" she yelped.
"What? What's wrong with McDonald's?"
"I don't eat Big Macs anymore... Not since I found out what was in the Special Sauce," she shuddered. "And I was kidding- Kate knows better than to bring me a salad. Salads are green, and I only ever eat green foods when my mother's comes because that's all she makes." Abby paused thoughtfully. "Do you think that's because she knows that I hate salad and I only ever eat it when she's here? Or do you think that that's all she knows how to make?"
McGee shrugged. "I don't know Abbs," he answered helplessly.
She grinned. "It was just a question," she informed him. "A rhetorical question."
"Okay..."
Abby could tell McGee still didn't get it. "McGee, just go and get yourself some lunch."
He sighed and Abby knew she had won. "You're sure you don't want me to bring anything back for you?"
"Nope, but thanks for the offer."
McGee shrugged and left the lab. She watched him go with a sigh and wondered what she should do as she waited for Kate and McGee.
