Another short story. :) There will likely be a second chapter, but we shall see if my muse keeps up enough that I can do a chapter on Abby pushing a bit more.

As has been highly discussed and written among the NCIS spanking fic writers, this story is based on the scene where Gibbs threatens to smack Abby. I've been watching NCIS this afternoon and it was inspiring. :D I wanted to explore the background leading up to the threat. I forgot exactly where it was located in canon. It's a little outside of the canon that I have in more stories of when Gibbs would have started smacking Abby, but I wanted to write this now.

Thanks to those who commented on my latest one-shot, "It's Different". Thank you, NCISLover10, Earthdragon, Sarai, Suzy Q1068, OPS Manager, Gibbs4Eva, and Dawn248.

Enjoy!

Gibbs was annoyed. Nothing in his life was exactly peaceful at the moment, so why should he be? It seemed like the world was out to mess with him. First, there had been that endless tracking of Ari which seemed to take a few good years off of his life. Then there had been the literal taking of the rest of Kate's. He had been forced to trust the sister of the assassin to choose him over her own flesh and blood - something that he had not been entirely sure that she would do when he discovered that he was cornered by the madman without a functional weapon. With Ari finally gone, he had been able to lay Kate to rest, but he had wished it was him who had paid the ultimate price. On top of the fact that NCIS apparently did not consider the fact that the entire team might possibly need a few days to catch its breath, the agency was undergoing a changing of the guards as Jenny Shepherd took full control. It had been a grating process while tracking Ari, but the obsession with hunting down the terrorist had distracted Gibbs. Now he had nothing to consume his mind except the hundred ways he could fail the remaining agents on his team.

There had been three, then two.

And now he was being forced to take a third again. And - oh, what joy! - it just had to be Ziva. Someone else who had just lost a loved one and would also being fully blaming themself. Great. Just great. Why not add in someone else who was hurting into the picture? Jenny Shepherd must think that plummeting mental health would really enhance the efficiency of the team. Gibbs had never distrusted her more, and that sadly included the period of time where she ran off with only a letter to explain. He was too cold inside to be able to effectively argue it out with her. He was too frozen to do much effectively. He saw his current, redheaded girlfriend a few times, but he could not imagine that Helene would remain interested for too long with the amount of focus he was able to muster when around her. He could not help it. Things always crashed and burned anyway, He really could not muster up enough emotion to care about it.

There was another thing that he could not muster up enough energy to deal with right now either - Abby. She was being an inexcusable brat. Even his favouritism could not blind him to that fact. He was good and tired of her bad behaviour toward Ziva. He had tried to be patient and wait it out. The internal apathy made that easy. But now it had gone beyond a point that he was willing to tolerate.

The glares, the snippy little comments, the horrible attitude - he was so tired of it that it roused him to being "awake" enough to finally act on his annoyance. When she started fooling around with the camera and wasting his time, he finally issued an ultimatum.

"I would hate to have to start smacking you like I do DiNozzo."

"You wouldn't!" she exclaimed certainly, then wavered to, "You would?" with the confused look of a kitten that just got pushed off of the counter again.

"It won't be on the head," he told her, using coded language but certain she would understand the promise of corporal punishment destined for her bottom if she did not smarten up quickly.

She had acted sassy, taking pictures of him while he watched her. He gave her a silent, unimpressed look and she moved on. Good. Although he was annoyed enough to issue the warning, he really did not want to have to carry it out when he was exhausted and stressed. His brain was overloaded by grief and details that he had to pretend he cared about while he was just trying to get to the end of each day.

He could give Abby a bit more patience, knowing that she was trying to do the same. But the patience was almost gone and if Abby decided to push much more, no one would enjoy it.

Thanks for reading! Please review!