Tight Spot

by channelD

written for: The NFA Stuck On You/With You challenge. The aim of the challenge is to write a piece concerning being stuck.
rating: T
pairing: mild McAbby
genre: humor

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disclaimer: As with yesterday and the day before, I own nothing of NCIS.

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Gibbs looked up and glared at Tony. "Where is McGee??"

Tony gulped. "Ah…The last I knew, boss, he had gone down to the lab to deliver evidence and maybe help Abby set up new computers."

"Abby knows how to set up computers," Gibbs growled. "Go fetch him back up here. We have work to do."

"Ah…sure." Tony wasn't sure at all; not knowing what they might be really up to. In the last few weeks, Abby had been very friendly and attentive to Tim. Tim was between his rather sorry collection of head case girlfriends, and seemed glad for Abby's interest. Word on the grapevine was that secretly, they were an item again.

"Announce yourself before you walk into the lab," Ziva said, smirking.

Tony gave her a look, but he'd already decided that he'd do just that. He might as well, since he was afraid of what Abby would do to him if he took pictures. The woman had a mean right hook.

- - - - -

"Tim! Can't you move a little that way?"

"I can't move any which way. We're stuck, Abby, as I've already said. We'll just have to wait until someone comes along who can pull us out." Secretly, he wasn't complaining. Her warm, soft body next to his felt very nice, indeed. Not that he could move much to do anything about it…

It had all started when Tim had gone down to the lab to deliver some evidence brought back from a case. Abby, he found, was under a high computer table in a tight corner, hooking in cables. The table was barely wide enough to hold the two computers. "Hi, Tim!" she'd called out, recognizing his shoes.

There was something about Abby, bent into a near pretzel shape, that was almost…hot. "Can I give you a hand?" he asked, hoping.

"No, I'm good," she said, and then something clinked on the table leg. "Drat! There goes my penlight. Could you get that for me, Tim?"

"Sure…" He crouched down, pleased to have an even nicer, up-close view of the Abby-pretzel. It was dark under the table, since the light entered only from the north side. The south and west sides backed up against brick wall; the east side was against heavy equipment on a stand: not impossible to move, but difficult. Tim's keen eyes spotted a shape on the floor that was probably the penlight. To get to it would require getting down on his knees and stretching over Abby a bit. "Excuse me…"

"Come on, Tim! The light! I can barely see in here!"

"Coming…" Cautiously he reached over her…and then in a sudden reaction, she sensed his presence and twisted again. "No! No! Abby, not that way…!"

Too late. In reaching for the penlight herself, Abby had crossed Tim. He lost his balance and fell, one arm now under her leg. He couldn't back up, and neither could she.

She, in turn, found her head against his chest. She could feel his heart beat, and a lovely feeling it was: a little strong, a little shocked, just like Tim himself, most of the time.

"I think we're stuck," she announced, after a few unsuccessful wiggles.

"Stuck?" Tim almost squeaked. "We can't be stuck! I'd never hear the end of it from Tony…!"

"Well, unless you have some brilliant idea for displacing mass, we are stuck. We'll have to wait for someone to come and rescue us."

"No…no…no…" Tim moaned.

- - - - -

Tony entered the lab cautiously. "Abby?" he called out. "McGee?"

"Over here!" Abby's voice boomed out. "Tony, we need help!"

He followed her voice to the far end of the lab. "Are you decent?"

"Am I—Tony! Get serious. Tim and I are stuck down here, and…"

Tony squatted. "That's an interesting location for a game of Twister!"

"We weren't playing Twister, Tony!" Tim sputtered.

"Well, uh; what were you doing? Did I interrupt something?"

"No!" "Yes!" Tim and Abby said simultaneously.

"Abby dropped her penlight, and I reached in to get it, and we became…stuck. Help us out, will you?"

Tony considered it, from a couple of angles. "Have you considered taking off all your clothes?"

"No!" "Yes!" Tim and Abby again said simultaneously.

"Abby!" Tim said in alarm.

"Well, I would if I thought it would help, Tim. But I don't think I can reach any of my buttons or clasps. I could probably pull off the buttons of your shirt with my teeth, though—"

"No!" Tim yelped.

She could feel his heart running like a gazelle. "That's not the word you used at my place last Saturday," she said saucily.

His blush almost lit the dark area. "Tony doesn't need to know that," Tim hissed.

"On the contrary, if I'm to help you. I think I need to know ev-er-y-thing," Tony said, practically licking his lips.

"DiNozzo, just pull on my leg and see if that doesn't loosen us!" Tim ordered.

"Oh, I don't know, Probie. That sounds like borderline red light behavior."

"DO IT!!"

"All right, all right. Pushy, pushy," Tony muttered. He pulled on Tim's leg, but nothing happened. "Hang on; I think if I raise Abby's arm…" He leaned in to do so, but misjudged his position and wound up flopping partway over Tim.

"Tony! That hurts!"

"That's not helping, Tony!"

Tony moaned. He was now jammed against the wall. "You two are going to be sooooo dead for this." They moaned with him.

- - - - -

Gibbs looked at the clock. He tried calling the lab, but Abby didn't pick up. He then tried, in order, Tony's cell phone, Tim's phone, and Abby's phone. No answer. "Something's wrong," he said to Ziva. "They may be in danger. Let's get into Hazmat suits and get down there." He rang Ducky and Jenny before they got in the elevator.

Soon, now in protective suits, Gibbs, Ducky and Ziva cautiously entered the lab. "No sign of radiation or chemicals other than the ordinary," announced Ducky, looking at the instrument he carried. "No radon, no gas…"

"Stay in the suits, nonetheless," Gibbs ordered.

Ziva pointed. "I think I see…a leg. Two legs. Tony's and McGee's?"

Gibbs ran. "DiNozzo! McGee! What are you doing—"

"We're stuck!" three voices chorused.

"Abby?? You're under there, too??" Gibbs asked in bewilderment, quickly shedding the Hazmat suit, and wondering who he could slap first.

"Get us out, boss!" "Please!!"

Ziva only stared. "I have heard of these three-of-a-kinds, but I never—"

"Ziva!!" Tim howled.

"No, Ziva. Three-of-a-kind is a term used in card games," said Abby. "This is—"

"No, it isn't!!" Tim howled again. "We're stuck, that's all!"

"Ziva, you're slender. Do you think you could pull one of them loose?" asked Gibbs.

Ziva still looked curious. "Which one?"

"Anyone!"

She sighed. "Very well." There was a tiny amount of free space under the table, and despite the tangle of bodies, no lack of breathable air. She crawled over Tony, over Tim, and was reaching for Abby's shoulder when her leg slipped and her foot slid under Abby's torso. Her shoulder fell painfully into an angle bracket of the table. "Gibbs!" she called.

"What?"

"I am stuck."

- - - - -

It took Gibbs and Ducky, working carefully, half an hour to clear the computers off the top of the table and then dismantle the table. Finally, though, with grunts and groans, the four people were freed.

"There better be a good explanation for this!" Gibbs thundered.

The four looked at each other, and shrugged.

"No? Nothing at all? Then get back to work!! Abby, the Director wants to see you in her office. Move it!!"

Abby, Ziva, Tim, and Tony all ran for the elevator, and started to pile in. At the same moment. The elevator door wasn't wide enough to accommodate all four entering at once, and they were packed tightly in the doorway. "Gibbs…" they moaned in unison.

Gibbs and Ducky looked at them, then looked at each other. Gibbs looked at his watch. "Lunchtime," he said to Ducky. "Want to join me for some Thai food? We'll have to take the stairs."

"That sounds good, Jethro."

"Boss…" Tony's voice rose above the other's wails.

Gibbs shrugged. "I've gotta go to lunch, DiNozzo. I have a meeting at one. Someone will be along to get you, I'm sure."

He and Ducky grinned as they went up the stairs.

- END -