A/N: Wow, my first post in 36 hours. That's unusual for me. Hope you like this. F.
She was interrupted by the first visitor to her lab- Tony carrying an evidence crate. They must have gotten a case early today. She checked the time, surprised to see it was only just after 9am. Very early, if they were already done processing the scene.
"Hey Tony" she said as he deposited the crate on her lab table. "Early one today?"
"Hey Abs. Yeah, dead Marine at Quantico. Killed overnight, they found him this morning. Got his uniform and personal effects for you"
"Right. No murder weapon?" she started signing the chain of evidence logs, noting the blood on the uniform as she checked each bag. "That's a lot of blood"
"Yeah, Ducky said preliminary cause of death was exsanginuation. Haven't found the murder weapon yet, McGee's still searching"
"Nasty. What am I looking for?"
"The usual"
"Anything hinky. Got it" She began sorting the evidence bags into order of priority. She wanted to get these tests run quickly so she could still meet her lunch date with McGee. She didn't even notice when Tony left her lab, giving her a curious look as he went.
...
She started with the Marine's clothing, noting the blood spray across the front of his uniform shirt. 'Throat cut' she thought to herself as she worked. Always thorough, she checked out the clothing with the ALS gear, looking for less visible blood and bodily fluids. She smirked at her findings, noting a possible motive. She took swabs, running them through the DNA database. Soon Palmer brought blood and tissue samples up for her to work on. She set them to test through her mass spectrometer while she turned her attention to the dead Marine's personal effects.
True to form, Gibbs walked through her lab door holding a Caf-Pow! just as her computer dinged. Good, she thought. After the small amount of sleep she'd had, she needed the caffeine.
"What do you got Abs?"
"Hey Gibbs." She brought up the feed from her mass spectrometer, quickly absorbing the information "I finished analysing the blood from our dead Marine. I found traces of diazepam, Gibbs"
"Valium"
"Yeah"
"Any chance it was self administered?"
"No way. Not unless he was trying to commit suicide anyway. It was present in a much higher concentration than you'd normally find if someone was just taking a standard dose"
"He was drugged"
"That's right, Gibbs"
"That's good work Abs" he handed her the Caf-Pow!, turning to leave
"Wait Gibbs, I'm not done"
He turned back, giving her a questioning look
"I ran his clothing under the ALS and I found something. There was a party in our Marine's pants, Gibbs. I found evidence that he'd been with at least 2 women shortly before he died"
"Got names?"
"I'm running the samples now"
"Let me know when you've got a match"
She nodded, hoping that the mystery women belonged to the Armed Forces. It was a lot easier to get hits that way.
...
"Hey Abs" McGee's voice came from behind her as she watched the DNA tests run
"Hey McGee" she grinned "Got something for me?"
He held up a cylinder containing a serrated knife, sticky with blood
"Found it in a Dumpster a block away from the crime scene"
She took it off him, looking through the clear plastic
"Looks like at least a couple of partial prints" She pulled on a pair of latex gloves, opening the container to get a better look.
"Abs?"
She looked up from her examination of the bloody knife
"I've got time for lunch in about an hour" he told her
She felt her heart start beating faster; she'd been concentrating so hard on the evidence they'd given her, she hadn't had time to think anymore about last night. She still had no idea what to tell him.
"Depends on whether I get results first, Tim" she pointed out "I'll let you know"
He nodded; he knew what it was like. He gave her a shy smile as he left her lab.
...
As it was, she matched the fingerprints off the knife quickly. She'd pulled 3 prints off the knife, and they'd all belonged to the same person. She'd gotten a hit on them a lot faster than she'd expected. It had helped that the Marine's wife had a criminal record. Gibbs had ordered them to bring her in, then sent the team to lunch, letting her stew in Interrogation in the meantime. They had motive and the murder weapon; now all they needed was a confession.
Abby went upstairs in search of Tim, estimating that she had about half an hour if she was lucky before she had to worry about missing hits on the DNA search.
...
They went to a cafe not far from the Navy Yard, each aware that they might be recalled at any time. They settled down at a table on the sidewalk, placing orders with the waitress. They made small talk for a few minutes, both strangely self conscious. Finally Abby broached the subject they'd been avoiding
"You were serious about not transferring to OSP right?"
He sighed, whether in relief or exasperation she couldn't tell
"Honestly Abs, it never even crossed my mind. Their technology is sweet, but technology isn't everything. Most of what they do is undercover work, which isn't really my strong point. The only thing I'd be suited for over there is working on the computer side of things and they already have someone who does all that. I'd never get to work cases the way I do here. And besides, I always wanted to be a field agent."
He paused for a moment. "You asked me that last night too. Was that why you came over? You were worried I was gonna leave?"
She nodded
"Partly" she admitted. "I guess I was worried that you'd find you liked working the way they do"
He gave her a look for a moment, then
"Partly?"
A/N: Yeah, yeah, I know. Don't worry, I'll end the cliffhanger shortly. F.