"Aww you shouldn't have, it's not even my birthday" Abby grinned as she began to sift through the boxes and making "Ohs" and "Ahs" as she did so. She looked up and noticed McGee and Tony still stood in her lab, she made a shooing gesture "I won't work any faster with you two breathing down my neck" she made the gesture again. McGee turned to leave but when he noticed Tony hadn't moved he turned back "Tony? You coming?" he questioned, Tony looked up finally taking his eyes off of Abby "Yeah, I'll be there in a bit Tim" he replied quietly. McGee looked at Abby with concern on his face before shrugging and leaving to go back to the bull pen. Abby tolled a chair towards Tony before taking a seat in the other "Talk" she said simply. Tony had sat down and was looking at his hands as if they were the most interesting thing in the world.

Abby wheeled her chair closer and nudged Tony's knee with her toe before placing her hand over his and giving them a squeeze "You know you want to, it's why you were hanging around" Tony looked up and opened his mouth to speak but quickly shut it again and stood up "Sorry I forgot your caf-pow Abs" he said abruptly "Well you're lucky I remembered it then aren't you" came a voice from the door way and Gibbs placed the drink in front of the forensic scientist Abby's eyes flickered between Gibbs and Tony and she watched as the younger man left and her chair swivelled to face Gibbs "What's going on?" she asked suddenly her deep green eyes locked onto his blue grey ones "What did you do?" she added accusation clear in the petite woman's face and tone of voice. Gibbs was taken aback by her tone "Abs, what are you on about?" he asked carefully studying her for some sign as to what she was talking about. "Don't 'Abs' me! What did you do to Tony? Something's bothering him and he was going to tell me when you came in and he suddenly rushed out. What did you do? And don't make me ask again!" she snapped arms folded across her chest, her foot tapping with impatience as she waited for his answer "Abs, I didn't do anything, I'll talk to him, ok?" he said looking at the goth hoping she would calm down just as quickly as she'd become annoyed. "Ok, but if he's not back to himself soon you've got me to deal with, got it?" she cautioned. Gibbs could only nod before he brought her into a one armed hug and kissed her temple "Promise Abs, I'll fix it" he said simply before he left the lab and went back upstairs to the bull pen.

"What you got for me Abs?" Gibbs said as he once again appeared in Abby's lab, it had been a long day so far, the dead marine had no convictions and he had been happily married; beautiful wife and beautiful children he'd had his whole life ahead of him. He had no real enemies and they hadn't been able to find a reason for him to die, half way through the day they'd been called out again to a murder nearly identical to the first, this time they'd found a murder weapon and Abby had been working on it for just over 4 hours. "Well I managed to pull a partial print off of the knife and I got a match, though it was only a 76% match" she pulled up a picture of a young boy, no older than 19 from what Gibbs could see. "You said something was off-" he was cut off as Abby looked at him and spoke "I said hinky, and there is, this guy should be about 26 now but he died when he was 17, hence the young picture, he's been dead nearly 10 years Gibbs, there's no way he could have done it" she explained which was when McGee came to take over from what Abby had been saying.

"I did a background check on this guy Boss, he was a marine brat, father was a marine but this kid was in and out of hospital, had it real rough, always explained as accidents but it looked doubtful so I did some digging around and talked to a couple of doctors and nurses, they reckon it was domestic abuse. Ducky also managed to pull up his autopsy file and he said the cause of death was suspicious though a proper inquest was never done." Gibbs was quiet and looking between the two of them waiting for more of an explanation "So you're telling me this kids father killed him? What does that have to do with my investigation?" he snapped looking from Abby to McGee and back again.

"Well it doesn't come up on a data base, but I found out that he has a brother, since he died the brother just kind of disappeared, we're trying to find him, but he's proving difficult, we think he's connected to the murders" McGee explained quickly not wanting to upset his boss "Abby has this theory that as brothers they'd have similar finger prints and this print that we have is only a 76% match means it could well be the brothers." He added on quickly Gibbs watched him for a moment "Nice work McGee, you too Abs, until we get any other leads we're gunna focus on finding this guy." He noticed Abby's clock on the wall and then looked at his watch to double check "But for now, go home, it's been a long day, you'll be no good to me if you haven't slept" he said and headed off upstairs to tell Ziva and Tony to turn in for the night.

"Right, we're calling it a night, McGee and Abby found a lead but no-one will be up for anything unless we sleep. Head home." He told the others simply and sank into the chair at his desk, he noticed his team was hovering "Go home, it's 2am, get some sleep." He snapped at them and they quickly dispersed under his glare. He watched them gather their things and leave one by one; even Abby had come upstairs to meet McGee so they could both leave together. It was after a moment that he noticed Tony still hadn't left; he was still sat as his desk watching Gibbs who had begun to rub his temples in thought.

"Boss, can we-"

"Grab some Chinese food and meet me at mine"

Gibbs stood up to leave and stopped in front of Tony's desk "I promised you we'd talk and I promised Abby I'd fix this" as he got into the elevator he noticed that Tony still hadn't moved from his desk "I'm giving you an hour DiNozzo, then I'll come looking for you" he said as the doors closed cutting them off. Gibbs heaved a sigh and wondered if he'd have to go looking for Tony or if the younger man would really come willingly to his house.

A shuffling sound brought Gibbs attention away from his project, the creak of a door and heavy footsteps told him that Tony had arrived, he checked his watch and couldn't help but smile a little that it had taken Tony only 45 minutes to arrive. "This has got to be the first time I've seen your basement without a boat in it" came the Italian's voice as he reached the bottom step and strode towards the work bench, dropping the bag of Chinese take-out on top of it as Gibbs handed him a sawhorse to sit on. Tony took his seat and looked at Gibbs carefully "I didn't know what to get so I got my favourites and grabbed a couple of safe options, figured we could split it" he said wanting to fill the empty silence before it overwhelmed him.

Gibbs was silent as he looked through the bag pulling out cartons and investigating their contents "Not bad choices DiNo- Tony. Discussing this, it can't be DiNozzo and Boss, it's too personal to keep it in work mode" he said suddenly as he passed a carton and some chop sticks over. Tony nodded slowly as he took a mouthful of food "Jethro" he said slowly trying the name out, it was strange having called him Boss for the past 7 years at least. He noticed a small smile forming on Gibbs lips as he said his name and the younger man couldn't help but smile in return. They ate in silence for a time, the minimal in conversation only being about passing something to the other and words of thanks as it was done.

"Bo- Jethro" Tony corrected himself quickly when he saw that look that was shot his way "What is this? I mean clearly there's something there, but I never even knew you were that way inclined"

"Firstly Tony, there's a lot of things you and the team don't know, I kept Shannon and Kelly hidden from everyone at the Navy Yard for a long time. I keep my personal life just that, personal. It's my business and I'll share it if and when I feel like and with whom I feel like. As to what this is? I have no idea but you're right something is there"

"Ok, what about rule 12?"

"I made that rule after I got involved with Jenny, we couldn't keep it out of the work place and I've changed a lot since then. Thing is though Tony, you've always been on my six, that wouldn't change, everyone's noticed you've had some hero worship from me since day one and I've always been very protective of my team especially you and Abby. We just need to keep personal matter out of the work place"

"For a man of so few words you sure have a lot to say Bo- Jethro, sorry, I gotta get used to that."

"And I normally can't shut you up, but here we are with you having so little to say. It comes down to this Tony, whether or not we want to try and make something of this? Then we can iron other things out"

"Yeah, for once I'm at a loss for words, I have fantasised for so long about something happening between us, and I never thought it could ever happen."

"So that's a yes I take it? I'm a simple man Tony, you know that, and I only have one thing to ask from you, fidelity, if you're with me, you're only with me, no sleeping around?"

"I can do that." The words were simple as they left Tony's lips and no sooner had they left another set of lips were crushed against his and Tony felt himself melt against that touch.

A caf-pow was placed next to Abby and she looked up into the smiling face of Tony, she couldn't help but smile "Everything's sorted?" she questioned as she picked up the caffeinated drink and took a slurp as Tony took a seat in front of her, he nodded. Abby took the other seat and looked at him, the smile and radiating happiness seemed to be adding to Abby's buzz and she was usually a happy person. "Spill" she instructed as she pulled her legs up to sit cross-legged on her chair. Tony looked at the door before standing up to close it and taking his seat once again "Ohhh, I sense gossip" she squealed happily and took another slurp of her caf-pow.

Tony couldn't help but chuckle at Abby's enthusiasm, but part of him was still a little hesitant in what exactly to tell Abby and how to do it. "Come on Tony, I already know everything about you I'm sure, is it about this guy that you've been pining after for as long as I can remember?" she noticed the slight colour rise in his cheek and she bounced a little on her chair "Something happened? What? More importantly who is it?" Tony shook his head at how excited Abby was getting over something that she knew so little about. "If you calm down a little maybe I'll get a word in edge ways and be able to tell you something." He replied that laugh still in his voice. Abby pursed her lips and mimed locking her lips with an invisible key and gestured with him to speak.

Tony nodded his thanks before opening his mouth to speak "First of all you have to promise to keep your squealing to a minimum because I know you and how excited you're going to get, can we save the excitement till I'm finished?" he asked, Abby nodded her head and made the gesture of crossing her heart and settling into her chair a little more the straw of her caf-pow between her lips as she waited for him to explain.

"First of all it's Gibbs" Tony quickly wheeled his chair out of the way as Abby spat her mouthful of caf-pow all over the place, luckily he was quick enough to miss any of it hitting him "Wait? Gibbs? Our Gibbs? Mr as straight as it comes Gibbs? Sorry, but this is big Tony, I mean I always expected some kind of crush ever since you told me you were that way, but wow! Sorry, shutting up now" Tony had watched Abby silently the whole time; he'd expected some sort of explosion from her at his revelation.

"Yes Abby that Gibbs, honestly how many do you actually know? Well at our team night the other night I got a little bit drunk" he explained and then went on to tell her what happened that night and why he'd avoided answering his phone all weekend and had only sent short text messages afterwards to stop suspicion or someone coming looking for him. He then went on to explain everything that had happened during work that day and then going over to Gibbs's after work and the conversation and kiss that had happened during that time.

"Wow Tony; so you and Gibbs? This is huge! I mean seriously, wow, I don't even know what to say. Are you officially a couple now then?" A nod confirmed this and Abby squealed, laughing herself off of the chair she was sat on and onto Tony's lap. Unfortunately this caused a balance decrease and both people ended up on the floor, Abby sprawled across Tony's chest. They heard a door open and looked up to see the unpleased faces of Gibbs and McGee.