Abby twisted her fingers nervously together as she waited for the elevator to bring her to the squad room. Things hadn't been awkward between her and Gibbs when they'd woke up together in the small bed, but now, back at work, he'd probably had time to think things over. She didn't expect him to make a big deal out of their kiss, but at the same time it had meant a lot to her, and if he played it off as nothing, she wasn't sure she could handle it.

She didn't think he would, but there was always that possibility. The possibility that he had acted more in the moment, and now regretted kissing her. She had never expected it, they had always walked that fine line between friendship and flirtatiousness, but Gibbs had walled everyone off to keep anyone from getting too close. She knew she had gotten closer to him than anyone in a long time, but she just didn't seem to be able to break through. It could've had something to do with the fact that he was much older than her. Not that much older, but knowing Gibbs, she figured he probably had a rule about that.

Of course his kiss had come at the worst time, someone was after him, his life could be in danger, and so she wasn't surprised that he had said he couldn't start something now. She didn't blame him for not wanting to get caught up in whatever they had between them, but….The elevator dinged and Abby squared her shoulders before stepping out into the squad room.

She was surprised to see the whole team, plus Fornell gathered in the center of the squad room between all the desks. "You guys find something yet?"

Everyone turned to look at her, their eyes wide with surprise. "Abby!"

"What? Did you find something? Are you…" She scanned over Gibbs, and satisfied he was okay she stopped herself from asking.

Gibbs looked as though he was about to stay something, but Tony spoke up first. "We've been trying to call you, but you didn't answer, and then McGee said that you were here because your phone shows you're here, but you weren't and… where have you been?"

Abby frowned and then held up her purse. "Hm, it must have fallen out in the car. I used it on my way here. I would've been up sooner, but I was talking to Josh downstairs." It wasn't uncommon for her to spend a few minutes catching up with Josh, head of NCIS security, at the main entrance each morning. "I'll run back out and grab it."

"I'll go with." Gibbs stepped forward, crowding her personal space.

"I'll join the two of you. You shouldn't be anywhere out of the building without security." Fornell followed them as they started for the elevator.

Gibbs tried not to let it show that he didn't want Fornell shadowing him, but when Fornell rolled his eyes, he knew the message had been received loud and clear.

As the elevator doors closed in front of them, Abby turned to face them both. "Have you found anything? Tony? McGee?"

"No," Gibbs shook his head. "Nothing."

"Drats."

Gibbs couldn't help the smile that tugged at the corner of his mouth at Abby's childish pout. He was well aware that she wasn't a child, and she was the smartest person he knew, but at times she just couldn't help but pout like a child. Sometimes he half expected her to stomp her feet.

The three of them walked to Abby's car, and as she suspected, her phone had fallen from her purse and was resting against the parking brake. "What did Ziva need?"

"She wrapped up the Maldonado case."

"Could it tie in with… with your situation?"

"No." Gibbs held the door open for her and followed her inside. They went through security again, and when they hit the elevator, Gibbs ushered her inside, but stepped in front of Fornell. "We're not outside the building anymore. I don't need you to shadow me." And with that Gibbs stepped back and pressed the button to hurry the doors shut.

Before she could formulate a question, Abby found herself crowded back against the elevator wall, bathed in the blue light that accompanied the emergency stop. "Gibbs?"

"You left this morning? Why? I would have given you a ride."

"I needed to go home, shower and change." Mentioning that her shower took a little longer than necessary was out of the question. She flushed slightly. It hadn't taken much to imagine that her fingers were his…

His gaze was intense, as if he was trying to read her thoughts, and after a moment his look softened. "I would've taken you home."

"I know. But my car was there, and I thought you would probably want to get to NCIS as soon as possible."

"Okay."

He was so close she felt as though she was having difficulty breathing. "Okay."

Gibbs took half a step back, and reached behind him to flick the emergency switch once more, continuing them toward the squad room. Being in such close proximity with Gibbs had caused her heart to flutter and her eyelids felt heavy. Abby was just about to give a deep sigh when Gibbs stepped close again, pressing a rough kiss to her lips before pulling back, drawing his finger along her lower lip and then stepping away seconds before the elevator doors opened once more.

Gibbs was reluctant to leave without Abby, but she was swamped with evidence from another team and wasn't likely to finish in the near future. There was nothing else that he could do, and Fornell was getting restless – pacing around the squad room as he waited for Gibbs to grab what he wanted to bring home.

Fornell had rolled his eyes when Gibbs said he would be right back and then went down to the lab to check in with Abby one last time. He had been quick, making sure there was nothing she needed, and that she wouldn't stay pay ten and that she would have security walk her to her car. He left with a lingering kiss to her cheek and a soft tug to her pigtail.

The stopped for take out on their way back to Gibbs' house. Gibbs wasn't fond of the Thai place that Fornell picked, but the FBI agent had a coupon that was about to expire, and he didn't want it to go to waste. They were greeted at the front door by one of the agents on rotation at Gibbs' house. They set up at the dining table with the food and a couple beers.

"So," Fornell uncapped two beers while Gibbs' dished up their plates. "You and Abby got a little cozy last night, eh?"

Gibbs ignored him and forked a mouthful of food into his mouth.

"I mean, I can't say I didn't see it coming, but really, in Emily's room? C'mon."

"We didn't have sex," Gibbs growled.

"Right…" Fornell's smirk faded. "Wait, you're serious? You finally got your forensic scientist into bed and you didn't have sex?"

"Drop it Tobias."

"I'm not asking for the details, I'm just surprised that nothing happened. When you look at her…" Fornell took a bite and chewed thoughtfully. "When you look at her you relax. It's good to see. You don't need to live the rest of your life alone in that dusty old basement of yours."

Gibbs let his fork drop on the side of his plate. "I didn't ask for your opinion on my personal life. Drop it."

"Alright, alright." Fornell held his hands up in defeat.

"Talk to Emily lately?"

"She was thrilled that you were going to spend the night in her room. Wanted me to put a chocolate on your pillow."

"I'm going to tell her that you didn't."

"I'll never hear the end of it."

"Good." Gibbs picked up his fork again and continued to eat. "She's doing okay?"

"Emily? Oh yeah, she's fine. She wasn't thrilled about the change in schedule, but she's been handling it well. At least she's stopped hinting at Abby and I."

"You… and Abby?" Gibbs raised an eyebrow.

Fornell shrugged. "She likes Abby, looks up to her. I think she had a few ideas floating in her head about Abby and I spending more time together."

"Talk to Diane lately?" Gibbs was quick to change the subject. Abby and Fornell together as more than occasional co-workers was a topic he wasn't interested in hearing anything about, no matter how far-fetched the idea was.

"Yeah," Fornell grinned. "That was an experience. I told her I wanted to go back to our regular custody agreement since we're getting nowhere with the case, and that life is slowly getting back to normal." He glanced over at the security guard by the door. "Almost normal."

"What'd she say?"

"Oh, you know, the usual. My job takes up too much time, I'm not an attentive enough father. I told her she could have Emily for another week, and then I want my days back. She'll deal with it, or I'll bring her to court. She knows that. I don't think there will be any problem."

The rest of the week went by rather quickly. Gibbs and his team worked out of NCIS, while Fornell and his team went back and forth between NCIS and the FBI headquarters. They dove deep into Cheryl's back ground, interviewing anyone they could connect to her, and went back over every single case where Gibbs had sent someone to prison over the past year. Gibbs' patience was running low as they repeatedly came up with nothing.

Each night he went home alone, ignored the agent stationed in his living room, and spent most of the night in the basement.

By Friday Abby was beginning to feel lonely. The team was just up a few flights of stairs, but everyone was so busy, there wasn't much time for socializing. And as for Gibbs – she had seen him once, maybe twice a day, and they were never alone. He always looked tired and she knew that if she wasn't getting much sleep, he wasn't getting much more than a few hours of sleep each night.

Abby wasn't sure if he would want her company, but she missed him. She knew an Agent was in his house with a second circling the neighborhood every 15-20 minutes, but she figured Gibbs wasn't likely to make friends with the man stationed just inside his front door. She pulled up out front and waved at the Agent that had followed her car down the quiet street. She walked around to the passenger side door, and collected the food she had prepared and put into a picnic basket.

The guard stationed inside, Kevin, opened the door after one knock, and with a quick check of her I.D. Abby was allowed inside. "Where is he?"

"Basement."

"Has he eaten yet?"

"Don't think so. He got home an hour ago and then disappeared downstairs. I haven't seen him since. Agent Fornell warned me that I wasn't likely to see or talk to him much. He said Agent Gibbs prefers to keep to himself."

"It's true. Have you eaten? I made a chicken pasta salad, and picked up some fresh rolls. There is plenty if you'd like some."

"No thanks. I just had a bite to eat 20 minutes ago."

"Alright," Abby gave him a friendly smile and then headed for the basement door. She thought about knocking, but she had never knocked at his front door, she wasn't about to start knocking at the basement door.

Gibbs was bent over a long piece of wood, a pencil in one hand, a ruler in the other.

"Starting over?"

Gibbs didn't look up, but he waved the hand with the pencil to a few neatly sanded ribs from the previous boat. "Not completely."

"Care for some company?"

"Don't people usually call and ask that before coming over?"

Abby thought it was a little harsh, but she wasn't going to show that stung. "I brought you some food, I don't need to stay."

Gibbs set the pencil and ruler down and turned toward her. "Stay."

Abby stepped off the last step and lifted up the picnic basket. "I packed you a picnic. I figured you'd rather not eat upstairs with your babysitter, so I brought a blanket and paper plates and…" Abby spread a thick blanket out in the center of the basement. Once Gibbs had picked up the fragments of his boat, the basement had been swept clean.

Once the blanket was out, Abby dropped to her knees and pulled out two paper plates, two paper cups, and a large tupperware of chicken pasta salad. She waved Gibbs over and pulled out a bottle of sparkling water, pouring them each a large cup full. She carefully unwrapped the warm rolls, and then dug around the bottom of the basket for plastic silverware.

"You brought all this for me?"

"I told you, I didn't think you'd want to eat with your babysitter upstairs, and it would be rather uncomfortable to sit on the cold floor." She laughed when Gibbs frowned at the use of the world babysitter. She'd had an agent on protection detail more than once; she knew what it was like.

Gibbs took the roll that she offered and dished up a plate of pasta salad.

Abby glanced over to where he had been working on rebuilding the boat. "Is it hard to…." As the words came out, Abby wondered if it was a metaphor for something a little more serious than his boat. "To start over? I mean, will it mean as much as the first one? You put so much work into it."

Gibbs looked at her and then sipped his water before answering. "Is starting over hard? Yes. And it takes work, a lot of that. But I have faith that this one… she'll be the best one yet." Something changed in his voice and suddenly Gibbs had his wall up. "It's not the first time I've started over on a boat. I know what to do."

Abby cocked her head at the sudden change in demeanor. It wasn't like Gibbs to pull away so violently like that, not when he was with her.

"Can I help you?"

Abby followed his gaze when he directed the question back at the stairs. She hadn't heard the door open, but Gibbs had. Kevin was standing on the top step.

"Um, sir, Agent Fornell called. He wanted to know if you wanted company. He said you hadn't been answering your cell, and…"

"No." He had been ignoring Fornell's calls the past hour.

"Oh, okay. What should I tell him?"

"I don't care what you tell him, I don't want any company." Gibbs reached out and covered Abby's hand with his own. He didn't want any company except hers.

"Uh, okay, I will."

Gibbs waited until the basement door closed again before speaking. "If he's Fornell's best at security detail, I'd hate to meet his worst."

"I can call Darren for you – he did a good job babysitting me. He even played board games with me when I couldn't sleep." Abby was referring to the last time Gibbs had put 24hr security detail on her.

"Just how friendly are you with Darren?" Gibbs hadn't heard anything about him in over a year.

"Oh, you know. We're Facebook friends, follow each other on Twitter…"

"You follow each other?"

Abby laughed and shook her head. "It's a computer social network thing, we don't actually follow each other around."

"Ah. But you see him often?"

"I haven't seen him in awhile. Though I know he goes to a club that a couple of my friends go to on Friday nights."

Gibbs glanced at his watch, it wasn't late by any standards, but most of those clubs were open by now. "You headed there next?"

"Tonight? Nah, the first Friday of the month is usually pretty boring." Abby shrugged. "I thought we could hang out."

Satisfied that she wasn't planning on running off to party afterwards, Gibbs relaxed and began to enjoy their inside picnic. He explained how Ziva had figured out the Maldonado case and Abby asked more questions than he could begin to answer about the brothers DNA. "Wow, it's such a movie story-line. He killed his brother, but at the time he didn't know it was his brother and then once he finds out, he kills himself. I bet Tony could come up with a great title for it."

"I'm sure he already has."

They lapsed into a comfortable silence as they finished their dinner. It was getting late, and Abby knew she should get going. She hated to leave him even if he had security detail. She knew she wouldn't rest unless she knew for a fact he was okay. But there had to be something she could do in the lab – an extra test to run – something! "I should probably get going."

"We don't have work tomorrow, stay."

"We have work every day until we figure out who hates you enough to poison you." Her ensuring his safety wasn't a 9 to 5 job. She had no intention of resting until she was sure he was safe.

"There is nothing you can do, not until we have something for you to test. You know that."

Abby hated feeling as though she had hit a dead end. "Maybe if I go back over everything we've collected so far-"

"You've done your best, Abbs. If there was something there for you to find, you would've found it already." Gibbs reached out and gave her hand a soft squeeze.

"Then what are we supposed to do?"

"Nothing for now." Gibbs gave a little shrug. "I'm not allowed back at NCIS until Monday. Directors orders."

"He wants you well rested before you set yourself up as bait. It's not a bad idea – the you staying home part, I'm not a fan of setting yourself up as bait."

Gibbs should have known that Abby would have picked up on the idea of playing bait, despite having missed the conversation. "I'll rest better knowing you're safe. I'll know that you're safe if you're here with me."

"I'll need something to wear to bed. I always keep a change of clothes in my car, but I don't have anything to sleep in."

Gibbs resisted the urge to say that she didn't need anything to sleep in, instead he took the safe route. "I'm sure I've got something you can borrow." It wasn't the first time she had borrowed an oversize shirt to sleep in.

"Okay."

"I'll go get my bag."

Gibbs collected the garbage and tossed it into a large garbage bag. He then folded up the blanket as Abby packed up the rest of the food. She hesitated as they headed for the stairs so that he could lead the way, and she smiled when he paused at her side, kissed her cheek and thanked her for dinner.

Abby followed him up the stairs, a silly grin on her face. She stowed the leftovers in the fridge, and headed for the front door. "I'm just going to grab some stuff from my car, plenty of food in the fridge if you get hungry."

Kevin stood and opened the door for her. "Thank you."

Abby hurried out to her car, and was thankful that Kevin kept the front door open. It was dark and she couldn't help but worry that Gibbs' house was being watched. She pulled her overnight bag from the trunk and hoisted it up on her shoulder. Locking the door, she hurried back up the steps to where both Gibbs and Kevin stood waiting.

Gibbs was on the phone when she returned, and she caught the last bit of his conversation. "She won't be going home tonight. No need to worry." He closed his phone and turned back to her as she stepped inside.

"You had someone watching my apartment?"

"Can never be too safe." Gibbs closed the door and flipped the dead bolt. He took Abby's bag off her shoulders and slung it over his own. He gave Abby a gentle nudge toward the stairs and then turned to look at Kevin. "Good night." The words were simple, but the look that accompanied them said much more.

Kevin gave a little nod and moved back to his spot on the couch and picked up his book. He knew he wasn't supposed to bother Agent Gibbs unless it was absolutely necessary. He clicked on the TV as well. The house was well built, but he didn't want to accidentally hear anything.

Gibbs followed Abby up and directed her toward his room with a soft nudge as she hesitated at the top of the stairs. He set her bag on a chair in the corner of his room and then went to the chest of drawers and opened the top one. He pawed through a few shirts before finding an old NIS shirt that he knew would be long enough for her.

"I'm just going to take a quick shower." Abby accepted the shirt and then dug around her bag for a toothbrush. Instead of going into the master bathroom, she headed across the hall to the main bathroom for a shower. In the bathroom she opened the cabinet below the sink and pulled out a small plastic bin containing the shampoo, conditioner and face wash she preferred. She had stayed at his house enough times to warrant her own basket of stuff and somehow it made her feel like she belonged, at least a little, in his life.

She showered as quickly as possible and toweled off before changing into the shirt that Gibbs had provided. It fell to mid thigh and she felt covered enough so that she wouldn't feel awkward. With a towel wrapped around her hair she brushed her teeth, and continued to get ready for bed. Once she was all ready, she towel dried her hair and hung it on the hook on the back of the door and replaced the bin of her toiletry items under the sink.

TBC…

Things will be a little crazy the next few days – through Friday night. I can't promise daily posts, sorry!