SUMMARY: Sequel to "The SecDef Cheats." Lt. Col Cassidy moves in to NCIS and this will mean for Abby in the long run. McAbby, Drama/Romance/Angst
RATING: T - Adult subject matter, rare mild language, killer smooching.
A/N: Well, I broke my own promise and it took me two weeks to get this chapter... You have my deepest apologies, but my other fic kind of took over my life there at the end. But to make it up to you... I should have a second chapter done in the next day or so. Thanks for being patient with me. :D
REVIEWS: I am always trying to improve my writing, so all constructive criticism is welcome. I would also like to thank you in advance for any reviews you might wish to leave. They really are a great boon to a writer's ego and gives you a huge incentive to live up to your expectations.
Chapter 6
It was only the first week May, but it was already way too warm to be standing outside in the parking lot of Abby's apartment complex, but that was exactly where Timothy McGee was found himself standing. He was worried that he should not have gone there, he was worried that maybe he had misunderstood the situation, and most of all, he was worried that he was going to do or say the wrong thing and screw it all up. And so, he stood there, worrying and sweating as he stared up at her apartment.
He was so caught up in his thoughts that he almost missed the fact that his cellphone was going off in his pocket. He nervously opened the phone and answered it without looking to see who it was. "McGee."
"How long are you planning on standing out there in that suit sweating your butt off, McGee?"
Abby's voice in his ear caused him to look at the phone, just to confirm that his mind was not playing tricks on him. However, his voice was not really working for him due to the shock, "Huh?"
"McGee! You've been standing out there like forever! Are you gonna come up here, or am I gonna have to come out there and get you?" McGee looked around him, trying to figure out how she could have known that he was out there. "Look up, McGee." He did as instructed, and he could see a hand waving out the window to her apartment. "Now get up here!"
McGee nodded his head at the phone and took his first step forward since his arrival at the apartment complex. On his way to the stairs he realized that he still had the phone to his ear when he heard her voice once again. "I think you can hang up the phone now, McGee."
As he put his foot on the first step, he looked at the phone in his hand and mutter, "Oh yeah, right." And he finally closed the phone. He felt about twenty shades of embarrassed as he climbed the stairs to her apartment.
As he raised his hand to knock on her door, it swung open, showing him the mildly irritated Abby. She stood in the doorway, one hand on the door and the other on her hip and an aggravated expression on her face. "Good grief, McGee, it's about time!"
He stammered as he tried to come up with some kind of explanation for his witnessed behavior, but he was mercilessly saved when she turned to the side and said, "Well, come in, before you let all my A/C out."
He nodded and took those two steps inside. McGee took a deep breath and was working up the courage to speak when he turned back around to face Abby, but what he saw there took it all away. Her words had all been some kind of front, because as he looked into her face, he could see the tears welling up and the quiver of her bottom lip. So, instead of saying anything, he just held out his arms and waited.
There was no wait, as she nodded her head and then sailed into his arms, burying her face in his jacket. When she started to sob, he just held her tight while he stroked her neck with his right hand. After a while, her sobs seemed to subside and McGee finally felt he could talk. "I thought things went okay with your meeting, Abs… What happened?"
She finally turned her face away from his chest and whispered, "How'd you know about the meeting?"
He looked down at her face and shrugged as he answered, "I ran into the Colonel when I went looking for you. When she said she'd sent you home I kind of flipped and she told me that you weren't fired and you just went home to get some rest." He tucked a finger under her chin and lifted her gaze up into his. "Obviously that's not working so good, huh?" She screwed up her mouth to the side and shrugged before holding her face back against his chest again. "Okay, come on." He pulled her to the side and then guided her over to the couch. When he turned her away from him, he kissed her forehead in a gesture of comfort and moved her to sit down on the couch. As soon as she was seated she pulled her legs up with her and held her knees to her chest. "You wanna tell me what happened?"
She nodded her head and then rested her chin down on top of her knees. "I was actually really happy once I left her office, but on the way home…" Her voice trailed off, and McGee thought that it actually sounded almost like a little girl. "That was when I started thinking about what she told me… And what Gibbs said… And then I got scared."
McGee was still confused, because he still did not know a thing. "So, what did they have to say?"
"They're booting me from the lab, McGee!" She flailed her arms with the exclamation and her actions, as well as her words nearly knocked him off the couch.
"What? Why?"
She sighed and sunk down into the couch as she said, "Because they think I spend too much time in there."
McGee was completely confused by her answer and the only thing he was able to muster was, "Huh?"
Abby took a deep breath, and then the game was on, "Well, the Colonel pulled my security logs for like the last year and showed Gibbs how much time I've been at the lab, and then she looked at my personnel file and my gosh those guys in personnel really suck McGee, you have no idea! But anyway, she's got like this whole plan for the lab and she was making sure everyone was, you know, sane and stuff and she decided that I was like this time bomb waiting to go off and she didn't want me getting into the job and then self-destructing, you know. And she knew about the parties and the cops picking me up and I have no idea how she got that stuff. I mean they didn't even take me in, just you know, found me there and stuff. And Ducky knew about it all and he thought the Colonel was right and so did Gibbs. They like totally ganged up on me McGee, and now I have to go to all these stupid counseling sessions, and if I pass those then I get promoted to some kind of director and then I have to learn about budgets and scheduling and purchasing and capital expenditures. Plus she rigged the system to boot me out if I put in too many hours, and I'd have to get permission to be on for so long like every time I want to work late and stuff. I don't know how I can do all of that and the science and NOT work like a bajillion hours. I mean, really McGee, how can you do all that AND only work fourty hours a week!" Abby dropped her hands solidly onto the couch with a slap at her last words. However McGee's head was practically swimming with the machine gun delivery of so much data in such a short span of time. He supposed he should have been used to it by that point, but the data-stream speed seemed to have increased with her nervousness. As Abby stared at his practically blank face, she reached over and shoved him lightly in the shoulder, "McGee! Are you even paying attention to me?"
"Huh? Oh yeah, it's j-just, ah, well… Wow! Abs that's a lot to process." His mind was reeling from everything he had running around inside his brain.
"Okay, so… One thing at a time?"
He shook his head when one fact suddenly came into complete focus, "Wait, you're gonna be a director!" His face was turned up into an incredulous scowl.
"McGee! Out of everything I just said, you picked THAT to zone in on?" Abby was shocked at his concern over her new possible position.
His face moved straight from scowl to hurt and that was not registering for Abby. "Well, yeah, 'cause if you're a boss… Doesn't that, you know, mean we-…"
That was when she realized he was concerned about where their relationship would stand in this new light. "No! We don't even work in the same divisions anymore, Tim! It doesn't mean that at all." She put her hand up to his face and stroked his chin as his features relaxed and the tension left his shoulders. "So, next item?"
He took a deep breath and exhaled it quickly, "Well, you do work too many hours, so cutting them is a good thing. Plus, with the new division, it won't be just you in there all the time." He looked down at his own hands for a moment, breaking the eye contact with his nervousness. "And you know, if you aren't at the lab then maybe we could, um, I don't know, do stuff?"
She knew what he meant, but she just had to ask, "Like what stuff?"
He shrugged a little sheepishly and answered, his eyes still on his hands instead of her, "You know, stuff that maybe didn't involve the lab, or Gibbs, or work, maybe?"
When he finally chanced a glance over at her, he was met with that dangerous smile of hers and his heart lightened instantly. "Okay."
"Okay…" His mind was on fire with the possibilities that simple word held for him, but something was tapping at the back of consciousness. "So, you haven't been involved with any other incidents lately, so why are they pushing the PIC sessions? I mean, it's not like you would've ignored those, right?" Her expression went through about six levels of embarrassment and settled smack dab on crimson. "Abby! How could you ignore those!" She cringed with his outburst, but he had to know the extent. "How many have you completed?"
"Um, wel-…"
"After Kate?" She was silent. "After that maniac tried to shoot you?" She was shocked by the pain on his face, but she stayed silent. "Well, at least after… after Ch-Chip, right?" He struggled to say the last one and Abby felt her heart constrict with his tortured eyes.
She was blinded by his quick actions as McGee wrapped his arms around her and buried her face into his chest, holding her very tightly. He had taken her breath away with the hurt she saw in his face and fear she could feel rolling off of him. "A-Abby… you have to… to take… take better care… of y-yourself."
That was simply too much for her and she lost her grip on those tightly held emotions as they broke through into the staggered sobs that burst through his fierce embrace. The boundary was gone and she could no longer hold any of it back, but more than anything, she knew that Tim was there to hold her together, as best he could. And eventually, when the tears seemed to dry up and the sobs began to subside, sleep finally came. There, on her couch, with Tim's arms holding her close, she started the slow process of healing, and she slept.