What Tony didn't realize, was that Gibbs was not alone tonight.

Gibbs disconnected from the call, grabbed his bolt cutters from the toolbox, and headed up the stairs to the kitchen. "Hey Abbs, How much time until supper's ready?"

"Hmm, maybe 15 minutes or so, why? You getting hungry?"

Abby indulged in her maternal instincts by showing up at Gibbs place every couple of weeks and cooking him dinner, usually making a ridiculous amount of food so that she could freeze the leftovers for him to heat up when he didn't want to cook or order takeout.

"No, but Tony just called. I need to head over to his place for a bit. He's got himself in a bit of a jam."

Her eyes widened as she saw the bolt cutters in his hands. "What are you gonna do to him Gibbs?"

He laughed a little at her expression and explained, "He's somehow managed to get stuck in the bathtub. I really don't know the whole story, he was rambling on about Webelos and McGee. I just said I'd be over to help. Can you hold dinner, and I'll be back as soon as I can."

"No way mister. I'm coming with you. Tony was hurting this morning whether he admitted it or not, and he might need some good Abbylovin'. The food will hold."

"Abbs, he seemed to be pretty embarrassed. He might not want visitors."

"Gibbs! I'm not a visitor! I'm Abby! We're like Butch and Sundance, or Calvin and Hobbes. Gin and tonic! We've actually discussed that one: he's the gin and I'm the tonic." With obvious pride, she added, "I'm his wing-girl! He and I share everything. He won't care if I come along."

Gibbs gave up on convincing her to stay behind, and escorted her out to the truck. They drove the short 10 minutes to Tony's place, and managed to find on-street parking a block or so away. Abby insisted on playing this as a caper, and carrying the bolt cutters. She held them secreted under the flap of her trench coat, and he expected her to start referencing B&E movies at any moment. When they reached Tony's apartment door, she bounced with excitement as he got out his picks.

"Can I try Gibbs? Please? I'm getting really good, I've actually managed to do it a couple times now! This is so much fun, I hardly ever get to B&E when it's not like, illegal."

Gibbs stopped what he was doing and stared at her. "Abby. When exactly do you break into places illegally? And who's teaching you to pick locks?"

A guilty look crossed her face. "Umm, you might want to go with plausible deniability on that Gibbs. Pretend we never had this conversation, okay?" She gave him a sheepish grin. "And Ziva is teaching me to use the picks. And bobby pins. She says it's never a bad idea to be prepared for the worst. So can I try it?"

Gibbs looked back to the door and deftly sprung the lock. "Abbs, how about I just get us in to help Tony. When we get home you can pick my locks to your hearts content, okay. And be careful with the illegal crap. I don't want to be bailing you out of jail again. Now hand over the bolt cutters."

He opened the door as far as he could, and snapped the chain easily with the cutters.

"DiNozzo! We're in."

"Uh, we Boss?" came a voice from down the hall.

Abby pushed passed Gibbs in the doorway, and rushed down the hall to the bathroom.

"Tony! Are you okay?"

"Abbs! I'm naked! Get out!" Tony quickly did his best to cover his dangly bits with his hands, as his best friend came to a whirling stop next to the tub.

"Nothing I haven't seen before DiNozzo. Get over yourself." She leered down at him. "Geez, poor Little Tony's looking, uh, little."

"Stop leering and get the hell out. And for your information, the water happens to be cold. Very cold. Shrinkage is a medically proven fact."

Gibbs walked into the bathroom, and looked around. "Wine and mood lighting DiNozzo? Really?"

Abby turned on a bounce, and wiggled her eyebrows at Gibbs. "He says it's from the cold water Gibbs, but I think whichever hand he's dating tonight is gonna be disappointed."

It was sort of like a car wreck – you just couldn't help but look.

All three sets of eyes in the room swiveled to Tony's groin before he snapped, "Enough Abby! The lights were 'cause my head ached; the wine was to relax me, and the bath to help my frickin' ass muscles. Now God help me, if you don't get the hell out of here I will never help you win a jitterbug contest again."

Gibbs quickly stopped his eyes from ogling his SFA's naked body, and gently turned Abby and sent her out into the hall. "Abby, why don't you go find Tony some boxers and a T-shirt, and lay them out in his room. Then go to the living room until we're done. I'll take it from here." She pouted a little, but moved on down the hallway to do as was asked of her.

"I love her Boss, I really do, but sometimes…" Tony broke off. "While I was lying here waiting for you, I really didn't think I could get any more embarrassed. I, uh, I wasn't planning to, you know, do anything, or umm, have a romantic evening or anything like that. Despite the evidence. It just looks, well, incriminating." Tony could feel a rosy glow spreading across his chest and up his neck to his cheeks. "So, do you think we can get a move on here 'cause really, the water is pretty cold, and my back hurts like a bitch."

Gibbs looked down into the tub and evaluated the situation. "You do look like a pretzel DiNozzo. I think we better drain the water before we start splashing around. Maybe rinse some of that goop out of the tub too, so it's not as slippery when I lift you."

Gibbs knelt down and studiously tried to avoid looking at Tony's crotch while he reached between the prone man's legs to pull the drain plug. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Tony staring up at the showerhead with a look of utter mortification on his face. Gibbs began running fresh water after the tub had drained, thoughtfully adjusting the temperature before he began rinsing the leftover bits of Epsom salts stuck to the tub bottom.

"Do you think you could raise your ass at all so I can splash some water under you?"

Tony didn't answer or break his stare on the showerhead, but used his thigh muscles to raise himself an inch or so off the bottom of the bathtub, wincing in pain as he did so.

Gibbs was so intent on his mission (rinse the tub as fast as possible so Tony could get some clothes on and not be naked anymore) that he blurted without thinking, "Hey, what is this stuff, you smell pretty good?" Hell, he said that out loud. Well that was enough to break Tony's stare.

"Uh, it's Epsom salts and bath foam. Sage and lavender. Supposed to be good for sore muscles."

Gibbs tried to play it off, "Hmm, you don't say. I'll have to pick some up sometime."

The thought of Gibbs relaxing in a bubble bath was almost enough to break Tony's brain. His mind went like a pinball machine: random inappropriate thoughts bouncing around his skull as he desperately tried to rein in his mouth from making a highly inadvisable smart-ass comment (he really didn't think he wanted a headslap while naked). And then it happened. Oh no. Oh please shit no. Warm splashy water and naked headslaps and Gibbs' hands right there and What The Fuck? There was twitching where there definitely shouldn't be twitching; where there shouldn't be movement of any kind, ever, when his boss was in the vicinity. Tony's horror magnified tenfold as he felt his traitorous penis start to harden.

"Oh hey Boss, I don't suppose you could leave, like I mean, for the kitchen, for a minute, for some, uh, water? A glass of water. Thirsty. I'm thirsty."

"DiNozzo, you want out of here today or not?" As he spoke, Gibbs eyes flicked from the taps over to Tony's face, skimming up his body in the process. In the second it took to track over to Tony's eyes, his brain snagged on what he couldn't possibly have seen and his eyes whipped back to verify. Oh good God. Apparently Little Tony wasn't suffering from shrinkage anymore.