Disclaimer - I do not own NCIS.

Warning - Contains spanking, don't like, don't read - Step away from the story now!

A/N - Just to explain, I have as much knowledge of chemistry as a five year old, so what you will read here is...well...nonsense, in a kind of chemical sense. So when you read that part, don't shout at the screen. Okay, I feel better, I've got that off my chest. Enjoy!

In the conference room, Abby and Tim sat slouched in their chairs, with their arms folded. They were still sulking and angry at the situation they had found themselves in. Within half an hour of the 'incident', Ducky had checked them out, and ordered them to the conference room to wait for Gibbs. With the adrenalin levels returning to normal, they had resorted to mutual defiant stances to hide the fact that they had been scared out of their wits.

"This totally sucks McGee!"

Tim frowned as he replied, "It's not like we did a huge amount of damage. But as usual, he's just going over the top and over reacting!"

He sighed loudly and rose abruptly from his seat and continued to complain as he paced up and down,

"Okay, I admit, it probably looks worse than it is, but we managed to get things under control really quickly and we followed through on all the safety protocols. Under the circumstances, I don't understand why he is getting so uptight about this. I mean if it was Tony, I could understand why he'd be hauled up here, as he doesn't have my scientific background. But, you and I both, we're professionals right? Two adults working on a scientific project who just had a little...a slight...uh...we...uh..."

As his words trailed, he screwed up his face trying desperately to find an accurate description which could sensibly justify what had happened.

"He's Gibbs, McGee! Besides, he always over-reacts when I screw up. Not that I screwed up, more like when I get involved in someone else's screw ups."

Tim furrowed his brow as her words sunk in, "Hey, wait a minute! Are you implying that I was the one who screwed the whole thing up?"

With wide accusing eyes she replied, "Well...uh...yeah...it was your fault McGee."

He gasped, open mouthed, momentarily speechless at her accusation.

"My fault?"

She nodded sweetly with a broad innocent smile.

"My fault?" he repeated.

She raised an eyebrow, "You were right the first time Tim."

He began wagging his finger at her,

"No, no, no, no, no! You are not pinning this on me!"

"I wasn't the one who couldn't tell the difference between carbomonodioxidant and dihydrocarbonate! That second carbon molecule makes a big difference Timmy!"

"You definitely said to add carbomonodioxidant! You never mentioned dihydrocarbonate!"

"Come on, Mister MIT graduate, even a freshman can tell the difference between those two!"

Tim's face grew red with frustration, and, unable to argue the point any further decided on his last chance at recrimination,

"The whole thing was your stupid idea. If I hadn't listened to you, we wouldn't be in this mess!"

Abby thumped him hard on the shoulder and he yelped,

"I wasn't the one who mixed up what was going to be a perfectly good firework, and caused it to prematurely explode in my lab, and start a chain reaction with the other fireworks I was experimenting on, which lit up my lab like the fourth of July, and eventually resulted in me burning and ruining my labcoat, which I've had for a very long time incidentally. Or cause the fire alarms to go off and most of the building to evacuate just because I don't understand basic chemistry McGee!"

There was a stunned silence, as they suddenly both realised the extent of the trouble they were in.

Tim gulped. Abby whimpered.

"When you put it like that Abby, he's gonna kill us...right?"

Her eyes widened in fear, "He might kill you, let's face it, he's got two other field agents he can rely on. But me, he can't kill right? I am his only lab genius...right?"

She wrung her hands nervously and couldn't help but think, that as Gibbs only lab genius, that might make her an even more precious commodity. Trying desperately to supress all thoughts of how much trouble she was in, she looked to Tim for moral support.

Tim McGee stood, still frozen to the spot. His mind was racing, trying to assess, calculate, justify, defend and find a solution, and words, which would convince himself that he wasn't in as much trouble, as his head was telling him he was in. He swallowed hard once more, and felt his heart pounding as he worked through the logic. Having taken all of the various factors into account, there was only one response. They were both up a piranha infested creek where paddles hadn't yet been invented.

The sound of the conference room door swinging open made them jump.

"Gibbs!"

To be continued...