Disclaimer - I do not own NCIS.
Warning - Contains spanking, don't like, don't read - Step away from the story now!
A/N - This is a longer chapter and I intended to post it yesterday, but couldn't stop tinkering with it. Sorry!
The face of Special Agent Gibbs was sterner than usual, although Abby detected the hint of disappointment in his expression. She had come to know, through experience, that particular look. It was the look that said he was seriously pissed at her behaviour, and, was about to let her know it.
"Did Ducky check you both out? Are you sure you are both okay?" he said firmly as he closed the conference room door.
They quickly nodded. Under his piercing stare, their eyes avoided contact and were drawn to the floor, as the awkward silence continued. It was a silence soon broken with a heavy sigh from Gibbs.
"I've cleared everything with the Director; I've told her that it was a genuine experiment, following up on a cold case. Somehow, by some miracle, I think she bought it."
He frowned, still unable to settle that feeling in his gut. On the one hand, his gut was telling him to take both of them in his arms, and be grateful that they had come through the incident unscathed. There was, however, part of his gut that told him to knock sense into both of them for being so damned foolish. The frown continued as he realised, that ultimately, he would end up doing both.
"What the hell were you both thinking?"
There was silence as they continued to avoid eye contact with Gibbs.
Abby decided to focus on his shoes, mentally noting how shiny they were. She repeated the phrase, 'once a Marine, always a Marine' a couple of times in her head, trying to avoid eye contact for as long as possible. Silence too, also worked best, she thought, in these circumstances. Through silence, there was no admission, no guilt, no blame and, more importantly, no consequences. If only she could convince her stomach of that, it might not be on automatic overdrive, in preparation for what she knew was going to happen next.
Tim could feel his heart pumping, and his palms begin to get sweaty as his eyes darted randomly, trying to avert Gibbs gaze. He still continued to run through the incident in his mind again and again, looking for every shred of justification for screwing up so fantastically. Eventually, he decided that Gibbs would understand, it had been an accident after all, that was the logical solution. Tim McGee also decided that denial was the only thing that would keep him from not passing out.
"Okay, it's obvious that there wasn't much thinking going on, perhaps, then, you might want to tell me why you are here?"
Despite her biting her bottom lip in an attempt to keep quiet, Abby blurted a response,
"Because Tim blew up my lab?" she said remorsefully.
Tim gasped and then turned to face her,
"Wait a minute; we've just gone through this, it was not my fault!"
She stamped her foot indignantly, "Well it wasn't my fault!"
"It was your idea to create the mother of all fireworks!" Tim snapped.
"It was a perfectly legitimate and viable experiment McGee, till you got involved and screwed it all up!"
Tim folded his arms defiantly, "I did not screw up!"
"Did too" Abby barked in response.
"Did not!"
"Yes you did!"
"I did not!"
"You so did McGee!"
"Oh, for crying out loud," Gibbs muttered under his breath.
He closed his eyes momentarily, and inhaled deeply, as the repetitive recriminations increased in volume.
"STOP!" he finally bellowed.
Tim and Abby immediately froze, startled by Gibbs increasingly fraught tone.
"The two of you nearly got yourselves killed today on something that had nothing to do with the jobs that you are being paid to do. Both of you have demonstrated that you are more interested in behaving like kids than making sure that you follow safety protocols by put..."
"Gibbs! Look, before you say anything else, I swear we did follow safety protocols! We doused the sparks and the small flames, well kinda, and then we hit the alarm and got everyone evacuated. It was all done by the book!"
Gibbs glared at Abby his anger levels heightening by her whining interruption. He put his hand up to silence her.
"...by putting yourselves in a position where your safety was compromised!" he added firmly.
Abby huffed and hung her head low as he continued,
"Frankly, I don't care whose fault it was, what I do care about is the fact that I almost lost an agent and a lab scientist through nothing more than two adults behaving like over excited fifth graders. I've yet to be convinced that both of you are truly aware of how dangerous the consequences of your actions could have been today!"
As his words hit home, Abby and Tim paled.
"It won't happen again boss," Tim said quietly.
Gibbs perched on the side of the table and folded his arms.
"I'm pretty sure it won't Tim, but personally, I'd like some guarantee of that."
"Gibbs, I think I can speak for both McGee and I, and give you my word, I mean our word, that we will never, ever, play with fireworks again!" Abby added seriously, shaking her head from side to side.
"It's okay Abby, I think I can explain. You see boss, technically we weren't playing with fireworks. Abby got some chemicals mixed up and gave me the wrong instructions and when..."
"Actually, Gibbs, the instructions were correct, it's just that Tim couldn't identify the correct compound from the bottle marked with huge big bold letters. If I were you bossman, I'd get his eyes tested. I mean, if he can't read the contents of a jar, then you wouldn't want him out in the field or during a stakeout..."
"There is nothing wrong with my eyes, it's more like your instructions!"
Abby opened her mouth to retort in protest when Gibbs yelled at them,
"ENOUGH! You two stop this right now! Now look at me!"
They tore their eyes from the floor and looked at him.
"Both of you are intelligent, but as adults that comes with a responsibility to keep yourselves and others safe. The problem I need to fix with you two is making sure that next time, when those brains of yours kick off with some crazy goofball idea, there's also something that reminds you of the responsibility part."
Tim narrowed his eyes not entirely sure where Gibbs was heading. Abby on the other hand knew exactly what was on the steely eyed boss' mind, having been in the position before and heard a variation of the same conversation.
She decided to gamble on her response, hoping that for once, the somersaults in her gut were wrong and Gibbs wasn't going to do, what she thought he was going to do,
"Like a safety protocol checklist for all experiments?" she asked frivolously, hoping to mask her nervousness.
He couldn't help but smile sarcastically, sensing her game immediately.
"No, I don't mean a checklist Abby," he said wryly, "as you damned well know."
She swallowed hard and had an unspoken 'I know that you know that I know' moment as Gibbs turned his eyes to Tim.
"Perhaps if I emphasise the danger of fireworks, then maybe next time you two decide to play, it'll make you think first, before you act."
Tim continued to stand bemused.
"Boss...uh...it's not that Abby and I don't know about the volatile nature of some of the compounds we were using, in this case it was a miscommunication which ended up causing a chemical reaction and..."
"Tim," Gibbs said gently, causing McGee to close his mouth instantly.
"The danger is McGee, that if you play irresponsibly with fireworks, you get burned."
McGee's mouth flapped, "But, b..boss, I know that there are infinite combinations of the chemicals we were using which could cause a similar reaction but..."
Abby slapped the back of his head.
"That's not what he's talking about McGee!" she snapped with a heavy sulk.
Tim grimaced at the slap and then turned to her, still very much confused and began to pout, the head slap rendering him speechless.
"Don't make me say it out loud!" she whined and then turned to Gibbs,
"Gibbs, can you just explain to Mr MIT graduate...please?"
Gibbs frowned, although inwardly amused at Abby's growing frustration with Tim.
"Abby, why don't you wait outside while I deal with McGee?" he said firmly.
Tim's eyes widened, he wasn't entirely sure what 'deal with' meant, but the uneasy feeling in his stomach was growing into a huge knot. He had a sudden flash of revelation and he couldn't help but gasp. Surely 'deal with' wasn't the same 'deal with' that Tony or Abby had experienced. He thought back to the times when he had heard those words from Gibbs before and had seen Tony and Abby after they had been 'dealt with'. He reassured himself, that this was not one of these occasions and that Gibbs simply wanted Abby to leave so that he could chew him out for his foolishness. He breathed a sigh of relief, comforted by the huge blanket of denial that almost suffocated him.
Abby immediately headed for the door, and as she reached the door handle, she heard the chilling voice behind her, which stopped her in her tracks.
"And Abby, if you're not waiting out there when we're done..."
He let his sentence hang deliberately, ensuring complete attention,
"...you'll regret it."
She took in a deep breath and walked outside, not daring to look back.
To be continued...