Jan 24

A good thing that's even better done with a friend: road trip!

"DiNozzo!"

"Calling her, boss."

An awkward silence fell over the squad room as Tony dialed the number. An important, highly media-sensitive case had suddenly appeared on a Saturday morning, and Gibbs had been called from dispatch after the supposedly on-call team had all managed to come down with the flu.

Sometimes Tony was prepared to swear that these things happened just to irritate him.

They'd managed to recover some trace evidence from the body, and were now frantically trying to get hold of Abby so she could analyze it.

It wasn't going too well. Ziva had proved to be unreachable already, leaving Gibbs in a foul mood. And now Abby was not answering her home phone…

Tony hung up, and tried her cell phone this time. It took a number of rings, but then –

"TONY!" The cry almost burst his ear drum and he dropped the receiver in shock. He quickly recovered and placed it back to his ear. "…and I was just thinking about you sitting all alone in your apartment this weekend, having a James Bond marathon, but they said you couldn't come, so I…"

Gibbs hit the button to put it on speakerphone and cut in.

"Abs, where are you? I need you here now."

"Gibbs! How are you? I'm doing great. The sun's in my face and the wind's whipping through my hair and there's not a cloud in the sky –"

"Abs! You need to come in today."

"I can't."

"What do you mean, you can't?" Tony wondered if running away from his boss was a good idea.

"I'm not in DC. Well, we're not in the tri-state area either, so –"

"We? Who are you with?"

"Hang on; I'll pass the phone over."

There were a few muttered words that Tony couldn't quite decipher.

"Good afternoon Gibbs," Ziva's voice greeted them.

Tony observed Gibbs, who was clearly not happy with this turn of events.

"Where are you?" he barked, furious.

"Erm, I am not entirely sure."

"How can you not be sure?!"

"We are on a road slip."

"Trip," Abby's voice yelled in the background. "A road trip."

"Yes, that," Ziva replied. "We have rented a car and we are driving around. It would take some time to return. Is it not possible for you to handle the case without us?"

"David, I am ordering you back here right now!" Gibbs practically screamed. "Bring Abby with you! How on earth you thought you could get away with this is unbelievable! You can't just disappear for a weekend and steal my lab tech; what were you thinking? You could have mentioned this at some point –"

"Hang on," came the response, and Tony could hear the phone being passed over yet again.

Gibbs decided to try a pre-emptive strike. "Abby, you need to get Ziva to turn the car around and –"

"Good afternoon, Jethro. How's my agency?"

Gibbs turned an interesting shade of red, one that suggested someone's impending doom. Tony had a funny feeling that his next call was going to be to Ducky, in case the boss had a heart attack.

"I might have guessed you were behind this, Jen," he growled. "I need them back here as soon as possible."

"I got that from the shouting down the phone," she remarked, amusement evident in her voice. "Is it something that can't wait?"

"It needs Abby."

"What about the lab tech on call? Simmons? Surely you can use him for once. And I'm certain you can manage without Ziva for a little while longer."

"That's not the point, Jen," he complained, prepared to launch into another tirade.

"We've been planning this trip for the last month," she told him. "Some of us need a break, and don't resort to building a boat to do it. Now, I arranged all the cover before we left. Agent Wofford is on call for me, Simmons can do all your lab work, and you can cope without Ziva for another day. If you really can't manage, call Fornell. He'd love to take your case away from you."

She hung up before he could reply; Tony guessed that she would turn the cell phone off next, to prevent any more interruptions. Gibbs looked as though he was about to explode.

"You know," Tony offered, "I think I saw Agent Wofford's car in the garage. I'm going to see if I can locate her." He began to sidle out from behind his desk.

"Abby normally leaves Simmons' cell phone number in her lab. I'll go and get it," McGee added.

The two men almost sprinted out of the squad room to avoid being on the end of Gibbs' wrath. The boss was not going to be pleased by the turn of events…