Sorry for the delay, RL just kicked my behind!

As always, unbeta'd and I don't own.

Jess x

"Come on, Abs. Sit down, you won't kill him and leave no forensic evidence, this is Gibbs, your silver haired fox we are talking about here."

Abby stopped her pacing, and spun to face Tony. In the last hour, she had found her friend collapsed in her doorway due to emotional trauma, then heard every word her boss had said in his basement to cause such trauma.

"But Tony, he's just not Gibbs anymore. Not if he can to that to you. He threatened to kill you Tony. No, Gibbs doesn't do threat, he promises. He promised to kill you Tony."

Tony stood up and enveloped her in his arms. Gently he tugged on her ponytails, trying to get a smile out of her.

"I know, Abs, but I'll be fine. After all, you've got my back."

The two friends stood there, embracing each other tightly and ignoring the world for what seemed like hours. Finally, Tony cleared his throat.

"Come sit down, Abs. What do I do now, Abs, I need your help."

Abby shuffled over to the couch and pulled Tony down next to her so they could cuddle comfortably. Now what issue should she bring up first.

"Do you want to see him again, and I mean at all here Tony?"

Tony just slumped. This was the question roaming around in his head ever since he left. On one hand, he could go back to work and try to pretend that everything was all right, that nothing had changed. He could pretend that his heart wasn't broken. He could pretend that his boss was just warming up to the knowledge recently dumped on him. But he knew that he couldn't pretend that Gibbs had his six. He didn't even know if he could protect his boss' six. Nothing mattered more on the job than trust, and after almost ten years, Anthony DiNozzo Jr. couldn't trust his boss.

"I can't trust him Abs, he just proved to me that he doesn't have my six."

They sat there in silence. Just each thinking their own thing before Abby spoke.

"Any idea what you are going to do?

"Well Fornell's offered me a job enough times, I'm sure if I asked then I could get that job. At least Sacks isn't around anymore."

Abby resigned herself to the fact that her best friend would be leaving NCIS, and she understood his reasons and supported him. She was just glad he wasn't leaving DC.

MLIA MLIA MLIA MLIA MLIA MLIA MLIA MLIA MLIA MLIA MLIA MLIA MLIA

Gibbs looked up from his latest project, heard the footsteps moving about above him and sighed before grabbing two mason jars and the bottle of bourbon he received as a gift from the shelf.

"Why is it that whenever I come around, we always drink the bourbon I give you, and there is never any more missing between visits?"

"Knew you were an investigator for a reason, Fornell. Actually, I figured it was for you since you know I'd never drink this 80 year old shit."

They turned, looked then scoffed at each other. Their friendship grew out of odd circumstances. They met through work, shared a few cases ad hated each others guts. Then Fornell came to Gibbs' place one night to say he was marrying his ex-wife number 2, Dianne. From then on from even before Dianne and Fornells' daughter Emily was born right through to her new marriage to Homeland Security of all places, the friendship of the two men had grown through camaraderie and respect to trust and dependence.

"So, what's the visit for this time? Need to drink a piece of ass off your mind, or Dianne up to her old tricks?"

Fornell sat there on the workbench, solemnly staring at the ground.

"Wanna tell me what happened between you and DiNutso?" Fornell waited a second before continuing. "Didn't think so."

Gibbs glared at his friend before heading for the staircase that led to the door.

"Has he said something? I haven't talked to him in two days;" (48 hours and 19 minutes since I kicked him out, but who's counting) Gibbs murmured to himself, before getting angry at himself, is friend, his subordinate and the rest of the world.

"He hasn't been at work so I don't know. Are you and your FBI buddies tapping our phones or something just because you can? What am I saying, of course you must be doing something, how else would you have known!"

Jumping up from his seat affronted, the FBI Agent just stalked towards Gibbs like a lion towards a scared gazelle.

"Jethro, I am probably your only friend now, before today I would have put DiNutso in that category too, he never seemed like family like the rest of your team does, but now I have a job application from him sitting on my desk, I have you getting formal reprimands from SecNav of all people and you are acting like a bloody scared gazelle when I bring it up! You are going to tell me what is going on, and you are going to do it tonight."

The two men slumped on the stairs, each gathering their own thoughts.

"I should've known you wouldn't spy on me using such underhanded methods. You would've gone for the not so subtle tail."

After a choked chuckle from both of them, Gibbs took a deep breath, and steeled himself for spilling his guts.

"48 hours and 31 minutes ago, DiNozzo and I were in this exact position. The two of us here in the basement, mason jars of bourbon that he gave me as a gift, both of us yelling and one spilling his guts. You were right about how he never seemed like part of my family, but I always ignored it, because with the others, is is the over-protective big brother, the spoilt eldest grand-child to Ducky, and the annoying nephew to the Director. All three of them really. But to me, I have always felt a distance, or a missing warmth. Not uh but enough to point out that our partnership was never genuine. When it was just us two, it wasn't as noticeable, and he has always been a god agent, screw that, he's the best I've ever worked with, in any of the alphabet parties. And now I'm going to lose him. Lose him as an agent, a friend, a partner. All because I can't accept that he's in love with me."

The only thing that Fornell could thing to say involved a dry sarcastic drawl, so he thought 'what the hell' and open his mouth.

"Well that would certainly explain the job application sitting on my desk this morning."

From now on, I am only working 50 hour weeks, so expect and update every Friday, and they should be longer, hopefully twice the length.

Hope you all had an awesome holiday season and HEARS TO THE NEW YEAR!

Jess x