McGee checked his watch as the bar appeared on the right. He managed to arrive a few minutes early. He didn't want to admit it, but the sight of Abby's hearse behind him made him feel a little bit better. They parked on the far side, in case Elliot wasn't there yet, because the hearse stood out like a sore thumb.

--

Inside the bar, JD took a drink from his appletini. "Aah, plenty of apple, just how I like it. So, where do you want me to be?"

Elliot had thought about this on the way over. "You can stay at the bar here with me. Neither one of us are in scrubs today, so nobody would guess we were doctors."

He nodded. "Why'd you bring me anyway? I thought you'd already been drinking with him before."

"I did, but that was an accident, a chance meeting. This is a date. You know how I am with dates."

JD didn't even have to close his eyes to see visions of Elliot's failed dates; spilled coffee, a blank stare as she detailed gruesome medical procedures over dinner, the time she ended up flirting with the waitress after getting drunk. The list went on and on until..

"JD!" Her voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

"I was listening."

She eyed him suspiciously. "Then what did I say?"

"You said..." He sighed. "I don't know what you said."

She rolled her eyes, but continued. "I said that I like him. Not like him like him, because I don't know him that well yet, but I don't want him to think I'm a freak."

"You're not a freak, Elliot." Then, the bell over the door rang, and Elliot's head whipped around so fast JD thought she might have given herself whiplash.

"He's here.." she whispered. As Tim made his way to the bar, Elliot noticed another person enter a short time behind him. She had dark hair in pigtails, dressed in black, wore a spiked collar, and seemed to bounce through the bar in stark contrast to the slow methodical plodding of other patrons. It couldn't be, but it was. "Tim! Over here, and bring Abby with you!"

Tim froze. So much for that plan. As Abby brushed past him on the way to the bar, he muttered, "Told you she read the book, Abby."

Abby ignored Tim's little jab, and extended her hand to Elliot with a grin. "I'm Abby, and you must be Elliot. Tim's told me so much about you already."

Elliot smiled, shaking Abby's hand. "Oh really?"

Tim sighed. "It's not what you think, Elliot." This really wasn't getting off to a good start.

Elliot chuckled. "It's exactly what I think it is. You brought someone with you because you were nervous, didn't you?"

"Well, so did you..." Abby piped up before Tim had a chance to respond to Elliot's query.

"What??" Both Elliot and Tim looked shocked.

"The guy next to you drinking appletinis seems a little -too- interested in this conversation for just a random bar patron." Abby noted with a grin. JD almost choked on his appletini, while thinking 'She's good.'

There was a pause, and a guilty smile. "You caught me. Tim, Abby, this is JD. He's also a doctor at Sacred Heart." Tim and Abby shook JD's hand.

"How did you know Abby?" JD questioned.

Elliot sighed. "She's in Tim's book. Do you ever listen to anything I say?"

"In case you couldn't tell, we used to date." JD said, in an attempt at a joke that didn't go over well.. Tim and Abby exchanged glances, and Abby was doing her best to suppress a grin. Finally realizing he wasn't being much help to Elliot, JD rushed to add, "but we aren't anymore."

"Frick.." Elliot muttered as she finished her beer and ordered another one. At this rate, she was going to need it.

"Well, why don't you and I go talk, JD? I think they can handle this themselves, right Tim?" Now, Abby was grinning. Tim had seen that grin before, and that night he slept in a coffin. Though in his own defense, he hadn't known that at the time.

"Yes, Abby, we can." Tim wondered why he'd even thought bringing Abby to the bar was a good idea after all. It sure wasn't working out like he'd planned.

JD smiled awkwardly, picked up his appletini and followed Abby to a nearby table. Elliot looked at Tim, her cheeks red. "That didn't go quite the way I'd hoped."

"Me either." He paused before continuing. "You recognized Abby from the book, didn't you?"

Elliot nodded. "I did. But that's just because you did such a good job writing her."

Tim smiled a little. "It wasn't hard. Abby's a very...vibrant person." But, he really didn't want to spend his time with Elliot talking about Abby, for more than one reason. So, he tried to change the subject. "JD seems nice.."

"He is." Then, Elliot gave an odd sort of half-smile and Tim suddenly found himself curious about the course Elliot and JD's relationship had traveled. Had they dated for a long time? Did she love him? Did he love her? Why did he care? All he knew was that he had an odd feeling in his gut, and if there was one thing he knew by now, it was that those feelings were to be trusted.

---

"I've never been out with a girl who wears a collar before. Is it comfortable?" The words were out of JD's mouth before he realized how stupid they sounded.

Abby just grinned, one of her blood-red nails tracing along the collar itself. She'd worn a collar for so long, she didn't even think about the impact it could have on other people anymore. "It's very comfortable, but I didn't know this was a date. If it was, I would have dressed up."

JD turned three different shades of red before settling on a tomato color that Abby found cute. He was even more nervous than Tim was when they'd first met. Of course, she and Tim had been talking online for a month first. "I-I know it's not a real date, uh, but I just thought--"

Abby decided to spare him any further embarrassment. "I know what you meant, JD. I was just teasing."

As JD struggled to come up with something intelligent-sounding to say, his eyes fell on the book she was carrying: Gray's Anatomy. "I didn't know you were into medicine."

Abby's grin grew wider. "I'm into everything, JD. But I'm borrowing this from Ducky."

"Ducky?" Suddenly JD had an image of a large duck sitting at a table, the book held between two wings.

She laughed. "He's not actually a duck. His real name is Dr. Mallard, and he's the medical examiner at NCIS. Everybody calls him Ducky, though. He can tell a story about anything, and they're so entertaining."

"Oh, well that's cool. The only guy I know who works in the morgue at Sacred Heart is Doug, and well, given his success rate with living patients, that's really for the best, I think."

"Ooh, is he the Angel of Death, killing the terminally ill to spare them the pain of a life of misery?" Abby was intrigued.

JD chuckled. "No, nothing like that. He just wasn't actually that good as a doctor. He makes an excellent coroner, though. Nobody can predict cause of death like Doug can."

Abby grinned. "I always say everybody has a great talent."

He laughed more. "You always look on the bright side, don't you? Some would think that's kind of odd considering your appearance.."

She rolled her eyes. "A goth can't enjoy life? Why, that's like saying a doctor shouldn't be drinking appletinis.."

For a moment JD was stunned, but then he started laughing. A few seconds later, Abby joined in.

-------------

Elliot heard the laughter and glanced over at where JD and Abby were sitting. "They seem to be getting along.

Tim smiled. "Abby gets along with everyone."

Elliot found herself confused. Why was he smiling like that? In the book, Amy was just a friend, but had he and Abby dated? Did he love her? Did she love him? Why did things have to be so complicated?