Title: With You
Chapter 5: Makes The Heart Grow Fonder
Author: Devylish
Genre: Romance/Humor
Fandom: NCIS
Pairing: Abby/Tony
Rating: PG-13
Summary:
Spoil/Warn: Season 5.
Disclaimer: I'm of the 'nothing ownage' world. Please don't sue!
AN: Betaless, per usual… sorry!
Word count: 3365
Btw… MY number 40 from the last set was a freebie… 'sensual' isn't one of the table words!! Sigh! :D I've also decided to officially NOT use the 50 prompts that I had planned to follow… apparently I'm not a fan of rules
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Tony felt like he was going insane. Three more days. He had two nights and three more days before… well, before the wedding, but increasingly more important, he had two nights and three more days before he would be able to end this Abby induced abstinence.
Her: Let's make the wedding night special.
Him: Handcuffs again?
Her: Well, we can whip those out, but –
Him: Mmmm, the whip.
Her: I've created a monster! Tony. Tony! Hands off! Now listen! I was thinking, we could abstain for the next 2 months; just until our wedding night and then, then… handcuffs, whips, hot caramel, whatever your little heart and mind desires.
Him: Why don't we do the caramel and cuffs 'Now'?
Her: Tony! Stay on that side of the couch, Mister! And 'NO'! I want to do something really special for you – for us. And they say absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Him: Absence Abs. Not 'Abstinence'.
Her: Tonnnnnnnnnny!
Him: Fine. Fine! Seriously, how do you women do it? You do that little begging, eyes wide-open thing, and it's like a direct connection to the male mind. We lose all control of our rational thought.
Her: You guys never had much going on in the rational thought department to begin with.
Him: Hey!!
Her: I love you!
Him: Two months, huh?
Her: Yup!
Him: Can we start the denial thing tomorrow night?
Her: One more for the road, babe?
Him: Last request of a dying man.
Her: Who am I to deny a man's last wishes?
Him: I LOVE that you're such a giver.
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So this was it.
He'd been mulling this idea over: rejecting, reviving, and perfecting it for the past month and a half. And the day had finally come, do or die day: Pink Bag Day.
He bent his head to one shoulder and then to the other, trying to work out the big knot – which was actually made up of several smaller knots -- that had apparently taken up permanent residence in his neck.
Getting out of the black rental car, he grabbed the 'offering' that he had chosen to take with him, smoothed the palms of his hands against his jeans, and blew out a puff of air.
"Okay Tony, it's now or never." Something in the back of his head scrambled around and screeched out a half hearted 'never, please!', but his feet were already heading up the walkway to the front steps of her apartment building.
"Tony?" Abby's husky voice reflected her surprise as she answered the apartment buzzer.
"The one and only!" He responded with an impressive degree of his usual cockiness. He was rewarded after a half a second with the sound of the door being buzzed open followed by Abby's cheerful rebuttal: "'The one and only!' Hmmm, well THERE's something to be thankful for!"
He walked to the elevator and pushed the call button, but three seconds later, nervous energy made the stairs a necessary option.
Tony raced up the last flight of steps and paused in front of the stairwell door before pushing through… now was not a time for thinking… he'd done enough thinking in the last month, hell, in the last 7 years, to make today, tonight, all about action.
Her apartment door was already open, beckoning and welcoming him, but he politely knocked on the frame as he stepped through the threshold anyway….
"Abs?"
"C'mon in Tony," her voice called out from the back of her apartment. "I wasn't dressed, so I'm just throwing something on."
Undressed Abby… mmmmmmm, "uhhh, don't feel you need to get dressed on my account. Naked Abby works for me."
"I'll bet!" she said with a laugh as she scampered down the hallway toward him. She was wearing a black and grey striped tshirt dress that reached about mid thigh and black socks that stopped just above her knees. In one hand she carried a pair of worn, but clean, black combat boots, in the other, a dark grey scarf, the latter of which he assumed she was going to put in her hair, which now rested on her shoulders in black waves.
"Although this, this look, could definitely work for me to."
She arched an eyebrow in his direction then curtsied. "Why thank you kind sir. So, what's up buttercup? Did the Commissioner call? Am I needed at the Batcave? Are you my personal bat signal today?" Her grin, per usual, was infectious and he smirked in response.
"Nope, no missed calls from the Commissioner Batgirl, you're still off-duty today." He shifted slightly and took a deep breath, "As a matter of fact, this is a completely non-work related, erh, visit."
It wasn't until he moved that Abby noticed the pale pink gift bag at his side. She looked up from his hand to his eyes, back down to his hand, and then back to his eyes again…
"Well," she said, "It looks like your visit may involve a present…?" At his silent affirmative nod she continued. "Sooooo, I'm assuming it's a good, non work related thing? Is it? A good thing? The visit I mean? Not the present. Because, well, technically, I don't really know if the pink baggy thingy in your hand IS for me, although, I think it would be safe to assume it's a present, since it's in a gift bag. And, technically, it should be fairly safe to make the assumption that it's a gift for me… since you brought it up to my apartment. But, then again, maybe it's a gift for someone else, and you just didn't want to leave it in your car because you were afraid it might be stolen, and so, to keep it safe, you brought it upstairs with you, and I jumped to the wrong conclusion. In which case, I'm so sorry, and don't feel you have to –"
"-- Abs! It's for you!" Tony thrust the confection shaded bag at its' new owner.
"Are you sure, cuz, I wouldn't want to take someone else's gift from them just because I –"
"—Abby! It's yours! There's a card attached and it's addressed: from me, to you."
She grinned… the Abby grin…. The 'win you over', take your breath away, melt your heart, grin.
Those probably weren't technically part of her plans when she smiled at him, but those were definitely the results she achieved.
Unceremoniously dropping her boots and scarf, Abby gingerly accepted the handle of the gift bag and sank to her knees on the floor. "So it's a good non-work related visit, yes?" She glanced in his eyes, then looked back down at her gift, wiggled her fingers happily, and dived in to pull out the first protruding sheath of pink tissue paper.
Tony wondered briefly what watching her open a pile of gifts on her birthday, or on Christmas morning was like; she would probably 'out-happy' a child. Taking in the seating options in the room wistfully, he dropped to the floor in front of her as she pulled out a second taffy coloured sheet. "Yes, it's a good non-work related visit. At least, I think so… and I hope you'll think so too. I – Hey!" He grabbed her hand and prevented her from fully pulling out another thin paper sheet.
"'Hey' what?" she pouted.
"You're doing this wrong, you're suppose to read the card first."
"Tony, Tony, Tony, my gift, my rules!"
"But Abs, the card –"
"I'll get to the card, but I have to open the gift first…" seeing his lips move to form a retort she used her free hand to shush him – her index finger spanning both of his lips gently. "I eat my dessert before my meal at dinnertime, I take my bra off before I take off my shirt when I get undressed, and yes, Tony, I open my gifts before I read my cards when I get presents."
Tony gave in due to sheer temporary sensory overload: his hand on hers, her finger at his lips, and the image of her removing her bra…. Uh, yeah, what few thoughts he was now entertaining, definitely weren't being done by the brain in his head.
Abby hadn't noticed his lapse of witticisms or for that matter his lack of brain power, because her full attention was now refocused on her pretty pink package.
Third sheet removed, she went in for the fourth…. Shhhhfffffffttttthhhh.
And then the fifth…. Shhhhffffftttthhhhhhhhhhh.
"Okay Tony, really, how many pieces of paper did you put in here? Holy peanut butter batman!"
"I put in a whole package."
"A whole -- ? Which is how many sheets?" She asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Uhhhh, twenty. I think," he mumbled.
"Twenty!" Abby looked down into the bag of pinkness, and sighed… "I so do not have the patience required for the appreciation of twenty sheets of tissue paper." And with that, she dove into the bag with both hands, pulling handfuls of the light pink stuffing out and throwing it out on the ground around her.
In five seconds flat she reached the prize at the bottom of the bag… the softest pinkest little belching hippopotamus she'd ever seen… While it matched the shape of Bert, this Hippopotamus was about half his size, it was pink, and it had, buckled around its neck, the cutest little black and rhinestone studded collar.
"Tony!" Abby looked up at him. Her eyes lit up, and then he could no longer see her eyes because she had launched herself at him and had him in a patented Abby hug. The kind that literally knocks you over when you're not prepared for it, which, he hadn't been. Pink hippopotamus in her grasp, her arms around his neck, she lay across Tony's half prone body and drilled him with questions and exclamations of delight.
"Where did you find her? And in pink? Pink? How totally… did she come with the collar? Or did you add that yourself? This is honestly one of the sweetest gifts I've ever gotten. You are amazing!" She paused only long enough to brand his cheek with her lips. "No, seriously, where in the world did you find her. I have to give her a good name… maybe Antonia – Toni for short? Okay, I promise, I take back every bad word I've ever said about you Tony. Okay, maybe not every bad word, you are cocky, but, it's part of what makes you 'you', and right now, I wouldn't want you any other way! Tony! Why aren't you saying anything?"
He wondered if answering 'because I'm concentrating on keeping little Tony from making an unscheduled appearance' would be inappropriate. He opted for the next least gallant thing his blood deprived brain could think of: "Um, could be because, you're squashing my lungs Abs."
He looked down to indicate their proximity to one another and she followed the path of his eyes with her own.
"Huh? Oh! Well, get me a less good non-work related visit gift next time!" she wriggled her way off of him and back to her original patch of carpet.
He sat up while trying to, oh-so-subtly, adjust the fit of his now too tight jeans. "Note taken ma'am – bring bad gift next time. Check!"
Abby petted the head of the hippopotamus few more times before putting it down beside her and beginning to pick up the avalanche of tissue paper that littered the floor between them.
"Need help?"
"Nope. It's my mess, it can't have gone too far, I'll find it."
The card. How could he have forgotten, that quickly, about the card. Damn, fuck-a-duck, son of a bubble gum, shit!! "You don't really have to read it, the gift was probably the most important thing."
She quirked her eyebrow at him and paused her hand in her search, "Oh, okay, see, now I HAVE to find it, your 'about-face' just made the scientist in me go 'Zoing!'…. Annndddd taaadaaaa! Here it is!"
"'From Anthony DiNozzo', wow, you got formal on this sucker didn't you?! 'To Abigail Sciuto'" Flipping the card over, she finagled the sealed flap open with her index finger, and tugged the card out. She didn't notice that as she did so, Tony was getting up from his spot on the floor so that he could pace.
On the cover of the card was a black and white photograph of a vase of eleven white roses. The twelfth rose appeared to be (at least in the photograph) a black rose. Along the bottom of the card were the words: 'More Beautiful Because…'
And it was at this point that Abby's hands and mind began to shake, she had been expecting a card that was cutesy, or humorous, or even one that was raunchy from Tony, but this, this one looked serious, it looked sweet, it looked romantic. She found herself afraid – unable – to open the card.
"Abs?" He was watching her from a safe distance, but when she didn't respond he took a few tentative steps closer. "Abs." When she still didn't look up or respond to him, he crouched down in front of her and touched her hands, wrapping his own around her wrists. "Abby, there are only three words on the cover," gently using his hands to guide her own, he helped her open the card. "The important stuff is always on the inside."
'More Beautiful Because…' What breath she had was caught in her throat, and she read on. '… You're One Of A Kind'. I am not going to cry. I am not going to cry. She moved down to the words that Tony had hand-written in the card:
You've always amazed me with your beauty,
the size and warmth of your heart, and your brilliance.
And I think that I've been afraid, because you're amazing,
and one of a kind, to take a chance.
But I've made a New Year's resolution (a few months early)
to take that chance.
Abby…, Abigail…, Abs, will you have dinner with me?
Tony
So much for not crying.
Tears… He hated women's tears… they were misleading things, they could be good, they could be bad. With men, if they were crying, you knew, a shitload of bad had just happened, but, for women…? "Abby?"
"Abs?"
"Okay, kinda leaving me hanging here. Are you crying in despair over the thought of dinner with me, or are you doing some sort of happy tear thing here?
She sniffled and laughed simultaneously, not normally an attractive action, but, on Abby, still endearing, "It's a happy tear thing; I'd love to go to dinner with you Tony."
"Friday night?"
Her tear filled eyes twinkled as she looked at him. "Friday night."
He couldn't stop the smile. He tried. IT was a valiant fight on his part. But the smile was stronger. Standing up he backed away from her seated figure. "Friday night! I'll, umm, make reservations, somewhere, and umm," smooth DiNozzo. Really, really smooth. "I'll call you. Okay?"
She smiled. It was a knowing smile. A womanly smile. A smile that gave courage.
He stepped back towards her, crouched in front of her, and he leaned in and gave her a kiss.
Their first kiss.
Electricity was weak in comparison to the energy that jolted through him when his lips touched hers. And for a few seconds, he contemplated the importance of air and breathing. Clearly they were overrated. Weren't they?
Finally pulling away from her; strictly due to his lungs clamoring for oxygen, Tony studied – memorized the paleness of her skin, the press of her long, dark lashes against her cheeks, the fullness of her lips. He brushed his thumb along her jaw then forced himself to pull away, get up, and walk back to her apartment door.
Immediately missing his nearness, Abby's eyes blinked open.
The Tony she knew was there, only bigger and better… he was now MORE.
With a cocky grin, he opened the door and repeated: "Friday night."
He didn't hear her faint, blissfully whispered echo: "Friday night."
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"Abigail Scuito, will you please stop jiggling?"
"Wiggling."
"That too."
Abigail squinted in the mirror, "And don't think I didn't notice you calling me Abigail. You may be Mossad, but that won't protect you from the wrath of Abby."
Ziva smiled and continued to brush Abby's hair. "You allow Ducky to call you Abigail, yet you become very defensive when others call you Abigail. Why is that? Abigail is a beautiful name, it is Hebrew for Father's Rejoicing."
Abby stuck her tongue out. "I let Gibbs call me Abigail. Sometimes."
"And Tony? Has he earned the privilege yet?"
"Remind me again why you're here?"
"Because you are nervous. And because you wanted someone to hold your hand as you prepared yourself for your first date with Tony."
"Oh yeah. That's right." Abby blew out a nervous breath. "My first date with Tony. Is it just me, or is than an amazingly nerve racking concept?"
Ziva put down the brush and moved to face Abby. "No, I do not think it is a nerve racking concept. You and Tony make sense."
"To you and…?"
"I am Tony's partner, so yes, I do think that I am able to see that the two of you make sense. And I am probably able to more easily see that than a stranger would. But," she knelt beside Abby's dressing table, "it is not my vision and belief in the two of you that is important, it is your belief, and Tony's belief that is important."
Abby twisted and twiddled her hands in her lap. She hadn't been this nervous about dating someone -- anyone -- in her life. And here she was 'nervous' about dating Tony DiNozzo. A friend.
Ziva placed her calm hands over Abby's frenzied ones. "What do you like about Tony?"
"He's funny. He makes me smile, even when I'm feeling down – he's kind of like a human version of Bert." Ziva smiled and Abby continued. "He's easy, but not too easy, to shock…. And he likes my pigtails. Well, he likes my hair in general…. He's smart too – not book smart like Tim is, he's like, intuitive smart. Streets smart. And you wouldn't think that from the Armani suits and Dolce Gabbana shoes, but he's that kind of smart." Abby pulled her hands free from Ziva's. "And did I mention that he's hot? Model hot? Muscle-y, sexy, pretty boy, model hot."
Ziva laughed. "So I take it you think he is good looking?"
"Don't you?"
"I will admit that Tony is a good looking man, but, as you know, I tend to be drawn to the cute, cerebral types." Ziva stood and picked up the brush again.
"Like McGee."
"Like McGee."
"How's that going by the way?"
"Why did you not mention to me that he is hung like a house?"
"Horse!" Abby spluttered into the glass of water she had been sipping. "Hung like a horse. And, umm, I, erh, thought I'd let you find out on your own??"
"He is very impressive. Both in length and girth. Add to that his impressive brain, and his gentlemanly behavior, and he is quite a good catch." Ziva reached for the scruncci and pulled Abby's hair into a high ponytail. "So, have you managed to 'measure' Tony's 'house'?"
"Ziva David!"
"What?" She moved to the bed and sat on the edge of the mattress. "I admit to being curious, he is quite the 'ladies man'; I wondered if it was 'with reason'."
"It's with reason." Abby mumbled as she moved to the bed and the outfit that they'd decided she'd wear.
"Abby Sciuto! You've seen DiNozzo's… DiNozzo's 'tool'? And you haven't even been on your first official date with him?"
"My office is by the decontamination showers!! I can't help it if I got the chance to see him without his clothes on."
Ziva grinned "Do you think Gibbs would let me move my desk down to the laboratory?"
Abby turned to Ziva with a mischievous smile, "Speaking of decontamination showers and Gibbs…."