In the world of Tim McGee, everything goes wrong at some point in every day, especially when, fate, the gods, and even Murphy's Law all seem to join forces in their efforts against him. Such was the conclusion Tim came to when at the very moment he'd craved for six years, was snatched away from him by the shrill ring of Gibbs' phone.

With a look of apology, Gibbs flipped the offending piece of equipment open and answered it.

"Yeah. Gibbs."

"Jethro, were you aware that Abigail has gone home?"

"No, Duck, I wasn't. She okay?" Gibbs asked in concern.

"Director Vance has told me that she simply emailed him with the sudden request, claiming she wasn't feeling well." Ducky informed him.

"Okay. Well, maybe she ate something that didn't agree with her, Duck. You try callin' her?" Gibbs reasoned.

"Jethro, as you were leaving Autopsy, there was a flash of light emanating from my desk." Ducky said ominously.

"Duck? You think she would do something like that?" the younger man asked in complete understanding of what Ducky had been saying.

"It is entirely possible, Jethro. If we are correct, it would certainly explain her sudden departure as well as her refusal to speak to either of us about it before she departed. There is no way to know exactly what she heard."

"Yeah, Duck, I know. I'll take care of it. Thanks."

"I certainly hope Abigail will not hold this against us, Jethro." Ducky worried.

"C'mon, Duck, you know her better than that." Gibbs reminded him. "Relax, I'll talk to her."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. "

"Everything okay, Boss?" Tim asked with obvious concern.

"Let's hope so. C'mon, you're with me." Gibbs allowed. Maybe together, they could fix this. At the very least, they could talk some in the car ride to Abby's. Heading back through the squad room, Gibbs silently checked in with Tony.

Any problems?
No, Boss, we're good.
Good. We'll be back. Man the fort.
On it, Boss.

Silently, but with his heart steadily climbing up in his throat, Tim followed Gibbs out. As they got in the car, Gibbs realized he was probably, once again sending his agent into a panic with no explanation and mentally head-slapped himself for it.

"Looks like Abby turned the video cam to Autopsy on and heard Ducky telling me what's been bothering you."

"All of it?" Tim asked in horror.

"Don't know exactly what she heard. Obviously, she took it hard. She's gone home, Sent Vance an email saying she wasn't feeling well.

"Oh, my God! Can't I do anything right?" Tim chastised himself angrily.

"Hey! This is NOT your fault! Don't even go there, you hear me?" Gibbs demanded.

"Yeah, Boss. I hear you." Tim said meekly.

"I mean it, Tim. This isn't your fault. We'll talk later but right now, we need to focus on Abby. I'll go up and talk to her, you be ready to come up if she wants or needs to talk to you." Gibbs instructed in a tone that while quiet, still held his authority.

"Ok." Tim said as he turned to look out the window. He was relieved Gibbs wasn't holding him responsible for this, but did Abby? What had she heard? Exactly what did Ducky say to Gibbs? Tim was worried. He tried to think if he'd said anything deliberately hurtful about Abby but he couldn't think of anything that would be taken that way.

"Talk to me." Gibbs requested as they stopped at a red light.

"Just wondering exactly what she heard, if there was anything I told Ducky that she would consider mean or uncalled for." Tim admitted.

"You didn't. We talked about some of the times Abby hurt you or let you down; or I did." Gibbs said as the light changed and once again he concentrated on driving.

Tim felt slightly better. It made it easier to believe that Abby was reacting to having her actions being addressed by an objective party and being explained to a not so objective party.

"Relax. Tim. Let's just wait and see what happens. I'll call you." Gibbs said as he got out of the now parked car and headed up to Abby's apartment.

As he knocked on Abby's door, Gibbs could only hope he could calm her down and get her to get through this without hating anyone.

Abby was awakened by the repeated knocking on her door. Climbing out of her coffin, she wiped her eyes on her shirt and went to her door, peeking through the peephole; she was shocked to find Gibbs waiting to be let in. Opening the door slowly, she stepped back to let him in without any need for discussion.

"You okay?" Gibbs asked sympathetically.

"Oh, Gibbs!" she cried as she flew into his arms.

Wrapping her in a hug she obviously needed, he sent up a silent prayer of thanks that she wasn't too angry to let him in on this. He gave her a couple of minutes to pull herself together before he pulled back and took himself to her couch and beckoned her to come talk to her.

"You were eavesdropping on Ducky and I?" Gibbs got straight to the point.

"It was an accident, Gibbs. I turned it on to ask him if he had time to talk to me. I was gonna go up there and see him." She defended herself.

"Okay. But, when you heard us talking and you left it on, Abby, it became eavesdropping. You know what they say about people who eavesdrop." Gibbs reminded her.

"They never hear anything good about themselves, I know. But, Gibbs! What Ducky said… what Timmy told him….all those things… have I really been that horrible to him?" she cried.

"Apparently, you have, Abbs." Gibbs said quietly.

"Why didn't he ever say anything to me?" she demanded.

"Would you have listened?" Gibbs asked her in return.

"Gibbs!"

"Abby, would you have heard him out?" he pushed.

"Probably not." She reluctantly agreed.

"He knew that. That's why he doesn't say anything." Gibbs reasoned.

Abby looked at him in confusion.

"I'm guilty of the same thing, Abbs. I don't hear him out either. Plenty of times I've let him down because of it. You heard what Ducky said."

"So, you're taking everything Ducky said to be the gospel truth?" she asked cautiously.

"Any reason I shouldn't?"

"No, of course not. It just means I've been a terrible person to Timmy. Why didn't I see it, Gibbs?"

"I don't know, Abbs. But, we all mess up, let each other down. It's part of being human. So is forgiving each other." Gibbs gently reminded her.

"I'm not mad at anybody but myself for this Gibbs, if that's what you're thinking." Abby explained.

"Gotta forgive yourself too, Abby." He advised her.

"How?" she asked.

"One step at a time." He suggested.

"How can I ever look Timmy in the eye again?" she worried.

"Weren't you able to look him in the eye when you talked to him yesterday?" Gibbs asked her reasonably.

"Well, yeah, I was." She answered.

"So, what's so different now?" he asked.

"You know what's different, Gibbs!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, I do. The question is, do you?" he pushed.

"I don't follow you."

"Abby, the only thing that's different is how you feel about yourself. Nothing else has changed. Tim hasn't changed the way he feels about you since the last time he talked to you."

"From what he told Ducky, it sure doesn't sound that way." She commiserated.

"From what he told Ducky, it sounds like he's trying to work through everything in his head and figure out what he needs. " Gibbs corrected her. "Trying to get a different perspective on things he's gone through doesn't mean he thinks any less of you."

"I know. I know you're right." Abby agreed as she let out a deep sigh.

"I know I am, too. If I wasn't he wouldn't have gotten as upset as he did when he found out what happened here." Gibbs shared.

"Oh my, God! He knows I heard everything he said to Ducky! Gibbs, he must really hate me!" she cried, throwing herself back into his shoulder with fresh tears running down her face.

"Wasn't what I meant, Abby. He's not upset with you. He's blaming himself." Gibbs corrected.

"He what? Why would he blame himself? Oh, right. Because he's Timmy and that's what Timmy does best, take the blame. You told him it wasn't his fault, right, Gibbs? I mean you have to, cause it wasn't and we can't have him thinking that for a second, Gibbs! Gibbs? Gibbs!" Abby's voice dwindled down to an outraged screech as she noticed he was sitting there grinning at her 'Energizer Bunny' speed. "That's not funny!"

"You're right, it's not. At least the Tim taking the blame part isn't." Gibbs told her as soon as she brought herself down off her momentary sugar rush.

"How do we fix it?" she demanded.

"Simple, Abby. You talk to him." Came the common sense answer.

"What if he doesn't want to talk to me?" Abby threw back.

Gibbs froze. Why hadn't he considered that? After everything Ducky just told him, why had he still managed to treat Tim the same old way? He hadn't even asked Tim if he wanted to talk to Abby; he'd just told him to be ready to do it if and when Abby was ready. God, habits are hard to break! Gibbs thought.

"Won't know till you ask him, Abby." Gibbs finally answered her after he'd mentally head-slapped himself.

"Will you ask him for me? She begged.

"I can do that." He agreed.

Digging out his phone, he flipped it open and called Tim.

"Boss?"

"You up to talking to Abby now?" Gibbs asked.

"Does she want to talk to me?" Tim asked.

"Wouldn't be asking you if you were up to it if she wasn't, McGee." Gibbs answered in his usual snarky way as another of his bad habits escaped the self control he wasn't used to harnessing.

On the other end of the line, Gibbs could hear Tim take a deep breath. Sitting next to him. Abby poked him. "Be nice!" she whispered.

"Right, Sorry, Boss." Came Tm's answer. "On my way." Surprisingly, Tim hung up on Gibbs before the boss could offer anything else.

"Gibbs! Why do you treat him like that?" Abby demanded.

Gibbs silently got up and headed to her apartment door, determined to fix this. He had so many bad habits; he couldn't keep up with which ones adversely affected his agents. He had caught this one on his own and was determined to make it right. Stepping out of the apartment, he was greeted with a less than happy Tim McGee almost to Abby's door.

"Hey. Walk with me." Gibbs instructed quietly.

Tim looked confused, but obediently followed Gibbs down the hallway, and out to the walkway between the apartment buildings.

"I'm sorry, Tim. I have a lot of things I need to work on and talking to you the way I just did without cause is one of them. So is telling you to talk to Abby when she was ready. I didn't even ask you if you were ready to talk to her. I broke my own rule. I assumed."

"Thanks, Boss. I appreciate it, really, I do." Tim said as his spirit seemed to shed some weight in the face of Gibbs' most unusual and unexpected apology. "I think I can talk to her, now."

"There's no rush, Tim." The boss reminded him.

"It's okay. I'm good." Tim promised.

"Okay. Think you can get her to drive you back to work when you're done talking? I'm going back now; I'll leave you two to talk things out."

"Yeah, Boss. It's no problem." Tim promised.

"Okay. Let's go see her, then I'll head back." The boss directed.

"Abby, I'm heading back to work." Gibbs said when they entered her apartment.

"Okay. I take it Timmy's not ready to talk to me, yet." Abby said from the living room. Since she couldn't see him behind Gibbs, she had yet to realize he was there.

""Actually, Abby I'm gonna need a ride back to work after we talk." Tim said quietly.

"Timmy!" Abby squealed as she came running.

Gibbs grinned at Tim as they awaited hurricane Abby's arrival. Once she hugged Tim for all he was worth, she said her goodbye to Gibbs with a hug, a peck on the cheek, and a whispered thank you in his ear.

As Gibbs headed out, Tim felt the need to say one last thing to him. Asking Abby to excuse him for a second, Tim ran after Gibbs. The boss heard him coming and stopped in his tracks.

"McGee? Something wrong?" Gibbs asked.

"No. I just wanted to say "Thank you."

"For?"

"For being willing to talk to me about stuff, for being willing to change some things. And, although I know you're doin this for Abby, for letting me stay here and talk things out with her." Tim offered but quickly turned to walk away.

***SMACK***

"Ow! Boss?" Tim rubbed his head while he waited for Gibbs to answer him.

"I'm not just doing this for Abby! Stop thinking you don't matter around here!" Gibbs said with a touch of anger.

"Ok, Boss. " Tim said in shock. How was he supposed to know? This was new to him!

"Look, Tim. I realize you're not used to believing that you 're just as important around here as Abby, but you need to start accepting it as much as I need to start showing it." Gibbs admitted with apology in his voice.

"Thanks, Boss. I'll work o n it."