Gibbs walked into the lab, a Caf-Pow clenched firmly behind his back. He crept slowly up behind Abby and hesitated before bringing out the Caf-Pow, enjoying the closeness of her body. He raised the arm that held the Caf-Pow and manoeuvred it around her, holding it in front her for her to see.
"Oh, Gibbs! You did bring a present for me!" Abby smiled, grabbing the Caf-Pow and turning around to face Gibbs, their faces inches from each other.
"I also brought something else, Abby."
"Gibbs…" Abby said her lips curling into a broad smile that reached her eyes.
"No, something else," Gibbs said calmly, smiling back. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small necklace he had retrieved from the ground in the park. He held it out for Abby to see and watched as her eyes tightened. "Do you know what this is?"
"No," Abby answered slowly, "Where did you get it?"
"I picked it up from the crime scene."
"Then why isn't it with all the other evidence?"
"I don't really know why, I just knew that I had to show you it first," Gibbs said, confused.
"Your gut?" Abby suggested.
"Maybe…" Gibbs muttered, unconvinced.
"Let me hold on to it for a couple of hours, I'll see what I can dig up on it," Abby said moving her hand forwards to collect the necklace. Gibbs shut his hand quickly, as if by reflex, before slowly opening it back up again and allowing Abby to take the necklace.
"There's something about that necklace that I can't quite work out," Gibbs said. "It's as if I have seen it before, but I can't place where."
"I'm sure it will come to you," Abby said, turning and placing the necklace out of view. Gibbs seemed to brighten up immediately, his face cracking into a soft smile.
"What will come to me?"
"The reason why I have earned another Caf-Pow," Abby tried, a pleading laugh echoing from her lips.
Gibbs laughed before turning and leaving the lab.
"We'll see, Abbs…"
"What we got, Duck?" Gibbs said, stepping foot onto the autopsy floor.
"Ah, Jethro. Right on time, as always."
"Duck?"
"It's worse than I thought, Jethro. When I first saw the poor Petty Officer, I noticed that he was looking rather pale and that a loss of blood may have caused the lower temperature of the body. That theory is only slightly hindered by the fact that the only bodily wounds the Petty Officer had suffered were the two small marks on his neck."
"And…"
"And, I was half right. Loss of blood was certainly the reason behind the abnormal temperature, a loss of all his blood."
"All of it?" Gibbs said shocked.
"I have searched the entire of the Petty Officer's arterial and venial cavities and there is not a drop to be found."
"How is that possible, Duck?"
"Put quite simply, it's not. It's possible to drain a body of blood of course, but it is quite impossible to remove all traces of the stuff."
"Then how do you explain it?"
"I can't. Never in my experience have I seen such a thing. There was this time once where a young man had been ripped into in a parachuting accident. Nasty way to go, and he lost a lot of blood; there was less than a pint left in him by the time I received him. Of course, there was the other time when there was another poor young man was involved in an accident at a meat factory…"
"Ducky?" Gibbs said calmly, "Do you have a new time of death for me?"
"No more than 6 hours ago," he replied.
"Thanks, Duck." Gibbs said, leaving the autopsy room behind to mutterings of a conveyor belt and a mincing machine.
Gibbs entered the lab, both hands free from Caf-Pow, to see Abby twirling herself round on her chair.
"No Caf-Pow, Gibbs?" Abby said, pulling a face.
"Not this time, Abbs," Gibbs said looking up at the screen. Where he expected to see some sort of database search or mass spec reading, there was instead a blank screen. "No evidence for me, Abbs?"
"Not this time, Gibbs," Abby said pouting. "The only evidence I received was a saliva trace that Ducky pulled from the bite marks on the Petty Officers neck. I ran through the usual databases and pulled nothing. Our vampire has no criminal record, and I can't find a match to the DNA anywhere; all I kept getting was 'no matches found'."
"Vampire?"
"Yeah, Gibbs," Abby said starting to get excited, "Bite marks on the neck, all the blood drained from him. It's got to be a vampire."
"Vampires aren't real, Abby."
"How do you know? Do you have any proof?"
"Do you?"
"You have to admit, it's at least a little hinky."
"It's a lot hinky, but it doesn't mean it's a vampire."
"But what if it was, Gibbs? What if we have a real life vampire on our hands!" Abby said, her eyes lighting up at the thought.
"Then I suggest cloves of garlic and silver bullets."
"Silver bullets are werewolves, Gibbs."
"Same thing."
"I think I'm going to have to give you a crash course in all things hinky, Gibbs. You're knowledge of the supernatural is way below average."
"Haven't got time now, Abbs. I have actual evidence to collect."
"Well, when you're done with your 'actual evidence', you know where I am." Abby smiled.
Gibbs smiled and left the lab. Abby turned and picked up the remote on her desk, pressing a button. The blank screen of the large plasma hanging on the wall lit up and a green light flashed across the screen.
'Positive Match'