Gibbs' grip was firm and furious on her upper arm, as he stared into the completely sober Abby's face in complete and utter disbelief.
The apparent romantic interest that the lab rat had snared simply stood and stared in amazement, as the formally bouncy girl had it out with who he surmised had to be her father, outside the bar the man had stormed in to not five minutes prior.
Ziva stood in the middle of the three of them, chewing her lip nervously, her dark brown eyes flitting over each player in the unfolding debacle fleetingly.
"Gibbs" she spat angrily, but yet with a maddening aloofness, "I am fine. I do not need your help. Go home."
She jerked her head over in Ziva's direction, who looked away in uncharacteristic nervousness.
"And take your little private investigator with you!"
Gibbs took in a deep and hopefully soothing breath, as he struggled to keep a hold on his temper.
"You are not going anywhere with this…with this lowlife" he ground out, with an equally enraged bite.
The lowlife in question right there and then decided that enough really was enough.
Stepping in between a highly irate LJ Gibbs and a hissing Abigail Scuito, he held up his hands in a placating gesture.
Well, what he hoped would be a placating gesture.
In reality, he may as well have waved a red rag in front of Gibbs' face and had done with it.
If the snarl that was emitted from the grey haired mans throat was anything to go by that was
"Listen man" he began with an infuriating cockiness, causing the Gibbs' jaw to twitch violently.
Man? Man?
He'd give him man.
His teeth grated together with ferocity.
His dentist had warned him about that.
"That's Agent Man to you" he spat out, not relinquishing his hold on Abby's arm.
The antagonist rolled his eyes and gave a mocking nod.
"Ok then, Agent Man…what exactly is your problem?"
Gibbs stared in disbelief… and then he stared some more, whilst fighting with all his might not to slam his fist full force into this jokers face.
"My problem?" he hissed, causing two straggling tourists to hightail it into the safety of the bar, "my problem is that you are a disgusting felon… with a history of using force to get what you want from women. Your problem is…that it will be over my dead body before you do that with Abby."
The cool air that hung between the four of them was all that stirred for a few moments in response to this announcement.
That was until the younger man then did the unthinkable.
He laughed.
He looked a murderously furious Gibbs full in the face, and laughed his goddamned head off.
Spluttering and wheezing with the joviality of it all, he eventually shook his head wearily and threw a glance in Abby's direction.
"Why don't you explain the situation to the old man, Abby."
Old man? Old man?
Gibbs had a wonderful fleeting vision of this wasters blood adorning his knuckles, before Abby forcibly wrested herself out of his grip, and looked up at him with a defiantly seething expression.
"The background check you've obviously done on Connor here, courtesy of your little spy" she paused to throw Ziva a filthy look, "is a fake."
The agent blinked.
A fake?
"Connor here, isn't really Connor. He's Liam, from New York Narcotics. He's currently undercover in DC, in a human trafficking ring that uses drugs to control their victims, hence the bogus record."
She paused once more to shoot both Gibbs and Ziva another scathing look of boiling fury. His eyes were torn away from her narrowed eyes for a moment as Connor…or Liam, reached into his pocket and drew out credentials.
Taking in the official badge that was sailing dangerously close to his nose, caused Gibbs to take a step back and blink some more. There was no mistaking the official seal on the creds, and he had enough experience with forgeries to know that the one being brandished victoriously in front of his face was no forgery.
"Uhh…" he began awkwardly, seeing out of the corner of his eye that Ziva was wearing an expression of mortified horror that was probably quite similar to his own.
"Uhh…what?" Abby growled, her whole body beginning to vibrate angrily.
"Uhh…sorry for coming down here unannounced, uninvited and unwelcome?" she continued furiously, sardonically. "Sorry for making a complete and utter fool out of me?"
Gibbs bit his lip, completely at a loss for words.
"Abby…I…" he spluttered eventually, "it's just… well it's just…you've been acting so strangely recently, and then when you kept saying you had plans…and then tonight…with him…with the fake record…" he trailed off helplessly, feeling a dull flush begin to work its way across his face.
His words didn't seem to be striking a positive chord with his positive favourite, as she seemed to exude more and more anger with every syllable spoken.
Taking a further step back, closer to Liam, who threw an arm over her shoulder comfortingly, she ran a cold, appraising glance over both her teammate and team leader.
"Oh I have plans alright Gibbs" she eventually murmured, with a resonating finality to her tone.
He blinked at the quiet anger that shone through her few words, but she didn't allow him much time to process them, before adding a few more that would leave his eyelashes frayed from the exertion of it all.
"Plans… to leave NCIS. Plans… to transfer, to New York Narcotics."
The air suddenly seemed thick as sludge, somewhat cushioning the surprised gasp he heard from Ziva on his right, whilst mercifully impairing his vision of the smug smile that was spreading over this…this Liam's face.
Like the cat who caught the cream.
He shook his head slightly, in some kind of inane attempt to rid himself of an imaginary blockage.
He took in her unrepentant, unrelenting and unfazed poise, and felt his jaw slacken.
The whispered word that fell out his own mouth sounded like it was coming from across the street, he could barely connect the word croaked out and his own vocal chords. His head was spinning, and his heart was quickening.
"What?"
…..
TBC
…..
A/N: There's a reason Abby's acting the way she is, all will be revealed in the next chapter.
Thanks for reading.