Running a hand through his hair, Gibbs groaned in frustration as Abby continued to stare wordlessly at him. After agreeing to come back to his house with a drama more befitting a performing arts major, she had pecked Liam on the cheek and slammed her way into Gibbs' car, stubbornly ignoring him all the way back to his home.

Now, she sat on his couch, legs crossed, arms folded and seemed to have lost the art of speech.

"Abby" he muttered, yet again, "For the last time, will you open your mouth and explain to me just what the hell is going on?"

The large eyes staring back at him may as well have had "if you don't know, then I'm certainly not going to tell you" across them.

He let out a long suffering breath.

"Why are you being so damn difficult?"

The mixture of exasperation and burgeoning anger in his tone seemed to finally trigger a response.

"I'm not being difficult, I'm giving you what you want."

Gibbs head swooned slightly.

"Giving me what I want?" he spluttered incredulously, "you think you packing your bags out of the clear blue sky and heading over to NY Narc is what I want?"

He waited impatiently for her to tell him that he had picked her meaning up wrong.

The "exactly" that rang out of her small frame was therefore as slamming as being tossed in the wake of a long haulage truck.

He stared. He wasn't sure for how long, but even for him, it was pretty damn long.

"Exactly?" he all but whispered, feeling the strains of each year he had spent on the planet with an acute force.

"What the hell do you mean, exactly?"

It was her turn to stare, and to stare at him like he was a particularly obtuse item of little significance in some kind of run down, low budget museum.

"Are you serious?"

"Yes I'm damn serious" he shot back angrily, feeling the familiar panic of losing one of his four begin to surge once again through his small intestine.

Abby sighed, as if she had just buried a lifelong cat.

"It's not that difficult a word, Gibbs."

His jaw clenched as the burgeoning anger began to transform into very present anger.

"Watch the attitude" he rebuked quietly, through gritted teeth.

Rolling her eyes was the immediate response, and Gibbs' jaw clenched further.

"I'm warning you Abby. You might be transferring, but as of right now, I'm still your boss. Act like it."

She looked at him with a look he couldn't define, before dropping her head to her chest and mumbling "sorry."

He sighed.

"Didn't hear that, what did you say?"

She replicated his sigh, but heeded the warning, lifting her head and speaking clearly.

"Sorry Gibbs."

He nodded approvingly with a murmured "better", and continued his confused appraisal of his lab rat.

"Abby…I really don't understand what's going on here…I mean, did I do something to you?"

The pained tone in his voice was enough to crack through the trepid shell that she'd encased herself in and despite herself. she felt her eyes tearing up.

Biting her lip, she fidgeted with her hands and squirmed in her seat.

Looking up, she opened her mouth, then she closed it, before rinsing and repeating.

Gibbs waited patiently, knowing that impatience would get him nowhere.

"It's just you…uhm, when you said that…well when you meant that…"

The confusion that was lapping at him, completely engulfed him.

He hadn't the foggiest notion what the girl was talking about. Trying to be as gentle as he could, he leant forwards in his seat, so that their knees were nearly touching.

"What did I say Abby?" he murmured quietly, his blue eyes drinking in the obvious sadness that was now radiating off the girl with an equal sadness of his own.

She didn't answer, instead opting to examine her shoes with an unusual intensity. Even for her.

"C'mon kid…talk to me" he repeated gently, reaching out and tipping her head carefully upwards with a thumb.

He winced when he saw the teary quality of her eyes, and racked his brain frantically.

He came up blank.

He couldn't think of anything he had said that would make the young woman in front of him think that he didn't want her on his team anymore.

That he didn't want her anymore.

She took a deep breath.

"Do you remember the whole club thing" she muttered, "when Ziva and I…uhh, when we walked home from the club that night?"

Gibbs nodded slowly, not particularly wanting to recall that incident and being completely oblivious as to how it was relevant now.

"Yeah Abbs…I do, whys that?"

She took another deep breath.

"Uhh…well, do you remember…being pretty mad at me?"

He nodded again slowly, still not seeing where this was going.

"I do" he confirmed softly, waiting for the elusive explanation with a rapid panicking feeling rising in his stomach.

Another large gulping of air was taken, and the teary quality of her eyes stepped up a gear as he watched in helpless confusion.

"You said…" she stopped, and looked at him with brimming eyes, and ducked her head.

Becoming rapidly more and more alarmed, he once again reached out and tilted her head back gently to level eye contact.

"Come on Abbs…its ok, it's just you and me here…come on now, what did I say?"

As she blinked, a solitary tear fell out of her waterlogged eyes and trailed down her cheek.

He deftly brushed it away, as he waited for her to resume her explanation.

"You said…that basically I was a bad influence on the others and that…that I was a brat, and that I was the reason Ziva and the boys are always in trouble…"

With that, she jerked her head out of his careful grasp and threw it down into her own hands and began to cry in earnest.

Before he could drag himself out his stunned state, she was sobbing out words in between her hands.

"You're…you're right. That's why I reached out to Liam…for a tr…transfer."

He opened his mouth, but she beat him to it again.

"I wasn't…going to, but…but when the boys were staying here for ages and didn't…didn't want to do anything with me…and when Ziva…was away at che…chemical weapons training…I realised that you were ke…keeping them away from me…because you didn't want me…rubbing off on them."

With that, she removed the moderate to slight hold she had held on her tears, and began to weep loudly into her hands, her slim shoulders heaving with the effort of her misery.

A medium to large supermarket could have potentially fit in Gibbs' mouth as he stared agape at the sobbing girl.

He shook his head in an attempt to force it into some mode of function, casting his mind back to lecture he'd dished out to Abby for the club catastrophe. He recalled being tougher than usual sure, but as he recalled the incident, he was absolutely assured that he hadn't said she was the cause of the others always being in trouble.

He bit his lip.

How on earth could she think he'd keep the boys and Ziva away from her.

His whirring thoughts were interrupted as his paternal streak took over, rising, he threw himself down beside the crying girl and instantly drew her into his arms. She resisted at first, shaking her head firmly and mumbling incoherently, but after he wrapped strong arms around her and she breathed in his familiar scent, she relaxed into the embrace despite herself.

Sobbing into his chest, she expelled the last two months or so of insecurities that had built up inside her since she had had time to properly analyse the tongue lashing Gibbs had given her.

He let her cry it out, knowing that trying to explain, to comfort, over the sounds of her own weeping was futile. Instead, he carded a careful hand through her now wild mop of jet black hair and held her tightly to him.

Five or so minutes passed and the wetness of his shirt increased tenfold as she cried into his chest, clinging onto him fiercely.

Eventually however, there were simply no more tears to fall and with a large sniffle she broke away from him, and rubbed a hand over her red rimmed, bloodshot eyes.

Releasing her, he stood and strode quickly into the kitchen. Grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge, he took a paper towel and dampened it under hot water. Making his way back to his seat, he handed her the water wordlessly, and rubbed the towel across her face, taking tear tracks and foundation off in his wake.

She took a long draught of water when he was finished, and stared miserably at the ground.

Resting a warm hand on her knee, he drew her attention back to him.

"You ready to listen to me now?" he asked quietly, and to his relief she nodded her head after some minimal hesitation.

He chewed his lip for a brief moment, and equally briefly considered undergoing some kind of sensitivity training given the frequency he seemed to wind up with a crying team member on his couch.

"Abbs…when I yelled at you, I was tougher than I normally am with you. I know that, but…well kid, you deserved it.

She didn't answer him, and he pressed on.

"But I didn't say you were the reason Ziva and the boys get into trouble. I said you had to stop wheedling them into giving you your way. They're still responsible for their actions, I did not mean you were a bad influence on them, I just meant that you needed to quit refusing to take no for an answer, because we all have such a soft spot for you. That's all."

She opened her mouth, presumably to argue, so he pressed on yet again.

"And yeah, I did say you were turning into a brat. But…that doesn't mean that you're not still you as far as I'm concerned. You were behaving in a way I won't tolerate for a while, and that's why I said what I said. I wasn't trying to hurt your feelings, I was trying to snap you out of a spiral of poor decision making and behaviour. Do you see the difference?"

She looked at him silently, her eyes still bearing the tell tale signs of recent sobbing.

"What I'm trying to say I guess is that…maybe I should have been more clear with you. It was your behaviour I had a problem with, not you. Do you understand?"

This, at least, elicited a jerky nodding gesture.

Taking solace in that, he continued.

"As for me keeping the boys and Ziva away from you…Abbs, come on, don't you know me at all?"

She spluttered over a mid sip of water, and looked at him incredulously.

"I haven't hung out with the boys in ages because they kept saying they were working on some…some project here with you that I wasn't invited to."

Gibbs grit his teeth and partially resolved to wring his boys' necks.

"Abbs…" he began with a weary shake of his head, "the boys weren't here because they were having a great time on some project, they were here because they were in trouble. Serious trouble."

She gaped.

"Huh?"

He smiled slightly.

"Abby…they were here because they were grounded and because I was mad as hell with them. They behaved like toddlers, the two of them, which is why I guess they didn't tell you the truth."

Realisation was beginning to spread across her face, and he once again, continued.

"As for Ziva… her training was arranged weeks and weeks before the two of you got into hot water. That's all, nothing ulterior or sinister. Just standard NCIS protocol."

The dull flush that was beginning to spread across her cheeks was not unprecedented, and he bit back an answering smile.

"Have I covered everything now?" he asked gently.

As her head nodded once more, the flush ramped up into burning amber and she began to squirm intensely in her seat.

"Gibbs…I-"

"Should have come to me" he finished for her sternly, looking down at her with a calm expression.

"How many times do I have to tell you four, that if you have a problem, you come to me?"

She bit her lip uncertainly, before opening her mouth.

"I know, but-"

"No, no buts. Look at the state you've gotten yourself worked up into, that could have been avoided if you'd just come to me weeks ago."

She groaned and fidgeted some more before blurting out a sad "I'm such an idiot."

He couldn't help but chuckle at that, and before he knew what he was doing, he leant back in the couch and drew her into his arms. She instantly rested her head on his chest and sighed.

"Are you mad at me?" she asked in a quiet little voice that as usual tugged on his heartstrings.

He pondered her question for a moment, as he mindlessly tousled her hair.

"I guess that depends" he finally answered.

"On?"

He held his breath for a second, not knowing if he could stomach the answer he didn't want, should it fall out of her mouth.

"Are you… still heading to NY Narc?"

She blushed even further, even though he couldn't see it, he could just tell and he gently squeezed her shoulder.

"No Gibbs" she squeaked…"I don't know what I was thinking when I talked to Liam."

He snorted.

"You were thinking I was an absolute jerk, that Ziva and the boys were my mini jerks, and you were just so like totally like done with the whole lot of us?"

She raised her head to look at him in shock.

"Are you making fun of the way I talk?"

He chuckled as his eyes twinkled confidently.

"Maybe."

She stared some more, before throwing her head back on his chest and muttering "unbelievable" under her breath.

She squawked as he landed a stinging swat on her well presented butt in response.

"What was that for?" she spluttered in indignation, once again raising her head to look at him.

"No muttering under your breath" he rebuked calmly, "you know the drill."

She didn't answer, and instead she just leant against his chest and wondered how she could have been so stupid.

"I'm so sorry" she croaked out a couple minutes later, the full force of her neurosis hitting her full in the face. "I can't believe I was so stupid. Even when the boys started asking me to do things…and Ziva…and you, I was too proud to say yes, even though I really wanted to."

He held her slightly tighter as she continued.

"I owe Ziva an apology…"

"You sure do" he agreed sternly, glad she had brought it up without prompting.

She nodded immediately.

"I can't believe she can stake me out and I don't even notice!"

He laughed into her hair.

"It's what she's good at kiddo."

The two lapsed into a silence once more, each lost to their own thoughts.

"Gibbs?"

"Mhhmm?"

She hesitated, before tilting her head upwards to look at him.

"I'm really not in trouble?"

He sighed as he contemplated her repeated question.

She hadn't really put herself in danger, and she hadn't really broken a rule…but he could see the guilt in her eyes, and if he was truthful with himself, whilst he was intensely relieved to get to the bottom of everything, he was cross with her for not talking to him and upsetting herself to such a degree.

"Do you think you should be?"

She squirmed in his arms, and he waited patiently.

"I guess…I guess I know better than to not come to you for help by now" she mumbled quietly, torn between a healthy sense of self preservation and a laborious sense of guilt for her asinine assumptions.

He nodded, proud of her self awareness.

"I think one weeks grounding will do the trick, yes?"

She hesitated, clearly relieved she wasn't about to get her butt roasted and her usual hatred of being confined. Common sense eventually won out, and she nodded her dark head.

"Yes Gibbs."

He squeezed her shoulder again, lost in his relief that the latest debacle was over.

"Good girl."

He held her for a little while longer, before her stomachs growling interrupted the peaceful pair.

"I take it you didn't eat?" he said in exasperation, as she looked at him with poodle eyes.

Rolling his own, he carefully removed her and left her sitting on the couch as he stood up.

Turning to go into the kitchen, he was struck by an afterthought and barely suppressed a groan.

Turning back his groan increased when he saw the afterthought in Abby's hands, her fingers flying over the keypad at a rate that made him feel dizzy.

"Phone, Abbs. Hand it over."

She looked up with a grimace, that she quickly removed, before answering.

"Just two more minutes Gibbs, please?" she pleaded, hating the no privileges aspect that went with being grounded.

He shook his head, and held out his hand with a raised eyebrow.

"Abby…don't make this harder than it needs to be."

She looked up again with an earnest expression.

"But… but I'm just texting Liam to tell him that the deal is off and I don't want to see him again."

He blinked.

"Oh…well…ok then, carry on."

Turning around once more, he couldn't help the broad smile that split across his handsome face.

"Bye Liam."

…..

TBC

….

Thanks for reading guys and please let me know what you all think!