I Know You Can Feel This Too

A/N: Thanks for all the alerts and reviews so far... every one appreciated as always.

Chapter 2 – Feeling Excluded

The next day it wasn't long before Gibbs needed to visit the lab.

After depositing Abby's Caf!Pow on the workbench, he crowded into her personal space in his usual fashion as he scanned the results she brought up on her screen. "What d'ya got, Abbs?"

After her usual canter through the evidence, delivered with the animated gestures, wide smile and husky voice that he looked forward to every time, Abby wandered into her office and threw herself into her chair, smiling up at him as he lingered.

Gibbs wasn't sure how to begin and not even sure Abby would welcome the question. "Enjoy your dinner, Abbs?"

Abby smiled, nodding enthusiastically. "Yup, I did, very much. Toby's surprisingly good company and after dinner, there was dancing."

Toby?

"Dancin', huh?"

"You can mock, Gibbs," she chastised, lips curving in a smile, "but Toby can cut quite the rug, ya know."

"Just tryin' to picture Toby dancing," smirked Gibbs.

Abby wagged her finger at him, giggling. "Well, he can and he's rather good at it. The last few years I've really started to enjoy our annual 'I'm taking you out to dinner on the FBI's dime and offering you a job, but we both know you won't take it' dinner. This year the FBI Director apparently insisted Toby take me somewhere fancy and expensive, thinking that it might be the extra persuasion I needed to join the Feebs." She sounded amused.

"Did it work?" He teased, perching on the edge of her desk.

Abby rolled her eyes at him. "Oh, Gibbs. You know I'd never leave NCIS. But hey, if it gets me a dinner and some good company in a place where neither me nor Toby could afford to go and eat out of our own pay checks, then who am I to complain? Besides, it nearly always helps me screw a raise out of Leon too... "

She stopped herself in mid sentence and folded her hands in front of her, trying to look innocent. "I mean, give me a chance to open delicate negotiations with the Director for a raise commensurate with my perceived value."

"Yeah, good luck with that," he snorted with amusement and bent to kiss her cheek, breathing in her distinctive gunpowder perfume.

As he turned to leave, Gibbs noticed a bunch of red and black roses by her music centre. Abby saw his interest, watching him curiously as he paused.

"Do you like my flowers, Gibbs? Toby sent them. Apparently I wasn't the only one who enjoyed themselves last night." Abby leapt up and sniffed appreciatively at the roses.

Gibbs glanced at the card perched on the edge of the cabinet, which presumably also came with the flowers. He watched her gather up the card, smiling to herself as she read the note inside.

As he left her lab, Gibbs tried to convince himself that it was merely politeness on Fornell's part to send her flowers as a thank you.

So why did the thought of who'd bought them for Abby leave him feeling irritated?

The week progressed normally but was less busy than usual. His team caught a case but it was solved relatively quickly and they spent the rest of the week drowning in paperwork; not a favourite occupation for any of them, although Abby was kept busy with evidence from the other teams.

Gibbs soon forgot all about the dinner until one afternoon when he was delivering another Caf!Pow to Abby's lab, intending to pick up the paperwork he knew she'd have ready for him.

The sound of Abby's giggling and a deeper voice which he recognized made him pause at the entrance to her lab. Fornell was standing next to Abby at her workbench, their heads bent close together looking at something and they were both laughing.

As Gibbs approached, Fornell looked up and moved slightly away from Abby, nodding a greeting at Gibbs. "Jethro, how's the shoulder?"

It was only a few weeks ago that Gibbs had still needed a harness to protect his injured shoulder when he'd worked a case with Fornell. It had taken more time than he'd have liked for his injury to begin to heal, so much so that Fornell had actually driven Gibbs' precious Charger on that case, much to his delight and Gibbs' disgust.

Gibbs nodded back, unconsciously flexing his shoulder which, although out of its support, still needed physiotherapy exercises and ached like hell occasionally. "Improvin', Tobias." He stepped closer. "I miss something?"

Abby beckoned him over. "Hey, Gibbs, come and look at Fred Astaire here."

Stepping between them to place the Caf!Pow next to Abby, Gibbs took the photos she handed him.

"We got one of the waiters to take them... everyone was doing the same thing so I thought it'd be a nice souvenir of a fun evening out," Toby explained.

"Can I make more copies, Toby, so I can keep these?" asked Abby.

"No need, Abby, those are yours. I made copies already," responded Fornell, smiling at her.

Gibbs flicked through the photos which showed Abby dancing with the FBI agent. In one, he could see that Fornell was holding her close and Abby was laughing, and in another he was dipping her partway to the floor and she was clutching his shoulders.

"Nearly put my back out on that one," chuckled Fornell.

"Cheeky. You accusing me of being heavy." She swatted him lightly on the shoulder, giggling.

"Nope, wouldn't dare," he teased, looking her up and down. "You're just a lot taller than me, especially in those heels."

Gibbs listened to the easy banter rolling back and forth between them, feeling excluded and not liking the feeling one little bit. It was usually him and Abby who were always on the same wavelength, flirting, teasing, enjoying their shared sense of mischief, usually at the expense of DiNozzo or McGee.

Fornell interrupted his thoughts, picking up his coat. "I gotta run, Abby. I'll see you Friday, take you both out to lunch."

"Tell Emily I'm looking forward to it." She waved goodbye and turned back to Gibbs with a smile.

Gibbs quirked an eyebrow at her after Fornell left.

Abby explained, smiling. "Emily's coming over on Friday, she's doing a school project on 'A day in the life of...' and she's doing a day in the life of me... well, not me me but me forensic scientist me."

TBC

A/N: Updates on this should be fairly regular as it's completed, so I'll try not to leave you hanging for too long... however tempting that may be sometimes!