I Know You Can Feel This Too
A/N: I'm spoiling you again with two chapters today... this one is for bbfan to cheer her up!
Chapter 12 – Friendship
Both Abby and Ziva had booked time off so they could leisurely get ready at Abby's apartment for the dinner dance. Their friendship had come a long way since the early days when Abby had resented Ziva for taking Kate's place and they were now very close.
Ziva knew how Abby felt about Gibbs.
She'd shared Tony's concern over the arrival of Allison Hart on the scene and had seen how upset Abby was, although Ziva suspected things weren't quite as they appeared with Gibbs' relationship with the lawyer. But as usual, Gibbs was playing things so close to his chest that his team were left guessing.
So this afternoon they both enjoyed the chance to relax, and Ziva was pleased to see that her friend was looking a lot happier than yesterday.
As they got dressed, they chatted with the ease of close friends. Neither of them dressed formally very often, although Ziva was more likely to do so for undercover assignments, even if it wasn't for her own pleasure.
Abby's outfit was an off-the-shoulder low cut dress of black jersey material which fell to the floor in elegant lines from a cinched in waist. The length emphasized her statuesque height and the dark colour highlighted her porcelain skin, showing off her alabaster shoulders and the swell of her breasts. The cross tat was covered, but the flower and the stick figure tattoos on her shoulders that made her uniquely Abby were still visible.
Ziva's dress was a simple but startlingly elegant floor length black silk number, which clung to her curves until the skirt flared slightly. The thin straps of the halter-style top drew eyes towards her cleavage and the golden skin of her shoulders.
Ziva eventually brought the conversation round to what was on her mind as she worked on fixing Abby's hair into an elegant bun.
"You look happier today, Abby, and Gibbs is less of a grizzly," she observed, thoughtfully.
Abby giggled. "It's less of a bear, Ziva, although grizzly works just as well for Gibbs sometimes."
Ziva rolled her eyes, shrugging, starting to pin up Abby's silky hair. She was so used to seeing Abby in pigtails, it was a treat to see her in another style. "A grizzly is a bear, is it not?"
When Abby nodded, laughing, Ziva smiled, pleased to see her friend's amusement, "Well, it is the same thing then. Sometimes I think these idioms of yours make no sense at all."
"Don't ask me to make sense of our language, Ziva, it's taken me all this time to get the hang of it myself. But in answer to your question, yes, I do feel happier than yesterday and I'm delighted to hear that Gibbs has been less of a… grizzly." Abby hesitated before admitting, "He actually apologized to me this morning."
At Ziva's astonished look, Abby laughed. "Yes, I know. It's rare but he does apologize sometimes, although it just takes you by surprise when he does. I think he realized he'd gone too far this time with what he said to me yesterday."
Abby looked down, twisting her fingers together, fighting the urge to fidget. "But it also allowed us to talk a bit and… oh, I dunno, we got interrupted before I could be sure what he was telling me. But the reason he was so snippy with me was because he thought I was seeing Toby… as in romantically seeing."
"Well, I can see why he might think that but that is no excuse for how he behaved yesterday, Abby." Ziva finished fastening the last pins into Abby's hair.
"Maybe. I'm very fond of Toby but I don't think of him that way… you know." Abby shrugged. "He's just a friend."
"So... Gibbs was jealous. There, will that do?" Ziva stepped back to admire her handiwork.
Abby's thick black hair suited a formal bun, and Ziva had left a few delicate tendrils loose to curl into her neck and cheeks. It emphasised her ivory skin and drew attention to her striking green eyes and long elegant neck.
"It's lovely, Ziva, thank you," Abby smiled, delighted with the result, wondering what Gibbs would think when he saw it... if he saw it, if he turned up tonight.
"So are you more confident now about how Gibbs feels about you?" Ziva asked.
"He didn't say he wanted me in so many words, Ziva, although I think he might have been about to and then Balboa walked in and interrupted us." Abby rolled her eyes as she remembered the moment. "Sit down Ziva, it's time to get my hands on that lovely thick mane of yours."
As Ziva made herself comfortable, Abby picked up the choker to complete her outfit. It was more understated than her usual style, all black but thinner with a single hanging drop emerald at the front.
"That is beautiful, Abby. Let me see." Ziva reached for it, examining it more closely as she fastened it round her friend's neck. The elegant choker drew attention to the graceful line of Abby's neck.
"It was a birthday present from Gibbs this year," Abby told her. It had rapidly turned into one of her favourites, for its elegance and simplicity and because of the man who'd given it to her.
Ziva met her friend's eyes in the mirror, smiling fondly. "And you doubt how this man feels about you?" She gestured to the choker, "This is a gift a lover might buy."
Abby blushed and lowered her eyes, wanting to believe Ziva's words but after all the stresses of the past weeks, not letting herself have the confidence to do so. "I hoped so too at the time when he gave it to me. I thought... at least I hoped he would maybe make a move then, a couple of months ago when he took me out to dinner, but he didn't... and then she arrived. For all I know he'll turn up with her on his arm tonight."
Abby started by brushing Ziva's thick hair, trying to distract herself from her muddled thoughts. The style Ziva suggested held the front half of her hair drawn back from her lovely face, to emphasize Ziva's striking bone structure and her warm brown eyes, and gathered at the back to fall in a mass of gentle long curls down her back.
"Did you ask Gibbs about Allison Hart?" asked Ziva, relaxing under Abby's soothing touch.
"Yeah, I did and he went all into Special Agent cryptic mode, as he usually does. He said it wasn't what I thought and that he wasn't involved with her but didn't elaborate further," Abby shrugged, ruefully.
"That is... interesting." Ziva looked thoughtful, thinking back over the events of the past few weeks and the frequent appearances of the lawyer in the Navy Yard and, in particular, Gibbs' reaction to her presence.
He had seemed by turns intrigued and irritated.
At the time, Ziva hadn't thought beyond the fact that Allison Hart was an attractive woman, and Gibbs was perhaps as susceptible as any other red-blooded male when Hart began to show an interest in him.
"Yeah, I've been thinking about that and d'ya know what saying keeps rolling through my head, Ziva? 'Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.' But that may be wishful thinking on my part though," Abby admitted ruefully, fastening the last section of Ziva's hair in place.
"No, Abby, I think you might be right." Ziva reached up to squeeze her friend's hand where it rested on her shoulder, trying to reassure her. "Recently Tony found a photograph of Hart with Colonel Bell, and now Gibbs has Tony checking out any connections between the two of them. Gibbs has not said as much but if I were in his shoes, I would be trying to get close to Allison Hart to see what she was up to."
It was a technique Ziva herself had used many times under cover and suspected that Gibbs would have no compunction in doing the same, especially if he thought that he was protecting people he cared about.
"Gibbs said that he was trying to protect me and that I was just to trust him, which of course I do but... oh Ziva, sometimes I wish he'd just tell me." Abby sounded exasperated.
Ziva huffed a laugh. "There are many times when the rest of the team think the same, Abby. Although I can perhaps see his point this time. Until he finds out what Colonel Bell is up to, Gibbs must assume that anyone close to him is in danger. So you may not like what you see when he is with Allison Hart, but it makes sense."
"I hope you're right, Ziva."
They batted ideas back and forth for a while longer and by the time Fornell came to pick them up, Abby felt a lot lighter in heart.
TBC
A/N: Dinner dance next...