Enjoy : )
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Although it was five-thirty in the morning, Abby woke refreshed and ready for the day. She sunk further into the mattress as Gibbs rolled partially over her to turn the alarm off. She realized that she was on his side of the bed, but then remembered that she had been laying over him when they had gone to bed the night before and she figured she must've rolled towards his side in her sleep.
After switching off the alarm he moved to lie on his back, but kept an arm around Abby, pulling her with him, digging his fingers lightly in her side to make her laugh. Abby moved over him, and buried her face against his neck. "Morning," she giggled.
The combination of her warm breath on his neck and the way she giggled and squirmed over him had Gibbs moments from flipping her over and proving that she was, in fact, the only thing on his mind… but then his phone rang.
"Gibbs!" He barked, a little harsher than normal. If only McGee knew…
"His apartment has been tampered with. Nasser Sharif. He's been there. Or else, someone has been there."
"Wasn't it under surveillance?"
"It… it… it was," McGee stuttered. "But during the mid-night briefing last night… the night shift arrived 30 minutes late, something about a police blocked road."
"Who was at the meeting last night?"
"Us… Me, Tony, Ziva… Hollis… her two agents or… or whatever they are. Vance… um, head of security… the usual."
"McFayel? Where was he?" There was something about him that Gibbs didn't like, but he wasn't sure if it was because he was, what Tony would say, a pansy, or if there was something more.
"He wasn't at the meeting, but he was in the lab with Ducky. I already checked."
"Find anything new?"
"A fiber of some sort and dust or dirt on the floor. Not enough for foot prints, but... Well, It's being collected and sent back to the lab."
"We'll be in shortly."
"We'll?"
"Yeah, McGee. Abby and I will be there shortly."
"Oh, what should I say to Hol – hello?"
Gibbs hung up and looked over at Abby who had been listening in. "New evidence."
Abby's eyes lit up. "New evidence? Get up, get up!" Abby pushed him towards the edge of the bed before swinging her legs over the side. "We've got to hurry, I want to get a good look!"
Abby showered first while Gibbs waited for the coffee machine to do its job. Between the two showers and the coffee, it took seventeen minutes before they were out the door. Abby drove. Gibbs wasn't thrilled, but since his license had been taken away until his final brain scan later that afternoon, he had no room to argue.
Silently he was pleased that Abby had picked up a few of his, or maybe Ziva's, driving skills, and it took hardly any time at all for them to make it to NCIS headquarters and up to the squad room.
Everyone was gathered around the plasma looking over the names of anyone who hadn't been at the meeting that could possibly be involved and how Sharif could've gotten in and back out of his apartment unseen. There had been no official sightings of him since the start of the case, only an occasional report of a Middle Eastern man possibly matching the description.
Hollis was among the crowd standing around the plasma, her voice carried all the way to the elevator causing Abby to shudder. She caught Tony's eye as she rounded the corner and rolled her eyes. Tony smirked before he turned his attention to what McGee was saying – something about location vs. time constraints vs. invisibility. It sounded like a movie, but he couldn't quite come up with the name.
Abby pressed up on her toes to kiss Gibbs' cheek and passed the group silently with a small wave to both Ziva and McGee and headed to the back elevators and further on to her lab.
As she entered her, now silent lab, Conner stood looking over bagged evidence on the table. "Can I take a look?"
"Why do you even ask? You're team has been down here more times than I can count in the past two hours showing their badges, guns, various other weapons that I don't know the name of, so by all means… take a look."
Abby frowned. " I know they can be a bit… over-bearing, but… it's because they care about me."
Conner sighed. "I know, I just… it's stressful working here, people looking over your shoulder every five minutes and then Hollis…"
"What about Hollis?" Abby's curiosity over the new evidence was momentarily side-tracked.
"She's so… demanding."
"So is Gibbs."
"But… well, I shouldn't be saying this because… well, it's like she wants to be the hero. I'm to report everything directly to her first, even if someone else is around. You know, so if it's good info, she can report it. Like she wants to win over agent Gibbs or something."
Abby rolled her eyes. She was about to echo one of Gibbs' smart-ass 'ya think' comments when she realized that they had kept Conner in the lab nearly 20 hours a day, and he was likely unaware of the drama surrounding her, Gibbs and Hollis. "Actually, Gibbs and I are in a relationship…"
"Oh God, I didn't know, I… I'm so sorry, not that I've seen them together or anything, but, I mean, it's just…"
"It's okay. You aren't wrong. She's been all over him. It's been a bit of a problem upstairs, and that's part of why I'm not here in the lab… she hoped I'd stay home if I couldn't work…"
"So you wouldn't be around… I see."
Abby nodded.
"She's kind of a…" Conner looked around and leaned in closer to Abby. "Bitch."
"Yeah." Abby agreed. "How about you show me the new stuff that came in."
Conner agreed and moved back to the table. "I've got a sample of this running. It was found on the floor inside and outside the front door. I guess they couldn't recover a print, it looks scuffed, like… well, I don't really know."
Abby rolled her eyes but kept her mouth shut. She had been told that this guy was top notch.
"Then they brought this, but I haven't gotten to it yet." Conner held up a small evidence bag with a dark fiber of some sort in it. "It looks like a thread, but I won't really know much about it until I get it under a microscope."
Abby resisted the urge to deal out a head –slap. "Maybe you could get that started? Like, now? Please." She threw in the last added please. There was a distinct difference between now and when she had first met him. It was hard to believe that Hollis could break someone down so quickly.
Tony's loud footsteps announced the arrival of Gibbs, Ziva, McGee, Hollis and a few others that Abby wasn't on a first name basis with. Conner got the thread under a microscope and explained how he was running the dust. Everyone lined up to take a look, and as Abby wasn't officially working, she was the last to get a look at the thread.
"Hm, looks like something that is frayed. You know, on something old… doesn't look ripped or anything."
Gibbs nodded. "Looked rather thick. Too thick to be regular clothing. Dark green… mail bags? Maybe something military?"
"Who knows what he's got access too. Who is helping him out." Hollis added.
Abby leaned in for a second look. "Dark green," she mumbled to herself. "Dark…." She looked up sharply and caught Tony's eye. "…olive green?"
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TBC…