Hmm… so most people vote Hollis, huh? Didn't pick up on the hint I gave, did ya?

------

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."

Abby looked away quickly, hoping that Gibbs hadn't noticed.

He had. "Abby? Does that mean something to you?"

"I uh," She could tell him what she thought and risk him losing his life or his job, or she could keep quiet and handle it herself. "No." She forced herself to look up at him again. "It just reminded me that I have an appointment this afternoon as well."

"An appointment?"

Abby motioned to everyone else in the room. "Not important. Just a… check up."

"Uh, boss. I forgot… I told Abby I'd drive her, but then I'm supposed to take you to yours. Ziva will take you," he turned to look at Ziva, pleading silently with his eyes, "right?"

"Tony, that isn't necessary. I can take myself." Abby avoided eye contact with Tony, and tried to put a smile on her lips.

"I can push back my appointment and go with you." Gibbs added thoughtfully.

"No!" Abby and Tony shouted together. "Uh, no," Abby continued. "You need to get to your check up more than I need to get to mine. If yours is all clear then you can drive again, remember?"

Ziva glanced from Abby to Tony and back to Abby before turning and smiling softly at Gibbs. "I will gladly take you."

"Good, now that that is settled, can we focus on the task at hand? I'm fairly certain we'd all like this case solved." Hollis moved to the machine where Conner was running the dust particles. "How long will this take?"

"Roughly four hours and twenty seven minutes." Conner said, avoiding her cold stare.

"Well, hurry it up." Hollis pushed past the rest of the people and headed upstairs. Gibbs gave his team a look that sent them scurrying out of the lab, and then he grabbed Abby's hand and pulled her towards the back office.

Crap, Abby thought. She needed to think fast.

"What appointment? You didn't tell me about any appointment. You sure you don't want me to be there?"

"No, Gibbs. I'll be fine." Always be specific when you lie. "It's just that the doctor asked me to talk to someone, you know… about all the stress of the accident. I guess it's sorta like a mental evaluation."

"I thought you did that already."

"I did, but now that things have calmed down a bit, they want to do a follow up. Just make sure that I'm not suddenly having new nightmares and stuff."

"Are you?"

"No. I'm fine… as long as I've got you." Abby hoped that by wrapping her arms around him in a hug she could shift his focus a little and he would move on from the subject of her 'check up'.

"Why can't you just talk to Ducky?"

Abby forced herself not to sigh. "Because they want me to talk to the same doctor I first talked to." This lie was getting out of hand. "But then if he thinks I'm okay, which I am, I won't need any follow up."

"Oh. Okay." He wasn't sure if he bought what she was saying, but it did make sense. "You're sure you don't need me there?"

"Positive, Gibbs, now let me get back to work, err, watching someone else work. I might be able to get that dust sample analyzed half an hour quicker."

"Call me if you need something."

"Of course." Abby pressed a quick kiss to his lips and then bounced out of the lab and over to Conner. She asked menial questions about how he was running the sample until she heard Gibbs step into the elevators and the doors close. "That thread. I need another look."

"Um, okay." Conner moved slowly across the lab to put the slide back into the microscope.

"A little faster, Conner. This could be big."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I might know where we can match that thread."

"You do? Then why haven't you told-" Abby silenced him with her palm over his lips.

"Because, if I'm right… Gibbs would grab his gun and we wouldn't see him again until this bastard is dead. Gibbs isn't officially on the case, and if he killed this person, it would be the same as a civilian killing someone. He could lose his job and go to jail. I won't let that happen."

"Well, we could call Hollis…" Conner trailed off at the look Abby gave him. "Well, what do you expect to do?"

"I need you to cut the thread in half and put it in a second slide and pack it with the smaller microscope that I plan to take with me. Then I need you to get the thread analyzed so that when I get the matching sample we can compare."

"But you aren't working this case either. If you do all this, then it can be thrown out in court."

"I know. I guess I'll just have to be creative…" Abby cringed when she heard footsteps behind her.

"I can do it."

Abby turned to look at Tony. "Tony, I don't know for sure, but this green… remember?"

"I remember. But Abby, why aren't we telling Gibbs?"

"Because, Gibbs will kill first and not ask questions later. He could get in a lot of trouble."

"Abby! What about the trouble we will get into? Specifically me… Gibbs will kill me. I'm fairly certain."

"Oh Tony, since when has getting in trouble with the boss ever been an issue for you? You'll keep your job. I'll make sure of it."

"Alright." Tony sighed. "Why do I get the feeling that I will get my ass handed to me when we get back."

"We'll be creative, Tony. Just try to match the thread without saying anything and then if it doesn't match we'll leave quietly, but if it does… you pull out your gun and do your thing."

"When do we leave?" It was an uphill battle he wasn't about to win. He couldn't back out, because he knew Abby would try and do it herself and he wasn't about to let that happen.

"Gibbs leaves for his appointment in an hour. We leave then."

"Alright." Tony stayed in the lab a while longer, carried the supplies they would need out to the car and then headed back to the squad room. When Gibbs grabbed his things to leave, Tony quietly gathered his things. Once the elevator door closed in front of Gibbs and Ziva, Tony made a dash to the back elevators, ignoring the rapid-fire questions from McGee.

Abby was waiting, her coat on and purse in hand by the door. She had explained her thoughts to Conner on who it might be and why they might have done it. She also made sure to write both her and Tony's cell numbers down, and drilled it into his mind that he was to call her or Tony first – no matter what.

Conner agreed and wished them luck.

"Come on, Tony. And let's put the flashing lights on, too. Okay?"

---

An hour later Conner jumped when the machine analyzing the dust beeped. Abby had done something, whispered how much she loved it… something, and it finished an hour sooner than he'd expected. He looked over the results, his eyes growing wide. Maybe Abby was right, maybe she did know who was behind this, he thought. He was worried though. Now that he had spent some time with Abby, he'd amassed a large amount of respect for Abby and didn't want to see her hurt.

She and Tony had gotten a decent head start, so when he picked up the phone and dialed Gibbs' number he didn't feel like he was completely betraying Gibbs' trust.

"Gibbs." Gibbs barked. He'd just finished the scan, and he and Ziva were waiting for the results.

"Uh, Mr. Gibbs, sir… this is Conner. Conner McFayel in the lab, and um, I tried reaching the others, but no one is answering." It wasn't a complete lie. He was Conner McFayel.

"No one?"

"Nope."

"What is it?"

"That dust sample. It's finished, I've got results."

"And…?" Gibbs didn't have all day.

"It's coal dust. You know, from a coal mine." Conner waited for the information to sink in before adding a small lie. "I can't say for certain, but it looks to be the same time found up north, in like, Pennsylvania." He hoped Gibbs didn't know that there was no way he could've narrowed that down, but thought that maybe Gibbs needed the extra little hint.

Conner could feel the heavy silence around him as everything sunk in on Gibbs' end.

"Goddamnit! There was no appointment. How long ago did they leave?"

"Just over an hour, sir."

"Shit."

The line went dead, and Conner had never felt so relieved to be hung up on.

---

TBC…