I'm loving how much you all like this ^^ And I got my internet working again :D I just jiggled something in the back of the PC and it seemed to work! And my hand didn't get blown off, which is always a bonus :D
It was now precisely 5 in the morning. All the agents in Gibbs' team had stayed all night, with everyone else in the building leaving. However, they weren't doing work anymore. Kate had fallen asleep with her head on her desk, snoring quietly as she rested her face on the keyboard of her computer. McGee had fallen asleep still on his chair, his head tilting back, which would definitely give him a crick in his neck when he woke up. As for Gibbs, he had slept the same way as Kate, except slightly more dignified, with his head resting on his arms on the desk.
As for Tony, he had slept on and off during the night. It was quite comfortable in the pen, he had to admit, but the horrible thing was, he was just so lonely. Sometime around 2 he'd woken up from about an hour's sleep, and immediately got given a stapler without any staples in it to keep him quiet, but the toy soon lost it's novelty. He'd whined for a bit, and when he realised they were ignoring him, he'd fallen into a moody silence, and fell asleep for another 2 hours. When he'd woken up, they were all asleep, and no amount of tiny little toddler chirping would wake them.
He sighed and willed himself to fall asleep. Either that or grow up, this was annoying him so much, why did he have to be the one who shrunk? And he thought they could at least give him something to do, he was going crazy here, and he was sure he would be able to do his work like any other day. He gazed down at the floor moodily, and jumped when the lights turned on,
"Tony!" A voice happily shrieked, and ran towards the pen. He looked up to see Abby stood in front of him, crouching down and smiling at him through the net of the play pen,
"How's my little brother today?" She asked, ignoring the look he gave her, she knew he liked it really.
"I'm so bored, they've all been asleep for ages and I've been on my own for ages, I really need someone to talk to or I'll go crazy..." He blinked slightly, hoping to drive away the tears building in his eyes. Abby blinked at his little rant as well, but smiled and picked him up as soon as she saw he was about to cry,
"Hey, come on little sprocket..."
"Sprocket?" Tony asked, happy now he was getting some attention,
"I used to call my little sister it, always calmed her down when she was about to have a tantrum."
"I wasn't going to have a tantrum." Tony retorted, voice gaining volume as he argued. Abby bounced him up and down slightly, eyeing Gibbs nervously,
"Please don't Tony, Gibbs'll shoot me if I make you cry or something." Tony raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything as they were finally moving out of that office and into Abby's lab, which had a strange, comforting feel to it. It was quite cool down there, as the machines needed the temperature to be quite cold, and Tony found it much better than the office, which was quite warm and stuffy.
"Hey Tony, can you walk?" Abby asked, looking down at him with interest,
"Don't know, I haven't really been given the chance, Gibbs won't let me out of his sight after I almost ate his knife..." Tony answered, leaving Abby to gaze at him, open-mouthed,
"You almost ate his knife?" She exclaimed, her pigtails dancing around behind her, "You must have been one messed up kid!" Tony grinned at her and said,
"You think I should try walking?" She nodded excitedly, and watched as he tried to stand, which she was surprised to see, he found quite difficult.
"Hey Tony, stop a sec, I just want to check something." He nodded and sat back on the floor, but felt alone again. Why did everyone walk away from him? He wasn't that strong at walking, so he settled for a crawl, and soon found himself over to Abby in no time at all,
"Aw, look at you my little greyhound." She praised him, picking him up and rubbing their noses together, enjoying the pink colour he turned.
"What're you doing?" He asked, cringing as he heard himself talk, sure he was annoying everyone when he did. Was his voice always so... infantile?
"I'm seeing what age is normal for little kids to start walking, my little brother and sister both started when they were about 12 months old, and you're round about 18 months, so I'm surprised you're finding it hard." Tony shrugged and said,
"My mom said I was a late developer, she said I learnt to talk quickly, but it took me quite a while to walk, 'cause my dad liked to keep me out of trouble, so he made sure no one taught me how to walk 'till I was past the 'terrible twos'." Abby looked at him sadly, but quickly shook her head and said,
"Well, we need to get you walking whippet, I can't wait to see Gibbs' face when he's trying to catch you in the office. Give him hell, my little puppy!" Tony shook his head, smiling,
"Are you never gonna let up with the whole dog nickname thing?"
"Hey, it's in the best possible taste! Now come on, let's see those legs go!" Tony giggled and pushed himself up from the floor with his short arms and managed to get himself to a standing position. Abby grinned happily as the toddler slowly started putting one foot in front of another, gingerly stepping... before falling onto his backside. Abby rushed to his side, but he was unhurt, and tried again,
"Maybe it'll be easier if you had a goal," Abby mused, "Try and walk to me!" She crouched down a few metres away from him, holding her arms out,
"C'mon pup, walk to me. Come to Auntie Abby!" She shook her head and said, "I don't like that, just call me Abby." Tony laughed, which made him loose his balance once more. He huffed as he was almost half way to her. Then, a voice right behind him made him jump and he almost started crying,
"You're not trying very hard, are you DiNozzo?" Tony shuffled around to see Gibbs crouched down behind him, an amused smirk on his face,
"It's harder than it looks!" He defended, but it was in vain, as both Abby and Gibbs sniggered. He pouted and turned to try and crawl away as dignified as possible,
"You're giving up?" Gibbs sounded so indignant, so... dissapointed. Tony bit his lip and turned back round. He pushed himself to standing again, and shakily walked a few feet, managing to reach Gibbs' open arms, but had yet to fall into them,
"Well, DiNozzo?" He asked, expectantly, "You're not finished yet." Tony smiled at him and pushed himself a bit further, finally reaching his boss and was picked up from the floor,
"Abbs, when was the last time this floor was mopped? He's filthy!" Gibbs said, making Tony blush,
"Hey, if you're so bothered, I'll change his clothes, it's just those that are slightly dirty." She shot back, before plucking Tony from Gibbs' arms and stalking off to her desk, where she and Kate had obviously stashed the rest of the baby clothes.
"I want him back in the office in 5 minutes Abbs!" Gibbs yelled, and walked out, leaving a bottle of Caf-Pow in his wake.
--
Kate and McGee were just straightening themselves out as they saw Abby walk in with Tony. He looked quite red, but they had no idea why. Kate guessed it was because Abby had changed his clothes, but she didn't know why he'd be that bothered, they'd done it yesterday and he hadn't cared. Though he was half asleep...
"Hey guys!" Abby chirped, setting Tony down on his chair, "Kate, what d'you think about his clothes? I didn't have that much time to pick them, Gibbs wanted him up here ASAP." Kate nodded understandingly,
"Yeah, you should have heard him when he saw Tony was gone. He thought he'd been kidnapped or something, after we'd told him there was no way he'd gotten out of there on his own." Abby swallowed. An angry Gibbs was never good.
"Still," She brightened, "What d'you think of his clothes?" Kate looked at him and smiled. He was wearing dungarees again, but the material was different, and they were a bright red colour, and they only came to his knees. Also, he was wearing a plain white t-shirt, and Abby had managed to find some small white trainers that she'd stuck on his feet. Kate smiled as she saw they had velcro fastenings.
"I thought we should definitely change his clothes before he goes to sleep," Abby continued, "Into one of those adorable little sleeping suits in there." Kate agreed but immediately bent her head down and started to work as Gibbs walked round the corner,
"What's up with DiNozzo?" He asked, barely glancing at the toddler as he walked past. Kate looked over and shrugged, seeing he was still as red as before,
"Maybe he has a temperature?" Kate suggested, walking over and laying a cool hand on his forehead, "Abby he's really warm, what if he picked something up when he was down in the lab? What if he's ill?" She was getting rather hysterical, until Abby layed a hand on her arm,
"Kate, relax, he's fine, I know why he's so hot and bothered." Tony went an even deeper shade of red, at which Abby's heart melted, "He's fine." She finished, and walked over to Gibbs, while Kate started to talk to Tony, who at first started to answer in small, quiet words, but eventually got some gusto back and was chattering away nineteen to the dozen.
"You going to tell me why you took him to your lab without leaving a note?" Gibbs asked in a low voice, not looking up from his work.
"He was bored Gibbs, he was sat there in the middle of a dark office with everyone else asleep. I couldn't just leave him! And I didn't think... about the note I mean. Sorry." Gibbs smiled at her slightly. He couldn't stay mad at Abby.
"So what's he all red for?" He asked, looking over, even though the toddler was no longer bright red, and was gaining his normal colouring back. Abby giggled slightly, but shook her head, trying to regain her composure,
"I know I shouldn't laugh really, but well... he needed changing... and I wasn't going to let him sit there, damp and wet all day." She rushed her small speech, wondering what Gibbs would make of it. Obviously he knew Tony would need changing, he had the body of an 18 month old and was clearly sat there in diapers, but it was still quite embarrassing. For some reason he felt he wouldn't really need to deal with it.
"Did he ask you, or did you just... guess?" Gibbs asked quietly, staring intently at his computer screen,
"It's kind of hard not to figure out when you're changing his clothes as well Gibbs. But I don't see why he didn't tell me. I mean, am I that unapproachable?" Gibbs chuckled and layed a hand on Abby's arm, finally looking up to meet her eyes,
"It'll be embarrassing for the poor kid Abbs, how would you feel?" AShe shrugged and said,
"Still, it's not as if there was anything to be embarrassed about. He's just a baby, it's not like there's that much..."
"Ok Abbs, you can stop now," Gibbs said, holding his hand up, now grinning, the goth always managed to cheer him up, ironically, "Why don't you go back to your lab? We've got a bit of work, but it's the weekend tomorrow, so you'll get to relax if we don't get called in." Abby smiled at her boss, and was just about to turn away, before asking,
"Hey Gibbs? Where's Tony gonna go at the weekend? We can't just sit him in a taxi and get him to crawl to his place."
"He can walk."
"Not funny Gibbs!"
"Calm down Abby. It's fine, I was thinking about that myself. Just relax, we'll find someone to take him home."
"It should be someone he knows," Abby suggested, a glint in her eye, "Someone who he trusts, and who he feels comfortable around, someone..."
"Are you hinting about someone Abbs?" He asked, a slight cold tone to his voice, "Possibly... me?" She grinned and yelled over to where Kate, McGee and Tony were sat,
"Hey guys, it's ok, Tony's gonna stay with Gibbs!" All of them looked puzzled, and Abby felt someone stand up behind her, so she quickly jumped up and cried,
"Don't try to deny it Gibbs, I taped it!" With that, she pulled out a tape recorder and played back their small conversation, somehow missing a part, so all they heard was,
"It should be someone he knows, someone who he trusts, and who he feels comfortable around, someone..."
"Possibly... me?"
It was clearly Gibbs' voice offering, and they all looked at him, mouths open. Gibbs growled, but had to force a laugh back as Abby scuttled away, before planting a kiss on Tony's head. It wouldn't be that hard. And he had to admit, he had more experience around babies than everyone else.
His phone rang and he grabbed it, barking into it,
"Gibbs." He listened for a few minutes before putting it back down and saying,
"Grab your gear, we've got the body of a dead marine in some woodland." Automatically, Tony tried to slide off his chair and take his backpack, but his legs were too short, and he fell, hitting the ground with a sharp thud. Kate ran over and picked him up, rubbing him on the back as he started howling in pain, having grazed his arm on the way down,
"Come on Tony, I know you're... you, but that can't have hurt that much, don't be such a drama queen." This made him wail louder, and Kate was very much aware of Gibbs' stare boring into her, and knew he'd shout for not stopping Tony's crying. She straightened up and looked over apologetically at Gibbs,
"I'm sorry Boss," She said, "But I can't get him to stop. Maybe if we just leave him with Abby until we get back..." She was cut off as Gibbs leant forward and took Tony from her, rubbing his back and bouncing him soothingly, which, even though it was exactly what Kate had done, almost immediately made him stop, and he started to snuffle subconciously into his boss' jacket.
"Gas the truck Kate." Gibbs ordered quietly, and walked over to the lift, leaving Kate to stare after him.
Wow that was long :P I didn't really expect it to go on for that much lol. And please don't think I'm abandoning my other story, but i got a small idea and my brain cogs started whirring, so I had to type it. And don't think you'll get as quick an update as you did now lol, I'm gonna try and finish my other story. Though, as we know, I say that and I'll have finished this before that one! Review? xxx