Please note: I posted two chapters in one day, so although alerts won't show that two chapters were added, both three and four were just updated.

Abby broke open her fortune cookie, and pulled out the small slip of paper, reading it aloud, "If a turtle has no shell, is he homeless or naked?" She giggled, and then turned somber, "Actually, he'd be dead, because turtles can't live without their shells. That's such a sad and strange fortune. What's your fortune say, Gibbs?"

Gibbs cracked open the other fortune cookie and pulled out the slip, reading it silently first rather than aloud.

"Gibbs, what's it say?"

Rather than read it to her, he handed her the slip and began to clean up the containers. Abby looked down at the paper and read it loudly as if announcing it to a room full of people, "Know that you are not alone." Her voice got quiet as she finished the statement, and she looked up expecting to see Gibbs but found that he was no longer in the room.

"Gibbs?" Abby called through the house.

"In here, Abbs." Gibbs' voice echoed from the kitchen, where she found him scrubbing the cookie sheet.

"Leave that for later. It's not going anywhere." Abby smiled at him.

Gibbs shrugged. "Won't take but a minute." Just as he said it, he finished rinsing it off and placed it in the dish drainer. "Want a cookie?"

Abby shook her head. "I'm gonna wait for a while. I'm stuffed from the Lo Mein." She nodded toward the living room. "Rudolph is on next."

"Never cared much for the cartoons." Gibbs dried his hands on a dish towel and grabbed a beer from the fridge. "Beer?"

"Yeah, sure." Abby accepted the bottle already in his hand as he reached for another to replace his. "Gibbs, you never finished what you were going to say before the food arrived."

He swallowed a mouthful of beer before responding. "Don't remember what I was gonna say."

"Don't lie, Gibbs. Have more respect for me than that."

Gibbs studied her for a moment before walking back into the living room, Abby following close behind. He took another swallow of beer. "I was going to say that I wasn't trying to be distant. I just thought the tone of some of the things we'd been saying lately was getting out of hand. Too unprofessional." He tried to make it sound as nonchalant as possible. He didn't want it to seem like he acknowledged it as flirting, but rather, just as jokes that had been taken too far. "If someone walked in, they'd think something was going on."

Abby remained standing as Gibbs sat back on the right side of the couch. "After almost 10 years, now you're worried about how our conversations could be misconstrued?"

"Times have changed, Abbs. People take things more seriously now."

"No, they don't. Not in NCIS. Not anymore than they did before. So why is it different now? Why won't you joke with me now? Why do you remain stony-faced when I make a joke? You used to enjoy them, take them in stride, even return the tone. What's changed in the last two weeks?" Abby stared him down, her beer still full in her hand.

"Abby…" Gibbs used his do-what-I-say voice as he contemplated how to avoid admitting that he knew how she felt.

"No, don't 'Abby' me," she mimicked his use of her name. "What's changed, Gibbs?" Abby's voice grew louder, more urgent as she urged him to tell her the truth.

"It's getting out of hand. Needs to stop." Gibbs shrugged, setting his beer on the coffee table.

Abby was visibly taken aback, her mouth gaping slightly as she took in his meaning. "You mean we need to stop flirting because nothing will ever happen and I'm flogging a dead horse?" She swallowed the lump in her throat. She hadn't wanted to know how he'd felt if it meant knowing he didn't see her that way. She hadn't asked for this.

He didn't want to upset her. It had already gone too far; they shouldn't have even discussed it. But maybe now he could talk some sense into her. Maybe she would realize how terrible he was for her. "Shouldn't have been flirting to begin with, Abbs. It was stupid of me."

"Stupid because you led me on? Because I could never be one of the women in your life?" Abby set down her beer on the end table, no longer wanting it. "No, it was stupid of me." Abby walked quickly over to her shoes and pulled them on, grabbing her keys and bag that sat next to them. Her coat was laying across the back of the chair next to the door. She pulled it on as Gibbs stood to stop her.

"Abbs, it's late."

"I won't stay here if I'm suddenly inappropriate, and embarrassing. Sorry, Gibbs."

"Don't apolo-"

"Yeah, I know, Gibbs. Don't apologize, it's a sign of weakness. I'll take that any day over basically being told that I'm embarrassing myself by flirting with someone who would never want me." Abby opened the door to a much larger pile of snow than either had expected.

Abby sighed at the sight of the piled up snow, and mumbled to herself, "The one time it snows on Christmas Eve in Virginia…"

"Abby, the roads aren't clear yet. You'll get into an accident."

"I feel like I'm already in an accident." Abby shook her head and tentatively stepped out, her boot sinking a good five or six inches down to the porch, forcing snow to rise up to her ankle and spill into her sock. She winced at the painful cold seeping into her foot, but continued on, trudging slowly down each step.

"Abbs…" Gibbs' voice was softer.

Abby didn't turn around, but kept marching through the snow, creating a deep path down the stairs and over the camouflaged path.

Gibbs stared at her retreating figure, trying to figure out whether to admit his real reasons behind wanting the flirting to end, or if she would give in and turn back after realizing she wouldn't be able to drive the hot rod through the snow.

But Abby didn't turn around, and Gibbs didn't admit his feelings for her.

And Abby slowly pulled away, the wheels of the hot rod crunching over the tracks that remained from hours earlier.

Shortest chapter yet, I know. I'm gonna start working on (and potentially finish) the next one tonight. And at least I have off work tomorrow, so I'll have time to write. Reviews are love :)