It was still stormy and rainy when the team arrived at work. It was a slow day, no murders or even missing person reports. Tony sat with his feet on his desk crumpling up papers and throwing them in Ziva's trash. Ziva was scrolling through her FaceBook feed, obviously bored. Gibb's was down by the coffee machine brewing up his 3rd cup. McGee wasn't present at his desk. "Have you heard anything from McGee?" Tony asked Ziva. "Nope. No emails, texts, phone calls or anything. You?" she answered. "Me neither." "This is so weird. I wonder if the baker was late again today? Then again, he would've been here by now, wouldn't he?" Ziva thought out loud.
The elevator dinged. "McGee!" Tony shouted. Turns out it wasn't McGee. It was just Director Vance coming to check to see if McGee had come yet. "We were just wondering the same thing." Ziva explained to Vance. He paused for a minute and walked away. "Thank you, agent David." McGee was 3 hours late to work and no one had seen him or heard from him. Gibbs hastily walked around the corner. "We have a murder close to the outside borders of Charleston. Navy lieutenant Mills, Female, age 24." Ziva and Tony slung their backpacks over their shoulders and put their visors on. Gibbs quickly proceeded to Abby's lab. "Abby, I need you to get together all of our victim's banking records, transfers, deposits, and all of that since McGee isn't here today." Abby felt her stomach wrench. "Did he contact anyone?" Gibbs responded, "Not yet." Abby thought for a minute. "If you want, I could get the computer searching for banking records and then drive to his house and see if he's okay. He doesn't live far from here." Gibbs agreed and then went back up to his team on the office levels.
Abby opened up the banking database and put in Cassandra Mills's information and started the search. She hustled out to her car, despite her large platform boots. She drove to McGee's house, barely remembering where it was. The last time she was there was years ago when that guy was stalking her. As she passed his house, she saw his car sitting in the driveway. She held her small black umbrella over her head as she scurried up his cement driveway. She got to his door and knocked twice. After a few minutes McGee opened the door. He was a mess. He was in his pajamas, his hair was tangled, he had cereal spilt on himself. Once he realized who it was at the door, he was surprised. "Abby! What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be running evidence for a murder or something?" "Well, I shouldbe, but I'm over here finding out if you were okay. Once I heard you were gone I was so worried! Why aren't you at work today? They need you McGee!" Abby protested. "It's just, Abby, I didn't want to have to choose between work and you." Abby grabbed him by the shoulders. "McGee, you don't have to. Come to work, Timmy. Your friends miss you. I miss you. So come back." McGee paused and smiled faintly. "I'm a mess, but okay." Abbey cast a playful disgusted face at him. "We're going to need to fix that, Timmy."
"We need to do this fast, McGee." Abby said. "We want you back at work soon, so we both can get back to our jobs. Now sit." McGee did as told and sat on the lid of the toilet. "Good McGee." Abby said and she patted him on the head. "Abby, I know how to wash my hair." Abby glared at him. "Bad McGee." She said as she draped some towels around his neck and proceeded to fill a cup with water. "Abby, you're going to get water everywhere!" Abby ignored the comment and dumped the water all over his head. "Abby! Knock it off! I can wash my own hair." "Not happening McGee." She said as she pushed him back sitting down. She squirted shampoo in his hair. He figured there was no way fighting it. Soon enough, he hair was covered in foam. He grabbed some and threw it at her. Abby laughed as she grabbed some and threw it on him. This continued for around five minutes before realizing how much time they were wasting. Abby quickly washed on the shampoo and fluffed his hair. "There." She said, as she pushed back a tuft of hair. She scampered off down the hall down to his bedroom as he chased after her. "Abbey! Where are you going?" She entered his room, and looked through his closet. By the time he got in, she had an outfit picked out. She left the room to give him time to change into it, while she dried up the huge wet mess she made in the bathroom with the shampoo and water. He came out of his room. "Ready, Abby." "Yay." Abby said. She grabbed his wrist and pulled him out to the car. She forgot it was raining and stumbled and began to fall. McGee, behind her, grabbed her around the waist and stopped her from falling. "Thank you." Abby said slowly.
He grabbed her hand and helped her rebalance. Then he bent down and picked up her umbrella, which she dropped during her would be fall. "Thanks, McGee." She said smiling as she took her umbrella. He pushed a wet lock of hair out of her eyes. Remembering what happened yesterday, Abby turned. "We, we should get going." She knew he was right that seeing each other during work would be wrong, even though it felt so perfect and right. She also knew that he felt the same way about her as she felt about him. But he was right. They can't love each other while both working at NCIS. Even McGee knew what happened when Palmer and Lin were caught together. McGee climbed into the passenger seat of Abby's car, red faced as ever, despite the cold, for when he was with her, his heart was warm, and that made him warm no matter what.
McGee knew how much trouble he would get in if anyone found out if he and Abby were seeing each other, but at the same time, he weighed it against the immense feelings he had for Abby. He loved her, and she loved him, but he wished she would be willing to risk it to be with him. All these thoughts cycled through his head. He was distraught inside and confused, but all the same, in love. "McGee, is everything all right?" Abby questioned. McGee shook his head to get out of his daze. "Yeah, everything's just fine." He smiled, but was still obviously upset by something. Abby pulled into the parking garage and shut the car off. "It's good to have you back, McGee." She said as she gave him what was supposed to be a friendly squeeze, but was very apparently more than friendly. "It's good to be back, Abby." and patted her on the back as a friendly gesture in return. "Mind if I walk you to your lab?" "Not at all, considering I'm doing your job." Abby replied jokingly. The two laughed as they walked to her lab. As they entered her lab, Gibbs was getting off the elevator. "Gibbs!" "Boss!" called out Abby and McGee. "I see you've decided to finally show up, McGee." Gibbs said distastefully. "Sorry boss, I was having an off morning." McGee defended. "Never say you're sorry, McGee. It's a sign of weakness." "Right, boss."
"Abby, I have a new batch of evidence from the crime scene I need you to look at. Look for fingerfrints, blood, the usual." "On it, Gibbs!" Abby said energetically as she cued on her music. "McGee, finish running the bank database reports that Abby started. You'll probably have to finish them down here." "Right, boss." McGee said.
3 Hours Later
"Hey McGee, look at this. Isn't it weird?" Abbey asked as she pointed out a large indentation of splinters in the baseball bat. "Very." McGee replied. Abby pulled up a 3D scan on the computer of the bat. "What's that on the handle?" McGee asked. "What's what?" Abbey responded, confused. "This." McGee said. He went to grab the computer mouse, but Abby was still using it. His hand fell over hers gently. "Oh, sorry." McGee said quickly withdrawing his hand. "No, it's okay." Abby assured him. "So do you mind if I use the computer then?" McGee asked. "Of course! Show me what you see." Abby said. McGee looked down at the mouse. Her hand was still on the mouse. She looked up at him, her eyes saying, "Go ahead." He lightly placed his hand back on top of hers and moved the screen down to the handle of the bat. "See that, right there? It looks like a very small piece of something got snagged there, give or take maybe 10 or 15 fibers." "Good work, McGee!" Abbey said, running off to grab the bat from the evidence bin. She grabbed the tweezers and pulled the small fibers from the bat and bagged them separately.
Abby turned around to place the samples on another table to go with the things that need to be examined. McGee was standing right in front of her. His green eyes sparkled under the light. "McGee," Abby started. "Everything we feel for each other may be wrong in other's eyes, but to me it's beautiful. Life is meant to be beautiful. I don't care what others may say or think, all I care for is you. When I'm with you, there's this little part of me that's just bright and happy, no matter what's going on in life. This part of me makes me forget all my problems and worries, and –" McGee cut her off. "Gibbs is here." He said as he pointed to the elevator. Abby looked to the elevator then said, "Gibbs isn't here." She said as she turned back to McGee. "I know." "Then why'd you say it?" Abbey said, slightly offended. "So I could do this." McGee said as he grabbed her midsection and pulled her close to him. He brushed her lips with his own. "I'll go through anything for you Abby, and I've changed my mind. I don't care what anyone else thinks or says either, because I love you." McGee said. Abbey swung her arms around his neck and embraced him. The elevator dinged and the two jumped apart in opposite directions and turned away from each other. "How are you two coming?" Gibbs asked. "Fine. McGee found some cotton fibers near the handle of the bat and I'm running those now." Gibbs nodded his head slowly. "Good work, Abbs. You too, proby." The elevator dinged as Gibbs closed the doors and went back upstairs.
Palmer came down the stairs with some samples for Abby to test. He explained each of the samples to Abby. On the way upstairs, he whispered in McGee's ear, "Always remember to wipe the lipstick off your collar when you're done." Palmer continued up the stairs, and looked back and winked at him.
Remember to PM me for more to this story including, secrecy, mischief, exploitation, and betrayal. I accept suggestions and credit if I used them! :) Feedback and reviews are greatly welcomed!