A combination of fear, Caf-Pow and rage fuelled Abby as she reconstructed the bomb fragments. She knew that other agents and staff at NCIS had the occasional problem with Tony. She'd always defended him when they'd said anything against him—he was like her big brother—but she'd never thought him capable of this.

Absorbed in her work, she didn't hear the elevator ding or notice him entering until he spoke.

"Abby."

Not looking up, she replied "What do you want, DiNozzo?"

"To talk, Abs."

"I'm kinda busy."

"Come on, Abs."

She let the fragments she was working on drop to the surface of the lab table and crossed her arms.

"Ok, fine. How could you do this, Tony? He was your partner! What if there'd been someone with a gun or something and you weren't there?"

"I know, Abs, alright? I should have been covering McGee."

"Damn right you should have, Tony. Now leave me alone; I've got work to do."

"Abby, McGee would have been hurt no matter which one of us opened that door." Tony pointed out.

"At least he would have had your back, DiNozzo, which is more than I can say about you" she snapped. She turned on her heel and entered the second part of her lab, locking the automatic door behind her.

She sat down at her desk and started looking up information on some of the fragments she'd identified, checking occasionally to make sure he'd gone.

...

Abby jiggled and twisted the last little piece of the part she was working on into place. She was sure she had this section of the bomb assembly at least mostly intact; it was hard to tell, since it was pretty much impossible to retrieve every little fragment after an explosion. It took her a few moments to identify what she was looking at. When she did, she felt a sinking feeling. She really wanted to be there when Tim got out of surgery this time, but judging by what she'd found that wasn't going to happen.

"Damn it." She wasn't aware she'd spoken out loud until she heard Gibbs' voice.

"What do you got, Abs?"

"Hey Gibbs. I've been trying to put the bomb fragments back together, to try and figure out how it was triggered. See this?" She pointed out the v-shaped piece she'd just reassembled. "It's a pressure plate, Gibbs, but it works a little backwards. See, the detonator and a 9 volt battery is hooked up to this piece of metal. The door put pressure on one side of the v, holding it closed between the bomb itself and the door, which stopped the v from springing open and touching the metal that the detonator is attached to. When McGee opened the door, it released the pressure, letting the V open and completing the circuit."

"Which detonated the bomb. They booby trapped the damn door." Gibbs observed.

"Exactly. Whoever designed this, they did it so that opening the door even just a little bit would cause the bomb to go off. But Balboa's team said there was nothing in the storage locker it was attached to."

"They weren't protecting themselves; they were targeting us. We were set up." Gibbs thought out loud. "Can you trace the hotline call that tipped us off to the storage yard?"

"I can try."

Gibbs nodded. "That's good work, Abs."

He deposited a Caf-Pow on her bench and left the lab.

Sighing, she opened up the trace program and picked up Bert. Hugging the stuffed hippo, she said "Maybe I'll get to be there when he wakes up."

...

"Got it!"

Abby picked up the lab phone and called Gibbs.

"Yeah, Gibbs."

"I've got a hit on the hotline call" she told him excitedly.

"Be right there." There was a click as he hung up.

A few moments later he walked in, carrying her favourite beverage.

"You traced the call?" he asked.

"Yeah. It wasn't made from a conventional telephone, Gibbs. They were using a voice over IP service." Catching his blank look, she explained. "It's where you use your internet connection to make and receive telephone calls, Gibbs."

"They were using a computer to make phone calls?"

"Yeah. So anyway, I followed the IP trail. They bounced it through several different servers in several different countries-"

"Where, Abs?" Gibbs cut her off.

"The munitions lockup computer at Quantico."

"Good work." He turned to leave, but she called him back.

"Gibbs?"

He looked at her for a moment and then nodded.

"Go on, go see McGee. Call me the minute he wakes up."