Just a fun little chapter before the finale.
****
Abby ran squealing into the bullpen. Okay, it had barely been a week, but she'd missed them. Team Gibbs just wasn't the same when two of the musketeers were missing.
"You're back! You're back!" she cheered, rushing at Tony and Ziva.
Tony caught her hug first, grunting a little as she body-slammed him.
"I missed you!"
"I can tell," he said.
She let go of him and gave Ziva a hug. "I'm so glad you're back."
Ziva glanced at Tony, and Abby caught it like a fly to fly paper.
Something happened in Israel, and she was going to find out if it was the last thing she ever did.
"It's good to be back." Tony went to his desk and sat down, sighing as he leaned back. "I'm so jetlagged right now, this chair feels like a cloud. And usually this chair feels like a rock."
"Maybe you should go home and get some rest," she suggested. "I can drive you."
"No, I can," Ziva said, adjusting her bag on her shoulder. "It is on my way."
Tony's apartment was actually several miles out of Ziva's way, and that raised another red flag with Abby. But now she had a better idea of what went down in Israel.
She just needed to confirm with Gibbs. Gibbs knows everything.
"That's okay," Tony said, suddenly wide awake.
Abby didn't need science to tell her Ziva was a scary driver. "Ziva's being nice and offering to drive you home, Tony." Might as well throw them together in a car, make them confess their feelings. Abby would hold them face-to-face if that's what it took to make them get together. For as long as needed.
"Fine." Tony heaved a sigh and stood up again. "Lead the way, Zee-vah."
***
Abby felt her insides twist with excitement when the lab doors opened and Gibbs entered. "Gibbs! You're here! I need to talk to you."
"Sure, Abs." He pulled up a chair to sit next to her desk.
"When you went to Tel Aviv to save Ziva, did they seem weird to you?"
"They?"
"Tony and Ziva."
He thought for a moment and then shrugged.
"Gibbs! Were they acting any different than usual?"
He squinted at her.
"For Pete's sake, Gibbs! I think they did it!" She didn't mean for it to come out that way, but she also did. If she kept beating around the bush, he'd probably never get it. Gibbs was super-smart, except when it came to slang and pretty much anything to do with technology.
"Broke Rule #12, you mean."
"Yes!" He finally got it!
He shrugged again.
Okay, she wanted to smash her face into her keyboard. "Did they, or did they not?"
"I wasn't there, Abby."
She wanted to be mad at him for being dense, but it was also cute and a little funny. "You didn't have to be there to know. They're being weird. Still. I think they did it."
Gibbs blinked a couple times, and she knew she wasn't going to get anything out of him. If he had any suspicions, he was going to take them to the grave.
She sighed. "Okay. Well, that was all I wanted to talk about. You can go back to head-slapping McGee and drinking overpriced coffee."
His blue eyes stared at her for a moment more before he stood up, put the chair back, and walked out of the lab.
She'd have to take her questions directly to the people involved.
***
Abby parked her car under the streetlight, noted that Ziva's car was still at the curb a few spots down, and hurried toward the building.
She reached Tony's door in a matter of minutes and paused to catch her breath. Running in platform heels was a workout, to say the least.
After she caught her second wind, she raised her fist and knocked on the door.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
"Tony? Ziva?"
She wasn't going to catch them in the act, was she? That was waaay more than she bargained for.
Shivering, she sent Ziva a quick text.
'Can we talk?'
Within a minute, Ziva texted back, 'Not right now. At dinner.'
Abby was relieved until she realized that could just be a cover story.
She texted Tony.
'I need to talk to you.'
'How about later? In the middle of something right now.'
'Like what?' Did she really want to know?
'Three course meal. Got to go. It's rude to text at the table.'
She was still wasn't convinced, but she went to the stairwell to look down at the street. She hadn't even thought to look for Tony's car. It wasn't on the street, meaning that he must've taken it out.
Like out to dinner.
Duh.
Abby silently scolded herself for thinking that her friends were screwing around. They were just out at dinner.
That was a perfectly innocent, friendly thing to do.
She was a little hungry herself.
Abby whipped out her phone again and checked the location on Tony's phone. It was a stalkerish thing to do, but a three course meal sounded really good, and she wanted to get caught up their little adventure.
It wasn't like she was going to make them pay for her meal. She could pay for herself.
*****
Little short, but I warned you, and this was only filler. I also wrote it in half an hour, so...
The next chapter will probably be the last, so give me a couple days to write it and review it. I want it to be as perfect as I can make it. You guys deserve the best.
Vote/comment/share!