"Will you be my date?"

McGee's heart missed a beat and he stopped dead in his tracks. "What?" he asked, mouth hanging open like a goldfish.

"You'd better be careful there Timmy or you'll be catching flies," she laughed seductively. McGee shut his mouth instantly and stared hard at her.

"Abby, what are you talking about?"

Abby smiled mischievously, "I've been invited to a vampire ball and I have no one to go with, so I'm asking you." Abby looked at McGee expectantly.

"Gee, thanks Abby. You really know how to make a guy feel special," McGee's face had fallen slightly from the shock and excitement he had felt just seconds earlier.

Abby looked crestfallen. "Oh no, Tim, that's not how I meant it at all! I wanted to ask you; you're the only one I would like to go with…" she said getting quieter; she even looked quite embarrassed, like she had said something she hadn't meant to.

A warm flush covered McGee's face, "Uh, well ok, I guess so. I mean I don't really know what it is…"

A look of pure astonishment and enthusiasm lit up her face and she began to talk very fast, the words tumbling out her mouth so fast McGee was having trouble keeping up.

"Only the most amazing thing you have ever seen! There's dancing and a band and a great hall and candles and a banquet and oh the most beautiful dresses you've ever seen! Mine is black, of course, with a boned corset and lots of lace and, oh Tim, you'd love it! And the people there, they are the most beautiful people I have ever seen! Draped in velvet and lace and ooh I'm getting all excited just thinking about it! Say you'll come, Tim; please say you will." It took McGee a second to realize Abby had finished before he snapped himself from visions of Abby in her dress.

"Okay, yeah, I‘ll come," he said, now knowing what he was getting himself into. All he thought about was his need to see her in that dress.

"Cool! It's a date!" Abby said enthusiastically, jumping into McGee's arms and wrapping herself around him. He hugged her back, nestling his head into her shoulder and taking a deep inhale of her scent. Gunpowder. God he loved that smell.

"We are going to have so much fun!" Abby said from McGee's shoulder, smiling from ear to ear, unable to contain her joy.

***

McGee looked at his reflection in the huge dusty mirror and swallowed hard.

"Abby, when I said I'd go with you, I didn't imagine…this," he said.

"You have to look the part, and this is perfect!" said Abby excitedly, a glint in her eye.

"I look…weird," McGee said plainly.

"I think you look…handsome," Abby said smiling from ear to ear, her eyes travelling the length of his body. Colour crept into McGee's cheeks as he stared in the mirror and he quickly turned away so she wouldn't spot his embarrassment. Abby was too distracted by the tightness of the material over McGee's butt to notice anything.

The changing room into which they had been enclosed was small and musky, and the smell of incense floated around them. The walls were lined with black velvet drapes, which fell to the ground, darkening the room. A crystal chandelier hung high above them, the only light source in the room, throwing glistening shapes across the ceiling.

McGee had felt out of place the moment he had seen this shop from across the street, but Abby had pulled him by the hand, across the road. As the door had opened McGee was hit by the smoky wave of incense and it had taken a while for his eyes to adjust. Abby, meanwhile, had sparked up a bubbling conversation with the lady sitting behind the counter. McGee had stood nervously looking around him, afraid to touch anything for fear of it coming alive. It was a silly thought but somehow it didn't seem so silly at the time.

The woman to whom Abby was talking was older, at least in her 70s from what McGee could tell. Her greying hair was wild and unkempt, huge drooping earrings just hiding underneath. Her eyelids were laced with a rim of black but that took nothing away from the sparkling blueness of the eyes within them. They were light and pale, and to McGee slightly unnerving.

The woman had stood up revealing her frail frame, and the long purple dress she wore swept along the floor as she walked. She was extremely slender and the material hung loosely from her. She was dowsed in jewellery from beautiful large opal rings, to the huge pendant hanging from her neck; a stunning pewter dragon barely skimming her chest.

The woman had pushed him into the changing room, handing him a collection of clothes, all sporting some sort of velvet of lace attachment. His face had paled and he swayed slightly underneath the weight of the pile of garments in his arms. He would have walked out right then if it hadn't been for look of intense anticipation on Abby's face. He drew the curtain across and started to undress.

It had taken several attempts to find the right attire and McGee was tired and drained, each outfit seemingly harder and harder to get on and off. Each time he modelled the selection the woman's face would fall at the sight of him and quickly whisk up another set. Abby sat enthralled by the whole experience, obviously confident in this peculiar woman's abilities. It was that same woman now who had a look of pure adoration as she looked at him now. She hadn't spoken, at least to McGee, up until and now, and she did so with a raspy voice.

"My dear, we have found your date for the ball."

Abby just squealed with delight. McGee smiled unconvinced.

***

This was it. McGee stood in the middle of the living room and gave Sarah a very unenthusiastic smile. She giggled hard as she leaned on the worktop.

"Abby is gonna freak!" she said excitedly.

McGee had let drop to her about the vampire ball, which according to her she would not miss for the world. The minute he'd told her over the phone she practically exploded with enthusiasm, spouting out all these plans of what she was going to do and how she was going to do his makeup. He was grateful to his sister for helping him out; Heaven knows how he would have been able to do any of it himself; but he still had the smallest of doubts niggling away at him.

"What? Why? What's wrong with it?" McGee asked, now worried. "What have you done to me?" he said frantically.

"Tim! Calm down! You look amazing; Abby is going to love it!"

McGee looked down at himself and sighed deeply. ‘Tim, why do you get yourself into these things?' he thought to himself. He knew deep down, but saying it aloud wouldn't help anyone, least of all him. Abby was… well… Abby, and he would always be McGee. She would never pick him from the hundreds of mysterious, gothic guys that queued up for her. He would always be the straight one – the computer nerd who wrote books as a hobby – and she would always read right through him. Why couldn't he be more like them; interesting and exciting?

"What time are you meant to be picking up Abby?" Sarah asked, interrupting McGee's train of thought.

"What….oh 09:00. These things apparently start late and finish really late in the morning." McGee didn't know how he was going to make it to work in the morning, and God help him if he couldn't remove some of the black makeup that now lined his face. ‘What would Gibbs say?' and he couldn't even bear thinking about Tony's reaction. Why did this thing have to be in the middle of the week anyway?

"Tim, it's almost 08:30! You'd better get going!" Sarah said excitedly, hopping from one foot to the other, wringing her hands.

"Oh…yes. Thanks so much for er…" he didn't quite know how to finish that sentence. Just what had Sarah done to him? She wouldn't let him see while she was doing it. She'd kept the large mirror she'd brought with her, face down on the workbench.

"No problem," Sarah beamed.

"Well, let me see then," McGee said, anxiously eyeing the upturned mirror.

"Oh, yes hang on," she said picking the mirror up and holding it to her breast. "Now, no freaking out, and definitely no changing anything, okay?"

"Ok," said McGee nervously.

Sarah turned the mirror round and McGee's jaw dropped.

***

Abby ran frantically into the bathroom. McGee would be here any minute and she still wasn't even nearly ready. She was still wearing jogging bottoms! After 15 minutes and much struggling earlier, she and Jess had gotten her corset on and tightened up. She had already done her hair and makeup but everything else…

The doorbell rang and Abby gave a squeal. She was alone now, as Jess had already been picked up and was on her way.

She grabbed her earrings off the white table top and ran next door to her bedroom screaming as she did so, "Doors open McGee! I'll be two minutes!" She heard the front door opening and she slammed her bedroom door shut. "Make yourself at home!" she shouted through the wall while quickly slipping the dangling earrings into her earlobes. She ran over to the chest of drawers and pulled out everything throwing it all on the floor. She finally spotted the pair of black fishnet tights that she had been looking for and grabbed them from the drawer. She pulled off her jogging bottoms and pulled on the tights easing them up her smooth legs. She turned around to face the bed with the black garment laid out on it and picked it up. She tossed the hanger aside and stepped into the material, pulling it up her body. After a few minutes of squeezing and fidgeting she managed to get it on and she zipped herself into it. ‘Almost finished' she thought to herself as she pulled on her pair of lace fingerless gloves. She snatched her boots from the floor and sat down on the bed, sliding her feet into them and beginning the momentous job of lacing them up.

McGee shouted through the closed door, "You almost ready to go yet?"

"Just a minute McGee!" she yelled back. One boot was now laced to the top but she still had one more to go. "Almost!"

She finally got the second one done up and jumped up off the bed. She sidled along to stand in front of the mirror and looked herself up and down. She frowned; something was missing. She stared at herself in the shining reflection and bit her lip. Suddenly she squealed and ran over to her vanity table, gently pulling out one of the small drawers. She reached in and lifted from within it a huge silver pendant. ‘How had she forgotten this?' It was her Grandmother's and the whole inspiration of what she was wearing! She held it firmly in her hand and turned to the bedroom door. Taking a deep breath she opened it and looked out at a rather handsome looking McGee.

***

McGee stood there, his jaw hanging, as he saw Abby standing in front of him. The breath left his mouth, but he couldn’t bring himself to take another.

“You look…amazing,” he finally said after about a minute’s silence.

“Thanks,” she beamed, blinking her perfectly mascara-ed eyelashes in reply. Silence set in and colour flooded to McGee’s cheeks.

“So er… Are we going then?” McGee asked nervously, breaking the silence.

Abby stared blankly at him for a second before realization hit her face, “Oh, yeah, of course!” She took one last look at the apartment before ushering McGee out the door and into the corridor, frantically pulling out her keys to lock the door. The click rang out as the door locked and they hurried down the stairs making their way to the exit.

“Where are you going McGee?” Abby asked as they reached the bottom of the stairs and he headed for the door he had entered by.

“Er…going to the car?”

“Wrong direction; we’re taking the hearse,” Abby said, heading in the other direction.

“Are you sure you want to drive there? You might crush your dress.”

“Oh, I’m not driving, you are,” she said, handing him the set of keys.

“What! I can’t drive a hearse!”

“It’s no different to driving a normal car?”

“Yes it is; it’s…weird.”

“It’s not weird McGee, now stop insulting my car and lets hurry up. I don’t want to miss the opening of the ball.”

McGee swallowed hard as he followed her out to the huge black vehicle. He looked at the key for some sort of button to unlock the doors, but didn’t find one.

“You have to put the key in the door to unlock it,” said Abby impatiently,

“I know that,” McGee said defensively; it had only taken him a second to get over his shock in the lack of technology. He unlocked the car and sat behind the wheel. This felt weird, knowing that the space immediately behind had once held lifeless bodies incarcerated in wooden boxes.

“What are you waiting for? Let’s go!” cried Abby from the passenger seat.

McGee turned the key in the ignition and the hearse roared to life. He snatched his hands to his ears as the roaring of the engine was quickly drowned out by loud pounding music from the stereo. At least the car was modern enough to have a good music system, although he somehow doubted Abby would own a car without one.

“Sorry, I forgot that that would happen, I am just so used to it,” she said turning it down to a tolerable blare.

“Er, Abby, is this a real hearse?”

“Yeah, it’s from one of my friends’; he works in his family’s undertakers business. They gave it to me when it got too old and they got new ones. What’s the point in getting a fake one?”

“No point at all,” said McGee, beginning to regret his decision to drive tonight.”

“Good, now please, can we go?”

“Yes, we can,” replied McGee, asd he put his foot to the accelerator and backed out of the parking space. It wasn’t long before they were whizzing down the freeway out of D.C., flitting in and out between shocked cars. McGee was glad that he looked different tonight. If anybody recognised him, he would never hear the end of this. Especially if Tony drove by; it wasn’t even worth thinking about.

Abby cursed herself for pausing when McGee asked whether they were going back up to the room. All her mind could think of was getting McGee out of those clothes and smudging his perfect make-up as she made wild passionate love to him. The Edwardian style suit clung to his figure perfectly. The ruffled neck spilled out of the dark jacket and raised his chin just that little bit higher, straightening his back so that he stood taller. He looked more confident and extremely masculine. She bit her lip as she thought of what hid behind the suit, behind the black fabric that just brushed the contours of his body.

If Tony walked by now, he wouldn’t recognise him; Abby almost didn’t. It was his eyes that gave it away: the green sparkled in the light and the true McGee poured out. His uncertainties, his lack of self-confidence, his fears, his nervousness, his persistence, his intelligence, his selflessness, his love for others and, perhaps most importantly, his ability to make others feel loved. The deep olive of his eyes was flawlessly accompanied by a dusting of dark powder. A line followed the underneath of his eyes and silhouetted the top of his eyelids. His eyelashes naturally curled slightly, and jet eyeliner traced along them, smudged to perfection. Anyone else’s eyes would have faded along with the shadows encircling them, darkening, but his shone as bright as ever. His full, soft mouth begged her attention, somehow made all the more alluring by the combination of his costume and makeup. She couldn’t help but stare at him, and when he noticed, she pretended that she was looking at something slightly to the left of him.

The world of cement that paved D.C. was fast disappearing and was being replaced by vast field of green, dotted with the trees sprouting from the earth beneath them. Abby smiled to herself, ‘Almost there.’

“Where did you say I go now?”

“The next left; it’s about two miles from here.” If she remembered correctly, which of course she did. She had driven this route countless times. McGee would be in for a treat when he saw the venue for tonight.

“Okay, just don’t let me miss it. I don’t really want to attempt a U-turn in this car.” It was like a mile long!

“Don’t worry, I won’t.”

Abby pointed out the road as they came to it, and they drove down the extremely narrow sheltered road, trees arching over them as they neared the building.

“How far now?”

“Not far, you can’t miss it.”

“Miss what?” McGee said, momentarily taking his eyes of the road to turn and question Abby.

“This,” she replied with a glowing smile.

McGee turned back to the road in time to follow a bend in the road, and his jaw dropped as the large mansion came into view.

“See, I told you, you’d love it,” Abby said excitedly.

“Where do I park?” asked McGee, managing to speak through the utter astonishment filling him.

“In front of the building, a valet will pick it up.”

“Er, ok,” said McGee manoeuvring the large vehicle toward the front of the house. Now closer to the huge building, McGee could see that a short length of black carpet had been rolled out in front of the house and two masked men were standing at the end of it, their arms folded. McGee turned the engine off and hopped out of the car, running around to Abby’s side. He opened the door and reached in to help Abby out. He was gripped by a slender hand gloved with fingerless netting, which was quickly followed by a long, equally slender leg. Her dress had been put temporarily out of place, hitched higher now than if she were standing up, and slim black boots were revealed, making their way up to her knee. Shining silver stiletto heels gleamed under her heel, complimenting the silver spider webs that emblazoned the boots. Higher up still, her leg was wrapped in large fishnet tights, doing nothing to hide the perfectly toned flesh inside them. McGee mentally shook himself, as it was all he could do not to wish that the dress had been further up her leg, so that he could take a glimpse at what beautiful underwear she was undoubtedly wearing.

Abby made her way gracefully out of the car, aided my McGee, and the dress fell back down to her mid-shin length, hiding the breathtaking view McGee had been privileged to seconds earlier. He held out his arm and smiled as she gently took it, smiling back, her face surrounded by perfectly tousled hair sweeping her cheeks. The loose curls bounced slightly as he guided her to the masked men. As they got close, a man dressed in all black with the same blank mask as the two figures in front of McGee, hopped out from the darkness to the left of the men and hurried over to the hearse, jumping behind the wheel and turning the keys McGee had left in the car.

Abby and McGee finally made their way to the men, who moved towards each other, blocking the way. McGee hesitated, not knowing what to do, but the situation was quickly cleared up as Abby reached into the top of her dress and, from the depth of her breast region, retrieved two silver-gilded tickets. The two men took the tickets from Abby and bowed as they let them pass.

McGee leaned close in towards Abby, “Why keep the tickets there?”

“Why not?” said Abby simply. “I don’t have a bag with me and do you see any pockets in this dress?” she said, looking McGee deep in the eyes.

“No, I don’t,” said McGee, looking at the beautiful dress clothing the even more beautiful woman at his side, “but I do see a beautiful woman in the dress.”

Abby beamed, “Oh Tim, you are too sweet.”

“I know, Tony keeps telling me that I have to toughen up, be more of a man.”

“You’re more of a man that Tony could ever be,” Abby replied, gazing into his glistening eyes.

McGee’s cheeks rouged and he looked away, up at the massive archway they were about to go through.

“Amazing isn’t it?” Abby said proudly, “Timothy McGee, welcome to Ridgeway.”

***