I Should Have Looked Deeper
by Periwinkle

"Why is Ziva rating your butt?" demanded Abby.

McGee stumbled over his words a little bit in answering as he noticed the look on her face. "Well, um, Tony started it."

"Don't you blame Tony! He's almost on Death's Row right now!"

McGee started waving his hands, trying to justify his statement. "No, no, no. Look, I…" Then he was saved by the bell. Or, more specifically, by the flashing lights on Abby's computer announcing a possible name for the Jane Doe whose severed leg was in autopsy.

Then later, there was the flurry of activity following the discovery of Chip, drenched in Caf-Pow, tied up on the lab floor with a thoroughly exhausted Abby slumped in her chair guarding him and all McGee could think of was getting Abbs home and into her coffin and letting her sleep for days.

It wasn't until later that McGee had time to think about the discussion. Lately, he hadn't been seeing as much of Abby as he had last year and he had begun dating some other girls. He wasn't exactly sure what had happened, just that things weren't as good between the two of them as they used to be. He missed Abby and he wished he knew what had happened, but MIT didn't prepare you for things like this. However, the more he considered it, the more he thought he was seeing a pattern. Moreover, MIT did teach you how to study patterns, or causes and effects. And what he was seeing was this: the pattern was Abby would ignore him for a while and then she would be friendly again. The cause looked like Ziva's name. If he made any remark that said implied he thought something nice about Ziva, Abby would growl. In fact, he thought she might even be jealous. And if she was jealous, then she cared about him. And if she cared about him, then he would just have to care about her and trust that things would be right between them.

And if there was anything he was absolutely sure about Abby, it was this: that she could always be trusted. He could even trust her with his life. After all, Tony had.