Authors notes:

1) Thank you so much to my beta, Abbyforever. You rock muchly.

2) Everything surrounded by a * is a quotation, see the end for the source.

3) McGee wouldn't really have been with the team so much at this stage, but it took me a while to remember that. Let's just say he wanted to play, too.

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High Stakes

Kate and Abby were giggling on the latter's sofa in her comfortable mid-town apartment. Kate had come over early to help Abby ‘set-up' for their poker night. As Tony was bringing the pizza, Ducky the snack food and McGee the drinks, this pretty much just involved getting the chips and the card out of the cupboard, as well as getting the wine and conversation flowing, pre-male arrival, to ensure a good time was had by all.

Team nights changed venue according to a rota, this month they were supposed to be at McGee's poky basement, but Abby had requested the change herself. She had wanted to play hostess so that she could ensure FULL participation.

\Flashback to earlier that afternoon//

"Come on, Gibbs. You said just the other day we should play poker sometime. Why not join us."

"I said no, Abbs."

"But why? You need a little extra-curricular activity in your life."

He raised his eyebrows "I have my boat."

Abby put her hands on her hips and looked at him sternly. "Kate told you when you wouldn't come for after work drinks with us that that was the last time you were allowed to use the boat as an excuse for a month." She pouted gently at him. He wavered, and she let her bottom lip slip a little further, inclining her head slightly to the left.

The agents at the surrounding desks now dropped any pretensions of not listening to the conversation going on between their boss and his lab rat. None of them had been able to get Gibbs to join them in an activity for months. Apparently the boat had reached a crucial stage, and blowing off his team was not a problem. Blowing Abby off, on the other hand, well that was a different matter. Abby had been happy to let him stew for a while. For a few months, as her team mates had offered invitation after invitation she had stayed out of it, but not tonight. Tonight he was going to join them.

She had him wrapped around one of her adorably inky pigtails; he knew it, she knew it, worst of all for him, Gibbs-second-B-stands-for-Bastard, his team knew it, too! They watched as he dropped her gaze, tilting his head back slightly and grinned in amused defeat. Kate shook her head in disbelief and handed Tony the $20 she had bet him. Abby had done the impossible again.

"Fine, I'll come. But I'm only playing a few hands."

Abby gave him a cheeky smile and stepped up to where he stood. Rising up on tip toes, she gave him a peck on the cheek, then whorled in a flurry of black pleats to trip off back to her lab in triumphant cheerfulness.

\Back to present//

"So you really think he'll come?" asked Kate as she watched, incredulously, as Abby emptied the last of the bottle of red into their glasses. That was a bad idea, she thought. Tony insisted that the only way to play cards was with pizza and beer. If she and Abby had already gotten through a bottle of wine then they were going to be in for trouble come the third round.

"Of course he'll come," Abby turned to Kate with a smile, holding out her glass before joining her with her own, on the sofa. "You're not getting your $20 back from Tony that easily I'm afraid. You'll just have to do it with the cards."

The door bell chimed and Abby rose to let Tony in. He bustled off into the kitchen with the pizza, throwing a quick hello to the girls over his shoulder. Abby was about to retake her seat when the bell went again. She opened the door to reveal Ducky who pecked her on the cheek as he slid past her to enter the living room, "Look who I found lurking in the parking lot," he exclaimed as he was followed by Gibbs. "It reminded me of his second wedding, always knew that one wasn't going to turn out well…" Ducky trailed off as he caught the murderous look on Gibbs' face. "Yes, well. Are we all here?"

"Just waiting for McGee" as Abby said the words McGee entered the apartment, precariously having opened the front door with a key around the 2 crates of beer he was holding. Tony, returning from the kitchen, walked right passed the struggling McGee and took a seat next to Kate, who shot him a long suffering glance before moving to help the hapless Probie with his load.

"He has a key?" asked Tony, looking between McGee and Abby with a look a cross between wonderment and faint disgust. Abby and Kate shared an amused glance, as Kate led McGee out the back, towards the kitchen. Gibbs shifted uncomfortably in the door way and Ducky cleared his throat, motioning his hostess towards the dining table, already set up with the snacks he had provided, and the cards.

The game was pretty three sided. It was only 10pm but already Kate, Gibbs and Abby were taking charge of the table. It took Tony longer than it really should have to figure out that bluffing with two profilers in the room, ones that knew him well at that, was not really a good idea. He decided he must have a series of tells, but only after they had strung him out for quite a number of hands. Now he was relying on dumb luck and that was working about as well as it usually did for Tony in these situations. At least he was doing better than McGee.

Despite being a super-geek, McGee had obviously spent more time at college in front of his computer than scamming other undergrads for card money. He really didn't have that much of a clue and, if Tony had tells, McGee had neon lights. They all knew this from other poker nights and they were fine with it. McGee showed up for the atmosphere and the company and to be a part of the group. He generally lost his money by 10.30, and left with the first person going his way.

Ducky had a number of successes in the first few rounds and had kept himself well in the game, but it was clear that Lady Luck was favouring only certain members of the group that night and although Ducky played a good game, he was making significant losses with only minimal gains at this stage.

For all his protesting that he hadn't wanted to come, Gibbs was having a great time. His team were in good spirits, they had all had slightly too much to drink and were loosening up around the table as he hadn't seen them do in a long time. ‘Whose fault is that, you old fool,' he chided himself. It was true; it was no ones fault but his own that he hadn't seen this group happy in a long time. He only saw them at work, where he badgered them constantly and was forever on their cases. It gave his weary heart a moments rest to see them smiley, happy and enjoying themselves in each others company. Plus, he was actually being given a run for his money, and that hadn't happened for a long time.

He had his reasons for keeping himself to himself. He loved his team, not that he would ever tell them that, really liked them all on a personal level, too (with one small niggling exception, but that was part of his problem as well). He was trying to keep himself out of danger, as he had discovered he REALLY liked one of his team.

It had started off simply enough. Abby would ask to ride with him to group events. It made sense really; he lived closest to her and of course it would be no problem, it was Abbs, why would he say no?

So he would pick her up to take her to bowling, to team dinners, over to Kate's place to watch cheesy DVDs and pelt Tony with popcorn. They would chat all the way there; talk about how their day at work had gone, outside of the Boss-lab-rat-relationship. Talk about their plans for the weekend, and just what the hell kind of animal was Goofy anyway if Pluto was a dog?

It was fun. Inane conversation was something he never really had much time to indulge in, hence his constant reminders to both Ducky and Abby to stay on track at work, not to mention DiNozzo's Gibbs-slaps.

Then when they got there they would laugh constantly, at the others, at themselves, at nothing. Celebratory hugs at sporting outings (they were always on the same, victorious, teams). His stray fork reaching into Abby's double chocolate melting pudding with vanilla ice-cream, despite stressing numerous times that he didn't want desert; that he didn't have a sweet tooth. Innocent evenings sitting close in the dark; her on the floor in front of the couch, resting her back and pig-tailed head against his legs, her laying on the couch with her head on his shoulder, or on memorable occasions, across his lap. Him cradling her head against his chest as she turned in his lap, cringing from the scenes on the screen. Not the blood and the gore, she saw enough of that at work, but from the sappy romantic bits that she "just couldn't take".

But no one questioned it. They were Abby and Gibbs. They were just like that; it was how their relationship functioned. She was his girl. No questions asked. They were friends, they had fun. And anyway, it's not as if Tony and Kate weren't doing exactly the same thing across the room/table/pitch.

Then he would drive her home, or escort her in the cab after they had all drunk too much to drive. They would talk briefly about the evening, laugh at the silliness that had been allowed to take place off the clock and then Abby would invariably fall asleep. For a while Gibbs would contemplate his team. They were a great team, and it was nights like these ones that kept them that way, he was sure. The team that played together, stayed together. That they could get along like this kept them close in the field. They knew how each other operated, how they thought, and so could rely and trust on each other, knowing how they would react in a situation.

Then his thoughts would turn to Abby. Asleep on his passenger side window or in the back of the cab, she would look childlike in her pigtails, innocent in her sleeping state and beautiful in herself. He had always known she was beautiful, but it was one of these evening when he had first felt he thought she was beautiful.

Contrary to popular opinion, Gibbs hadn't married three times because he was a ladies man or because he was a fool who had been taken in by more than one pretty face. It was because, above all, he craved companionship and love. He had loved them all, despite of himself in some cases, and he had tried to be there for them all. But in terms of companionship he took more than he gave. He couldn't communicate, and yet with Abby, with her explosive enthusiasm for life and her love for everything in it, he could, and had, open up. He had told her some of his darkest secrets, and she was still sleeping peacefully in the dark next to him, not running screaming from him in horror.

He could let himself love Abby, as his heart had been threatening to do a little more every time she kissed him sleepily on the cheek on her way up to bed as he finally dropped her home, or he could distance himself from the danger; from these evenings where his need for her companionship began to overcome him.

This evening, he watched her face as she studied her cards in semi-shadow. It was another cause for concern for him that she could hold her own against him in cards. Few women had ever done that before, he could generally read them. Kate he had expected, she was a trained profiler herself, she had probably taught herself to control the signs of bluffing, but Abby he was surprised at. What else could she be hiding from him?

"He's watching you again, you know." Kate said gently to her friend as Abby took the pizza out of the oven where it had been keeping warm. They were the only two in the room and could hear the boys loudly taunting each other at the table beyond.

Abby gave Kate a half smile and turned to the cupboard where she kept the paper plates for these occasions. No washing up in the morning. Kate moved to wrap her arms around Abby's shoulders from behind in a hug, restricting her movements. "I'm not just seeing what I, or you, would want me to see. Abby, that man adores you and if you gave him any sort of opening he would take it without a second thought."

"No Kate, it's just not like that. Yeah, Gibbs adores me; he lets me get away with stuff like riding his chair through the bull pen at work. He brings me Caf-Pows and pecks me on the cheek like a little girl, but it's not the same."

"I've seen a change. In the last few months he holding himself back around you for the most part but he also watches you when you're not looking and he's been more physically affectionate to you than ever before according to Tony, and he is noticeably uncomfortable at any hint of you and McGee."

"Tony! You talked to Tony about this?"

"No, he just mentioned it. He knows something is up as well, he is an investigator."

"Look Kate, can we please not go through this again," said Abby, looking away from where her friend stood. "He doesn't feel the same, he was never going to. It's not in a man like Gibbs to fall for someone like me."

Kate could see how badly this renewed argument was affecting Abby. They had had this conversation a number of times. Kate was sure Gibbs felt something in return for Abby's long held longing for the man, but Abby was too unsure of herself to see it. She wished Gibbs would hurry up and make his move before she decided he didn't deserve Abby for leaving her in this frame of mind. Unrequited love was one thing, and it was painful, but unresolved mutual feelings were something Kate could not stand by and watch. They were perfect for each other; they adored each other, why couldn't they just work it out? Both were made miserable by the current situation and the longing looks exchanged when one turned away were starting to pull at Kate's heart.

The girls returned from the kitchen and while the food was devoured, the next round of cards was dealt.

"*Last night I stayed up late playing poker with my Tarot cards. I got a full house and four people died.*" Abby eyes twinkled above her cards as she smirked.

Kate smacked her on the arm, although she was glad the weight of their previous conversation hadn't brought her down too much. "Abby, that's sick," she chided, as she and the others laughed at the Goth-Girls quotation.

Tony, whose turn it was to deal, gave Abby a wink, turned to her and said; "*Trust everyone…but always cut the cards.*" She saluted him in a Touché motion and cut the deck with a grin.

Play resumed, with more good natured ribbing thrown in. Ducky's purposefully miss-applied quotation ("*The guy who invented Poker was bright, but the guy who invented the chip was a genius*" as he popped a potato chip into his mouth) earned him a good natured hail of peanuts from the rest of the table.

What was left of the pizza was cold, they had made it through a crate and a half of beer and the snack bowls around the table were empty. What was left of the cheese doodles were now stuck comically to Kate's head where she lay passed out on the table.

The game was now really a two horse race. Tony was still playing, but only because he had inherited Kate's chips. Ducky had produced his bottle of very fine single malt scotch half an hour ago in the hope that it would give him some edge by dulling his competitors' games. Although Abby and Gibbs had partaken of his offering, it had done him no good. Despite both of them being slightly the worse for alcohol, they were still fully focused on their game. The battle was on and the tension was mounting.

"*Poker: the art of civilised bushwhacking*," remarked Gibbs slyly, looking at Abby from the corner of his eye and grinning, as he gathered his winnings once again.

"I don't think you can really equate poker in Abby's living room with Guerrilla warfare, Boss."

"*Cards are war, in disguise of a sport*, DiNozzo. Especially playing with Abs."

Abby grinned as she dealt the next round. "In fact, I may have to resort to cheating. I wasn't expecting this much competition." Turning to Abby he said, in a mocking tone; "*I must complain the cards are ill shuffled until I have a good hand*," and slid the cards she had just dealt him over the table face down.

She moved to take the cards from him with an arch expression, fully intending to deal again, if that was what he wanted, but as she raised them from the table, his hand closed on hers, stopping her from removing them from play. Her expression froze at the contact and a fizzle of pleasure ran from her hand to her core. She looked away guiltily and moved her hand into her lap, muttering loudly enough for the table to hear; "*the commonest mistake made in history is to underestimate your opponent; it happens at the poker table all the time*."

Gibbs slid his cards back across the table, watching Abby appraisingly. He couldn't be sure what, exactly, had just happened, but he knew it had effected Abby. His heart was playing Taps in his chest but she wouldn't raise her eyes to him, wouldn't give him the chance to see answers swimming in their depths. His intense study of her did not go unobserved. As he dragged his eyes away from her he caught Ducky's gaze shifting between himself and his opponent. Ducky's eyes held his for a moment in a serious stare, and then he nodded his head slowly.

It's not like Ducky hadn't seen him like this before, his relationship with the ME had outlasted any of the numerous women that had come along in the meantime. Ducky's nod seemed to both affirm what must have been a long held suspicion, as well as give tentative approval. Gibbs was glad of the latter, even if nothing ever happed with him and Abby, he was glad to know that Ducky at least thought he may be good enough for her. For a woman he held in higher esteem than any of Gibbs' previous women, he was sure.

Play resumed but the tension in the room was still palpable. To break it, as Gibbs laid his flush on the table, he leaned over to Abby and said with a mock leer, "*I don't want to give you a complex…but your stack looks small*."

The others chuckled; he had won all of the last 6 hands, and Abby's chips were beginning to dwindle. In retaliation Abby leaned forward on her chair resting her arms on the table and moved into Gibbs personal space. Her ‘stack' was quite prominently on display given her position and low cut tank-top. She held his gaze, internally daring him to let it drop to her chest. "*I never go looking for a sucker…*" her gaze dropped to his mouth, "*…I look for a Champion and make a sucker of him*." Then she laid her four twos next to his cards and pulled back from him, triumphant.

It took Gibbs a moment to realise what had happened and regain his composure. Tony was chucking heartily to himself and looking around he caught the same look on Ducky's face. Contemplative and accepting.

As if coming to a decision, Ducky moved his chair back from the table and slid his coat from where it hung on the back. "*Poker is a game of people…it's not the hand I hold, it's the people that I play with*," he intoned with a smile and a small bow. "And with that, I feel it is time to call it a night. McGee?"

McGee nodded and moved to follow. Tony, having played his last few chips that round, also started to move. He shook Kate gently and got a sleepy gaze in response. "*If you are a guy, you know you play too much poker if your wet dreams involve ‘nuts' instead of breasts*," she mumbled sleepily. The others all laughed gently, it was the first quotation she had offered up in this little game of theirs. Maybe it had come to her in her sleep.

"No fear of that Katie-girl" replied DiNozzo with a gentle smile, leaning over and giving her a soft peck on the cheek. He helped her stand and then guided her to the door with a hand on the small of her back.

"Caitlin, my dear, you may want to remove the snack food from your forehead before leaving," remarked Ducky as he watched the two of them follow McGee through the door. An angry "DINOZZO!" echoed in the hall way, but from inside they could all see that she made no attempt to move away from the gentle pressure of his hand.

Ducky patted Jethro on the shoulder as he passed, leaning over Abby and kissing her on the cheek. "Best of luck, my dear," he said, sliding the remains of his chips up to her stacks. His actions spoke of one thing but his eyes, when she met them, said another. She smiled happily and his assessing gaze turned to one of fatherly acceptance. Smiling in farewell, he left them to their game.

Abby moved away from the table as they left. She paused in the middle of the living room and stretched the kinks from her muscles.

"You want me to go, too?" his gazed raked her lithe form. She had been baiting him earlier, trying to get a reaction out of him but he knew better than to look then. He was only human, however, so when the opportunity presented itself…

"No way, Buster," she replied walking slightly unstably to the kitchen. "You've gotta give me chance to win my money back," she called over her retreating shoulder, putting an extra shimmy in her walk.

When she returned to the table, she took the chair next to him. Her legs brushed his as she sat down, and he made to move away. Seeing that she didn't seem to be in anyway uncomfortable with the proximity, he allowed his leg to relax against where hers rested.

Seven more rounds had them much in the same position. It was proving to be an endless battle of calculating looks, and subtle undercurrents. Both were trying to see what the other was hiding; trying to see if there was bluffing going on. If either had found evidence, they would have called, and both games, acknowledged and otherwise, would have been brought to a close. It was getting on for 2 in the morning when Abby had finally had enough and broke the silence.

"Ok, that's it. All or nothing. We end it here or we don't end it at all and I go to bed now."

He grinned at her from under arched eyebrows. "Ok…I'll give. All or nothing. One hand, winner takes all." There had been a meaning to her words which was unmistakeable. Someone had to make a move; they were too evenly matched in both games. It was his turn to deal and he shuffled, pushing the pack towards her for her to cut. She gazed at him as she knocked firmly on the cards twice. She trusted him. He gave her an amused, faintly disapproving smile and head shake as he took the cards back to deal.

The cards were laid on the table, each of them had drawn and the hand was a long one. Finally, Abby moved to place all of her chips onto the board. Gibbs caught her hand as she drew it back. He smiled, "we don't have to do this, Abs. We can end this now and I can go home. We'll split the win and leave things as they stand now. If that's what you want."

She knew what he was saying, and what he was trying to say, but she still couldn't really comprehend that Kate had been right about him. Did he really want her? "*I've always had confidence, but I never let my ego get to the point where I think I'm the superstar*."

It was a question, and Gibbs heard her meaning loud and clear. She was unsure of him, of his regard for her. He had never really seen Abby unsure of herself in any situation. Surely she knew her effect on him?

"*Timid people don't win in high-stacks poker*." ‘Come on Abby,' he thought ‘just give me some indication that you might want this as much as I do.'

The challenge was there; at least she thought it was. She wished she'd never started the quotations now. Did she really interpret that right? Well, it was the final hand. All or nothing, she had said it herself. Laying her cards on the table, Abby locked gazes with his intense blue one, "*Don't play to impress, play to win,*" and she slid her straight flush on to the table.

Slowly, he glanced down, and then at his own cards, before laying them face down aside and moving his head into her personal space. Gazes colliding once a gain, he murmured; "*In a game of poker, I can put the players' souls in my pocket*," before crushing his lips to hers.

The kiss was hard and messy. He rose, knocking his chair backwards, dragging her up with him by a hand on her jaw and one on her butt. She went willingly into him, moulding her body along his, moaning aloud as his hand joined the other on either side of her butt, lifting her onto the table top, scattering the chips, his lips moving down onto her neck.

He moved between her parted thighs, her skirt hitching up even further as he leant over her, pushing her to lie back on the table. When she was horizontal, legs dangling beside his, he pulled back and straightened, his hands resting on the tops of her thighs, lightly stroking.

"Abby," he said in a rumbling voice, looking down on her from above. Her skirt was around her waist, her tank-top pulled askew. Her mouth was red now, not from the lipstick that was smudged on her lips, but from the bruising of his kisses. The pigtails fanned at angles from her head, tousled. She looked wanton, laid out on the table before him. "Abs, I can't be gentle with you. Not now, not this time." It was only fair to give her warning.

Her breath hitched in her throat, ankles tightened around his knees and frantic fingers began pulling at his shirt front. Apparently that was fine with her.

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A quick tug removed her tank top and she set to work on his shirt. He decided to leave her skirt around her waist, it looked pretty, ebony and ivory, and to remove it he would have to take a step back from her. Not a chance in hell.

She pushed his jeans down as best she could from her position and they fell to his ankles. He wondered, idly, why there never seemed to be a good moment for him to remove his socks. That thought and all others ceased to be as he pushed into her with his fingers. She groaned and pushed away at his hand with hers and he was momentarily stunned.

Abby pulled his face down to her and kissed his bewilderedness. "Now," she growled out between their meshed lips. The whole night had been foreplay, how could he think she needed any more preparation for him? She gasped, arching, as he obeyed her command, thrusting in into her in one powerful move.

Together they moved towards their climax, biting, scratching and thrusting; as he had promised, it wasn't gentle. She came, not as he had expected with a scream, but with a hitched breath and muffled sigh as she bit down hard against his collar bone, going ridged beneath him. Her teeth pushed him over the edge and he followed her moments later. After a moment to recover, he swept her into his arms and down the corridor to her bedroom. Collapsing on the bed, he fell asleep; she had been asleep before they got there.

He spoke to her as she stirred. He had been watching her sleep and as her lashes fluttered against her cheek, he asked her why McGee had a key to her place.

Blinking sleepily up at him she muttered; "He doesn't. We've only dated a few times, nothing more. He borrowed a key because the drinks were heavy. Kate and I," she yawned, "let Tony jump to his own conclusions. You too, huh?" she questioned as she snuggled closer.

"I don't play well with others."

The gentleness had come then as the sun peeked in her bedroom window. He held her spooned against him, her back to his chest as he made her come, building her up slowly, so slowly she had cried, tears leaking at the frustration of his withdrawal just as she got to the edge, first with his fingers, and then afterwards with him inside of her, his hand flat against her belly, his mouth where her ear, cheek and neck joined, his gravely voice whispering hotly into her ear.

When he finally let her up, she slipped into her robe and went to get them coffee and breakfast. Surveying the carnage of her living room, she ran a hand over the dining table. Her fingers rested on his cards and she flipped them over. She smirked. The ten, Jack, Queen, King and Ace of Hearts.

End




Authors note: I don't play poker but I do know that the last two hands vary rarely happen, especially not together. I stole the ending from Friends. Sorry.

Quotations (in no particular order);
Trust everyone... but always cut the cards
from the movie "Rounders"

Last night I stayed up late playing poker with Tarot cards. I got a full house and four people died.
Stephen Wright

I've always had confidence, but I never let my ego get to the point that I think I'm the superstar, Jim Boyd, modern-day road gambler

I never go looking for a sucker. I look for a Champion and make a sucker of him
"Amarillo Slim" Preston

Don't play to impress, play to win
Michael Gersitz

If you are a guy, you know you play too much poker if your wet dreams involve 'nuts' instead breasts
BreakEvenPlayer

Timid players don't win in high-stackes Poker.
Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson

I don't want to give you a complex... but your stack looks small.
Marcel Luske to a short stacked player at 2004 WSOP

In a game of poker, I can put the players' souls in my pocket.
Beausourire

Poker is a game of people... It's not the hand I hold, it's the people that I play with
"Amarillo Slim" Preston

The commonest mistake in history is underestimating your opponent; it happens at the poker table all the time.
David Shoup

I must complain the cards are ill shuffled till I have a good hand.
Jonathan Swift

Poker: the art of civilized bushwhacking.
Nick Dandalos, attributed

Cards are war, in disguise of a sport.
Charles Lamb