He shows up at her apartment laden down with pizza and a bag of DVDs. She's only been home a little less than an hour, long enough to check her email, update her blog and feed her cat. She's still drinking the last Caf-Pow Gibbs had brought her at work, but has taken her hair down, removed her collar and there's a Jazzy piece he doesn't recognize coming from her stereo. He drops his burden on her table and spins around to face her where she's pulling beers from the fridge. Her shoulders are relaxed and he smiles. He's tempted to let the silence continue, but his news is far too interesting to keep to himself.

"Guess who Gibbs just hired. *Guess*." He's bouncing on his heals, smirking like he knows a very juicy secret. Which he does. She turns around warily, hearing the excitement in his voice.

"Jessica Alba?" She hands him his beer and reaches around him for the DVDs. He catches her hands, pouting at her.

"Pay attention. This is important."

She laughs at him, tilting her head back minutely to meet his gaze. "Okay. I'm listening." Her eyes sparkle, and her lips are still stained dark red with lipstick.

He does not acknowledge the fact that he wants to kiss her. Instead, he rolls his eyes. "By Monday, Agent Caitlyn Todd will be a part of our illustrious team."

Abby frowns. "Should that mean something to me?"

He sighs, shaking his head disappointedly. "Oh, Abby, Abby. The Secret Service chick that Gibbs may or may not be sleeping with? Very hot in that Catholic schoolgirl sort of way? Thinks she's kind of God's gift to the government?"

Abby's eyes widen. "Oh!"

Tony keeps talking before she can say any more. "Apparently, she isn't quite as innocent and pure as we feared. Turns out she was getting it on with one of her coworkers up until just a few days ago -- coincidentally right around the time she met Gibbs."

Abby smirks. "Hmmm. Two secret service agents. Do you think they ever--"

"No. Too much security."

She shakes her head. "They *are* security."

"Were. Anyway! Moving on from 'Air force 1 sex', her superiors found out, and boom, she was gone. Of course, Gibbs, being the kind and benevolent human being he is, informed her that she was working for NCIS starting Monday. Or something along those lines."

She contemplates this fact for a moment, and then grins. "So. We know that she's not opposed to breaking rule twelve. This could provide us with some... Interesting situations."

With a mock frown, he makes a tsk' sound. "Miss Sciuto!"

She gazes angelically up at him. "Yes?"

"Stop reading my mind."

She scoops up the DVDs and heads for the living room. "Batman, The Animated Series?'the hell, DiNozzo?" He follows her, carrying the food and a definite smirk.

"It's classic, Abs. And there's even a guy swooping around in a black cape to satisfy your weird Goth quotient."

"Fantastic." She drops the bag on the coffee table.

"You know," he says after he's made himself comfortable on the couch and picked up a piece of pizza, "the unfairness of this situation just struck me. *We* don't get to bring our sex-slaves to work. Why should Gibbs be any different?"

Abby curls up beside him. "He's Gibbs." A moment later, she continues speaking. "You know, if I were to take your comments on the situation so far, and I'm talking specifically about how you keep bouncing between wanting to seduce her and thinking Gibbs has beet you to it, here, my final analysis of your desires, Mr. Dinozzo, would be the simple fact that you want to join Gibbs and Agent Todd in sexual relations at the same time."

He flipped her off. "That's you, sweety."

She shrugged. "Just giving you my professional opinion as a student of psychology."

"Bull shit. We really need to work on this obsession you seem to have with trying to make me sleep with Gibbs."

"It is not an obsession. It bugs you. And him. And he really is--"

She breaks off hurriedly and gets up to put the DVD in. Tony snatches the remote before she can use it. "Really is what, Abs?"

"Hot."

He shakes his head. "That's not what you were gonna say."

She sticks out her tongue. "Is too."

Slowly, a grin creeps across his face. "You slept with him, didn't you? Didn't you?"

"What are you, a sixteen-year-old cheerleader?"

"Stop avoiding the question."

She ignores him, sitting down in the chair across from the sofa and taking a long pull from her beer. She is shutting him out, and he's starting to wonder just how bad the breakup must have been to cause her to react this way. He can see psychological methods of control being played upon on both sides. Maybe he tried to break her. Maybe she burned his boat. He doesn't like the images his mind can paint of the two of them and tries not to focus on them. He waits for a minute, but she just sits, facing away from him, back straight and tense. She is starting to draw into herself, and he wants to kick himself. Again, he pushed the urge to kiss her to the back of his mind.

He starts the DVD, and as the intro plays he contemplates reaching out to her, drawing the tension out of her muscles with his fingertips.

By the time the first half hour episode is over, she's relaxed into the chair, and he nudges the pizza box toward her, a sort of peace offering. She still doesn't look at him, but she does pick up a luke warm slice.

The second episode has almost finished when she turns toward him, resting her chin on her fist, studying him and he can see the mischievous sparkle in her eyes that means that he is forgiven, at least for the moment. "You jealous, Tony?"

His eyebrows shoot up. "You *want* me to be jealous, Abby?"

She tilts her head to the side, honestly considering the question. He continues to watch her because he hadn't expected this conversation to be taken seriously. Finally, she shakes her head. "I don't know yet." All of his mental processes stop, reconfigure themselves to incorporate this new revelation, and slam back into action with all the subtlety of an elephant. Abby might want him to be jealous. Abby might want him. He inhales.

"Let me know when you do."

She nods, and slips out of her chair, curling herself around him on the sofa. There is a fragile balance here, and he is careful and cautious when he starts gently massaging her shoulders. She doesn't kill him, and he considers this a good sign. When her fingers intertwine themselves with his, he takes this it as her version of a peace offering and squeezes back.

Later, after the DVD has finished and the pizza is cold and congealed, she wraps her arms around him and presses her face into his shoulder. It's innocent and comfortable until she starts placing tiny kisses against his collar bone. "Abs..."

She laughs, drawing away. "Do you want me to want you to be jealous?" He doesn't resist his urge to kiss her, this time.