----------
Sam sniffed, she couldn’t help it. She always cried during the sad parts of movies. This movie in particular was hitting too close to home. The brilliant scientist lead was young and driven and hopelessly in love with the gruff silver-haired agent. They lost friends and put their lives on the line for the benefit of others that would never know.
Jack had planned ahead; Carter always found a reason to cry while they watched movies. The tissue box was on the coffee table ready to go. He paused in his massaging and leaned forward over her shoulder to grab it and as he dropped it in her lap he said very close to her ear, “Just for you.”
It was good thing Sam was in front of Jack so he couldn’t see her expression. His breath in her ear made her eyes cross.
---------------
He was playing with a random piece of equipment in her lab that she repeated told him not to break in the past. He could probably recall each individual occasion because she always smiled at him when she did, and he had the memories of all her smiles filed away safely in his brain. When things got bad he would pull one out and it would give him strength.
He frowned when she entered the lab, she was carrying a flak vest and a sidearm. And given that he was already wearing his, he knew they were for her. She was adamant about completing her best friend’s mission. And she was the only one that could do it. He just wasn’t technical enough to get what they needed.
They argued and yelled and in the end he didn’t win. She would go. But he would keep her safe no matter what, even at the expense of the mission or his own life. Because if anything happened to her, his life was over anyway.
---------------
Gibbs sat there staring at the screen, this watching of a movie in a t.v. show was a little weird, or to use Abby’s favorite phrase, it was hinky. But he was impressed at how much she put into her bit part. And seeing her decked out as a red head was intriguing. And oddly enough, the idea of her in a flak jacket with a weapon could easily become a little naughty fantasy in his tired brain.
He rested his chin on Abby’s shoulder and followed the action. Part of his mind was registering the attraction between the gruff silver haired secret agent and Abby’s character, and he also registered the almost palatable attraction between the Colonel and the Major. He sighed softly, thinking about how closely life could imitate art.
Abby was so content she was almost purring. She finally had her silver fox where she wanted him.
---------------
Sam was cognizant of the fact that she was still sitting between Jack’s knees and a faint little smile crossed her face. Stolen little moments like these were all they allowed themselves, the regulations crystal clear. But there were times that she wanted to push the envelope. Push the envelope before a mission could go completely wrong and they all died, died without ever knowing.
She was in the mood to push that envelope a little tonight and she casually draped an arm over top of Jack’s knee and began to gently rub it, knowing how they bothered him.
With her back to him she didn’t see him freeze the moment that she did it, or exactly how wide his eyes got. But after a minute, her tender ministrations to his knee relaxed him and he tried to force his attention back to the movie. But the pink gorilla was back on the couch nudging him in the ribs again.
---------------
The mission had of course gone to hell in a handcart and they found themselves locked in a room with a bomb about to take out the building, and likely most of the city block. They had been over the room inch by inch and there was just no way out.
He punched the wall then cursed in English, then Arabic, and finally French. She calmly walked over to him and took his aching hand in hers and whispered to him in French that he should not injure himself. She gently rubbed the bruised knuckles and bent her head to plant a feather light kiss on them.
She looked up to meet his eyes and all his resolve broke. He couldn’t keep her safe, couldn’t get her out of here, and yet she stood there kissing his bruised hand. Her eyes screaming all the things she couldn’t put a voice to. The wanting, the needing, and the pain of trying to deny their feelings any longer.
His free hand stroked her cheek and found its way to wrap in her hair and pull her towards him and he cursed himself for being weak as his mouth claimed hers.
---------------
Gibbs was almost dumbfounded, then sat back and growled, “You kissed him?”
Abby plastered a look of tolerance on her face and turned to face him, “It was in the script.”
“But he’s so much...you kissed him?”
“He’s so much what, Gibbs?” She knew exactly what he was talking about and he could see it in her eyes. But she was going to make him say it.
“He’s a lot older than you, Abs.”
“So?”
“So?”
“Yeah, so? Oops have to rewind, we’re missing it.” She got up and went over to her bench and when back to just before the kiss, and he was pretty sure she did it on purpose to torture him.
When she came back around instead of heading back to her chair she stood behind him and wrapped her arms around him and leaned in to whisper as the kiss commenced onscreen, “I pretended it was you.”
Gibbs’ tired brain was going to implode. She did not just say that.
---------------
Sam watched the onscreen kiss and had to sniffle, “Oh.” She snagged another tissue and Jack chuckled behind her.
She turned to face him and gave him an exasperated look, “What?”
He leaned forward and teased, “You wanted him to kiss her? Dontcha think he’s a little old for her?”
Sam held his eyes with hers and sniffed again, “No.” Another sniff, “I picked this movie because he reminded me of you.”
Jack’s eyes grew huge and he opened his mouth to say something then closed it again, like a fish out of water.
She decided that never mind pushing the envelope, she needed to break through it and she turned to kneel in front of him and reached up and cupped his cheeks in her hands, “One of these days we’re not going to make it home. That last one was too close. And I don’t want to die not knowing, Jack. Do you?”
It was an incredibly bad idea on so many levels. The ramifications were huge. But the ramifications of not doing it seemed even worse. And that won out in the mental argument that Jack had with himself in the moment before he tangled his fingers in her hair and pulled her in to kiss her fiercely.
He pointedly ignored the pink gorilla jumping up and down making the touchdown signal.
---------------
Abby giggled in his ear, “Go Jack.”
Gibbs was still trying process what she had said a moment ago but caught the action onscreen to say quietly, “They’re breaking regs.”
Confidently she replied, “Sometimes you have to break rules to be happy.”
He didn’t say anything; he just dropped his eyes to the floor and let his senses absorb the feeling of her arms around him and the pounding of her heartbeat against his back.
A tinkling of pretty piano music brought his attention back to the screen.
---------------
Jack was walking through a darkened house in just a pair of boxer shorts. He grabbed a couple of bottled waters from the fridge and made his way back through the house and to his telescope platform. He got a silly grin when he got to the top of the platform seeing Sam sitting there wrapped in the quilt from his bed with a big smile and looking beautifully mussed.
“You know most women don’t find my telescope this sexy.”
“Most men don’t find it sexy that I carry a P-90 either.”
She opened the quilt and he saw that she had on one of his t-shirts and not much else. He settled himself in front of her and let her close the blanket around them and plaster herself to his back. And she asked playfully, “So what are looking at through your very sexy telescope?”
And the credits rolled as he very matter of factly said, “That is a nebula. Now let me explain what a nebula is…”
---------------
Abby was quiet as the credits rolled and she finally got up and turned off the dvd.
He missed her touch the second she stepped away. He stood and went over to her bench. He could see that she was struggling with what to say.
She started, “Gibbs…” but he hushed her with a gentle finger on her lips.
With an unusual gentleness in his voice he said, “Grab your stuff, I’ll walk you out.”
She nodded and grabbed her purse and they headed for the elevator. Getting in, it had barely left the lab’s floor when he hit the emergency stop. But he didn’t immediately turn around.
“Gibbs?”
“You’re right you know.”
“About what?”
He turned to face her and stepped into her personal space, “Sometimes you do have to break rules to be happy.” And then he mirrored what the other two silver-haired men from the screen had done, he wrapped his hands in her hair and pulled her to him to kiss her senseless.
He pulled back for a moment and studied her eyes, “Are you sure about this, Abs?”
She nodded, “I hate not knowing. And with you being in the field…” That he could be killed just wouldn’t come out of her mouth.
He embraced her tightly and buried his nose in her hair, the revised perfume tormenting him again. He made her laugh when he teased, “I’m not sleeping in the coffin.”
“I’m not sleeping under the boat so we’ll call that even.”
He kissed her again, slowly and carefully, pouring a world of promise into it. And when they finally broke away he hit the emergency button again setting the elevator in motion.
And as the doors opened and she walked out ahead of him, that perfume hit him again and had to ask, “What did you add to your perfume? It’s making me crazy.”
She gave him a little cat-like look over her shoulder and taunted, “Sawdust.”
---------------
The End.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.