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It had been a week since she had found the rose on her desk and she hadn’t gotten another surprise since. Abby wondered if that was it, wondered if she was supposed to have figured it out by now and now her admirer had given up on her.
She went and spent some time in autopsy with Ducky trying to avoid her lab for a while, things where slow and when things were slow she got bored and when she got bored she looked for trouble. Ducky regaled her with the odd history of the guinea pig and her mood was much lighter as she went back to her lab.
She couldn’t help herself when she saw the tall silver gift bag standing near her microscope, she clapped her hands and squealing in delight scurried over to it. Her eyes grew huge and she gasped as she pulled out the gift, it was an absolutely beautiful hand-blown glass bottle. The fluorescent lights glinted off of its ruby red surface and she could see little flakes of gold and silver embedded deep in the glass. The stopper was a heavy piece of ruby glass onto itself, and the molten glass had been pulled and curled into a spiral. There was a tightly rolled piece of paper tied to the neck of the bottle with a gold ribbon, she slipped it out carefully and unrolled it to read, “Every genie needs a bottle.”
She smiled, they had all been in the bullpen talking about past Halloween costumes last week and she had mentioned that she went as a genie a few years ago and that some klutz at the party she had gone to had knocked over her bottle and broken it.
Abby realized that the bottle was full and she gently pulled the stopper to investigate. It was bath oil, and it had a heady scent of sandalwood and musk and was just an exotic treat.
She sat at the bench with her chin in her hands just staring at the lovely gift when Gibbs walked in and dropped a Caf-pow next to her. He followed her gaze and saw the bottle and grinned, DiNozzo did have good taste. He kept that to himself but did comment, “Pretty.”
Sighing she looked at him with an odd expression, “Please tell me you’re not my secret admirer, Gibbs.”
He smirked, “I’m not your secret admirer, Abs.”
She squinted at him, “But you know who it is don’t you?”
“Well, yeah. Don’t you?” he teased as he left the lab.
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Tim made his way down to the lab at the end of the day to catch Abby before she left, he really wanted to ask her out to dinner and maybe try and rekindle things. He found her the same way Gibbs had earlier, with her chin in her hands staring at the bottle.
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Tony wanted to go see Abby, to see if she liked her gift and had just hit the elevator button for her floor when Gibbs slipped into the elevator. As it started down he reached over and hit the emergency stop and turned towards Tony.
“Boss?”
“DiNozzo, you know that rule twelve exists for a reason?”
Tony cringed inwardly, but before he could say anything witty, Gibbs continued, “All I’m going to say is do not hurt her and give me an excuse to shoot you. Are we clear?”
“Crystal, Boss.”
Gibbs flipped the switch back on and the elevator continued on its way. Tony was trying to re-compose himself, but had to know something, “How long have you known?”
Gibbs chuckled, “Since you left her the teddy bear with the interchangeable heads.”
That was the third gift out of more than a dozen. “That long, Boss?” he gulped.
The door opened and Gibbs started to walk out, “Well yeah, DiNozzo. I do know how to watch security footage.
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Tony was banging his head in the elevator, if Gibbs had watched the footage, had Abby? He doubted it, she would have said something. The door opened and he plastered a smile on his face as he entered her lab.
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“Hi, Abby.”
She turned her head slightly then turned back to the bottle, “Hey, McGee.”
“What’s that?”
“The latest gift from my secret admirer”
“Oh.” “Wait a minute, secret admirer?” he asked skeptically.
“Yeah, the one that’s been leaving me surprises for weeks.” She somehow knew from his tone that it wasn’t him. “Did you want something, McGee? I’ve shut down the gang already.”
“Actually I wanted to ask you…”
He was interrupted by Tony zipping into the lab and asking boisterously, “Ready to go, Abs? I’ll walk you out.”
Looking at Tim’s face he realized that he had interrupted something, and tried to use humor to lighten up the room, “Gotta genie in that bottle, Abs?”
As soon as he said it he wanted to kick himself. He might as well just hang a sign around his neck that read “Abby’s Secret Admirer”.
Tim didn’t get the significance, but Abby did the instant Tony said it. But she gave nothing away, and just packed up the lovely gift and grabbed her purse.
She and Tony were heading out the door when she remembered, “McGee, what was it you wanted to ask me?”
Part of him wanted to ask her in front of Tony so that when she said yes, he would witness it. But the other part of him didn’t want to ask her in front of Tony on the awful chance that she might say no, Tony would never let him live that down. In the end he chickened out, “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
“Okay. Goodnight, McGee.”
“Night, Abby, Tony.”
“See you tomorrow, Probie.”
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Tony walked Abby out to her car and waited for her to open the door. She carefully placed the gift and her purse on the seat and turned to face Tony who was oddly quiet. When she turned he immediately noticed the gleam in her eye as she took a step towards him, and before he could say a word she took his face in her hands and kissed him.
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Tbc... feedback always appreciated!!
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