Tim sat at his desk sulking. He couldn't believe he screwed up this bad. How had he gotten himself into this? Technically, him and Abby were broke up, so why was he feeling so guilty in the first place? That's what he tried to reason, but it wasn't working. If they broke up, then why did Abby let him spend the night just last week? Then again, their last conversation wasn't exactly pleasant either. He knew the reason for his guilt. He loved Abby.
He shook his head and sighed. What was he going to do?
He knew Michelle was going to call him. How was he going to tell her last night had been a huge mistake? Then he would have two women angry with him.
He was half tempted to ask Kate for advice. No, Kate would call him on it. Although nobody officially knew they were dating on a steady basis, he was pretty sure Kate would figure it out.
No way was he even going to think about asking Tony. That would only serve to cause him more grief. Knowing Tony, he would be proud of him for what he did.
He could always see Ducky. Nah, Ducky would probably spend all afternoon rambling on about something totally irrelevant. It wasn't that he didn't like Ducky, mind you. Besides, he didn't want Gibbs to get pissed off at him for wasting work time on a personal matter. God, life sucked. He groaned and dropped his head to the desk with a thud.
He heard the elevator and thought nothing of it. It was probably someone from the team. Before he could lift his head up, a familiar female voice spoke.
"Hey Tim. Are you ok?"
His head shot up. "Michelle! What are you doing here?"
She smiled at him. "Gee, don't seem so happy to see me." She walked over closer to his desk.
"Since you left so early this morning, I came to see if you wanted to grab lunch."
"Uh, I can't. That is, Gibbs has us working non stop on this case."
"Is that why you're sitting at your desk doing nothing?"
He sighed again. "I'm supposed to be working. I just have a lot on my mind."
"Is that so?"
Another familiar female voice came from the direction of the stairs. He grimaced. Michelle turned to see Abby standing there, not looking very happy.
"When you have a minute, McGee, I have some information for you. I'll be in my lab."
She sounded very angry. She glared at Michelle for a few seconds then turned and walked away.
"Damn." Tim mumbled under his breath. She was pissed.
How much had she heard? It was never good when she called him McGee in that tone of voice.
Michelle turned back to face Tim. "Who was that?"
"Oh, that's Abby, our lab tech."
"Girlfriend?"
"Was, I mean we broke up a little while ago."
"Oh."
He could tell she was suspicious.
"I'm sorry about this morning, I had to come in."
"Sorry about this morning or last night?"
He frowned. "I'm really sorry Michelle."
"So am I Tim."
She turned and walked away from him, heading for the elevator. He closed his eyes and banged his head on the desk again.
After mentally cursing himself for several minutes, he got up to go see if he could salvage anything of his relationship, or at least friendship with Abby.
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Tim cautiously entered Abby's lab. It was unusually quiet. Abby was at a computer, her back to him. He didn't say anything as he approached her, but saw her tense up when he neared.
Before he could speak, she spun the chair around and jumped up in front of him.
"What the hell is your problem McGee?"
She only called him by his last name when they were alone if she was seriously pissed.
"Abby..."
"Save it! I don't want to hear any of your stupid excuses! I was so stupid to think we could work things out. I hope you're proud of yourself."
"No, I'm not! Jesus Abby, I screwed up big time. If you want to be technical, the last conversation we had was you telling me to fuck off, so we really weren't together anyway."
"That is so lame. I can't believe you are trying to justify what you did. You know as well as I do that we fight all the time. That doesn't mean that every time we argue you can run out and fuck somebody else!"
"Last night was a one time thing. It's never happened before. I swear to God. I went out and had a few drinks. She's an old friend from Norfolk. She was in town for training. I didn't mean to sleep with here, it was an accident."
"Bullshit Tim! How do you �accidentally' sleep with somebody? You knew what you were doing. Unless you were drugged or tied up, you were a willing participant! I can't believe you!"
"Look Abby..."
He stepped closer to her.
"Don't you dare touch me! You lay a finger on me and I swear I'll have Gibbs kick your ass!"
"Oh, so now we're back to Gibbs again? You called me crazy last time I mentioned about you flirting with him. Is there something you should be telling me?"
"Go to hell Tim!"
"What in the hell is going on down here?"
Tim froze in horror at the sound of Gibbs voice.
Abby wiped the tears at the corners of her eyes and looked at Gibbs.
"Nothing Gibbs. McGee and I were just having a little disagreement."
"McGee?"
Tim slowly turned to face Gibbs. "Uh, sorry boss. It won't happen again."
"It better damn sight not! I don' t know what's going on down here, but you two better knock it off. Do I have to remind you of rule number twelve?"
Tim's face paled and he was at a loss for words.
Abby spoke up instead. "No. You don't have to worry about that Gibbs."
Tim got the hint that that was Abby's way of telling him to hit the road. Without saying anything to either of them, he quickly exited the room and made his way back up to the bullpen.
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The rest of the day just got worse. Gibbs kept giving him the evil eye all day, and after the incident with sending Gibbs and Tony to a house full of girls having a sleep over, he didn't think things could get much worse.
He just wanted to crawl into a hole and die.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Tim gets Busted and Abby gets very mad.
Chapter End Notes:
Minor spoilers for Red Cell