In Check

Chapter 4

(A/N I swear I wrote this
chapter before the season finale so any similarity –it’s only a small one- is
coincidence. My heart is broken by the way things went in Hiatus 2, but I’m
going to try to keep it together and continue this fic.)

Abby stomped her way to
the elevator. If this guy shut off the centrifuge she’d be here all night. If
he’d shut down the mass spec she’d have to start from square one. Damn it.

Gibbs stood behind his
desk, arms at his sides, watching her. Outwardly he looked serene; inwardly he
wondered whether the guard had given her an excuse to get away. He would let
her go, the next move was entirely hers to make or not.

“Aren’t you coming?” she
demanded, holding the elevator door open for him.

“I don’t want to be a
witness if you have to kill him.”

She rolled her eyes and
continued to hold the door until he smiled and came to her.

As the doors slid shut she
faced him, “You wouldn’t make me go down into the dark lab all by myself would
you?”

“Abby, you like the
dark.” He countered.

“Yeah, but it’s so much
better when you share it.” The doors opened and she led the way through the
room, not bothering with the light. The quiet whirring of the centrifuge let
her know that was okay and the small green light remained lit on her mass
spectrometer so it looked like the guard would be pardoned.

She popped the first three
snaps of the lab coat open and took a step in his direction, “Everything’s okay
here, where were we?”

He stopped her with his
hands on her hips, holding her at arms length. “Abby, I shouldn’t have, I got
carried away but this isn’t a good idea.”

She spun herself out of
his grasp, “I knew it. I knew you didn’t really want, I mean, I know I’m not
the director, or some red-headed beauty that…”

He stopped her with a
finger to her lips, “You’re beautiful Ab. It has
nothing to do with my not wanting you.” She may not have believed his words,
but she believed his eyes.

She stepped back on her
own and looked up at him with a small pout.

“Because
we work together, right?”

A sad smile made him all
the more handsome, “Not entirely. If I were rational when it
came to you that would be enough.”

She looked hopeful, “But
you’re not?”

His eyes traced the
opening of her lab coat, “Clearly not.”

The room was full of
shadows and darkness, lit only in small spots by equipment. She felt his gaze
more than she saw it and her breath quickened. It set her every nerve on edge
knowing that he was looking at her, wanting her but not touching her. She
fidgeted a little and delighted with the anger that flashed in his eyes when
she was anything but perfectly still.

He had no idea she’d seen
it. She gave no indication of knowing how difficult it was to keep the animal
inside in check.

Abby could take no more,
if he wasn’t going to move to action she was going to get a reason. She scooted
onto her stool next to him and rested her chin in her hand, “Then class=GramE>tell me why not.” She asked as though she were asking for a
bedtime story then quickly added, “And don’t give me the age difference
bullshit because that won’t fly.”

His eyes twinkled. It was
so easy to be drawn into her, all he wanted to do was smooth her hair, brush
her cheek with the back of his hand, kiss her again and again, and crush her to
him but that is where the problem began.

“I don’t care about age.”
This was true. He never questioned that younger women would find him attractive
because he’d always been an attractive man. He didn’t think about it or preen
about it, it was a fact as much as the fact that he
had been a gunny. Women reacted to him in a certain way his entire life he
never questioned it.

She took his hand, “Then
what?”