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First Incident

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Tony: How fast can you run them?
Abby: Usually it takes 12 hours...but for a dinner
Tony: Get me an ID in 2, and I'll make it Cafe Atlantico.
Abby: Sweet!
--JAG 8.20 - Ice Queen

 

 

Tony strode into the lab and had to stop. "Woof!"

 

With a million dollar smile, Abby did a spin in her dress boots, showing off the layers of black lace and strings of beads that made up her skirt. Not the country club version of formal that Tony had been raised with, for which he thanked god. There was no doubt that she was ready for their night on the town. His own look was more tailored, black suit and a maroon silk shirt.

 

"Like?" Abby asked.

 

"What isn't to love? I got this for you, figuring black goes with everything." Tony presented the wrist corsage made of black flowers.

 

"Goes with everything Abby owns, anyway," Gibbs said, as he came into the lab with Ducky.

 

"Orchids, I love orchids," Abby grinned and held her hand so that Tony could help her.

 

"You two are looking quite dapper, what's the occasion?" Ducky asked.

 

"Tony bribed me to push some of his work to the top of the line, and it's payoff time," Abby smirked.

 

"Really? What kind of bribe gets you to the top?" Out of nowhere, Gibbs was practically taking in Tony's ear, making him jump out of his skin.

 

"It wasn't like it was just for me, Boss. It was one of our cases; one of your cases." Tony coughed, trying to stop while he was behind. "We're going to Cafe Atlantico."

 

"Not just Cafe Atlantico, Mini Bar!" Abby said with a shimmy.

 

"The bar? DiNozzo wouldn't spring for a nice table?"

 

"Jethro." Ducky shook his head. "If you ever looked at the restaurant reviews, you'd know that Mini Bar is a restaurant within a restaurant."

 

"They have six seats," Abby said, holding up the right number of fingers. "The specialty is molecular gastronomy, not that anyone that's any good at it calls it that or even that it's an accurate title."

 

Gibbs was looking impassive. Abby bounced and started talking with her hands, but Tony didn't think she was actually signing. "Gibbs, they cook with blowtorches and liquid nitrogen and all sorts of other cool tech. They use spherification, to make an exploding mohito!"

 

"Exploding? Food shouldn't be-"

 

"By combining sodium alginate with a tasty alcoholic beverage, they are able dispense drops with a syringe into a calcium chloride solution, which allows the drop to become liquid ball held together with a fragile skin that they serve on a spoon."

 

"-dangerous." Gibbs finished.

 

"Gibbs, once it hits your mouth, woosh! The lime and mint make your eyes pop."

 

"Uh-huh," Gibbs said. "Drinks that come in spoon? Can you afford it, DiNozzo?"

 

Tony had tried real hard to push the $120 per person price tag out of his mind, so he laughed. "Well, you know special occasion, thank god it takes a month to get a reservation, so it give you a chance to save."

 

"Tony, you know I'm still willing-" Abby started.

 

"And speaking of reservations," Tony interrupted. Letting Viv, when Viv had been around, buy him lunch was one thing. DiNozzo pride dictated that Tony would be paying for dinner. "We're going to be late."

 

Abby shook her head, but smiled as she took Tony's hand.

 

"Have fun, you two, and do try everything," Ducky said.

 

"Don't overeat!" Gibbs called behind them as they walked out the door.

 

Abby started to turn back when Tony whispered in her ear, "Come on, before he finds a case."

 

With wide eyes, Abby grabbed Tony's hand and nearly yanked his arm out of the socket, as she took off down the hallway at top speed.

 

***

 

The bar was loud but not nearly as raucous as the main club. Abby picked up her beer and toasted Tony, "Cafe Atlantico was fantastic; you should have let me help with the bill!"

 

Tony shook his head. "Worth every dollar to see your face as the courses came. Besides, you're in charge of cabs, bar tabs, and pizza."

 

Abby put her hand in front of her mouth so she wouldn't spit her beer. "Isn't it sad that we had a 30 course meal and need to hit Luigi's to get dinner? I loved it!" She grabbed his hand. "You know what the best part was?"

 

"The carrot cake macaroon?"

 

With a sigh, Abby closed her eyes, remembering the taste. "That was amazing, especially when you let me eat half of yours. What I liked most was that I was eating half of yours and not half of somebody else's. Tony, you're one of my best friends."

 

Sitting up in his seat, preening a little, he said, "We DiNozzos-"

 

"Cut the DiNozzo crap." Abby air quoted his name. Tony opened his mouth, but she didn't let him get a word out. "Look, I know you've got an image that you think is the bee's knees, but I like Tony. Tony, the guy that comes to my lab and discusses art made from death and slasher flicks."

 

With a quizzical look, Tony handed Abby her beer and took a swig of his own. "I like to think of you as the forensics-goddess version of Nora to my Nick."

 

"Tony, that's so sweet! It was sweet, right?"

 

"Nick and Nora Charles played by William Powell and Myrna Loy. Seven Thin Man Movies - gun in one hand, cocktail in the other. Greatest movie crime-solving duo ever, holding it together while being forced to sleep in twin beds." He shrugged. "Or sometimes a double, but only if one of them kept a foot on the floor at all times."

 

"Tony!" She gleefully slapped his knee, but then frowned. "Why twin beds? Did one of them hog the covers?"

 

With a shrug Tony answered, "It was a puritanical era in Hollywood. They didn't want the public to know that married couples liked each other."

 

Abby hopped off her stool and lifted her glass. "To Nick and Nora. We're going to honor you with more beers and some grinding on the dance floor to make up for the twin bed years."

 

"Only if you promise to keep one foot on the floor," Tony said, as they clinked glasses.

 

***

 

They stumbled out of a cab and up to the door. Tony carried the pizza, while Abby clung to his arm. "I think we might be a little drunk, Nick," Abby said.

 

Tony laughed, which seemed to make Abby laugh more. He barely managed the door without losing the pizza. Pressing an unsteady finger to his lips, he shushed. "Downstairs neighbor gets cranky about the noise."

 

She rolled her eyes and followed him into the kitchen. Sliding the pizza on the counter, Tony picked up Abby and deposited her on the table, before stuffing a slice into her mouth. Abby giggled ineffectively around the cheese and pepperoni. Tony finished his first slice in five bites and then grabbed a second.

 

While a smiling Abby ate, Tony turned his head to get a better view of the sauce stain on her mouth. He reached for a dishtowel, but she grabbed his wrist before he could wipe her mouth.

 

"Do you know where that towel's been?

 

"Drying dishes?"

 

"And?"

 

"And..." Tony wasn't sure about "and;" he didn't pay much attention to dishtowels. "No clue. Guess I'll have to find another way to clean up that sauce."

 

He'd thought about just kissing her for half the night, but knew somewhere in the back of his head that it was a bad idea. He was aiming for her cheek when his target moved. Their mouths were together, and he tasted beer and pizza - more intense than anything they had at Cafe Atlantico.

 

Tony wasn't sure which one of them started the kiss, but once the ball was rolling, his hand were on a mission of their own, finding Abby's waist, sliding down to the tops of her thighs. He didn't resist when her hands were tugging at his belt, but instead, pushed her skirt up. When he felt the tops her stockings, Tony paused and whispered against her mouth. "Abby, I don't know-"

 

"Tony," She said, before kissing him. "You've got both feet on the floor."

 

There were buts; he knew there should be buts. But Abby's tongue was gliding across his lips pressing in. Tony slid her closer to the edge of the table.

 

"For crying out loud!"

 

Tony jumped back, and Abby spun around. Gibbs was standing in the kitchen doorway, covered in sawdust.

 

"Boss!" Tony said. "We brought extra pizza, because we thought you might be hungry."

 

"And coffee!" Abby spit out. "Tony, where's the coffee?"

 

Tony looked around, but didn't see the coffee. "I think we left it in the cab."

 

"We could make coffee," Abby laughed nervously. "There's got to be a coffee maker around here!"

 

Gibbs stepped up to Abby and pulled the edge of her skirt down from mid-thigh to knee, making Abby cringe. Then he pointed at Tony's fly, which Tony scrambled to zip up.

 

The silence was deafening as Gibbs grabbed a slice of pizza and ate a bite. As he swallowed, he slapped Tony in the back of the head. "DiNozzo when you asked if you could borrow the couch for a couple of days while they fumigated your building, I didn't in my wildest dreams imagine that I'd need to add a new rule." Gibbs' voice went up a dozen decibels. "A rule about not having sex on your boss's kitchen table!"

 

Abby raised her hand, interrupted the shouting.

 

"Abby!" Gibbs pointed.

 

"Does that mean it would have been okay on the couch?"

 

~end~