Down in the lab, Tony and Abby were looking through all the evidence again. All the items were laid out on the table.
"Okay," Abby said solidly. "We have . . . two glasses, both with her fingerprints on the outside, one containing just wine and the other wine and traces of poison, the poison container found in the garden shed with her fingerprints on the outside, plane tickets in the name of the wife and her lover from inside the wife's coat pocket, information from the company that sold the poison saying it was bought under the wife's name, by her credit card and packaged and sent to her address . . . Anything I've missed?"
"Nope, apart from the computer history that showed she'd been surfing the net and visiting sites to do with murdering husbands." Tony shuddered. "That's one reason I intend never to marry."
"What," Abby said dryly, "because they might murder you? You don't have to be married to a woman for her to kill you."
Tony looked sheepish. "This woman is completely stupid, though. She murdered her husband using poison she'd got in her name, with her credit card. She murdered him while she was there having dinner with him and she didn't even think to wear gloves while handling the poison and putting it in his wine!"
"Tony, all the evidence is circumstantial. You not looking objectively at it, you're getting swayed by you own pig-headish opinions on marriage."
"Am not."
"Are too."
"Am NOT."
"You are too and there's no way you are going to persuade me otherwise, so let's get going." Tony stuck his tongue out and she replied with the same gesture.
"What do you want me to do, Abbs?" he asked.
"I want you to look again at all the photos from the scene and see if we missed any evidence. I'm going to redo all my tests, even though I know there is no need because I do not make mistake . . ." she trailed off.
"I know you don't, Abbs, but what Gibbs wants, Gibbs gets . . ."
***
Ziva and McGee were watching the videos from the interview of the wife and the wife's lover on the big screen. They were both sitting around Ziva's desk with her behind it and him in front.
"The wife said that the husband left in the middle of dinner complaining of a headache, and didn't want to wake him up upon getting into bed with him later that evening," McGee said
"How can one person get into bed with a dead person and NOT realize that that person is dead?"
"I don't know, but we don't know anything about these guys," McGee was confronted with a look of disbelief from Ziva. "Anyway, both the wife and the lover admit to the relationship," McGee said.
"Yes, and if you ask me, that so called ‘lover' is using her. According to the staff where he works, he has a track record of stringing married women along and then dropping them when they leave their husbands. He thrives off the danger and the secrecy."
"He is a player," McGee replied.
"Would you ever do that to a woman?" Ziva asked. McGee turned to look at her and stared straight into her eyes.
"No, I believe that love is precious and playing around with it is wrong. Making people love you and then dumping them is worse than killing them. It breaks their soul along with their heart and I can't bear that." Ziva's expression softened and she smiled.
"That's actually quite sweet, McGee" Now they were on different sides of the desk, and Ziva had only just realised that he had his hand on top of hers. She'd let him in and left herself unaware of her surroundings. Damn it, she was weak. She quickly recoiled her hand, but her heart leapt to her mouth when she saw his hurt expression. He looked away, the pain registering in his eyes. To him, she'd just done what he'd just said he couldn't bear. Ziva leaned forwards slightly across the desk and McGee turned back round. He looked at Ziva and saw something in her that he had never seen before - vulnerability. She was putting herself out there.
He leaned forward, their lips only inches apart. He felt electricity run through his body. His stomach tightened.
CRASH.
They jumped apart and looked at the screen, where the noise had come from. It was the part of the video in where Ziva was interviewing the lover and had leapt from her chair, which in turn had gone crashing to the floor. They both laughed nervously and then continued to watch the tapes.
***
Gibbs entered Abby's lab and was surprised to see only Tony there.
"Where's Abby?" he asked.
"Oh, she's changing. Something about the clothes she was in were annoying her."
"Oh," Gibbs said slightly nervously. This wasn't like Abby, to abandon her work because ‘her clothes were annoying her.'
"She's finished all her tests again and they all came back with the same results. Remind me why we are doing this again?" Gibbs stared at Tony and Tony backed down, but Gibbs decided to answer.
"Because the woman says she didn't do any of this stuff and she didn't kill her husband."
"And we believe her?"
"I believe her, Tony."
Tony hesitated for bit then replied, "That's a good enough reason for me. If you say she didn't do it, then she didn't do it, Boss." For a second, Gibbs looked almost proud, but as soon as it had come, the emotion flickered back off his face. Tony didn't register it.
At that moment, the doors to Abby's office opened and Abby walked out. She was wearing a short black skirt revealing a wealth of long slender leg; a tight red jumper that scooped just low enough to reveal magnificent cleavage and a pair of patent black heels that added to the length of her legs, which didn't need that much lengthening. She had on all her usual jewelry, including the locket McGee had gotten her for Christmas. Her makeup was perfect, a fresh batch of shiny red lipstick smoothed across her lips. Perhaps the most shocking thing of all, her hair was down. The jet-black locks fell past her shoulders and perfectly framed her face. Abby smiled slightly.
"What - you never seen a girl in a skirt before?"
Both Tony and Gibbs were speechless. Tony broke it first. "Wow."
"Thanks," Abby said, beaming. "I got bored with what I was wearing."
"You can say that again," Tony said and looked her up and down. Gibbs smacked him on the back of the head.
"The case, Tony." Tony took a minute to comprehend what Gibbs had said, then his eyes widened and he turned back to studying the photos. Gibbs looked sideways at Abby and he, too, looked her up and down, Abby watching him as he did so. His eyes ran the length of her body and eventually returned to her face. He looked her in the eyes and smiled back. Abby let out a rush of air and smiled back. She felt like she'd just been under scrutiny but had come out winning first prize. "I hear all your tests came back the same, Abbs."
"They did. I knew they would." Gibbs smiled.
"So did I, but just covering all bases," Gibbs replied. "There's something we're missing."
"We'll find it, Gibbs, don't you worry." Abby smiled. Gibbs had no worries - he could always trust Abby. He smiled back and left the lab.
***
Author's Chapter Notes:
McGee and Ziva have a 'moment' and Abby decides a change in clothes is in order...