Timothy McGee's jaw dropped as he saw the girl walk out of the elevator. In slow motion her hair dark waved behind her and her long legs walked towards him. Her shimmering lips where smiling flirtatiously and her eyes where sparkling. McGee let out a gasp of air and then managed to close his mouth. He tried to speak but words failed him.
"Do I look alright McGee?" she said seductively.
"You…you look amazing," he said finally finding his words. Ziva was sat at her desk and watched this exchange with a look of pure envy. McGee would always be Abby's and she would always come second.
"I felt like changing my clothes," Abby said without taking her eyes off McGee
"You can say that again," Ziva said under her breath. Abby twirled round and McGee looked like he was standing at the window of a sweet shop. To Ziva's delight, they were all suddenly interrupted by Gibbs walking into the room.
"What have you all got for me?"
"umm…" McGee said coming out of his daydream, "The tapes showed nothing new."
"Not exactly true McGee," Ziva said "Now that I'm watching the tapes instead of doing the interrogating, I noticed something but I can't put my toe on it."
"Finger, Ziva,"
"What?"
"You can't put your finger on it."
"Well it all means the same McGee," she sniped "Anyway there was something…"
"Keep watching those tapes Ziva," Gibbs said "Tony you can help her now, Abby you can go home now." Abby looked upset at this. Leaving would mean leaving Ziva and McGee together; she pulled a face. Gibbs missed it and turned to walk away.
"What about me Boss?"
"Find something useful to do McGee,"
"Ok Boss," he said like a little boy who had asked a stupid question, and with that Gibbs left the floor.
***
Donald Mallard was leaning over an extremely burnt corpse when Gibbs entered the room. The M.E. immediately looked up at the sound of someone in the lab.
"Jethro my dear fellow,"
"Hello duck,"
"What brings you down here?"
"I want info on the Underhill case,"
"I thought that was closed?"
"Not yet Duck. There's something we're missing on this one,"
"Well as you can see this isn't the body, I'm helping one of my fellow M.E.s out. Gas explosion over on West Street sending the hotel up in flames; my friend was struggling to cope with the overflow of bodies and seeing as I wasn't doing anything here…I offered my services. It reminds me of this one time where an old lady left her gas oven on. The whole block…"
"Ducky. The Underhill case?"
"Oh, right you are Jethro," and he walked over to one of the body trays and pulled it out. Toxicology report showed ingestion of ?????rat poison???????? Of a lethal quantity. No other marks of any kind, and no other indicators of bad health"
"Was there anything that jumped out at you? No matter how small," Gibbs said. Ducky thought for a minute and then said
"Now that you come to mention something there was something rather odd but I couldn't put my finger on it."
"That's exactly how I feel. There is something there but we just can't see it,"
"I'll take another look at the body Jethro,"
"Thanks Duck, I can't help but think we are missing something."
***
Abby had left unwillingly to go home and McGee was sitting at his desk watching Tony and Ziva both sat in front of him; he envied their closeness. Earlier when Ziva had leant over the desk his heart had started racing; that had only ever happened with Abby before. He sighed to him self, ‘Abby.' That caused problems for him. For so long he had longed for Abby to feel for him what he felt for her, and now Ziva was there and he was confused. In lots of ways Ziva and Abby were similar. They were feisty woman, both of whom could look after themselves; as well as each of them being mysterious and exciting. McGee couldn't help being drawn to both of them. Earlier today though, when they were at the desk; McGee had been swayed by the vulnerability that Ziva had shown. She had put her self out there and he knew that that would have been hard for her to do. She had shown to him that she was willing to let him in and that was massive for McGee. Abby would always be in his heart, but they would never find the closeness that McGee saw coming with Ziva. Abby would always take his breath away but Ziva was the woman for him.
"I've got it!" Ziva shouted suddenly "Call Gibbs. I've worked out what it was that was bugging me,"
"What is it Ziva?" McGee said
"Wait till Gibbs gets here," she said mysteriously and smiled at McGee. McGee smiled back and for a moment they looked into each other's eyes. Tony's jaw dropped as he realised what he was seeing, but he quickly scooped it up again unnoticed. He grinned to himself stupidly ‘Ziva and McGee, sitting in a tree….'
***
Author's Chapter Notes:
McGee reacts to Abbys change of clothes