McGee stood there, his jaw hanging, as he saw Abby standing in front of him. The breath left his mouth, but he couldn’t bring himself to take another.
“You look…amazing,” he finally said after about a minute’s silence.
“Thanks,” she beamed, blinking her perfectly mascara-ed eyelashes in reply. Silence set in and colour flooded to McGee’s cheeks.
“So er… Are we going then?” McGee asked nervously, breaking the silence.
Abby stared blankly at him for a second before realization hit her face, “Oh, yeah, of course!” She took one last look at the apartment before ushering McGee out the door and into the corridor, frantically pulling out her keys to lock the door. The click rang out as the door locked and they hurried down the stairs making their way to the exit.
“Where are you going McGee?” Abby asked as they reached the bottom of the stairs and he headed for the door he had entered by.
“Er…going to the car?”
“Wrong direction; we’re taking the hearse,” Abby said, heading in the other direction.
“Are you sure you want to drive there? You might crush your dress.”
“Oh, I’m not driving, you are,” she said, handing him the set of keys.
“What! I can’t drive a hearse!”
“It’s no different to driving a normal car?”
“Yes it is; it’s…weird.”
“It’s not weird McGee, now stop insulting my car and lets hurry up. I don’t want to miss the opening of the ball.”
McGee swallowed hard as he followed her out to the huge black vehicle. He looked at the key for some sort of button to unlock the doors, but didn’t find one.
“You have to put the key in the door to unlock it,” said Abby impatiently,
“I know that,” McGee said defensively; it had only taken him a second to get over his shock in the lack of technology. He unlocked the car and sat behind the wheel. This felt weird, knowing that the space immediately behind had once held lifeless bodies incarcerated in wooden boxes.
“What are you waiting for? Let’s go!” cried Abby from the passenger seat.
McGee turned the key in the ignition and the hearse roared to life. He snatched his hands to his ears as the roaring of the engine was quickly drowned out by loud pounding music from the stereo. At least the car was modern enough to have a good music system, although he somehow doubted Abby would own a car without one.
“Sorry, I forgot that that would happen, I am just so used to it,” she said turning it down to a tolerable blare.
“Er, Abby, is this a real hearse?”
“Yeah, it’s from one of my friends’; he works in his family’s undertakers business. They gave it to me when it got too old and they got new ones. What’s the point in getting a fake one?”
“No point at all,” said McGee, beginning to regret his decision to drive tonight.”
“Good, now please, can we go?”
“Yes, we can,” replied McGee, asd he put his foot to the accelerator and backed out of the parking space. It wasn’t long before they were whizzing down the freeway out of D.C., flitting in and out between shocked cars. McGee was glad that he looked different tonight. If anybody recognised him, he would never hear the end of this. Especially if Tony drove by; it wasn’t even worth thinking about.
Abby cursed herself for pausing when McGee asked whether they were going back up to the room. All her mind could think of was getting McGee out of those clothes and smudging his perfect make-up as she made wild passionate love to him. The Edwardian style suit clung to his figure perfectly. The ruffled neck spilled out of the dark jacket and raised his chin just that little bit higher, straightening his back so that he stood taller. He looked more confident and extremely masculine. She bit her lip as she thought of what hid behind the suit, behind the black fabric that just brushed the contours of his body.
If Tony walked by now, he wouldn’t recognise him; Abby almost didn’t. It was his eyes that gave it away: the green sparkled in the light and the true McGee poured out. His uncertainties, his lack of self-confidence, his fears, his nervousness, his persistence, his intelligence, his selflessness, his love for others and, perhaps most importantly, his ability to make others feel loved. The deep olive of his eyes was flawlessly accompanied by a dusting of dark powder. A line followed the underneath of his eyes and silhouetted the top of his eyelids. His eyelashes naturally curled slightly, and jet eyeliner traced along them, smudged to perfection. Anyone else’s eyes would have faded along with the shadows encircling them, darkening, but his shone as bright as ever. His full, soft mouth begged her attention, somehow made all the more alluring by the combination of his costume and makeup. She couldn’t help but stare at him, and when he noticed, she pretended that she was looking at something slightly to the left of him.
The world of cement that paved D.C. was fast disappearing and was being replaced by vast field of green, dotted with the trees sprouting from the earth beneath them. Abby smiled to herself, ‘Almost there.’
“Where did you say I go now?”
“The next left; it’s about two miles from here.” If she remembered correctly, which of course she did. She had driven this route countless times. McGee would be in for a treat when he saw the venue for tonight.
“Okay, just don’t let me miss it. I don’t really want to attempt a U-turn in this car.” It was like a mile long!
“Don’t worry, I won’t.”
Abby pointed out the road as they came to it, and they drove down the extremely narrow sheltered road, trees arching over them as they neared the building.
“How far now?”
“Not far, you can’t miss it.”
“Miss what?” McGee said, momentarily taking his eyes of the road to turn and question Abby.
“This,” she replied with a glowing smile.
McGee turned back to the road in time to follow a bend in the road, and his jaw dropped as the large mansion came into view.
“See, I told you, you’d love it,” Abby said excitedly.
“Where do I park?” asked McGee, managing to speak through the utter astonishment filling him.
“In front of the building, a valet will pick it up.”
“Er, ok,” said McGee manoeuvring the large vehicle toward the front of the house. Now closer to the huge building, McGee could see that a short length of black carpet had been rolled out in front of the house and two masked men were standing at the end of it, their arms folded. McGee turned the engine off and hopped out of the car, running around to Abby’s side. He opened the door and reached in to help Abby out. He was gripped by a slender hand gloved with fingerless netting, which was quickly followed by a long, equally slender leg. Her dress had been put temporarily out of place, hitched higher now than if she were standing up, and slim black boots were revealed, making their way up to her knee. Shining silver stiletto heels gleamed under her heel, complimenting the silver spider webs that emblazoned the boots. Higher up still, her leg was wrapped in large fishnet tights, doing nothing to hide the perfectly toned flesh inside them. McGee mentally shook himself, as it was all he could do not to wish that the dress had been further up her leg, so that he could take a glimpse at what beautiful underwear she was undoubtedly wearing.
Abby made her way gracefully out of the car, aided my McGee, and the dress fell back down to her mid-shin length, hiding the breathtaking view McGee had been privileged to seconds earlier. He held out his arm and smiled as she gently took it, smiling back, her face surrounded by perfectly tousled hair sweeping her cheeks. The loose curls bounced slightly as he guided her to the masked men. As they got close, a man dressed in all black with the same blank mask as the two figures in front of McGee, hopped out from the darkness to the left of the men and hurried over to the hearse, jumping behind the wheel and turning the keys McGee had left in the car.
Abby and McGee finally made their way to the men, who moved towards each other, blocking the way. McGee hesitated, not knowing what to do, but the situation was quickly cleared up as Abby reached into the top of her dress and, from the depth of her breast region, retrieved two silver-gilded tickets. The two men took the tickets from Abby and bowed as they let them pass.
McGee leaned close in towards Abby, “Why keep the tickets there?”
“Why not?” said Abby simply. “I don’t have a bag with me and do you see any pockets in this dress?” she said, looking McGee deep in the eyes.
“No, I don’t,” said McGee, looking at the beautiful dress clothing the even more beautiful woman at his side, “but I do see a beautiful woman in the dress.”
Abby beamed, “Oh Tim, you are too sweet.”
“I know, Tony keeps telling me that I have to toughen up, be more of a man.”
“You’re more of a man that Tony could ever be,” Abby replied, gazing into his glistening eyes.
McGee’s cheeks rouged and he looked away, up at the massive archway they were about to go through.
“Amazing isn’t it?” Abby said proudly, “Timothy McGee, welcome to Ridgeway.”
***
Author's Chapter Notes:
McGee and Abby make their way to the ball...