Shards To A Whole: Chapter 77

McGee-centric character study/romance. Want to start at the beginning? Click here.



Chapter 77: An Announcement

They made a quick detour on the way into work the next morning.

Getting married!

“Gibbs, Gibbs, Gibbs, Gibbs...” She’s skipping into his house. Gibbs looks up from his cereal, meets Tim’s eyes, and Tim nods quickly as Abby bounds into his arms, all but singing, “We’re getting married! You’ll be there right? You’ll go to the church with us and walk me down the aisle and give me away when we get MARRIED?”

He pulls her a little tighter, because she’s been bouncing up and down this whole time, and it’s hard to hug someone who’s bouncing, and kisses her forehead. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world, Abbs.”

She looks up at him, and he can see hints of fear that there’ll be a repeat of Jimmy’s wedding. “No matter what, Abby, I’ll be there.”

She grins again.

The next detour in the usual get to work routine led them to Autopsy.

If there was ever a good clue that Abby was happy as happy could be, it was the fact that she walked (okay, skipped) straight into Autopsy without even pausing as the doors slid open.

Congratulations are in order.

Tim was a few steps behind, so he heard, “Abigail, what brings—“ Then Ducky saw him behind, took into account the wide, happy smile on Abby’s face and gathered her into a warm hug. “I assume, congratulations are in order?”

“Yeah, they are, Ducky,” Tim answered.

“Wonderful!” he said, and then pulled out of the hug, motioning Tim closer, and hugged him as well. Then he stepped back and said, “Come now, let me see,” motioning for Abby’s hand.

Palmer headed in as Ducky was saying that. He made a bee-line for Abby. “Finally. I’ve been waiting since February for this!”

“February?” Abby asked, looking at Tim. He smiled and shrugged a little.

Jimmy took her hand, looked at the ring on her finger, and kissed her cheek. Then he looked at Tim and nodded. “Good job.”

“Thanks.”

“Now, what?” Jimmy said to Abby.

“We get talking details. For example, are you my best man or man of honor?”

Tim doesn’t think he’s ever seen Jimmy look so pleased. After a few seconds, he answers, “As long as I don’t have to wear chiffon, any title you like works.”

“No chiffon. I can handled that. How about taffeta?”

For a second Jimmy looks really startled, because it’s entirely possible Abby isn’t joking, but she is, so he laughs, and finally says, “Only if it’s red, and there better be some killer heels to go with it.”

She kisses him, and he pulls her and Tim into a hug.

Jimmy kisses her one more time before letting both of them go. “Do you want me to tell Breena?”

“We’ve already got a lunch date set. Assuming no case pops up, you’re invited, too.” Then she remembered Ducky was standing there. “I mean, if you don’t need him for anything.”

“As long as we are not called upon to render our assistance for a case, I assure you, Jimmy will be free for wedding planning duties.”

The last stop on the tell everyone tour took them up to the Bullpen. Gibbs had already gotten there, and was sitting at his desk, but Tony and Ziva were nowhere to be seen.

Tim’s look asked Gibbs if he knew where they were, and Gibbs just shrugged. Tony and Ziva weren’t living together, but they certainly came into work together about four out of five days. And they didn’t yet seem to have the how to do that and show up precisely on time thing down pat yet.

Tim certainly understood that. It takes a while to work the kinks out of more or less living in two apartments.

So he sat down and turned on his computers. Abby settled on the edge of his desk, watching what he was doing.

Three minutes later, when they came in, Tony grumbling about his dry cleaning being on one side of town and Ziva’s place an hour away on the other, he had a pretty good idea of what was up.

“No clean shirts?” he asks as Tony heads for his desk.

Tony glared and said, “Yeah.”

“They make these things called irons, and if you apply it to a clean shirt, you don’t need to have it dry cleaned.”

“Sure.” During all of this, Ziva’s been leaning against her desk, staring at Abby, and grinning. Abby’s grinning back at her, left hand conspicuously visible. Which was when Tony really noticed that she was sitting there, on the edge of Tim’s desk, where she usually isn’t.

Ziva sees him finally get it and then closes on Abby, both of them hugging. He half hears Abby telling Ziva something about team bride meeting for lunch as the two of them look at the ring.

Tony breaks into a wide smile and gently punches Tim on the shoulder. “You finally did it!”

“Yeah.”

“Good! Stand up.” Tim did and got hugged again. Which, of course, was still happening when Vance came in.

“Anything I should know?”

“Wedding soon,” Gibbs answered.

And thus, Abby got her tenth or so kiss of the day, and Tim’s hand was shaken, and one more layer of congratulations were offered. Which was followed by a fairly gentle back to work from Gibbs.

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