This? Is pure, unabashed, will-give-you-cavities sweet fluff. I make no apologies. I like to think it's in-character fluff, but I'll let you be the judge. ;-)

I don't own them! Honestly, do you think The Powers That Be would get anywhere near this? The song is "The Wildest Times of the World," by Vonda Shepherd.

In the wildest times of the world

I never thought I would be here with you tonight

In the wildest times of the world

Let's stay together in this lonely and crazy life

*

The strangest part of the week – that he could remember, at least – had been when Gibbs stopped yelling at him when he dozed off at his desk, and started leaving cups of coffee next to his keyboard.

They hadn't been getting much sleep. Abby couldn't get comfortable, and so McGee stayed awake to keep her company. They lay half-propped up against the headboard, Abby curled against his shoulder.

"When this is all over," Abby sighed, "the first thing I'm going to do is roll over on my stomach and pass out."

Nine months of pregnancy, three days past her due date, and she was roughly the size of a baby elephant. McGee chuckled and kissed her hair. "Don't you want to hold her first?"

"Mmph." She shifted against him. "I'll have plenty of time to hold her. She'll probably be a Daddy's girl anyway. You get first dibs."

He smiled. "Liar."

She smiled back. "Yeah, I know." She took his hand and placed it on her stomach. "See? Daddy's girl already. She never kicks like that when it's just me talking."

He remembered the first time she'd done that – run up to him with wide, excited eyes and grabbed him away in the middle one of his explanations to Gibbs, and pressed his hand to her stomach. He'd felt the tiny movement beneath his fingers, and for the first time, he broke their iron-clad no-relationship-stuff-at-work rule, and kissed her long and hard in front of the entire team…and anyone else who'd happened to be walking by.

Ziva had grinned, Tony had made some crack that was actually more funny than mean, and Gibbs hadn't even smacked him upside the head.

"We still need a name," he reminded her, rubbing gently on the spot where his daughter kicked against his hand.

"I told you," Abby began, and then made a face, shifting again. "Ugh, she's got a hand or something right in my diaphragm. Anyway, I told you. We'll know what her name is when we see her. We don't want to start thinking of her as a…Julia, or something, and have her turn out to be an Emma. Plus if we don't have a name in mind, nobody can take it from us. You know…if we had any other pregnant friends."

"You were watching the episode of Friends where Rachel has the baby again, weren't you?" McGee asked.

Abby sighed. "There was nothing else on. I hate being stuck here all day," she whined. "I miss my lab. I miss my team. I miss my feet. I miss moving farther than the kitchen." Suddenly, she glared up at him. "If you ever tell her how much I hated being pregnant, I will divorce you, torture you, and kill you. And I am one of the only people in the world –"

"– who can kill me and leave no trace," he recited with her. "Yes, I know. No telling our daughter that Mommy detested pregnancy. Got it." He kissed her nose. "You know you have to rest, Abs. Doctor's orders."

She lay her head back against his shoulder. "I know," she said, huffing out an annoyed breath. "I'm just tired of feeling like a whale."

McGee squeezed her a little tighter. "I don't know," he said lightly. "I think you're still pretty sexy."

Abby laughed. "You have to say that, 'cause it's your fault I look like this."

He raised his eyebrows. "Hey, I wasn't the one standing over me studying a basal thermometer and giving very specific instructions as to the best position for conception."

She grinned. "C'mon," she said. "It wasn't all work."

"True," he murmured. Her eyes were getting heavy, and if he kept his voice low, and kept talking in just the right tone… "I still say it happened that time in the shower."

He felt her shoulders twitch as she tried to smother a laugh. "Highly unlikely," she told him through a yawn.

"I know," he said quietly, smiling. "But that's how I'll think of it. Not worrying about getting pregnant or not getting pregnant. Just us. All I was thinking," he continued, his voice just above a whisper, "was how beautiful you are, and how much I love you…and wondering how I got so lucky."

Her kiss was soft and sleepy against his neck. "I think I like the way you think of it."

McGee looked down at his wife, at her long messy pigtails and the shadows under her eyes and the black sweatpants she'd been wearing for three days…and her hand, fingers still linked with his, still resting on her stomach, waiting for another kick.

And he still wondered how he'd gotten so lucky.

"Abby," he said, softly enough that he wouldn't wake her if she'd finally dropped off, "will you miss this? Just us, with her here but not really here? Waiting for her?"

Her answer came out on a soft sigh. "Yes," she murmured, her words blurring together as she finally drifted to sleep. "But it will be worth it."

He squeezed her hand. "Yeah," he whispered. "It will."

*

In the wildest times of the world,

Oh, I never thought I would be here with you tonight

In the wildest times of the world

Let's stay together in this lonely and crazy life

FIN