Gibbs tossed and turned in bed. He hadn't been sleeping well lately. It would take him a long time to drift off. Once he did, he had restless dreams. He would never remember what they were about when he woke up. Whether he pushed them out of his mind intentionally or not, he wasn't sure.

Gibbs was jolted awake when he hit the floor. He had landed on his side and hurt his hip. The first thing that crossed his mind was Tony's would be never ending teasing of a broken hip. He laid still for a few moments, assessing his injuries. Once he was sure everything was fine, he sat up with his back against the bed. Looking to his right, he saw his alarm clock upside down on the floor. He flipped it over to check the time.

That can't be right, he thought. 7:45? He searched for his cell. The display was blank. He couldn't remember turning it off. If he didn't, that meant the battery was drained. He wondered how many times Tony or Abby have called this morning to check on him. He was surprised no one had shown up at the house yet. He quickly got dressed and headed out.

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!" Abby sat straight up on the couch as her friend, Lizzy, ran through the living room to the kitchen. "Abby! Wake up!" she yelled from the other room.

Abby ran her hands over her face and through her hair. "What time is it?" she asked groggily.

"10 to 8!"

"What?!" Abby jumped off the couch. "I was supposed to be in at 8!"

"I know. Me too. God, my boss is going to blow his lid."

"Your boss? I don't even want to think about what mine will do." Abby looked down at her clothing. "I don't even have time to go home and change."

"Just borrow some of mine. I gotta run. See you later?"

If Gibbs lets me live that long. Abby looked through Lizzy's clothing. The girl was super nice, but their clothing styles weren't exactly similar. She decided to go with a pair of slightly flared jeans and, just to throw everyone of, a white t-shirt. She also borrowed a pair of white tennis shoes. She was soon on her way into work.

Gibbs stopped for coffee. He may have been running late, but he wasn't dead. To add to the already bad start to the morning, there was no Caf-Pow!. The machine was empty. Abby always stops for one in the morning anyway. So, no big deal. He was seven minutes away. He should be there in three.

Abby was already late, plus she had to stop for gas. Unfortunately, the gas station she stopped at didn't have Caf-Pow!. Who doesn't carry Caf-Pow!?!?! She didn't have time to stop anywhere else and pick one up either. But that's alright. Gibbs always brings her one in the morning. As long as he doesn't fire her first.

Gibbs stepped into the elevator and hit the button for his floor. Half way up, the elevator suddenly jerked to a stop. He reached for the wall to stop himself from falling. As a result, he dropped his coffee. He not-so-quietly cursed his frustrations as he noticed the coffee had splashed up onto his pants. The metal box stayed still and mostly dark. He tried the emergency button a few times, but nothing happened. It was a few more minutes before the doors finally opened, to Tony on the other side.

"Boss, are you okay?"

Gibbs was sitting on the floor with his back to the wall. He looked up at his Senior Field Agent. "You better have a change of clothes with you."

Abby stormed into her lab. She had been asked three times if she was feeling alright. She located a hair tie in her desk and gathered her hair up into a bun. Not her usual style, but nothing was normal about today. She was just waiting for it to be over and go home. She stalked around her lab, turning on her equipment. She heard a loud Pop! causing her to jump and spin around. Small amounts of smoke started spilling from her mass spectrometer.

"No, no, no," she whispered, putting her hands over her mouth. There was another Pop! and spark from inside the machine. She yelped and jumped. "No!" she screamed. She jumped up and down angrily. She stopped to catch her breath and placed her hands on her hips. There's no way I'm going to be able to fix this myself. Time to call Jake.

Gibbs had finally had enough of the day. His team had also. Within an hour and a half, his team had run off to do "other stuff". He decided to finally head down to see Abby. She was supposed to be running samples from a cold case for him anyway. Not high priority. Not really any priority. Just something to do on a slow day. He hadn't heard from her all morning. She usually cheered him up when he was in a foul mood.

As the elevator doors opened, he heard Abby's voice drift out from the lab. "Come on, Jake. Give it to me."

"Don't rush me, Abbs. You want it done fast or right?"

Gibbs moved to stand in the doorway of the lab. The sight caught him off-guard; Abby in jeans, a t-shirt, and sneakers, standing very closely behind some guy peering over his shoulder at something. Not to mention her hairstyle. "Abby, what's going on?"

She turned at the sound of his voice. She didn't have her normal smile on her face. In fact, she was scowling. "You didn't bring me a Caf-Pow!."

"Machine was out," he said, annoyed by her tone. He already had his own attitude, he didn't need hers too. "You always buy one anyway."

"Well, in case you didn't notice, Gibbs, I was a little late getting in today."

"Actually, I hadn't noticed."

"You didn't even notice I wasn't here?!" Her annoyance she evident in her voice and body language.

"I had my own problems to deal with. And why are you dressed like that?"

"I didn't have time to go home this morning."

"Did you at least get his name?"

Abby's jaw dropped open. She couldn't believe Gibbs would talk to her like that. "Not that it's any of your business, but I slept on my friend, Lizzy's couch last night."

"Are you hung over?"

"No! Why would you ask me that?"

"Because you smell of alcohol."

"You really do," Jake said over his shoulder.

"Shut up," they said to him in unison. He mouthed "wow" and continued to work on the mass spectrometer.

"I wasn't even drinking. Some spilled on my clothes from last night. I thought when I changed it would go away. I can't believe you would even think I would get drunk the night before having to come in to work. Speaking of clothes, why are you wearing one of Tony's suits? Did you have a nice little sleepover last night?"

He didn't get a chance to answer. "Abbs, I got some bad news," said Jake, turning to face her. "I'm sorry, but…he's gone."

Her face fell. "W-what?"

"I did all I could, but it was just too much for the old guy."

Abby walked over to Major Mass Spec and put her hands on him. "Did you run those samples before it broke down?" Gibbs asked. He knew he was pushing the wrong buttons, but he just wanted to get back to his desk.

She looked back over at him. Anger clearly written all over her face. "You insensitive ass!" she exclaimed.

"Excuse me?!" Anger was boiling in his veins. What the hell is going on today? he thought.

She took a few steps closer to him. "I just lost one of my best friends, and you want to know about your cold case samples?!?"

"Its just a machine!" he said, gesturing towards it. As the words were leaving his mouth, he knew it was wrong. Even going by the look on Jake's face he knew what Gibbs said was wrong.

"Get out," Abby said, her voice soft and full of hurt.

"Abby-".

"Get out!" she screamed.

He headed for the elevator. "Grow up, Abby."

"Screw you!" she cried out before the doors closed.

About 50 minutes later, Abby stormed through the bullpen. "Bad day, Abby?" Tony asked, noticing her outfit as she flashed by his desk.

She walked up to Gibbs and slapped the file folder she was carrying down. "Here are your precious results." Her words were dripping with sarcasm.

Tension filled the bullpen as everyone watched the inevitable disaster unfold in front of them. For once, Tony was envious of McGee, who had a front row seat.

Gibbs didn't even look up at her as she slammed the folder on his desk. Then, McGee, and everyone else, heard Gibbs say something they never thought they would hear him say. "Bite me."

Tony gasped from across the bullpen. Abby's retort didn't disappoint everyone's secret need for some inner-office drama. "As long as we're discussing dining options, eat me."*

Ziva muttered something in Hebrew. Abby turned and left the bullpen. McGee's and Tony's eyes were glued to Gibbs, waiting for a reaction. They saw his jaw clench, but that was it. He just pushed the folder aside and continued with whatever he was doing on his computer.

The folder lay off to the side, forgotten or ignored, until after lunch. The movement caught Tony's attention out of the corner of his eye. He continued to watch as Gibbs flipped through the pages. He saw his boss get more agitated with each page.

Gibbs picked up the phone and hit the button for the lab. It rang and rang. He waited for Abby to answer, but she didn't. He just got her voicemail. Hi. You've reached Abby Sciuto. I'm away from my lab at the moment, so leave a message and I will get back with you. Unless you're Gibbs. Then I'm not talking to you right now. Gibbs sighed and hung up the phone. He decided to try her cell. That also went to voicemail and he was greeted with a similar message.

Gibbs slammed the phone back down on the receiver, causing Tony, Ziva, and McGee to jump. He looked at it for a moment, then picked it back up and slammed it down again and again and again. He picked up the whole unit and threw it towards Tony's desk, ripping the wires from the wall. Tony ducked behind his desk as the phone hit the corner leg. By now, Gibbs had gathered quite a crowd to his little display.

As he watched Tony peek up from under his desk and slowly make his way back into his chair, Gibbs knew he had to get out of there. He shut his computer down and grabbed the file off his desk. "Ziva", he handed her the folder, "when Abby gets back, can you find out what all this means?"

"Of course."

He faced Tony. "DiNozzo…sorry." Then he was gone.

It was around 2015 when he heard his back door open. He was lying on the couch as he listened to whoever go through his kitchen cabinet. It wasn't long before he heard the basement door creek open. "In the living room," he called out.

Abby walked in with two mugs and a new bottle of bourbon, which she sat on the coffee table. "Are you going to let me sit?" she asked. Gibbs swung his legs off the couch on to the floor. She sat down and opened the bottle. Pouring some of it into a mug, she asked him, "Are you thirsty?"

"Always," he replied. He took the mug she offered a downed a big gulp. He felt it burn down his throat to his stomach. She poured herself some, but just held it instead of drinking it. "Been a while," Gibbs finally said.

Abby leaned back on the couch, propping her feet up on the table. "Yup," she said, looking straight forward.

"Sorry about your friend."

Abby let a small smile creep up on her face. "Been a big day for you."

"What do you mean?"

She looked at him. "I heard you apologized to Tony today, too."

"Damn dirty lie," he said, taking another drink.

Her smile grew bigger. "Right." They comfortably sat in the silence of one another's company, going over the day's events. Gibbs' comment about it being "a while" was about the last time they had fought. Usually, they were better about hiding their bad days and controlling their outbursts. Abby swirled the liquid in her mug around. "You know I love you, right?"

"Of course," he casually said.

"Good." Then she added, mostly to herself, "Good." She sat her mug down and stood from the sofa. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Tomorrow."

"It'll be better?"

"It'll be better."

Se nodded but didn't move. Then she took a few quick steps towards him, bent down and gave him a hug. Due to the awkward position, he wasn't able to get his arms around her. She soon pulled away. Before she shut the door she said, "Night, Gibbs."

"Night, Abby."

A/N: And like that it is all magically better. Don't you just love best friends?

*I'm not sure where I heard that from before, but it was on another show. Don't give me credit for coming up with that line! I just loved it.