Title: Crush

Author: GataChica

Rating: FR15 for language and sex

Spoilers: None.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to NCIS. The characters are not meant to resemble anyone living or dead. No copyright infringement is intended.

Timothy McGee bent his head over his PDA just in time to avoid being hit in the jaw by a flying airplane. Instead, it hit his temple.

"Ouch! Tony, don't make those things so damn pointed. That hurt," McGee grumbled.

"Aw, Probie is grouchy without his best friend," Tony said in feigned sympathy as he prepared another airplane.

"I thought we were his best friends," Ziva commented.

"No, I mean his computer. He loves it more than almost any person alive – maybe even more than his mother." He reached his hand back to launch his next plane, but was stunned by a head slap. He didn't say anything as Gibbs walked by, only cast hurt glances at his boss while rubbing the back of his head.

"Boss, how long before we can use our computers?" McGee asked urgently.

"Don't know. If we don't lose power again, and if they can figure out what's going on, we can return to normal."

"Or as normal as we ever are –"

"DiNozzo."

"Shutting up, Boss."

"If they can't find the problem, or we have another outage –" The lights picked that moment to fail yet again, and McGee groaned. " – we pack it up and shut down HQ until it's safe."

"Safe from what?"

"Terrorists, DiNozzo."

"Power failures are often a prelude to an attack," remarked Ziva.

"I'm going down to check on Abby. The rest of you, go home."

**NCIS**

"Okay, Major Mass Spec, let's see – no, no, no, shit!" Abby cursed as the room went dark for the third time that day. She hit the countertop with her fists, carefully avoiding the delicate machinery all around her. Even though it was still daylight, the small windows of her basement lab were not letting in much light.

She waited for her eyes to adjust, then located the flashlight she had been using earlier. It took awhile to find it, and she had barely switched it on when the backup generators started, filling the room with light. Of course, it was dimmer than normal, but it was light nevertheless.

She walked back to her mass spectrometer and saw that the sudden outage had damaged it – the display was covered with odd symbols and codes that she couldn't decipher. "Shit!" she exclaimed again.

"Better watch your mouth, Abbs; you don't wanna lose that innocent reputation." Gibbs was grinning at her from the lab's entrance.

She rolled her eyes at him. "Yeah, right, Gibbs. Now go away – as you can see, I have no results for you." She sighed with frustration as she began the laborious task of rebooting all of her electronic devices.

She thought he had left until she felt a light touch on her shoulder. She whirled instantly to see a half smile on his lips. "Abby, the building is being shut down until maintenance can get a handle on the power losses. There's always the chance it could be intentional."

Her eyes widened. "Terrorists?"

He nodded. "Get your things and I'll walk you upstairs."

"Why can't we – oh, duh," she murmured, as she realized how unsafe riding an elevator could be under the present circumstances. "Be right back."

Moments later they were climbing the stairs to the parking garage.

**NCIS**

"Now we let them think they've found the problem," a voice whispered in a small room lit only by a single candle, "and then we execute phase 2." The language wasn't English, of course, nor was it recognizable at all.

"Would you go over phase 2 once more please?" asked another voice, using the same language.

"Yes. When NCIS begins work again, we start our work. Dinga, you are in charge of power grid…."