Title: Riding out the waves
Author: Boatt
Rating: FR-13
Pairings: Abby/Gibbs, Tony/Ziva, McGee/Muffins, Boatt/Abby/Gibbs
Category: Most definitely a crack!fic
Summary: Written for the first Gibbs/Abby Shipper Forum Creative Hiatus Drive prompt – 'ending'. Author's Note: I was reluctant to write something serious as I only got angsty thoughts and didn't like them very much. So I had a chat with Boatt, who decided he'd give it a go on the condition I ignore the fact that he's probably pretty much deceased in NCIS canon in no small part thanks to the actions of a certain lawyer and her evil employer... *pets Boatt*

The idea of taking everyone out on a day's sailing trip had been Abby's, a suggestion of how they could get back the feeling of being a real team again. Gibbs had agreed without hesitation and, as he could rarely deny Abby anything, the others weren't all that surprised.

What they were surprised about was the fact that Margaret Allison Hart got an invite though, as Abby pointed out, the lawyer was a temporary NCIS employee and had played a rather vital role in making it possible for their team to stay together.

It was just unfortunate that such good intentions had such an unfortunate outcome for the dark haired lawyer.

Why she did it, no one was really quite sure.

There were some who thought that she wanted to get away from one of Doctor Donald 'Ducky' Mallard's stories or that the duet Tim McGee and Jimmy Palmer had decided to sing after one too many margaritas drove her to the literal edge.

There were some who believed that she could have been genuinely scared when Tony and Ziva began sparring on the deck of boat and started fighting hand-to-hand and had jumped to keep from getting caught in the cross-fire.

And there were some who thought that the sight of Gibbs pulling Abby towards him in a demonstration that left no doubts in anyone's minds as to whether or not he saw her as a daughter that pushed her to it. (Though why that would be, Tony told anyone who'd listen later, because the sight of Gibbs and Abby making out without a care for their audience was undeniably hot.)

Either way, the dark haired lawyer ended up on the wrong side of the boats railings, floundering around in the cool water below as her NCIS colleagues stood and watched and shouted out what the mostly drunken agents and scientists thought was good advice.

Good advice that didn't help at all when the sharks showed up.

"Stay still!" Tony shouted, waving his arms a little too frantically as if trying to get her attention.

With a sigh and a roll of her eyes, Ziva reached out to grab him before he could topple over the railings and join the flailing lawyer. "If she stays still, she'll drown."

"If she moves, they'll know she's there," Tony argued with a frown on his face.

"They are not blind, Tony. That is a T-Rex," Ziva pointed out with a long-suffering sigh. "You are getting your movies mixed up."

Abby threw them a speculative glance, an eyebrow arched as she wondered how many movies the two had watched together.

"Swim towards the boat," Jimmy called out, grabbing a handful of items from the open picnic basket conveniently beside him. "We'll throw food to distract them!"

"Muffins?" Abby looked at the so-called autopsy gremlin with a sceptical look. She felt more than heard Gibbs chuckle as he wrapped his arms around her and drew her back against his chest, apparently entirely unconcerned for his former love interest as she was eyed up by hungry sharks. "Really?"

"Muffins are food!" Jimmy protested.

"I don't think the sharks would agree – and you wasted chocolate muffins! Triple chocolate muffins-" Alarm filled Abby's voice momentarily. "McGee! What are you doing...?"

"Going after the muffins...?" McGee stopped, shirt half-way up over his chest as he stared at her in confusion; he'd thought it was obvious what he was doing...

At a look from Abby, Gibbs untangled one arm from around her waist and patted the young agent on the shoulder reassuringly. "We'll get more when we get home, McGee."

"You sure, boss?" McGee looked at him questioningly. "I don't mind..."

"Not worth losing an agent over," Gibbs answered with a shrug. "It'd take too long to break another one in."

For a few moments, the small group stared down in contemplative silence at the lawyer who was doing her best to float without kicking her legs too much.

"You know, this reminds me of a story..." Ducky began, his eyes taking on a distant look.

"Sharks swimming around a lawyer remind you of a story?" Tony asked in disbelief.

"They don't have sharks in Britain," Jimmy pointed out.

"Sharks swimming 'round a lawyer..." Gibbs mused. "Reminds me of my second divorce, only they were on the same side..."

Turning in his arms, Abby kissed him softly. "There'll be no more divorces, Gibbs. Though I'm beginning to think that might actually be a fetish of yours..."

A wolfish grin curved his lips. "I've got fetishes, Abs, but divorce wouldn't be among them..."

Abby's eyes lit up and all thoughts of the drowning lawyer being circled by sharks in the waters below vanished completely from her mind. "Oh, please, do share..."

With another grin, Gibbs took her by the hand and led her to the decks below, a giggle floating on the breeze behind them as a door slammed shut.

The others waited a beat before turning away from the railings, moving to sit back down on the blankets they'd discarded earlier.

"Tell us the story, Doctor Mallard," Jimmy requested, wrapping his arms around his legs as he sat opposite the doctor.

Tony and Ziva sat down together, suspiciously close but glaring at anyone who dared even think it. McGee settled himself beside the picnic basket and the remaining muffins, glaring occasionally at Jimmy whenever he thought of their lost comrades; he'd had great success on the chocolate muffin diet and had come to think of the little chocolate sponges as his friends.

Ducky leaned back on the old wicker chair that someone had thoughtfully brought for him, the others gathered around him like children awaiting storytime and began to tell his tale.

"Well, it was back when I was just a wee lad, many years ago..."

In the waters below, Margaret Allison Hart's arms and legs were getting tired. She eyed the sharks around her, wondering why they were playing with her, toying with her, rather than moving in for the kill. One by one, the sharks gave her a look that could only be classed as contempt and swam away, deciding as a unit that to eat her would only give them bad digestion.

Danger averted, the lawyer looked back up to the boat, expecting to see looks of relief on the faces of those looking down at her.

Disappointed, surprised and more than a little afraid when she realised the boat had turned and was already sailing back to shore – without her.

"Hey! Hey, wait a minute! Wait for me!"

The boat continued on as if no one had heard, leaving the lawyer to swim after it as best as she could before slowly sinking beneath the surface, arms and legs too tired to move any more.

Her last thought was how strange it seemed that the boat had tipped itself just as she was leaning over the railing to throw up after seeing Gibbs kiss the lab rat the way she'd wanted him to kiss her. It was almost as if...

... Almost as if the boat had done it on purpose but that, she told herself as her mind went foggy, that was ridiculous...

Floating safely to shore carrying his human friends, Boatt couldn't wait to tell his fellow boats at the marina how he'd disposed of the threat to the Gibbs-Abby relationship and how no one, not even his maker, who was still preoccupied below deck with their favourite girl, suspected a thing...