It was a good thing that they had no cases, and that they'd wrapped up the suspicious gambling ring case with relative ease. They'd caught up on paperwork, and more importantly it meant that there were no dead sailors or Marines, no major criminal activity for them to deal with... The USMC and the Navy were, apparently, all in good shape this weekend.

All these things were good things, but the net result was that Gibbs found himself driving up to Abby's building in dress blue bravos that were uncomfortably formal and, well, just plain uncomfortable. Damn fancy dress. Why had he agreed to this again?

His disquiet didn't lessen any when he got to Abby's door and barely had time to knock before the lady of the house was throwing the door open, grabbing him firmly round the neck, and dragging him inside.

"You came, you came!"

"Well, yeah, Abs, said I would, didn't I?"

She grinned. "Well, yeah, but it's a party Gibbs. You're supposed to have fun, and we all know how much you try to avoid that."

He rolled his eyes and tweaked her pigtail affectionately. She knew him too well.

"Everyone's gonna be so psyched you made it."

Gibbs let her pull him into her living room, where she made sure he had a glass of bourbon and then stationed him next to Ducky, who greeted him with a smile and the chink of a glass against his. The place wasn't too crowded, with maybe a dozen agents and half a dozen support staff he recognised standing round chatting Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.