Cloak & Dagger
Tony hesitated outside of her apartment door, debating whether or not he should go inside. He was happy to finally see Abby after everything that had gone down earlier that night with Lee and her sister/daughter, but at the same time he wasn't looking forward to the conversation he knew they needed to have.
The sight of her being hauled off to interrogation after Vance found the dye on her hands was nothing less than the icing on the cake of his terrible day, and despite the fact that he had released some of his anger in autopsy only minutes prior to that, he found that he wasn't able to stop it from boiling over again. Things only got worse after McGee snuck down to see her only to find out that she had been in on the whole operation from the beginning.
She was only a patsy, and while that relieved him, he was still pissed that she hadn't said anything to him.
Taking a deep breath, he unlocked the door and stepped inside, dropping his keys onto the table behind the door in hopes of alerting her to his presence. "Abby?"
Her voice was cheerful as it floated down the hallway. "In here, Tony!"
Reaching up to loosen his tie, he headed down the hall slowly. When he reached the door, he leaned against the frame and watched quietly as she dried her hair while wearing nothing more than a pair of panties and a tank top. For a split second he considered not bringing up the operation at all, but he knew that they needed to talk about it.
"Can we talk?"
Abby turned around and smiled at him, not having noticed that he was standing right behind her. "Sure thing. What's up?"
Peeking behind the door, he lifted her robe off the hook and handed it to her, glad that he didn't have to say anything for her to take the hint.
"Uh oh. This can't be good if you're tryin' to cover me up," she teased, a frown crossing her lips when she didn't smile. "Tony? What's the matter?"
He ran a hand through his hair and sat down on the edge of the bed, not really knowing how to start the conversation. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"About what?"
"About what? How about the op, for starters? Or the fact that you were tapped to play patsy for Vance and Gibbs?"
"I wanted to tell you," she insisted, tugging her robe a little tighter around her. "Gibbs told me I couldn't. What was I supposed to do?"
A million answers to her question flew through his head before he settled on one. "You should have told me anyway."
"Right! And put my job on the line?"
"It's never stopped you before," he pointed out, watching as she rolled her eyes and returned to drying her hair. "We've worked together for eight years, and you've never once kept something like this from me until now."
"Maybe I was trying to protect you."
Tony could feel his blood beginning to boil again, and it took all of his self control to not explode. "Why does everyone think that I need protecting, huh? Why?"
He could feel her giving him the patented 'Gibbs stare' through the mirror, and when he met her eyes he nearly dropped the topic completely.
"Maybe because you haven't been 100% lately. Ever since Director Shepard--"
"Is that what this is about?" He interrupted, standing up. "Seriously?"
"Partially, yes."
Stunned by her admission, he sank back down onto the mattress. Normally, he was the first to admit that he hit a rough spot after Jenny's murder and his subsequent tour as Agent Afloat, but to hear someone else come out with it as openly as she had was new. He figured that it shouldn't have surprised him, seeing as Abby was one of the few people who weren't afraid to put him in his place.
Turning around, she draped her towel over the radiator and dropped onto the mattress next to him, resting her cheek against his shoulder. "You're not really mad at me about this, are you?"
He pressed a kiss to the top of her head and sighed quietly. "No, I guess I'm not. I just... didn't think things would change this much."
Their relationship had started almost immediately after he came back from his assignment aboard the Seahawk. Nothing much was different between them at first, aside from the fact that they each knew who the other was sleeping with, but the calm hadn't lasted long.
His guilt regarding the death of their former Director was dissipating, but it was hardly gone, and about a month into things he started pulling away. If he was being completely honest, he wasn't sure if he was ready for another long term relationship after the train wreck that was his breakup with Jeanne, but he also knew that Abby was different. That no matter how bad things got, they would be able to work it out.
"You didn't think this was gonna be smooth sailing, did you? Ready-made relationship?"
"Of course not," he admitted, glancing down when he felt her fingers lacing through his gently. "I don't know. I guess I just wish you had told me about this whole cluster before it happened."
"Everyone needs secrets," Abby said, squeezing his fingers. "We just have different secrets now than we did before."
There was a long pause, and when it was clear that Tony didn't have anything else to say, she spoke again.
"I was protecting NCIS," she confessed quietly. "I was protecting my job, the team... and you. I'm sorry that you got hurt by those jackasses at the facility and by my secrecy. I never meant to hurt you."
"I know," he said, tugging her over so that she was straddling his waist before kissing her soundly. "I know you didn't."
Abby smiled against his lips when she felt his hands pushing her robe off of her shoulders, sending the silky material to the ground. "So, does this mean you forgive me?" She asked, her hands coming up to thread through his thick hair.
He just kissed her again, turning their bodies so that she was pressed against the pillows and he was hovering above her. "Yeah, I do."