SPOILER FOR 'SWITCH' - If you are not happy with the prospect of Abby getting Gibbs slapped - don't read. This is my first venture into this type of fic.


LAB RATS

"This is not good. This is not good. This is not good" Abby muttered over and over as she paced up and down in her lab.

"Will you calm down!" Tony sighed as he sat on the edge of her desk, dangling his legs and tapping his fingers nervously on his knees.

"You saw the look on his face Tony, we are in so much trouble" she whined.

"Chill out Abbs, he's gonna leave us sweating down here for at least another 30 minutes, so take my advice and CHILL!"

Abby slumped in her chair.

Gibbs had just ordered them out of the garage and back to the lab. They had been caught playing paintball. Abby had been bored and when Tony suggested a little game using the guns she had gotten from an earlier case with some ROTC kids, she had been only too happy to join him. They had been playing for about 20 minutes, when Gibbs had entered the garage looking for Tony, who was avoiding his paper work again. Unfortunately, Abby had mistaken him for Tony and shot him full in the butt. Gibbs was less than happy having a pink luminous splat on the seat of his pants. The shot had also smarted like hell, and he had been left with a welt on his butt the size of a quarter.

"This is your fault Tony. I should never have agreed to join you in your stupid game of paintball" she wailed.

She froze on the spot and then gasped, her hands finding their way to her head in horror

"What do you think he's gonna do to us Tony?"

"Best not to think about that" Tony winced, "but I reckon I'm gonna be seeing stars pretty soon"

"Tony?"

"Yeah Abbs"

"I pissed Gibbs off last week and he said that if he had to start smacking me like he does with you…..it….uhm….. it wouldn't be on the head" Abby gulped.

Tony couldn't help but break into uncontrollable laughing,

"Ha! Oh God Abby, you really are in serious trouble" he chuckled, "your butt is doomed Scuito!"

"Stop it Tony! You're freaking me out. Gibbs wouldn't actually spank me….would he?"

"If he's gonna slap you and it's not on the head Abby, where do you think he's gonna smack you? Huh? It won't be on the face, that's humiliating...soooo...that only leaves your….other….cheeks" Tony grinned

"Ouch!" Abby winced.

"You'll be saying more than that when Gibbs hauls you across his knee!" Tony teased.

"DiNozzo" Abby growled and punched him on the arm.

"I hate all this waiting!" she continued.

Tony got up from the desk and started pacing the floor, hands in his pockets.

"It's all part of Gibbs routine Abby, the anticipation of the interrogation is sometimes worse than the actual event" Tony explained,

"We could always take a more….radical….approach. If you're up for it" he added

"What do you mean a radical approach?" she asked curiously.

"We could make a run for it"

"No way!"

"Why not?"

"Because!"

"Why?"

"If we go AWOL, Gibbs will really kill us!"

"You chicken?"

"No I'm not chicken!"

"Sounds like it….buck! buck! buck!"

"I am not chicken"

"So are we going to make a run for it?"

"Tony, we can't make a run…"

"You two are in enough trouble already! I wouldn't push it by going AWOL!" Gibbs barked

He had entered the lab silently, stunning Abby and Tony into silence and making them snap in line and to attention. They both gulped nervously.

Gibbs paced up and down in front of them, using the silence to make them even more nervous. He had changed into a clean set of pants. As he paced, he instinctively put his hand to the welt on his butt which he could still feel smarting.

Abby couldn't bear the silence and spoke up first,

"Gibbs, I know what we did was wrong and completely irresponsible, we are really, really sorry and it won't happen again"

Gibbs stopped mid pace and turned to face Abby, he brought his face close to hers and eyeballed her coldly,

"Oh you will be sorry all right" he whispered quietly.

Abby winced and started to whine,

"I'm sensing that you are really angry aren't you Gibbs"

"Ya think Abby? You shot me in the butt! Do you think I'd be Mr Happy?"

"Don't shout! I hate it when you shout!" Abby protested.

"Yeah, well I hate it when you shoot me!" Gibbs yelled back in response.

Tony sighed heavily, all this arguing was delaying the inevitable head-slap and lecture and staring and lecturing and staring……

His audible sigh distracted Gibbs and it was his turn to get eyeballed as his glare ensured complete eye to eye contact.

"You're very quiet DiNozzo, what do you have to say for yourself?"

"It's not my fault you got shot boss. It was Abby who made the kill shot!"

"So it wasn't your idea to play paintball in the first place?"

"Well...uhm…yeah!"

"Well in my book, that makes you just as guilty!" Gibbs growled.

"That's not fair boss!" Tony squealed.

"I decide what is fair and what is not DiNozzo!" Gibbs yelled and then took a deep breath.

He continued to pace for a few moments and then turned to face the two rogues.

"Abby, do you remember what I told you last week?"

"Don't drink too much Caff-Pow?" she gambled on her response.

"No"

"You don't believe in coincidences?" she vainly added, biting her bottom lip.

"No" Gibbs rebuked quietly and then continued,

"In the garage, what I said, when I told you what I would do to you if I had to start smacking you like I do to DiNozzo"

Abby gulped, "Yeah, I remember" she hung her head looking sheepishly at the ground.

"Well you are about to find out!"

Gibbs took Abby by the arm and led her to the only chair in the lab. He sat down, wincing as he did, and pulled her over his lap and without hesitating delivered two sharp slaps to her behind.

"Ow!" Abby squeaked before Gibbs flipped her up and she stood next to Tony, her hand immediately finding its way to her backside to rub.

Tony winced as Abby received her punishment, partly because he felt sorry for her, partly because he knew he was next.

Gibbs walked over to Tony and whacked him hard on the back of the head,

"Ouch boss!" he grimaced.

"You will also be gassing the truck for a month!" Gibbs snapped,

Tony opened his mouth to protest but immediately closed it as a certain eyebrow was raised which he knew meant business.

"Now what do you two have to say for yourselves?" Gibbs said firmly

"Sorry boss" they both muttered,

"If I ever catch you two playing paintball in here again, when you should be working, believe me, I'll be posting vacancies for a lab tech and a field agent quicker than you can say NCIS. You got me?"

They both nodded and Gibbs turned on his heel and left the lab.

"Ow!" Abby complained, "that really hurt!"

Tony winced, rubbing his head and blinking rapidly to regain his vision "yeah, Abbs, don't worry, you'll be fine, at least you don't have a constellation swimming in your eyes right now"

Tony smiled sweetly, "At least you have the privilege of being one of the few who pulled a gun on Gibbs and lived!"