A/N: This is for Candy77, who asked if I could do a lighthearted Jenny and Abby mother and daughter type fic, so here goes. It's set after 'Skeletons' when Abby's boyfriend breaks up with her because she is too tall.

Sarah x


Jenny had heard from Ziva and Tony that Abby was having a rough time earlier that day. Temper tantrums over shoes? That wasn't like Abby at all. Ziva had told her that Abby had been dumped by her boyfriend because she was too tall. The same boyfriend she had been gushing about a mere ten weeks earlier. She was still a bit sad, too, according to Ziva, so Jenny was going to cheer her up the only way she knew how. Surprise her.

Jenny left the elevator and was pleased ear thumping music from the lab. She was carrying a box and a cool bag with her as she entered the lab. "ABBY!" she shouted with a smile. She had a notion of how the young woman felt. Not that she had been left because of some physical thing, but that she was miserable because she lost the one person she found she really connected with. Abby connected with McGee, Jenny noticed, but Gibbs and his rule number twelve made that slightly complicated. "How are you?" she smiled when the volume of the music reduced.

"I'm better," Abby allowed with a small smile. She looked at the box Jenny was holding with some curiosity. "Why did you bring a blender down here?"

"I came to see if a Mommy-daughter night would cheer you up. You refer to me as 'Mommy,' as I recall," she grinned, recalling the time when she had sent Tony home and she impersonated the resulting argument between her and Gibbs, giving the reason, "The kids don't like it when Mommy and Daddy fight."

"Still doesn't explain the blender," Abby challenged with a small smile. She did think of Jenny as a maternal figure in a lot of ways, just like Ziva did. She waited for Jenny to explain her actions while trying to figure out what she was doing in the first place.

"When I was a teenager," started Jenny. "My mom used to spend a night in with me when I was upset. Two of the things that entailed was homemade milkshake and a movie, both of which I have with me," she explained. Holding up a DVD, she said, "'Liar Liar.'"

"I love that film!" Abby replied with a grin. How did Jenny know that she liked that film? "And how the hell do you make milkshakes?"

"You never made milkshake as a kid?" asked Jenny incredulously.

"Nope. My parents hated the stuff." That was perfectly true. They both found it too sweet, but Abby, who seemed to be immune to the taste of sugar, found them delicious. It was only when she left home that she had started to drink them, and even then, she had no idea how to make them.

Jenny smiled and said, "Go plug in the food processor, Abs." While Abby pulled the cable to the plug extension, Jenny pulled out plain vanilla ice cream, full fat milk and different milk flavouring powders: chocolate, strawberry and banana. She retrieved the ice cream scoop and decided to make hers while showing Abby how to do it and then the younger woman could do her own. That was how you taught your kids stuff, right?

"Right," Jenny said, pouring milk into the blender. "You put three quarters of a pint of milk in the blender. Then you put four scoops of ice cream in," she instructed, doing so with some difficulty. The stuff was rock hard, and in the end Jenny had to hack at it and fill each scoop with the ice cream that came off.

"Then you pour some powder in, mainly because I forgot to take a spoon with me," she grinned, judging how much strawberry powder she had put in. She put the lid on and pressed the button to start the blades moving. "And you blend it until it's thick and there's no lumps."

She took out two large glasses, the plastic ones with the see-through straw that goes all the way around the glass, and poured her shake into the green one. "Your turn," she said with a smile. "Wait, are you having strawberry?"

"Chocolate," Abby shook her head.

"Let me go wash it out first." She didn't want the taste of the strawberry to mix with the chocolate. As she ran water into the jug, she smiled at how successful her plan was. Abby was grinning, and Jenny definitely saw a smirk when she discovered how hard the ice cream was. It was working, and Jenny was surprisingly comfortable here.

She returned and replaced the jug while Abby got to work. Jenny watched with satisfaction as the girl did everything perfectly, until she saw her finger move to the power button. "No, Abby!" she half-yelled to warn her of what was about to happen. Before they knew it, their tops were covered in milk, ice cream and chocolate powder. They looked down and then at each other and burst out laughing. Abby had forgotten to put the lid on the jug before starting the blender up.

Abby went through and got two of the old NIS shirts Gibbs had given her a long time ago to sleep in when she stayed the night here. Jenny smiled a little at the sight of them "Jethro gave you some of those, too." She, too, had worn her fair share of these things. They swapped their work clothing for the old t-shirts and tried the milkshake again, this time with the lid on the blender. It worked this time, and Jenny put the milk and ice cream back in the cool box so they didn't go off. "Can you load the DVD on the computer and put it on the plasma?"

"Sure."

Jenny turned her back to Abby and separated a huge bag of toffee popcorn into to pretty big bowls. She turned back to Abby to find the main menu of the film on the plasma and two chairs in front of the TV. "Damn, you're fast," she complimented.

"Thank you," replied Abby, handing Jenny her milkshake and accepting the popcorn that was placed on her lap. She quickly moved her chair to press play and returned to her position right next to Jenny at lightning speed.

"You're welcome." Jenny knew there was a double meaning in her thanks. She was grateful that someone had taken the time to spend the night with her and do something fun and normal. She felt better already, and Jim Carrey hadn't even started with the idiocy yet.

Halfway through the movie, the elevator pinged. They didn't hear Gibbs approach the lab with the intent of checking on Abby before heading home for the night. He was surprised to find Jenny, of all people, next to her in an identical NIS shirt, eating popcorn, drinking milkshake and laughing with her. He glanced at the evidence table and found the mess they hadn't cleaned up yet. Well, that explained the shirts at least. They must have gotten splashed with milkshake.

He walked back to the elevator, knowing that Abby was in capable hands. And here Jenny always told him that she had no maternal instincts whatsoever. Bull.


Hope you liked it!

Please review!

Sarah x