Lachrymose - Five Prompts Version

Tony ventured down into Nikki's lab with a slight bit of trepidation. The last time he'd been down here, she'd burst into tears due to some mishap with the evidence. Most of the time the requirements for handling evidence prevented flare ups of Nikki’s germophobia, but apparently someone hadn’t followed procedures and Nikki had freaked out.

Nikki wasn’t normally lachrymose. She usually had a good handle on her triggers. Plus, her line of work made it normal to wear gloves and take other precautions that appealed to her germaphobe side.

She wasn’t always fast, but she was thorough and never left any room for her evidence to be questioned in court. Gibbs hated the way that she stuck to the rules and never cut corners or sped things up to make him happy, but Tony knew that her insistence on thoroughness was the only reason that Gibbs was able to get away with as much as he was and still put the criminals behind bars. Speaking of fast, Abby, the gothic Intel Analyst could talk your ear off.

Boy, she must spend all her time on the phone gathering data because her mouth was always going a mile a minute whenever he ended up near the Intel Analysts or she had something for a case of theirs and came to the bullpen. Fortunately for Tony, Nikki was back to her normal self today. The lab was completely spotless.

The tables, counter, workstation, and computer were all spic and span. Not a dust mote to be found anywhere. Tony had offered to come down so as to spare Nikki Gibbs’ temper if she didn’t have anything.

Tony was used to taking Gibbs’ temper and he didn’t mind. Especially when it was so obvious that Gibbs was equally pissy with everyone and didn’t single anyone out as his favorite. Nikki was their best forensic scientist, however, and Tony didn’t want Gibbs to scare her off.

She seemed to be made of sterner stuff than their previous couple of forensic scientists, but Tony wasn’t taking any chances and would spare her as much of Gibbs’ temper as he could. He liked the quality of her work and found her easier to get along with than any of the previous forensic scientists. Unlike Abby who was practically a fixture as an Intel Analyst, though Tony had heard rumors that Abby was considering applying to be a field agent.

He could only hope those stayed rumors. The idea of Abby and McGee out in the field together terrified him. They were both so needing of protection. Tony shuddered at the very idea.

“How are things coming on our case?”

“Good. Tell Gibbs we’ll have the full results in a couple of hours, but preliminary results indicate you’re looking for a red-headed female.”

Tony nodded. “Thanks.”

He couldn’t wait to tell Gibbs this news. Another red-headed female? As if the boss, didn’t already have enough exes.

Tony shook his head. Maybe he would keep this update to himself for a while, yet. At least, until they had more to go on besides the boss’ favorite hair color for ladies.

Abby rushed down the stairs to the bullpen from the Intel Analyst’s area. “I found it.”

Tony turned to Abby with interest. “Found what?”

“The red-head associated with your case.”

“What red-head?” Gibbs growled.

Tony cringed. “Sorry, boss. I was going to tell you. Nikki’s preliminary analysis suggests a red-headed female.”

Gibbs slapped Tony on the back of the head and turned to Abby. “Well?” Gibbs snarled, gesturing towards the TV for Abby to get a move on and show them what she found.

Abby gulped and turned towards Tim, who quickly worked his magic and displayed the information from Abby’s tablet on the screen. Gibbs nodded as Abby explained and ordered her to get them a warrant as the rest of the team left to search the most likely areas their suspect would be now that they knew who she was. When Gibbs received the phone call that the warrant had come through, he gestured for the team to take down the suspect.

By the time they got back to headquarters, Nikki had finished her analysis and between that and Abby’s intel report, they practically didn’t need the suspect’s confession. Though, of course, Gibbs got one without any trouble.