En masse

Gibbs glanced over at Tony’s desk and frowned again when it was still empty. He knew Tony had requested the day off to prepare for the Friday the 13th party he was throwing to help Abby get over her triskaidekaphobia, but he kept hoping he’d magically appear anyway. Tony had already talked him into coming to the party a week ago.

It started at 6 sharp and even Vance knew that no active cases would be allowed to interfere with the party. He wouldn’t be surprised if Tony had talked half the office into coming. He still wasn’t sure how Tony had talked Abby into coming, but Tony had assured him he had it handled.

While Gibbs missed Tony, Tony was inundated with party supplies. He’d tried to get everything Abby liked so the whole place was decorated in halloween items especially spider webs and cute little bats and anything else that screamed Abby. The nuns were a great help. They’d agreed to help him host it at the bowling alley as well as get Abby there in time for the party.

Back at NCIS Gibbs watched as en masse the vast majority of the NCIS agents exited for the day to head to the party. He let them get a head start knowing that he could quickly catch up to the masses on the road.

Finally, Tony thought he had everything prepared which was a good thing as the guests should start arriving in 15 minutes and then the nuns would bring Abby by 15-30 minutes later. The bowling alley was decorated like a combination of halloween and freaky friday. They’d also put a couple of thirteens on the wall truly trying to help her get through her triskaidekaphobia.

En masse the guests started to arrive. More than 20 people arrived every minute for the first few minutes including Gibbs and then they were just waiting for Abby. He hoped this party truly helped her get over her triskaidekaphobia.

Finally, the nuns arrived en masse with Abby and the party was really able to get started. They had bowling setup and music so that people could be dancing and of course food and many other party games. Tony didn’t know what the nuns did to get Abby there, but she was obviously still scared and stiff and didn’t know what to do at this party, so he got up and dragged her to start bowling figuring that was something she knew how to do and that it would help her relax.

The nuns bowled with Abby and slowly she started to relax. Some of the braver agents eventually asked Abby to dance with them and soon she was really letting loose on the dance floor. By the time the party was over her triskaidekaphobia had been practically erased. It wasn’t completely gone fears like that don’t just vanish that easily, but it would be easier next time.