this is cooling

cross-posted to 8 gazillion places (aka ncisfanfic, zivaandmcgee, zivadavid, and tony_abby)

Title: Four Is Definitely A Crowd, ch. 5
Rating: PG-13
Category: Romance, Humor
Genre: Het
Pairing: Tony/Abby and McGee/Ziva
Summary: What happens when there's a wedding at NCIS? Not much. Well, how about when there are two?
Spoilers: Um, none, really.
Disclaimer: These characters belong to DPB, CBS, Paramount, et al. No copyright infringement is intended.
Author's Notes: Written for the wedding planner challenge at NCIS Fanfiction Addiction. Story is complete and will be updated once a day for 8 days. This chapter is kinda short, but the next one more than makes up for it.

Tim and Ziva had been kind enough to take me to meet the team’s medical examiner, a Dr. Mallard, who insisted I call him “Ducky.” They were very eager for me to meet him, and I wondered if there could possibly be anyone more surprising than Abby waiting for my introduction.

We entered autopsy, Tim and Ziva chattering excitedly between themselves, and they called to an older man across the room, who was hovered over a collection of belongings on one of the autopsy tables.

“Ducky!” Tim called, a smile in his voice. “We have someone we’d like to introduce you to.”

He looked up from his recorder and quickly clicked it off. “Oh, wonderful.” I smiled at his charming accent, and he walked to us. “And who, pray tell, would this lovely lady be?”

“This,” Ziva spoke up, “is our wedding planner, Gretchen Overby.”

“Hi,” I said, amusement in my voice. This team was getting more interesting by the minute.

“Why, it is a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Overby,” Ducky said, taking my hand and pressing a kiss to the back of it.

I blushed. He really was charming, that much was obvious. “Please, call me Gretchen.”

I glanced at Ziva and Tim and saw them exchanging grins. Tim turned back to us and continued. “Ziva has asked Ducky to walk her down the aisle.” I turned back to the doctor, surprised. He was nodding, smiling genially. “And Abby has asked Agent Gibbs to walk her down the aisle.”

I turned back to Tim, suddenly confused. “So how is that going to work? Who’s going in first?”

“We haven’t exactly figured that out yet,” Ziva admitted, her hands nervously fiddling in one of Tim’s pants pockets.

I raised an eyebrow at them. “Well, it’s something that’s fairly important, so you should figure it out quickly. I mean, I can still do my job without knowing who’s going in first, but you all need to figure that out on your own.”

“We can’t decide,” Ziva spit out, and Tim shot her a tiny glare. She shrugged and removed her hand from his pocket, then continued. “We were discussing it and thought an uninvolved third party may be better suited to make this decision.”

I gave her a look. “You want me to decide what order you girls walk in?”

Both Tim and Ziva nodded.

I groaned. “Well, I can’t make a decision like that.”

“Please, Gretchen,” Tim begged me. “We want this to be perfect. You have to choose.”

I wanted to back down again, but the puppy dog look he was giving me made me melt, and I found myself consenting to their plan. “Fine. Fine, but I’ll need to observe a rehearsal of the ceremony with all the options before I make any final decisions.”

“Of course,” Tim said, looking relieved. He turned to Ziva and took her hand in his, squeezing it, then looked back to me. “We’ll go make arrangements with Tony and Abby.”

They exited the morgue hand-in-hand, headed for Abby’s lab, and I turned back to Ducky. “So, I don’t suppose you have any interesting stories to tell about these four?”

He chuckled, leading me towards the door, flicking off the lights as we exited. “Oh, my dear, more than you could possibly imagine.”