Tony noticed the blonde in Air Force dress blues as soon as she stepped off the elevator. She scanned the bullpen with the air of someone used to evaluating their surroundings. Her gaze focussed on Gibbs. Tony was entranced as a grin of pure mischief lit up her face, and struck dumb as her dancing eyes flicked to his and she held a finger to her lips, before turning to say something to her friends. She walked confidently through one of the other team's areas and along the back of the bullpen in order to come up behind Gibbs. Tony realised as she came closer that she was moving virtually silently, unnoticed by most of the agents on the floor.

Her eyes met Tony's again briefly as she stopped behind Gibbs. As she opened her mouth, Gibbs' hand shot out and grabbed her wrist, standing up and pulling her towards him in one fluid movement.

"Oh no you don't!" he warned, smirking down at her.

"Damn, it was worth a try though." she replied with a sparkling grin, and with that she wrapped her arms around him, her face nestled in his shoulder.

The shocked team just stared, trying to process what had just happened. Tony's muttered, "She's not even a redhead.", broke the daze everyone had fallen into. Sam's muffled giggle notified them that she and Gibbs had heard the comment too, and Tony cringed reflexively, anticipating the head slap he would likely receive.

"It's good to see you, Jethro."

"You too, Sam." They smiled at each other.

"So! I'm Tony di Nozzo, and you are?" Tony's smile was bright and hopeful.

"Tony!" Gibbs' tone was warning.

"It's OK, Jethro."

"It's not you I'm worried about, Sam, it's Tony." He smirked at Tony who was trying to decide if he had just been flattered or insulted, "She has a Level 3, Hand to Hand Combat."

"Stop trying to frighten him, Jethro, and introduce your team."

"Yes ma'am! Tony's already introduced himself, this is Special Agent McGee and Officer David. This is Colonel Sam Carter."

"You're Air Force. So what brings you to NCIS? Umm … sorry didn't mean that the way it sounded. No offence."

Sam laughed, "None taken. I was just in Washington for a thing, and decided to catch up with Jethro."

"Making friends, Carter?" The team had been so interested in the drama unfolding in front of them that they hadn't noticed the men walking up, and were surprised by the amused question from the grey haired General. "You can't take him home, there is no place on the plane."

Sam straightened to attention, but smiled at the General. Gibbs' mouth twitched but otherwise he gave no sign of having heard the comment. His team continued to watch the scene with interest.

"Sir, this is Special Agent Gibbs and his team, Jethro, this is General O'Neill, Dr Jackson and Murray."

After all the greetings had been exchanged, Gibbs caught Sam's hand and she turned to look at him. In response to the question in his eyes, she looked down, seeming strangely fragile for just a second, then meeting his eyes again, she squared her shoulders and nodded. He held her gaze for a long moment, thoughts and emotions flowing between them, before grabbing his phone and dialling.

"Abs, get your butt up here, asap."

Seeing the emotions in her eyes, he pulled her into his arms again and whispered in her ear.

Ducky motioned to the guys to step back towards the window as the elevator dinged and Gibbs and Sam stepped apart.

With a cry of "Sam-Sammity-Sam-Sam!", all the team saw was a blur of red and black with streaming ponytails, as Abby ran past and jumped into Sam's arms with a high pitched squeal. After Sam had set her down from swinging her round, the colours coalesced into a young Goth in red and black tartan with knee high boots.

"Sam. What you doing here? How are you? Where have you been? We haven't seen you in ages, what have you been doing?"

"Calm down, Abs. Breathe. Sorry, I know it's been a long time, but I don't get up to Washington all that often anymore. This was a rather sudden trip and I didn't have a chance to phone and let you know I was coming."

She caught Abs fist just before it made contact with Gibbs' shoulder.

"He didn't know either. Nobody did, I literally phoned Ducky half an hour ago, so he could arrange for entry."

Abby pouted briefly before her face settled back into a wide grin.

"We're going out. No arguments from anyone!" SG1 looked on with raised eyebrows as the NCIS team just smiled and accepted Abby's edict, only to feel the full force of Abby's personality when she turned to them.

"You guys too. We need to know what Sam's been up to these last few years. Besides," she continued in an aside to Sam, "they're hot!"


A/N: The first scene in "Surprise" could have ended two ways. I wrote the other one and it took off and ended up with a fic going in a totally different direction.