The soft hum of machines and the rhythmic beeping of scanners filled the NCIS forensics lab—Abby Sciuto’s kingdom of high-tech precision and organized chaos. She stood in front of her monitors, her pigtails bouncing slightly as she leaned over a fingerprint comparison, her eyes sharp with focus.

Glancing down at a swab of dried blood from the latest crime scene, she carefully placed it into the analyzer, watching as the data began to process. “Come on, baby,” she whispered to the machine, “give me a match…”

Just then, the familiar sound of boots on tile echoed down the hallway. Without looking up, she grinned. “Gibbs,” she said before he even entered. “You’re exactly 90 seconds behind my Caf-Pow craving.”

Sure enough, Leroy Jethro Gibbs walked in, holding out the massive neon cup filled with her favorite energy drink. “You’re scary when you do that,” he muttered, but with a small, amused smile.

Abby accepted the drink like a sacred gift, sipping dramatically before turning back to her monitors. “So, what brings you to my dungeon of evidence and enlightenment?”

“There’s a new helper starting today,” Gibbs said, glancing around the lab as if expecting them to appear. “Just graduated college—top of their class. You’ll be showing them the ropes.”

Abby raised an eyebrow, intrigued. “Oh! A fresh mind to mold… I love it.” She spun back toward her workstation, already mentally reorganizing her week. “Do they know how to pipette without contaminating a sample? Or how to run DNA through CODIS without crashing the system?”

“They will,” Gibbs said, already turning to leave. “They’ve got you.”

With a wide grin, Abby turned back to her evidence, excitement buzzing just under the surface. New minds, new mysteries, and the thrill of solving them—just another day in Abby Sciuto’s lab.