NCIS. Abby/Kate. 014. Green. *
Title: Prettiest Green Eyes Anywhere
Fandom: NCIS
Characters: Abigail Sciuto, Caitlin Todd, Tony DiNozzo, Jethro Gibbs
Prompt: 014 Green
Word Count: 485
Rating: PG
Summary: Why has Kate only drawn caricatures of Abby?
Author's Notes: Title is from Elvis Presley's "Marie's the Name (of His Latest Flame)." And I already wrote 4,000 words today. Would someone PLEASE tell my brain that there is NO WAY a 4,000-word day can count as a failure?! *sighs* Anyway, my inferiority complex forced me to write one more before it let me go to bed. I'm sort of glad it did, although if it could've given me a little less grief on the plot... *glares*
Little Damn Table
Kate leaned back in her chair, pinching a handful of colored pencils between her thumb and forefinger. She'd spent an hour getting the shape of the face right and now she was working diligently on eye color. The green was far too green. The green-blue was too blue. She tried mixing a couple of the colors together, shading and experimenting on scrap paper. Nothing seemed to make them come out right.
She sighed and swiveled her chair around, putting the colored pencils down and searching her pens. "Tony, do you have a green pen? Or a green sharpie, maybe?"
"Nope, sorry," Tony said, not looking up from his newspaper. "What do you need it for?"
"Nothing, I just..." she sighed and shook her head. "Nothing."
Tony put his paper down and craned his neck to see. "You drawing another picture?"
She closed the book. "No."
"You are!" Tony said. "Now, let's see... green pen. Why would you need a green pen?"
Kate sighed, knowing he wouldn't leave it alone. "Abby's eyes, okay?"
"Really," Tony said, sitting on the edge of her desk. "All the drawings I've seen are black-and-white. Why the sudden change in direction?"
Kate shook her head. "I do color sometimes. Not often, because it's so hard to get the colors just right."
"Yeah, it's a shame," he said. He picked up the book, Kate half-heartedly grabbing for it and eventually giving up. He flipped through a couple and said, "Hey, this is weird..."
"What's weird?"
"You do a lot of really realistic pictures... like this one of me," he said, showing her. "Really great, by the way, I think you really captured my essence. But there aren't any realistic pictures of Abby." He flipped through again. "Ducky, Gibbs, me, Gibbs, me, Ducky... you have a couple of cartoon Abbys but no realistic ones. Why is that?"
Gibbs called to them from the top of the stairs. "Yo, DiNozzo. Sign out the truck, get it gassed up. We have a call."
Tony sighed and handed the book back to her. "We're not done with this," he assured her.
"Oh, yes, we are," Kate argued.
She stuffed the pad into her bag, zipping it shut as she pulled her jacket from the back of her chair. The real reason she'd never drawn a successful, realistic Abby was because she couldn't. She didn't know why, exactly, but she had never been able to artistically render the people she really loved. She always idealized them too much, perfected their features in their mind so much that nothing she ever put on paper could possibly compare.
It was why she had another pad at home, filled entirely with pairs of green eyes framed by black eyeliner. One day she'd get it right. Until then, she'd just have to force Abby to continue posing for her.
She smiled at the thought as she joined Tony in the elevator.