During her time on NCIS, Abby Sciuto, played by Pauley Perrette, was one of the most prominent characters on the show. A fan favorite, she is known for her goth aesthetic, her happy and enthusiastic demeanor, and her addiction to caffeine, particularly the fictional drink Caf-Pow.

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Abby cares greatly for her team, who she considers her friends, and is very protective of them. Those friends, especially Leroy Jethro Gibbs, are equally protective of her. But in spite of Abby's closeness with her teammates, her backstory and personal life are less explored onscreen than others. Because her story is less explored, here are 10 things you may not know about Abby.

She Sleeps In A Coffin

In the twenty-third episode of the first season, it had been long-since established that Abby and Timothy McGee were seeing each other, at least casually. Toward the beginning of the episode, McGee, who still works out of the Norfolk NCIS office, is shown with Abby at the Washington D.C. office, where he asks Gibbs to stay and help him find a terrorist, who would later be revealed as Ari Haswari.

After getting the okay from Gibbs, Gibbs asks Abby if McGee had stayed over with her. She confirms, which leads Gibbs to ask McGee if he had slept in the coffin. From the conversation McGee and Abby have following Gibbs's question, it is implied that Abby also slept in the coffin, and does so regularly.

She Has Two Pet Peeves

In the ninth episode of Season 5, Abby can't find a hair sample she needs in a box of evidence she received from Metro P.D.. While she looks for it, she quizzes McGee what her biggest pet peeve is. He first replies that it's people who say they are vegetarian but then eat chicken. She confirms and then asks for her second pet peeve, to which McGee replies that it's mishandled evidence. Abby then complains about mishandled evidence whenever she works a cold case.

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She Had A Fear Of Autopsy

In the sixteenth episode of Season 1, Ducky and his assistant Gerald are held captive in Autopsy by Ari, who was an unknown assailant at the time. Ari wanted to collect the body of a dead terrorist held by NCIS, including the blood Ducky had drawn and given to Abby the night before. Abby does not want to bring the blood down to Autopsy due to a nightmare she had weeks prior in which her own body had been autopsied.

Ari at first does not believe that Abby is truly afraid of autopsy because of her role as a forensic scientist, but Gerald confirms that it would be entirely possible for her in particular to develop such a fear.

She Keeps A Toothbrush At McGee's Apartment

In the twenty-first episode of Season 3, the team is led to believe that Abby is being targeted, and her ex-boyfriend, Mikel Mawher, is the main suspect due to his history of stalking her. For her safety and on Gibbs's orders, she stays with McGee at his apartment until the case is solved.

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When at McGee's apartment, she loses her toothbrush, and instead of letting her check his car, McGee tells her that she could use her old one, which was still in his bathroom, likely from back when they were casually seeing each other in Season 1.

Her Parents Are Deaf

In the third episode of Season 1, Gibbs and his team go over evidence in Abby's lab from the crime scene of the death of a Naval Commander. Gibbs gives his team various assignments and discusses the case with Tony DiNozzo when Abby waves him down through a window in another room. She starts to sign her findings to Gibbs, and Gibbs signs back to her. DiNozzo asks Gibbs about it, having not known that either of them could sign. As Gibbs is still signing with Abby, he tells DiNozzo that Abby's parents were deaf.

She's Adopted

In the fourth episode of Season 9, Abby applies to be a kidney donor for a complete stranger. She not only finds out that she is a match, but that someone else who has DNA 99.9% similar DNA to her own is also a match. After calling her brother Luca, who doesn't know about it, she and McGee spend time in the episode trying to find the other donor. McGee eventually does find him and gives the information to Gibbs to give to Abby.

After meeting the man, she deduces that her loving family would not give up a child for adoption and runs a DNA test on herself and a lock of her mother's hair from her locket. The DNA does not match, causing her to figure out she had been adopted.

She Has Two Brothers

Abby grew up with Luca Sciuto, who she originally thought was her biological brother. However, as mentioned earlier,she figures out that she is adopted, making her and Luca adopted siblings. In the process of finding out she was adopted, she finds out she has a biological brother named Kyle Davis.

Even after her discovery, Abby seemingly remains close with Luca, even though they do not appear to speak to each other often. She also tries reconnecting with Kyle about a year after first meeting him. They hit it off right away and are shown to have similar personality traits, such as showing affection to their loved ones, including Gibbs, and a love for animals.

She Was A Cheerleader In High School

Once again in Season 9, when Abby was still trying to figure out why she had a 99.9% match with someone she didn't know, Abby calls her aunt to see if she had answers. The audience only witnesses Abby's side of the conversation, who struggles to receive straight answers due to her aunt's dementia.

At one point during the conversation, Abby says, "No, I'm not a cheerleader anymore," followed by, "I graduated high school a long time ago." This implies that she was only a cheerleader during her time in high school, which may come as a surprise due to her goth aesthetic.

She Was Created To Break Stereotypes

In multiple interviews, Perrette mentioned that Donald P. Bellisario created Abby to combat the stereotype surrounding goths. He and Perrette wanted Abby to look alternative, but be happy, enthusiastic, put-together, and smart as a contrast to how goths normally are portrayed in the media. She would even go on to say that Abby would not self-identify as a goth, but rather would self-identify as Abby.

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While Abby does enjoy having tattoos and piercings and dressing in a stereotypically goth way, she is only looking to be herself rather than follow any specific trend.

Pauley Perrette Has A Degree In Criminal Science

According to an interview with Craig Ferguson during his time hosting The Late Late Show, Perrette has a life-long obsession with studying crime. She told Ferguson that she studied sociology, psychology, and criminal science as an undergraduate and that she started to get a master's degree in criminal science before she pursued acting and a career in the entertainment industry.

She continued to say that she intended to become a forensic scientist like Abby before becoming an actress and that she felt that the stars aligned when she was given the role.

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