AN: GeekLoveFan won this a very long time ago and I just got it finished now. It was an elements challenge that was required to be: a Jibbs one-shot containing the following elements: a baseball, a framed picture of Jen and Gibbs, a broken fingernail, lip gloss, and the line, "Fornell can shove it up his **" I changed a few small things, but in my mind it meets the standards.
She could vaguely remember agreeing to something involving the word softball at the last inter-agency meeting, but that did not prepare her for the memo she received in her inbox in late May:
Inter-agency softball league starts June sixth Directors are reminded to turn in their roster to Agent Tobias Fornell, FBI, by June first.
She allowed herself a brief laugh at Fornell's expense knowing that his leading position was not of his own doing and probably had more to do with how he had decked Gibbs during the last joint investigation. She typed a quick memo of her own and sent it agency wide:
Players requested for inter-agency softball game. If interested see Director Sheppard.
By noon she had received no fewer than 20 applications spanning the entire agency from legal all the way to the basement geeks. The way things were going it looked like she was going to have to hold tryouts to be on the team. She sent out another memo saying that tryouts would be held May 29 in the NCIS gym.
On the appointed date she walked into the NCIS gym to a crowd of exactly 67 people all eager to as Tony had put it, "Whoop that Federal Bunch of Idiots." She scanned the crowd of people looking for Jethro's silver head, and came up empty. She quickly pulled out her phone and pressed speed-dial number one. He answered after the first ring sounding only slightly frightened. "Jethro Gibbs," she hissed, "You are supposed to be here!"
"Relax, Jen, I am here."
"I don't see you. You have to help me run this thing. I don't know shit about softball!" She was almost in hysteria.
"I'm coming out of the locker room, Jen." He sounded condescending. "And I can take you for a batting lesson before we play."
"What makes you think-"She started, but he hung-up on her as he waved at her from across the gym. When he came to stand behind her, she finished her thought. "What makes you think I'm playing?"
"You're too competitive not to." She scoffed at his assessment.
"Fine, do you think we should take this shindig outside?"She questioned giving him the nicest glare she could.
"Eh, let's thin the crowd first. Make them run a lap around the building."
"Whatever you say master baseball man." She smirked. To the crowd she said. "Everyone outside we're going to run a lap before we start." There was a collective groan and she was sure that more than half of them were going to drop out.
True to form at the end of the lap there were precisely 26 people left most of whom—with the exception of Ziva—were panting like they had just run a 5k. She turned to her former partner. "What next?"
"They can all be on the team, but let's do some catching before we tell them that."
"You're evil."
"So they tell me." He turned to the crowd. "Grab a ball and a partner!" There was a mad scrambling as everyone rushed to the bucket and grabbed their partners. After they'd accomplished this feat, they all turned to the impromptu leader. "Throw them back and forth from 20 yards away." Everyone spread out around the hot asphalt, and began whaling the bright yellow balls at eachother.
She stood away from the mass of prospective team members trying her best to judge their ability despite her lack of softball experience. She caught sight of Tony and Ziva. He lobbed her a gentle pitch, which she returned with deadly accuracy and speed. Jenny watched as Tony dropped the ball and took off his glove to cradle his hand. She had just found a pitcher. She let everyone keep passing for five more minutes. "Alright! That's enough for today, congratulations you've all made it onto the team. Are first game is on June sixth at four."
There was a group wide cheer followed by a mass exodus of people.
Batting Cages June Fifth
She watched as he swung the bat back and forth warming up. He hit the button and stepped to the plate then made a perfect swing hitting the oncoming ball. "I'll never be able to do that," she said doubting her hand-eye coordination.
He hit another ball before answering her, "You'll be fine, come here." He guided her to the plate and put her hands on the bat before grabbing her hips and standing behind her. He placed his hands over hers and swung the bat. She was jolted a little bit, but after the third swing she felt she had the hang of it. He let go of the bat and said, "Try it by yourself." She watched the machine discharge the ball and swung striking it squarely. She turned around ecstatic and kissed him full on the mouth not caring who was watching—until she heard a click.
June Sixth 3:30 P.M.
She and Jethro arrived at the field early to scope out the competition only to meet one Tobias Fornell. He looked much too happy. He motioned for her to come towards him and when she and Jethro both started to move he waved him off. When she reached him, she spoke in a clipped tone. "What do you want?"
"Your and Gibbs' autographs." He pulled something out of his back pocket and unrolled the magazine to reveal the front cover of a major D.C. tabloid that starred "The Wayward Director and Her Lovestruck Agent." She grabbed the paper from him and stormed back to where Gibbs was standing.
"Look at what Fornell found." She shoved the tabloid under his nose. "They saw us at the batting cages. Fornell wants and autographed copy."
"Fornell can shove it up his ass. This tabloid had no right to print this." He was almost red with rage.
"In case you hadn't noticed, my private life is fair-game." She took a deep breath. "I have an idea." She took out her lipstick and smeared a bright red swath on her lips before kissing the tabloid. "Do you have a sharpie?" He pulled a pen out of his pocket, and she signed it before marching back to Fornell.
She handed it to him very proud of herself. "You should get it framed." He only stared at her in shock. She marched back to where Jethro was waiting and greeted him, "Hello lovestruck agent." She kissed him. "Guess there's no secret anymore." He simply looked at her like she had grown wings or suddenly erupted in hives.
They were almost at the end of the game with Ziva pitching when she caught a ball wrong and Jenny heard the slight snap of a nail. Ziva dropped the ball and grabbed her hand before letting out a few choice words in Hebrew. Jenny was playing second base so she jogged over to the mound. "Are you ok to keep pitching?"
"I don't believe so." She looked down at the finger to see a small trickle of blood. Jenny looked around and motioned at Gibbs who also came running to the mound.
"Jethro, you have to pitch the rest of the game." He nodded accepting his charge and took the ball from Ziva before she jogged off the field to applause.
It was bottom of the ninth bases loaded and they were only up by one with two outs it all came down to his last pitch. Fornell walked up to bat and Gibbs' pitched a fast ball to win. The final score was only 3-4.
AN: So what did you think? Good? Bad? Funny? Silly? Please leave a review. :)