Leroy Jethro Gibbs hated selling things. He hated it with a deep and abiding passion. He'd never even had a paper route as a kid. Luckily, his father had had sense enough not to suggest it. He shuddered to think what the results would have been. It wouldn't likely have involved bloodshed, but only because he had not been combat trained yet. Granted, collecting donations for charity wasn't quite the same as selling things, but it all boiled down to the same thing. People would either do it, or they wouldn't, and he saw very little point in trying to convince them otherwise. If they didn't have sense enough to want to support the cause on their own, there really wasn't much he could do to persuade them. Sure, he could be persuasive, with the right motivation. He was damn good at it in interrogation or undercover, but this whole soliciting donations bit he could do without. So why in the hell had he ever let Leigh talk him into it?
Because it was Leigh, and she was his down to the marrow of bones. He loved both girls, absolutely and without question. He'd die or kill for either one of them without a moment's hesitation, but Leigh was different. He knew it, she knew it, and Katie knew it. They never talked about it, but none of them were stupid enough to deny it existed. He'd never let the difference allow him to treat them any differently, and he never would, but there were times when he saw so much of himself in Leigh that it was scary. Especially now that she had followed him into the military. So, yes, he'd let her talk him into joining some charity's Stand At Attention contest. Some crazy publicity stunt to have a battle between the various branches of the military to see which one could stand at attention the longest. Of course, they were also trying to gather donations in favor of their particular branch for the charity. Right now, Leigh was beating him by miles from the donations department. She had enough of her mother's vivacious to be really good at that sort of thing. He, on the other hand, could care less. The charity was worthy enough, and he had no problem supporting it, but he'd be damned if he was going around begging people for donations. He'd write them a check himself and be done with it. Of course, that did nothing to stop these daily phone calls he was getting from Leigh so that she could gloat over beating him.
However, if Leigh thought for one minute she was going to outlast him when it came to standing at attention on the day of the competition, she was sorely mistaken. He might be older, but he also had the benefit of several decades of experience and practice over her, no few of which were as a sniper in situations where his entire survival depended on his ability to stand still. She might have survived the Naval Academy, but she was still a wet behind the ears Ensign. She didn't stand a chance.
A/N: This idea came from an actual contest that is being held on Sept. 7. More info. can be found here:
activeheroes stand/. (You'll need to remove the spaces)