I am feeling very generous this weekend! I posted the second-last chapter of "Glittery Grumps" this week and the final chapter a couple of hours ago. Tomorrow will be the debut of "Echoes", but I was too eager to share this to wait any longer! fiftyshadeswritergal and I have been having lots of fun writing scenarios based on prompts. Thanks to those who reviewed the previous one ("My Fault") - Troubled-Angel-26, Hippiechic81, smush68, A, fiftyshadeswritergal, and KrisShannon. I appreciated the kind words and encouragement!
One-shot. CONTAINS DISCUSSION OF SPANKING! Don't read if that will offend you. Thanks!
Scenario (provided by fiftyshadeswritergal):
Abby becomes obsessed with a case that one of the victims is sure includes brushes with a ghost. She tries to prove a ghostly involvement rather than focusing on the evidence. What does Gibbs do? Flash forward: it's two days later and she's still spending 90 percent of her time on the ghost theory. How does Gibbs respond now?
I tried writing this from Abby's POV.
Enjoy!
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It was just too amazing! Ziva came in and told me that one of the witnesses in our latest cases believed that the culprit was actually her dead boyfriend - so a ghost culprit! I was totally amazed - and equally amazed when Tim came rushing in and got annoyed that Ziva had told me.
"Don't blow it out of proportion, Abby," he told me sternly. I don't like it when Tim tries to be stern. I need him to be the youngest boy in our "family". It isn't fun when he tries to act all "grown-up" likes Gibbs and Tony. Like we are all really good at our jobs and we're all adults, of course, but sometimes it is fun to pretend. Gibbs is such a dad after all, and all of us love it (even when we hate it).
I didn't think that I blew it out of proportion - after all, the witness said that she thought the culprit was a ghost and I would be remiss not to examine that possibility extremely thoroughly. Unfortunately, Gibbs' didn't share my view.
"Don't blow it out of proportion, Abs," he told me sternly. Hey, anyone else sensing deja vu here?
"I won't," I said, rolling my eyes at his distrust. Gibbs saw. Gibbs does not like me rolling my eyes at him. Gibbs thinks that is being disrespectful. Gibbs has a rule for me that says that I get in trouble for being disrespectful. Now I finally enter into this story. Unfortunately, it was not a fun entrance. Gibbs swatted me - not hard enough to even sting, but I still didn't like it.
"Ouch!" I whined loudly.
Yes, I was being dramatic but that's just who I am. Most of the time no one even minds. I don't think Gibbs minded - too much. He just gave me "the look" and gave me a very stern, very clear warning.
"Stop investigating the ghost idea, Abs. I need your full focus on the true facts of this case."
"Okay, okay," I grumbled, earning myself another swat. That one tingled a tiny bit. Maybe Tony had gotten on his nerves earlier that day because he was a little less patient than normal.
"Full focus," he said with that warning tone before he vanished from my lab.
Well, was I to listen to Gibbs or do my job? Because although you might think that if I listened to Gibbs I'd still be doing my job - and perhaps, looking back, that would right - I really wanted to check out that ghost lead. Like I mentioned before, it's pretty amazing that I had heard about it. It must have been destiny for me to be the scientist on this case.
Or so I though. Maybe it was fate - as in fateful fate.
Now I'm not dumb. I hid my side research on the ghost theory all through the first day. I focused really hard on the "true facts" and spit out results along with my friends the computers. Gibbs seemed pleased. But the second day I guess I let my focus wander a little. Wouldn't yours if you were in my place? So it happened that Gibbs sneaked up on me. I was reading on a website about paranormal activity and suddenly - poof! - he appeared next to me. I nearly jumped out of my skin.
"The facts?" he asked calmly, turning my computer chair so that I had to look at him. Boy, it's hard to look at Gibbs when you've just disobeyed a direct order from him. I tried to mumble something about facts and ghost testimonials - I can't remember what I said, I was in such a tizzy - but he silenced me by holding up a finger.
"Last chance," he warned. "Do your work and stop distracting yourself with this Halloween nonsense."
"Okay," I agreed quickly, but he continued.
"If I find out that you've kept this up" - pointing to the computer screenshot of a ghostly light in a tree at night - "there will be consequences for not doing your job, understood?"
"Yes, sir!"
I fully understood what that meant. Gibbs was always clear that disobeying a direct order or fooling around with our work - the "business" rather than "family" side of our relationships - would result in "work" consequences.
I bet that you're wondering what's the difference between "home" and "work" consequences. Let me tell you, I prefer "home" consequences much better! At home I might get scolded, grounded, spankings, or whatever he thinks "fits the crime" - I don't like any of those, but at least Gibbs always treats me like his daughter. When he spanks me he holds me over his knee just like my dad used to do. He generally uses his hand or a little paddle, but he has also used a wooden spoon or some old hairbrush that he must just keep for spankings - OUCH! Trust me, never make him annoyed enough to earn yourself a bare bottom spanking with that old hairbrush! I did that one time - by accident, of course - and now I hate it more than anything else, except maybe "work" consequences. It would be hard to tell which is worse.
Sorry, you did ask about "work" consequences and I still haven't answered. That's me, drifting off again! Okay, so work consequences are obviously done at work - although sometimes if he's really annoyed and needs time to cool off or if we're getting work, then home discipline, then he'll take us to his house right after work. Gibbs has taken away my music before - the first time that he did that as discipline I got really mad and then I ... but that's another story for a totally different time. He can get quite creative with how he disciplines me, but his old standby would be spanking. I gave him permission to spank me in home scenarios long ago. It really wasn't difficult to trust him at work after that. He doesn't really discipline Tim or Tony much in "home" situations (mostly, if they're in trouble with him outside of work, it was because I was involved too; oops!), but they both trust him to deal with work issues, when warranted, with a spanking. I hate work spankings like crazy. First, to make it more "professional", Gibbs gets me to bend over a chair or something. He doesn't hold me, which is hard because I really have a tricky time staying still while he spanks me. When he holds me at least I get some amount of support and comfort from him. A chair doesn't really do that for me. Also, he uses this "special" paddle. It's thicker and bigger than the one he uses on me at home and hurts like crazy! He only ever spanks me with it over my skirt or pants and he never swats any of us (Tony, Tim, or me) more than ten times with it. Mostly he'll give me about six spanks with it. Trust me, I learn an awful lot in those six spanks! Even Tim and Tony hate it, even though they never cry during their spankings. I know, I know, it sounds wimpy, especially since with home spankings Gibbs gives me a lot more spanks and sometimes only on my underwear or bare, but I think there is something about getting spanked because I messed up my work - in which I take such pride - or without being held that makes the whole experience so much worse. And did I mention that old paddle hurts?!
Sadly, the last six spanks that I got several months ago must not have taught me enough to keep out of trouble, 'cause here I am again.
Yeah, you guessed it. I didn't listen. Two days into the case Ziva caught me working on equations, trying to figure out if a ghost would be feasible.
Unfortunately, she discovered me right as I discovered a "logical" explanation for the ghost appearance. Turns out that the only spirit in this investigation was my too rebellious one.
"What are you doing?" Ziva demanded as I tried to hide my work. I thought that maybe I could trust her so I told her - leaving out the little fact that I had wasted hours chasing down that ghost idea as a lead that I now knew was impossible. I just talked about it as if it were still a possibility. I just wanted to protect my pride, okay? All that lady saw was a solar light flickering next to her apartment building. That was such a boring explanation and I didn't want to look bad in front of Ziva. She's kind of amazing, with all her ninja stuff (though don't tell her I told her so; I don't know if I like her yet).
Little did I know that Ziva was under orders to tell on me if I started talking about ghosts. Ziva doesn't get the same consequences as the boys and I - yet - but she ran straight back to Gibbs and told on me. The traitor! To be fair, if I was new and I was working with Gibbs for the first few months and I didn't have my personality and I wasn't spoiled by him, then I might be nervous enough to rat out my co-workers too. Still, I think that it was rotten luck for Ziva to tell on me. She got praised for obeying a direct order while I was told to get ready for my upcoming spanking - which thankfully Ziva still doesn't know about since Gibbs did try to be discrete in telling me to get back down to my lab. Maybe if she did know how Gibbs would discipline me she wouldn't have told. At least I hope that she wouldn't!
So that's why I'm now seated on my stool, looking at the corner while I tell you this. You'd better go now unless you want Gibbs annoyed at you for talking to me since I'm supposed to be silently using this time to "reflect on why wasting time during an investigation is such serious disobedience". I need to have a good answer for him before I bend over this stool or I might end up getting seven or eight spanks - and if that happens then I'm going to send Gibbs to go spank you for distracting me!
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Please review! Do you have a writing prompt that you would like to see turned into a story? Why don't you share it? I might not use it, but you never can tell! You might see it as my next one-shot!