Atta Boy!

Disclaimer: None of the characters belong to me.

Author's Note: This is my NCIS fanfic so please be lenient with the reviews. This is a one-shot taking place around the beginning of Season 3.

Summary: Ziva messes up but refuses to admit her mistake. So, Gibbs comes up with a plan to teach her a lesson about her arrogance and he ends up showing Ziva a side no one has seen before, unintentionally of course.

"Huh! Huh!" Ziva panted, sweat trickling down her forehead, her heart pounding against her chest, her breath came in brief short intervals and her muscles ached, begging for rest, yet she continued to run for her ego would not let her stop.

"Come on boss! Give us a break already…. please" Tony huffed from a few feet behind her.

"Yeah boss! We've been at it for four hours!" McGee whined from at least ten feet behind her.

"Keep at it, DiNozzo, McGee and if I hear one more complaint, I'll double the distance!" came Gibbs harsh rebuke.

The team had been training non-stop for approximately four hours now. Gibbs had woken them up at six in the morning on a Saturday for a training session. They had started off with target practice in which Ziva had predictably scored a perfect 10/10, what with her Mossad training, followed by Tony with an eight out of ten and McGee came in last with a measly 6 out of ten. Afterwards, they had had combat sessions, each session consisting of three rounds. Ziva had managed to defeat both Tony as well as McGee, though it was much easier to defeat McGee than Tony. Tony had beaten McGee on all three rounds. Thus, at the end of the combat sessions, Ziva had remained undefeated and McGee had yet to escape his position as last place. Gibbs had then instructed them to run around the field as a race. So far, they had taken part in three races, all of which Ziva had won quite easily.

The results of the day so far annoyed Gibbs, making him harsher and tougher than usual, though Tony and McGee could not understand why, the outcome had been exactly what the three of them had expected and they were performing to the best of their abilities; Gibbs had never seemed so bothered by the team members' performance during training sessions before. Ziva, however, knew exactly why Gibbs seemed irritated and it couldn't delight her anymore than it already did. She understood that the source of Gibbs frustration was her!

As she ran, still easily ahead of both the guys, she recalled the conversation she had had with Gibbs yesterday after she had left her post guarding the back door to chase after the supposed terrorist by herself, without waiting for back up. Even though, his partner, Kyle Lambert, had nearly escaped via the door that Ziva had left unattended, Ziva had captured the intended target and Tony had managed to apprehend Lambert on his way to his car. So no harm done, really. But of course, Gibbs had not seen it her way.

"You are not invincible," Gibbs growled as he pulled Ziva into an empty conference room. "You could have been killed. What if he had been leading you to a trap? What if there were others waiting to ambush you? Huh, what then?! I gave you direct orders to wait by the door and you disobeyed me. We would have lost Lambert if DiNozzo hadn't caught him at the last moment!"

"But Gibbs, Sanders was too fast for McGee. He would have gotten away if I hadn't stepped in. Besides, the Director seemed fine with it and.." but before Ziva could continue, Gibbs took a threatening step towards her, effectively silencing her. With a deathly glare, he snarled at her, his nose only inches from hers, "I don't care what the director has to say. You work for me, got it?"

Upon receiving no reply from her, Gibbs shouted "Got it Officer David?"

"Yes." The single word was laced with poorly concealed defiance but Gibbs chose to ignore it. After leading a team for years, he knew from experience that telling her that she was not a super soldier wouldn't convince her. He would have to take her down a peg or two before her arrogance gets her killed.

Ziva knew that Gibbs had planned this 'training session' to show her that she was not invincible and there were others who could do certain things better than her. Gibbs had insisted to Ziva that she was over-confident and it was a trait that could get her killed but what Gibbs called arrogance, Ziva called self-confidence.

Gibbs plan to bring Ziva down to Earth and make her modest had backfired. In fact, if anything Ziva was now more confident that she was better than Tony and McGee put together.

"Take a FIVE-minute break and I wanna see you on the pitch ready for another round not a second too late" barked Gibbs as the boys gave him a grateful look before collapsing on the pitch whilst Ziva retreated to the bleachers, sparing him a single taut nod.

Gibbs was at a loss of what to do. Ever new member brought along confidence issues with them. When DiNozzo had joined, a single combat session with Gibbs had straightened him out and McGee's issue of confidence, or lack thereof, was easily solved with a few words of praise when he did his job right… but Ziva…. she was beginning to become a problem. Gibbs couldn't pull her down to reality himself as Ziva already believed that there was only one person in the entire agency capable of doing their job right without her intervention, aside from the director, and that was Gibbs, thus, defeating her in a wrestling match or race wouldn't puncture her dangerously large ego. Maybe it was time to give up, the boys were clearly tired and even though, Ziva tried her best not to show it, Gibbs could tell that she was exhausted. Besides it wasn't fair of him to take his anger out on the boys, after all they were doing their best. 'In fact, they probably deserve a…. wait a minute…that's it, time to bring out the secret weapon Jethro,' thought Gibbs, with a slight smile on his face and a resolute flash in his eyes, which did not go unnoticed by Ziva even though it was only present for a mere moment.

'God! What is he up to now? No matter, whatever it is, I am sure I can walk circles around the boys…that was the idiom, right?' thought Ziva.

"Alright, back in positions…NOW!" yelled Gibbs when he noticed the deliberately slow approach of the boys.

"Okay, the one who wins this race gets an Atta."

"What is an Atta?" asked a perplexed Ziva, turning to McGee who was more likely to give an answer without mocking her. Seriously, what is it with the ridiculous American terms.

However, McGee did not seem to hear her, as he mumbled softly "Oh, boy! Tony's definitely going to win this one."

Only her keenly developed sense of hearing allowed her to catch McGee's comment and it shocked her. She had remained undefeated the entire day, how could McGee even think that Tony would have any chance of beating her. But before she could ask McGee, Gibbs voice called out "Ready…Set…. Go!"

Ziva took off, her muscles contracting vigorously, taking huge gulps of air as she began to gain speed. With the wind in her hair and her position ensuring minimum air resistance, she was miles ahead of the boys in the first few seconds.

'Ha! I was worried for nothing. I have got this in the bat…or was it bag? Urgh…no matter, the point is that I am going to….'

Ziva's thoughts abruptly ceased when she noticed a presence next to her. Tony?!

How could this be?

Ziva turned to look at Tony, expecting a wink, a movie reference or a mocking comment. However, none came. In fact, Tony did not even spare her a glance. His eyes were focused at the end of the path, their finishing line, and Ziva saw a determined glint that she had never before seen in Tony's eyes, a slight desperation on his face and a look to…please?

However, before she could assess the meaning of that particular look, Tony picked up the pace and easily ran past her, as if he had not just run the past two miles, not to mention the twelve miles run before Gibbs had oh-so generously given them a break. Try as she might, she could not catch up with Tony and to her utter shock, he actually WON, ahead by TWELVE FEET. Ziva did not know whether to be impressed or embarrassed as she walked up to Tony and Gibbs, huffing. McGee still had half a mile to go. Ziva silently regarded the two, perhaps she had underestimated Tony. Maybe Gibbs was right and she wasn't as undefeatable as she had believed. She didn't know what to think but one thing that she was sure of was that she couldn't wait to find out what an Atta was. There was no way Tony could have defeated her, without the proper motivation. What object could possibly make Tony go from being at least five feet behind her to beating her by twelve feet?

Gibbs smiled slightly upon watching Tony emerge at the finishing line, Ziva quite a few feet behind him. He had known that this would work.

As they both approached him, a rare shy smile on Tony's face and a look of disbelief on Ziva's, he realised that maybe this had helped not only Ziva but Tony as well. Gibbs couldn't help but feel proud of Tony. He knew his approval meant a lot to Tony but seeing it for himself made his heart soar. After losing every competition against Ziva, Tony had managed to defeat her impressively just to get a rare praise from Gibbs. Maybe I should commend his work often.

They stood in silence for a few moments, Ziva waiting to find out what the reward actually was and Tony smiling slightly to himself. This did not bode well with Ziva. It must be some great reward if it could stop DiNozzo from boasting about his victory.

Ziva waited with baited breath as Gibbs gently raised his arm, ruffled Tony's sweaty hair and exclaimed "Atta Boy!"

With a meek smile more suited on McGee, Tony murmured "Thanks Boss," as he walked alongside Gibbs, heading towards the car, leaving behind a gobsmacked Ziva.

'This was the reward that Tony so desperately desired!' Ziva thought outraged, but slowly understanding dawned on her as she stared at the retreating forms of Gibbs and Tony, Gibbs clapping Tony on the back, clearly indicating pride at the victory of his…son.

With that thought in mind, a rare warm smile appeared on Ziva's face as she whispered "Maybe I am not invincible and maybe I can live with that. Atta Boy, indeed."

But before she could make her way over to them and maybe…just maybe apologise to Gibbs and assure him that the lesson had been learnt, McGee came panting towards her. "Huh…huh…huh…. what'd I miss?"