Their luggage took up six of the ten seats in the bus, Tony's things alone taking two and a half seats, so some of them had to double up. Abby and Tim sat together, Ducky and Gibbs sat together, and Tony scooted over for Ziva to sit by him. Instead she went towards the back and sat by Jimmy.
"Hey!" Tony exclaimed, "You choose the autopsy gremlin over me?"
"Yes, I do. If I sat by you for a two hour trip while we are both in very cranky moods, I might just kill you."
Tony glared at her. "Fine. I wanted my own seat anyway."
Joe picked something up off of the dashboard and stood up in the front of the bus. "Hello, campers! How are you this morning?"
Many moans and groans were heard around the bus, and one "great!"- from Abby of course.
"Awesome!" He replied, not losing his smile even with the poor replies. "Now it's time to take the first group picture of the trip." He held up what could now be clearly seen as a camera. "Everybody smile!"
No one except, once again, Abby, smiled. Jimmy had a little half-smile, but it was so small that it didn't really count.
Joe looked at the photo. "Okay, I don't think it's going to get better than that right now. Let's start the trip! We'll all get introduced at the camp sight when all the counselors are around." He set the camera back on the dashboard then sat down to begin driving.
Tony began to lay over in his seat. "I'm going back to sleep. If anyone tries to touch me, you're dead."
"No one wants to touch your disgusting body, Tony," Ziva replied.
"That's not what Georgina said Friday night."
"Who's that? Your favorite doll?" Tim asked sarcastically.
"Shut up, nerd."
"You shut up, jerk."
"Hey!" Gibbs yelled. "Both of you shut up!"
"Yes, Boss."
"Yes, Boss."
Up front, Joe took a deep breath. He had a feeling this week was going to be more difficult than most.
7:03am
Tony remained asleep the whole way, much to the enjoyment of everyone else. Abby found herself getting tired pretty quickly as well. Twenty minutes into the trip her head fell over onto Tim's shoulder. A few minutes later he laid his head back just to rest it and ended up falling asleep. Ziva was tired too, not getting much sleep the night before, so she leaned her head on Jimmy's shoulder and fell asleep. Jimmy thought about going to sleep, until Ziva did, then he couldn't get past the thought that she was actually using his shoulder for a pillow. Ducky and Gibbs never slept. They both stared out the windows, looking at the scenery. Ducky whispered a couple of "this reminds me of" stories to Gibbs along the way, but they were actually pretty interesting so Gibbs didn't mind.
The bus stopped at the front of the camping grounds. Joe got up and clapped his hands together cheerfully. "We have arrived!"
Those her were asleep jolted awake. No one joined in with the clap. Mostly everyone just yawned, rubbed their eyes and began to stretch.
"Okay… Everyone grab your things and I will show you to your cabins."
Having to squish around each other to get to their stuff, everyone finally got a hold of their bags. "Anyone wanna help me with mine?" Tony asked.
No one replied.
They all exited the bus. Tony's exit a lot less than graceful as he got stuck a couple of times with all of his things.
"Now, I'll take you each to your cabins, and once you're there you will have fifteen minutes to get your stuff in order and report right back here. Okay?"
No one answered him.
"Okay, please make some sort of noise to let me know you actually heard what I said."
"Okay."
"Mhm."
"Whatever."
"Yes, sir!"
"Of course."
"Yeah."
"Sure."
"Thank you," Joe replied. "Okay, ladies first. Follow me, please."
Ziva and Abby followed Joe to the third and farthest cabin. "This is where you two will be staying. If you've forgotten anything, we have some extra toiletries in the office. It's about a mile down the road heading south, alright?"
"Thanks," Abby said.
"No problem. Remember, fifteen minutes."
"We will be punctuational," Ziva replied.
"She means punctual," Abby corrected.
Joe nodded, "Right. Okay, see you two soon."
He left then Took Ducky and Gibbs to their cabin next. They were in the middle cabin, sort of a separator between the girls and the younger boys.
Lastly Joe took Tony, Tim and Jimmy to their cabin. It was the first one, and the only one left. There was a bunk bed on one side, and a single twin on the other. "You guys can decided who gets which bed, but do me one favor and don't argue about it. If you do, I will pick who gets where," Joe said to them nicely, yet still slightly threateningly.
The whole team put their things up and picked their beds. Tony, Tim and Jimmy did not fight over who got where. They were all too tired and annoyed to fight over that at the moment.
7:19am
As the team walked out from their cabins, four men and one woman- all wearing the same uniform of navy shorts and a red shirt with the word "counselor" on them- stood in a line watching them, waiting for everyone to get there.
"Alright everyone," Joe began, taking a step forward. "As you already know I am Joe, one of the counselors here. I will be introducing the rest of the team, then you all can introduce yourselves." He stepped back and began with the man who was standing beside him, then he went down the line one by one. "This is Troy, he will be doing some of the activities with you. He's worked here for three years and he knows how to fix anything.
"This is Andy. He works in the kitchen. You all will be working with him a lot of the time, helping to cook and such. He makes amazing hashbrowns.
"Next is Anna. She helps out with some of the bigger activities, and she's the lifeguard here for when we're at the lake. She's also my little sister, so be nice.
"Lastly, but definitely not least, is George. He does a lot of the cleaning up, so you will also be seeing a lot of him and working with him as well. He does a great job. They all do, really.
"We are all counselors here, but we take on a bunch of jobs. You can talk to any of us at any time and, even though we might specialize in different things, one day I may be doing activities with you, then the next Troy will. We just take turns. Now, you guys introduce yourselves and tell us something about you."
Everyone was quiet, waiting for someone else to start speaking.
Ducky cleared his throat. "I will begin. I am Dr. Donald Mallard, although my friends call me Ducky. I work as a medical examiner at NCIS."
"I work alongside Dr. Mallard," Jimmy said, "And my name is Jimmy Palmer… Not Jim. I don't like to be called Jim."
Tony took a step forward. "I am Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo," He began, looking at Anna, "I like making romantic candlelight dinners, long walks on the beach, sunsets and very beautiful women… You, Anna, are a very beautiful woman," He said, adding his signature smile. Anna was smiling as well.
"Like I said, Tony," Joe spoke up, "She's my sister… and I took ten years of mixed martial arts growing up."
Tony lost the smile and took a step back.
"I am Ziva David. I recently became a US citizen, I have been working at NCIS for almost seven years now, and I can kill you with a spoon."
"Gibbs. Team leader. I build boats."
"I'm Tim McGee. I grew up as a scout-"
"Yet he's gotten poison ivy twice just while working at NCIS," Tony chimed in.
Tim looked over and glared at him, then continued his introduction. "And I used to write."
"Yes, about us," Tony, once again, decided to add to Tim's intro.
Gibbs reached over and smacked Tony's head.
All the counselors eyes grew wide. They couldn't believe what they just saw.
"What did you j-"
"I'm Abby!" Abby said happily, cutting Anna off before she could finish asking the question. "I love science, puppies, kittens, the team, pigtails, and I never go out in the sun without my parasol," She said, pointing at the parasol in her hand. She shrugged, "I can also kill you without leaving behind any forensic evidence, but I'm sure I won't have to use that power here."
The counselors were all silent for a moment, trying to take it all in.
"...Okay," Joe said, finding those introductions among the oddest ever, "Now, Andy has made some breakfast for everyone, so let's walk this way and head to the cafeteria."
"Should we be scared of them?" Anna asked in a whispered tone to Joe.
"No... I don't think so... I'm not really sure."
9:42am
After an uneventful breakfast and some small talk, everyone came back outside.
Troy came with them this time while the rest of the counselors stayed behind.
"Our first event is going to be something small, but very important. Trust falls. You're each going to have a partner to do the trust fall with-"
"Oh dear," Ducky said, "I fear my body may not hold up to falling backwards, or holding onto any of my co-workers, even though I do very much trust everyone here. Would you mind if I sit this out?"
Troy smiled, "Not at all Dr. Mallard."
"Can we pick our partner?" Ziva asked, "Because I do not want Tony."
Tony hissed at her.
"I already have everyone's partners picked out," Troy replied. He looked down at the clipboard he was holding. "Ziva, you are with Abby."
"Yes!" Abby said happily. Ziva smiled as well. They put their arms around each other and waited for the exercise to begin.
"Gibbs, you are with Jimmy. And Tim, that leaves you with Tony."
Tim looked over at Tony, who was smiling mischievously back at him.
Tim let out a deep breath. "Oh crap."
Wow, I did not expect to get so many alerts, favorites, and reviews for this story. Thank you guys so much! I'm so used to writing drama with tiny bits of humor that I was afraid this would be terrible.
Thanks again :)
Oh, last thing. Does anyone know who says what reply when Joe asks for them to say something so he knows they're listening? I have a certain reply picked for each person. Let me know who you think says what and I'll tell you in the next update :)
