They worked quietly until about 1500, then Tony just got up, announced, "I'm going for a swim. Anyone?"
Gibbs blinked himself out of his current file, thought about swimming in the NCIS pool and shook his head. "No, got a handle on this one. Don't want to break my concentration." He went back to his reading.
Dean and Cosmo got up, silently joining Tony.
Tim shook his head, commenting, "I don't think that's a good idea for me. Yet. I'll do laps later." He gave Tony a sly, sideways look. "I'm double checking a few things on that Hernandez removal. I think there are a few files out there that shouldn't be. Just a quick ... fix."
Tony knew exactly what Tim was doing. M. Allison Hart had a file. She wasn't the sort to keep paper around, so most of her files were electronic. Tony didn't like Ms. Hart much. She was a nuisance more than anything, but still. Tim didn't much like her either. She had a bad habit of flirting with him when she wanted something and ignoring the 'Geek-boy' when she didn't. She wasn't going to be best pleased very soon. Neither was the Mexican government. Their files would be corrupted into uselessness.
Tony pinned Tim with a warning look. "Do not get caught."
Tim's pellucid, innocent look didn't fool anyone. "Now what could I possibly be doing to cause that remark?"
"Oh, nothing much. I'm swimmin'" Tony left.
No one thought much of it until Gibbs realized that the NCIS pool wasn't open until 1700. "Where the hell are they swimming?"
Tim, not really thinking about that, replied, "The river. That's why I didn't go. Can't swim the distance yet."
Gibbs, remembering the swim in which he'd overloaded his ass, just went to the window to see if he could see them.
.
Tony eyed his men. "Okay, you two, once across?"
Dean nodded. Cosmo agreed, "Once is good. Build up to more?"
Tony considered that for a moment. "No. But I want Tim and Jet to both make that."
They ambled into the NCIS locker room, got lockers and changed into wet suits. The river was just cold enough that swimming in it in trunks wasn't a good idea. Tony had found that out the hard way. He usually did swim in just trunks, until Gibbs had found out and given him a thundering lecture about necessary and not-necessary. Tony had actually agreed with him. Most of their missions didn't involve swimming in seriously cold water so the conditioning wasn't necessary. If they were going to go on a mission where cold conditioning was necessary, they'd know in plenty of time.
Tony eyed Dean, then Cosmo; they'd both gotten their suits on and were digging flippers out of their duffels. "Leave 'em. We'll barefoot it."
Dean just tossed his flippers back into the locker but Cosmo grumbled, "Man, AJ, brutal."
Tony just snarked back. "Whiny. Suck it up."
They left, never knowing that two of Tony's fellow SFA's were on the other side of the lockers. One looked at the other, then said, "Swim? Fins? Where the hell?"
"Don't know. Let's follow them."
What happened next wasn't a surprise to the skeleton crew of the USS Barry DD-933, they were used to seeing Tony dive off the end of the pier. One man noticed that there were three men this time. He radioed up to the bridge to tell the Captain, just to be on the safe side. The Captain ordered a sailor to find a good vantage point and keep an eye on the swimmers.
Tony, Dean and Cosmo set out in a combat crawl, headed for the other side of the river. Dean and Cosmo were chasing Tony in no time.
Tony swam like a dolphin; he seemed to be one with the river. Cosmo and Dean were less graceful, but not enough so that anyone not an Olympic swimmer would notice.
They waded out on the far shore.
Cosmo shook water out of his high-and-tight. "We swimming back?"
Tony shook his head too. "Nope. We'll jog back. There's a foot path on S Capitol St SE bridge over the river about a mile and a half downstream, then we'll jog back up to NCIS. Dean?"
Dean was smiling. "You've been playing possum, asshole."
"Not. Just ..." Tony smirked a bit. "Enjoying being coddled. Seriously. It's the first time in ages I've been able to completely heal before I had to ... man up for NCIS, or a mission, or ... something."
Dean sighed, "Man, you know, I sorta feel the same way. I don't mind training up, but, just sometimes, I like to slack off. It's nice. Mental rest as well as physical." Cosmo snorted. "No, man, it's like ... if I can't do it in the Rockpile or the Sandbox, someone dies. If I can't do it here ... I've got a do-over. See?"
Cosmo grumbled. "I do. And what the fuck are we going to do for shoes? I don't like the idea of running miles in bare feet."
Just then a 'junior' SEAL drove up in a GI jeep. He hopped out and saluted. "Sir! Your gear and boots, sirs!" He pulled uniforms, boots and packs out of the back.
Dean snarled, "AJ, you utter bastard." but went to collect his things.
Cosmo gave Tony a rather heated glower but did the same.
Tony smirked at their backs then saluted the driver. "Thanks."
"Sir!" The boy, and he was a boy to the older SEALs, being about 25, watched as they got themselves dry and their clothing on, without showing anything they shouldn't. His eyes got wide as he listened.
"Son-of-a-fucking-bitch. It's a full pack. Damn it, AJ." Dean was whining and didn't care who heard.
Cosmo grumbled, "Fucking Fucker. Assume the Marine position, Dean. AJ's on a damn roll."
Tony just hefted his pack, a bit doubtfully, he'd admit. This was the first test of the plate on his clavicle. "Suck it up, girls. Pissing and whining isn't going to do you any good. I gotta carry it, you gotta carry it."
Dean nodded wisely. "Cosmo, my man, NOGAD. So deal. AJ's right."
Tony sighed, he was hard on his men and he knew it. But being captured because you couldn't keep up would be even harder. He knew this from personal experience, an experience he intended to make sure his men never experienced again.
Cosmo hefted his pack. He jumped a bit as Tony reached out to help him on with it.
Tony cupped the back of Cosmo's neck. "NOGAD. Man, so not true. I give a damn. That's why we're doing this and you know it."
Dean mumbled. "Doesn't mean we have to like it. Sorry, AJ."
Tony got his pack on, smacked a waiting Dean on the ass and barked, "Hoof it, you SEALs."
And hoof it they did. They ran down the Anacostia Trail on the park side to the bridge, across the bridge and around a small wall on the corner of S Capitol and Potomac Ave and into a sand lot on the river. The other end of the sand let into the Anacostia Trail on that side of the river. And back to the Navy Yard. This was right at four miles. They slowed to an easy amble as they approached the side entrance of NCIS. They weren't about to go in the front sweaty and hot.
They took a quick trip through the NCIS gym showers and headed back to the bullpen.
Tony settled at his desk and opened a file. He spent a bit of time reading it then asked, "Boss, when was the last time you were drown-proofed?"
Gibbs looked up at him. "AJ, Marine Scout Sniper, not a squid. So ... never."
McGee blinked then asked, "Drown-proofed? What is that?"
Tony gave Gibbs a hard look. Gibbs smiled seraphically. "McGee, glad you asked that. You'll find out soon, I'm sure." Just then, his email pinged, telling him that he had an email. Tim's honked a second later.
Tim opened his email, just as Gibbs did.
Gibbs scowled at the list while Tim started banging his head on the partition behind his desk.
Drown-proofing, commencing at 1715 this date.
bob for 5 minutes
float for 5 minutes
swim 100 meters
bob for 2 minutes
do 10 forward and backward flips
swim to the bottom of the pool and retrieve an object with teeth
return to the surface and bob five more times
Hands and feet will be bound with cotton cord.
LtCmd Anthony 'AJ' DiNozzo.
end Email
Tim whined, "And how the hell am I supposed to swim tied up? Not to mention do anything else. Except bob, maybe."
Tony eyed Tim for a moment then said, "You can opt out at any time. But we all do it. We're tested about every six months, or anytime we return from an injury. So, I'll have to train up. The others will watchdog us."
Gibbs knew a bit about drown-proofing; word got around. He was not looking forward to it at all. He was just glad that Tony would have Dean and Cosmo watch-dogging them. "Remy?"
"He'll be there too. Condition assessment. Each of us will have our own personal watchdog. Except Jimmy. He caught a body." Tony was happy that they'd have one-on-one dogging, he'd hate to lose a man in an exercise. The last time that had happened had been before he'd joined up. He didn't want to set a new precedent.
Tim sighed. "I'm in. It's just ... I'm kinda ... worried."
Gibbs knew that Tim actually meant scared shitless. "Don't worry about it. You'll do fine." He grinned at Tim. "After all, it's not a boat."
Tim's smile was more a grimace than anything. "Right. At least I won't have to worry about puking."
Remy strolled up just then. "Puking?"
Tim shook his head. "I get seasick. And pills and shots don't help. I've been aboard ship several times in the line of duty. It never gets better. Middle ear thing."
Remy gave him a commiserating look and said, "Man, that sucks. Dad's an admiral, too. Bet that went over like ..."
Tim interjected. "A holed Zodiac."
"Yeah, 'bout right. So, anyway. Drown-proofing?"
Tony nodded. "1715. I sent emails to everyone. See you there."
Remy ambled away, fiddling with his tablet as he went.
Tony knew that he was composing a report for him. One that would detail everything Tony needed to know to complete his recovery and pass the physical evaluation to return to duty in SEALs and prove himself field-ready to NCIS. It would also tell him how to bring Gibbs and McGee up to SEAL-ready condition.
Gibbs eyed his watch and decided, "We better head on down. Need time to change and shower. I'm not getting into the pool all sweaty. Not considerate."
So they headed back down to the pool.
Everyone got dressed in tight trunks; it wouldn't do to have the loose legs of a baggy riding up and showing their junk. Not a good image.
They all trooped into the pool area, Tony with a coil of rope in one hand. He actually had an XS Scuba titanium tanto point knife strapped to his calf. He used the knife to cut the rope as he tied Gibbs, then Tim. He allowed Remy to tie him.
Gibbs had to force himself not to fight as he was tied, it was even harder when Remy gently picked him up and tossed him into the pool. The shouted instruction to, 'sink, then push off from the bottom until we tell you to float.' didn't make him feel any better about his situation. He was glad that Remy dove in right after him and began treading water nearby.
Tim yelped when Dean picked him up. It hadn't been that hard to let Tony tie his hands behind his back and his ankles together, but this was scary. Dean held Tim for a moment, whispered, "Man, relax. You can do this. I'll be right with you." Then he tossed Tim in and dove in right behind him.
Tony just relaxed as Remy tied him up, whining, "Man, not so tight."
Remy just pushed Tony in, yelling, "You big girl," and dove in too.
The sight that met Director Vance's eyes when he was called down to the pool was astonishing. Three men, tied at the wrists and ankles, bobbing up and down in the deep end of the pool was something else. The pool attendants were worried, with good reason, and had called him down.
"Mr. Director, what are we supposed to do? This isn't a good idea." The senior attendant looked at him hopefully.
"You really want to tell four SEALs and Gibbs that they can't do something?" Vance's tone was dry and amused.
"Well ... um ... no. But ..." The attendant trailed off as SEAL finally registered. "Okay. SEAL. But I'm putting a man on the sidelines ... just in case."
Vance nodded, eyed the bobbing heads then said, "Thanks." He went back to his office pondering how he could ever have thought that a man who was brave enough to allow himself to be bound and thrown into a swimming pool was a feather-headed frat boy.
.
Tony bobbed to the surface and looked around, kicking hard to gain enough height to see Gibbs and McGee. They both looked like they were doing well, so he subsided. Remy, knowing exactly what Tony was looking for told him, "They're both fine. Gibbs is like a machine. Tim, not so much, but he got the hang of it fast."
Tony relaxed back into the water and let himself sink. His internal clock said that it was just about time to float. He was right, just as his head came out of the water, Remy yelled, "Float." He let out a sigh as he tipped his head back and allowed his feet to rise to the surface, floating, resting.
Tim also was glad to rest. He'd managed to bob for the five minutes but he was really tired now.
Gibbs, on the other hand, was still going strong. He'd never done this before but his Marine training had taught him to be a quick learner and he was still in great shape. He contemplated the next revolution in training as he floated, how the hell were you supposed to swim with your hands tied behind your back? He decided that he'd let Tony show the way.
Remy again gave the orders. "Swim!"
Neither Gibbs nor Tim recognized the Dolphin kick but saw that it was the only way they were going to swim at all. Gibbs got it quickly, but Tim had a bit of a struggle. He kept with it with Dean nearly hovering over him, talking him through it.
Since the pool was an Olympic size― it was 50 meters long ―two laps was all they needed to get 100m, or nearly 300 ft., approximately the length of a football field. Not that far, unless your hands were tied behind your back and your ankles tied together. Then it was a hell of a long way.
Tony swam the stroke like he was the mammal it was named for. Gibbs was more like a barge than a dolphin but he made good time. Tim, again, had trouble, but no one thought the less of him for it. He stuck with something that most people couldn't tolerate. The brave man is the man who does something that scares him. The man who isn't scared is a fool.
Gibbs finished a few seconds after Tony and started bobbing again. Remy's yell of, "Two minutes." made him groan. He, like Tony took the opportunity to push off hard and bob high. He got a look around and was satisfied. Tony was bobbing easily, Tim was still swimming but Dean was stuck to him like glue. If anything went wrong, one of the watch dogs would be right there. He didn't realize that there were now two life guards on duty and doing nothing but watching them.
Tim had to give up on the flips, he just couldn't keep up. Dean cut his bonds then helped him out of the pool and wrapped a towel around his shoulders.
Tim sighed. "Man, that was bad."
Dean gave him a hairy eyeball. "Excuse me?"
"I didn't finish the flips and I couldn't go on. I'm ..."
"Shutting up. Right the fuck now. You did good. I've seen men make it through everything else, PT, the works, until they get to this. They freak out and that's all she wrote. You'll do better. Flips are hard. Rest, get warm." Dean rubbed Tim's back. "Have you ever done flips at all?"
Tim shook his head. "Father made sure I knew how to swim, enough not to drown if I fell in, at least. Flips and fancy stuff, no."
"Fuck, you did great then. After you get warmed up, I'm going to teach you the combat crawl and how to do flips. With your hands and feet free. Now, wrap a dry towel around you and rest." Dean made a face. He really wanted to have a few words with Tim's father, never mind that getting pissy with an admiral wasn't a good idea.
Gibbs and Tony finished within seconds of each other. Tony nodded to Gibbs, "Did good. For a Jarhead."
Gibbs just snorted. "Squid."
"Damn straight." Tony grinned, Gibbs grinned back.
Dean dove back in to cut them loose.
Remy dried off and entered his data into his tablet. "Well, assessment, water, done. Next ... the grinder. AJ, you're slow, really. Seriously, dude, just beat that knuckle-dragger by about six seconds."
Gibbs' indignant, "Hey!" made Dean and Cosmo snicker.
Remy finished his entries and started to put the tablet down. Tim held out his hand and said, "Give. I'll finish my end and email it to Tony's computer. Won't take but a second or so. Then ..." he sighed heavily. "Flips. Ugh!"
.
Jimmy looked at Ducky hopefully. "Are we done? I'm supposed to report to the pool for drown-proofing."
Ducky blinked for a moment. "My dear boy! Are you sure? It's not necessary to the job, you know."
"I do. But ... I really want this. I like Tony's other team and ..." he frowned. "I'm not in some sort of macho competition, I just think it'll be good for me. I need the ... connection, for lack of a better word."
Ducky was well aware that Jimmy didn't have a lot of friends; keeping up with his schooling, caring for his mother, and working at NCIS had made most of his friends drift away. The homework load hadn't helped either. So it didn't seem that unusual that Jimmy wanted to work out with Tony and the others.
"Very well." Ducky stripped off his gloves and motioned to the body they'd just gotten done with. "Let's put this poor fellow to bed, then you can go." They got the sailor into a drawer. Ducky flapped one hand, smiling and saying, "Run along. Just be careful."
Jimmy didn't waste any time getting to the gym and changed.
He hurried into the pool just in time to find that everyone was done, except him.
"Hey, guys. I'm sorry I'm late but we had a body. I'll come back some other time?" He was sure they would shrug him off.
He was wrong. Tony eyed him for a moment then said, "I'm going to rest for ten minutes. You will too. Then we'll do your test. Remy, you assess, I'll watch-dog."
Jimmy turned pale when Tony explained exactly what he was to do but gamely put his hands behind his back. Tony made quick work of tying him then picked him up.
"In you go." He tossed Jimmy into the pool and jumped in after.
No one was that surprised when Jimmy immediately started to bob, without being told. Jimmy was a big surprise in many ways. He'd finally admitted to being a Boy Scout and having most of the achievement badges. His father had died when he was young and his mother had wisely made sure that he had good male role models not only in Scouts, but also in church. Tony had gotten one of the SEAL research experts to do an in-depth background on him. Not because he suspected him of anything, but because he needed to know what Jimmy was trained in and said James Palmer was extremely shy about his personal life.
Tony knew that Jimmy was a great deal more capable than he let on; the man was as shy as they came. That didn't mean he didn't hover; he looked around and saw that Gibbs was in the pool too. Hovering, just like he was.
Jimmy took no notice of either man, he was too busy trying to bob without exhausting himself. He still had all the other tasks to do. He shook his head to get the water out of his eyes and went under again.
Remy watched the clock and Jimmy carefully. He was glad the five minutes were up. He really liked the shy, self-effacing man and hated watching his struggles. But, like his team, better suffer now than drown later.
"Float!"
Jimmy was glad to hear that and easily ducked his head back to bring his feet up.
Tony tread water near Jimmy's head. "Doin' ok?"
"Yeah." Jimmy kept his answer short and his lungs inflated.
"You know how to do the dolphin, without hands?" That was Gibbs.
Jimmy turned his head. "No." He waited a beat to keep from sinking, "I'll figure it out." Then he went back to floating.
He was not that thrilled when Remy yelled, "Swim." but he rolled over and gave it a try. He could see Tony, demonstrating, out of the corner of his eye and copied Tony. Jimmy found that it was easier than he'd thought it would be. He didn't have his Life Saver badge for nothing.
Even though it was fairly easy, Jimmy was really glad when Remy called, "Bob."
Jimmy finished that without stress but the flips nearly defeated him. He was used to doing flips with the help of his hands, doing them without was just as hard as he'd thought it would be. He had to surface after each flip to breathe, of course, but Tony didn't allow him to actually rest; he barked, "Submerge and flip," every time he thought Jimmy was loafing.
He grumbled, between a forward and backward flip, "AJ, you're a bastard."
Tony laughed, "I heard that, Gremlin. And, yes. Yes, I am. Rather be a bastard than find out that you'd drowned retrieving a body. So, fuckin' flip already."
Jimmy gave one jerky nod and submerged again. He finished in good time, but groaned when he realized that Remy had thrown a mask into the pool. He was going to have to dive down and pick it up with his teeth. He was not amused when Tony told him, "Stop groaning like that. It's better than a one-ounce weight on a bobber."
"Fuck you, AJ." Jimmy dove for the mask. He had to try twice but he popped to the surface with the back band of the mask gripped in his teeth.
He grimly finished the last task, wondering if he was going to make it to the side of the pool. He didn't have to worry about that. The second that Remy called, "Finished." Tony pulled the knife from the sheath on his calf and cut his hands free.
They helped Jimmy to the side of the pool and Remy and Tim dragged him out. The two life guards handed around towels, told them they were all insane and went back to their jobs.
While Jimmy was doing his test, Cosmo had been helping Tim learn to flip. Instead of tying him, he'd let him use his hands and feet independently, just so he could get a feel for how it was done.
Tony flopped down on a lounger, rubbing water out of his hair. "Ok, who's where?"
Remy consulted the results of the analysis that Tim had run. "Ok. Dean, Cosmo and I are field ready. You're at 90 percent. Acceptable, due to injury. I give you about a week before you're field-ready. Jimmy ... not bad on the water, a very creditable 90, as is Jet." Gibbs raised an eyebrow at him. No one had called him Jet since his football days. "Shut up, gyrene. Tim ... not happy with this, 75 percent. But we've still got the grinder to run tomorrow. I have high hopes for that. So, Tim, you've got to swim every night after work. So do the rest of you. Dean, Cosmo and I will go along for the ride, watch dogging." He checked the last of his data then asked, "Any questions? Comments? Bitching?"
There wasn't any bitching, they were all too tired. But Jimmy had a question. "Um ... I don't have anything to wear on a grinder. And what the hell is that, anyway?"
Tony snickered a bit then said, "The Grinder is hell on earth. You'll learn to hate the name, never mind the run. If you don't have A-TAC's, BDU's, I'll take you to military surplus and help you find what you need. Do not think jeans will do. They won't. You need more than a t-shirt, you'll wind up skinned all to hell. And boots. Hiking boots will do, until you wear them out. Then we'll get you reg's."
Jimmy eyed Tim for a moment. "You have anything?"
Tim shook his head. "Just NCIS issue. It's lightweight. We both better take Tony up on his offer."
Gibbs nodded. "You better. If it's not military spec, it probably won't survive."
Remy agreed, then made Jimmy groan as he said, "And you'll need a ruck. No sense in training without several good ruck runs."
Tim just covered his face with his hands, shook his head and asked, "I couldn't convince you that all I need in a ruck is my laptop?"
Remy laughed, "Um ... nope. You'll carry a minimum ruck for now, but I expect you to work up to full battle ruck."
They all wandered back to the locker room to get dressed.
Tony was usually careful about letting anyone see his back. He wasn't ashamed, but he didn't see any reason to distress people unnecessarily. Today, he was so tired that he forgot. The resultant gagging sounds from behind him made him bang his head on the locker door. "Sorry about that. Boss?"
Gibbs just snorted. "Jamison from Accounting." Gibbs went after the man to check that he didn't choke or fall into the urinal.
Jimmy stepped in and stopped Tony from putting on his shirt. He examined Tony's scars for a moment, pressing on a few places. "You putting on that cream like you should?"
Tony shrugged, pulled his shirt over his head and said, "No. I'm putting it on where I can reach. Who's going to do the rest?"
"Me. Come down to Autopsy sometime during the day and I'll get what you can't reach."
Gibbs came back, his bat-like hearing kept him aware of the conversation. "Jamison's ok. Just a gag or two." He swatted Tony in the head. "If you can't find Jimmy, find me. Don't be an idiot."
"Thanks, Boss. I'll do that. Just didn't want to impose." Tony laced his boots then glanced around. "We ready to go?"
Gibbs nodded. "I'll check out an SUV so we can all go together."
Cosmo and Dean expressed their lack of interest in going to a military surplus store with rude noises and the explanation that they had chores to do at home. Remy allowed that he had to get back to his assignment and ambled off.
That left Tony, Gibbs, Jimmy and Tim to climb into their newly assigned SUV and head for the store.