Hi there, my amazingly amazing readers :D I'm honestly having fun with this story :D and sorry it's been a while, I was a bit preoccupied watching the Royal Wedding XD It just made me so proud to be British :') Anywho... back to the story :P Oh, and the rules are mirrored for those on the show :) I missed out a few, but I got the important ones ;) So if you type in something along the lines of 'NCIS Gibbs rules' on google, just choose the first link and you can see the real ones :)
Jenny had to laugh as she saw Gibbs putting up his large list of rules in what they considered as the teacher's lounge. It was basically just some chairs around a table in the kitchen (It was really quite a small building) but the children knew not to go in there without adult supervision; so they could sit in there undisturbed.
"What's that?" She giggled, skimming through them. "And shouldn't they be out where the children can see them?"
"Shannon used to have a list of rules," he said, rather softly. "I thought I should use her expertise and make some," he paused, glancing down them. "And I made another for out there. This is all of them; which includes ours."
"We already have quite a few rules, Jethro." She replied, reading them through thoroughly.
"I know, but I think we need different ones to handle this year." He told her. He went into the main room to find somewhere important-looking to pin them up. At first he was going to pin them over their newly decorated play-house. After Tony and Abby had painted the inside with their names, they got the rest of the children to add theirs to the collection. He had to admit it would be nice to look back at the names and reminisce (About some of them, he thought, trying to sound strict inside his head but not managing - hell he loved them all) and he couldn't believe it had been his two shadows to think of it.
He finally settled on pinning them up underneath the clock, a large piece of paper would now surely draw all children's attention towards it.
As he was doing this, and admiring his handiwork, Jenny had been reading through the complete list. She had to laugh.
RULES
1. Never let Tony and Abby stay together (Unattended).
2. Always wear gloves when helping at the painting station.
3. Don't believe what the children tell you. Double check.
4. Never be unreachable - Jenn; next time I'm feeling ill, I don't want to have to stay with the children while you're ignoring your phone.
5. Never say you're sorry. The kids will see it as a sign of weakness and will eventually manage to break you.
6. Always be specific when you lie - the kids will see right through a non-specific lie.
7. Never go anywhere without at least some band-aids, crayons and tissues.
8. Never get personally involved in a kid's life. It just causes trouble.
9. It's better for a kid to ask permission. It doesn't matter how much they seek forgiveness.
10. Never mess with Gibbs' coffee.
Jenny laughed again and went to look at the severely edited children's version. She could easily read between the lines and basically saw; Tony, Abby - ask before doing anything, don't break stuff and don't interrupt the teachers on their coffee break.
"What do you think?" Gibbs asked, smirking at her face.
"Well," she started slowly, "at least their parents can't complain about lack of discipline. They may as well have enrolled their children in the corps."
"Marine rules are similar." Gibbs agreed, shrugging. He smiled again at his list. He'd left room for more if he thought of them. Little did he know that throughout teaching this year's children, it would expand greatly.
"Mr Gibbs, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting," a harried mother implored forgiveness. "We woke late, and his father was too busy to bring him, and somebody lost his shoes."
Gibbs smiled at Mrs DiNozzo, not bothering to smile at Tony, who had seen everyone else in the bullpen and hastened to join them.
"It's fine; we had a bit of a late start anyway. And please - it's Jethro."
"Or 'Boss'?" She asked wryly, snickering at his slight blush. "I think it's sweet that he calls you that. He clearly thinks very highly of you."
Gibbs smiled proudly, before seeing Jenny motioning towards her watch. "Sorry, Mrs DiNozzo, I need to - "
"It's fine, and please - it's Annabelle." She mirrored his wish to call him by his first name and quickly left - Gibbs was sure he could hear a car honk its horn impatiently.
"So does everyone understand Gibbs' rules?" Jenny asked as he joined them - clearly he had missed her explaining them to everyone. There was a nodding of heads, before she smiled happily and looked over to Gibbs, expecting him to take over, which he did a moment later.
"If we all keep to these rules, we'll have a better time all round," he told them (Although Jenny knew it was mostly for the adults' benefit). "And maybe you can all add rules, if you think it's necessary."
The children looked very excited to be given this opportunity, and wriggled impatiently on the rug until they were allowed to disperse and do different activities.
"You shouldn't talk to them quite like adults." Jenny said, watching Tony pull Tim by the wrist to join in his game. It was funny to see a five year old be ordered around by a four year old.
"Nothing wrong with it," Gibbs muttered into his coffee, surveying the scene. "They don't mind. It would just annoy them if you talked to them like kids."
"Funny isn't it?" Jenny mused absentmindedly. "They all want to seem more grown up than they are; whilst everyone over 25 wants to be seen as younger."
"Gibbs!" A wail sounded from the other side of the room and both adults looked up to see Tony rushing over, clutching his arm and almost in tears.
Jenny quickly brought out her maternal side and bent down, slowly running her hand down his arm to ascertain the damage.
"What happened?" She asked gently, not noticing Kate stomping over.
"Kate hit me!" He cried, looking up at Gibbs with round eyes, tears threatening to spill at any moment.
"Is that true, Kate?" Gibbs asked, glancing down at the angry girl stood before him.
"I was trying to reach something and Tony said he'd help me up," she explained, obviously positive she was in the right. "And he said I was too heavy!" She was clearly very upset by this. "And then he asked how much I weighed!"
Gibbs managed to convincingly portray laughter as a cough and asked: "So why did you hit him?" Tony was simply snivelling now, and glaring at Kate.
"Because..." she pasued, wondering what to say. "Because you aren't supposed to ask a woman her weight!" She told him. "My mom says it's bad manners!"
Now Jenny had that nasty sounding cough that strangely sounded like a laugh.
"Kate; that is no excuse to hit somebody," Gibbs told her, pulling out his serious face and voice. "And you shouldn't have tried to climb somewhere with Tony's help. He's younger than you. He could have gotten hurt."
Tony's eyes widened at this, and they filled up again. Jenny quickly managed to shush him, and Gibbs said: "What do you say to Tony?"
She looked insulted but upon seeing Gibbs' face, looked down and muttered: "Sorry, Tony." She looked up and was taken pity on by Jenny, who nodded for her to go and play again. She ran off quickly.
"Feeling better, kiddo?" Gibbs asked Tony, who looked like he wanted nothing more than to say no and clutch on Gibbs' trouser leg all day. However, he nodded and was gently pushed back into the fray by Jenny. She'd of course already established that there was definitely nothing wrong - there wouldn't even be a bruise.
"Jethro..." Jenny said slowly. "Did you say Ducky and Tony could write on the rules?"
Gibbs looked over to see Donald gently guiding Tony's small fist along the large piece of paper with a thick black marker. He hastily got up and went over.
"Don't worry, Gibbs," Ducky said to him, still helping Tony. "I'll make sure he won't leave any mess."
Gibbs blinked. "Well that's great - but that's not why I came over. Neither of you asked to write on the rules sheet."
"That's true," Ducky agreed, apparently now having finished helping Tony he put the marker away, as the four year old ran away, giggling happily. "But he said that the rule he wanted to write was very important."
Gibbs didn't even bother stifling his laugh as he read Tony's rule. In wobbly four year old (but guided by an eight year old) writing, it said clearly:
Rule #9 - Never ask a girl her weight. Ever.
"Amen to that, kid." Gibbs agreed, shaking his head and walking back to Jenny.
"Gibbs!" Abby squealed happily as he wandered over. "I was about to ask you to come look at what I got! Isn't that weird?"
Gibbs didn't really think so, seeing as the girl had been excitedly looking his way for the past few minutes, but smiled at her and asked: "What do you have, Abby?"
She opened her hands and he made an odd, strangled sound as he saw she had managed to capture a frog.
"Isn't it cool?"
The children were all outside for a twenty minute break, and on that day it was Jenny's turn to quickly tidy the room and Gibbs' turn to stand guard over their rambunctious children. Unfortunately, they were rambunctious enough to have managed to plough through some bushes - all of which combed thoroughly in case of glass - and found a frog that they were apparently planning on keeping as a pet.
Tony was beaming at Abby's discovery, and even Jimmy started to prod it slightly, intrigued. Kate and Jeanne weren't as impressed; squealing as the frog leaped from Abby's outstretched hand and away, through the gate, never to be seen again.
"Abby - don't pick up animals off the floor." Gibbs told her, shepherding her inside to wash her hands.
"It was an amphibian." Leon told him proudly, causing Gibbs to want to hit his own head off a wall several times - how many times a day would he be outsmarted by kids? He was a trained marine!
However, he'd forgotten basic tactics; which were forever ingrained on his memory whilst in the corps and NCIS.
You should never turn your back on your opponent.
It didn't matter that said opponents were a group of small children. They were lethal in large doses.
He'd foolishly forgotten to ask Jenny to keep an eye on them while he went to wash Abby's hands.
He came back out to chaos.
Organised chaos, but chaos nonetheless.
Leon seemed to be in charge; although there were a few frowns and pouts throughout the sea of children about this.
They'd somehow managed to open the store cupboard that had the toys the children would play with outside in the Summer. Three plastic pedal cars were zooming around the yard; one driven by Leon, the other, Ziva and the last, Tony. He winced as he saw Ziva turn and very nearly slam into the wall. Leon seemed to be going quite sedately, whilst Tony - ecstatic at this new toy - was whizzing round in a pace that almost rivalled Ziva's.
"Hey!" He gave a yell that was so loud they all came to a halt. "That's better," Gibbs muttered, before continuing: "Everyone back inside - now."
They all hastened to obey, instantly knowing they were in trouble. Gibbs quickly looked over at the store cupboard - how had they opened it? It didn't look like there had been much force behind it.
He walked back inside, his serious face firmly in place. Jenny stood in front of them, having heard Gibbs' yell she assumed nothing good had happened.
"Did you do it?" Gibbs heard Abby ask 'quietly' as he came back in. Had it all just been a ploy? Had they come up with a plan to distract him whilst that happened?
Dammit, now he felt too proud of them to yell.
Eventually, he had Jenny give them a firm telling-off after he told her what happened. They were all banned from the toys outside for the rest of the week and he had partnered the children with people they didn't want to be with. Ziva and Jeanne glared at each other from their spots opposite on a table - it wasn't that they hated each other, but they were angry from being banned from outside play and hadn't exactly liked one another to begin with.
Abby and Leon sat at another table - Leon didn't like being made to sit with the younger kids, and even though Abby was generally bubbly and loved everyone, the cool glances he was sending her made her uncomfortable, and she ignored him. Ducky and Tim were the most amiable pair, but Tim was cowed at being sat with someone a lot older than him, and Ducky kept glancing over to make sure Jimmy was alright. He was sat with Kate; who thought boys were smelly and didn't want to talk to him.
Gibbs wished at least one more child had joined that year. Although he knew he would be overrun if he thought that, it would help when pairing children up. He'd quickly chosen who to pair, and hadn't noticed that at the end he was left with Tony stood in front of him, waiting for his instructions.
"Tony... you're with me." He always had to have a child with him when they paired; it was just bad luck he got DiNozzo jr.
Although said Jr didn't see it like that. In fact, he looked very happy when he realised he was 'paired' with his boss.
"What can we do?" Gibbs remembered he had paperwork to sift through and groaned. He couldn't send Tony to join any of the groups. He would be fine with everyone (and hey, he was trying to make this a punishment) except maybe Leon; but he couldn't send Tony over to Abby.
"You can help me with this paperwork," he said in as cheerful a voice as he could muster. "I need someone to staple these." He wasn't stupid; letting a four year old staple unattended could be very dangerous, but he would be there.
"Cool!" Tony exclaimed happily, and was given the stapler. "Ooh, Mighty Mouse!" He looked too happy to be doing paperwork.
"Tony, you have to be very careful; okay? You don't want to get hurt."
"I won't, Boss - I promise."
Gibbs nodded, satisfied, and got to work. The room seemed very quiet for an afternoon, but then he remembered that the children weren't having much fun. He felt guilty; but they couldn't do dangerous things like that. He'd found out that Leon had somehow jimmied the cupboard open - which is why he was paired with Abby.
The time came for them all to go home. They filed out one by one with murmured apologies but he was confident they would be agonisingly chipper the following day.
When Ziva's father arrived, he asked if Gibbs wouldn't mind taking on her older brother, Ari.
"It will just be for the day," he assured Gibbs, "and I will pay extra; it's just that there is a problem with his usual teacher, and I couldn't think of anywhere else."
Gibbs assured him it was fine - and it would be somebody for Leon to play with as he and Ari were of similar ages. Ducky usually stayed with Jimmy, so he never seemed interested in playing with people his own age.
Mr David nodded happily and left, with Ziva swinging on his arm, excited as she was about her brother coming. Her little sister Tali wouldn't be joining them, Gibbs had been told, as she wasn't very well.
Speaking of children not being well; Gibbs spied Tony rubbing at his eyes in tiredness a few times. He coughed too, and Gibbs inwardly groaned, knowing the early symptoms of childhood illness.
He went over to where Tony was sat with Kate (and made a mental note to mention to her parents that she had been sat with a possibly ill child) and said, "How's your finger, Tony?" The small boy had caught it, opening a letter for Gibbs eagerly. It was the smallest scratch, but he had whined about it for ages.
The boy shrugged sullenly and didn't say anything, only watching the door.
Eventually, he was collected by his mother, but he didn't look as happy as he usually would to see her.
Gibbs hoped he wasn't too ill.
Oh dear; an envelope, illness... It's all very SWAK D: Review? :) Oh, and I just watched the latest NCIS episode - BEST ONE EVER :D first ever head slap made me feel like toasting with some champagne XD