Title - Teambuilding for Dummies

Author - Mrs Scott 323

"Whose brilliant idea was this?"

"Stop complaining Tony, can't you just enjoy the view?"

"While I'm sweating like a pig and carrying a backpack that probably has bricks in it? Not likely."

"Shut up Tony. This is nothing, during my Mossad training we had to walk three times as long and the temperature was much higher too." Ziva snapped at him. Tony continued to grumble under his breath about crazy ninja women with unnatural abilities.

They had been hiking through the hills for the last two hours. Apparently everyone who'd attended the sexual harassment workshop had to do a follow up on teambuilding. Well, actually it was voluntary but the Director thought that it was best for the entire team to attend. And no one had been very pleased to hear about it. Gibbs had been even more grumpy than usual the entire week that lead up to their outing but the Director made sure he wouldn't get out of it. She even sacrificed her own free weekend to make sure he'd go with them.

Gibbs heard some unusual noises from somewhere inside his house. He left the basement to find out where the sounds came from. After a short search he found Jenny in his bedroom dressed comfortably in jeans and a sweater, it had been a very long time since he'd seen her this casually dressed. Then he noticed the suitcase opened on his bed and that she was packing his clothes and some other items in it.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Making sure you attend that teambuilding weekend."

"I'm not spending 72 hours listening to my team bicker about pointless things and I'm certainly not going to 'help make our team a very close knit group'." While saying those last words he formed quotation marks with his hands. It was one of the lines the female instructor used when she informed them about their trip.

"Besides, she specifically said that this was on a voluntary basis."

"You're going and that is final. Or do you want your team to be stuck with desk work for the next month?" She saw him cringe at the thought and smiled when she finished closing up his suitcase.

"There, all done. Let's go."

Before he knew it she'd pushed him out of the house and the two were on their way to the weekends camping spot.

While they were climbing up the hill he kept shooting glares at her back, she felt it. But she refused to react, she wasn't going to let him get to her. She let her gaze go over the rest of the team. Ziva was first in their small line, a few feet in front of the others. Abby and Ducky were following close behind, and they appeared to be talking about something. She looked over her shoulder, refusing to meet Jethro's eyes. Tony was struggling behind Gibbs, she could see the drops of sweat on his forehead. Jenny held back a smile. He really shouldn't have offered to carry the backpack. She suspected that Tony was right, because she'd seen Ziva put something in the backpack, just before they started their hike.

McGee and Palmer were last in line. They also appeared to be talking about something, very animatedly.

Suddenly her foot seemed to hit something and she lost her balance. She braced herself for the impact of the fall but it never came. Instead two arms caught her.

"I suggest you look in front of you Jen."

"Thank you Jethro, I think I might do that." Jenny stopped herself from rolling her eyes and tried not to notice the small tingles she felt in the places where Jethro's arms and hands touched her body. She quickly released herself from his arms and asked Ziva.

"How much further is it?"

"Not that far." her friend replied. "About a minute or five."

Jenny checked her watch, she could use a rest but she was sure she could manage five more minutes.

Those five minutes seemed longer than the entire road they'd taken. Finally they reached their camping spot. And after the struggle to put the tent up everyone collapsed to the ground. Well everyone except Ziva and Gibbs.

"Whose bright idea was it to get just one tent?" asked Abby.

"That women who gave us the sexual harassment workshop." answered Jen in a tired voice.

Ziva finally sat down too. "Remind me to 'thank' her."

"Well you're the one that snores like a sailor so you really shouldn't be complaining."

"Shut up Tony."

With their usual bickering the evening fell, and the team sat down in front of the small campfire they started. Tony dug up a bag of marshmallows. "Anyone want one?"

Almost everyone reached for the bag, everyone except Abby. She never liked the sweet. Instead she searched for her phone, Jethro was staying with one of her bowling friends and she was curious if everything was still alright. She searched through her backpack, the place she'd put her cell phone in. But it was nowhere to be found.

"Guys, have you seen my phone? It's red, and has a skull on it."

McGee reached for his pocket, "here Abbs why don't you use mine." but he couldn't find it either.

"I can't find mine either. I'm sure I put it in my pocket."

"Right Probie, I'm sure you did." This time Tony reached for his pocket to retrieve his phone.

"I did!"

"I can't find mine either."

Everyone in the circle now reached for their pocket to find their phone. Everyone but Palmer and Ducky. Gibbs noticed their lack of movement first.
"Anything you want to tell us?" he glared at the two to give his question extra force. Palmer cracked first.

"We got rid of everyone's phone." when he noticed the threatening looks he got he quickly added "you'll get them back after the weekend. Dr Mallard and I thought that it would be a good way for us to get the real nature experience."

"You did what?!" the collective yell sounded like it came from just one person.

"I can't even call for pizza?" Tony whined. Jenny turned a little green, they didn't know if it was the lack of cell phones or the mentioning of pizza that made her excuse herself and threw up the marshmallows she just ate. Ducky went over to check on her.

"Are you alright Jennifer?"

"I'm fine Ducky, just very tired."

He studied her face, and she gave him a small smile. Just for once he let it slide. But he decided to pay more attention to her this weekend. To make sure that she wasn't really ill. And before the fire went out everyone had gone back to the tent. Getting their rest for the next morning. Because no one really knew what was going to happen to them.

The morning came early for a few people, Abby, Jenny and Ducky had all woken up at about 5 am. The snoring sounds from inside their tent were enough to cut down a rainforest. Instead they'd decided to fix them all some breakfast. But when they reached the remaining of the campfire they noticed that there was a stick with a note standing next to it. Abby reached for the note and read it out loud.

"Good morning everyone. I hope you slept well. Today's assignment is to hunt for your own dinner. Everything you need can be found out here. You just have to look for it. Closely." Abby looked up from the note, "does that mean we have to shoot some kind of animal?"

Jenny shook her head, "I was informed that they'd provide for every meal so they probably made it some kind of scavenger hunt."

"I haven't had one of those since I was a young boy." Ducky smiled. "This might actually be fun."

The other two looked at him like he was insane. When the others finally woke up they informed them of today's assignment. It seemed like Ducky was the only one who looked forward to their assignment. After some discussion they decided to split up, and that half of the team would look in the morning and the other half in the afternoon. Just to make sure there wouldn't be any other surprises in their camp. The first group, the one with Ziva, Palmer, McGee and Gibbs had left soon after their discussion. Surprisingly it was McGee with his boy scout history who found the first part of their dinner. Unfortunately it was hanging from a high branch in some kind of tree. He tried to climb up to the branch, but every time he seemed to slip away. His hands were covered in scratches he'd gotten from the bark.

"Palmer, help him."

Gibbs motioned with his hand in the direction of the tree. Palmer looked a bit disbelievingly. "I'm not sure that would be a good idea." then he noticed Gibbs' glare "Sir."

But Gibbs' expression didn't change and Jimmy gave up, he walked over to McGee and tried to push the other man in the tree. Or at least be an extra step on his way up there. Ziva watched amusedly and saw from the corner of her eye that Gibbs had a hard time to keep the smile off his face. In one quick movement she took out her knife and threw it at the bag. The blade cut through the plastic and the entire thing fell down. Palmer and McGee lost their balance and fell down on the ground. Stunned, they looked at Ziva who smiled and walked to the tree to retrieve her knife.

"You might want to get up." She pointed with her knife to the place they were sitting. It wasn't until then that they noticed that they'd fallen into poison ivy.

Meanwhile Tony had crawled in his sleeping bag again, claiming he hadn't gotten enough sleep with everyone's snoring. The other three scoffed as he left them behind. Abby, Jenny and Ducky kept themselves busy with a few games, none of them really knowing what else they could possibly do. That was, until Abby broke the silence.

"Why did you leave my cell behind again? Tony's pizza idea was kind of a good idea."

"My dear Abigail, you can't be serious, a camping trip with cell phones and delivered pizza. It is the 21st century but this is a camping trip!"

Abby and Ducky started to bicker about the true meaning of a camping trip, and neither noticed that every time the word pizza fell, their Director turned greener every single time. When the word fell again she quickly excused herself to empty her stomach. Abby and Ducky came to check up on her. Abby held her hair back as she threw up one last time. It felt like there was nothing left in her stomach.

"Jennifer, are you sure you aren't ill?"

"I'm fine Ducky." Ducky watched her intently, once again. Abby walked back to the tent to get some water. Hesitantly, Ducky asked his final question. "Does Jethro know?"

"No." Jenny glared at him. "And you're not telling him."

"I wasn't going to. You should do that yourself Jennifer."

"I know."

"Soon."

"I know."

The conversation ended right there. And they didn't talk about it the entire day. Not until later that night, when Ducky gave Jenny a meaningful look when he left the two of them alone at the campfire Everyone else had turned in a while earlier, McGee and Palmer while scratching themselves furiously. Jenny glared at him, once again. And then he left them behind. For a while, the only sound that could be heard was the sound of wood burning and the crackling of resin.

"Jen?"

"Mhm?"

"What was that about."

"Nothing."

"Come on Jen, even in this light I can see your eye twitch."

She sighed. Knowing that this was the perfect opportunity to tell him. But still not sure if she wanted him to know already. Not sure if he was ready to find out.

"I'm pregnant."