Title: Feet of Clay (7)
Rating: T
Pairing: Gabby (and now Tiva)
Spoilers: None.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with NCIS
After about thirty minutes, everyone got into what the coordinators called their 'core groups.' Nothing had to be rearranged; the two couples would not have been in the same groups anyway, but Tony and Ziva talked to the people in charge all the same to make sure that they would not be together at any point during the weekend. The core groups consisted of only three couples each; this was supposed to make it easier for people to share personal thoughts and feelings. To start off with, the leader of Tony and Ziva's group said, they were going to play the Ungame. It wasn't really a game, hence the name; each person drew a card from a deck that had questions written on each card and then answered the question. The questions were all designed to find out more about each person. Tony thought it might be interesting; Ziva just slouched in her chair with her arms crossed.
"Is this really necessary?" she whispered to Tony, while another group member was talking about the kitten he had had who died when he was in the first grade.
"If they say it is. Be quiet," Tony whispered back. The leader glanced at them. It felt kind of like being back in elementary school; the rules were that you couldn't talk while another person was talking. Of course that didn't stop Ziva from communicating her disgust with impatient sighs and the occasional suppressed giggle at the apparent ridiculousness of the questions. Tony wondered if it was possible for this weekend to make things worse between them instead of better.
When Tony's turn came, he picked up the card, read it, then quickly stuffed it back in the stack.
"Mr. DiNozzo," the leader said, in that calm but firm tone that Ziva imagined one might use for guiding sheep. "The rules are that you must answer the question on the card that you drew."
"I can't answer that one," Tony said. His face was totally blank. "If I told you about that, I would have to kill you." Ziva looked at him to see if he was serious; he gave her the tiniest hint of a wink. The leader looked surprised and disconcerted; she guessed that he hadn't dealt with this situation before. However, he enforced the rules and told Tony that he would have to forfeit his turn. Tony nodded and handed the cards to Ziva. She drew a card, wondering if she could get away with the same thing when Tony read over her shoulder: "'Say something about honesty.' Well, go on, Ziva; what do you think about it?"
"Mr. DiNozzo." The leader's voice hadn't changed in the slightest from when he had said Tony's name before. "There is no talking unless it is your turn, not even to your significant other. Ms. David, you may continue." Ziva looked at her card for a minute. Something about honesty? Did they want her to be honest about honesty?
"Honesty…" She stuck the card at the bottom of the pile and passed it to the next person. "Is overrated and often unnecessary if the same or better results can be achieved by lying." She looked down at the carpet with its maroon squares framed by curlicues of gold. She knew they were all staring at her. This was why she hated things like this. They could talk about how they wanted to get to know her, but there was no point; no one in this kind of group could ever understand her.
The next person picked up a card that allowed her to ask a question or make a comment. "I wanted to ask you something, Ms. David."
"You know," the leader said. "We should really be on first-name terms here, considering what we are doing this weekend. Marissa, you can ask Ziva a question."
"Ok," the woman said. "Ziva, could you tell me why you feel that way about honesty? Are you saying you're never honest or just occasionally and there is no way to tell?"
"That's two questions," Ziva said. She wanted to give the woman her look from hell, but knew she was going to have to be around her the entire weekend, so she just kept staring at the floor. "To answer one of them, which is all you are allowed, I am honest sometimes and no, there is no way for you to tell." Only once Marissa's partner was talking about her favorite childhood fairytale did Ziva sneak a glance at Tony. He didn't look upset or anything. She was sure he knew that that was just how she was. It wasn't as if she lied to him…not often anyway.
On his next turn, however, Tony got a comment card and turned and said to her, "Ziva, I knew you were lying about the movie last week. You didn't really want to see it and you hated it. But, we got to spend some time together that would otherwise have been spent sulking in one of our apartments and it was really nice of you to go with me. So, to some degree I have to agree with you; sometimes it works better to lie if you can accept the consequences." He smiled at her in an odd way and handed her the deck. Ziva didn't like how she felt then; like a small child being indulgently smiled on by the adults. She felt terribly immature. The next question was an immeasurable relief.
"'How do you act when you want to avoid doing something?'" She read it aloud, dropped it on the floor, then got up and walked to the door. "You asked," she said, and left.
***********************
The Ungame was being used as an icebreaker in all the groups. Gibbs had been listening to Abby go on for several minutes about what the best dessert in the world would be.
"And then it would have whipped cream, then chocolate whipped cream, and then a cherry on top. No, two cherries. Because then you could share!" As he knew it would, Abby's cheerful and loving nature had already won her the good will of most of the people there that weekend. They only stared at her clothes for a few minutes, until she started talking; then they relaxed and she became their friend. Everyone in the group smiled at her and a few giggled a little when she got done talking about her dessert. "Sorry," she said, smiling sheepishly and handed the cards to Gibbs.
From Gibbs' point of view, this weekend was supposed to be about him and Abby; there was no reason to involve all these other people and he certainly didn't want to be telling them personal details. But for Abby's sake, he would attempt it. He reached for a card and read it.
"'Tell about a time when you were teased.'" He pretended to be thinking for a moment. "In junior high, there were a couple of guys who called me names in halls sometimes. It didn't really bother me; they were just a bunch of insecure jerks who liked to hear the sounds of their own voices." He handed the deck to the next person and sat back in his seat. No one, not even Abby, said anything about it.
The next time it was Abby's turn, she drew a card that said, 'Say something about resentment.' For a minute, she didn't know what to say. The question seemed to catch on something inside her and she felt more than she could put into words. "Well," she said slowly. "I think resentment is kind of a weird thing, really; I mean, why wouldn't you want to clear the air and just tell someone you're mad at them? It's better than holding it inside; it can only cause more problems that way."
Gibbs' card said, 'Say something about alcoholic beverages.'
"I like them," he said. "I'm a bourbon drinker personally, although—I guess I haven't been drinking it a lot lately; it seems like—I mean, I like it and all, but it can make you do things—or it can turn you into someone that you don't really want to be. Or at least help." He couldn't tell if Abby was looking at him or not. Was that what was upsetting her? But they had worked it out—they had spent months together without it causing any more problems. That couldn't be it. Maybe some kind of doubts about her ability to be a mother or something.
"'Say something about apologizing'" Abby looked thoughtful. "I think it's one of those things that can be good sometimes, but I've learned that if you do it a lot, it can make you look weak. So I don't do it as much and I don't always expect it from other people. And especially if you're close to someone, you don't need to as much. There are some things that I've forgiven people for before they even said that they were sorry. So maybe it's less necessary than people are always saying it is." Once she was finished speaking, the leader said that they were almost through, but he would leave it open for a few minutes so that people could ask questions or make comments. One man directed his question to Abby.
"So you think that, if you're close to someone, they should already know that you're sorry and that makes saying so pointless?"
"Kind of," Abby said. "I mean, some things that Jethro has done, I know he was and is sorry. I just know. So I'm not going to keep holding them against him." She smiled at him and Gibbs smiled back. He was glad she knew him so well.
"This was really good," their leader said, after a few more comments. "I think we're making real progress and I hope you feel that, too. Now let's move into the main hall where we had the welcome session; we're going to have some recreational activities."
***********************
How are we going to solve any problems if she keeps running away? Tony wandered the halls in search of Ziva. After she left, the leader had told everyone to take a break and he and Tony started looking for her. There was no telling where she was; if Ziva was upset and wanted to literally run away, she could be quite a distance from there.
What had he said? All he had wanted to do was make her feel better. Everyone else in the group had been staring at her like she had two heads or something and he wanted her to feel more comfortable. It seemed to have only made her more angry. Again he wondered if this had been a mistake, if he was pushing things. The relationship seemed to be going downhill at alarming speed. Maybe keeping it together was more trouble than it was worth.
He rounded a corner and there she was, pacing in front of their room. He remembered now that he had the keys, which was probably why she was still outside. She still looked angry, but at least she was attempting to calm down. But from what?
"Glad I found you," he said to her. "Nice answer. Loved the demonstration, especially the part where you get pissed off because I said something nice to you. Did they schedule this at the wrong time of the month or something?" Ziva gave him a look that was beyond angry.
"What kind of insane place is this?" she asked him. "Why should I tell any of these people how I feel about honesty or what kind of pet I want? It's ridiculous and a waste of time; this isn't going to help our relationship."
"Maybe not. But shouldn't we at least pretend to be normal and go along with what they say?"
"I noticed you haven't answered any questions yet." Tony narrowed his eyes at her.
"I couldn't answer the one I got; I told everyone."
"Oh, really? What was it?"
"None of yours or anyone's business!" Tony snapped. Ziva looked startled, then smirked at him.
"Now who's avoiding the issues?" she said. "I thought we were supposed to be opening up to each other. If you can't tell me, I have to assume that you don't trust me and how is our relationship supposed to work without trust…"
"For the love of God, Ziva…" Tony pressed his forehead against the wall and pounded it with his fist. The next words out of his mouth might have buried their relationship had the leader not come around the corner with the same smile on his face.
"Oh, Ziva. I'm glad we found you," he said. "Now that you've had a chance to cool off, I was wondering if you would like to return to the group and later perhaps we can talk about the feelings that you had that led you to react so strongly to this."
"Ok," Ziva said and walked toward him. Tony lifted his head and stared at her, dumbfounded. "I owe it to Tony to give it another try." She patted him on the back with a smile that seemed sincere. What the hell was that? Tony thought, but he followed them back to the room and they took their places.
****************************
Ziva could understand running while balancing eggs; she could even appreciate the relay races. What she found unfathomable was the three-legged race. It couldn't be a show of speed or endurance or anything, really, because one person was inevitably slower or clumsier than the other and it pushed the other back to their level. And the first person could lean on the other's talent. It did no one any good and it certainly couldn't fulfill the purpose of a race, which was to see who was the fastest. Or so she had previously thought.
She and Gibbs stood against the wall, watching the rest of the participants playing games. They were the only dissenters; the other 34 people plus the leaders were running around like kids, chasing each other with eggs on spoons and squirting everyone with a substance called Silly String at the finish line. Ziva hadn't played those games even when she was a child. If you had to play something, there were much more practical things that developed needed physical characteristics and skills. But to be playing these games now, as adults; it was just…
"This is absurd," she muttered. Gibbs heard her, but it was a moment before he replied.
"Yep," he said. He hadn't come here to play kid's games. He had come for Abby's sake; to rescue their family. Of course, he hadn't known what to expect and he had known that it would be unpleasant, but this seemed downright useless. He looked at Abby; she and one of the men were dressed in inflatable sumo wrestler costumes and she was gleefully smacking him with some kind of stick, also inflatable. At least she was happy. Maybe she would cheer up a little and she could deal with the problems she was having. Whatever those were.
"I have never seen anything so pointless."
"Nope."
"How long do you think before they get tired?" Tony was on the relay race finish line doing some sort of victory dance, unaware that another team member was about to sneak up behind him and spray Silly String down his pants. He had caught her eye several times and tried to get her to join in; she stayed obstinately against the wall.
"They said recreation was supposed to last about an hour." He checked his watch. Another fifteen minutes or so.
"Are they going to make us do much more of this?"
"I hope not."
Abby and Tony were both now at the three-legged race. Abby gestured to Gibbs. He signed that he was fine where he was. She signed back 'please' and gave him the saddest puppy dog eyes, the ones he couldn't seem to resist. Tony was also waving to Ziva; she was pretending not to notice. Gibbs turned to her.
"You know, I bet all of us would be good at that." He looked around. "Better than most of the people here in fact."
"I am not interested."
"Yeah, you're right. Even if you did compete, Abbs and I would probably win." Slowly taking the bait, Ziva turned to look at him.
"Loser buys gas for the trip home," she said.
"You're on, David."
The two couples tied legs together and got ready to race. Gibbs and Abby were ahead; Tony was having trouble keeping his balance with Ziva's competitive streak dragging him onward. However, just as they were almost finished, Tony tripped on Silly String that had come down his pants leg. As they fell, Ziva threw her hand out and it touched the finish line, just as Gibbs and Abby hobbled across. In good humor, they all called it mostly a draw; they would pay for their own gas, but Tony and Ziva owed them coffee and a CafPow. Ziva had actually been smiling for a few minutes before she realized it and went back to frowning. After the race, she and Tony went upstairs to get all the Silly String off his clothes. Abby had a fair amount of it on her too; Gibbs picked some out of her hair as they took a walk around the building for some fresh air.
"Thank you so much, Jethro," she said, her arms wrapped around him. "This has been great already."
"I only want to make you happy, Abbs," Gibbs said. "Is this helping?"
"Hard to tell. But we've only been here a few hours, you know. I was so glad they let us play those games. I figured it would be just a lot of old psychologist people in suits and ties and stuff like that. Now I'm not so nervous about tomorrow."
"I'm glad." Gibbs kissed the top of her head as they walked back in and started to head upstairs.
"Maybe…you could talk more tomorrow?" Abby said, kind of shyly.
"I did talk."
"You know, this isn't just for me. I like to know what you're thinking and feeling too. I always have."
"What I don't see is why I have to tell everyone else."
"The more you share with others, the more you can share with your significant other," Abby said, quoting their group leader from that afternoon. "And it's ok. I'm happy just that you're here and that you did talk at all. I just want you to get as much out of this as you can."
"I know." He kissed her cheek. "I'll try. We both will."
