Gibbs felt his mouth drop open. This lady had to be kidding. There was no way he was going through an obstacle course tied to his team. He looked around and noticed a balance beam. He snorted. He bet McGee had trouble with those when he wasn't tied to someone. He had never wanted to kill Vance as much as he did in that moment.

Abby started bouncing on the balls of her feet. She was excited. This was going to be a lot of fun. She loved obstacle courses and she was thrilled with the extra challenge of this one.

"You need to decide what order you would like to be tied up in." Mary continued. "The order will be important for your strategy." She gestured to the obstacle course. "You're going to need to navigate your way through the balance beam, climb up a wall, down the slide, across the rope net, across the hanging hoops and then you can untie your team and go across the zip line in pairs." She nodded to Gibbs "As team leader you can go down the Zip line by yourself."

They turned to look at the course. Ziva thought that the hanging hoops looked like they would be the hardest. The hoops hung from the ceiling and they would have to swing from ring to ring much like the monkey bars from their childhood. She gave a brief thought to wither or not McGee could get across. She shrugged her shoulders; some things could not be helped.

After some deliberation it was decided that Gibbs would go first, followed by Abby, Tim and Tony with Ziva pulling up the rear. Mary brought the rope over and they proceeded to tie each other together.

Abby who felt that Ziva and Tony really needed to get together, made sure that there was lots of space on the rope between herself and Gibbs and Tim, making sure that the space left at the end of the rope was barely any.

Ziva mentally groaned once she realized what Abby had done. There were only a few inches of rope between her and Tony and she dreaded the thought of going through the course continuously bumping in to him. Not to mention no thanks to Elsa she kempt coming back to that kiss thing.

Tony grinned when he saw the couple inches of rope between he and Ziva. He WAS going to kiss her at some point and this was just going to increase the amount of physical proximity there would be hopefully brining her to the same conclusion.

Gibbs turned around to study his team. He noticed the rope placement and snorted. There were a couple of feet of rope between him and Abby and a couple more feet between Abby and McGee. Naturally Tony and McGee had kept a couple of feet between them leaving just a couple of inches between Tony and Ziva. They would be practically on top of each other for the entire course. As far as a team strategy went he did have to agree that it made sense. Tony could easily carry Ziva if he needed too and he didn't want McGee pulling the entire team down.

"Good, you have your strategy." Mary said. "Now I'm going to throw another fun little twist in; if any one of you falls off any part of the course, you'll all have to start all over again." She gave a calculated grin. "So it's in your best interest to help each other stay up. She pulled out a timer, off you go!"

Gibbs groaned and headed for the balance beam dragging his team behind him. He really hated these things. He climbed up the stairs that were in front of the balance beam. He carefully edged out making his way across until the rope that tied him to his team gave a tug and he looked back to see Abby watching him.

"What are you waiting for? World peace?" He growled out at her as she slowly inched out behind him. As soon as the rope went slack he started moving again. He hated balance beams and wanted nothing more to get off of it.

Abby carefully edged out behind Gibbs wobbling just a little bit. Balance beams were not her strong suit and she didn't want to be the one that made them all start over again. She hadn't gotten very far when she felt Tim grab lightly to her waist holding her steady as they both walked across. His hands were warm on her waist and she marvelled a little at how much steadier she felt with his help. They both carefully crossed the beam, working together to not fall off.

Tony waited until the rope between he and McGee went taut before he headed out himself Ziva right behind him. He could feel her warmth where she stood so close to him and it was proving to be more of a distraction then he had anticipated. He kept walking slowly not wanting to rush things in the off chance that he fell off. He knew Ziva had excellent balance and wasn't at all concerned about her behind him. Every now and then she would casually brush up against him and it was about halfway through the beam that this distracted him enough that he could feel himself starting to go over. He mentally cursed himself for being so stupid, however suddenly he found himself upright with Ziva holding him around the middle pressed tightly to his back.

Ziva had watched as Tony had tentatively made his way half way across the balance beam. Naturally her years of dance had made her more then competent on the balance beam and so when she noticed Tony starting to go over, she quickly pressed her body into his, wrapping her arms around his waist to steady him. She inhaled his scent and marvelled at how good it felt to be standing there like that. She held the position a moment longer then necessary before letting him go.

Tony felt the loss as soon as she let go.

"Thanks." He said turning his head to look at her as he did so and once again started wobbling on the beam.

"Tony." She replied exasperated with him as she once again had to wrap her arms around him to keep him from going off. "Keep your eyes focused on going ahead. Do not turn around." Once again she held on a few seconds longer then necessary; she just wanted to make sure he was steady she told herself, before letting him go.

At this point the rest of the team had made it to the other side and turned to see what the hold up was. Abby smiled as soon as she saw Ziva holding onto Tony's waist and she noticed that Tony wasn't complaining about the situation. They started walking again, Ziva's hands now at Tony's waist much as McGee's had been about hers. Abby shook her head speculating a little at Tony's sudden clumsiness. She had seen him in many situations, and clumsy was not a word she would have ever thought about him. She would have bet that he could handle the beam with no problem, though here he needed Ziva's help to get across. Interesting.

It was only a couple of seconds before they had made it across and they team headed down the stairs and towards the wall they now had to climb over.

Mary started clapping. "Good job NCIS. Way to use team work to navigate across the balance beam. Keep up the good work!"

Gibbs shot Mary a death glare before taking a moment to study the "wall" they had to climb. It looked like a typical rock climbing wall, and while it was about 12 feet tall and he knew they would have no problems climbing it individually, they were now tied together which hindered the process a bit. He looked back to the rope separating his agents.

"You two going to have enough space to climb this thing?" he asked looking at Tony and Ziva.

The two of them looked at each other doing that silent communication thing that they always did before Ziva nodded and Tony said they would be fine. Gibbs shook his head knowing that the two agents did not have enough space and would probably be on top of each other then entire way up. This week was doing nothing for rule 12 he muttered to himself before grabbing a hand hold and hauling himself up the wall Abby right behind him.

As it turned out the team had no trouble climbing the wall, Ziva had simply hopped on to Tony's back and he had effortlessly climbed the wall carrying both their weight. Secretly it gave Ziva a little thrill to realize that he could carry both their weight up the wall, she knew he was strong, but it was fairly rare for her to have such a demonstration. When they reached the top she felt Gibbs and McGee grab hold of her to pull her up allowing Tony to haul himself over the top.

Mary once again started clapping and drew the attention of the team down to where she was standing below them. Ziva groaned and Tony let out a mild explicative when they noticed that Elsa was standing below them with Mary.

"Doesn't she have other people to see? How did we get the crazy stalker shrink?" He muttered so only she could hear.

"I thought you liked her?" Ziva asked.

"Well the hotness is somewhat killed by the crazy stalker tendencies. Not to mention she's going to make us discuss this in detail tomorrow. She'll probably want to know how we felt while climbing up the wall." He replied somewhat bitterly.

Ziva smiled at her partner before patting his cheek lightly. "It could always be worse." She replied.

"Oh yeah? How do you figure that?"

"She could make you do counselling with McGee."

Tony titled his head. "Touché" he replied.

Elsa watched the entire exchange from where she had stood with Mary. She knew she was probably freaking the partners out, however she found them absolutely fascinating. She noticed that none of the rest of their team found it at all strange that there was so little rope between them and that he had just carried her up the wall. She looked up to notice the Goth starring down at her with a giant grin. She winked at her and suddenly Elsa knew why there was so little rope between them and why no one found it strange that Tony had carried Ziva up the fall. She smiled back before heading out to her next session a grin on her face. She would track the Goth down later to compare stories, she decided.

Abby watched Elsa leave and then turned to look at the rope net with the rest of the team. Frankly she didn't think this would be a problem. They had gotten up the wall no problem after all. Granted Tony had just carried Ziva up, but the rope shouldn't be too hard. About half way across she changed her mind. The ropes were flat so they had to get across instead of up, and she found that she kept loosing an arm or a leg down one of the holes. Every now and then Tim or Gibbs would haul her back out however it took her much longer to cross then she would have expected. Once she reached the other side she watched as McGee then finally Tony and Ziva completed the section. Everyone was a little out of breath and they took their time before consider the hanging rings.

McGee groaned. He was tired and he really didn't want to cross the hanging rings. There were 10 of them and he closed his eyes tightly when he noticed that they were about 20 feet up in the air now. He knew there were thick mats covering the floor on the off chance that someone fell, but he really didn't like heights.

Tony noticed McGee's face and a broad grin passed across his own. "Hey McFriady, we're only 20 feet up, it's not even that high." He winced as Gibbs hand connected with the back of his head.

"We're supposed to be building a team Tony. Not tearing each other down."

Tony looked at Gibbs a little warily. Since when was Gibbs into team building?

"What's our Strategy?" Gibbs asked his team.

"We cross the rings." Came Ziva's reply. "There is no real strategy. If someone falls the person or people tied to that person have to carry their weight until the end and then we haul them up." She shrugged her shoulders.

Gibbs rolled his eyes but grabbed the first ring and swung out to start the course. Three rings out he stopped to wait for Abby to see if she would be able to hold herself up. He was grateful she could. He didn't want to have to carry her dead weight.

McGee was extremely grateful he had hired that personal trainer. He would have never heard the end of it if he had fallen and Tony had to carry him across. He kept his eyes focused on Abby as she swung from ring to ring. There was no way he was going to look down.

Tony and Ziva were having a bit more trouble navigating there way across. Due to the limited amount of rope between them, they both had to have a hand on the same ring making their progress very slow. Not to mention their swinging bodies kept bumping each other in the most interesting places.

Tony kept trying to focus on the task at hand and not how Ziva's body kept bumping into his. It was distracting at best to have her breasts squished into his back every couple of seconds. He focused on the next ring. He should be glad he was facing away from her. Thump. She hit his back again and her leg slid between his. He sucked in his breath and started thinking about Ducky's autopsy bay. Anything to not think about the way his partner was pressed against him.

Ziva was going slowly crazy. She was going to need a cold shower by the time this was done. She kept bumping into Tony and her legs would scissor between his. She had heard him exhale a couple of times and she knew this was driving him just as crazy as it was driving her. She wanted nothing more to get off of these rings and away from her partner before she jumped him. Maybe Elsa was right and they should just try a kiss.

Abby made it to the other side and laughed when she saw how awkward it was for Tony and Ziva to get across. They kept bumping into each other and she imagined that they were quite uncomfortable. When Tony reached the end Gibbs and McGee pulled them across. She noticed that they each took a step back from each other standing as far apart as the rope would allow neither one looking at each other. She felt her grin go even wider at the thought that they would have to go down the zip line together.

"All right, we're almost done. We just have to go down this Zip line. Abby and McGee you first, I'll follow and then DiNozzo and David." Gibbs turned to look at the partners. "No funny stuff." Ziva's mouth dropped open and Tony grinned.

They untied the rope holding them all together and got Abby and Tim situated on the Zip line. Abby couldn't help but grin as Tim's eyes were screwed shut against the view. She knew he didn't like heights so she didn't say anything as they jumped off the platform and swung down the zip line. They reached the bottom and detangled themselves before Gibbs joined them. They looked up and Gibbs let out a sigh as they could see Tony and Ziva arguing about something at the top.

"Get your asses down here." Gibbs finally yelled up.

Tony was exasperated. Due to their height difference they were arguing over the best way to zoom down the line. Tony thought Ziva should just ride piggy back again and Ziva was insisting that she wasn't too short to ride down the way Abby and McGee had.

"Ziva, you realize if you ride down the way Abby and McGee did we'll be pressed front to front right?"

"What is your point Tony?"

Tony sighed. "Look I know we don't discuss this, but frankly you're hot, and after the ring thing I don't think I could handle front to front action." Tony couldn't help the grin that crossed his face as Ziva turned bright red.

"Did I make the super Ninja blush?" he couldn't help but tease.

"Shut up Tony!"

"You're embarrassed. I embarrassed the super Ninja." He sang.

"If you do not shut up now you will not live to regret it." She threatened. She hadn't thought about the positioning until he had brought it up and she was finding herself absorbingly pleased with his admission. Which naturally, made her irritated as she didn't want to be pleased that Tony found her hot. She shouldn't care what her partner thought about her. The fact that she did only made her that much more annoyed.

"Just turn around." She said

Tony turned around and felt Ziva jump onto his back. He thought that it was cute that she had blushed, he wasn't sure she still had the capabilities to do so. He shook his head to clear it before jumping down the Zip line. Stupid Elsa was making him think things about his partner he shouldn't be thinking. See, counselling made things worse not better.

Mary was waiting for them at the bottom of the Zip line. "Yeah team NCIS! You made it through the obstacle course in 33 min and 45 seconds. We have a new record. I'm giving you top points for this one! Since you finished so early that gives you some extra free time. Lunch will be served at 12, enjoy the rest of your morning."

Once she dismissed them it didn't take them long to hightail it out of there.

"Enjoy your free time, see you at noon." Was all Gibbs said as he took off.

"Friends marathon?" Abby asked the group?

"Friends marathon." Tony agreed before heading up to their room dragging Ziva by the hand after him.

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A/N: I'm back from Vacation did you miss me? :) Hope you're all having some Happy Holidays! Hope you enjoyed the chapter!!!

-Kris