HAPPY NEW YEAR! Hope this one is happy and healthy for you...! Hope you enjoy this chapter :-)
They all gathered back where they had started off and the teachers faced them. "So…for the first game, Team Ziva won…Team Gibbs came second, Team Tim came third and finally Team Tony…were last to arrive with the help of the other groups. So that's one point to Team Ziva…"
The girls cheered and the little girl who kept taking Ziva's hand looked at the boys group and stuck her tongue out "Bet you wished you had Ziva now!" She jeered at them.
One of the other boys stuck his tongue back out at her "Shut up, Rosie! At least we don't get scared in a forest….in the day!" He jeered right back.
Tony put his hand on the kids shoulder "Brian…that's enough"
Brian looked up at Tony who was giving him a warning stare. He nodded and listened to the teacher.
The teacher raised an eyebrow at Tony. No one ever got Brian to do as he was told. She smiled to herself and continued. "The next game is going to be capture the flag…any questions about this one?" She asked.
Everyone looked at Ziva who shrugged. "I know how to play this one...I think"
The teacher explained it for her benefit anyway "You each get a different colored flag and you take it to your base which we set up in four different corners of the field." Everyone looked at the cones in the corners and the different colored flags that were in each 'base'. "The objective of the game is to be the last team with your flag without having it stolen by any of the other teams. Considering Team Ziva won the last game they should choose where they want to go."
All at the same time the four girls in Ziva's team called out "The red base!"
The teacher nodded for them to go over to the red base. Two girls took Ziva's hands and the other two held onto the other girls so all the other teams could see was a large figure and two little ones on either side. Tony watched Ziva walking away. Another boy in his team-Rob- looked at him "You like her don't you….and when I say like…I mean….like, like…."
Tony looked down at him and grinned "Ohhhh, yeah"
They all chose their bases by who came first in the last task. As Team Tony came last they were last out to their base. The teacher yelled through the megaphone "Go when you hear the claxon!"
The claxon went off and two people from each team ran. Gibbs and a kid called Mark from his, Tony and the last kid in his group called Max and McGee and a kid called Ben. The girls were still trying to decide who was going out of all of them. "Three…three of us should go…one should stay." Rosie reasoned.
Ziva nodded "Good plan…"
Megan one of the girls pulled Ziva's sleeve "Why are they all coming at us?" She asked.
They all looked up to see Gibbs, Mark, Tony, Max, McGee and Ben running at them. Ziva straightened up "Because we're girls" she said with a slight laugh "Tony and McGee should know better" u
"I have an idea!" Megan said "Why don't me, Rosie and Charlotte go and get their flags from their teams…we'll sneak in the back way to the bases…in all the commotion that is happening here no one will notice us gone…Ziva you stay here and protect our flag…us three will have to be very sneaky and very quick…She won't be able to hold them off for very long…"
The other three teams were nearly at their base with Tony and Max in the lead. Ziva nodded "Go when they all get here" They all agreed to that plan and stood around trying to look calm and cool talking about random things.
Tony and Max arrived followed by Gibbs and Mark then McGee and Ben. The three girls snuck out and ran as quick and sneakily as they could to the other bases. Ziva was doing a good job of defending her team's base until Tony lifted her up. She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed causing him to yelp and drop her. She stepped back to her flag just as Max's was about to grab it. He tried to dive through her legs but she was too quick. This went on for what seemed like ages but Ziva was somehow too good at defending her base so when the claxon went off signaling the end of the game Ziva was relived and the other three teams were thoroughly confused. They looked at each other seeing if they'd got the flags but no one had. When Megan, Rosie and Charlotte all ran up with the other flags and hugged Ziva they all realized there were team members missing from this base and they were tricked.
Max kicked the dirt at the girls and as Ziva was squatting down hugging them it got her straight in the face. She stood up rubbing her eyes. "Max! That was stupid! Why would you even do that!" Charlotte snapped at him. She looked up at Ziva to make sure she was okay. Gibbs was there looking in her eye and blowing the dirt out of it.
When all the dirt was out he turned and was about to Gibbs slap Max but remembered he was a kid so he settled with just telling him off "Kicking dirt is dangerous. It can blind someone. Don't do it" Max nodded looking sheepish and didn't have to be told to apologize to Ziva. He just did it.
"Sorry…I didn't mean to get it in your face"
Ziva just shook her head at him telling him it didn't matter. They all walked back to the 'camp' area where the teachers were and sat down on the benches. The teacher added the point onto Ziva's score board and then said "I think we should have lunch and then have a few more games, announce the winners and then let the agents get back to NCIS. How does that sound?"
They all agreed and did exactly that. They all finished lunch and then stood to decide the next game. "I think we should play hide and seek…" Ben said and turned to Ziva "Do you need this one explained to you or do you actually know what it is?"
Ziva raised her eyebrows at him "I'm not a complete idiot." She replied.
Alfie scoffed but when he got shot a look from Tony he turned it into a cough. They all decided Tony's group should do the finding and they all went off to hide. Ziva took her team into the forest and found thick trees and showed them how to climb and then did so herself. They settled themselves and waited.
Gibbs and his team ran in the other direction into a corn field and lay down flat on their stomachs and McGee led his team into the forest and hit behind large trees. When Tony's team had finished counting he looked at them. "Make a choice who goes after what team?"
Ben spoke up "You go after Ziva's team, me and Alfie can go after Gibb's team and Max and Rob can go after McGee's team" Tony nodded and they all went separate direction looking for the other teams. Tony worked on the logic that Ziva would have hidden herself and her team somewhere in the thicker part so they would be harder to find. He looked at which was the thicker parts and then headed towards what he called giant Christmas trees. Little did he know he was heading straight for them.
They all sat in their trees in silence the girls sometimes giggling when the braches tickled them. Max and Rob were headed in the wrong direction completely and Alfie and Ben were going in vaguely the right direction. Tony walked into the forest looking behind each tree and calling the girls names. "Ziva….Rosie…Charlotte….Megan….I'm coming to get ya"
The girls were in the trees just in front of him stifling giggles at his calling. Ziva shifted on her branch to make herself more comfortable and as she did so it creaked under her. Tony looked that way but the trees were covering her. Until the branch broke and went tumbling to the ground from its high height, Ziva with it. The girls in the trees screamed and Tony watched as Ziva hit other branches on her way down before landing on her back with a thud and a loud groan. Tony looked at her laying in the stinging nettles for a minute before rushing forward to help her up. "You okay?"
"No" She replied sounding out of breath. Hitting other branched and finally landing on the ground had knocked the wind out of her and she was struggling to catch her breath. She tried to sit up but Tony made her lie down. She tried to move again a little while later but couldn't.
"Hang on…I'm gonna go get help." Tony said standing up. He turned and ran out of the forest following the route he took before and got to the edge. "Can I have some help over here?!" He yelled out to anyone who was in ear shot. He was hoping Gibbs would hear because he knew he would know what to do. There was only slight movements from the teachers who turned to look at him.
From where McGee and his team were they heard Tony shout "He's trying to draw us out…not falling for it" he muttered to his team who laughed quietly.
Gibbs and his team lay quietly in the corn field and heard Tony yell. Gibbs thought he was trying to draw them out but there was something in his voice he wasn't sure about. He still lay down and made no movement waiting. They heard Tony yell again "Will someone give me a hand! We've got an Agent down!"
This time Gibbs didn't hesitate. He jumped to his feet and scanned the area for Tony and saw him by the forest and started running. He didn't care if it was a trick. He wasn't going to ignore a shout for help when one of his agents could be down. As he got to Tony he saw the panicked look in his face. "What's up?" He asked the younger man.
"Ziva fell out a tree and can't seem to move." Tony said.
Gibbs nodded for Tony to lead the way and followed him to where Ziva was still laying. Gibbs squatted down next to her as Tony helped the girls down from the trees. "What hurts, Ziva?" Gibbs asked.
"My back…"
"Okay…uh…try to get your breath…and we'll go from there"
Ziva nodded and took a few deep breaths in and out and slowly her breathing got back to normal.
"Okay…on a scale of one to ten, one being low, ten being high how much does it hurt?"
"Six or seven"
Gibbs looked at Tony "Call Ducky"
Tony nodded and dialed his number "Hey Ducky…uh we have a bit of a situation…Ziva fell out of a tree and her back hurts…she says it hurts about a six or a seven if it was on a scale." He paused and waited for Ducky to speak and give him instructions before hanging up and talking to Gibbs.
"He says we're to try and sit her up, slowly and carefully" Gibbs nodded and both men got on either side of Ziva and helped her sit up. She managed it without too much pain.
"Now what?" Gibbs asked.
"He said leave her sitting for a bit and check her back for bruising then stand her up"
"And if there's bruising?"
"Um….he didn't say…he just said check for bruising"
Gibbs shrugged and moved around to her back. "I'm gonna lift you jacket and top okay?" He said.
Ziva nodded and let the men gently pull her top up and look at her back. She heard Tony take in a sharp breath. "What?" She asked.
"Well…it has started to bruise and it's been stung a million and one times over by these stingers…it looks really bad…" Tony gently ran his hand over her back and felt it was burning.
"DiNozzo…don't touch" Gibbs said.
Ziva shook her head "No …your hand was cool…"
Tony looked at Gibbs who shrugged and nodded. Tony ran his hand over the entire expanse of her back again and felt her take a deep breath. He added his other cold hand with the other one and gently rubbed her back. When his hands got warmer he pulled them away and covered her back with her coat and they both helped her stand. She stood for a minute before they started walking back.
"It's not as bad as it probably looks" She commented to them as they all walked back to the teachers. The four in Ziva's group were constantly making sure she was okay.
For the rest of the day the teams played games where they didn't go out of sight from each other and Ziva sat out for the remainder of the games played. At the end the score was tallied and the winner was announced.
"Coming fourth with a grand total of four points….Team Tim" They groaned but McGee encouraged them and they smiled a little.
"Coming third with a grand total of six points…Team Tony" Tony's team were a little more enthuastic but still down hearted about not winning.
"Second place with a grand total of nine points….Team Gibbs meaning Team Ziva won but only by one point!"
The girls all cheered and hugged each other then carefully hugging Ziva. "The prize is a chocolate bar each" The teacher pulled out five large chocolate bars and handed them out to Ziva, Megan, Rosie and Charlotte. "Now I want you all to thank the Agents for their time and for doing this all for you"
The kids called out their thanks and Gibbs stood up. "Before we go we got you all presents" He nodded to McGee who pulled out a box. In it were NCIS caps. He gave four to each of the agents so they could hand them out to their teams. He went first and gave the hats out. Then Tony went then Gibbs and finally Ziva who placed the caps on the girls heads. They laughed and thanked her and asked for a photo. Ziva nodded willingly standing with them for the teacher to take a photo with them. Then they had a whole class photo with the agents then they said thank you again and let the team go.
The four of them got in the car and Gibbs drove off hooting his horn at the class of kids waving at them.