disclaimer: I don't own NCIS or its characters...
Author's Note: (to Cerasi J) I wrote this before I read your note, and the treatment of the character who asks the very same question that you did is in no way meant to reflect negatively upon you. That being said, I am glad you are enjoying the story and hope that you continue to do so. As I hope others also get some enjoyment out of it, but if not, at least it was fun to write!
"What is Sardines?" Kate asked, as Abby jumped to her feet and clapped her hands exclaiming how much she liked to play Sardines.
"Jeez, Kate. Did you even have a childhood?" Tony asked sarcastically. Kate hopped up and slammed herself down on his chest, letting his cry of pain be her response.
"It's a form of Hide and Seek," McGee explained since nobody else seemed willing or able to respond at the moment. "One person, who's 'it' goes and hides. Then everyone else tries to find them."
"Well, that's stupid!" Kate interrupted. "Of course, it would have to be, considering Tony came up with the idea!"
"Let the man finish, Kate," Tony retorted, upsetting her hold on him and pushing her to the floor before standing up and brushing himself off.
"Uh...umm...where was I?" McGee asked, finding it difficult to get a grasp what he had just been explaining less than ten seconds ago.
"Everyone else goes and looks for whoever's it!" Abby supplied, still bobbing up and down with excitement.
"Uh...right," said McGee. "And when someone finds the person who's it, they hide with him or her. The last person to find them, loses."
"Okay. That kind of makes sense," Kate said. "Except for it has the same flaw. We ran out of places to hide."
"Only in the lab," said Tony suggestively. They all knew where he was going before he went there. And despite their hesitant looks, he did go there. "If we used the whole building..."
"But won't Gibbs find out?" McGee asked warily. He may not have had most of his usual faculties in order, but he still retained a healthy fear of Gibbs.
"What are ya, chicken, Probie?" Tony asked accusatorily, moving closer to the man to stare him down. McGee had had enough of Tony's disrespect and refused to back down this time. "No. I am not chicken, Tony," he said firmly.
"Are to," Tony reverted to the ever-clever childhood comeback.
McGee responded the only way he could. "Am not!"
"Are to!"
"Am Not!"
"ARE TO!"
"AM NOT!"
The two men moved even closer together until tempers flared and it turned into a shoving match as well as a test of verbal skills. Abby quickly grew tired of watching two grown men act like five year olds, while Kate just looked on laughing. Abby walked up to them, shoved them apart and to the side, and then proceeded to walk between them.
"I'm it!" she shouted as she sprinted to the elevator. "Give me five minutes!" She pushed the button and got in the elevator.
"Where is she going?" Kate asked.
"Looks like she's going down," Tony and McGee said together, and then proceeded to glare at each other.
"Hey! I heard that! That's cheating! Now I'm going to have to backtrack!" Abby shouted at them as the elevator doors closed and she disappeared.
"Give her five minutes," Kate told Tony as he tried to set his watch. The buttons were small and he was having a hard time pushing the correct ones at the correct time. He snapped at Kate's obnoxiously obvious statement. "I know, Kate. What do you think I'm trying to do?"
"Sorry!" she said sarcastically. "I thought you were at least smart enough to set a watch."
Her scathing remark pissed him off, so he quickly figured it out and set the alarm using more concentration than he knew he was capable of.
"You know what, Kate?" he asked, the anger growing in his voice. "I'm getting sick of you always putting me down!"
She didn't know what to say. He had never told her off before. He had always taken the abuse with friendly good-natured-ness. He started moving towards her and she edged backwards until he had her backed against a wall. She had never seen him act this way before, at least towards her. It scared her a little, and then it began to amuse her and she started laughing.
"Maybe I should teach you a lesson," he said in a serious tone. However, the mischievous light in his eyes betrayed him to her. She darted away from him and he began to chase her around the lab.
McGee slumped down to the floor, then laid down and fell unconscious.
As with many games of chase, Tony and Kate's ended up in a stalemate. It was one of the sort where the prey/chasee is on one side of a table, and the predator/chaser is on the other. Kate would move to her right and Tony would move to his left. She would move to her left and he would move tohis right. The stalemate lasted several seconds, which seems like an eternity during a game of chase. Finally, Tony decided to jump over the table. He knocked it over with all of the dental supplies turned unprocessed evidence, and fell to the floor. Kate stopped to laugh at him but was cut short when he jumped back up and began chasing her around the lab again...
