Thank you for coming back for another chapter! :)
Thanks to Suzy Q1068 for proofreading. Thanks to reviewers Troubled-Angel-26, Luvreading67, didemi, Dawn248, Sarai, Loads of Randomness, Suzy Q1068, and KrisShannon.
Warning: This chapter contains consensual spanking of two adults.
Now, enjoy!
...
PADDLED
Abby and Tim may not have had any leads on the case during their ill-fated interaction with Gibbs, but Tony and Ziva did when he wearily returned to the bullpen area to close down the strangely well-behaved side of the team. Gibbs had to decide between suspicion and gratitude in cases like this, and he went with the standby of gratitude. As long as he did not have to know what was going on, he could usually get away with ignoring it. He knew about Abby and Tim though, so he could not ignore it any longer.
He listened to the lead that Ziva eagerly presented. It was good information, but it was not time critical.
"Tomorrow," he said succinctly. Ziva and Tony immediately gathered up their belongings and vacated their desks within a minute. They were not going to question a reprieve from this monstrously complicated and exhausting case. Asking "Tomorrow, boss?" was likely to get them saddled with late-night duties, something neither of them wanted.
Gibbs did not want to fulfill his duty either, but he had already sent the miscreants to his house, so he needed to be there to greet them.
Just then Director Shepard came down the steps with several questions of her own about the case. He debriefed her as quickly as possible, which did not take long due to the lack of current updates.
"I see your team has gone home for the night."
"Yep."
"I hope you get some rest too. You're looking stressed, Jethro."
He rolled his eyes a little.
"You don't know the half, Jen."
She rolled her eyes companionably, then they parted ways.
...
"I wish he'd get here so we could get it over with," Tim mumbled as he nervously shifted back and forth on the couch. They had arrived before Gibbs and their anxiety was skyrocketing.
"I don't. I don't want to be in trouble, especially thanks to you," Abby grumbled, pacing back and forth in front of the window.
"Thanks to me?" Tim asked incredulously. "How in the world was this my fault?! You were the one who pushed first!"
"But you were the one who didn't get me the right size of Caf-Pow! yesterday."
"Well, you were the one who punched me."
"You poked first."
"No, you did! I only poked back."
"You tried to boss me around in my lab!"
"You threw a straw at my head."
"It didn't hurt you - not like that pinching did!"
"You bruised my arm first."
"Nuh uh!"
"Yeah!"
...
Gibbs took a deep breath to bite back his annoyance. He had not even placed his hand on the doorknob yet and he could already hear McGee and Abby arguing. Clearly, even the threat of imminent punishment was not enough to get those two to behave. He could understand that they were frustrated with this case - so was he, for the record - but taking out that frustration on others the way that they had been was unhelpful and frankly getting dangerous. Fooling around in a lab was something both of them were smart enough to know not to do, and besides the occasional poke or pinch (or, yes, head slap) it was better to avoid physical fighting. It could end in eroded relationships where one was always expecting the other to pick on them. The last thing they needed was Tim accidentally drawing a gun if Abby punched him from behind, or Abby dropping a beaker full of caustic chemicals while trying to avoid being poked by Tim.
He entered the house and stood there quietly, amazed that despite their impending doom the two were so absorbed in their fight that they did not notice his appearance. They had escalated to shouting now and neither were looking toward the door. Gibbs quietly closed the door behind himself. Still no recognition. He then headed down stairs to the basement and retrieved the paddle. There was going to be a good use for it in just a few minutes.
...
When they heard foot steps coming up from the basement, Abby and Tim finally stopped their yelling and looked at each other with wide eyes. Abby hurried to the window while Tim kept a wary eye on the basement door.
"It's him. He must have come inside while we argued," Abby whispered in a low voice. Tim blanched along with her as they realized that whatever trouble they were in was probably just intensified by what Gibbs would have witnessed.
Gibbs' face when he reappeared from the basement to two silent kids confirmed that. Both of them shook their heads in horror when they saw that he had a paddle with him.
"Oh, yeah, you're getting it," he said in answer to their as-of-yet unspoken arguments against that form of punishment. "Want to explain to me why you think you're getting your butts paddled?" He gave them both a stern look. "I'm not looking for you to start blaming each other. Already heard you do that."
Abby bit at the inside of her cheek and looked at her toes, while Tim flushed about five shades of red and tried to look straight ahead without actually looking at Gibbs.
"I thought now would be a good time to explain, but if you'd prefer to do it while getting sp..."
"We were tired and it was a lot of work," Abby blurted out, interrupting him.
Gibbs looked to Tim, who stammered, "Yea... yeah. It was exhausting, Boss, and it was ... annoying when it seems all we did was go in circles and ... and you ..." He stopped short and Gibbs raised an eyebrow.
"What, Timothy? What did I do?"
"You don't say 'thank you' a whole lot, Gibbs," Abby interjected. "Especially not to Tim."
Gibbs looked at Tim thoughtfully, then nodded. "That what you were going to say?"
Tim flushed, uncomfortable as normal with praise.
"Well, you were doing a good job between fights with Abigail," Gibbs acknowledged, setting the paddle on the arm of the sofa. Both Abby and Tim took an instinctive step backward as if it were a snake about to strike. Gibbs continued, "Both of you were doing good work. But the fighting like elementary students? That's ending, now. I gave you plenty of warnings, and I'm pretty sure lack of thanks wasn't the reason you two were going head to head all the time."
Abby shrugged a little. "It was ... a lot of work. And being stuck together isn't as much fun as when we get to choose to work together."
"Supposedly, you two are professionals," he scolded. "Think my job keeping you lot in check is always fun? We've got do our jobs and that doesn't happen when you two are going at each other like enemies instead of friends."
Abby blushed a little and examined her nail polish closely. "Sorry, Gibbs," she murmured softly.
Tim nodded, looking equally as ashamed. "Me too, Boss. We shouldn't have kept fighting like that, especially after you told us to stop."
Gibbs nodded in confirmation, then added a little explanation of his own. "It's dangerous, pushing at each other like that. Know the limits. Respect 'em. You need to trust your partner, in the field and out." He could see that both Abby and Tim were thinking of Tony and added, "And I will give head slaps and swats to reinforce that if you need reminders."
He let that sink in and was satisfied to note that both Abby and Tim seemed to be processing it as intended. Their faces became a little more sober and shamed. At the remark about reminder head slaps and swats, then both shook their heads a little. They did not want that kind of reinforcement!
"We won't do it again?" Abby eventually hazarded hopefully, still wanting to get out of punishment.
Gibbs nodded and picked up the paddle again. "You won't."
Both of his "kids" winced but did not argue. He pointed toward the back of the couch. "Both of you, bend over the back."
Neither Abby nor Tim was particularly pleased by the idea of getting spanked together, but the justice of it was not lost of them so they both bent over quietly together. Gibbs moved behind them with the paddle and said firmly, "Hold still. Standing up or kicking" - Abby could feel him looking at her in particular - "will get you more. Understood?"
"Understood," the two chorused.
Gibbs took a deep breath and then placed his hand on Tim's back. He gave him a slight tap, then gave him a full SMACK! Tim jerked a little and he could hear him gasp a bit. Gibbs moved over to Abby and gave her the same tap and SMACK! He went back and forth between the two of them three more times, ending with a double spanks for both of them to finish. By the time he finished, both of them had received six firm swats across the middle of their bottoms and were crying. Abby was crying a little more dramatically, but he knew that Tim was teary as well from his suppressed combination of grunts and whimpers.
He did not blame them for being upset. It was stricter consequences than normal for fooling around and disobeying over something that was not directly against the rules, but not as severe as they would have received had they escalated to a point where he felt real harm had been imminent. Both of the two absolutely hated paddlings and he knew this lesson would stick with them for awhile, if the tear stained faces were any clue. Each were eager to appear like the spanking had not bothered them as much as it had the other, but he could tell it had been a fair consequence for both.
Gibbs patted Tim's shoulder comfortingly, then gave Abby her necessary post-spanking hug. Then he looked at the two of them and leveled them with a stern look.
"Both of you, kitchen."
"Why?" Abby asked warily. The wooden spoons were in the kitchen and she did not want an encounter with them with an already sore bottom.
Gibbs hid a smile, understanding why Abby was so reluctant. Instead, he calmly pointed them both to the kitchen. They reluctantly obeyed, then looked to him curiously with tearful but curious eyes.
"Neither of you leaves this room until you work out whatever it is that's been going on this week, and come up with a plan to avoid it in the future. And," he said warningly, looking at both of them pointedly, "if I hear one word of how it was the other person's fault, the spoons are still in the drawer, right where they always are. Understood?"
"Understood!"
"Yes, Boss, we've got it."
"Good. Then no leaving this room until you two arrange a peace pact."
...
We'll have to see what Abby and Tim come up with in the next chapter. It might not be out until mid-April - exams and end projects are coming - but I hope this will help carry you over. ;)
Have a great day!
