Disclaimer - I do not own NCIS.
A/N - Okay, there's a warning here, this chapter contains spanking. Please click the back button now if you've got a problem reading this.
Standing nervously outside the conference room, Tony paced the floor.
"What is it with you, and all the pacing up and down!" Tim snapped.
Tony stopped abruptly, "You never heard of fight, flight or compliance Probie? I'd have to have a serious death wish if I thought I could fight Gibbs, and my stomach is pretty much heaving knowing exactly what 'compliance' is. So, my legs are following their natural self preservation instinct to run. As far away from this place as possible. It's only my sheer will power and my incredible strength of character, that's stopping me from not being in my car already, and half way to the Mexican border!"
Tim huffed, "I'm sorry, Tony. I'm just nervous that's all! I hate this waiting, and it's only been three minutes!"
Abby continued to bite her nails viciously. Ziva on the other hand, leaned casually against the wall, silent and expressionless, awaiting her fate.
Tony shoved his hands into his pockets and let out a long slow breath.
"Did anyone manage to buy anything for Ducky?"
The each shook their heads, "not even some of that chocolate he likes?"
Heads were shaken once more and he raised his eyes to the ceiling.
"Guess he's gonna join the long line of people that we've pissed off over the last few days, when he finds out we went all the way to London, and didn't bri..."
Gibbs approaching stomp, immediately silenced Tony, and the team parted like a wave, as he stormed towards the conference room door.
"David!" he barked, as he opened the door and stepped inside.
Ziva leaned up from the wall, and pouted, before giving a small smile to the rest of her team mates. She then walked, with her head held high, into the conference room.
Gibbs was perched on the edge of the table, with his arms folded, when Ziva entered. She closed the door gently behind her.
"Okay, you want to tell me, exactly why you think you are here?"
"I think the Director explained it all perfectly clearly, Gibbs. There was an incident with a Guardsman, which she chose to find...unacceptable."
Gibbs narrowed his eyes, "Chose to? I'd watch your attitude David! You know damned well you behaved like a teenage tourist with that soldier, and nothing like a federal agent. However, that said, you're response to the police officer was way out of line!"
"It was an automatic response! He approached me from behind and I attacked. What would you have me do? Ignore it when someone grabs my shoulder?"
He shook his head, "I'm not saying that you should not act on your instincts! I'm saying that you need to work on them more to take into account your surroundings. Your Mossad training is what makes you an excellent NCIS agent, but, it's the skill of being aware of your environment and acting on your instincts, is what you need to work on."
She huffed and rolled her eyes, strangely feeling resentment towards him, for pointing out her weakness. It confused her, because she could not deny anything which he had said.
"I will try harder," she eventually muttered in defeat.
"I know you will Ziva, and I'm going to help you."
Her face displayed her confusion.
"I've got a tried and tested incentive, which my old C.O. used to swear by," he said sternly as he stood up and reached down for his belt.
She swallowed hard and looked into his eyes, hoping that he could see into her soul and realise that she was already sorry for her actions and for being such a disappointment to him.
"I know, that you feel like you've let me down Ziva. We all make mistakes and take wrong decisions and I trust you to learn from this experience. When we're done here, it's all done. Your slate is clean and we both move on from this whole sorry mess!"
She moved her eyes from the floor to meet his gaze, wondering if he really could see into her soul. Words couldn't form in her mind to respond, so she opened her mouth and without thinking, said the first thing that popped into her tired brain,
"I thought you never said the word sorry."
He raised his eyebrow, secretly admiring her courage to talk back to him in the way she'd done. Especially as he was about to burn her six.
"Only, in the company of friends, Ziva," he replied, before doubling over his belt and nodding in the direction of the table.
She took in a deep breath and approached the table, bending over as she done on previous occasions. It was a few seconds before she felt the first burst of fire across her backside and she gasped at the pain. The sound continued to ring in her ears, much like a machine gun, until she found herself providing an accompaniment, in the form of a few muffled yelps.
Finally it was over.
"Ziva," he said quietly as he patted her shoulder.
She stood up, stiffly and sniffed, her glassy eyes eventually homing in on Gibb's face, immediately locking onto his gentle eyes. He threw his arms around her shoulders and held her tight, not leaving any room for her to refuse the embrace or misunderstand the fact that all had been forgiven. He whispered in her ear,
"Are we clear on acceptable behaviour when you are representing this Agency, and in the presence of an armed officer or soldier, and, that you answer your cell phone?"
"Uh...huh",
He lifted her, and holding her shoulders at arms length he stared hard.
"Then we're done. You're dismissed, Officer David,"
She nodded and then hesitated slightly to move to the door, "The Director, she is not serious about you..."
He halted her words with a raise of his hand, "She's my problem Ziva. I wouldn't exactly call her a problem, just one more person to deal with."
He jerked his head towards the door, signalling that it was time for her to depart. She slowly made her way to the door. With her back to him, she allowed her face to relax, and display the discomfort she was in. Placing a sweaty palm on the handle, she heard his voice once more, already back to the sterner tone he had used when she had first entered the room.
"Send in Abby."
In Ziva's absence, the team had been silently occupying their minds and thoughts with anything other than the muffled sounds coming from the conference room. McGee recited mathematical formulae in his mind. Abby moved on from chewing her fingers, to gnawing on the top of the water bottle she'd gotten on the flight. Tony tongued his bottom lip, and tried to count and recount the dirt specks on the carpet.
The door eventually opened and Ziva emerged. She looked sympathetically at Abby,
"Gibbs, uh...Abby," she stuttered.
Abby threw her arms around her neck and hugged her silently, until a loud voice came from the conference room,
"Abigail Scuito!"
She jumped off Ziva, and looked to Tony and Tim, before taking a couple of steps towards the door and stopping abruptly.
"Today! Abby!" the voice bellowed once more.
There was no questioning his tone, and the fact that she had to move damned quickly. She trotted into the room, immediately slamming the door behind her and stood with her back to it, hesitant to move any further.
Gibbs stood with his arms folded and frowned at her. She looked at him warily, and then her eyes were drawn to his belt, lying on the table.
"Before we left for London, I recall warning you about your behaviour and new equipment. I also remember giving you a second warning before we went to the seminar. You want to tell me why, after I told you twice, that you decided to disobey me, by first of all choosing to attend the exhibition, and not the seminar I asked you to, and second of all, purchasing an extremely expensive piece of equipment, without the required authority? Not to mention falsely putting DiNozzo's details on the order form!"
She swallowed hard, concentrating intensely on trying to manage both her head, and her mouth, so that they worked in tandem, without the danger of getting her into any more trouble.
"I...uh....."
The silence was agony as she processed the right words,
"You see...."
He continued to stare at her as she struggled to respond. Eventually her head and her mouth disconnected, and her whole body seemed to flop in defeat and remorse.
"I know what I did was wrong and I should have listened to you more and it looks like I disobeyed you twice and that is so not good! But the guy was really nice and before I knew it, Gibbs, I was signing things. And I know I should have gone and cancelled it when Tony told me, but, at that point in time I forgot all about you. Well not entirely forgot all about you, Gibbs, because you are like, unforgettable, once seen, always remembered, Leroy, Jethro, Gibbs! You've got that kind of face, you see. I think it may be your eyes or your hair, you have memorable hair and eyes. And you see, I didn't cancel the order, and then I was at the airport with Tony, and I just remembered, and I should have said something, but I thought I would fix it when I got home. And well the Director said that the order had gone through and I should've...I didn't...I thought that....I couldn't,"
She took in a deep breath, and ran to him, tears in her eyes, as she held onto him for dear life.
"I'm so sorry Gibbs! I screwed up, and you're never gonna be able to trust me again!" she spluttered into his shoulder.
He held her for a moment before he lifted her gently. His eyes were stern and instantly recognised that her approach hadn't softened him at all.
"You're damned right you screwed up," he growled.
Her eyes flickered back to the table, and she sniffed hard. She stood for a few moments as she calmed down,
"There's no way I'm getting out of here without you, you know, huh?"
He shook his head from side to side slowly with a barely visible smirk,
"I suppose, I..uh...kinda deserve it, huh?"
This time, he nodded in agreement.
The silence dragged on and her mind raced and her stomach churned. Her mind still hadn't reached the stage, where it could possibly embrace, what was about to happen. In a last attempt at avoidance, she recalled the earlier conversation with the Director. She frowned and took a step backwards,
"It's not like I'm the only one at fault here Gibbs!" she snapped defiantly,
In response, he jerked his head back, startled with surprise at her outburst.
"Explain!" he barked in response.
"Well. If you and Fornell hadn't...."
He quickly took a step forward, his eyes dangerously zoned in on her face. She could feel his breath on her face and was grateful that he wasn't any closer, else her eyes would loose all focus on him.
"Some advice Abby, think before you say one more word. You are already in enough trouble, for us to be having this conversation. I'd hate to have to repeat it, every morning, for a week, because of what's about to come out of your mouth."
"You wouldn't!" she gasped in surprise at his serious threat.
He raised his eyebrow, letting his silence provide enough of a response.
"Okay, you would."
With a curt nod of his head he walked back towards the table and was about to lift the belt from it, when he turned around and perched himself on the edge. He judged that there was still too much of Abby's behaviour to unpack, before he could deal with consequences and her much craved for, forgiveness.
She managed to take a few, small steps forward, in his wake. As he sat on the table, she froze to the spot once more. Inevitably, but slowly, she came to realise that she had run out of defiant, avoidance tactics. The only problem she had now, was that her stomach wouldn't let her take that next step forward towards acceptance. Not just yet.
"I realise I did the wrong thing Gibbs, it's just that..."
He eyes softened, hating seeing her struggle to make sense of herself.
"Just what Abby?" he said gently.
"I kinda lost it a little, and it was exciting! And I really, really, really wanted that new mass spectrometer, Gibbs! It was just so cool!"
"You behaved like a kid in a candy store. You know there's a reason why kids aren't allowed to run riot like that. They get too excited and can't judge or decide when to stop eating. So they fill themselves with too much sugar, till they throw up."
The corners of her mouth drooped childishly, and she knew at once where he was going with this.
"You're not a kid Abby. I expected better judgement and self control from you. But if you insist on behaving like a kid, then perhaps the memory of being punished like one may help you in future to make more mature choices, no matter how shiny the wrappers are."
In that instant, he made a decision to change his tactic. He sighed, before taking one of the conference room chairs from the table and placing it in an empty space, and sitting on it. Abby knew instantly what was about to happen,
"Oh, no, Gibbs please! Not over your knee!" she began to protest.
He beckoned her with his finger, and she instinctively took one step back, shaking her head from side to side.
"Abigail Scuito, get over here now!" he said sternly,
"This sucks to the power of ten, Gibbs! You know you are seriously teetering on the brink of being struck of my Christmas card list!"
He rolled his eyes and stood up, advancing on her and taking hold of her upper arm. He gently guided her over to the chair.
"I do not have the time Abby, to chaperone you, when I give you an order. I expect to you to be mature enough to resist the temptation to stray off topic when I'm not around."
"I am mature Gibbs! Just like cheese! Although, I'm not a huge fan of cheese. I don't understand that blue streaky stuff, and some of it just stinks! Worse than Tony's gym gear."
He was growing tired of her continued attempts to accept her fate and he took her in his arms and hugged her tightly,
"Abby, you said it yourself, you deserved this. Now, we can either continue to play these games, or, we can get this over with. I know that you're tired, but I'm not letting you leave here before we deal with the consequences of your actions. You can drag this out as long as it takes, but trust me, your patience will run out, well before mine. I'm not having this hang over your head for any longer than is necessary! That's now how this works. That's not how I work, and you know that!"
She dissolved in his arms, in exhausted defeat at trying to fight it any longer. All she wanted now, was for that huge knot in her stomach and that cloud permanently attached to her frontal lobe to magically disappear. He lifted her gently and she looked at him with wide remorseful eyes,
"Sorry, Gibbs," she said quietly, pouting, as her tell tale sign that she was ready to accept whatever Gibbs had planned for her.
He kissed the top of her forehead and sat down on the chair, pulling her over his lap. He settled her into position and then delivered a blistering smack to the seat of her pants.
She gasped and as he continued to bring his hand down over and over again and wriggled in a vain attempt to avoid the sting of his hand.
"Okay! Okay! No more mass....ow! specs.....I promise! Ouch!"
With two final hard swats he finished. He promptly stood up, his larger frame seemingly towering over her and he held her fast. He held her in complete silence, letting his arms simply send the message that all was done and forgiven. She sniffled into his jacket and eventually calmed down enough to break free from his grip and stand unaided.
"Would it be okay if the next time, the Director decides to send us to a conference that I just stay here?"
He couldn't help but break into a smile, and he put his arm around her shoulder as he guided her towards the door,
"I guarantee you, Abby, the next time the Director mentions a conference, I'm locking you in your lab!"
She sniffed hard and gave a smile as he he held the conference room door open for her. She walked slowly into the silent corridor to the awaiting Tim and Tony. There was only one word which shattered that silence.
"Mu-Ghee!"
To be continued...