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Chapter 5

"Pssst Tim?" Tony said.

"Shut up Tony! Are you nuts?" Tim answered.

"Must be." Said Gibbs.

"Didn't hear you there Boss." Tony said. "It's just, it must have been an hour."

"Your point Dinozzo?"

"No point Boss." He said. "Shutting up now Boss."

Tim rolled his eyes, imagining that Tony had just managed to piss Gibbs off again. Gibbs picked up the thing that he came down for and went silently back up the stairs. When he reached the top step he turned around. "McGee,Dinozzo. With me." He pointed to the couch.

"Abby. Come here." He said. "Ziva." They slowly walked towards pointed again to the couch. Their eyes became larger as they saw the thick wooden frat paddle he was holding in his hand. They sat, eyes wide.

"Do you know, how risky and dangerous what you did tonight was?"

"Yes Gibbs." They all said. Abby still didn't take her eyes off the paddle.

"You could have been killed. Those things are meant to be operated by highly trained people. Not spectators who happen to have a passion for them. Making a presentation thingy McGee, doesn't make you an expert. Just because you were in charge of an investigation doesn't make you in charge of a piece of equipment that you do not own."

"I know." Tim said.

"Tony, you're my senior agent. I expect you to be the voice of reason. You should be the one that sets an example for the other agents. Not corral them together to see how much trouble you can get in."

"Ziva, I can't believe that you went along with this circus. What the hell were you thinking?.... Don't answer that. You weren't thinking at all. Any of you."

"Abby. I'm so disappointed in you. I don't know what to say."She hung her head sadly.

"Apart from the fact that you could have gotten yourselves and each other killed, you could have been arrested. If someone other than me had found you, I may not have been able to keep you out of jail. I know I couldn't stop you from being fired. And no one else would want to touch you with a thing like this on your records. What you four did was like a prank I'd expect to see from kids. Not fully grown professional people. That's why I'm going to paddle your acted like the bunch of delinquent teenagers and that's how I'm going to treat you. "Abby you're first. Go and lean over the table."

"You're not going to make us watch are you Boss?" Tim said.

"Yep. Apparently you all like to do things as a group McGee." Tim gave Abby a sympathetic look as she slowly walked over to the table.

"Bend over Abby." Gibbs said.

Abby bent over the table and squeezed her eyes shut and held her breath. She was counting in her head trying to calm down but nothing could have prepared her for the pain of that first whack. Despite trying to be brave, she started crying with the first stroke. Who would have thought that polished wood would burn so. By the sixth and final whack, she was sobbing. The other three had tears in their eyes just watching her. It was more painful to watch someone you care about receive a punishment like that than it was to be on the receiving it was over, Gibbs gave her a hug and kissed her head but he didn't comfort her for long. He had other fish to fry.

"Ziva." He said motioning her to the table. McGee wrapped his arms around Abby and she sobbed into his chest, trying not to watch as Ziva was punished. Ziva managed to hold out for two of the burning strokes but by the third, tears were running freely down her face as she hissed and sucked in her breath with last few strokes. As he did with Abby, he gave Ziva a quick hug and a kiss on her head and sent her back to the couch.

"Tony." He said. "You're next." Not being unfamiliar with this position, Tony walked up to the table and bent over. He acted as though it was no big deal but Tim noticed that when he gripped the table edges his knuckles were white. Although he didn't make a sound until the end, when he hissed at a particularly hard last one, the pain was clearly written all over his face. Gibbs patted his shoulder and he hobbled awkwardly back to the couch and sat down gingerly as the others had done.

"And last but not least, the fearless leader, Elflord." Tim kissed Abby's cheek and tried to smile a little before he walked over to the table. He bent over , and like Tony he gripped the table as tightly as possible. Abby squeezed her eyes shut as tight as she could and plugged her ears with her fingers. She still jumped when she heard the paddle whack loudly against Tim's backside. He didn't make a sound. Gibbs continued to paddle him for the same six times that the others got but added one extra because he was in charge." When Tim stood up he patted his shoulder the same as he had done for Tony. Tim blinked away the tears that were threatening to escape and smiled again at Abby so she'd know he was ok.

"We will never speak of this again." Gibbs said. "But if any of you ever do anything like this again, you'll be getting double that on your bare asses. Are we clear?"

"Crystal Boss." They all said.

The next morning Tim, Tony and Ziva were all working quietly as Jenny stood at the balcony watching. Gibbs came to stand beside her.

"What you looking at Jen?" he asked.

"Oh. I was just wondering why all of your agents seem to be having a little trouble sitting still this morning?"

"Are they? I hadn't noticed Jen." Gibbs said sipping his coffee.

"Yes and when I went down to see Abby this morning, she was having the same trouble."

"Do tell." Gibbs said with a smirk.

"What did they do Jethro? Do I even want to know?" she said.

"Na!"

"Well they better not do it again." She said.

"They'll never do that again." He said with a smile.

The End!