It was a little more than an hour later when the two men emerged from the trail Tim had identified, with the help of a particularly useful website, as a good place to take the boys. Gibbs had led him over the course he'd marked, identifying each of the terrain features and the corresponding notations on the map, pointing out what he should look for, and the landmarks that would tell him which route to take at the various forks in the trail. Tim had heavily annotated his copy of the map, having brought an extra for just that purpose, and felt confident that he'd be able to retrace their route on the weekend.

'Thanks, Boss. That was exactly what I needed. I think I can handle doing that with the boys on Saturday.'

'Well, yeah, McGee. There's a trail, for God's sake! That's fine for letting the kids play at map-reading, but it's not orienteering.'

Tim stuttered, not sure how to respond to the criticism, or even, really, if it was meant as a criticism.

'C'mon. Let's see how much you've learned.'

'Boss?'

Gibbs didn't respond, just unfolded the map across the hood of the car. After studying it for a few minutes, he put a large 'X' on a rocky outcrop several miles away and nowhere near any of the marked trails. He relieved Tim of his annotated copy, stowing it in the car, and handed him the one he'd just marked.

'Uh, Boss?'

'Take us there, Tim,' Gibbs told him, tapping the 'X' with his finger.

Tim looked from Gibbs to the map and back again, growing horror plainly legible on his face.

'Boss... I... the trail... I mean, I know what I need to, for the... I mean... you said... an hour...'

'Being able to retrace a route you've already taken does not mean that you know anything about land-nav, Tim.'

'Yeah, but...'

'What are you planning to say when one of your rangers asks you something that's not on the trail we just walked?'

'That, uh, we're not covering that today...'

Tim trailed off in response to the sceptical raised eyebrow. His shoulders sagged in something very much like defeat.

'C'mon. You know everything you need to, to get us there. You can do this. It'll be fun. There should be a great view when we get to the top of that rock.'

Tim stopped himself from reminding Gibbs that they had very different definitions of 'fun'.

He really didn't want to do this. He was already tired, and didn't particularly feel like carrying his backpack around for another couple of hours. Uphill over rough terrain, from the looks of it.

But short of sitting down and refusing to move, like a toddler throwing a tantrum, he didn't see any way of getting out of it. And since Gibbs had gone out of his way to help him avoid looking like a complete idiot in front of his troop on Saturday, it seemed ungrateful not to indulge him in the extended version. And even though this wasn't work, he was too used to following Gibbs's orders to just say 'no'.

McGee looked down at the map in his hands, taking a moment to get his bearings and decide on a route. He glanced up at Gibbs, looking for confirmation.

'You're the navigator, Tim. I'm following you.'

Great, he thought. No pressure there. None at all...

Swallowing hard, Tim started walking.