A/N: TWENTY ONE REVIEWS FOR THE LAST CHAPTER! YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING! THANKS TO ALL YOU AWESOME REVIEWERS OUT THERE. SO HERES MY NEXT CHAPTER, I KNOW IT'S BEEN A WHILE.. BUT I WROTE A FEW EXTRA CHAPTERS, SO I SHOULD UPDATE PRETTY CONSTANTLY NOW. PLUS AP TESTS ARE DISTRACTING ME. I HAVE TO TAKE THREE! SO NOW, READ AND REVIEW!
DISCLAIMER: I STILL DON'T OWN NCIS! #*$% IT! (SORRY IT YOU DON'T LIKE CUSSING.)
Chapter 8: In the Maze
Entering the indoor maze became the first challenge as both individual in the pairs wanted to take charge. Naturally, the three women won the fight for domination, so, the three of them led their partner into the maze.
Abby and McGee were the first to enter, as McGee almost immediately gave into Abby's glare. Gibbs and Jenny were next. Although Gibbs did not want to give in to her, he didn't want to waste too much time arguing over it, so he just gave in, figuring he could sneak in to control later on. Last, of course, were Tony and Ziva; Ziva refusing to be a follower and Tony refusing to be led by a girl. Eventually Ziva exploited physical force to gain control of the situation. By the time they actually entered, Abby and McGee were finishing up the first task, and Gibbs and Jenny were a little over half way done.
The first task was for the pairs to make their way over a ladder that was a little over sixteen feet high. There were eleven rungs altogether, and a drop off on the other side.
"Ta'ase li tova, ya manyak! Tony this is your fault! Now come on, we have a lot of dirt to catch down off." Ziva exclaimed, taking her anger at being in last out on Tony.
"Heh. Ziva, your english gets worse when you're angry. It's ground to catch up on. And you could've just let me lead." He replied as they started up the ladder.
"No, I could not, because you would goof off the whole time," she scolded, reaching the top and swinging her legs over, waiting for him to catch up.
Tony pulled himself over the top using only his arm muscle, showing off a little. It worked, Ziva's breath caught as she watched how smoothly he swung over the top almost gracefully. She clenched her teeth and forced herself to focus on the task. As he let go, she, too, dropped. They worked perfectly together, landing at the same time.
When the hit the ground, Tony made sure to steady her. He wasn't completely unaware of the way she was completely mesmerized by him for a few seconds as he threw himself over the wall, and was very pleased by himself. She glared at him and kept moving.
They now had a choice to make. Straight, left or right. Tony made to continue going straight, for which they had a relatively simple obstacle, but Ziva dragged him off to the left, towards another much more difficult task.
"Zee-vah, why would we go towards something hard, when there is a really easy task right there. We only have to go over a bar and under a bar. Simple, easy, and to the point."
"That is why we should go left. They would not let us perform all the easy tasks, but the challenging ones."
"This isn't Mossad, Zee-vah. Not everything has to be rigorous." But he went along with her to prevent more arguing.
The next few challenges were finished with ease, until they reached a dead end. Tony looked at Ziva, an amused expression on his face. "Okay. I'm making the next decision."
"What do you propose we do."
"Go back to where we came from and go straight."
"That was two decision." Tony stared at her exasperatedly.
"Like it matters. Now come on, we're wasting time."
The maze became more and more complicated as they went. Being indoors, contrary to what most would think, caused more problems then it solved. At one point in time, all the lights in the building were completely shut off for about a ten minute interval, making the task Tony and Ziva were performing, twice as hard. (Which just so happened to be an espalier.)Besides the fact there was no light, half the girls in the maze started screaming, startling Tony, and causing him, consequently Ziva, to fall off.
Tony and Ziva also passed a few people they didn't know; some of the other people there for therapy, or bonding, or whatever other reason they would be attending Camp Heartland. One pair actually got in Ziva's way. She pushed them out of her path and kept moving.
"That wasn't very nice, Zee-vah." Tony reprimanded her.
"I want to get out of here.... what is it. As soon as possible.... ASAP. Yes, that's it. So those who do not allow me to better ready to be forced." Tony looked at her in astonishment.
"I'd rather be other place too, Zee-vah, but the maze isn't that bad."
"No, but being tied to you, on the other foot, is."
"Other hand Ziva, on the other hand." They turned a corner to see an extra bright light on the other side of an especially rigorous-looking obstacle. "Yes, finally.! We get to get out of here." They smiled at each other and started forward.
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McGee was force to cover his ears as Abby shrieked. The lights had just turned off. Lucky for them, they were just about to start a new obstacle. At least they weren't in the middle of one, or they didn't have to find the next. That would have been a nightmare. He chuckled when he noticed Abby wasn't the only one who screamed. Some of the other girls, and one guy, he thought, had also released cries of terror from their vocal chords. One pair who was next to them when the lights went off actually had to be escorted out of the maze, as the female was going into hysterics, being afraid of the dark.
As they started on their next task, Abby started to chatter about what she thought the outcome of the maze would be; who would get out first. "Gibbs and the director are obviously going to get out first. I mean if we don't. It's hard to say, since I don't know how long it took for the others to follow us in. I think we're doing pretty good, considering I don't work in the field and we've hit like, four dead ends. Besides that, this has been pretty fun. Tony and Ziva probably aren't even going to make it out of the maze. They probably found some dark corner and are making out right now..." McGee chose this moment to interrupt her.
"No, Abby, not this again. Just get over them, okay. They'll get together on their own if they really want to."
"Whatever McGee. All I'm doing is giving them a little push in the right direction. And I think ogg-ti-zeh is coming along quite nicely."
"Okay. That's wonderful Abby." They turned a last corner and saw a bright light directly ahead of them. They turned to each other and smiled and took off at a run.
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As Gibbs and Jenny made their way through the maze there was an awkward aura surrounding them. Every obstacle that required even the least bit of physical contact and both their thoughts flashed back to Paris. If this wasn't distracting enough, the lights went out right when they completed a task, and they were forced to try to find their way to the next one without running into anything and without completely losing their sense of direction. At least they had both, at least previously, been field agents, and did not get thrown off too much, but Jenny couldn't help but feel a little sorry for all the other poor souls who were probably going to get lost. Gibbs on the other hand, couldn't have cared less. All he could think about was that the darkness was making it even more difficult to navigate without running into Jenny.
The third time this happened, Jenny turned to him, "Are you running into me on purpose?"
"No," He answered, a little too quickly, "why the heck would I want to do that?"
"And there you go again.... hmmm, why do you think they turned the lights off?"
"I don't know, probably to slow us down." He said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Now move faster, someone is catching up to us."
"How do you know that?"
"My gut." And they turned a corner to see the bright light at the end of the room.
NOW BE PATIENT, THERE IS MORE TO BE POSTED IN A FEW HOURS; I JUST NEED TO ADD ON A LITTLE AND EDIT, BUT I FEEL LIKE I OWE YOU LIKE, 50 CHAPTER, SINCE IT'S BEEN SO LONG. READ AND REVIEW ;)