The poor girl! Truly, can Bishop endure any more of this? But wait... There's More!
Sounds filtered into her consciousness, and Bishop tried to block them out by burrowing deeper into her pillow. "She looks so peaceful… I almost hate to disturb her," she heard MacGyver's teasing whisper from close by her head.
A snort came from a few feet away. "Peaceful?" Gibbs demanded. "If I had a nickel for every time she kicked me during the night…"
Bishop prayed the ground would open up and swallow her as she snuggled deeper into her pillow. She had never in her life found herself in such a bizarre position; certainly she'd missed the part in her job description that had included overnight camp outs in the woods with her Boss. Had that clause been in her contract, she never would have signed!
"You're gonna have to find breakfast," Mac whispered again. "I'm not moving yet. She's finally getting a good sleep, and she's gonna need it."
"She'll kill you when she wakes up if you don't move first," Gibbs warned.
Bishop debated on moving, but she'd finally gotten comfortable and started to rest… except there was buried laughter in both men's voices, and she was dreading to find out what they found so amusing. She struggled to crack her eyes open, and then wished she hadn't…
She'd never had a pillow. The softness under her head that she'd been burrowing into was the silky sleeping bag material piled over MacGyver's chest.
Her frantic attempts to scramble to her feet were thwarted by her own sleeping bag, which had somehow managed to twine itself around her in a wicked braid.
"Easy, easy! Slow down; you're gonna fall and hurt yourself!" Mac counseled, catching her as she teetered backwards.
"You! You let me… How could you…?" Bishop hissed, her eyes blazing as she hurled furious gazes between Gibbs and MacGyver.
"Settle down, Bishop," Gibbs ordered, shaking his head with weary irritation.
"I'm not happy I'm out here either, Gibbs, but if you remember, I didn't have a choice in this!" She threw off MacGyver's steadying hand and kicked her feet free of her bag. "The longest I've ever spent in a forest was a case we worked in Rock Creek Park back in DC. I'm not used to this. I am an Information Analyst, not a Girl Scout!"
"You done?" Gibbs barked when she paused for breath.
Mac cut in to the conversation before Gibbs could get warmed up. "Ellie, it's always a good idea to learn the basics of surviving in the woods. This is a valuable experience that you can apply in more places in your career than just in the forest. Plus, it got you out of the office for a while… with Gibbs gone, DiNozzo's in charge, right?"
She glared at him, her expression softening only slightly as she realized he was right.
"Look at how much you've learned already," he tried again. "You learned to read tracks, how to pace yourself while hiking, learned that there are food options all around you…"
She turned her back on him as she marched to her backpack. "Very valuable bits of knowledge," she agreed with sarcasm. She dug out her roll of toilet paper and stormed out into the woods.
"You learned how to do that, too," Mac had to throw after her, earning him a bark of laughter from Gibbs and a short scream of fury from Bishop.