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Day Two: Cuddling Somewhere

Timeline Setting: Married

Leroy Jethro Gibbs yawned lazily as he trudged across an eerily deserted parking lot into some foliage near an abandoned area. He'd been awoken by an insistent blaring on his beeper - yes, he still had a beeper, and when she wasn't mocking him for its stone age existence, his wife liked to annoy him with it - and after the third ring he'd checked the number and rolled over to check his phone just in case something was really wrong.

His cell phone just had some vague geographical coordinates on it, and an address - and then right as he'd decided he was going to ignore her games and go back to sleep, another text message had popped up that read -

Use your GPS.

She must have known he'd only have half a clue how to do that, so she sent another message that told him just to punch in the coordinates in the little thingy she'd stuck on the dash of his truck.

He tried calling her to ask if she was in trouble, but she didn't answer, just sent him a text with some punctuation marks in it, and he groaned and got out of bed, throwing on some wrinkled jeans and a t-shirt and dragging himself out to his truck to go on her mysterious, middle-of-the-night little scavenger hunt. He wasn't too upset about it, honestly. It wasn't like he had anything to do tomorrow. Or ever.

Perks of being a retired Marine who no longer had to watch his grandson on a daily basis - infinite free time.

That, essentially, was how he ended up wandering around a parking lot - until lights flashed at him from the foliage he was now traipsing through, and he came upon Jen's federal car nestled in some bushes. He crouched down and tapped on the window, confused for a moment when he saw no one in the front seats - and then he turned his head sharply as the back door open and she peeked out - and beckoned.

"Were you followed?" she asked secretively, giving him a smug look.

He rolled his eyes and took the door, glaring at her.

"What're you doin', Jen?" he asked.

She bit her lip and scooted back, crooking a finger at him. He glanced around and then shook his head, bending and getting in the car. He shut the door behind him and he heard clicks as she pressed some buttons to lock him in.

The backseat wasn't exactly an ideal place for two grown adults to be hunched up, and he had no clue what her game was - he glared at her, hunched over a little, and squished while she was sprawled on the seat.

"Stakeout?" he guessed warily.

She shook her head.

"No, I'm nav training the team," she whispered.

He arched a brow.

"What?"

"I gave them maps, and a compass, and some granola bars, and I blind-folded them and drove them around for half an hour, and dumped them in these woods," she explained wryly, "and I told them to find a fixed point on the map, which is that old grocery store," she pointed at the building, "and the idiots are taking forever."

He stared at her, unsure if he should laugh or yell at her for abandoning her team - well, realistically he only gave a damn about the one on his team that was his child - when they were all clearly incapable of doing something so simple to a Marine.

"This is what you meant when you said you were working late?" he growled indignantly.

She snorted.

"I told them we had overnight duty," she snickered. "We don't have that at NCIS," she added, chuckling.

Gibbs lunged forward and pinched her knee, gritting his teeth. She gave him an innocent look, and bat her eyelashes.

"Don't you think it's important they be able to navigate the woods with a mere compass and a darling little map?"

"You sent both of Levi's guardians out to their deaths?" Gibbs demanded.

"You have so little faith in Kelly?"

"Some in Kelly, less in McGee," he retorted, grumbling.

Jenny laughed, and held up her fancy iPhone.

"I stuck some short-range trackers into their pockets," she soothed. "I'll go get them if they aren't back by dawn. We don't have weekend duty tomorrow."

She sat forward and swept her hat off, combing her hair through her fingers. He saw a slight flash of her wedding ring in the dimly lit car and rubbed his jaw.

He pointed to himself.

"Why'm I here?" he groused. "You want me to stalk 'em in the woods, make 'em feel hunted, paranoid?" he joked dryly.

She laughed, her eyes dancing.

"No, but that's an absolutely hysterical idea - I'll do that, when I'm Director and I implement this routinely."

He arched an eyebrow at her, and she shifted, kicking her shoes off and wiggling her toes. She nudged his shins with her feet and then edged over, crawling under his arm and half into his lap over-confidently, like a smug little puppy.

"I was bored," she murmured, snuggling up to him. "I called you to keep me company." She smirked. "I also thought you'd like to see DiNozzo's face when I tell them what I did."

Gibbs grinned, leaning down and pressing his lips to the top of her head. He did like the thought of that, but he was more smug because - essentially, she'd called him to keep her company -

"Never letting you live this down," he gloated under his breath.

She pinched his ribs and he leaned back, running his hand over her back and shoulders and staring up at the roof of the car.

She'd basically called him to come cuddle, and he was okay with waking up for that.

-alexandra