"You are not serious." Gibbs growled at NCIS director Jennifer Shepherd.

"Afraid so Jethro. Team building is a mandatory exercise required by all NCIS teams and yours is no exception. You will do this or I will be forced to submit a complaint to the Secretary of the Navy and he is more then likely going to break up your team."

NCIS director Shepherd and team Leader Leroy Jethro Gibbs were standing in the director's office of NCIS clearly at an impasse.

"My team already works as a team." Gibbs answered in a dangerously low voice.

"There is absolutely no reason to pull them off cases for two weeks to send us to some camp, so that we can do team building exercises. We're already a team." He insisted his voice starting to rise in volume a little.

"Look Jethro, I don't make the rules." At Gibbs glare she amended his sentence.

"It's an HR requirement for all government teams and I need yours to go out and make an example." Gibbs continued to glare at him.

"You don't have a choice Jethro. I expect your team to be there tomorrow morning. I also expect decent reports from the counsellors running the sessions. In addition to the team building exercises all partnerships are expected to attend at minimum three sessions of partner counselling so it's up to you to make sure DiNozzo and David attend them." Gibbs simply snorted at that one.

"I don't envy that counsellor. It's a lot like mediating kindergarten kids."

"Well perhaps the partnership counselling can help with that." Gibbs just continued to glare at the director who finally allowed a smile to grace her face.

"Look Gibbs, if you go and do this with good scores, I'll allow you one 'defy the director' free card. But I expect good scores and David and DiNozzo must attend at least 3 sessions. They could probably benefit from more, but I'll leave it at 3."

Gibbs simply sighed and headed for the door. "You owe me for this." He muttered on his way out.

"Don't worry I will be joining you so don't think I am making you do this for the fun of it!" she yelled after him.

She sat back down in her chair and smiled. The idea of Gibbs playing games in the forest with his team was more then amusing. Of course this was right up Abby and DiNozzo's alleys and Ziva and McGee were competitive enough to join in with minimal complaints but to watch Gibbs playing games in the forest? Perhaps she could convince McGee to tape some of them.

Gibbs left the directors office in a bad mood. He couldn't believe that some idiot at a higher desk thought it would be a good idea to pull entire teams out of the field and dump them at some camp so that they could play games. He stopped at the top of the landing to stare at his team for a few minutes.

Tony was obviously needling McGee about something and Ziva was simply watching with a smile on her face. He shook his head ruefully at the scene. They hadn't had a case in a few days and he could tell they were all getting bored. Perhaps a week in the woods was exactly what they needed. He shook his head again as he saw Tony launch something at Ziva's head and her get up to stand in his face and threaten him. Perhaps counselling wouldn't hurt.

He headed down the stairs to the bullpen noticing that whatever it was Ziva had threatened Tony with had obviously worked. Tony was back at his desk sulking while both Ziva and McGee had rather large smiles on their faces.

2 minutes later...

"What! There has to be some mistake, paradise, two weeks for free, yes baby! I don't believe this!" Tony screamed as he stared wide eyes, mouth open at the email lay on his screen. Ziva and McGee just remained speechless.

"You better believe it Dinozzo, the six of us are leaving tomorrow morning." A confused grin smeared across the agents' faces.

Tony was first to ask, "six, boss?"

"Yeah Dinozzo, Abby and the Director too, it's not just the four of us, now all of you go home, pack, get some rest, I want you all here bright and early, 6am, a minute late Dinozzo, I will personally take your badge and hit you so hard your grandchildren will feel it!"

With that his mouth slammed shut and he grabbed his gear and joined Ziva in the elevator whilst McGee called Abby.

"So miss Dah-veed are you looking forward towards this little vacation?" Tony whispered in Ziva's ear, in a low husky voice, purposely dragging out her name. She turned her head slightly finding her face centimetres away from his.

"Ooohh yes, finally get to catch up on my tan, you know how a woman hates tan lines..." she grinned. Tony took a deep shaky breath, and was about to step that little bit closer when the ding of the elevator echoed around the small silver box. she exited before he could reply or move.

0100 day of the trip

BEEP BEEP

A loud noise erupted from Ziva's cell phone on her bedside table; she sat up with a disgruntled sigh, her hair smeared all over her face and shoulders. With her eyes still tightly shut, her hand scanned amongst the random belongings laying on her bedside table, until it found the buzzing device. She flipped it open and vaguely read the name of the sender. When she saw who it was she jumped up and waited for her eyes to focus on the blur. The message read:-

'Hey Zi, remember to bring that bikini you wore to LA, you will make me a very happy man! :) from Tony x'

She smiled briefly and let out a small chuckle before falling back into a joyful abyss.

Authors Note- Read and review, tell me what you think, I know that the Tony/ZIva relationship is rather outdated now, but oh well. Love your opinions.