Gibbs sighed and for the hundredth time that day wondered why the hell he had come up with the idea in the first place. Scrubbing his face in frustration, he hefted the third of Abby's suitcases into his car trunk, shaking his head at the assortment of "necessities" she had amassed for a four day trip.

He cursed loudly when he hit his head off the trunks lid, as he straightened up.

Glaring over at Ducky's smug little smile as he filled his car with Palmers and Tim's sensible luggage, as the two boys sat happily in his back seat without a fuss.

Glaring into his own backseat, he frowned as he saw his two girls basically assault a squawking Tony as he flinched away from them, with his hands raised defensively and a whimpered "boss".

"Ziva…Abby" he growled, ignoring the quiet "ha" that he heard escape his senior field agent in response.

"We are on holidays Gibbs… we are just making him… comfortable" Ziva crooned, laughter in her tone as Tony scowled in response.

Rolling his eyes, a wearied Jethro shut the trunk with a snap and again threw an envious look over at the perfectly calm car that Ducky was clambering into.

He knew he should have separated Ziva and Tony at the very least.

Ducky kicked his engine into gear, and with two beeps of the horn he trundled out of Gibbs' driveway, to begin the three hour car ride to the designated camp.

Kicking his own engine into gear, Gibbs cursed the luggage in the front seat that could have otherwise kept Tony out of harm's way.

Swivelling around, he schooled his features into boss mode.

"Right you three…this is a pretty long drive. I don't want any carry on out of any of you, or I will turn this car around and the whole lot of you can go right back to the office. Clear?"

One "yes boss" and two "yes Gibbs" answered him, and rolled the car out of the driveway, hoping for the best, but secretly very much looking forward to spending some down time with his four.

It had been about three months since any of them had been in any kind of serious trouble, and he was relishing the break from being the bad guy.

Tim had also seemed to be growing closer and closer to Palmer, and he was glad the two had so much in common to bond over, though he held nagging worries that Tony may be growing jealous.

There was relative peace in the car as it soared up the motorway, and the three in the back seemed to be in good spirits and bickering was kept to a minimum.

He breathed a sigh of relief.

Maybe they could at least get there before they killed each other.

After a brief stop for food, they were back on the road, and before they all knew it, Gibbs was steering his car into the camping ground.

Killing the engine, he turned to issue instructions to the passengers, but they had already scooted out of the car.

Rolling his eyes with a smile, he heaved himself out after them. Looking around, he saw they had beat Ducky and his two passengers to the site. The ridiculously competitive streak in him beamed.

"Ok, Tony your cabin is over there, you're bunking with Palmer and Tim" he instructed, reading from the booking order in his hands, and gesturing towards a handsome log cabin.

DiNozzo's eyes instantly lit up as he realised that he would get first choice of bunk, and grabbing his gear he hightailed it into his new abode.

Chuckling, Gibbs, ducked his head back into the booking order and rooted for the girls' cabin.

Sighing, he saw it was right beside the boys'.

Wonderful.

"Alright you two, you're next door to the guys. So help me, if I hear one complaint about their clothes going missing, I will murder you."

They snorted with laughter and Gibbs' eyes narrowed.

Clearly the idea of pranking was not something they hadn't thought about.

Ziva grabbed her mercifully light bag, and rolled her eyes as she helped Abby with her moving truck load worth of luggage.

Searching for his and Ducky's cabin, he was relatively relieved to see that it was facing both the girls' and boys' cabins, on the opposite side of the housing cluster.

Heaving his own luggage out, he set off towards his new home, secretly as happy as Tony was that he got the first choice of bunk.

After about ten minutes of unpacking his few bits and pieces, Ducky strode through the door.

"Ah Jethro" he exclaimed happily, "this is quaint isn't it?"

Gibbs chuckled.

"Sure is Duck, Tim and Palmer ok?"

The ME nodded happily.

"Right as rain! Not an undue peep out of them on the way up."

Gibbs smiled.

His junior agent and Ducky's assistant rubbed along together very nicely indeed.

After both men had unfinished packing, they strolled outside to check on their joint charges and weren't surprised to hear familiar voices squealing from a distance.

Meandering after the voices, chattering as old friend so, they soon found themselves at the side of the lake that formed the main attraction point of the site.

Gibbs drew a breath.

It was beautiful.

His breath turned into a happy smile as he saw his two girls' and his two boys' playfully splashing around the calm water, with Palmer fitting right in with them with an ease he hadn't really expected.

As he stood and watched them, with Ducky's amused commentary, he felt truly peaceful.

It was good to see them being able to relax.

Their jobs were so consuming…so immune to time restrictions, that the four young people in front of him didn't get that many chances to be just that.

Young.

Satisfied that there was a seasoned looking life guard on duty, should all five of them inexplicably be in need of assistance, his thoughts turned to feeding their brood.

Jerking his head, he set off back towards the cabins with an amiable Ducky in toe.

An hour or so later saw all five wards huddled around an expertly Gibbs made campfire, watching with watering mouths as he deftly cooked sausages and burgers.

Passing the food around a few minutes later, a happy Jethro threw himself down beside Ducky and ate his own helping, as the five eventually ran off to hunt for marshmallows in the nearby store to roast.

Tony leading the way, naturally.

He smiled.

A few more minutes passed, and he stared peaceably into the distance.

"You look deep in thought Jethro?" Ducky eventually queried softly, having a pretty good idea what was rattling around his old friends head.

The brilliant blue eyes found his and the smile was as pain free as the Doctor had seen from the agent in a long, long time.

"Just thinking about how damn lucky I am, Duck."

…..

A/N: And that's that folks! Decided to leave this one here. Thank you so much for all the feedback, I really appreciate it.

I hope you've enjoyed the read, I certainly enjoyed the write!

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