Reverse Psychology - NCIS Story

Boys and Girls Come Out to Play - Part 1

Chapter 25 - Boys and Girls Come Out to Play Part 1

The rest of the week progressed without too much fuss. Wednesday saw Gibbs, Tony and Ziva working on the climbing frame between the tree house and the Silver Ash. By the end of the day, the children could climb the ash by way of metal pegs and work their way across the frame to the tree house. Gibbs had also suspended four ropes at equal intervals from the climbing frame, so they could also descend or ascend without having to use either the tree house or the metal pegs. Overall, Gibbs was quite please with their efforts and was quick to pass on the praise to Tony and Ziva.

Wednesday evening as he was finishing off the final rope, Gibbs looked up to see Ziva sitting on the roof of the tree house. He didn't say anything, but watched carefully as she reached up several times and touched the purple paint mark with her fingers. He knew what would be coming next, but he just waited patiently. Sure enough, after about five minutes he heard, "Daddy?"

"Mmmm," he answered, a nail between his lips preventing him from speaking.

"Look Daddy?" Ziva said.

Gibbs hammered the nail in and then stopped to look up at her.

"Yes, what it is?" he asked.

"Well, look how close the paint is now. If I sit on the roof, I can touch it with my fingers. Could we maybe make this paint mark a little higher?"

Gibbs walked over to the tree house and climbed the ladder so he was standing on the balcony of the house and looking over the roof where she sat.

"See Daddy? The tree house is kind of like moving the ground. If we made just this one a little bit higher it wouldn't be dangerous because the house is here." She looked at him, sure of her logic.

"Oh, so instead of crashing to the ground, you would bounce off the roof of the house first, cracking your skull, maybe hit the balcony and then fall to the ground?" he replied.

Her look of absolute distain almost had him laughing out loud. "Daddy, pleeeeease," she begged. "I'm very careful, I won't fall!"

He had to admit, from what he had learned about her in the past couple of weeks, his limitations on the tree climbing did seem a little unreasonable.

"Ok," he said. Her face suddenly lit up with joy. "Hang on," he cautioned. "You need to listen very carefully first."

She nodded with such enthusiasm he thought her head might fall off.

"I agree with you. Having listened to some of the things you have told me recently, I think you are probably very capable of climbing higher than this and still remain safe. So," he drew out the word enjoying the expectant look on her face. "I will go around with some green paint and make some new marks. They won't be all the way to the top, but I might add another six foot to the purple marks. That's like two more of you. OK?"

She flung herself into his arms, nearly sending the pair of them hurtling to the ground.

"Thank you, Daddy! Thank you!" she squealed.

He kissed her cheek then said, "But listen very carefully young lady."

She sat still and looked earnestly into his eyes.

"I need you to promise me you will not go any higher than the new green marks. If you do, you will not only get the promised spanking but all the green marks will disappear and you'll be stuck with the purple ones again. Understood?"

"Yes Daddy. I promise, cross my heart and hope to die," she said completing the infamous action as she spoke.

He laughed. "Did Tony teach you that?"