Rekindling the Flame

Redefining The Road Trip

Chapter 15 - Redefining The Road Trip

By 10.00am the family were finally sitting in the car ready to go. It had certainly taken longer to get organised than Gibbs had anticipated. Hoping for a nine o'clock departure, he had soon realised that wasn't going to happen when, at 8.45, he went into Tony's room to grab his bag only to discover the bag was empty and all the contents strewn over the floor.

"Tony! What happened?" asked Gibbs finding Tony at the wardrobe and flinging out more things.

"I can't find my blue shirt with the black stripes on it," he said in a whiney voice, obviously frustrated with being unable to find the item of clothing.

Going over to the boy, Gibbs put out his hand to stop Tony throwing more clothes onto the floor.

"You mean the one we decided to put in my bag because it wouldn't fit in yours?" asked Gibbs pointedly.

"Oh yeah," remembered Tony blushing with embarrassment. "I forgot we decided that."

Rolling his eyes, Gibbs looked around at the mess on the floor. "Seriously Tony, did you really have to throw everything out of the bag? Couldn't you have just lifted stuff to see if it was there?"

"Well, I started doing that but then I couldn't find it and I was getting worried it was lost," defended Tony. "I want to wear it today," he added.

"You put out your red shirt and jeans to wear today," said Gibbs. "Where are those?"

Tony shrugged. "I don't know," he said looking around. "Somewhere over there I think."

He pointed to a large pile of shirts and pants.

"Anyway, I changed my mind. I want to wear the blue one now. I don't feel like wearing red anymore."

Closing his eyes and mentally counting to three, Gibbs took a deep breath. "Ok," he said, letting out a long sigh. "I will get your blue shirt and I would suggest you get this mess cleaned up. Try to not get the clothes we had packed mixed up with the rest of the stuff."

"But, I don't remember what we had packed," said Tony, looking around at all the clothing.

"Ah Tony!" growled Gibbs between clenched teeth.

Stepping amongst the clothes, Gibbs managed to sort out the items that had been packed in the bag mainly due to the fact they had been thrown out in a similar place. Putting them in a separate bundle, he turned to Tony and said, "Right, these need to be packed again. The rest needs to go away in the cupboard. You have ten minutes!"

As Gibbs stepped out into the hall, he ran into Jenny heading towards Ziva's room.

"What's up?" asked Jenny seeing the frustrated glare on Gibbs' face.

"Oh, nothing," said Gibbs rolling his eyes. "I thought it was only girls that were supposed to be fussy over what they wore." And with that, he passed Jenny and went into his room to get Tony's blue shirt from his bag.

Watching him stomp away, Jenny just shook her head and carried on into Ziva's room.

"Ok," she said walking in. "All ready?"

"Yep!" replied Ziva. "Can you help me carry my bag please? It's too heavy."

As Jenny picked up Ziva's bag to carry it downstairs, she almost stumbled when she could hardly lift it.

"Ziva!" she exclaimed putting the bag down again with a heavy clunk. "What on earth have you got in here?"

"Just my clothes and stuff," said Ziva innocently.