Tim stood frozen in horror. He watched as his boss wiped snow from the side of his head and turned towards him.

He was so busy trying not to panic in anticipation of the expected reprimand that he couldn't react in time to avoid what happened next.

Gibbs's perfectly-aimed snowball finally snapped him out of his dazed trance-like state and he responded instinctively, stepping behind a tree and lobbing a few more snowballs himself before his brain caught up enough to register surprise at the turn of events.

The three-way barrage of snowballs continued for about fifteen minutes before Tony started shouting frantically, drawing Tim's and Gibb's attention to Jimmy Palmer heading towards the parking lot. All three agents hurled snowballs towards the ME's assistant, who squealed when two of them smacked against his back. He spun around briefly, then turned and fled.

'You're supposed to join in, Palmer!' Tony called after him, but Jimmy just covered his head with his hands and scurried away faster.

Still laughing, Tony lobbed another snowball at Gibbs, who ducked behind an ornamental cannon and returned fire.

A few minutes later, Tim found himself under a combined attack from both Tony and Gibbs and scrambled backwards in search of a better defensive position. Hitting a patch of ice, his feet slid from under him and he landed hard on the uneven ground, an exposed tree-root digging painfully into his butt.

He looked up to see Tony offering him a hand. He reached up, and a second later found himself sprawled backwards in the snow with Tony half on top of him. He frantically protested his innocence when Tony started piling snow on his head, insisting futilely that he hadn't deliberately pulled his partner down.

Gibbs wisely stood clear of the icy patch and let the two men scrabble to their feet on their own before brushing them off and steering them towards the parking lot.

X X X

Tim looked up from the steaming mug of hot chocolate that he held cradled in both his hands, warming his still-numb fingers. He stifled a laugh at the sight of Gibbs with a whipped-cream moustache, still surprised to see his boss drinking anything other than his usual coffee. Tony was still complaining about being covered in snow, and Gibbs winked at him across the table before telling Tony that he should have thought of that before starting a snowball fight.

Sometimes, Tim thought, his team really was like family.