CJ was quiet on the way home in the car. She was happily processing the afternoon she'd just spent with Abby; a wealth of information and a duel so to speak in the works. Life was finally going to be interesting again.
Halloween morning arrived and CJ made sure she had everything she needed. Owen's brother was picking everyone up so that they could be at the school early enough to get things set up.
As soon as they arrived they set to work. CJ and the girls in the girl's change rooms, the guys in the boy's change room. They choose to concentrate on the shower stall area and spread the chicken entrails from Atti's Sunday night chicken dinner all over the tiles. With Owen as look out CJ broke into the utility room that was just for the gym area and poured copious amounts of red food colouring into the hot water heater. She was super careful not to get any on her hands. CJ had brought her cell phone so that she could quickly snap a few photos "for proof" for Abby.
Once it was all set up they went for a snack in the cafeteria to wait for first period. But really they wanted to be in a public area when news started to spread about the change rooms. They didn't have to wait long because both the boys and girls basketball teams had been in the gyms practicing that morning. It was those two groups that found the 'mess'.
The wild stories of murder and mayhem quickly spread through the school. Mr. Cooperland actually called in the local police, but they soon found that it was chicken and food colouring and wrote it off as a hoax. It was just another strange Halloween story for them to add to their long list of why none of them liked Halloween.
The administration at the school only made a single announcement for the culprit or culprits to come forward. A high school of 2000 kids was an easy place to hide. No one really thought they could catch who was responsible and so they wasted very few resources in trying to do so. CJ reveled in the fact that every class, every teacher, every conversation in the lunch room was about "The Prank". She smiled knowing she was responsible, with a little help from her friends.
Meanwhile at NCIS Abby was busily working in her lab. Her prank had not brought out the local LEO's but she had caused confusion and quite a bit of a stir.
Abby had hacked into the elevator control systems and reprogrammed each of the buttons. Not only did they each produce their own Halloween sound effect, they also took the passengers to incorrect floors. The staff was first startled by the cackling witch or eerie organ music but then found themselves deposited on the wrong floor.
Director Vance approached the cyber unit first and not having any luck in finding the culprit started to search the rest of the building. By the end of the day the perpetrator had not been found and it was chalked up to a Halloween "thing" and left at that. The cyber unit was called in to rectify the mis-programmed elevator and by quitting time it no longer sounded like a sound effects CD.
Abby had kept the program on a flash drive as her proof to CJ.
CJ breezed through the rest of the week and was happy to be spending Saturday night with her gang. They set up a couple of movies on the plasma, turned down the lights and sat back to relax. Within the group now there were several couples and this "movie" time turned into an opportunity to make out; CJ and Steven being one of those pairs. Over the past couple of weeks things had become a little more physical in their relationship and they were exploring what they were both comfortable with as 15 year old will do. Tony needed to pass by the living room on his way upstairs and happened to catch a glimpse of his daughter leg wrapped around Steven, lips locked, her hand up his shirt, his hand at the top of her pants.
Tony's heart stopped. He stood there only for a moment, unsure of how to proceed. Unsure of the right plan he simply continued on his journey to his room upstairs. His mind racing, what were they doing? What were they thinking? They weren't alone in the room, they knew that right? He hadn't seen anyone else even though he knew they were there, he just hadn't taken in that much information, he'd been so surprised by his daughter.
A pale faced Tony entered the bedroom to find Ziva reading in a chair by the bed. "What is wrong?" she asked immediately noticing the look of horror on his face. It took him a few seconds to collect his thoughts before he relayed what he'd seen to his wife. She waved a hand at him and said "Do not worry about that, I have already had a talk with her about boys." Tony being surprised for the second time this evening asked "You have, when?"
"A while ago when I realized that they were actually dating and they would be alone every afternoon here doing homework."
Tony was surprised again. He had forgotten that they were together each and every afternoon, alone, in the house, now he really panicked. "Don't worry, don't worry! How can you say that, this is our daughter we are talking about" Tony almost yelled. "I was a 15 year old boy once you know Zi –Va"
Rolling her eyes she replied "Yes Tony I know that, you did not actually grow out of being 15 until your later thirties". She waited for him to process what she said. Maybe he would get off the topic of their daughter.
"Ha Ha, think you're funny." He sat down on the edge of the bed scrubbing his face with his open hands.
"Look Tony, she is going to make her own decisions, she always has, there is nothing you or I can do right now to change that. She understands how things work. You have to have faith in her making the right choice."
"Do you remember last weekend? Do you? CJ doesn't have a great track record when it comes to making wise choices."
"Tony! Those decisions are different. She is very responsible. She will be fine. Yes?"
Not sure he agreed with his wife he simply let the question slide and went to take a shower. The hot water would help him see things more clearly.
CJ couldn't wait until Monday's school day ended. She was so looking forward to sharing with Abby about the Halloween prank. CJ heard about the elevator's misfortunate reprogramming from her parents and she had laughed knowing Abby was behind it. But she had no way of sharing her story safely, therefore she had waited to do it in person.
Since her visit was preplanned this time CJ didn't bother going to the squad room to announce her arrival she made her way straight to the lab. She rushed in excited to begin her story but was called up short when she found the lab full of people. Tony, Ziva, Henry and Jimmy were all in the lab discussing the gruesome pictures on the screen. CJ stopped in her tracks and then quickly continued to office section of the lab to wait until they were finished. As she passed by they all waved a greeting and smiled.
It was only about 10 minutes before the swosh of the sliding doors brought CJ out of her reverie. Abby standing hands on her hips, pigtails bouncing and a giant smile on her face. "Let's hear it she said" locking the door behind her so that they wouldn't be interrupted.
CJ quickly went into a detailed account of the set up, staging and aftermath of the prank. Abby was really impressed. And in that moment realized that she was at a disadvantage to CJ. She worked in a smaller facility and in an organization that was less tolerant of pranks. CJ's prank had involved the police and she still hadn't gotten caught. Mostly because they didn't really look very hard but in Abby's case those looking into any occurrence were trained investigators.
Abby decided to bring up these technical difficulties with CJ. "You want to back out?" CJ asked in an accusatory tone. "No … No.. not at all… I just thought I would point out the tactical differences that lie ahead for us… so that when we come to a decision on the winner we take those difficulties into consideration."
"I can live with that" CJ offered. But she also said "I would say that if I do get caught the consequences are more severe for me" wanting to have mitigating circumstances of her own.
"Agreed… Now show me your proof" she called in her most demanding voice.
CJ laughed as it was hard for Abby to sound or look demanding. CJ took out her phone and showed the photos. CJ standing beside the shower stall covered in chicken bits and another of CJ dumping food colouring into the hot water tank. They were extremely dangerous photos to have around and so once they were "approved" by Abby CJ deleted them immediately.
"Now show me yours." Abby took out her flash drive and showed CJ the program. She had also recorded one of the security tapes to her hard drive that showed people getting off at the wrong floor looking very confused. There was no sound but CJ had already been given a lengthy description by her parents on Halloween night. And like CJ she deleted all evidence thoroughly as soon as it was shared.
"Do you have anything lined up for this week yet? " CJ asked Abby eye brows dancing up and down.
"Still thinking…. Like I said I have to be careful… but I will come up with something… I have all week."
Abby had lots of work to do because of the open case they were trying to solve and so CJ began to wonder the halls of NCIS as she had many many times before as a young child. It was so familiar, as familiar as home. She made a point to find Jimmy and say hi. She didn't stay long as he was in the middle of autopsy and had pulled him out into the hall. CJ found Tim and gave him a great big hug hello. A hug that reminded him more of Abby than Tony or Ziva. CJ followed him around for quite a while talking and visiting and it was with Tim that Tony found her when it was time to go home.
"Stay out of trouble CJ" Tim called to her as she left.
"Always do" she laughed back over her shoulder at him. She saw him shake his head before turning on his heel and going back to his desk.