A/N: Confession, I hadn't actually planned on doing a chapter where they played laser tag, but just mentioning it or something. But since a lot of reviews said that they wanted to see it, I said what the heck and this was what I got! I actually liked how this came out, so thanks to everyone who said they wanted to see it! Like I said before, I don't have the time to update every day, but I'm going to try for every week. My life is getting crazier by the day, but it should be settled down again by later May, if I'm lucky. On with the chapter then! Please review! Thanks guys!
Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or anything affiliated with it, such as characters. I do own this plot line and anything I choose to change. I'm trying to stay as real to the show as I can, knowing what little we know about these characters in their teens!
As we put on our vests, Ziva asked me, "Can you explain the rules one more time?"
"Okay, so there are three teams: blue, red, and green. You and I have on vests with blue lights, so we're part of the blue team. The goal is to tag out people on the other two teams by shooting their vests with our laser guns before they get us. Understand?" I explained again.
"Yes, I get it," she said.
I laughed. "Ziva, it's just a game," I told her.
She was about to say something when a bell rang, signaling everyone to go into the room where we were playing. It was a huge two story room with obstacles everywhere to hide behind. When everyone was in, the lights went out and were replaced by strobe lights and music, giving the black walls an interesting effect.
"Wow…" I heard Ziva say from next to me.
"Pretty cool, huh?" I asked, smiling. "Stay close. I'll watch your back if you watch mine."
"Okay," she said.
We cautiously made our way to the second floor, looking for allies or enemies around every corner. When we got to the top and rounded yet another corner, we saw three guys and a girl standing there, all in blue vests, their laser guns pointed at us like ours were at them. They lowered theirs when they saw we were all on the same team.
"Hey," the tallest guy said, stepping forward, "I'm Jason."
"I'm Tony," I said.
"I'm Ryan and this is Ben and Mel," another guy said, standing next to Jason.
"This is Ziva," I said, introducing her.
"Okay, we're not gonna do well just standing here," Jason said. You could tell he was older than the others, but not by much. "We'll split off into groups of two, each taking part of the upstairs. Tony, Ziva, you two take the far end. Ben, Mel, you take the middle. Ry, come with me and we'll take this end."
We all split up, Ziva and I walking towards the far end. Adrenaline was coursing through me and I was on alert for any movement. Crossing over a bridge, I spotted twp moving red targets on the first floor and pointed them out to Ziva. We took them out before they knew what hit them and ran for cover when they started looking around for someone who shot them.
There was a hole, just big enough to see through, in the wall behind me and I took a look through it and saw what looked like Ben taking down someone from the green team. When I looked back at Ziva, she was tagging someone out through the hole in the wall behind her. She seemed like a natural, though this was her first time playing.
Fifteen minutes later, the game was over and the lights went back on. Ziva and I blinked in the sudden change of light and headed downstairs, ecstatic. We'd each only been tagged out a handful of times and we'd gotten a lot of people. When we got into the room where our vests went, we saw Jason and Ryan taking theirs off too. They looked different in the light. Jason was at least a few years older than me with blonde hair and brown eyes. Ryan had very tanned skin, light brown hair, and brown eyes. They both smiled at us when we walked up to them.
"How'd you do?" Ryan asked us.
"Great, how about you?"
"Not too bad. I think I got tagged out more than I tagged, but it's just a game. Of course Jason was awesome. He spends practically all summer here," Ryan laughed.
Ben and Mel came in then with smiles on their faces. "Guys, we were awesome out there!" Ben had long brown hair that was stuck to his face in places. Mel was the shortest of the group with brown hair pulled back into a messy pony tail. I figured we all looked the worse for wear right then, it had been hot in that room and we'd done a lot of running around.
"Hey, are we gonna team up again next game?" I asked as we all walked out of the room into the main room, which was an arcade.
"Sounds good to me," Ben said.
"Yeah," Ryan said while Mel and Jason just nodded. We had to wait twenty minutes until we could play again because you couldn't play two games in a row. Ziva and I grabbed drinks while the four of them headed over to play games.
"So, what did you think?" I asked her.
"That was so much fun! Thank you for bringing me, Tony," she said with a smile on her face.
"Hey it was either this or sit around the house all day," I said.
Three games later, Ziva and I headed out. We were both tired and almost out of cash between the both of us. We'd played four games for twenty five dollars each and had each gotten pizza and sodas for lunch. In a one of the games, the six of us had taken three different color vests and played against each other. I'd been on a team with Ben that game and he was pretty good. Ziva had said that Ryan had hit on her during that game and she'd shot him a few times 'by accident' even though they were on the same team.
When we got home around two, I pulled up in front of Ziva's house to let her out. There was a car parked in front and she said it was her father's rental.
"Thank you for everything, Tony," she said. She reached over the center console and hugged me. As she pulled away, she kissed me lightly on the cheek.
"I'll, um, see you," I said, blushing a little, but it wasn't as much as she was.
"Okay, bye," she said, opening her door and stepping out into the heat. I waited until she was in the house to pull away and park in my driveway.
When I got in the house, I saw my mom in the living room, reading a magazine. She looked up when she saw me come in.
"Hi, Tony. Where were you?" she asked.
"Oh, I was out playing laser tag with the girl next door, Ziva. We were bored, so we decided to go cause we couldn't think of anything else to do," I explained.
"That was nice of you. She's the one who just moved in, right?" mom asked.
"Yeah, that's her," I said. Mom already knew there were no other people named Ziva on our street, but she asked anyway.
"Where's your sister?" mom called to me. I was in the kitchen getting something to drink.
"Tim's," I told her.
"Do you know when she's coming home?" mom asked.
"No, I have no idea," I said.
"Tony," mom said to me. I had been on my way upstairs, but I went back to the living room.
"Yeah, mom?" I asked.
"Your father called," she said.
"Well, that's great for him. I don't want to talk to him. And Abby doesn't either," I told her angrily. My dad left us when Abby and I were nine and called once or twice a year, always promising to take us our somewhere. We'd learned years ago not to expect him to follow through. If he ever called us on our cell phones, we'd hang up without even answering.
"He really wants to talk to you, Tony," mom said. She'd never gotten why Abby and I gave up on dad, though we'd tried to explain countless times.
"Well I don't want to talk to him or about him. He's out of my life and he's not coming back in," I said.
"He's in the hospital, Tony," mom said.
That made me stop short. "The hospital?" I asked.
"Yes, they found a tumor in his brain. They found it too late. They told him he has a couple months, at best. He wants to see you and Abby, he begged me to send you," mom told me.
I said nothing, just went upstairs and took a shower because I felt gross covered in sweat. When I got out, I threw on boxers and a pair of shorts and stretched out on my bed. I grabbed my phone and texted Abby.
Hey, Abs. Dad's in the hospital. They say he has a couple months left. I sent to her.
Almost immediately I got a reply. Omg! Are you kidding?
It's what mom said. Apparently he begged mom to send us. I texted her.
Are we going? She asked.
Do we want to? I texted back.
This weekend? She asked.
…Okay. I sent back. Then I texted her Hey, Abs, mom wants to know when you'll be home.
Tonight or tomorrow. I got back.
Okay. I sent then put my phone down.
A/N: Whoa! There's something nobody expected! Please review with favorite line/part/something I should add/something you want to see/anything! Thanks guys! I really like your input on this! There should be another chapter coming in a week or two, like I said before, I don't have the time to update every day! But I'm going to try and update every week if I can! Thanks for reading!
