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Chapter 4
Abby went immediately over to Dylan and wrapped him in a big hug. "Shhh it's gonna be O.K. Why are you crying honey are you worried about Sarah?"
Dylan nodded. "She's.......gonna........she's........gonna hate me. She's....gonna hate me because I told."
"Nooo....no......Dylan she could never hate you! Sarah loves you. She just doesn't think things all the way through sometimes. It's easy to get so focused on what you want sometimes, that you forget your hurting other people in the process. And, Sarah knows what the punishment is in this house for lying. She wouldn't have expected you to lie to us."
"What's the punishment for lying?"
Abby didn't know what to say. She didn't want to scare him but they WERE talking about the truth. "If you deliberately tell a lie you'll get a spanking." There she'd said it. There was no point lying to him. She knew Tim and if Dylan told a lie he WOULD get a spanking and there'd be no way that Abby could talk him out of it so he may as well know the truth. She watched his face for signs of terror. There weren't any.
"Is Sarah gonna get a spanking?"
"Yep, she is. What Sarah did was very naughty and very dangerous. It's our job to remind her to make better decisions. Do you understand?"
"Yeh." He said sadly.
"Are you sure she's not gonna hate me? Think it's my fault?"
"Positive." She said pulling him up and into a hug. "Now let's get you up to bed, you've had enough excitement for one day and it's way past your bedtime."
"I don't wanna go to bed until Sarah comes back."
"Sorry little man. You don't need to worry about Sarah. Your Dad and Uncle Tony will find her. She's probably just gone to the movies or something."
In the other room, Tim rang Tony. "Hey Tony.....bit of a problem. Sarah's run off again............Did she?............Did she say where?.............Yeh well maybe that's for the best then. Thanks for that...................Yeh I will......................If she's not back here by one.............yeh I'll call you and we'll go and look. Thanks Tony."
Abby and Dylan were just on their way upstairs when they bumped into Tim in the hallway. "Hey Buddy, why don't you go and put on your pyjamas and Mom and I'll be up in a minute to tuck you in."
"O.K." he said and ran up the stairs.
"I just spoke to Tony and he thinks we should just wait 'til she comes home. He said that Sarah said something to him today about going out tonight." Tim said
"What did she say?" Abby said
"Not sure exactly what she said." Tim said.
"Timothy McGee, YOUR LYING!" She said with a hint of amusement. "I thought the penalty for lying around here was a spanking! You better watch out."
"I'm not lying!And that's not happening EVER!" he said.
"What? Because you're 'the man'!?"
"No, because I don't tell lies!"
"Doesn't matter Timmy! If you won't take a spanking from me if you tell a lie , I'll just tell Gibbs! I'm still his favourite you know!" Abby said jokingly.
"We're getting way off track we were talking about Sarah."
"What did Tony say about her wanting to go out?"
"She told him to stop upsetting you because she wanted to go out. That you were the easy one and if he put you in a bad mood she'd never get to go out."
Tim debated whether to tell her the rest. He decided it could wait until tomorrow. He knew she'd be upset and he wanted to salvage what was left of today. "Come on let's go and tuck Dylan in. He'll be waiting."
When they got into Dylan's room he was already nearly asleep. They sat on either side of the bed. "So have you had a good day?" Tim asked brushing his hair away from his face gently.
"I sure have. Can we do it again next weekend?" Dylan said smiling.
"We'll have to see. If Tony and Ziva and everyone aren't busy, they're always welcome."
"What are we gonna do tomorrow?"
"Well, we'll go to Mass in the morning and then after I think Dad promised us a trip to McDonalds. Didn't he?" she said grinning at Tim.
"I sure did but first you better get to sleep." Tim said kissing his son on the forehead and tucking in the comforter on his side of the bed.
Abby was doing hers at the same time. "Night sweetie."she said.
Just as they were about to walk out Dylan called Tim. "Could I ask you a question?"
"Sure thing." Tim said waiting.
"Mom said that if I'd told a lie you woulda spanked me. Would you?"
"Yeh pal I would've. Lying's wrong. If you lie you get a spanking."
"Would it hurt?"
"It's supposed to hurt a bit. That's the bit that's supposed to help you remember not to do the same thing again."
"Does it help Sarah to remember not to the same thing again?"
Tim tried not to laugh. "Most of the time." He said.
"O.K. 'night Dylan said in a sleepy voice and turned over. Tim kissed the top of his head and pulled the comforter up to his neck. Turning off the light he closed the door softly.
Abby was waiting outside the door with a big grin. "So Timmy seems like you do tell lies 'most of the time' yeh right. Some of the time at best. The kid has a death wish."
Tim chuckled. "Your right. She does. Come on, fancy a bit of murder in the dark. I'll pick the lock to her room. I thought we'd wait in there and give her a nice surprise when she climbs back in the window."
"Oooh a stake out! Very devious Timmy, I like the way you think. You pick the lock and I'll go and get us some supplies."
"Supplies Abs?"
"Yeh, coffee and donuts. Isn't that what you people eat on stakeouts. I've watched cop shows. They always have donuts and coffee." She said running down the stairs.
Tim just shook his head and smiled.
A while later they were sitting on Sarah's floor in the dark eating frozen donuts and drinking coffee. "Did you ever think five years ago Timmy that this is what you'd be doing on a Saturday night?"
"The stakeout wouldn't have been unusual but I didn't think that I'd be lucky enough to be doing it with you."
Meanwhile at the movies, Sarah was getting nervous. She was wondering if she'd done the right thing. Maybe she should have just asked, like Tony had suggested. The movie had gone longer than she'd expected and she was really hoping that Tim or Abby hadn't gone to her room to check on her.
"Hey, you o.k?" Zac said.
"Yeh..........fine......I just.........it's getting late." She said.
"What time did your folks say you had to be home?" Zac said suddenly. Sarah didn't answer. He had a bad feeling. "Why didn't you want me to come to the door?"
"Becaus............I..........I......."
"Oh No Sarah! You lied? They don't know about me do they? What did you tell them?"
"SHH, SHHH. SHHH." Came from several different areas of the movie theatre.
Zac took Sarah's hand and stood up. "Where getting out of here right now." He said not too pleased. When they were outside he pulled her around to face him and started again. "Where exactly do they think you are?"
Sarah put her head down, she liked Zac and he was never gonna want to take her out again after this. "Um........in bed." She said sheepishly.
"What?! Oh Sarah what have you done?" he said pulling her towards the car park.
"Where are we going?" she said panicking.
"Home! Right now, so we can hopefully clear this mess up before your folks never let me anywhere near you again."
"Maybe we won't have to tell them. They think I'm asleep. I could just sneak back in." she said hopefully.
"There'll be no sneaking in anywhere. I've got nothing to hide, I'm gonna knock on the door and explain what happened. What does your brother do anyway? "
"He's an NCIS special agent."
"Great! He carries a gun! It just gets better."
Abby and Tim were actually having fun. Tim looked at his watch. Only quarter to midnight. Most late movies wouldn't have even gotten out yet. Tim leant against the bed and stretched his legs out. Abby cuddled into his side and he put his arm around her.
Downstairs a nervous Zac and an irritable Sarah were waiting by the front door. Zac had knocked a couple of times but no answer.
"See?" Sarah said. "Tim and Abby have probably gone to bed. They most likely don't even know I'm gone. I could just sneak back inside and get into bed."
"No!" Zac said in exasperation. "Do you have your key?"
"Here!" she said grumpily.
Zac opened the door and they stepped inside. "I can hear voices upstairs. Come on." He said taking her hand and heading for the stairs. Pointing to the room the voices were coming from. Whose room is this?" Zac asked.
"Mine."
The door wasn't shut all the way but Zac knocked anyway.
Tim got up to open it, With Abby behind him thinking it must be Dylan. They were both shocked to find a very anxious looking Sarah holding hands with a teenage boy, neither of them had ever seen before. His hair was blonde and spiky and he wore an earing. He looked about eighteen.
"Where the hell have you been!" Tim said to Sarah. "And who might you be." He said addressing Zac.
"Mr and Mrs McGee, I'm Zac." Zac said addressing both of them. He turned to Tim. "Sir I know how this looks but if you'll give me a minute to explain."
Sarah hung her head and Tim was starting to think there might be more to this story. The kid had called him Sir so he must have some manners. "Speak." He said.
"I met Sarah last week at the mall. We've been talking on the phone and I like her and well I think she likes me. Anyway I asked her if she would like to go to the movies tonight and she said yes."
Zac rubbed his hand through his hair. He hated to get Sarah in more trouble than she was probably already in but he wanted to do this right. Not sneak around. "So I thought it was a bit strange that Sarah was INSISTANT"he said looking at Sarah "on me picking her up out on the street but I did it anyway because that's what she wanted. I'm sorry. But it wasn't until the movie was about two thirds of the way through that I found out that you thought that Sarah was in her bed. I'm not that type of person. I was brought up to be respectful. If you let me see Sarah again I promise I will always collect her at the door and I will always bring her home on time."
Tim and Abby looked at each other and then Sarah. "Why do you think we're in your room Sarah?" Abby said.
"You were waiting for me?"
"How do you suppose we got in here?" Tim said
"You had to pick the lock."
"Did you think that when you locked the door and CLIMBED OUT THE WINDOW that we might be worried about you?"
"You climbed out the window?" Zac asked shocked. "Oh man Sarah you're in some kind of trouble."
"She sure is!" Tim and Abby said together for the second time that night.
Abby looked at Tim and her eyes confirmed what he was thinking himself. This seemed like a decent kid. Tim put his hand out to shake the Zac's hand. "Zac it was nice to meet you. I wish it had been under better circumstances. How about you come over for lunch next weekend and we'll all get to know each other a bit better. Sarah won't be talking to anyone this week but you can phone her on Saturday night to make arrangements for Saturday. She'll see you then."
"Thankyou Sir I'd like that." he said shaking Tim's hand.
"Call me Tim. Oh and Zac? Thanks for being honest."
"Your welcome Sir.......I mean Tim.
Zac leaned over and gave Sarah a quick kiss on the cheek. "Behave yourself Sar!" he said smiling and darted off down the stairs.
TBC
