Gibbs was heating up the barbeque, while Zach was putting crisps out into bowls on the table, along with beers, a bottle of wine and fizzy pop in a cooler full of ice on the floor next to the table.
It was a boiling day, which Zach used as an excuse to take his top off so he was just wearing a pair of camouflage shorts, his boxers showing over the top of them and his shoes long forgotten about in the hallway, leaving a pair of white now grass-stained socks.
"Roll out the red carpet! Her royal Majesty had arrived" Zach grinned, walking over to Kate and bowing deeply.
Kate giggled at him, mentally redeeming him from punching her grandpa Gibbs. It was an easy way to flatter the true girly girl, by calling her royalty.
"Hey Gibbs, Zach" Tim called to them, placing the box of cakes Jayden and Kate had made him buy on the table.
Abby had pulled Zach and Gibbs into a hug before she helped herself to a glass of Chardonnay and opened a beer for Tim.
"Go get my football from my room Jay and you can teach me"
Jay ran inside as ordered by Zach.
"Where's Sarah?" Gibbs asked Tim.
"She'll be here in a bit. She's having a hair crises apparently"
Tim and Gibbs rolled their eyes. It was always Sarah that took the longest getting ready. There was always a bet in between the younger men when they went out for a meal, about how long Sarah would take getting ready.
"Hey" Abby slapped Tim's arm "Hair is an important thing isn't it Zachy?"
Abby was sure the pretty boy would back her up. Zach thought Sarah could shave of her whole hair and she'd still look pretty, so hair didn't really matter to him.
"Yea" Zach put on a high pitched voice, flapping both his hands round "I couldn't even go outside if I hadn't straightened my hair" Both men chuckled at that.
"Zach" Abby said in a sickly sweet voice "I think you should know that I am one of few people who can kill you and leave no forensic evidence what so ever."
Zach coughed and walked a few steps away from the scary Goth nearer to his father, afraid she might pounce on him.
"Hair is an important matter" He said as seriously as he could, making sure the Goth wasn't coming any closer to him.
"See I knew you would agree Zachy" Abby beamed as if she hadn't just threatened him.
"Yeah.." Zach said not sure of what to think. He was grateful when Jayden had come back out with the ball.
"Go long Zach" The twelve-year-old shouted from the patio, to which he got a confused look.
"It means go further away from him and catch the ball" Tim explained to him, much like they had to do to Ziva sometimes.
"Oh" Zach grinned and ran further away from Jayden who threw the ball, it didn't go as far a Zach was but her dived on the ground catching the ball, getting grass and mud stains on his chest and shorts.
Tony and Ziva walked through the side gate when Zach had stood up.
"Hey Tony, Catch!" Zach threw the ball like a professional despite never having playing the sport before.
Tony the football fanatic caught it, with commentary and tossed it back.
Zach, Tony, and Jayden played with the football until Ducky, Sarah and Jimmy arrived and Gibbs had called them for lunch.
Gibbs, Ducky, Abby and Ziva were seated on the plastic chairs while everyone else had to sit on the floor, eating the warm juicy cheese burgers happily.
Sarah had tried not to stare at Zach's bare chest. Even when she had looked away she could only picture his tanned, muscled, upper half.
"How'd you like America Zach?" Tim asked him handing his son a napkin to wipe his mouth.
"I've only been here a day, but from what I've seen you guys say and do the weirdest things" Zach said honestly.
"They do have odd sayings" Ziva was glad someone agreed with her.
"It feels like when you go on holiday and every thing is weird. All the food is huge!" Zach used his hands to explain. "You can't even get a normal sized packet of crisps, and the drinking age is stupid!" he complained remembering his trip to the supermarket with his father to get the food.
"Yea, I bet your annoyed your five years under age now rather than two" Sarah said to him.
"Oh God, I never thought about it like that! Then again it's never stopped me before" Zach grinned at Sarah who grinned back liking his way of thinking.
"Well it's going to stop you now" Gibbs told him sternly.
"We'll see." Zach said quietly so only Sarah could hear. "Suppose you lot being special agents does put a downer on things." He sighed dramatically.
Ducky once again told them a tale about drinking; it was something to do with a tribe he once encountered. Zach really wasn't paying attention; he was too busy trying to finish the large burger.
When everyone was finished and starting to get up, Zach had taken Sarah into the house, unaware of his father's and uncle's suspicious looks. Gibbs and Tim could feel something in his gut wasn't right.
Jimmy, Tony and Jayden hadn't given them a second thought as they grabbed the football and tossed it to each other. Abby and Kate lay on the floor making Daisy chains, while Ducky watched the fun from his seat.
"Give them Five minutes" Gibbs told Tim when he had started to get up and head to the doors. Tim nodded and took Abby's empty seat.
"Wanna have a little fun on this camping trip?" Zach said leading Sarah up to his room. Sarah was excited at the thought of them being alone together, quickly telling herself to snap out of it, there's no way he was thinking what she had in mind.
"Depends what you mean" Sarah answered wondering what he was up to. Zach grabbed his bag from under the bed and showed her his two large bottle of smirn-off Vodka.
"This kind of fun" He smirked. She loved that smirk.
"Where'd you get them?" She wondered, there was no way he got served in Wal-Mart before. And she doubted they were Gibbs'.
"Got em at the offy in the British airport." He said proudly hoping she would be impressed "So you in or what?"
"Course I'm in, but don't bring both of them. We can mix them with red bull when we get there, so if we get caught we don't get both of them wasted, and a bottle of red bull looks a lot less suspicious than Vodka." Sarah McGee always the brains of the operation.
"I like the way you think Sar. I knew there was a reason why we were cousins. I'll save the other bottle for another time, there's no way we can drink two anyway" Zach pushed the bag back under the bed.
She loved the way he said her name, rolling the R with his accent.
"You know were going to be in big shit when we get caught?" Sarah warned him.
"If we get caught" He corrected "Yea I know but who cares"
"Zacharriah! Sarah!" They both heard Gibbs shout in the house.
Sarah started to panic thinking they were busted already. Zach just grabbed his Nike football he had brought with him and shoved a couple of CD's in to her hands before walked down the stairs, Sarah following.
"What were you doing upstairs?" Gibbs demanded when he saw them, Tim standing near him.
"Bloody hell, are you always this suspicious?" Zach exclaimed.
Gibbs glared at him.
"Sarah asked what music I was into and wanted to borrow a couple of CD's and then she saw my football and wanted to play" Zach pointed to the CD's and held up the football.
"What'd you expect?" Zach asked cockily, walking towards the agents.
"Ow" Zach rubbed the back of his head not expecting the slap.
"Watch your attitude Zach" Gibbs warned him.
"Since when do you like dance music Sarah?" Tim asked pointedly looking at the Clubland, Basshunter and Dance Nation CD's in her hand.
"Trying to broaden my horizons Timmy" Sarah said making sure her nervousness stayed out of her voice.
"You both better not be up to something!" Gibbs glared hard at them trying to make one of them crack.
"Yea OK we get the point. You can't even go upstairs here without people thinking your plotting world domination" Zach said sarcastically, trying to walk past his father.
Gibbs grabbed his arm putting his face inches from Zach's. "I said to watch the attitude Zacharriah"
What had happened to that little boy he had been cuddling just this morning. Gibbs would gladly trade this sarcastic brat with a bad attitude, back for him.
"All-right, all-right" Zach shook of his arm and headed out the door into the garden.
Sarah quickly followed not wanting to be interrogated by them on her own, knowing she'd crack like an egg, spilling the teen's plans for the camping trip.
"They are up to something" Gibbs growled to Tim.
"I know. Sarah hates Dance music." The younger agent nodded his agreement.
"Anyone fancy a game of footy?" Zach shouted in the garden.
He had rounded everyone up to play and made him and Tony captains. They split the teams fairly so Zach's team had Sarah, Tim, Ducky and Jayden while Tony's team had Gibbs, Abby, Ziva, Jimmy and Kate.
"DarkWing, can you play keeper?" Zach had asked him before sticking him in goal. Abby had gone in goal for Tony's team.
Zach had started of with the ball running closer to the opposing goal, he passed it to Tim at the last minute who got tackled by Gibbs straight away. Jayden went after Gibbs who dodged him and got the ball took off him from Sarah. Ziva had run towards her but she quickly passed it to Zach who was nearer to the goal.
Zach had circled around Tony, his passed it through Kate's legs getting it again at the other side and booted it past Abby.
"Wooo!" Zach yelled high fiving his team.
The match went on for a while the winning team was Zach's by 4-3. Ziva had scored two of their goals and Gibbs the last, Tony had tried but it went wide causing everyone to laugh at him and Gibbs to head slap him muttering something about incompetence. Zack had coughed 'sore loser' into his hand, looking innocent when his dad glared at him.
Zach had scored another goal, doing a back flip for celebration, Gibbs had also head slapped him saying he was showing off. Tim and Jimmy had both tripped over the ball trying to tackle each other, sports were really not their thing, Tony had swooped in to take the ball, only to be stopped by Jayden. Abby had made a spectacular save, diving from one side of the goal to the other stopping Zach from scoring. The only goal Ducky saved was when Jimmy had kicked it right too him, the assistant also earned himself a head slap.
Sarah had scored one goal and Jayden had scored the last one, Zach had picked him up and put him on his shoulder singing 'we are the champions' with the boy. Sarah, Ducky and Tim soon joined in with their celebrations, although Tim was a lot more reserved then the rest of them.
After the match, Tim and Jimmy were nursing their bruised knees while Tony and Gibbs were nursing their bruised ego. The adults and young children sat together while the teenager sat out of earshot of them, ignoring the suspicious glances Gibbs kept throwing them.
"I thought Uncle Jimmy was gunna piss himself when Gibbs went towards him after he missed" Zach and Sarah laughed.
"It looked like he was ready to fire Uncle Tony when he missed" Sarah choked through laughter.
"This camping trip is gunna be brilliant, especially with …" Sarah shoved her hands over Zach's mouth stopping him from speaking.
Gibbs was staring at them both his earlier suspicions confirmed.
"Uncle Gibbs can lip read" Sarah warned him, making sure her back was towards them.
"Really?" Zach was about to make sure he didn't slip up again "Well that's gay"
"Tell me about it" Sarah sighed "No one told me when I first moved here. I stayed with Uncle Gibbs for the weekend when my brother and Abby went away, I was planning to sneak out and go to a party. Of course Gibbs lip read my plans when I was on the phone." Sarah remembered that night too well. She told it like horror stories you tell at sleep overs.
"I opened the front door and there he was, sitting calmly on a fold away chair sipping a cup of coffee." Sarah shuddered remembering what he had done to her afterwards.
"Harsh! Could have been after the party, at least you could have had a good time then" Zach laughed madly at that, thinking about what the neighbours had thought of his father.
"How come you live with your brother? If you don't mind me asking" He wondered.
"No its fine, my parents kicked me out when I got took home by the police one night for drinking underage, I hadn't even had much. All the neighbours saw and my parents are proud people so couldn't take the embarrassment and kicked me out" Sarah sighed.
"That's well tight" Zach commented.
"I know. Tim was furious with them when I turned up on his doorstep two day later. I was only fourteen and I had to get here from Ohio." Tim had never forgiven his parents for that and had taken legal custody of Sarah.
"It's more fun here anyway; I don't have to be the perfect daughter. I can just be me" Sarah smiled "I can see that me and you are going to be good friends Zach" Her eyes held a trace of micheifinous.