Hello, guys! I've got another chapter up for you! I think I'm writing a lot faster now than I used to (hence the update being here in just under a month) so I hope you guys are happy about that!

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the chapter!

It was a good day or two before Andrew and Jessica Parkson were able to go back to school again, because there was no way that Gibbs would be able to take care of them the whole day every day until the case was over.

Of course, by the time they got back to school, the news had spread. And even if the news hadn't spread, people were noticing changes in behaviour.

Like levels of concentration.

"Mr. Parkson!"

Andrew's head snapped up from where he'd been staring at something he'd drawn on the desk about ten minutes ago, his mind drifting off to who knows where. After blinking for a few moments, he realised that the teacher was actually talking to him, and he cleared his throat, trying to plaster a smile onto his face. "Yes, sir?"

The teacher took a deep breath, sighing as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Yes, he pitied the boy for the loss of his parents – no child could go through a thing and come out the same – but his behaviour on the other hand…

"Please try to concentrate in my lessons. Everyone in here knows that you want to go ahead and join the marines once you're done with education, but at least give this class a chance, okay?"

The teen bristled slightly at the patronising tone he received, but he took a deep breath and nodded, forcing himself to calm down. "Yes, sir."

The teacher nodded, before addressing the rest of the class. "Right class, so today…"

Andrew zoned out again, losing interest until he felt a tap on his shoulder. He frowned slightly and looked over to see his closest friend, Alice, smiling slightly at him, an eyebrow raised. With lightly curled blonde hair, straightened and cut into a bob that stopped by her jaw, and big, almost doe-like, brown eyes, Andrew thought she was pretty cute.

He'd never tell her that to her face, though.

"Are you at least trying to listen?" she asked him quietly, a smile playing on her lips.

He glanced back over at the teacher for a moment, trying to understand what was going on, before looking back over at Alice. "Nope," he replied, a slight grin on his face.

She rolled her eyes at him, shaking her head, before looking back over at their teacher.

Within a few minutes, she was back to talking with him again, though this time it was because the whole class had burst into chatter, going on about something or other that the teacher had said – either way, Andrew hadn't caught it, and he wasn't particularly bothered about that either.

"So… what are you gonna do?"

He blinked, raising an eyebrow at Alice. "Uh… what?"

She sighed, rolling her eyes at him again. "Oh, come on… you know what."

"No, I don't think I do."

"The English project! We have to write an essay on something that's happened to us – an important, or fascinating event in our lives…" she trailed off at the end when she noticed his face harden. "The teacher also suggested that it was something upbeat, not traumatising, so that he doesn't have any of his students breaking down in the middle of the task."

"Yeah, yeah…" He shrugged a little. "I have no idea what to do, I guess. The task sounds kinda boring to me."

"It doesn't sound that boring."

"You're right, it sounds very boring."

Just as Alice was about to retort, the bell rang, and students around them began to rise from their seats, packing away their stationary and books so that they could leave the classroom. Andrew and Alice were the last to actually begin doing so, most of the students having left by the time they'd shouldered their rucksacks full of school supplies and started heading for the door. Just as Andrew was passing the teacher's desk, he heard his name being called out and he stopped, mentally groaning.

"Mr Parkson?"

The teen turned to face the teacher, plastering on a fairly fake smile. "Yes, sir?"

The teacher raised an eyebrow at that, before continuing. "I was impressed with your essay on the military last semester, Andrew." He seemed to paused before going on. "I hope to see the same high standard with this essay."

Andrew just stayed silent, not exactly sure what to say, before he spoke again. "Is that all, sir?"

The teacher frowned, before shaking his head slowly and turning to the blackboard, beginning to rub everything off. "Yes, that's all, Andrew."

"Thank you, sir." The next time the teacher spoke, the teen had just reached the door, and what the teacher said caused his eyes to widen and his breath to hitch.

"Oh, and Andrew? We are all very sorry for your loss."

Andrew didn't know whether he was glad to see the NCIS company car pull up or not.

On one hand, it prevented him from having to talk to anyone on the bus because he wouldn't be getting off at his regular stop and he was pretty sure that everyone had been staring at him at school that day.

On the other hand, he was pretty sure that the car would just bring more whispers. Because Andrew never got picked up by a car. And you generally weren't allowed to pick up your kid from the bus stop. It was a bus stop.

Either way, the teen was greeted with a smirking face of Tony DiNozzo as he rolled down the window. He scowled slightly at the older man, resisting the urge to roll his eyes at the fact that he was wearing sunglasses, even though it was barely spring. In the agent's defence, it was pretty nice weather.

"What are you doing here?" the teen hissed, narrowing his eyes at Tony. His eyes just narrowed further when he heard people beginning to mutter under the bus shelter behind him.

Tony slipped the glasses up so that they were perched on his hairline, before talking to Andrew. "Why, I'm here to pick you up, of course!"

"I take the bus," Andrew stated, looking none too impressed.

"Well, does the bus stop off at the Navy Yard?"

"I don't think—"

"Then get in the car."

"Andy!"

Andrew turned to look over his shoulder, spotting Alice running towards the bus stop. She seemed to have a fairly confused look on her face as she neared, slowing down as she realised that he was near a car – a car that clearly didn't belong to anyone in his family.

"…Andy?" she asked slowly. "Uh… aren't you taking the bus today?" She glanced between the boy at the car, obviously confused.

Andrew looked between Alice and the car, clearly fairly conflicted. He wanted to take the bus with her, but… there was a reason why the agent was picking him up. And, to be fair… he was only picking him up to be safe, right?

Then again, was anything that was happening really fair on him?

At the lack of an answer, Tony sighed and slid his sunglasses back onto his face. "I'm sorry, miss, but Mr Parkson won't be taking the bus today." He sent Andrew a look, which he hoped the boy could see through his sunglasses, before turning back to Alice. "He's being kept under watch."

"Like a criminal?" Alice asked, a slightly confused look on her face.

"No, like a witness." Tony looked over at Andrew, who seemed to be scowling slightly. "Andrew, please, get in the car."

The teenage boy took a deep breath before moving to open the back door to the car.

"Andy?" Alice looked thoroughly confused now. "What's going on?"

He spared one glance back at her. "I'll tell you tomorrow, okay? Promise." Before she could get another word in, he climbed into the car, shutting the door and allowing Tony to drive off, leaving a fairly large group of confused students behind, waiting for their buses.

Once they were a good distance away from the school, Andrew sent Tony a glare. "What was that for?!"

Tony raised an eyebrow at Andrew. "What was what for?"

"You didn't need to make such a huge scene!"

"Andrew, that was probably the smallest scene that could be made. You're lucky that Gibbs didn't come to pick you up." Tony let out a light chuckle. "Now that would've been a scene."

"So what's up with you and that girl anyway?"

Andrew ignored the adult, continuing to brood as they made their way up in the elevator to the floor with the agents' bullpens, hopefully so that the agents could keep an eye on him. Or, rather, them – his little sister, Jessica, was already there according to Special Agent DiNozzo, having been brought in by Ziva as soon as school finished. Apparently she'd put up far less of a fuss than Andrew had, but the teen thought it was probably due to the fact that his little sister had become unnaturally subdued recently. Which worried him a lot.

Jessie used to be this bright, annoying little redhead of a sister, with a wild imagination and a love for books and art and anything that could get her mind thinking and her imagination rolling. Last he knew, she was moving onto the bigger novels, despite her young age. She even enjoyed writing her own stories, though she definitely wasn't that great at that. No, she preferred to stick to her drawing.

But all of that – all of that creativity and artistic ability, along with her bubbliness and her very positive outlook on life – had disappeared. Just like that. As soon as the screaming fighting had started, everything had turned upside down for her – for both of them.

It would be stupid for Andrew to think that he hadn't changed as well.

He was so drawn into his thoughts that he didn't realise he was already walking into the bullpen, and Tony had to place a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

Though, instead of slowing the boy down like the hand was intended to, it instead caused to boy to jerk violently, pushing Tony's hand off his shoulder and nearly shoving the agent away. He managed to stop himself just as his hand hit Tony's arm, instead giving a slap instead of a shove.

Tony frowned as he rubbed his arm. "Hey!"

Andrew's face blanched as he stepped away from Tony.

"You know, attacking a federal officer is an offense!"

Andrew took another step back from the agent, his breathing quickening. Tony didn't seem to notice, though – the only one who seemed to notice was McGee, who was the only other agent in the bullpen at the moment, since Ziva had taken Jessica down to Abby's lab in an attempt to cheer her up a little and get her to do something fun.

"Hey, Andrew…?" McGee nearly jumped at the speed at which Andrew turned to look at him, his green eyes wide. "Are you… are you okay…?"

That was when Tony seemed to notice that something was wrong, and his hand fell from his arm as he took a closer look at the boy. "Hey, kid, are you alright? You look a little on the pale side."

Andrew looked between the two adults with wide eyes, his breathing picking up, before he turned and walked speedily away, muttering a quiet, "Excuse me," as he went to find the nearest toilets.

As soon as he got into the men's room, he sped over to one of the stalls, locking himself inside, throwing his bag down and sitting on the floor, his head in his hands as he tried to calm down.

"What did I just do…?" he whispered to himself as he tried to take deep breaths to calm down. After a good little while, he managed to calm down a little, his breaths coming out at regular intervals and his head not spinning as much. He leaned his head back against the wall of the stall, his hands resting on his knees.

What did he just do? He'd pushed the guys, yes… but why? All he'd done was place a hand on his shoulder – it wasn't as if he'd attacked him or anything. And Andrew didn't really have an aversion to touch or anything. So why had he acted like that…?

Instead of dwelling too much on that – it was probably a one off, or something he could ask himself later when he felt a bit calmer – he reached for the rucksack he'd dumped at his feet upon entering the stall and opened it, sticking his hand inside to see whether he had any homework that he could be bothered to complete.

As he rifled through his back, his hand closed around something small, and he frowned slightly. He didn't remember packing anything so small into his bag at any point… when had that ended up in there?

Before he could pull whatever it was out to get a better look at it, he heard the door to the men's room open. "Andrew? You in here?"

The teen tensed slightly at the sound of McGee's voice, before forcing himself to calm down, calling out, "Yeah, I'm here. Just… just gimme a sec, okay? I'll be right out." He clenched the item in his hand one last time, before letting it settle at the bottom of his bag, vowing to take a better look at it later.

Right after dinner that night, Andrew made his way up to his room and shut his door. It wasn't unusual behaviour for the teen or his sister – neither of them really knew the man currently protecting them, and there didn't seem to be anything available to entertain them apart from a TV downstairs which didn't even have the channels they enjoyed watching – just boring old news.

And Gibbs never really intruded on what they were doing either. Which was why Andrew knew he was pretty safe when he picked up his rucksack and emptied its contents out onto the bed in the room he was staying in, books and papers spreading on the sheets with pens and pencils intermingled… and a small rectangular object, the size of an eraser, landing on top of the messy pile.

The teen carefully picked up the object and looked at it more closely.

It was grey, almost silver, and a very smooth plastic, no words written on it at all to signify what it was. It was very plain, other than a small, slim band of black wrapped around it to split it in two – not evenly, but into about a quarter and three quarters of its length. Almost on instinct, he pulled the object apart on either side of the black line, slightly surprised when the smaller part slid away almost easily, revealing a USB head.

He frowned slightly. "A… flash drive?" He flipped the thing over and noticed that there was something engraved into the side of it.

GP.

His eyes widened slightly.

The teen frowned slightly as he watched his mother rummage through her handbag, looking for something that was seemingly important. All he knew was that he'd been called up to his parents' room for something important, and now he was just waiting there for his mother to get something to give to him. Of course, he had other things to do, so he didn't exactly want to be waiting there forever…

"Mom, what are you looking for?" he asked innocently. Even though he was thirteen, bordering on fourteen, he was pretty sure he could still pass for innocent at times.

His mother didn't even look up from her search, continuing to go through her bag. "Something very… aha!" His mother smiled as she brought a flash drive out of her bag. It was a dull grey-silver, and it had the initials 'GP' engraved on one side of it. She handed it back to him and closed her bag, not turning to look at him until she'd done so. Whilst she was tidying her things away, Andrew studied the rectangular object with a raised eyebrow.

"This…?" He waved the thing about a little bit as he looked his mother in the eye. "What is it?"

The petty officer gave him a look. "It's a flash drive, honey," she stated, almost sounding patient with him. "Come on, isn't that obvious, honey?"

Andrew rolled his eyes a little at that. "I can see that, but why are you giving it to me? It's got your initials on it."

His mother turned briefly to put her bag on the floor, smoothing out the bed sheets. "It's got valuable information on it, Andy; too valuable for me to keep." She stood straight and turned to her son. "I trust you to keep it safe."

He frowned slightly and moved past her to sit on the bed, ignoring the slightly annoyed look he received from her as he messed up the sheets. "Has this got anything to do with your last trip overseas?"

The Petty Officer sighed, seemingly reluctant to say anything, but eventually she spoke. "Yes, honey," she replied hesitantly, sitting on the bed beside him, "but please… keep it safe."

He pursed his lips before looking up at her. "Can the information get you sent to jail?" Andy asked as he studied the memory stick again.

"It can get one of my colleagues sent to jail, but not me. I'm… waiting for the right time to tell my boss about it." Grace reached up and caressed her son's cheek gently. "Do you promise to keep it safe under all circumstances?"

The teen paused, looking down at the object in his hands as he twisted it with his fingers. Eventually, he looked up at her and nodded. "I promise."

Andrew nearly dropped the flash drive, his eyes wide as his hands shook.

This was what she'd been talking about. The flash drive… it must've had very important, very valuable information on it that she could have passed on to her boss.

And whatever she'd collected… someone had found out she'd collected it, and she'd been killed because of it. Her and dad.

And now, he had it. And if whoever was looking for it found out that he had it… well…

He would be next.

So... review!