Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine, spoilers for the NCIS episode: "The Meat Puzzle"

Title: Meeting Luna

Summary: Where does Luna go when her parents are out hunting Snorkacks? Try the US of A. Completely AU, spoilers for the NCIS episode 'The Meat Puzzle'.

Chapter 7- Luna

Luna opened her eyes. The first thing she noticed was the air above her, unencumbered by cloth and wood. She sighed happily and looked around her.

"Uncle Gibbs?" she croaked, her throat quite dry. His head snapped up from the side of her bed and he seemed surprised but pleased, to see her awake.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, reaching over to get her some water.

"Hello."

"I told you he would find us, did I not, my dear?" Ducky asked, walking over to sit at the foot of her bed.

She nodded with a smile, before going back to sleep.

The first thing she noticed was the cool, silky cloth underneath her cheek. Luna opened her eyes and blinked experimentally. No, the darkness did not abate.

Second, she noticed that her hands were no longer tied, although her left shoulder hurt terribly. She moved her wrists experimentally, quickly finding the obstruction in front of her and realizing that she was in a box of sorts. It only took her a few moments to come to the conclusion that it was closed all the way around her, covered in the nice cloth over her, under her, and all around her.

Tony stopped arguing with Kate about their choice of meeting place in the park and spun around as he recognized the characteristic bark of corgis.

"Aw Luna—did you have to bring the dogs?" he asked good naturedly as she skipped ahead to him. Well, at least Tyson hadn't tried to nip his heels. Yet.

Kate gave her a quick hug in greeting before Tony picked her up and swung her in a circle, smirking as she laughed loudly.

It's good to see some color in her cheeks. Smiling, Kate walked up to Ducky and his mother, greeting them and continued setting up some lawn chairs and simple picnic food.

Luna knocked on the top and the sides of the casket—it hadn't been hard to come to the conclusion that it was a coffin of sorts, since the last thing she remembered was being in a room where there were three open ones. Uncle Ducky said that Uncle Gibbs would find them and she had no doubt he would, but that didn't mean she couldn't help.

She tried calling out but switched to pounding the top and the sides of her cell.

Uncle Gibbs would find her. Uncle Ducky had promised.

Luna couldn't help the tears that came to her eyes or the fear that was making it hard to breathe. She knew they'd find her. It didn't make it any less frightening.

Kate had to smother a grin when Luna squirmed out of Tony's arms and skipped over to meet McGee. Tony was pouting.

"Uncle Tim, Uncle Tim!!" she smiled up at him, tugging his arms down so she could peek into the box he was carrying.

"Probie! It's a picnic, not a study session! What's with the books?" Tony asked, plucking a book out of the box.

"Hey, that's for Luna!"

"For me?" she asked, turning to tug Tony's arm down, trying to read the title on the cover. "What's it say, Uncle Tony?"

"It has instructions for building a kite." McGee grinned. She smiled brightly at him and tugged at Tony's arm more insistently.

"Come on Uncle Tony, let me see!!"

Luna woke up with a start. Patting her surroundings weakly, she sadly realized that she was still in her little prison. She knew the silky cloth under her cheek was wet with tears, but she curled up as well as she could anyway. She wondered if her Mum and Dad had found any snorkaks yet.

At least she didn't have to worry about nargles—there was no mistletoe in the coffin, at least, not any she'd noticed before. Frowning, she felt around with her hands, making sure to check along the corners of the casket. Luna scooted down further to check the area by her feet. She grimaced as she found the top to be too close for her to bend her knees and kicked at it in frustration.

Pouting, she used her bare feet to check the edges. Nope, no mistletoe. No sprigs of any kind! That was good, she thought with a smile. That meant no garden gnomes, no pine-crazed squixlers, and no chipmunks! Wait. She frowned. She liked chipmunks. Boooooo.

A few minutes later, Gibbs showed up with Abby, both of them carrying more kite-making and decorating material. Tony, Tim, and Luna decided on three kite designs and set to making them.

Luna struggled with her the pieces that were supposed to make the frame. "Auntie Kate?"

"Hmm?" Kate turned around from her conversation with Abby to look at Luna, holding her half-finished attempt of a kite.

"Can you help me?" she looked over and saw that DiNozzo was too busy poking fun at McGee, and McGee was too busy defending his attempts at making a kite to realize that the little girl couldn't make her kite by herself—specially with a sore shoulder.

"Of course, sweetie."

She wished she could pop around like Tippy, their house elf. Then she would be able to pop over to find Uncle Gibbs. Where was he anyway? It was taking him awfully long to find her. Maybe he had forgotten?

No, Uncle Gibbs wouldn't do that. She'd promised to help him get his boat out of the basement when he'd finished and he loved that boat. He'd even make a hole in his house to get it out once it was finished!! Probably anyway.

No, Uncle Gibbs probably had to find all sorts of clues and then put them all together before he could find her—like the puzzle he'd been so nice to help her with the first night she'd seen him. Miss Kate would help—she would be good at puzzles.

Luna decided that if Abby invited her over for hot chocolate she'd ask to sleep outside, under the stars. It was much too boring to sleep inside a coffin.

One hour (and a few pointers from Gibbs) later, the girls had their finished kite. Tony and McGee had realized that their kites were going to go up in competition with something their boss had had a hand in and quickly pushed to finish theirs at around the same time. Luna and Abby were putting a few final touches on decorating their kite while snacking on some food when Tony presented his kite. Tim wasn't far behind.

Ducky pointed out a nice open field nearby and they headed in that direction. Kate sat Ducky, and Mrs. Mallard as Tony, McGee, Gibbs, Abby and Luna walked over to the top of a small hill. After a few ineffectual attempts at getting the kites in the air, Tony and McGee started running across the field to see if they could get the kites to catch on a small breeze.

She was starting to get sleepy again. Somehow, she knew that sleeping would be the wrong thing to do right now and started hitting the top of coffin with her small fist and calling for help. Luna was starting to get dizzy and her eyes drooped tiredly. Oh no, the wrackspurts found me… she wondered if Gibbs would catch one for her when he found her. Being a muggle, he probably wouldn't even notice them. Pity…

"We could've picked a better day for kite flying." Kate said, grinning as Tony stumbled over the uneven ground but regained his footing. Tim's kite caught a small breeze and started going up, but didn't quite clear the ground.

"Unfortunately, it's the only day we were all free--and Luna's parents are coming by tomorrow to take her back to England." Ducky replied.

Kate frowned. "There isn't enough wind to-"

Gibbs was holding Luna, perching her on his hip as he helped guide her small hands to holding the roll of string. The purple-and-red kite, decorated with a yellow butterfly, started tugging up into the air.

Abby had been watching Tony and Tim race around the field, but turned around as Luna's delighted laugh reached them. Abby felt a strange shift in the air as she watched Luna's kite go up with an unexpected breeze. Seeing this, the two other NCIS agents hurried over. Luna turned to look at them and smiled as their kites were swept in the air.

Abby smiled as well, spinning around with her arms stretched wide. As she caught sight of the white clouds above them, she stopped spinning and took a more careful look at the flying kites. There's something hinky about their flying pattern compared to the stillness of the clouds. She looked over at where Gibbs was putting Luna on the ground carefully and smiled as the young girl skipped over towards her, talking excitedly the entire way about flying as high as her kite one day. Abby wrapped her arms around Luna and picked her up before running towards Tony and Tim, hoping their kite strings wouldn't get tangled as they tore down the hill, corgis chasing all the way.

AN: Well, that's it for now. I'm planning a sequel based around "Twilight" and "Kill Ari", but it won't be written for a little while as I'm still working out some details. Thanks for reading! Please review.