A/N: Here is the date; it gets a little teenaged angst-y here so be warned; it's not too bad. I just wanted to point out a potential reason for Quinn to blow the whistle about her kidnapping instead of just emancipating herself. Let me know what you think.

PS: I have all the way through Thanksgiving (chapter 54) typed up and ready to post; I would just like a couple of reviews before I post a new chapter.

An Unknown Child

50

The first five minutes of the drive were spent in awkward silence until they started talking about school. They then remembered their friendship and the awkwardness vanished and soon they were trading one liners and jabs back and forth as he drove to wherever they were having dinner before the match. He pulled his small Honda up to the nearest Red Robin. Quinn smiled; easy food, nothing extremely fancy like she knew he could afford. They walked into the restaurant both not knowing if they should hold hands or just walk with little space between them or to walk normally.

Quinn had forgotten how awkward a first date could be. They were shown to their booth and they sat on opposite sides as they looked over the menu. Quinn was debating between a beef burger or the Teriyaki Chicken sandwich. They ordered their drinks from the Bottomless Drinks menu and then ordered their food when the waitress came back with their drinks. Their waitress kept eyeing David and it was starting to piss Quinn off. When the woman blatantly flirted with David; Quinn swore in the little Hebrew that Ziva had started to teach her during their self-defense lessons. David looked up sharply in time to see Quinn send a glare worthy of her dad towards the sashaying hips of their waitress.

"Did you just curse?" He asked, not ever hearing Quinn use a foul word. He watched Quinn's face soften when she turned to meet his eyes. She silently nodded a small blush coloring her cheeks.

"In what language?" He was amused by her embarrassment.

"Hebrew." Quinn mumbled.

"How many languages do you know?" He asked.

"English, obviously, ASL, French, Russian and a little Hebrew. Oh and Spanish." She named the languages she could speak.

"Wow, how did you learn all of them, besides English." He asked impressed.

"I learned Spanish from the stable hands that took care of the horses and ranch property. My female guardian taught me ASL and my male guardian taught me French. The woman who picked me up from school started teaching me Russian, and my Dad finished it. Ziva has been teaching me a little Hebrew while helping with my self-defense lessons." Quinn shrugged, not really seeing how hard it was to know and speak five languages and be learning a sixth.

"Wow." He definitely was impressed. "And I'm finding it hard to learn just Italian. Never mind already knowing most of the other Romance Languages."

"And it's not like knowing how to play most wind instruments and most if not all percussion instruments." Quinn countered knowing that he could play at least: piano, trumpet, French Horn and did winter Drum Line.

"True, but I'm not the one taking all AP classes as a sophomore." He countered back at her. He smiled at her blush as she thought of a retort.

"I'm guessing we could do this all night, but let's change the subject, at least slightly please?" She asked.

"Fine, are you ready for the Thanksgiving Break?" He asked, letting the subject shift.

"Kind of." She replied, vaguely.

"Why is that?" He asked.

"On one hand I'm very glad of a break from school, that and I get to eat food and spend time with Dad's team. But my Dad's spending two weeks in Mexico and he's leaving that Saturday or something. So that's a bummer." She answered before sipping her Soda. He nothing, but just stared at her face, trying to read whatever he could that was not in her voice.

"Why is your dad going to Mexico?"

"He's taking two weeks off and visiting his old mentor who retired there to recuperate from the explosion. That and he said he wanted to get his head on straight before taking up his official position as AD in charge of MCRT for NCIS." She said.

"Ahhh, you going miss him?"

"Of course; he's my Dad. That and this'll be the longest either he or my mother have ever been gone, and I'm not quite sure how either me or my mother are going to handle it." She said, her voice showing him just how confused she was.

"Yeah, that'll be tough. But you can get through it. It's not like your mom is leaving to; so you'll still have her." He offered.

"No I won't; she'll bury herself in work to avoid the feelings of missing him, and I'll be stuck at home alone all day." Quinn could see it now: Dad would be in Mexico; drinking every day and working on whatever Mike wanted him to work on. The team would start the adjustments to having Tony as Team Leader and Tim as Senior Field Agent; they might get a new probie to keep their number at four and Ziva would still be the Mossad Liaison. Jenny, her mom, would spend the next two weeks in her office or asleep at Dad's house. Quinn would spend most of her time alone at the house while everyone else worked.

She normally didn't mind having alone time, after all, everyone needed it at some point. She just didn't like it being for hours and hours, every day. She understood her mother's and father's work was very important and time consuming, but that still didn't mean that she should have to go without seeing them for a significant period of time for days on end. She really wasn't looking forward to the two weeks following Thanksgiving. Not at all.

He watched these thoughts flicker across her face as she stayed silent and didn't meet his eyes.

"Have you tried talking to your mother about this?" He asked. His question was answered by the slump and shrug of his date's shoulders. "And why haven't you talked to her about it?" He asked.

"I don't want to be a bother." Her voice was small and reminded him of someone without confidence; which is something Quinn did not lack in the slightest.

"And what makes you think that?" He was concerned; he knew both her parents and didn't think that the word bother would enter their thoughts in regards to their daughter.

"Everything has been going so well here. I have new friends, I have parents who are actually there, most of the time, and I don't want to ruin it by seeming needy. I don't want to seem like a little kid who needs their parents around her 24/7. I'm 15 years old; I shouldn't need them. But I do." She didn't know what to do, but it did feel good to get her feelings voiced to someone; even if that someone wasn't her parents.

She was looking down and didn't see him move from his side of the table. But she did feel his arm come around her and his fingers under her chin. She looked up at him his fingers not letting her eyes drop.

"Now I don't believe that your parents would even think that about you. Do you know why?" He asked her and she shook her head.

"Two reasons lead me to that conclusion. Reason 1: a parent who didn't care for their child would not have threatened the boys on the swim team when planning the party at Kai's house after nationals. Yet both your mother and father did just that. Reason 2: I watched your parents during your races at nationals. Whenever you finished both of them would shout; and that last race had your mom on her feet hugging the bubbly Goth that was sitting behind them. They were both jumping up and down cheering for you." He paused and let his words sink in, and just as he was about to speak again their waitress came with their food and placed their plates in front of them and took their glasses away to refill them. When the waitress was out of ear shot he started speaking again.

"No does that sound like parents who would ever think that their child is needy, or bothersome. That sounds to me like parents who are proud of their child, proud of you. And anyone with eyes can see that they love you." By this point a few tears had started to leak out of Quinn's eyes, and he just wiped them away. "Now what brought this on? I've never known you to even entertain thoughts like these before. Talk to me." He paused to eat and to let her eat.

After she finished eating half of her food and refilled soda she answered him.

"My home in Tucson after Mrs. Tanner, or as I called her then 'mom' died the household changed. Her husband was either in surgery or out of town wooing one of the nurses or his latest conquest. Before he left on a trip to Colorado one winter when I was about 13 I asked who would stay with me and he replied with saying that I was a very needy teenager. That he'd never seen another 13 year old who wanted their parents around. He told me to leave him alone so he could pack in peace without me bothering him." The story came out in a rush and more tears started to fall.

"Has Director Shepard or Agent Gibbs ever said anything like that to you at all?" HE asked understanding why she was leery of talking to her parents about this.

"No never." Was the answer.

"Then I think that you should talk to them, and if they react the way you feel they will; then feel free to hit me or whatever." He said.

She started to laugh, and her tears of laughter joined the tears from earlier and he wiped those away as well.

"Thank you." Was all she said before giving his lips a quick peck. He kept his head near hers as he smirked and pecked her lips back. They started to just trade pecks back and forth ignoring their waitress who brought out another refill of their fries and drinks. They missed her dejected look when she realized that she wasn't going to get any attention from him tonight; if ever. She slammed the drinks on the table and stalked away, but they didn't stop focusing on each other until Quinn's senses caught up to her.

"We should probably finish eating dinner and get to the scrimmage or we'll be here all night kissing." She said laughing as she danced her head out of reach of his lips. He pouted when she started to finish her food, but it quickly turned to laughter and he pulled his food over to where he was and they started to finish dinner.

Twenty minutes later both teens were stuffed and he asked for the check and paid while Quinn used the facilities to fix her make-up and catch a breath. When she rejoined him they headed out of the place and to his car where he drove them to the school's field for the woman's opening Scrimmage match. But this time their hands were intertwined the entire time and she stood closer to where their hands brushed the other's thighs with every step. They walked even closer to the gate at the school.

David gave the parent volunteer at the gate his sports' pass and she let us through with a smile. We went and found a good spot right in the middle of the field where we could see both goals and hopefully all the action. We didn't get anything from the concession stand as we were still full from dinner. But he did pull out a couple of squishy squares for us to sit on and a blanket for when the temp dropped even further. I smiled and sat on the square glad to have it.

The game was exciting; the first half of the game was a no score; both keepers displaying extraordinary displays of keeping. But the other defenders also did a great job at keeping the other team's best offensive plays from scoring. By half-time when all the players took a break she was starting to get thirsty from all of her yelling so David bought her a hot chocolate. When they sat back down the game started again. But this time their team started getting past the midfielders and the defenders and kept shooting at the goal. The first five times the keeper managed to block the shot but then Kai got up and feinted causing the keeper to go one way and the ball to go the other and make it in. Both Quinn and David were on their feet cheering their friend.

It went downhill for the opposing team after that. Kai's goal seemed to be a chain reaction for the rest of the team and 20 minutes later they had scored two more times. They kept pulling ahead with one goal every ten minutes for the next half hour and when the time was called they won the game.

Both Quinn and David wanted to wait and see if they could congratulate Kai, but Quinn was exhausted by then so they resolved to each call her the next day and congratulate her then. Quinn's leg was starting to protest so she had to lean against David until they got back to the gate and he left her with a few other swimmers while he brought the car up so she didn't have to walk everywhere. When he got back he helped her to the car and then they drove back to her house. They held hands over the center console. The drive was silent with Quinn really feeling the burning pain in her leg. She had originally planned to walk to her door without him; but it appeared that she might need his support to get inside and her crutches to maneuver for the rest of her night.

He pulled into the driveway behind her dad's car and helped her out and supported her weight to the door. When they got there it was opened by her mother. Quinn was glad that she didn't say anything just shook her head before supporting Quinn on her other side.

"I'll txt you tomorrow Quinn." David told her before letting Jenny support all of her weight.

"Night David." She said and smiled at him as watched as walked back to his car and pulled out before letting her mom lead her inside the house.

Despite the pain in her leg; the night had been a blast.