A/N: Hey, everyone! Third chapter's a bit longer, and I apologize for any errors I may have made...shame on me, shame! Again, one review is all I want, one tiny little review, so please, please, read and review and tell me anything I'm doing wrong! I like being criticized...makes me feel wanted...

Ethan, the most annoying of the team, had this irritating smirk on his face from square one, so to get away from them, she went into her room and called her best friend Katie.

She almost choked on the words when Katie answered the phone. "Uh- hi."

"Hey, what's up? I saw some other cars over at your house today- having a party?"

She suppressed a sob. "Uh- no, um, that's the police. Well, NCIS, really."

Katie paused. "Oh. Why are they over there?"

Katie's mom was in the Army, and she got along well enough with Alexia, even if her mom didn't really like the Navy. Her dad and mom had divorced about two years ago, and her mom had gained permanent custody because her dad had been picked up two months after they'd split and he was taken to a mental hospital. He had slowly been going crazier and crazier until he couldn't take it anymore and finally killed himself one day by suffocation, and had left a suicide note. It had been hard on Katie, but Alexia had helped her deal with it, and Alexia now knew how she had felt.

Alexia avoided the question. "Before we left for school this morning, did you hear any...any gunshots?"

"No...why? Did someone get shot?"

"Yeah."

Katie gasped. "Who!"

"Mom."

Silence. Then, "I'm so sorry, Alexia...did your dad take the case?"

Alexia nodded and then realized Katie couldn't see her. "Um, yeah, he did; he's over here now."

"Do you want me to come over there?" Katie sounded sympathetic, but that was the kind of person she was.

"Sure- but I don't think- I don't think I want you to see the body-" She paused. "Never mind, I think Mom- the body's already wrapped up."

"I'll be over there in under ten minutes- hang tight, okay? Are you sure you're gonna be okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Just, please, hurry. Dad's really starting to freak me out. He's not being very...shall we say...comforting?"

"Oh...listen, I'm really sorry, Alexia. I'll be over as soon as I can."

Alexia swallowed but ended the conversation. "Bye."

"Bye."

Rob apparently had heard her talking on the phone and came in now, and Alexia looked at him carefully.

Alexia saw he didn't look upset in the least. Like he'd expected it. But he loved Mom; he wouldn't kill her. She knew that, she would've told Alexia. Mom always told Alexia to tell her if something was bothering her, and she confided everything in Sam, knowing there was no one she'd tell.

Now it was different. She was gone, and she wasn't coming back. She was probably in a body bag by now, her insides either cleaned up or dumped back inside her. The bedroom was most likely being picked over and sterilized at the same time, and Alexia would be questioned, no doubt.

"Who was that?"

"Katie."

"Oh. Is she coming over?"

Alexia nodded sulkily.

"Make sure she doesn't disturb the crime scene, okay?" He seemed gentler now, but Alexia couldn't pinpoint exactly why.

He left her room and went back to the bedroom.

She sighed. She had homework, might as well do it. Besides, it would keep her occupied and her mind off of her mother while Katie was over- and she could help Alexia with her algebra, seeing as she didn't understand anything her teacher said.

So she went out to her backpack. Ethan was in the kitchen.

"Why are you here?" he asked her.

"I could ask you the same thing," Alexia answered frostily, unzipping her backpack with a forceful gesture.

"I'm investigating your mother's murder."

"And I live here. No, you idiot, why are you in the kitchen when you should be investigating my mother's murder?" Alexia sighed exasperatedly, knowing he hated being called an idiot but feeling he deserved it anyways. Besides, she was in a bad mood as it was.

"Lavell asked me to make sure your little friend doesn't mess anything up."

"Of course." Alexia picked up her backpack and set it on the counter. Taking her trapper, she dropped it on the floor again.

And that clanking noise was there again.

Ethan jumped immediately. "Hey, what's that?"

She shrugged. "Uh, I don't know, a pen or something?"

"That doesn't make that noise."

"Pencil sharpener? I don't know."

"Aren't you curious?"

"No, I don't really care."

"Well, I do."

"Well, I don't."

"Please, open it."

"No! It's my backpack."

"Do I sense someone's a bit defensive?"

"No, really! Why do you care anyways?"

"Because you're refusing."

"I wasn't being defiant before and you still pursued the issue. It only makes sense that I would be a little defensive after you tell me you want to know what's in there."

He had inched his way over to the backpack while they had been arguing, and quick as a flash, he grabbed it. Alexia grabbed the other side, and it was a tug-of-war.

"If you rip it, you die," she said.

"So let go. You know I'll win anyway."

She rolled her eyes but figured there was no way she could go up against a full-grown male when, granted, she was strong for her age but her arm wrestling with teachers proved to be ineffective. So Alexia let go.

He pounced on the front pouch. Nothing except an old grammar test she had folded into a fan because the school's air conditioning was broken.

Second pouch. Nothing important again. There were a couple pencils, the house key, and a roll of tape she'd used for homework once and never taken out again.

He already looked in the unzipped first big pocket, where her trapper had been, and there was nothing else in there. The last and final pocket was obviously the source of the clanking noise. He unzipped it, and Alexia almost expected music in the background rising to a swell, and he almost went in slow motion.

At that second the doorbell rang.

And he found something rather unusual. Something Alexia had never seen, but it was in her backpack.

A/N: Yeah, it's me again. Just want to thank all my wonderful reviewers (you rock!) for taking the time to read these strange and often top-of-my-head stories. I would reply to each of you by name, but that takes a long time (well, I'm lazy, okay?) and for most of you I wouldn't have anything else to say but thanks. So thanks to you all out there!

Katie is my friend (that's not her name), but her dad didn't go crazy and her mom isn't in the Army by any means. Besides, for any of you wondering, my name is neither Alexia nor Amanda. I just liked those when I was little and it's been my alias ever since. Teehee, cheezmunky, you crack me up. Katie is...gulp...my name, but sadly it's not Kate's Katie. It doesn't stand for Caitlin (or Caitlyn, however it's spelled. Who knows? It could be a K, for all I know). Sniffle. It stands for Kathryn. It's a sad world. When I was a couple years younger I wanted to change my name to Alexandria, or Alexia, because they were awesome, but before that it was Alex. I was obsessed with names that could go boy/girl. I don't even know why I'm telling you this. My horrible childhood secrets...yes...well, I guess I'm still a child...shutting up now.