Disclaimer: Aww! I rubbed the magic lamp and all I got was three dozen copies of Tommy Boy and a ugly guy in a chicken suit! I wanted NCIS!...If anyone's interested in Tommy Boy, I've got copies...hypothetical copies...I'm gonna go shoot bottle rockets at the chicken-man.

Author's Note: Yeah, yeah, its another interview chapter, but I think I did this one better. Please, tell me if I did this one better...or if I did it worse. I realized after I had posted this that I left some really important things out of the author's note at the end. The story has not changed, but the end note may help clear some things up.

Chapter 12: Small School, Big Concern

The next day they made the drive back up to Judson Hill and walked into Mrs. Lewis's office. Ziva pulled out the list of students that had talked to Lance Corporal Stewart and asked for Mrs. Lewis to call them to the office and if there was anyone that they could talk to them privately.

Mrs. Lewis escorted them to a small office next to the library. There was a small table and three chairs. Mrs. Lewis had the students go into the library and she sat in there with Mrs. Harris, the librarian.

Tony took the list from Ziva and went into the library and called Cody Edwards into the office.

Cody walked in and sat down. He was a tall, lanky boy with awkwardly long arms and legs. He had messy brown hair and tanned skin. His hazel eyes darted around the room, from Tony to Ziva, confused.

"Hey, Cody. I'm Special Agent DiNozzo, this is my partner, Officer David. Did you talk to Lance Corporal Stewart about joining the Marines?" Tony asked, setting down across from the boy.

"Right."

"Did he seem distracted or jumpy when you were talking to him?"

"Not that I noticed."

"Was there anyone that he refused to speak to?" Ziva asked.

"Not that I know of."

"What about Justin Spencer?"

"Is he okay?"

"That's what we're trying to find out," Tony replied.

"Do you know him very well?" Ziva asked.

"Not really, I mean, I know that our school is closer than most schools, because we're so small, but still the seniors and the sophomores still don't mix much. I mean, I've saw him around school, but we don't really participate in many of the same things...so, no. I don't know him very well."

"Do you know of anyone that would want to hurt him?" Tony asked.

"No, I can't think of anyone from here that would do that."

"Thanks, Cody. That's all we need, you can go back to class," Tony replied.

"Aww...do I have to?" he laughed and walked out the door.

Tony sighed, it was going to be a long day.

They called in the next kid.

Jessie Landers: Nothing.

Jordan Lyons: Nada.

Dakota Davis: Zilch.

Brandon VanWinkle: Zero.

What a waste of a morning. To think, he could have slept in with Ziva!

Ziva walked out and asked Mrs. Lewis to call the other kids in.

She called the first kid in, Sarah Bailey.

Sarah was a tall thin girl with pale skin and blond hair pulled back in a ponytail.

"Sarah, I'm Officer David with NCIS and this is my partner, Special Agent DiNozzo. Did you speak to Lance Corporal Stewart a few weeks ago?"

"Yeah, he was the Marine-guy, right? I talked to him, but I'm not into that whole gung-ho, military, RAWR! Thing, so I wasn't interested."

Ziva and Tony briefly glanced at each other.

"How well do you know Justin Spencer?" Tony asked.

"I went to church with him for a little while, then he got a job and had to stop going and I got a job and I did, too. He was a nice guy. Really funny. Do you know if he's okay? I'm really worried. One of my friends used to date him."

"Was there anyone who would have wanted to do something to Justin?" Ziva asked.

"I can't think of anyone. He's a really nice guy, everybody really likes him. We're all worried about him."

"I think that's everything, thank you, Sarah," Ziva said.

Sarah stood to walk to the door, but as she reached the door, she turned around to face Tony and Ziva and said, "Please find him, we all want him back." Then she left.

They called in another kid.

Charlotte Campbell, she had just moved to this school and wouldn't know Justin Spencer from Adam.

Sydney Carter walked in next, she was short with auburn hair and gray eyes. She sat at the table across from Tony and Ziva.

Tony addressed her, "Sydn-"

"Syd. Just, Syd," she corrected.

"Alright, Syd." Tony continued, "Did you talk to Lance Corporal Stewart a few weeks ago?"

"Yeah, I did, but he let me go pretty fast because I told him that I was a pacifist...oh, and that I had had two foot surgeries because I was flat-footed and now I can't jump, run or stand on my tiptoes...guess I'm not really Marine material."

"Alright, how about Justin Spencer? Did you know him well?"

"Oh, yeah. Me and Justin have been going to church together since we were really little, me and his sister used to be best friends. He's a great guy...You haven't...I mean...he isn't...he wasn't...killed...was he?"

"Not that we know of, we'd really like to find him, Syd. Do you know of anyone who would want to hurt him?" Tony asked.

"No, I can't think of anyone in the world who would want to hurt him. He was a great guy. Really loyal to his friends and family."

"Thank you, Syd," Ziva nodded, "You can go now."

Syd left, looking downcast.

They called in the next kid.

Logan Clayton didn't have much more to say than Syd or Sarah.

Tom Gray had agri classes with Justin and was in FFA with him, but didn't know much more than he never missed a FFA meeting.

They called in Stasha Haile. She walked in she was tall and average built with a dark Joan Jett haircut held back with a wide white headband.

She sat down, she looked worn down.

"Stasha, did you speak to Lance Corporal Stewart about joining the Marines?" Tony asked.

"Yeah, but I want to be a lawyer, not a soldier...Justin wants to be an MP..." she said, her voice cracking a little.

"You know Justin Spencer well?" Ziva asked.

"He's my half-brother," she said, her eyes brimming with tears.

Tony and Ziva looked shocked.

"Stasha, we're very sorry, but is there anything that you can think of that might lead us to your brother's kidnapper?" Tony asked softly.

Stasha's eyes zoned out in thought, "No, no one at all. Justin was annoying at home, but he had a lot of friends. He was just really friendly. He got in a little trouble, but nothing that made anyone mad...he took the blame for something I did once. I was playing with matches...he ended up getting community service for arson, he never told anyone that I was the one who really did it."

"Stasha, I would just like to let you know that NCIS is doing everything within our power to make sure that Justin comes home safely soon," Ziva said.

"Is it okay if we come by your house this afternoon to talk to your mother?" Tony asked.

Stasha nodded.

"Thank you," Ziva said.

She nodded again and left.

Ziva told Tony that she had to use the restroom and walked out of the room before he called the next kid.

Jackson Harper was the next person to come in. He had short, wavy reddish-brown hair and bad skin with grayish eyes, he was tall and lanky. He slouched in the chair and glared at Tony. Tony looked at him oddly. "Jackson, I'm-"

"Oh, I know who you are, Special Agent DiNozzo...I just have one question for you."

"And that is?"

"Why are you so darn good-looking?"

Tony jerked back and looked at the boy, he was grinning an evil grin.

"Its Jack, by the way, not Jackson."

"You're strange."

"I've gotta liven this place up, 's what Justin would want. He's a joker, I'm a joker. I know that's what he'd be doin' if it was me gone."

Tony nodded.

Ziva walked back into the room and when he saw her, Jack's eyes widened and followed her across the room. When she sat down across from him, he took a deep breath and began to say, "IpledgeAllegianceToTheFlagOfTheUnitedStatesOfAmericaAndToTheRepublicForWhichItStands-"

"Hey! Back off! She's taken!" Tony snapped at the boy.

Ziva looked between the two, oddly.

"He was saying the Pledge of Allegiance really quickly," Tony said, as if this explained everything.

"And that is a problem, why?" Ziva asked.

"Its from Bubble Boy, whenever Jimmy got...turned on, he'd say the Pledge of Allegiance really fast to calm himself down. Like what he was doing when he saw you!" Tony shouted.

Jack grinned really big again," Good call, Agent DiNozzo. I should have known that a sexy guy like yourself would have a hot girlfriend."

"I don't know whether to thank you or beat you senseless..." Tony said, looking at Jack with his eyes wide.

The rest of Jack's interview was much like the others' had been.

Jeremiah McCollum was the next kid, he didn't know much about Justin Spencer but insisted that Lance Corporal Stewart had missed out by not talking to his friend, Cedric LaSalle, whose life revolved around the Marines.

Emily Miller didn't know much about Justin and hadn't payed much attention to Lance Corporal Stewart because she had a project due in Mrs. White's algebra class the next period.

Taylor Norton was no more help, neither was Sammy Peel or Kayla Smith.

Nora Townsend had dated one of Justin's friends and couldn't imagine anyone doing something to him.

Ashley Webb had dated Justin and said that her father never approved of him, but that no one would actually go as far as to hurt Justin, he was just too sweet.

After they finished the interviews, they went and ate lunch, then came back and talked to Mrs. Lewis and Rob about Justin and how the other students were handling the ordeal. A second counselor, Mrs. Michelle Wilson, came in and talked about Justin for a while. She hadn't been working in the high school for very long so she didn't have much to say about him, but what she had to say was positive.

As they were leaving the office, Ziva heard something that caught her attention, Mrs. Lewis was asking Rob what to do about a student who had missed several days of school.

"David is Justin's very best friend, I can imagine that he was depressed, but even Justin's family is back at school now, Mrs. Lewis. I think we should contact the authorities," Rob reasoned.

"I've tried, but David's parents are dead and his brother's at training before being deployed to Iraq, David's at home alone and he's not answering the phone," Mrs. Lewis explained.

Ziva left the office to catch up with Tony.

They got in the car as the dismissal bell rang and they watched the kids leaving school as Ziva explained what she had heard.

"Do you think that David might be looking for Justin?" Tony asked.

"Or be involved in the kidnapping," Ziva offered a more pessimistic chance.

They decided to go and speak to Justin's family next.

Tony and Ziva pulled onto a side street in a quiet part of Judson Hill, just off the highway. The address for Justin's house was 418 McKee Street, Ziva looked at the address then looked at the houses, "Tony, the houses aren't numbered."

Tony looked around and sighed, "Damn," but then he looked up and saw a little girl setting in the ditch on the side of the street with a yellow bucket. Tony smiled and said, "Aha!"

He pulled the car up to where the girl was and told Ziva, "Ask her."

Ziva said, "She won't talk to me. Little kids don't talk to strangers. It's their first rule of finger."

"Thumb, Ziva, rule of thumb. And she will talk to you, this is a little town, that's part of it, there are no strangers," Tony reasoned.

Ziva sighed as she rolled the window down and called, "Hey." The girl's head popped up.

She was little and had blond hair pulled back in pigtails. She was barefoot and had her pants' legs rolled up and her hands and feet were coated with mud. "Yeah?" she asked, standing up in the muddy water. "We're with...the police," Ziva said, opting to not baffle the little girl with a barrage of letters, "Do you live around here?"

"Yep," the little girl said, and pointed to a small, white house behind her, "I live there!"

"Okay, what's your name?"

"My name's Brianna Gill."

"Brianna, do you know where 418 McKee Street is?"

She shook her head, no.

"Do you know where the Spencers live?" Tony asked.

She shook her head again.

"Okay," Tony said, getting frustrated, "Who lives in that house?" Tony pointed at the house to the left of the girl's.

"Mrs. Hamilton."

"Okay, what about that house?" Tony pointed at the house to the right of the girl's.

"Carson and Hayden, they're twins!"

Tony threw his head back and groaned.

"What about that house, Brianna?" Ziva asked pointing to the house across the street from Brianna's. "Oh, that's Frank Pierce's house. He's mean. He comes outside when I'm trying to watch the crawdads and he catches them and takes them away. But his brother made him stop once, he's nicer than Frank, he's in the Army!"

"Brianna, do you know Frank's brother's name?" Ziva asked.

"Ummm...Justin, I think."

"Thank you, Brianna, Ziva said, rolling up the window.

"Bye!" Brianna waved.

Ziva looked over at Tony and grinned triumphantly and Tony scrunched one side of his nose and lip and mocked Ziva. She playfully slapped his stomach.

Tony pulled the car into the driveway of Justin's house. They got out and walked to the door, but before they could knock, the door flew open and a short, skinny boy, no more than eleven years old, wearing a red baseball cap and carrying a metal bucket stood in the doorway.

"Hey, you here about Justin?" the boy said, squinting up at Tony and Ziva.

"Yeah, is this his house?" Tony asked.

"Yeah, this is it," the boy shrugged.

"Then you must be Frank," Tony said, holding out a hand to the boy.

"Yeah, that's me," Frank said, shaking Tony's hand, "Who told you?"

Tony shrugged and Frank started to walk around him.

"Hey, is your mom home?" Tony called.

"Yeah," Frank answered, then turned to call into the house, "Mom! There's two cops here to talk to you!" Frank walked off the porch, toward the ditch.

"What are you going to do?" Ziva asked him.

Frank turned and looked at Ziva strangely, "Well, not that it's any of your business, but I'm going to go catch some crawdads before that little second grade freak scares 'em all off."

"What do you do with them when you catch them?" Tony asked.

"I dunno...I might keep 'em as pets...or I might cook 'em and eat 'em," Frank shrugged and continued on to the ditch, when he got there, Brianna ran behind her house.

"Scary little guy," Tony chuckled.

Justin's mother was a tall thin woman with curly, hair pulled back in a ponytail. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying.

"Ma'am, I'm Special Agent Tony DiNozzo and this is my partner, Officer Ziva David, mind if we talk to you for a moment about your son?"

"Of course, come in," she beckoned them in.

Justin's mother, Rita Boot, told basically the same story that the others had told. Justin got into trouble here and there, but over all he was a good boy who made friends easily. Most of all, she couldn't imagine who could do something like this to her son. She cried. Stasha came into the room and she held her mother, Tony and Ziva promised to do everything they could to get Justin back safely and quickly, then they excused themselves.

After talking to Justin's mom, Tony and Ziva returned to the car.

Tony backed out and pulled up to where Frank was still digging in the ditch and rolled down the window and called out to Frank, "Caught any yet?"

"No. She already scared 'em off!" he said, stomping his foot down in the mud and kicking his bucket over.

Tony drove off and Ziva turned to Tony and said, "What is a crawdad?"

Tony just laughed.

A/N: Frank is based off of a real kid, by the way.

As you may know, Jack is based on my friend, Walker. I was telling him about NCIS and I showed him a picture of Michael Weatherly and he said the infamous line, "Who is that and why is he so darn good-looking?" so that's another reference to something that really happened.

Syd is based on me, for the record.

Jeremiah is based on my friend, and fellow fanfiction author, Jiub2000. Jiub asked me to reference a friend of ours who wants to join the Marines, so there he is, Jiub, French surname and everything. And for those of you who like Halo and Half-Life, Jiub's got a crossover story going on and you should check it out. Its called "Four Undaunted"

Jiub, you owe me, maybe you should at least try to read my story.

And yes, I did reference Bubble Boy.

So, did I do better? Worse? The same? You didn't really read it? Tell me!

For those of you here in the States, I hope you had a wonderful Fourth...you can't imagine mine.

Lemme just see a show of hands: Those of you who are in a band that had to march on the fourth, raise your left hand.

Those of you who had thunderstorms and rain-out conditions on your Independence Day, raise your right hand.

Now, if you had both conditions, you should be raising both hands. Don't. Put your hands on your keyboard and type me a review telling me that you've been there. TELL ME THAT MY BAND TEACHER ISN'T INSANE!!

Who wants you to review? In honor of the holiday and the explosions in involves, some of my favorite pyros want you to review.

Zach, who tried to blow up our house using bottle rockets; Eric, who tried to blow up the softball field with M-80s; Josh, who tried to launch a batting glove "to touch the face of God" with a "Thunder Rocket"; and David, Dad and Max, who tried to blow up everything.

P.S.: If you don't know what a crawdad is, it's like a little lobster-looking thing that lives in the mud (thus the nickname "mudbugs") and Cajuns eat them.

(I swear, I've never done this much work to one chapter. I've had to redo it, like, 5 times)