Flashback time! How exactly did they manage to be arrested for indecent exposure?!

Chapter 2: The Root of the Problem

Leroy Jethro Gibbs sighed as he parked his car. Why did Lily have to ruin his evening and call him out?

How could he forget? Because she found it funny.

He had been lying in bed, watching Jenny sleep, when his cell phone had come to life. Answering it rapidly to prevent it from waking Sleeping Beauty, he had not been happy to find out it was Lily.

She had called from a club, a place with loud pumping music that made it almost impossible to hear her voice, and ordered him to collect her. She insisted that she wasn't drunk, but someone had stolen her car and she was not in the mood to steal another car to get home. When he asked her if she could call for a cab instead, she had argued that she was doing just that.

Knowing better than to argue with her, he had quickly dressed and set off, although he had chosen to stop at a 24 hour coffee shop before reaching his final destination. He needed caffeine to get through this encounter.

He sighed again as he stared out the windshield. Where was Lily? He could understand how her car had been stolen; this was a particularly rough part of town, and he felt a surge of smugness that she had deigned to call him to pick her up. Evidently, she felt he would protect her.

He stepped out of the car and into the cool night air. Stretching his legs was always a good option. He kept his eyes focused on the nightclub's door, not wanting to miss her exit.

His jaw dropped. What was she wearing?!

The smirk never left her face as Lily danced her way along the sidewalk. The look he was giving her told her exactly how much he was enjoying this, which only made it more amusing. She knew he'd come and collect her – for the sake of not annoying or waking up Jenny, he'd do anything. Not that she hadn't threatened to ring Jenny's cell and wake her if he didn't.

"How are you not freezing to death?" he asked, continuing to stare at her.

"Undercover op," she replied, answering his other unspoken question first. "I thought the outfit was a nice touch."

"Do I even want to know?" he muttered.

She shrugged her shoulders, secretly delighted at his reaction. If only Jenny were here… "Give me your shirt," she demanded.

"What?!" He looked horrified at the thought.

She turned around and waved at the small group of people who were still standing by the club door, watching her. "My fan club," she explained. "I told them my gay best friend was picking me up, so at least act like my friend. Hand over the damn shirt!"

The look on his face was priceless. It was a strange mixture of horror, disbelief, and the urge to walk over to her 'fan club' and point out that he was resolutely heterosexual and not her friend in the slightest. "Wouldn't 'brother' have done the job?" he complained.

"Certainly," she agreed, smirking again. "But that wouldn't be half as much fun."

He groaned, but acquiesced, swiftly undoing the buttons on his shirt and wrapping it around her. She surreptitiously snuggled into it. Although she would never admit it, she really was cold.

To finish off her act, she leant forward and hugged him. His body immediately tensed up – she had never hugged him before. Except the time she'd had an especially virulent strain of the flu and been determined to pass it on to him.

"You make a very good gay best friend," she hissed in his ear.

"You're just cold," he whispered. "Admit it."

She giggled and snuggled further into him. As long as he had no idea what she was doing…

She pulled away and walked round to the driver's side. It took him a moment to recover from the hug, and he patted his pockets.

"Keys," he ordered, heading after her. "Hand them over."

She had the door open before he could reach her, slipping silently behind the wheel and starting the engine. She caught the roll of his eyes, but he moved back round the car and settled into the passenger seat.

"Buckle up," she warned, smirking.

Gibbs winced as she managed to take another corner on two wheels. He knew Lily had taken advanced pursuit courses, but this was just plain dangerous. They were not being pursued and she was likely to kill either them or someone else soon.

She was doing this just to annoy him; the little smirk on her face gave it away. She stayed silent as she drove, trusting her instincts to guide her around in the darkness.

"I will hurt you if you damage my car," he warned, breaking the silence that had engulfed the car since Lily had taken the wheel.

"And what exactly would you do?" she replied, sounding very curious. "Anyway, when was the last time I damaged a car?"

"I don't know," he offered sarcastically. "Probably the last time you blew one up?"

Without taking her eyes off the road, she expertly snatched his coffee from the dashboard.

"Hey!" he immediately protested. No one was allowed to steal his coffee, with the occasional exception of Jenny.

This time she took her eyes off the road and sipped the drink. He was forced to lean over and pull hard on the steering wheel to prevent her from crashing into another vehicle. She slapped his hands away, but grudgingly tightened her grip on the wheel.

"Are you trying to kill us?" he demanded.

"I wouldn't mind killing you," she snapped, her eyes back on the road.

He reached out again in an attempt to retrieve his coffee cup, but she held on tight. "Hand it over," he ordered.

"I need it more than you," she countered.

"I paid for it; give it back."

"Finders keepers."

"I'll call Jenny."

"Oh, please, you won't wake her up."

"I'll call your boss."

"You don't even know his number."

"Just give it back," he yelled at her, his patience almost exhausted.

She smirked and took another sip.

Giving up, he stared out his window instead.

Why had she debated calling him?! This was getting better and better. Winding LJ up was one of her favorite pastimes, and she could do with a good laugh.

His eyes continued to stare out of the window, and she carefully timed her next plan. As she rounded the corner, she chucked the half-full coffee cup over him.

His resounding shriek was music to her ears.

"That was red hot," he screamed at her, gingerly patting his pants and trying to wipe the scalding liquid off him. Unfortunately, only a few flecks had managed to hit his bare torso, but she had been deliberately aiming for other areas and was extremely pleased by his reaction.

"You shouldn't drink boiling coffee then, should you?" she countered smoothly.

"You were the one who threw it!"

She merely shrugged her shoulders. "Took the corner a little too fast."

"What am I meant to do about the pants?!"

She sniggered. Keeping her composure was getting more and more difficult. "Take 'em off," she suggested through her laughter.

"You did this deliberately," he grumbled, unbuckling his seat belt so he could remove his pants.

"Did not," she answered.

"Did too."

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Well, you wanted it back, and you've got it; you should have asked nicely."

Without warning, a loud 'pop' sounded and the car swerved violently off the road. She fought to keep the car under a semblance of control, focusing fully on the road ahead of her and ignoring LJ completely. She was glad to note that the road was empty, meaning she couldn't kill anyone else.

Finally, the car came to a halt. She took several deep breaths to steady herself, forcing her panic down. Whatever had happened was not something she had planned.

Gibbs could not see how this could get any worse. The road they were on was deserted; no houses, no streetlamps, no nothing. He was sitting next to Lily while wearing nothing but his boxers, and his skin still tingled from the scalding coffee she had managed to get all over him.

He suspected one of the tires had blown out, probably caused by Lily's crazy driving.

"This is all your fault," he muttered.

"Yes, I'm capable of blowing out tires by psychokinesis," she sniped.

He reached up and turned on the overhead light. It was broken. He sighed heavily, before realizing that her breathing was still a little too fast. "Deep breaths," he soothed. It would be no good if she suffered a full-blown panic attack.

"I've been in crashes before," she retorted, but she seemed to calm down.

"How many of them were due to your driving skills?" he questioned.

She took a moment to gather herself, before shifting in her seat so that she faced him. "You're the gentleman," she told him. He couldn't see it, but knew she had a sly smile on her face. "You should change the tire."

"No," he refused. "I am wearing a pair of boxers, my socks and boots. There is no way I am leaving the car."

"I could always call Jenny to pick us up," she suggested. "I'm sure she wouldn't mind being dragged out of her warm bed to sort this out."

He groaned, knowing she was perfectly capable of carrying out her threat, even if Jenny would doubtless kill her sister afterwards. "I need the flashlight," he conceded. "And my shirt."

He heard the faint rustle of fabric as she removed his shirt, and the soft intake of breath as her cold skin hit the chilled air. He heard some more fumbling after a moment.

"Just give me the shirt," he ordered.

"I'm getting the flashlight," she replied.

"It's under the handbrake," he offered, reaching out to get it…

Their hands collided and he felt the flashlight drop to the floor. "Shi-"

"Where's it gone?" he queried, cutting off the long sequence of swear words that were sure to follow.

"Under your seat," she groaned.

He felt her hand snake its way past him, trying to reach for it. He slapped it away. "I can get it," he defended, attempting to get his hand down the side of his seat.

"Your hands are too big," she giggled, not needing any light to know what was happening. "You're not going to be able to reach it, and you might get your hand stuck. I don't mind the latter, but I'd like to get home before daybreak."

Reluctantly, he withdrew his hand and let her smaller one try again.

Lily continued to scrabble under the seat for the flashlight. This was not working. She couldn't even feel it. There was only one option left, and she had no problems in taking it…

Silently, she slipped out of her seat and onto LJ's lap. She felt him flinch at the initial contact, being unaware of what she was doing.

"Get off," he ordered.

She continued to straddle him and reached down again for the flashlight. She made sure her nose bumped into his as she replied. "Better angle."

"I don't care," he told her. "Get off my lap right now."

"Afraid you might like it?" she smirked. She could just about feel the flashlight; now she had to retrieve it.

This time he tried to physically move her. He hadn't counted on her wearing next to nothing and was clearly surprised when his fingers brushed up against her bare skin.

"Stop trying to push me off and sit still," she demanded.

"Let me get out and move the seat forward," he offered. "It would be easier."

"I've got it," she snapped, trying to roll it up the side of the handbrake. "Give me another thirty seconds."

He changed his grip so he was holding her by her hips. Evidently, it made him feel more comfortable, and she was not going to deny him a small measure of relief for a moment. Especially as she had every intention of going for the jugular when she had the flashlight in her hand…

Finally, she managed to get the flashlight out, although she managed to elbow him in the ribs at the same time.

"Ow," he hissed.

"Baby," she murmured.

"I am not a baby."

"Oh, but when Jenny calls you a baby you don't mind."

He tightened his grip on her hips in response, hard enough to bruise.

A sudden knocking on the window made them both jump. As a bright light was flashed inside, she cursed quietly that her outfit had led to her being unarmed. There weren't too many places to hide weapons on her, although she had a knife. Unfortunately, throwing a knife around in a confined space would be more likely to kill her or LJ than their new friend.

"Police," came a strange voice. "Open the window."

Even better. She hated almost every police officer, mainly because they had a nasty habit of getting in her way.

"Get lost," she yelled.

Although she couldn't see it, she knew LJ rolled his eyes before rolling down the window. "Everything's under control," he told the officer.

The more powerful flashlight was maneuvered to take in the whole scene. "Yeah," the officer noted. "Out the car, both of you. You're under arrest."

"We're NCIS agents," she argued. She would never live this down if she was arrested as herself, but no one could tell the difference between the sisters anyway. "My badge is –"

"Never heard of it," the officer interrupted.

She felt a deep fury rise within her. "You've never heard of it?" Everyone should have heard of the agency her sister ran so well!

"Get out," the officer repeated.

They managed to stumble out of the car. Lily could feel the officer taking in their appearances and knew this was going to end badly. Her clothes were incredibly skimpy, while LJ wore practically nothing.

The officer finally made his judgment. "You're both under arrest for indecent exposure."