Monday

"What are you up to Zach?" Jackson came into the kitchen, finding his oldest grandson working away at the kitchen table.

"Homework" The blond replied, not tearing his eyes away from the book as he chewed on the end of his pen.

He had been at it for at least half an hour now, something he was quite proud of himself for, being able to stick at a boring task for so long. The other three had been here too, but they finished quicker because the older two were gifted academically, and Kate, well how hard could colouring in be anyway.

"Either your dad is lying, or you've turned over a new leaf." The elder man sat down opposite him. "Because he told me that trying to get you to do your homework was like pulling teeth."

"Well…." Zach put his pen down; deciding he would be as honest as he possibly could with his grandpa. "I was kind of hoping that if I did my homework, you would let me take Sarah out tonight"

"Where?"

"Just on a double date with Jared and Amelia." It was all hundred percent true.

He really needed Sarah in on his schemes more often he realised; she was a genius at planning things. And he was completely sure that tonight he would actually get away with having some fun.

"I don't see why you can't do. Just as long as you are both back for curfew, okay?" Jack thought it would do the teens some good to have a bit of fun while there guardians were away, just as long as they didn't hurt themselves.

"Who's mine or Sarah's? Because mine is nine, and Sarah's is ten."

"You can be back at ten, if you get your homework done before you leave" The man said.

"I will do." Zach grinned brightly. He knew he was never going to make curfew, but at least they now had an hour knocked off their late time.

"Just don't get into any trouble, behave yourselves and have a good time" Jack stood up, ruffling the back of the blond head.

He was slightly more considerate than Jethro, because he usually just messed the top of his spiked hair up. Zach was sure that his dad did it on purpose though; he knew how much time his son spent on his hair and considered it funny.

"Thanks Grandpa."

The concert was amazing for the four teenagers. Their throats were now slightly raspy from their shouting, but it was completely worth it. For Zach and Sarah, it was the break from all the rules their guardians put on them and it was very freeing for the pair.

"Hey, look at my top!" The blond boy pushed his way through the crowds of people leaving the stadium, showing the new t-shirt he had just brought to his friends and girlfriend.

"I just wanna make you sweat." Sarah read, and gave the teen a well deserved head slap "Where are you going to say you got that from?"

"Oh…. Yea, I'll hide it and just make out I've had it ages" He shrugged, taking his phone out of his pocket by habit, before he realised that it was turned off. "Reckon grandpa's going to go sick when we go back late?"

The brunette shook her head "Nah. He's a kitty cat; I doubt he could get mad"

Zach looked at her sceptically. "Yea, I really wouldn't think that if I were you. He smacked me yesterday."

"Yea, but I bet you were being cheeky or something. It was probably his last resort." Sarah didn't seem to really believe him that Jack was not a push over.

And Zach didn't seem to want to sway her of that notion. She seemed a lot more carefree when she wasn't worried about getting into trouble, and he liked it.

"I suppose so. And he didn't hit as hard as dad does."

"Exactly." Sarah climbed in the back of Jared's car behind him. "We'll just go home, tell our excuse and act really apologetic. He will be cool with it."

"You know Sar… I really like this side of you."

The second they were through the door they were hounded by an irate Jackson, making the two teens panic, and hopefully wiping the notion out of Sarah's head that he was a kitten compared to the Tiger that was Gibbs.

"Where have you both been? It's nearly midnight! You are both two hours late! Just wait till I tell your father about this young man, I know for a fact he wouldn't tolerate this. And you young lady, I'll be telling your brother too."

The blond gulped at that. LJ Gibbs hated tardiness; it could possibly be the ninth deadly sins. (Eight being lying to him) He was pretty sure he would be in for it when his dad got back, especially because he knew he would end up having to tell him where he had been. It didn't even occur to him that there was a plan still to execute, until Sarah started it.

"Sorry Grandpa" She smiled apologetically, damn she's good. "But Jared's car broke down, we had to wait for ages for the motor guy to come and help."

"And you couldn't have rung me?" Jack seemed to calm down a bit, but he still looked slightly doubtful about their tale.

"We would have gramps, but Sarah forgot her phone and my battery died. We didn't know your number so we couldn't borrow a phone" Zach lied smoothly.

The elderly man accepted their answer quicker than the teens thought possible "Sorry, I thought you were both just playing silly beggars. But next time you go out, I want your phones charged before you leave the house, and actually take them with you okay? I didn't know where either of you were and I was starting to worry"

"Sorry" Zach felt slightly guilty at that, but he soon pushed it away for the rush of excitement he got for getting away with something. It wasn't a big deal, but the fact he hadn't gotten away with a single thing since living with his dad made it so. "And don't worry about me not charging my phone again; I haven't updated my status in hours, I need to do it now."

"I'm sure you could have coped a few hours without going on Facebook" Jack said dryly, following the teenagers up the stairs.

"I could of yea. But could the world have coped not knowing what I was up to?" He smirked.

The elderly man shook his head in a way that reminded Zach a lot of his dad. "Go to bed son."

"Night Sar, night granpda" He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, and the man a quick hug before sneaking into his bedroom as quietly as possible so he didn't wake up Jayden.

"Zach…" He heard a voice whisper in the dark. He couldn't have been as quiet as he thought he was.

"Yea?" He stripped down to his boxers, too lazy to find pyjamas and climbed into the top bunk.

"Did you get away with it?"

"Yea, Yea we did." Zach smiled in the dark, still unable to believe his good luck. Maybe Grandpa Jack just wasn't as all seeing as his dad, or he had lost it in his old age because he was sure his dad would have went nuts if he was at home.

"Really? Was it good?" The pre-teen was climbing up onto the top bunk too, and Zach sat up to make room for him.

"It was amazing Jay. We were right at the front; well me and Sarah were because Jared was too scared to push through the crowd." The concert was still buzzing through the blond's mind.

"You didn't get in any trouble at all?"

"That was the best part" He grinned "Yea gramps was pissed when we first got in, but then we told him about the car and he was fine."

"Oh…. Do you think that I could get away with going somewhere tomorrow then?" The twelve-year-old was biting his lip nervously.

"What's got into everyone this week? First Sarah want to go to a concert, now you want to sneak out." Zach loved this side to his family. It made him feel like he wasn't the only one who got into trouble, and also gave him someone to have fun with, not that they weren't fun normally.

"… Do you think I could though?"

"Yea, don't see why not. Where'd you want to go?"

"There's … well…." Jay was clearly embarrassed about what he had to say.

"You can tell me mate, I won't laugh" He promised.

He took a breathe, before explaining to his cousin "There's this girl I've been talking to on the internet. And she's my age, and she lives in Maryland. But she's got a school trip to the Smithsonian, and she wanted me to meet her"

"A girl huh?" Zach tried his hardest not to smile, even though it was dark. But he didn't want his cousin to think he was laughing at him, he just found it cute that the younger boy had a crush.

"Yea, her names Holly and she's my age. But this is the only chance I'll get to meet her, because my mom and dad would never let me go to Maryland, or meet someone off the internet"

"I don't see why grandpa would even have a problem with that. He'll probably even give you a lift, and we'll hang around for you so we know it's not a internet killer"

"She's not an internet killer" Jay defended her "And it's in school time. I was thinking about phoning in sick, and getting the bus there"

The blond shook his head. His cousin had come up with a great excuse tonight, but now he had just let himself down. Phoning up sick in your parents voice was the worst plan ever when your voice hadn't broke, and you were rubbish at impressions.

"I'm not letting you go meet some girl of the internet on your own" They could be anyone for all he knew, and he wasn't going to let his nephew take that risk. "I'll go with you. We can ask Sar too"

"Really? Thanks Zach" Jay sounded happy with that idea. "But aren't you risking it a bit much? You got away with it tonight, but we might not tomorrow."

"You know what they say…" Zach shrugged. He had a new sense of freedom now that he wasn't caught, and he felt a bit cocky in his abilities "In for a penny, in for a pound"

They looked over to the door when they heard it creak open, and Sarah was sneaking her way into the room. "You guys still awake?"

Zach wondered where she had gotten, for lack of a better term, balls. She wouldn't risk even going near Zach's bedroom door at home in case Gibbs shouted at them, but here she just didn't care. It wasn't that big of a deal, but the teen was pretty sure Jack wouldn't want her sneaking into the boy's room in the middle of the night.

"Yea…" They whispered back and she was climbing on the bunk and slipping under the sheets next to Zach, resting her head on his chest and got comfy.

"What you both talking about?"

"Tomorrow"

"Why? What's happening tomorrow?" She wondered.

"We, and that's you too if you're not chicken, are skipping to go to …. Wait for …." Zach built it up, finding it funny they were skiving school to go to a museum "The Smithsonian!"

"I'm not risking getting into trouble to spend a day at the museum" The brunette rolled her eyes. That was the stupidest thing ever in her opinion.

"And that's why, you are a chicken." He wrapped an arm around her.

"I'm not a chicken, I'm just not stupid. And why the heck do you want to go there anyway?"

"Jay's going to meet a girl. We are going with him. And, I was thinking we could get the Jay's girlfriend to ditch her class at the museum and come to the Zoo with us. I hear they got pandas there, I've never seen a panda"

"She's not my girlfriend" The boy blushed embarrassed, but they didn't seem to acknowledge him.

"I'm in then. I'll send Amelia a text too, you send Jared and Tom one. Tell Tom to bring his girlfriend too, we'll make it a quadruple date"

"It won't be a quadruple date, because Holly is not my girlfriend. She's just a friend"

Again they ignored him.

"I'll text the afro, but he'll probably be too chicken to go. Tom will be up for it though" The afro was one of the many nicknames that Tom and Zach had for Jared Vance.

"I wish Tim, Abby and Gibbs would go away more often so we could stay with Grandpa" Sarah said through a yawn "It's going to be a lot of fun this week"

"Same" Zach replied, although he didn't mean it.

Of course he loved staying with his grandpa, and his cousins staying here too while they got up to mischief together, but he was started to miss his dad quite a bit. He missed not going down the basement in the evening and being in his dads company, and mostly he missed his dad tucking him in at night.

But right now, he had his beautiful girlfriend lying on him, so he wasn't complaining. She clearly had no intention of moving, and Zach didn't want to get caught in bed with just her because it would look extremely dodgy. So he got Jayden to bring his pillows and blankets up on the top bunk, and the sandy-brown haired boy got comfy down the bottom end of the bed, while the two teenagers were at the top end. It wasn't long before the boy was fast asleep, leaving the two teenagers to talk.

"You know we are going to get caught yea?" Zach asked Sarah, Once again wondering why he was the one to mention it, usually it was the other way around.

"I know" Sarah shrugged "And like you've said before, what's life without a little risk?"

Zach nodded "True. But since when have you not cared about the consequences?"

"Since Tim is in LA for a week." She answered "A girl has to have fun every once in a while, and this is the week that doesn't have consequences, we might as well use it to our advantage"

"What about when they come back?"

"Then we will deal with it then. But for now, we'll have fun"

Zach really wasn't as sure about this as she was. He didn't think that Jackson was the kitten Sarah made him out to be, and he knew come tomorrow night she will have figured that out. And he wasn't too scared about the consequences anyway, sure he didn't want to be in trouble, but he would just think about them when the time came to pay the pied piper.

A/N: Thanks for your reviews. And yes, the wedding one is finished with, sorry if i didnt make it clear. And yes you are right, it doesnt seem far that Sarah isnt in trouble. And so I've only slightly changed that part as i have written the story, because it works out better this way and so what i said in CH1 ignore the bit about Sarah. Anyways, thanks for reviewing.