Tuesday Daytime

"No, no. Zach and Sarah told me that the car broke down." Jackson spoke down the phone, his inner fury starting to come alive.

"Hate to tell you this dad, but they lied. And the school told me that the three of them, Zach, Sarah and Jayden, haven't turned up. You are going to have to round them up. Scott, Tom's dad, said he would call you if he found them. And Leon is on the hunt too"

"Any idea where they will be?" Jacks grip tightened on the receiver. He couldn't believe he had been played by a bunch of kids, his grandchildren no less. He felt like such a fool. Had he really gotten so old that he couldn't see through lies anymore, or know when they were up to no good? He was going to throttle them when he got his hands on them.

"Not a clue, their phones are all turned off. Zacharriah is going to be one sorry boy when I get my hands on him. Call me when you've found him, I want to have a word with him."

"They are all going to be sorry when I see them" The elderly man said darkly "I will. Bye Jethro"

He hung up the phone, and donned his coat. He didn't have the slightest idea where the wayward teenagers would go. DC was a huge place, and they could be anywhere. The best thing he could do now was go for a cup of tea to calm himself down, and wait for them to turn their phones back on.

"Aw, look at them both together." Sarah cooed to her boyfriend, walking hand in hand through the zoo together and watching the two twelve-year-olds in front of them, nervously flirting with each other.

"I'm proud of him" Zach wiped an imaginary tear from his eye. "When he told me he met someone on one of his geek websites, I was… well… expecting a geek. But she's quite the stunner, and she didn't even think twice about sneaking off from her school trip. That's my kind of girl"

"She is twelve-years-old, I doubt she has even hit puberty yet, how can she be a stunner?" The brunette girl looked up at him.

"You know what I mean Sar. She's got style, she's not fat and she doesn't have glasses." The teenager wasn't attracted to the girl for one second, she was far too young, but he thought his young cousin had done well with his choice in girls.

"Oh, so that's the only qualities you need to be a stunner. Thanks for the huge ego boost Zacharriah" Sarah glared sharply up at him.

Zach chalked it up that it was Sarah's time of the month, that was why she was being so moody with him with this conversation. He never dared say that out loud though; it would be suicide to do such a thing when his girlfriend had a fiery red-head's temper.

"No! I don't mean that. Just…" He pulled her closer to him; it was about time for flattery "You know that I don't think that. You are smart, funny, you've got an inner bad girl, which by the way really turns me on, and you are the most caring person I know. You are so much more that just another pretty face, I love you Sar"

The girl's mood changed quickly, and she was blushing, completely happy once again, before letting her boyfriend kiss her delicately. Zach breathed a sigh of relief; he knew how ugly things could turn when a girl was in a temper. Just ask his dad, he told him that one of his wives had run after him with a golf club.

"I love you too sweet potato" Tom put on a high pitched voice, interrupted the couple.

Zach punched him in the arm, taking Sarah's hand once again and walking in a line with Tom and Sophie, with Jared and Amelia right behind them, Amelia trying to get her boyfriend to stop worrying.

"Shut up mate" The blond mock-scowled.

"Nope, but I could if I wanted to. If only the afro could shut up whining like a bitch because he thinks our parents are going to find out" The brunet boy called loudly, hinting at Jared.

Zach snorted "As if they are going to find out, we got it all covered."

"I wouldn't be so sure if I were you"

They heard a familiar male voice from behind Jared and Amelia, and all of them spun around to face them, except for Jayden who was currently joking around with Holly and watching the otters play.

They all paled.

It was useless. As much as Leon Vance wanted, and needed, to get through his large stack of paper work, he just couldn't concentrate long enough to do so. His mind kept wondering back to where his son and friends had disappeared to.

He shut the folder with a sigh. It wasn't like he was going to be able to get anything done until he knew where his boy was. So he put his years as an NCIS Special Agent to work at finding him and his group of delinquent friends.

He just hoped that he calmed down a bit before he found them. Because right now he felt like putting the young Gibbs over his knee, like the boy's father, he knew he was the ringleader for the group.

But he also knew that his son and the other teens were just as bad for going along with his schemes. He had warned his son countless times to not get involved, but he still did.

He liked Zach, he did, and he knew the kid was good hearted. He just wished that he wouldn't get his son and the rest of the small group involved. But the teenager was not afraid of authority, and liked to do his own thing.

"Like Father like son" Leon smirked dryly to himself, getting to work on finding the teenagers.

"Oh sh…"

"Don't even finish that sentence of Zacharriah, because I swear I am these close to Gibbs slapping you" Leon held his fingers less then a centimetre apart.

Zach gulped, as did the rest of the teens, including Jayden who had made his way over to them now. He had never heard Jared's dad so angry before now, and especially never threatening to Gibbs slap him.

"Gotta be a Gibbs, to Gibbs slap" But the teen was in front of his friends, it was second nature for him to show off.

"Are you trying to make this worse for yourself?" Leon took a step towards him. "Your father already knows what you have been up to today, and last night. And I can tell you know, that he is far from happy"

"I didn't exactly expect my dad to be over the moon when he found out" He portrayed outward calm, but on the inside he was wincing at what he was saying and that his dad already knew.

"I'm sure after I tell your dad; you can add cheekiness and rudeness to your long list of misdeeds for the week."

"Shut up Zach." Tom hissed at him, elbowing him in the chest before he could open his mouth again.

Leon eyed the blond teenager, waiting for his to speak again, but thankfully he took his friends advice. He turned on the rest of the group, glad to note that his son was hanging his head in shame of his behaviour. At least he knew it wouldn't be difficult to get through to him.

"All of you, ring your parents, and tell them that we are heading back to the school for the talk with your principle. We are going to walk back to the cars, and you will drive back to the school and wait for all your parents to meet you there."

"Any point me ringing my dad? He's in LA, it will be pretty hard for him to meet us at the school" Zach smirked, he had grown up making wise comments to adults, so it was hard to stop now, even though he knew he should.

Leon gritted his teeth; he had had enough of the cocky teenager. He nodded to the others, telling them to start walking to the car and ring their parents, he knew Sarah was smart enough to ring up Jackson, and he gave a silent message to his son to tell him that they would both be having a 'talk' tonight.

"You think you are funny don't you?" The dark man willed himself to not lose his temper. He honestly didn't think Gibbs would appreciate it if he murdered his only son.

"A bit yea" Zach shrugged, trying to act cool but feeling nervous now that he was on his own.

"I don't. What I think, is that you are in bad need of some attention from your father's hand. Which I know you are going to get the second he gets home. So if I were you, I would quit digging my hole deeper" He warned.

Damn! Zach thought. He was in so much trouble already, and now he had managed to get himself further in the shit by mouthing of to his friend's dad, which also happened to be his dad's boss! He was dreading the day his dad returned, he hadn't even thought about Jackson.

"Sorry sir" He said quietly, hanging his head like a man would do when he was on his way to the gallows, and followed the Director to the cars.

Vance tailed the two cars to the high school, managing to find out that they had dragged another twelve-year-old into their mess when they had to stop at the museum. He didn't realise that it was the two pre-teens idea in the first place.

They were only five minutes away from the school now, and the teenagers had put a phone on in each car on speaker, connecting them to each other so they could get their stories straight and get into the least amount of trouble as possible.

"I don't think anything we could say will get us out of trouble. My dad looked ready to kill us all when he found us in the zoo."

"Look" Zach sighed "He seems to think it was all my idea, and I bet everyone else does too. Let's just go with that, at least then it will only be one of us getting into trouble"

"It doesn't work that way Zach. It doesn't matter whose idea it was, we went along with it so it's all our faults" Tom said. Even it would have worked, he wasn't about to let his friend take the fall.

"Look, I'm going to take the blame for the whole thing okay? I'm going to tell them it was me who hacked the school, and I was the one who introduced Jay to that girl and convinced him to go. And I talked the rest of you into it too."

The blond teenager was very protective over his family, and he wasn't about to let Jay get into huge trouble for hacking the school. If he lessoned everyone else's punishment too, it would be worth it.

"I'm not letting you do that!" Jayden argued.

"Jay, you've got a good record with the school. You are not ruining it. Dad and everyone will know I didn't hack them when we get home, so don't worry that I'm going to take the fall for it. But the school won't know"

"But, I did do it. So, I should get the blame, not you" The younger boy liked the fact that his cousin was willing to protect him, but he didn't want him to get into trouble either.

"Jayden, just let me do this" Zach stressed out to the younger boy seriously, making him agree if only reluctantly because he could see his cousin was just as stubborn as his grandpa Gibbs.

He smiled softly, his cousin was great. "Thanks Zach"

"No problem. What are big cousins for?" He shrugged it off; he didn't want any gratitude for doing this.

There was a collective groan as they saw their angry parents waiting just outside the main doors to the school reception. And they hung up the phones, getting out of the cars together.

They stopped in a group just a few small steps away from the cars, trying to gather the courage they needed to face the annoyed group across the car park.

"Time to face the music guys"

A/N: Thanks for your reviews. much appreciated.