Okay, so this one's been sitting in my notebook since October, and I finally found some time to type it up. Enjoy!

I don't own any characters that show up on the TV series. Bummer. I also don't own eBay. Bigger bummer. I do, however own this yummy smelling midnight pomegranate hand cream from Bath and Body works. I need to go to the mall to get more. It's my new favoritest smell ever.

I'm moving the episode, Hide and Seek, from season 6 to season 3 just because I can. Creative license at work :) This makes Kate about fourteen in this chapter.

~o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

Kate stepped off of the elevator and headed for the Bull Penn. She and Becky had just had their first major fight over a boy, and Kate was fuming. She needed to vent; her usual venting techniques bounced between kickboxing lessons with Ziva, pranks, jokes, and revenge plots when necessary with Tony, and retail therapy with Abby. Today it was time for REVENGE!

"Hey, McGee." Kate said as she dumped her backpack and binder on her Dad's desk. "Where's Tony?"

McGee looked up from the eBay auction and replied. "MTAC with Gibbs. Do you need me to scan you in?"

"Nope." Kate replied, heading back for the stairs. "Mom, I mean Director Shepard entered me into the database for emergencies only, of course."

"Is this an emergency?" McGee called after Kate as she bounded up to the catwalk.

"I think it qualifies!" Kate said from the landing behind Tim's desk. "Good luck getting those gold clubs for Ducky."

"Thanks." McGee said sarcastically as he entered his bid for Robert Forman Golf Clubs.

Kate bounced up the remaining steps as her anger with Becky simmered and scanned herself into MTAC. On her way into the inner sanctuary she waved to Charlie, one of the techies, and creeped in so her father couldn't see her.

On the screen was some guy Jethro had just called Mike, and an MP was present in the background. So far Kate's presence was undetected, well except for Charlie. But that was okay; Charlie let Becky and Kate have movie nights in MTAC once a month with the Director's approval.

"He thinks you'll protect him whatever it takes." Gibbs said as he looked at Mike.

"You don't know what it's like." Mike bit out angrily. "Going off to the other side of the world to protect your country, but then you can't be there to protect your own family."

Kate snorted and Tony turned his head and raised an eyebrow at her presence. He jerked his head back to the door telling her to leave. Kate shook her head and sank into the shadows. She was staying now. Mike had just crossed into 'Oh no he didn't' territory.

Jethro hadn't noticed the snort; he was fighting off the pain the statement had brought up.

"You want to protect your family?" Gibbs asked. "You tell the truth! Did you kill him?" Gibbs demanded to know.

"He was a bully! He had it coming!" Mike yelled. "But I didn't do it."

"Why'd you leave town so quick?" Jethro asked the other man.

Kate thought all of Mike's shifting in his chair was because he had a guilty conscience.

"Scheduled to deploy." Mike said. He was hoping that this would work as an alibi.

"No." Tony said. "You were scheduled to deploy in May. You requested an earlier deployment. Why?" Tony inquired.

"My family needed the money, okay?" Mike said. "So I asked to move up a couple of months."

"Prison's pretty hazardous, Mike." Tony replied. "If I'd killed somebody, I'd want to get as far away from the investigation too. You got pretty far, pretty fast."

Charlie handed something to Gibbs, who then in turn interrupted Tony's line of questioning. "You stand by, Commander." Gibbs ordered before he stormed out of the other door in MTAC.

Mike flashed a smug smile at Tony as the door slammed behind Gibbs.

Kate took this as her opportunity to take the floor. "Commander." She greeted the man. "He know what it feels like. He's a Marine through and through."

The Commander raised an eyebrow. "Really? How do I know you're telling the truth?"

Tony knew the answer before Kate even opened her mouth. "Gibbs is going to kill me when he finds out about this." He hissed at Kate. "Ignore this joker."

Kate instead ignored Tony. "He's my Dad." Kate said as she turned on her heal and headed for the door. "Tony I need your help with something."

"On your six, Boss-ette!" Tony replied as Gibbs returned to cut the Commander loose.

~o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

Kate sat at her dad's desk playing with a pocket knife she had borrowed from Ziva as the team tried to track down some guy named Joey Ellis. Kate thought it was funny how Tony kept calling Joey 'Chicken Man' or 'Our Dumpster Diver'. She didn't get why, but it sounded funny to her. On the plasma DNA ran against a sample of brain matter (EWWWWWW!!!!!) found in the barrel of a gun.

Kate didn't want to know what was going on, but she knew that the comment that Commander Mike had made about protecting your family had cut her Dad real deep. And her playing with a knife from the Israeli assassin made Tim McGee very nervous.

"Ziver, Tony. Get to Norfolk." Kate zoned back in as her father began barking orders and as Tony and Ziva headed for the elevators.

Kate watched her Dad close an old yearbook and say, "Come on Scout Boy, you're with me." McGee grabbed his gear and followed Gibbs out of the Bull Penn.

"What about me?" Kate called as she got out of her chair and put the knife on the desk top. "I'm obviously here for a reason!"

"Do your homework!" Jethro called to her. "We'll talk later."

"GAHH!" Kate said as she threw herself back into the chair. She sat in the chair and sulked for a few minutes before she grabbed her Physical Science book, binder, a pencil and her calculator before heading to Abby's Lab for some help with her Using Math Problems.

~o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

Later that night during dinner Kate asked, "So did you find Joey Ellis?"

"Yup." Jethro said as he fed Jay-Jay his bottle. "Don't ask anymore than that."

"Okay." Kate said as she cut up her meatloaf. "Where's Mom?"

"Working late." Jethro said as he put the baby down in his play pen and began cleaning the kitchen.

"Right." Kate said as she dug into her baked potato. "Hey Dad?"

"Yeah, Princess?" Gibbs asked.

Kate smiled at the old nickname. No matter how old she got, she never got tired of that name. "Commander Mike apologized for what he said earlier. He didn't realize you had a family too." Kate said between bites of potato.

"Really?" Jethro said. "How do you know this?"

"imay have snuckinto MTACto talkto Tony." Kate said in one quick breath.

"Want to try that again?" Gibbs asked her.

"I may have snuck into MTAC to talk to Tony." Kate said much more slowly. "Becky and I had this stupid fight over Mike Penn and who was gonna ask him to Homecoming."

"Oh," Jethro said.

"But we got over it when we found out he asked Pauley Stevens, and then she turned him down to go with Mark Cyrus instead." Kate babbled on. "And then we both realized how much of a tool he is. Then Sean Harmon asked me over AIM and I said yes, of course, and David Holly asked Becky before I had to sign off and she said yes. So now we've made up and I don't need Tony's help to plan revenge anymore."

Jethro blinked and pretended he had heard every word that had come out of his daughter's mouth. The freshman in high school could babble on and on for days. So he just focused in on her not needing Tony's help for something. "It was DiNozzo turn to help you vent?" he commented.

"Yup." Kate said. "Hi, Mom!"

"Hey Sweetie," Jenny said as she entered the kitchen. "What did you make, Jethro?"

"My mom's meatloaf recipe, baked potatoes, and asparagus." Jethro replied.

"Gammy Gibbs has the best meatloaf ever." Kate said as she pulled out the remnants of Jenny's birthday cake from the fridge. "You want a piece, Dad?"

"Sure." Jethro said as he loaded up the dishwasher.

"What did I miss on your case while I was in my meeting?" Jenny asked her husband.

"Nuthin' much." Kate answered for her father. "Except for this guy called Dad out on something he knew mothering about. But, I took care of it so it's all good."

"Really?" Jenny asked as she reheated her dinner. "How did you do that?"

Kate looked sheepish as Jethro said, "She snuck into MTAC and overheard a conversation she shouldn't have."

"What kind of conversation?" Jenny asked with a groan. That last thing she wanted to do tomorrow was damage control for a fourteen year old with her heart in the right place.

"An interrogation." Jethro said.

"In my defense Charlie didn't have MTAC in interrogation lock down!" Kate protested. "So it wasn't an official interrogation."

Jethro chuckled as he ate his slice of chocolate cake. "Fine. I'll let you and Charlie off the hook this time."

Jenny sighed again. "If the SecNav finds out about you using NCIS as a playground we could all be in trouble."

"I'm not using it as a playground, Mom." Kate said. "The butt wipe called Dad out for apparently not knowing what it feels like to be serving your country abroad and unable to defend your family at the same time."

"Oh, well that certainly changes things." Jenny said as she looked at her husband for confirmation. "Only a little change."

Jethro just nodded.

"And?" Jenny asked.

"I told him to politely mind his own business." Kate said. "I also told him that Dad does know, and he needs to think before he speaks."

Jethro and Jen chuckled.

"What?" Kate asked as she bit into her slice of cake.

"It's just that I've been trying to teach you that for years!" Jethro remarked.

"Oh." Kate said. "Well, now I know."

Jethro and Jen just laughed.

~o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

Enjoy! It's a little short for me, but I like how it came out.

Happy Early Birthday to NCIS Lover! This chapter's done before I thought it would be!

REVIEWS!!!!!!!!!

Please?