AN: Here is chapter three of Cabin Secrets and I would like to start out with thanking everyone who reviewed. :) Also regarding my Coincidence story, please bear with me...it is a slow process for me to write and for that I apologize, though the chapter will get finished. When has yet to be determined, thank you for being paitent. This story is in full bloom, it has one more chapter left, then it is over. Over! My first multi-chapter story, complete. Though it isn't that long, I still smile knowing I accomplished something. I'm going to stop rambling and let you get on to the story.

HUGE thank you to my beta: NightmareWorld. Couldn't have done it without her!

Have fun reading! ^^

"Are you alright McGee?" Gibbs asked as he looked at McGee, who was sitting on a log. They were in the woods keeping a look out for the cabin.

Actually the safe house they were assigned. After they broke up the drug dealings, which ended in a full out gun war, they all were supposed to go to the cabin and spend the night before Vance got them out of there. They were losing terribly, and Gibbs was sure they were going to have to retreat, until the other side's members started slowly disappearing.

Gibbs' team had no clue who was helping them, but they didn't question the sudden help, just continued to fight the enemy. Who ever this mysterious person was, the team was in their debt. Without them showing up when they did, Gibbs didn't want to think about what could have happened.

Once it was over, with the last of the enemy slowly fading away, Gibbs' ordered the wounded towards the safe house. So Tony and Ziva went in the woods, in search for aid, while he and McGee tried to find any living enemies. Mostly their search was focused on the mystery person who saved their lives.

But after turning over every dead person around, and scouting the nearby area, they knew the person had vanished just as fast as they had come. Gibbs then told McGee that they would head out, and keep a look out for the man that saved their lives.

McGee had a little scratch on his arm from a tree, and a few bruises, but other than that he was just out of breath. McGee sighed and got up, whiping his face free of rain water, only to have it soaked again.

"Let's go find that house," Gibbs told him as he continued walking. McGee followed close behind him, all the tree branches on the forest floor forgotten and trampled on.

"Uhh, boss; you do know where this save house is, right?" McGee asked as he stepped by Gibbs.

"Yes, it should be coming up here soon."

McGee nodded, and scrunched his face together as hail pellets hit it. "You suppose Tony and Ziva made their way to it already?"

"I hope so," Gibbs said. "Although if Tony were leading it might be difficult for them to find it. Then again, it is in the middle of nowhere, so it shouldn't be too hard to find."

"That's reassuring, I guess," McGee said.

The two of them walked in silence, the storm buzzing in their ears, until Gibbs stopped and looked through a shrub. "It should be through here..." He shoved the bush aside and stepped through.

A small cabin was in the middle of a clearing. It looked old and worn down, on its last peg but somehow still managing to stand. Gibbs nodded his head towards it. "This is it. The secret cabin we were assigned to."

Tony and Ziva reacted as they would have under stressful, unpredictable situations. Both withdrawing their guns, they proceeded to take aim at the cabin door. It cracked open, and then a foot pushed it open the rest of the way. From Ziva's position on the couch she saw who it was that opened the door.

She sighed and laid her gun on the coffee table, next to the one they took from Alex. "Hello Gibbs."

Tony smirked, and sat his gun back on the smooth granite. "You guys take a wrong turn or something? What kept you?"

Gibbs stepped into the cabin, with McGee in tow, and surveyed the room. McGee came in, and shut the door, preventing any other rain from coming in. Gibbs stopped looking when he set his sight lingered to Alex. He raised his gun and his emotions showed on his face as a mixture of shock and anger.

In front of him was a young man-no not a young man, a kid. The teenager was roughly 5' 5" and stood next to the stove. He had on a gray shirt and was inconveniently pointing the gun in Gibbs' face.

"Who's he?" Gibbs questioned, with a raised eyebrow. Referring to the kid, who wasn't a part of his team.

"Who-oh," Tony said as he looked over at Alex. "Well, this here is Alex. He lives here."

"He lives here?" McGee questioned, standing off to the side, opposite of Ziva, gun at his side, but ready to fire in case something happened.

"Yep, he reacted the same way when we came in," Tony told them. He stared at the gun in Alex's hands, and then glanced at the coffee table. "You have another gun?"

"Yes," was the short and to the point response.

"Stand down," Gibbs told him.

Alex thought for a moment, every moral he had been taught. Or learned over time, was telling him not let his guard down. Glancing over at Tony for reassurance, he said, "its okay Alex. He's our boss."

Another moment of thinking went by. Tony had brought up his gun again, and gently laid his hand on the surface in front of him. "Come on kid, you're at a losing battle. And plus it wouldn't be worth it, so just put it down."

Alex grunted and slowly put his arm down, watching Gibbs do the same. "I'm going to need all of you guys' identifications. Nothing against NCIS, but I highly doubt your all assigned here. Plus I need to make sure you're the real deal, so I can get benefits. I'm not running for free you understand?"

Tony pulled out his ID, as did Ziva. McGee took a little longer than them but he got it out anyway. Tony walked over and grabbed their ID's. He handed them over to Alex, and when he reached for them he pulled them back.

"Hand over that gun, don't need you blowing your foot off," Tony told him as he held the badges in one hand, while his other was up for offering.

Alex forced back a sigh and just breathed deeply. He wanted to tell Tony that he needed that gun. They had no clue who could randomly pop in next, and from the looks of how things have been going-it could be a few more. But they were government, and he didn't know if he held a higher position than they did, after all they were solely based on Naval Investigations. So he had no clue why they were getting involved in gangs in the middle of nowhere.

However they could easily ask him the same question, being in a different country after all. But he decided that he would be the better man and let them stay here for the night, even though he should kick them out, after all he was there first. Then again he could always ask for a little vacation from Blunt, no doubt that he was the one that screwed this all up in the first place. However he wouldn't bet on getting a vacation from Blunt, ever.

So he decided the best thing to do would be to let them stay here, leave in the morning, and never bring this up again. It sounded like a good, plausible plan.

Alex turned the safety back on and set the gun on the island. He took their ID's and laid them out in front of him. Anthony DiNozzo was the Senior Field Agent. He looked similar to his picture. Alex glanced up at Tony and took in his image.

His hair had definitely gotten longer, and he had a little scrapes here and there. But the thing that Alex noticed the most was his eyes. They were a deep brown and the dark circles under them almost blended in to his skin, not being as definite if he had lighter eyes.

Alex closed his ID and slid it to him. "You need to rest, looks like you haven't slept in day's."

"Hhmm, well that's what you get when you're on the job," Tony replied.

Alex looked at Ziva's one next. Ziva David, Probationary Agent*.And glancing at Ziva, she looked pretty much the same, though she had gotten a hair cut, but Alex also noticed she was tense. Something that he eventually got over with, but it can still occur. He closed her ID and set it off to the side.

"You need to relax. You're really tense," Alex told her as he opened up McGee's badge.

He took one look at it, raised an eyebrow then shut it. He threw it at McGee, who caught it and gave him a confused look.

Ales just shrugged, wincing a little at the pain flaring in his shoulder. "You just need overall help. My guess would be, Tony himself?" Alex turned towards Tony.

"What happened?" McGee asked as he opened his ID. His emotions showed on his face, the pink that tinted his cheeks and his pupils dilating, trying to process what he was seeing. "You want to explain that Tony?"

Tony smirked, "Ah well you know when we were on that one plane for like hours? Well you fell asleep, and I kept poking you -honestly you sleep like a rock-so I kept myself entertained."

McGee grunted and frowned. "You owe me a new ID. This is sharpie!"

"What did Tony do now?" Ziva asked curiously.

McGee passed her the badge while Tony explained how it could have been worse. "Hey it could have been that picture, just on your actual face. I actually thought you got away pretty much unharmed."

Ziva tried to stop her laughter as she saw the picture. He was right when he said it was sharpie. It was McGee alright, except he had a mustache and a goatee. He had a ring around his eye, clown hair, and one of his teeth had been colored in. But the thing that stood out was his name. Timothy McGee had been crossed out and above that the word "Probie" was written.

Ziva giggled and handed the badge back to McGee. "Oh I'm sorry McGee, but you have to admit that that's funny."

"Oh yes, har-har, it's hilarious," McGee said as he glared at Tony and pocketed his badge. "What time did you guys get here?"

"Not too long ago, about an hour or so," Tony told him as he messed with Alex's other gun.

Alex had turned back around and finished up the ramen. He turned the stove off and put the noodles in a bowl. Grabbing a fork, he handed them both to Tony. "You guys have been here for an hour and a half." He checked his watch.

Tony nodded and ate the food in front of him. Gibbs stepped closer and took a seat next to Tony. "So who are you again?"

"A camper." Alex started to clean the pot with lots of water and a dab of soap.

"More specifics," Gibbs said. "How about a name, age, and why you're out here in the first place?"

"Well, I'll give you my name when you hand over your ID. As far as you're concerned, I'm old enough to be out here, by myself. I really don't think you're in the position to be asking that last question. After all, this is my cabin you're staying in."

Gibbs slid his ID across the granite. "Where are your parents? And you do realize we're government. In case you do anything wrong, we're going to have to arrest you. The charges are already up to possession of two fire arms."

Alex looked at Gibbs' ID. Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Senior Special Agent in Charge. His picture looked the same, so Alex closed the badge and handed it back to him.

"Name?"

"Alex," he said as he put the pot away.

"All right Alex...do you have a last name?" Gibbs asked.

"Of course," he told them. He leaned up against the sink and watched in somewhat disgust as Tony swallowed the noodles, not even chewing.

"Want to elaborate on that?" Gibbs questioned.

"Not really, that's all you're getting out of me," Alex told him as he lit another candle and set it next to the sink. He glanced at the watch on his wrist, with the light illuminating from the candle reflected off of the shiny glass. The hands were on eleven and forty. Alex sighed. So little time before he had to leave, though he knew six hours of sleep were better than none. However he wanted to stay up; with all these people in this small of a cabin, it just didn't feel right. Yet he couldn't deny that he was somewhat tired after staying up for who knows how long. He lost track after the hours blended into one fight to stay on guard.

He supposed he should go to sleep. Perhaps he could stay up until everyone went to sleep. Then take a nap, wake up before dawn, when he would leave before they woke up. Then they couldn't question anything, and it would be over. Nothing about the cabin would be brought up, because he would never see these agents again.

Alex went over towards the door. "Is this all of you guys?"

"Yes, this is our team," Ziva told him from her position on the couch.

"Were you expecting anyone else," Gibbs asked.

"Not that I know of. Then again, I wasn't expecting you guys either." Alex then turned all the locks on the door. He tested the knob, and when it wouldn't move he set his sights on the alarm system. He opened the panel and typed in the code. The light on the side turned green and he nodded to himself, satisfied with the protection the cabin had came with.

"This cabin has some specific features a normal one wouldn't have," Gibbs told him. "Is there any reason for it?" Of course his team knew the truth that this was a safe house, thus needing all the standard protection equipment a normal cabin won't have. Though if this kid lived here, or camping as he said, then didn't he think of it as suspicious that the cabin had all of these features?

"Eh, my Uncle is a veryparanoid person," Alex told him as he stood next to the door. "I guess some of it rubbed off on to me." Alex congratulated himself at avoiding lies, and just stretching the truth. However thin it became, it was better than a lie; not to mention better from the full blown truth.

"We should head for bed," Tony cut in. "Where are we all going to sleep?"

Alex sighed. He knew Blunt made this mistake. It was his fault five people had to spend the night in a tiny cabin in the middle of nowhere. Alex would make sure he never heard the end of it. "I have some things in the closet, a few sleeping bags and a chair. But besides that, there's the couch and I have a day bed."

Tony nodded. "Ziva you can have the couch. McGee can have a bed, boss you can have the other. Alex you can take the chair, I'll grab a sleeping bag."

Everyone opened their mouths to protest, but Alex got there first.

"Not happening," Alex told him. "My house, my rules. Ziva and Tony can take the bedroom. Gibbs can have the couch, McGee you can have the chair. I'll take the sleeping bag," he told them before adding, "Good you agree with me." Before they could say anything he was off in the bedroom.

Alex rummaged through the empty closet in the dark. He knew he should have grabbed a candle, but honestly it shouldn't be this hard to find a sleeping bag and a chair. Especially if the closet was practically bare. It just showed how much sleep he really needed.

Finding the chair quickly he grabbed it and set it behind him. Yet before it could touch the ground it was snatched out of his hands. He turned around to see Tony passing the chair to Ziva, and her taking it out of the room. Alex could make out a smirk on Tony's face.

"You take the bed. It is yours after all," he told Alex.

Alex shook his head and grabbed the sleeping bag that was on the floor. "Tony you look like you need it the most. No offense but you look like shit, my regards to who lost that battle."

"I agree with you there. Then again it looks like you need the sleep too."

Alex momentarily shrugged, then stopped. For not only the pain, but the fact that Tony couldn't see his movements. So instead he told him his thoughts. "Nah, I can sleep on the floor. After all I'm a teenager, I can handle it."

"But-"

"Tony," Alex said. "Do you want to sleep outside?"

Silence filled the bedroom, and the only noise was the obvious rain and hail. A stroke of lightning went by, making the room seem brighter for a second, followed by a bang of thunder.

"I thought not," Alex said and closed the closet door as he walked towards the dresser.

"What are you doing?" Tony questioned.

Alex didn't say anything he just threw a few blankets at him. "It's cold out, and the power's out. That means we have no heat. A simple alternative is blankets. If you question me about not having enough blankets, you will be sleeping outside."

Tony closed his mouth and followed closely behind Alex as he made his way into the living room. Alex threw McGee a blanket, who was sitting in the chair. He set another one on the couch where Gibbs would be sleeping.

Alex took the last blanket in his hands for himself. He set the blanket and sleeping bag on the floor next to the coffee table. He then made his way to the small kitchen and started to extinguish the flames from the candles. Grabbing the only lit candle, he turned around to find nothing on the ground. He glanced up at McGee, who had gotten comfortable in the chair.

"He and Ziva went to the bedroom. And Gibbs went to grab the first aid kit, didn't realize he got shot on the side," McGee told him.

Alex nodded, and took one final last look at the door before heading towards the hallway. He ran into Gibbs on the way to the bedroom. Standing in silence, their faces lit up from the candle light, they walked past each other without speaking.

Kicking the door open to the bedroom he saw that Ziva was on the top bed, sleeping. Tony was standing off to the side, fumbling in the dark. Alex set the candle on top of the dresser and looked at the sleeping arrangements.

"Why did you move my things in here?" he questioned as Tony climbed into the bottom bed.

"There were two windows in the living room, and that door. Those are huge problems for drafts, so I moved you in here. There's enough room in here for all of us, it doesn't hurt anything."

Alex decided that trying to fight it would be a losing battle, so he just dealt with it. Climbing into the sleeping bag he turned towards Tony.

"Should I leave that candle on, or prevent a fire before hand and blow it out," Alex asked.

"Nah, leave it burning. It should be fine," Tony said before he added, "Night Alex."

"Night Tony."

Alex closed his eyes but found himself opening them up not long after when something hit his face. Alex jerked up and found a blanket on his lap.

"What's this?" he asked Tony.

"A blanket," he elaborated. "I'm hot, you take it."

Alex knew for a fact that Tony was lying. It was about fifty degrees, if that, inside the cabin. He had to be cold; he only had the bedding that was on the bed in the first place. Which wasn't very much, Alex knew that for a fact, sleeping in that bed only hours prior.

Alex sighed and lay back down, minding his hurt shoulder. Wrapping the blanket around him he closed his eyes before saying, "Thanks."

AN: Now that you have read chapter three, give me your thoughts? Review yes? Thanks for reading, I really appriciate it. There will be one more chapter left, then the story is finished! Thank you guys for all the support! :)