Talk, or I throw you out of the car technique

Ducky, Palmer and Gibbs leave the Buchanans and the McGees, as they have to return to NCIS to finish up the paperwork and check on Tony and Ziva, who were slowly toiling with the reports of their attacks.

Joseph invites all the agents for dinner at the townhouse, insisting that attendance is mandatory. There were still some papers to be signed, so only after three pm Timothy, Sarah and Joy are escorted out of the hospital by Joseph, Maggie and Matt.

"Matthew, Sarah, you´re coming with me," Maggie says, marching for her rented Toyota Corolla, fully expecting the two youngsters to follow. Matt looks at Sarah and, with a shrug and a small smile, follows his mother without comments. Sarah glances at her brother, who's standing by Joy and Joseph. Both Buchanans are smiling at her.

Joseph leans over Sarah's shoulder and whispers in her ear, "A piece of advice: she doesn't like waiting for people." Sarah looks at Maggie, who's already standing by the driver's door, and Matt who has already sat in the backseat. She rushes to the front passenger's seat, but Maggie stops her. "In the back with Matt."

Sarah hesitates, as she hasn't spoken to Matt since he found her in the apartment. Matt rubs his face with his good hand. Sarah can clearly see him blushing brightly up to the tips of his ears. She looks at Maggie again, who squints at her. She rushes into the car and sits in the backseat with him.

Maggie takes the wheel, and drives away, just throwing glances at the two stubborn youngsters in the backseat. "So, we´re going for a small scenic drive, so you two will have plenty of time to talk."

"Mom!" Matt moans, mortified.

Sarah glances at Matt, who´s almost folding into himself, ashamed of the machinations of his mother. "I swear, I had no idea she was planning this." Matt says to Sarah, as he's fully aware that she doesn't want to talk to him.

"It´s either this or me tying your hands together for a week. So, why don't you be a nice man, and let the young lady start?"

Sarah's mind is doing cartwheels, as she has no idea what to say to Matt. "Ah…"

Maggie smiles at Sarah on the rearview mirror, "Take your time, dear, take your time."

Matt and Sarah look at each other, as Maggie drives through the touristic route of Washington DC.

Meanwhile, Joseph brings his own car to the door of the hospital, steps out and opens the backseat door so McGee could climb in. Once McGee is inside, Joy waits for her father to close the door, but he simply shakes his head. "No, ma'am, you're in the backseat with him."

Joy smiles at her father. "You're not going to tie us up together, are you?"

Joseph pretends to think for a moment. "I considered the idea, but then your mom and me decided that a good talk between you two would be enough."

Joy waves at McGee, silently asking him to slide over to the other side, and sits down beside him. "Is this some type of Buchanan torture your parents are planning on us, unsuspecting McGees?"

Joy snorts at that. "No, just the Buchanan way of forcing people to talk. Basically, its premise is talk, or I throw you out of the car technique."

McGee gently touches his own bruised face and his bandaged nose. "I don't think I would survive being thrown out of the car."

Joseph slides on the driver's seat, catching the end of the conversation, "So, don't tempt me, why don't you enjoy the drive and have a nice talk?"

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Matt stubbornly stares at Maggie's neck rest, wishing he could say some truths to his own mother and her meddling ways, but there would be consequences if he did, so he shuts up and pouts.

He glances at Sarah, whose hands nervously twitch on her lap. She hadn't spoken a single word to him since she came to the hospital, preferring to hang out with his parent instead. He feels terrible for all the pain and terror she went through this week.

"I'm sorry," he says softly. Sarah jerks her head to look at him, and again he feels lightheaded. That always happens when Sarah gazes at him with her soulful eyes.

Before he could filter it, he starts babbling away, "I'm sorry I hurt you at Waverly, and that I hit you, but if you had screamed, he would have found us and then you would be dead, I figured that I'd rather have you mad at me than dead, so I had to do something and then your father came into the picture and—" He smiles thinly, shaking his head in wonder, "Sarah, I'm sorry, but your father is a prick, and I'm glad that he was arrested, because if he wasn't I'd probably shoot him or beat him for what he's done to you. I never want to see you hurt or scared ever again, like I saw you last night, I feel like I lost ten years of my life, it was so—"

"Matt," Sarah interrupts him, her hand on his cast, "you're babbling."

"I am, ain't I?"

"Yep."

They smile at each other, then look away for a moment. Sarah takes his cast in her hands and studies it. "How did you hurt yourself this time? Did you punch another unsuspecting tree again?"

Matt smiles at her. "No, one of your father's goons tried to run my car off the road. We crashed, he got away in a stretcher, me with some bruises, a concussion and a broken wrist."

"Oh, my goodness, are you ok?" She touches his forehead, where she finally notices butterfly stitches on a cut under his hair.

Matt takes her hand in his, and gently kisses it. "Don't worry about me, mom always said I had the hardest head of the family."

That elicits giggling from Sarah, and a snort from Maggie, who is watching the two like a hawk. Maggie turns on Constitution Avenue driving down Washington Mall.

Sarah's smile dims until it disappears, and Matt's heart starts to break as he sees her eyes filling with tears again. "Yesterday, I really thought…" She glances at Matt, then at Maggie, "that it would be my end, that they would…" she starts crying, and Matt immediately puts an arm around her shoulders, bringing her to lean her head against his chest.

"It's over, no one's gonna hurt you, not when I'm around," Matt says against her hair, as she rubs her face on his shirt and wets it with her tears. "As long as there is breath in my body, I promise you, I will protect you with everything that I am." He plays with her hair a little, touching the soft curls, and adds, "even if you get mad at me afterwards."

Sarah looks at his face, and sees how sincere he's being.

"Your sister scares me," she says softly, thinking on how Joy rescued both her and Timothy from the mafia men.

Matt leans back in the seat, and brings Sarah with him, so she leans against his chest, "Joy scares all of us sometimes, she's always been someone really… intense, in everything she does."

He glances at Sarah. "But if I had to choose only one person to watch my back, from all my sisters, I would pick her every time.

"And I can say for sure, she really, really loves your brother." Matt kisses Sarah's hair distractedly.

"Do you think so?"

"I know so." He says, and Sarah lifts her head and stares at his face.

"Do you… think we still have a chance? Of making this work? Us?" Sarah says in a soft voice, and Matt studies her face.

"I'm willing to try." He says as sincerely as he can muster. Sarah smiles at him, and leans her head on his shoulder. Matt starts playing with her hair, at the same time he smiles at his mother, who is looking at him through the rearview mirror.

Maggie smiles back, and turns the car towards Georgetown. It's time to go home.