Disclaimer: Tragically for me NCIS is the sole property of the creators, studio, writers, producers, directors, etc. Lucky them….

I consider myself lucky to be able to take them out to play for a while.

Warning: THIS STORY will CONTAIN NON-SEXUAL SPANKING; ABORT THE MISSION… DO NOT READ… TURN BACK NOW IF THIS ISN'T YOUR THING.

A/N: This story is complete AU and is the 4th installment of This Means War. Have fun suspend belief and read it like the fiction it's meant to be… Read, Enjoy, Review….

Dedication: This goes out to all the wonderful folks who have reviewed the series and enjoyed what I've taken great pleasure in writing. We are back to present time (Abby 15/Kate17/Tony 20) and the focus of the trio's trouble is Abby. Daddy Gibbs' little Princess is in it up to her hip-boots and calls in her siblings for a rescue.

Abby was pacing her room seriously unsure what to do. Getting kicked out of school… she was more dead then any of Uncle Ducky's cadavers. A few months ago expulsion wouldn't have seemed like such a bad thing to happen. Minus the obvious trouble she'd be in leaving Hilton had been what she wanted. Now… now it felt ridiculous to her that she'd let things get so far away from her. What was left to do to fix it? Kate said she and Tony were coming up, but there was no guarantee they'd be able to help. The stupid audit was three days away. There was a buzz all over campus and most especially in Libby Hall. Most of the other students she'd "helped" were in a panic. Honestly she wouldn't be completely surprised if one of them cracked and turned her in before the evidence actually showed up. Missing anymore classes was so not an option, but going to class like nothing happened seemed a lot like flaunting her crimes. Abigail knew perfectly well her father's thoughts on suspects who behaved that way. Maybe she'd just stay away and let the trouble mount. She could attempt her other…

--

The knocking on her door pulled her from her private hell. Yanking it open Abby addressed her housemate none too kindly.

"Hailey what is it now? Jeez, you're worse than my mother and sister put together! I ate breakfast, I had a good night's sleep, and I even have my work done for the day… mom!"

Hailey Joy Spotsman was a year ahead of Abby and had been a good friend to Kate when she was at Hilton. So, she sort of felt a "big-sister" responsibility toward Abby. She had been a witness to the downward spiral Abby had taken and even though she was starting to see her way out of it the damage was difficult to repair. Now her friend had taken to hiding out and avoiding the judgmental glares she was getting from faculty, staff, and classmates.

"Good then grab your bag. We can head over to Bridgemont Hall together. I'm not dropping anything off you. You're going to class missy."

"Clearly… I am dressed. Sculdini's just gonna put me out anyway. She told me on Monday that she didn't care if my parent's work directly affected national security I couldn't come back to her class without speaking to them."

The girls were heading down the stairs when Hailey added, "you could decide not to push her buttons when you get there. You know beg… show a little humility. Maybe she won't be so irritated by you if she hardly notices you."

"Very funny, that's sort of been the problem I can't get folks to stop noticing me."

Shoving her through the front door Hailey paused gesturing at the Goth in training from head-to-toe. "Have you looked in the mirror lately? If you didn't want to be noticed you might've tried dialing down the look just a tad."

...

Flinging her door open Kate pulled on her brother propelling him through it.

"Hey! Take it easy will ya."

"Sorry, but it did kind of take you forever to get here. I was expecting you a lot earlier. Tony I told you this was urgent."

"Kate… back off. I'm here." Tony sat down flicking off his shoes and put his feet on top of the desk.

"Get those smelly boats off of my desk! Don't get comfortable because we are getting right back in the car. It's going to take another hour and half to get up to Hilton."

Tony took his time lowering his feet as he glared at his sister.

"You're not dad Tony." Kate responded with her hands on her hips.

"I wasn't trying to be Katie. Look a man needs food to plot a scam so can we at least stop for breakfast?"

"Drive-thru Tony… drive-thru." Tossing his keys at him Kate held open the door and waited impatiently as he made little effort to hurry his stride back across the room.

...

She'd managed to make it through every class without incident. Even Sculdini only glared from the front of the class as Abby stayed low in her chair. As soon as the last class was over she hauled tail back to the house to grab an overnight bag. Kate and Tony had checked into a motel just outside of town. She had to take a cab, that Tony was not happy paying seventy bucks for, because her siblings didn't want to be spotted anywhere near campus. Committing what she hoped would be her last act of forgery Abby left her house-mother a request from her mother to visit overnight with an ailing elderly aunt who needed help in the evenings for a few days.

...

"This place sucks," were the first words she uttered when she crossed into the room.

"Oh…uh, I'm sorry Ms.-70 dollar cab ride-100 bucks in gas-60 a night-expensive-little-problem! Maybe I should just call dad and see if he'll let me use his platinum card and we'll get something nice, downtown, with a view." Tony just threw up his hands sitting back on the bed furthest from the door.

His little sister looking guilty stepped pass Kate and went to stand in front of him with her head hung low. "I'm sorry Tony. Gut reaction to a dump I guess. I'm really glad you're here… both of you. I'm really sorry T-man."

Tony stood up and hugged her. Pushing her away again, "Lucy you got some 'splainin' to do."

"I know. I just kinda… you know… it just sorta…" Okay, so she wasn't exactly making coherent sense.

"Abs we talked all the way up here between Taz's feedings that is and I'm sorry but none of this makes sense." Kate sat across from her brother and sister on the other bed in the meager room.

"Kate's right a screw up of this magnitude has me written all over it, but not you. Come on kiddo there's a reason you're the favorite child. You don't mess up like we do… usually, unless one of us in involved."

Abby was feeling defensive and her mouth and body were ragging against her mind as she jumped up in response. "Look, I'm not perfect. Clearly, I know how to fuck up just as bad as the two of you! So either help me get out of it or just go! I'm not in the mood for another lecture about how I blew it."

"Whoa, chill out Abigail. When you'd get such a sailor's mouth? I'm sorry but we've known you for fifteen years, so when we see you acting out of character we get to call you on it." Tony pulled her back on the bed.

"Abs, sweetie, let's worry about fixing this and then if you want to you can tell us the why. Okay," Kate reached across taking her sister hand and sandwiched it between her own.

She nodded. "Everyone was pretty cool, albeit disappointed, about all the classes I missed and the lying surrounding it. Mrs. Updike stuck me on probation and pulled all my privileges, but all my teachers were willing to let me make up the work. Except Sculdini, she must've been waiting for a chance to roast me. I may have challenged her science one time to many in lab. Anyway, she said no extra credit and only partial credit for every late assignment. That would've given me a D in her class by the end of the year. I'd have to take it again. I couldn't do that, so when she gave me the first note to take home over our break I sort of stole some of mom's NCIS letterhead and wrote a little note putting off the conversation. It was really good too, you know all about national security and secrecy and assurances that I'd be shaping up until they could meet."

"I'm impressed." Tony smirked

"Do not encourage her. Go on Abs."

"After two weeks she was adamant that she hear from them before she mailed home progress reports."

In unison, "that's when you got the PO Box."

"My friend Missy works in the main office and made the change for me.

Tony was sort of intrigued, but so far none of it warranted the hoopla he'd been through to get there. "Let's get to the good stuff. When did you hack into the system and how the heck did you learn how to do that anyway?"

"I was taught and it doesn't matter. Sculdini is the only old bird that still does her grades long-hand and that grade book is always with her. You guys she was giving me a D already. One screw up and I'd have an F for sure. So, I got into the server Hilton uses and made some changes. It was way easier then I thought it would be. Well, when Missy mentioned bombing out in Calculus I offered to make a change for her as a sort of thank you. She wasn't supposed to tell anyone, but she was being helpful to her roommate who was having major issues."

With her mouth hanging open Kate just stared at her sister. It wasn't the soul tearing stare her father used, but the befuddled one you see on character's faces on television. "At no point did this start to seem like a really bad idea?"

"I was actually making a little money and having a little fun. It felt good to nail Sculdini without her knowing it. Who knew the senior skanks were running their own grade scam? Poorly I might add since they're the ones that actually got caught. Updike called for the independent audit. She said she wanted to make sure things were cleared up when we came back from Christmas break."

"Wow. So, how much did you make? I mean maybe we could upgrade the fleabag for a better place." Tony was attempting to lighten the mood, but Kate was in big sister mode and not playing along.

"This isn't a joke Tony."

"Relax Kate, besides it's not enough for anything much better. Look the teachers have to turn in their original grade books by Friday morning. We just need to get into Updike's office and change those original grades. It won't be that hard to make the switch I kept all the changes confined to girls in my classes. We're only talking about 4 maybe 6 teachers. We just have to get in and out and get you two out of town before dad picks me up on Saturday."

"Are you listening to yourself? No Abby this will be really hard." Kate admonished. She'd been watching her sister's eyes throughout the explanation and something was off. Abby was off and it wasn't just the clothes and make-up, although they had definitely taken on a darker look from a few months back when they were home last. She was making excuses and didn't seem to care. All she wanted to do was cover up her mistakes. Abby might not want to deal with the wrath of their father, but the three of them were always honest with one another. She wouldn't even own up to the seriousness of the situation with them and that was most certainly out of character.

"Helping or leaving Katie?"

Tony didn't give Kate a chance to answer. "I'm sorry kiddo this time she's right. There are too many unknowns. We don't know if we need hard copies or removable drives to switch out. We don't know how much time we can get in the office to make the changes. If it was just your one class maybe we could pull it off, but there's no way I'm pulling off 4 to 6 classes."

"You're giving up before we even come up with a plan. Thanks you should of saved your gas money and not bothered to come."

"Abby you're not being fair." Kate was starting to get pissed off.

Tony took control again. He needed to stretch to think. First he paced, and then he paused, paced some more and finally settled on the edge of the desk. "We don't change the originals we change the changes."

Kate and Abby rolled their eyes for different reasons.

Abby spoke up first. "Thank you Captain-Obvious I already thought of that, but since the grade problems came to light they sort of hack-proofed the system. I couldn't get back in and I really didn't want to anyway."

"Not to worry we have a resident geek in the frat-house for these exact situations. The only thing is you're probably going to have to make a lot of refunds. Plus I'll need a list of all the girls and the grades you changed. Then there's making up the class of course and dad finding out. At least you'll be able to tell him on your terms instead of him finding out when he gets here on Saturday. I'm betting that's why you didn't want to go this route."

"Abby it sounds like the best solution. You said you brought the rest of your grades up they won't expel you for failing one class. You're a legacy. Grandfather Shepard donated a lot of money to this school when mom went here. It's the lesser of the evils." Kate offered.

"Whatever, I don't have a choice do I? I can't hack the new system alone. I can't break in and change the originals on my own. I have list for you Tony. It was my little insurance policy in case someone decided to snitch. Dad's gonna kill me and I'm not talking in exaggerations here I mean pick out my coffin kill me."

"Uh, yeah, that's a pretty safe bet, but it'll be nothing compared to if you'd gotten expelled." Kate moved to sit next to her and offer a hug of support, but Abby pulled out of it grabbing her bag and moved toward the bathroom.

"I need a shower guys. I'll do whatever you say."

Kate and Tony watched her retreat. Tony took out his cell phone and called the frat-house to speak with Gordo. Tossing the phone book on the bed he mouthed to Kate to find something to order for dinner. He needed pepperoni, sausage and extra cheese to even start thinking clearly.

Knowing her brother Kate went straight to the Ps looking for the nearest pizzeria. Once in a while her gaze would go back to the bathroom door. She needed to find out what was really going on with her sister before this all came out. They only had three days to put some sort of order back into Abby's life and get back to their own before Gibbs showed up. This was going to be one hell of a Christmas break. She was starting to wish she'd taken Ashen up on his offer to go with his family to Aspen. Even if she had ended up breaking both her legs it would've turned out better than what was waiting behind the doors of 2374 NW University Boulevard.

...

Up next: The break-in/the trip home/ a very tense family dinner.