"Alrighty, do one of you want to tell me why you're in the office?" Deeks asks, crouching down in front of six-year-old Caleb and Sophia. They look at each other, wordlessly having an entire conversation through a series of looks and shrugs.
"Fiwst of all, we didn't start the fight," Sophia began seriously. Deeks would have laughed at their ready defense. He'd certainly taught them well.
"Uh-huh, noted. So what did happen?"
"Jack was being really, really mean at recess. He called Sophia a bad name," Caleb continues.
"So you hit him?" Deeks guesses.
"No, I told him to stop and walked away. But he didn't. He started hitting me."
"So I jumped on his back—"
"—and then I punched him in the stomach."
"Ok, ok, ok, I think I've got a pretty good picture of what happened," Deeks interrupts the tag-teaming, inhaling deeply. Sophia and Caleb stare up at him with wide, innocent expressions that are extremely difficult to ignore.
"It sounds like you were put in a really tough situation, but what do we always talk about?"
They drop their heads in unison, automatically reaching for each other's hands.
"Don't resort to violence to solve our problems," Caleb recites softly. "I'm sorry, Daddy."
"We didn't mean to get in trouble," Sophia whispers, tears in her eyes.
"I know that, and it's going to be ok," he assures them with a gentle squeeze to each of their shoulders. "I'm still gonna need to talk to the principal and there will be some consequences. But I'm also going to talk to her about Jack, because what he didn't isn't right either."
"Ok, Daddy."
He stands up, holding out a hand to each of them. "Now comes the fun part. I still hate talking to principals."