Jordan & Dylan, Age 18

            August 20^th, 2042; the 2042 baseball season had been underway and in full swing for a solid five months now. Today when Jordan and Dylan were the newest set of kids to turn eighteen. They had spent the weeks and days leading up to their eighteenth birthday looking at the home games the Washington Nationals had around their birthday. The only home game stint the Nationals had at their home park; Nationals Park was a four game stint against the Atlanta Braves after the Braves finished their series match up against the New York Yankees at their home field. So as a collective birthday present to the boys; Kasey, Jaylyn, Jethro, Jenny, the boys’ sisters and their cousins all chipped in to buy the boys front row seats on the first base line just behind the Nationals’ dugout.

            So the days leading up to the boys’ birthday were quite suspenseful for them. When August 20^th finally rolled around Jordan and Dylan were up as early as humanly possible. They changed into their Nationals jerseys before one of them checked on the Nationals’ website to see who the starting pitcher was for the Nationals as well as the Braves, this afternoon while the other twin made breakfast. While Dylan cooked and Jordan checked the starting pitchers, Jordan also checked the standings for the National League East division. The boys already knew that the Nationals only needed today’s game to sweep the Braves and to move into the first place slot since the New York Mets had just lost their three game set to their rivals from across the Hudson river in New York.

            Jethro would be over to pick the boys and Kasey up for the game soon. Downside was that Kasey was still in bed fast asleep next to his wife.  By this point Jordan was done with what he had been doing and joined his brother in the kitchen for breakfast just as Dylan finished cooking the eggs and sausage.

            “Dad still sleeping, Danny?”

            “Of course he is. Where else would he be?”

            “I swear if they are up and they are…” Jordan trailed off as the image in his mind came into focus and completely disgusted him.

            “Thanks a lot for that mental picture bro.”

            “Even if we were doing that, we as two married adults have every right to do such things within the walls of our home as well as our bedroom.” Jaylyn said putting her sons’ in their place as she and Kasey joined the boys.

            “Happy Birthday boys.” Kasey said to his sons in a somewhat subtle way of telling his wife to lay off a bit.

            “Subtle Kase. Happy Birthday, my boys.”

            With that the group heard a car horn honk from outside.

            “That’s Uncle Jethro.”

            “We’ve got to go.”

            “You guys go, I’ll be out in two seconds; three at the most.”

            The boys ran out to the car after they picked up their baseball mitts. Kasey quickly helped Jaylyn clean up from the boys’ breakfast before he did a quick change in the hallway bathroom.

            “So how are things going for Kyle and Bella?”

            “As well as things can go for two unmarried twenty-three year olds with a five year old can be.”

            “Okay, we’ll finish this later.”

            “Don’t we always.”

            “I have to go…”

            “Before Jethro and the boys kill you, I know.”

            Kasey kissed his wife good bye and left.  Jaylyn washed the boys’ breakfast dishes before she poured herself some red wine.

            Those boys of yours turned out quite well, my love. They are just as perfect as their sisters.

            A smile came across Jaylyn’s face as she put the pre-game on for the game that her husband, sons and brother-in-law where on their way to. While Jethro, Kasey and the boys were taking their seats as Jaylyn sat down on the couch in the living room with the television on and her wine in hand.

            After finishing her glass of wine; Jaylyn had inadvertently fallen asleep on the couch. The daydream she had been having the past few days had turned into a dream of hers after she closed her eyes. At first she had thought that she had entered into the alternate reality that Jethro went to when Michael Rose fired at him at the diner back in thirty years ago. Clearly it wasn’t the diner in some alternate, imagined reality.

            Jaylyn was on the back porch of what she believed was either her home or Jenny’s. She was sitting on a porch swing that was facing the backyard. Before long when a summer breeze blew a familiar scent of vanilla and freesia with a small hint of freshly cut lavender orchid tickled her nose. Only one person smelled like that and that one person had been dead longer than Jaylyn’s father had been.

            “Mom, is that you?” Jaylyn asked as she turned to see who was sitting next to her.

            “Who else would it be baby girl?”

            “How can this be? You’re dead. Am I?”

            “My sweet, crazy girl; you aren’t dead. You just fell asleep on the couch in your living room.”

            “Okay then why are you here? Why am I here sitting on the porch swing from Aunt Jayda’s Hamptons’ home?”

            “So you can see what I see every day.”

            “Then why the hell am I here?”

            “Jen?”

            “Yeah J, it’s me. Now why the hell am I here, Mom. My girls are adults and are happily married. You’re a bit too late with me.”

            “It would be the first time she was late or that you were late I should say.” Jaylyn said cheekily.

            “Jennifer, Jaylyn; please let’s be civil here. I don’t have much time before either of you wakes up.”

            With that reprimand Jaylyn, Jenny and their mother sat on the porch swing from their mother’s sister’s Hamptons’ home watching various scenes from past events in Jenny and Jaylyn’s lives. But the trip down memory lane was instantly interrupted by the sound of the plasma screen television from Jaylyn’s living room and the sound of Jenny’s private line at work ringing.

            “What’s that?” Jenny asked her mother as the trio watched the scene of the quads bonding over drinks in the living after Kelly had put Kate and Kassidy to bed the night before their fifth birthday.

            “Well my dear, while your sister fell asleep in her living room at home; you dozed off at your desk.”

            “Jethro is probably calling from the game.”

            “Go my loves, return back to the world of the living. Enjoy your lives, your husbands and those beautiful grandkids of mine.”

            “But Mom…” Jaylyn said trailing off.

            “Baby girl, it’s time for you to go and be with your family. Besides I’m always watching.”

            Jenny and Jaylyn both woke up in their respective places. Jaylyn watched the game while Jenny answered her phone. After Jenny hung up with Jethro, she dialed her sister.

            “J, did you just have a dream about mom and us?”

            “On Aunt Jayda’s porch swing from her Hamptons’ home?”

            “Yeah…”

            “Yeah I did.”

            With that Jenny and Jaylyn left the conversation as is. The duo returned to the activities that had been preoccupying their attention before they took their nap.

Kyle Luca, Age 18

December 13^th, 2036; it was a snowy sort of day on this particular December day. But this day was more than just a snow day for Kyle Luca. As usual he was the last kid out of Generation AO to turn eighteen.  Only in the recent past, Kyle Luca had revealed to his parents and eventually to his extended family that he had been dating/seriously involved with  Rachel’s eighteen year old daughter; Isabella “Bella”  Cranston. Of course that bit of information was the icing on the proverbial cake as far as the extended family went since they had recently learned that Madalyn was engaged to another member of the Cranston clan. Madalyn and Rachel’s eighteen year old son; Cooper “Coop” Cranston were engaged. Of course there was a twelve year age gap between Madalyn and Cooper, but no one said a word when it came to that since everyone knew if they had they would be on the receiving end of a head slap from Jethro; since there also was a twelve year age gap between him and his wife of thirty-seven years. It was odd to think that only two years ago Jenny and Jethro celebrated their thirty-fifth anniversary and that in a mere three years they would be celebrating their fortieth anniversary.  

All that pretty much replayed in anyone’s mind was the one line Tony said after he learned of his daughter’s engagement to Cooper, the one thing he had always said whenever Rachel was around or had just arrived; Doctor Kate’s sister. Of course as soon as Kyle Luca announced that he was dating Bella, Tim knew as well as Abby and the rest of the team that Tony wouldn’t be able to help himself when it came to making a reference to Kristen Stewart’s character from the Twilight Saga. All Kyle Luca wanted to do for his eighteenth birthday since Kate & Kassidy had a barbeque for their eighteenth birthday, Aliyah, Juliet & Zoey had their karaoke night for their eighteenth and of course Tali & Monique were overseas in Israel with their older siblings. In fact the DiNozzo kids were flying back to DC at the moment. They were still six hours away from landing at one of the DC airports.

Kyle Luca knew all of this; he also knew that by the time that Madalyn, Asher, Tali and Monique landed State side that they would want to do nothing but sleep due to the jetlag that would come from the eleven hour flight they were currently on. That was completely understandable so with all of this stored inside of what the others called Kyle Luca’s super genius mind. With everyone all over and doing their own things, Kyle Luca had decided that he wanted to visit the two colleges that he would be spending the next few years of his life at LSU and eventually GSU of course with his parents in tow. Abby was more than thrilled to be walking the grounds of her alma mater once again. Memories were flowing back to her from the minute she set foot on her old college campus. Both Kyle Luca and Tim knew how much this meant to Abby.

Of course with Abby away from the safety of NCIS and Jethro’s protection made Jethro all the more tense about Abby’s safety. Not that he didn’t completely trust Tim when it came to Abby’s safety, since Tim had kept Abby perfectly safe when they were down in Mexico some years ago. Jethro was just being Jethro as his daughters, his wife and his team put it. Jethro knew that Abby was perfectly safe.

So Abby showed her son and husband around to the various locales at LSU.  Tomorrow they would be heading over to Georgia to see the GSU campus. After the day long tour of the LSU campus the trio just wanted to crash in bed for the most part. As Caf-Pow fueled as Abby had been for the entire day, the caffeine high was coming to an end and she was crashing. Kyle Luca was tired but like Tony and pretty much any teenage boy in America; he was super hungry.

“Son, its past midnight and we’ve got another long day ahead of us. You need to rest; your mother will be taking us all over GSU later.” Tim advised his son as he got ready for bed in the hotel room the trio was sharing for their time in Baton Rouge.

“Dad, I’m hungry. We barely ate a thing today.”

“You sound like Tony.” Abby teased.

“Thanks Mom.”

Kyle Luca would be graduating from LSU in May of 2041 and would graduate from GSU in May of 2043. Kyle Luca would be twenty-three when he received his Bachelor’s degree then obviously he would be twenty-five by the time he had his Master’s degree.

“Fine, go grab a burger from the burger place we saw on our way back and come straight back.” Abby instructed her son.

“Okay. Thanks.”

“Son…”

“Relax, Dad; I have my knife and yes Mom before you ask I do have my phone one me too.”

With that Kyle Luca left his parents in the hotel room. Within seconds of leaving the hotel room, Kyle Luca’s cell phone rang.

“Mom, I’m not even out of the hotel yet.”

“Ky-Ky, It’s not your mom; it’s Bella and we need to talk now. It’s important.”

“Okay, fire away; Bells.” Kyle Luca said trying to hide the unsure tone his voice had.

One phone call and a trip to the local burger joint cut short lead Kyle Luca to return the hotel room completely ashen in his face. Abby asked her son what was wrong and of course Kyle Luca told his mom to forget about it. But Kyle Luca couldn’t; Bella and Rachel wouldn’t let him. Of course the minute his mother and Jethro found out what he was keeping to himself at the moment, they wouldn’t let him stand idly by.

Tali & Monique, Age 18

            December 3^rd, 2036; Tony and Ziva had asked their two youngest daughters, their two youngest children what they wanted/what they wanted to do for their eighteenth birthday. Tali and Monique had said they wanted to go on a trip overseas for their eighteenth birthday, but they hadn’t said where they wanted to go exactly. Although having a mother who had various ways to extricate things out of a person when she wanted it reminded the girls that they couldn’t hold off with making their decision for  too long. Of course Ziva would never in a million years coerce her daughters in to telling her where they wanted to go like she did with Laura Osgood during the Tanner kidnapping case from 2005.

            Truth be told, Tali and Monique knew where they wanted to go; they were too afraid to tell their parents what their chosen destination was. Tali and Monique wanted to go to Tel-Aviv, but they knew how their mother felt about her former homeland as well as how their mother felt about their grandfather who still resided in Tel-Aviv. They also understood why their mother became a naturalized U.S. citizen twenty-six years ago.  Tali and Monique were waiting for the opportune moment to reveal where they wanted to go. Of course only two other people knew where Tali and Monique wanted to go. And those two people were the girls own sister and brother.

            Madalyn and Asher had opted to take their kid sisters out for lunch at Applebee’s for the girls’ eighteenth.

“So when are you guys going to tell Mom and Dad that you want to go to Tel-Aviv?” Madalyn asked.

“When are you going to tell Mom and Dad that you’re engaged?” Tali questioned her older sister.

“Come on that’s not far, Tal; you can’t answer a question with another question.” Asher stated.

“When are you going to tell them that you’re dropping out of grad school to go live in New York to pursue a baseball career, Ash?” Monique asked.

“Okay, okay; that’s enough. Let’s just give it a rest and enjoy lunch without arguing for once.” Madalyn said switching to mediator mode.

“We’re Italian, sis; it’s in our blood to argue.” Asher commented.

The twins smiled at their brother’s comment as the waiter brought the group their drinks and took their entrée orders. Of course only two out of the four DiNozzo quartet were of legal drinking age at this point in time. Madalyn had an Appletini in front of her while Asher had a cold Budweiser in front of him. There was an upside to being thirty and twenty-six respectively and having two kid sisters that were old enough to drive but still too young to drink legally. Tali had a glass of Dr. Pepper in front of her while her twin who for the past eighteen years of their lives since the day they were born was exactly five minutes younger than her had a Mountain Dew in front of her.

“All kidding aside, when are you two telling Mom and Dad that you want to go over to Israel? You know that they want an answer from you two like right now.”

“We’ll tell them, it’s just a sensitive subject with mom considering the hell Saba put Mom through.”

“Yes we all know, but you two still have to tell them and soon; they are the ones paying for the airline tickets.”

“And they sure as hell aren’t going to let you two go over to Israel by yourselves despite your age so one of them or both of them will be chaperoning.” Asher said chiming in after his sisters’ back and forth conversation.

“Or we could persuade them to have one of you tag along or even convince them to let both of you chaperone if they feel we need to be chaperoned.” Tali said as she got a devious look in her eyes she mentally began planning things.

Shortly after Tali spoke, Monique was on her twin’s train of thought and had the same devious look in her eyes.

“I don’t like the sound of that.” Madalyn and Asher said warily in unison.

After lunch that afternoon, Tali and Monique sat down with their parents and told them where they would like to go for their birthday trip.

“You want to go where?” Ziva asked somewhat admonished at what she had just heard.

“Tel-Aviv.” Monique said clarifying what Tali had said moments before.

“The answer is no. You two can anywhere else in the world, Israel and Tel-Aviv are out of the question.” Ziva said firmly.

“Ziva, relax; one of us can go with them to Israel.” Tony said.

“Actually we were kind of hoping if Maddy and Ash could go with us.”

“And we promise we won’t go near Mossad or even contact Saba.”

Ziva was silent for some time before she gave her daughters an answer. Clearly she was mulling everything over.

“Fine you girls can go, your sister and brother will chaperone. And you must keep in touch and stay the hell away from Mossad.”

“And from your grandfather.” Tony said finishing his wife’s sentence.

The girls were happy. As they left their parents, Ziva saw that the girls knew something else.

“What else do you know?” Ziva questioned.

“Nothing.”

“What do you know?”

“Maddy is engaged.”

“And Ash is dropping out of grad school to pursue a baseball career.” Monique said finishing her sister’s sentence as they headed upstairs.

Ziva rolled her eyes after hearing the news about her and Tony’s eldest children.

“I don’t understand why they insist on keeping secrets from us.”

“They insist on doing that cause they get that from the spy mother.” Tony said trying to lighten the mood.

“Shut up.” Ziva said as she left the room.

Aliyah, Juliet & Zoey, Age 18

            September 15^th, 2035; it was a typical autumn day in the Washington, DC and Silver Spring areas. The original Shepard sisters sat at the patio table on the back deck of Jaylyn Shepard’s Silver Spring home. Before them in the spacious backyard were their respective daughters playing a bit of backyard water balloon baseball. Anyone else who would come across this particular backyard on this particular day and saw four thirty-six year olds, two seventeen year olds and three eighteen year olds playing with water balloons in the backyard of a suburban home to be a bit odd. Especially on an autumn day like today.

            Thing of it was, it wasn’t odd for the girls or their respective mothers. While the girls played their game, Jenny and Jaylyn were throwing back some cold beers while they watched the game before them. Jenny and Jaylyn were in their husbands’ opinions looking pretty damn good for being 65 and 60 years old respectively. But that wasn’t relevant today, what was relevant was that Jaylyn’s girls were now legally adults. This made Jaylyn as sad as it had made Jenny when the quads turned eighteen the year Aliyah, Juliet and Zoey were born. Jaylyn was quite adamant that her sister would be just as sadden when Kate and Kassidy turned eighteen the following year, but unlike her sister; Jaylyn still had her sons who were seven years away from growing up.

            With the girls before them Jenny and Jaylyn were feeling a bit nostalgic. In a few hours’ time the collective, the entire motley crew of NCIS dysfunctional-ness would be at a local karaoke haunt per the Shepard triplets’ wish.  Since they were babies, Jaylyn sang to them every night before they went to bed. When they were babies it was Jaylyn’s way of soothing the girls so that they would fall asleep but as they got older that had changed. Aliyah, Juliet and Zoey loved hearing their mother sing to them so much that they would purposefully be difficult when it came to going to bed over the years.

Jaylyn didn’t mind though since on some level even when she and Kasey first got together all those years ago and even after she had the boys, Jaylyn still considered it to be her and the girls against the world. Jaylyn and the girls were sort of like Lorelei and Rory from Gilmore Girls in that respect. So the time that Jaylyn had with the girls before they went to bed or when it was just the four of them over the years were more than precious to Jaylyn. They were moments that she would never trade in a million years for anything else.

So hours later the group had vacated the backyard and was now occupying the karaoke bar with the rest of the collective. The girls egged their mother to get up on the stage whenever the opportunity presented itself. They wanted Jaylyn to sing the song that she always sang to them. The song that she sung to them every night for the past eighteen years and the nine months she had been pregnant with them all those years ago. As much as Jaylyn was enjoying her daughters begging she could tell that it was starting to bother the others so she gave in somewhat.

Jaylyn told the man who was running the karaoke equipment what song she wanted and he had asked her if she wanted the lyrics on the screen in front of her but Jaylyn said it wasn’t necessary. With that the music started and Jaylyn waited for the music to give her the cue she waited for.

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder,
You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger,
May you never take one single breath for granted,
GOD forbid love ever leave you empty handed,
I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens,
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

I hope you dance....I hope you dance.

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance,
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Livin' might mean takin' chances but they're worth takin',
Lovin' might be a mistake but it's worth makin',
Don't let some hell bent heart leave you bitter,
When you come close to sellin' out reconsider,
Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

I hope you dance....I hope you dance.
I hope you dance....I hope you dance.
(Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along,
Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder where those years have gone.)

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens,
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

Dance....I hope you dance.
I hope you dance....I hope you dance.
I hope you dance....I hope you dance..
(Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along
Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder where those years have gone)

           

The song ended and Jaylyn left the stage as quickly as she could. Her daughters were beaming with happiness and that’s all that mattered to her. A year from now the girls would be nineteen and away at college just as their cousins, Madalyn and Asher had done when they were the girls’ age. And when this moment came a year from now it would just be Jaylyn, Kasey and the boys in that big old house of theirs. Not that it bothered Jaylyn that come September of 2036 that she would be the only woman in the house, what bothered her was that her baby girls would be gone.

Kate & Kassidy, Age 18

            November 19^th, 2036; the one day that Jenny dreaded had arrived no matter how hard she had tried to stop it.  Today Kate and Kassidy were eighteen years old, albeit they weren’t her first set of kids to turn eighteen; it was still a shock. Kate and Kassidy were her babies, there were no more little Gibbs running through the house. That made Jenny quite sad.  Before she knew the girls would be heading off to college and the Gibbs household would be empty. There wasn’t anything wrong in Jenny’s mind when she thought of her and Jethro having their home to themselves in a few months’ time, she had just been used to having her daughters around; all seven of them.

            By this point; the remainder of the quads had taken the leap of faith and settled down.  Jethro had walked five of his seven daughters down the aisle and he was in no hurry to walk his last two daughters down the aisle. Kelly was still Kelly Gibbs – Grant, but had decided to completely take her husband’s last name just as her mother had once and just like her step-mom did. Delilah was now Delilah Taylor. Arabella was now Arabella Tanner. And Emiliana was now Emiliana Wilson. Of course Madison was still Madison Ryan.

            Amira had retired from the Corps as a General, she was also one of the few Marines to rise to the highest rank of both enlisted and officer within the Corps ever which made Jethro quite proud. What also made Jethro proud was that along the way Amira had inspired his nephews to join up when they could. But little did Jenny and Jethro know at the moment but they were about to be surprised by their twins once again. Kate and Kassidy had decided to follow in their family’s military footsteps once they turned eighteen. Kate had decided to enlist in the Corps while her twin had decided to join the Navy in honor their maternal grandfather. Today the twins were planning on telling their parents what they had decided and hoped to God their parents would be okay with the decision that had been made.

            Things were changing fast for the Gibbs family whether Jenny liked it or not. The night before Jenny and Jethro threw Amira a Welcome Home/Happy Retirement from the Corps party. And of course Abby tried to plan the whole thing but Jenny had stood her ground long enough for Abby to realize that Jenny was fully capable of throwing a party for Amira. After all Jenny had been at the party planning helm a lot longer than Abby had. With the party the night before everyone was up until the wee hours of the morning.  So when Jenny, Jethro and their twin daughters woke up hours after the party end, the quartet were instant best friends with the family Keurig. Noemi was stunned to see how tired her bosses were but she also loved seeing how coffee dependent the youngest two Gibbs senoritas were. Seeing Kate and Kassidy with their coffee cups literally attached to their hands as if the cups had been glued on reminded Noemi of the quads so much.

Everyone that was in the kitchen knew that they had another long day ahead of them. Kate and Kassidy were having their party today. This particular November had been unseasonably warm so it was if the Indian summer just continued after August had ended two months or so ago. So due the extended Indian summer, Kate and Kassidy were able to have a barbeque for their eighteenth which was something that they had always wanted but never got since they were autumn babies.

The usual suspects were in attendance plus a few guests no one expected to be there. Jack and Ann were there celebrating their granddaughters’ birthday. Jaylyn and her family were at the barbeque. Kelly and Charlie were there as well as Shannon. Of course the twins found it a bit odd that their sister’s mother was at their barbeque when she had no direct ties to them.  Rachel came with her husband as well as their son and daughter who were around the same age as the twins.  Delilah and Carson were there. Arabella and Zach were hanging out as were Emiliana and Zane. Madison and Parker were there along with Sam. And of course the girls’ extended NCIS family was also at the barbeque. Of course Kate, Paula and Dana were also there in spirit.

There were a few political figures were there because Jenny had to invite them due to her career. Jenny, Jethro and Sam all periodically talked to the political power players because they had to; but for the most part the NCIS group as the political people called them stuck to themselves throughout the course of the barbeque.

Since everyone was avoiding the political people at the barbeque until they left, Kate and Kassidy figured it was now or never when it came to telling their family about them joining the Marines and the Navy.

“Kassidy and I have something to tell all of you.” Kate said.

“Go ahead.”

“Kate and I are joining the Corps and the Navy.”

No one said anything for what seemed like an eternity.

“I’m joining the Corps and I am actually leaving for basic training at Parris Island in the morning while Kassidy is joining the Navy and is leaving for OSC training at the Naval Station in Newport, Rhode Island when I leave tomorrow.”

There was more silence. Eventually everyone came around and were quite proud of the girls.

Eighteen years, Kate Jayden Gibbs; you’ve carried our name quite well over the years. I am so proud of you.

Kassidy Jacey Gibbs, you’ve made me so proud over the past eighteen years and you just made even more proud of you. Keep wearing my name with pride

My sweet granddaughters, I am so proud of you just as I am of your sisters, your mother, aunt and cousins. Your grandfather is proud of you too and is pleased with your choices to join the Corps and the Navy. Be safe my baby girls.

Hours had passed and all the guests, that were at the barbeque physically as well as spiritually had left for the night leaving the Gibbs family to themselves for the remainder of the night. The five older Gibbs girls along with their respective spouses had decided to stay the night. Kelly and the quads’ respective husbands knew that it was important to their wives that they got to spend some time with their sisters before they left in the morning. The family had decided to settle in the living room for the rest of night just minutes before the new episode of TNT’s Rizzoli & Isles aired.

“Is it me or does Dr. Maura Isles look a lot like Kate?” Kate asked the rest of the family on a commercial break.

“She kind of does.” Jethro answered his daughter before the show came back from commercial break.

For the remainder of the episode the Gibbs family watched the rest of the Rizzoli & Isles episode before calling it a night.

Jordan & Dylan, Age 16

            August 20^th, 2040; to say that the Mitchell boys hadn’t inherited their mother’s temper sixteen years ago today would be a far cry from the truth. Jordan and Dylan had inherited their mother’s temper just as their three older sisters had. Today was proof of that. Jaylyn had known from the moment that she found out that she was pregnant with Aliyah, Juliet and Zoey twenty-two years ago that they always had to deal with other people judging them along with other things just from the one decision Jaylyn had made, but Jaylyn never once thought that her sons would ever have to deal with what her daughters had to deal with. Sad truth was that they had all five of them because Jaylyn Shepard was their mother and she had a one night stand twenty-two years ago.

Around 1000 that morning while Jaylyn was sitting at her desk in the squad room with Ziva, McGee and Tony at their respective desks; Jaylyn received a call at her desk.

“Special Agent Shepard.”

“Hello Ms. Shepard, it’s Principal Smith; at your sons’ school. I hate to call you while you are at work, but your sons were in a fight this morning and they are now residing in my outer office as we speak.”

“Okay and why are you calling me? It’s easier for my husband to step away from work than it is for me to.”

“We did call your husband, Ma’am; he was unable to leave work.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can.” Jaylyn said as she hung up her phone.

Milliseconds later Jaylyn had her gun attached to her on her left hip inches from her badge before she breezed out of the squad room leaving her teammates and friends wondering what the hell was going on.

Moments after Jaylyn had left; Jethro had returned from yet another coffee run. This time he had only gotten himself a refill instead of getting coffee for himself, Jenny and Jaylyn.

“Where’s Shepard?” Jethro asked his remaining team.

“Referring to us by our last names again, huh boss?” Tony commented.

“Shut it DiNozzo. Where’s J?”

“Jaylyn stepped out, boss.” McGee said.

“I got that McGee, where did she go?”

“We don’t know Gibbs. All we know is that she received a phone call a few minutes ago which caused her to leave in a hurry.” Ziva said.

“McGee, find her.” Jethro demanded.

“Boss, I can’t; Jaylyn would know and she’s quite frightening when she’s mad.”

Jethro gave his junior agent the stare which struck enough fear in McGee at that point for McGee to locate or at the very least try to locate Jaylyn on his computer by tracking the GPS chip in her phone.

“There’s no need to look for her, Jethro.” Jenny said as she entered the squad room.

Jethro gave his wife a look that he thought that Jenny needed to share what she knew as far as her sister’s whereabouts.

“How many times do I have to tell you, Jethro those stares of yours don’t work on me anymore like they work on McGee.”

“Hey…”

Jenny and Jethro both looked at McGee just like they had looked at Tony when he had his lapse in judgment thirty-four years ago when Abby had a stalker.

“Ma’am.” McGee corrected himself just as Tony had years prior.

“Jaylyn is at Jordan and Dylan’s school, their principal called her. The boys apparently were in a fight with two other boys who called Jaylyn a tramp and a whore in front of them.”

“They have her temper.” Jethro quipped.

“All five of them have J’s temper.”

Meanwhile Jaylyn had arrived at Woodrow Wilson High School, her sons’ school. Jaylyn made her way to the visitor’s center of the high school before she was able to go to Principal Smith’s office.

“Can I help you?” the visitor center attendant asked over the intercom.

“Yes, I’m here to see Principal Smith and to retrieve my sons.”

“May I ask who this is, so I can let Principal Smith know?”

Clearly the visitor center attendant was new to the job she had.

“My name is Jaylyn Shepard.”

“And your sons are?”

“Jordan and Dylan Mitchell.”

“I’ll give you a visitor’s pass so you can go see Principal Smith, but I can’t release Jordan and Dylan to you.”

“Why not?”

“Their last name is Mitchell and yours isn’t.”

“Will you get your pea sized brain out of the damn clouds; everyone inside this building knows that Jordan and Dylan Mitchell are my sons. Ask anyone.” Jaylyn said as she walked pass the visitor center attendant to go to Principal Smith’s office.

Sitting in two of the four chairs in the outer office of Principal Smith’s office were two very frightened sixteen year old boys. Jaylyn could see the fear in her sons’ eyes as she drew closer to the room.

“We’ll talk later.” Jaylyn said as she entered into the principal’s office.

Hours later and a talk with both parents later the twins had been restricted to go nowhere but school, the library and their home. Of course Jordan and Dylan did the complete opposite of what they had been told. They went out their respective bedroom windows and went straight to their respective girlfriend’s bedroom via lattice work and a conveniently opened bedroom window on their girlfriend’s end.

At one point Jaylyn had gone to check on her sons and that was when she discovered their absence. She instantly went into mother/agent mode as she frantically called Jenny, Jethro, the rest of the team, her daughters and anyone else she was able to think of that would possibly know where the boys were.

An hour or so later, Jordan and Dylan tried as hard as possible to sneak back into their house without being detected by either of their parents. That was easier said than done especially when they walked through the front door they had more than just their parents waiting for them. Once their Aunt, Uncle, cousins and the rest of their family; biological and NCIS related left them alone with their mother, the boys had their heads handed to them on silver platters… almost literally.

After Jaylyn had ripped her sons a new one yet again that night and everyone left, Jaylyn retired to hers and Kasey’s bedroom to calm down. This moment was when Kasey had decided to give his sons his gift. Much like his wife had her tradition with their daughters; Kasey figured that he should have his own tradition with their sons. But unlike McGee, Kasey wasn’t giving his sons a retractable knife. Instead underneath all the blue wrapping paper were two iPhones.

“Thanks Dad.” the boys said as they mentally connected the dots between their new cell phones and their Uncle’s rules.

“Trying to teach us a lesson, huh Dad?” Jordan asked.

“What do you mean?” Kasey asked his son, not knowing what his son was getting at exactly due to the fact that his mind was still scattered from the prior events.

“Rule # 3, Dad.” Dylan said.

Kasey was still a bit puzzled.

“Rule # 3: Never be unreachable.” Jordan said clarifying things.

“Yeah let’s go with that.”

With that the boys returned to their respective bedrooms as their father joined their mother.

Kyle Luca, Age 16

December 13^th, 2034; everyone on Team Gibbs revered and somewhat feared Leroy Jethro Gibbs. They lived by his ever expanding list of rules in their professional lives and in their personal lives. Of course besides his own daughters, his nieces and nephews along with the rest of the kids; there were only three people that were able to get away with murder as the cliché went. Everyone knew who and why the trio Jethro had given free passes to could get away with things. Abby was Jethro’s favorite and always would be. Jenny was the wife and the mother of six of his seven daughters as well as the love of his life; at least the second love of his life. Jaylyn’s free pass was due to the fact that she was the sister-in-law.

But that was beside the point today.  Today was the sixteenth birthday of one Kyle Luca McGee. Albeit sixteenth birthdays weren’t that big of a deal that it was for the girls in the collective when it came to the big Sweet Sixteen birthday when it came to the boys in the collective. Of course having Abby as his mother, Kyle Luca didn’t have much of a choice when it came to the extravaganza that were his birthdays; of course Kyle Luca’s thirteenth birthday had to be his favorite birthday out of all of them so far. The one birthday of his that wasn’t over the top like the previous fifteen birthdays had been.

“Kyle, come in here please.” Tim called his son.

“What is it, Dad? I was playing Sims 3.”

Kyle Luca was like his father in that respect.

“Relax; you can go back to once we’re done with this.”

“Okay then can we get through with this?”

“How many Caf-Pows have you had today?” McGee asked his son knowing full well that his son had the same Caf-Pow addiction that his son’s mother had.

“Just two.”

“You’ve had more than just two Caf-Pows, Kyle. It’s like you’ve had ten. You’re just as hyper as your mother gets when she has five Caf-Pows.”

“Can we just get this over with; my Sim is one promotion away from reaching his lifetime goal and I’d really like to get back to it before the insanity Mom is throwing later.”

“You were always such an impatient child; you got that from your aunt.” Tim said as he handed over the gift that he took a lot of time in choosing.

“Dad…”

Kyle Luca unwrapped the gift his dad had given him. Inside the medium size box held a retractable knife. Kyle Luca was a bit puzzled by the gift that sitting before him.

“Thanks for the knife, Dad…”

“Son, this is a tradition that I am starting with you in hope that someday you will continue it with your son when he’s sixteen.”

“Okay…”

“Don’t take this lightly, Kyle. You’re mesmerizing Gibbs’ rules just as the rest of us have and still are at times. This knife has significance to it.”

“Rule Nine.”

“Never go anywhere without a knife.” Tim said.

“Okay thanks, Dad.” Kyle said in response as he removed the knife from the box it had been resting in and flipped it in the air just above his hand like Jethro had with Ziva’s retractable knife twenty-nine years ago when the team had Sorrow case before he returned to his room to play his game.

“You’ve spent too much time around Gibbs and Ziva.” Tim said as Abby came into the room.

“Who’s spent too much time around Gibbs and Ziva?” Abby asked as she set the Party City bags down.

“Our son. How much did you spend at Party City?” Tim questioned.

“Its need to know, Timmy. Why have you deemed it that our son has spent too much time around Gibbs and Ziva?” Abby asked in attempt to divert the conversation.

“I gave Kyle the knife while you were out; he took the knife out of the box and flipped it in the air like Gibbs did when we got the Sorrow case.”

“Ah.”

“So what did you get and how much did you spend at Party City?”

“Its need to know, Mr. Gemcity.”

“You, Ziva and Tony are never going to let me live that down are you?”

“Ah no.”

“Figured that much.”

“Look at it this way; McGregor and Amy lived happily ever after just like in your books; Mr. Gemcity.” Abby said as she gave her husband a drive by kiss as she went into one of the other rooms.