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.