Halloween, Gibbs' Place, 2010.

With the latest case closed down, paperwork submitted and crime scenes fully cleared, the team, including Abby, Ducky and Jimmy had made their way over to Gibbs place.

It had been Ducky's idea and he was desperate to try out his new recipe for pumpkin soup with paprika on the guys. He'd have invited them to his own place but Gibbs was intent on staying home and not venturing out amidst all the revelry and pranks that seemed to go on for days now at this time of the year. Ducky could recall a time when it all used to be confined to just the one evening. "Commercialism the death of traditionalism," he had told them.

As he and Gibbs pottered around the kitchen warming up the soup and getting drinks for everyone, the rest sat around Gibbs lounge talking.

Tony had just reeled off some of the hundreds of pranks he had pulled as a child and the reason why as a cop he had come to hate this time of year. However he was overall quite pleased with himself about winning the Larcency Lottery that he'd entered into with the guys at the precinct and Ziva had been asking him more about the youth group he had donated his winnings to.

Tony, realizing he was dominating the conversation a little and his voice tiring a bit turned the conversation to Tim.

"Hey Probie tell us more about the prank you pulled at Alameda as a kid, it sounded pretty cool," asked Tony who had wanted to ask Tim more about it when he had first mentioned it at the start of the case. However dead marines tended to get in the way of them ever having time to finish tales of youthful high-jinx during working hours.

Smiling and shifting his position on the floor, propped up against the couch, Tim turned to the group to regale them with the story, (well the fun parts of it anyway). As he began, they were joined by Ducky, who took up a position in the armchair and Gibbs, who sat on the sofa just next to where Tim was propped up.

Now all with a drink a piece and soup bowl in hand they turned to listen to Tim's adventure.

As he got to the part about the Barker Lounger, Abby and Tony were practically at the edges of their seats.

"How much further did it travel?" How fast did the bedside cabinet move?" the questions started to come thick and fast.

"Urgh, never got to take the rest of it in much," answered Tim.

"How come?" asked Tony greatly intrigued by the Probies pranking prowess at such a young age.

"I got caught and put in a cell for the weekend," answered McGee.

"Way to go Probie, locked up at age ten, I think you might hold the record here," laughed Tony impressed that his little brother had the daring and tenacity to pull off such a lavish stunt so young and face the consequences of it.

"Poor McGee," said Abby, "how could you lock up a little child for that?"

"Well in Israel its not such an unusual thing," stated Ziva quite matter of factly, "stunts like that affecting our military capability are dealt with quite harshly."

"They are here too Ziva," added Gibbs.

"Sure are," agreed Tim, "but it was my dad who had be locked up."

"Your Dad?" questioned Palmer, "what did your mom say about it?"

"She didn't know all of it at first," said Tim, "most of the discipline at my house was carried out by my dad."

"Did he spank you?" asked Abby.

"No he used a belt," answered Tim going mildly red and dropping his head in embarrassment and not quite liking where this conversation was now leading.

"What he belted you and left you all alone in a cell?" Abby was horrified, "why the cruel son of a ….."

"Hey that's enough Abigail?" interjected Ducky just before he envisaged her getting a slap from Gibbs for rattling off a whole load of expletives. Mind you; not that every one of them wouldn't be justified about McGee's father.

"I wasn't all alone anyway," added Tim, "I had my cell mate."

"What they put you in general population?" quizzed Tony rather surprised at the matter.

"No," laughed Tim, "this marine Sergeant stayed with me, helped me out,"

"Go on," encouraged Abby sensing there was still more to this story.

"Well he and his wife looked after me, he worked with me and my friends on the chain gang clearing up the destruction we had caused." He continued.

"What was he doing in there in the first place?" asked Ziva.

"He was the one who caught me, well after the other one had dropped me after I had bitten him," answered McGee, "seems I got him into trouble too as he was supposed to be patrolling the area but had gone on an unauthorized coffee break."

"I bet he wasn't happy," commented Tony.

"Well actually he was pretty cool, his wife too," Tim replied, "he talked to me, sat with me, comforted me and made sure his wife bought sufficient butt cream for the both of us."

"What he got spanked too?" asked Palmer.

"Yeah the base commander believed in immediate action for minor transgressions rather than having paper punishments," explained Tim.

"A bit like you boss," joked Tony, then seeing the raised eyebrow from the team leader, "not that I'm saying there is anything wrong in the way you lead your team Sir."

"Sounds like a good guy," continued Ziva diverting the conversation away from the glare Tony was getting from Gibbs.

"Yeah, one of the best," reminisced Tim.

"Did you and he stay in touch?" asked Abby who was already romanticising about the idea of the coffee starved marine who stepped in to save the young rascal and then went on to have great adventures with him.

"Sadly not," said Tim, "After I got out of jail my mom kept me busy every day for six months with chores to pay off the money she had spent to pay back the base commander and his wife," he paused to take another mouthful of the delicious soup he had been given. "I think he and his wife transferred off of the base soon after this and I didn't know his real name to be able to look him up and thank him properly."

"What he never gave you his name," asked Ducky rather curiously.

"No I only knew his jail name," replied Tim.

"Oh that's a shame," commented Abby, "sounds like he was a good man."

"The best," agreed Tim. He sat for a moment in silence reminiscing about the better parts of his unusual punishment.

"Never mind," said Gibbs, "I'm sure he knows how you felt."

"Yeah," agreed McGee, "but it would have been nice to be able to tell him in person."

"He knows Titch," Gibbs said softly, placing a hand on the young mans shoulders, "he knows."

Startled, Tim turned to his Boss, "LJ?" he questioned.

Gibbs nodded and smiled picked up his glass and clinked it against the one Tim was holding out for no other reason than he had stopped mid drink in shock at the realization of who that marine sergeant had been. "Good Times."

"What the two of you?" Tony voiced the surprise that everyone else in the room was experiencing.

"Yup, the two of us, LJ and Titch," confirmed Gibbs with an emphatic nod.

The room fell into giggles and laughter. "That's just too cute," Ziva added to the proceedings.

The conversation moved on; questions about the unauthorized coffee break and the spanking that followed had been banned by Gibbs, predominantly because he feared Ducky would get ideas on how to control his caffeine intake.

As they sat there and finished their soup, Gibbs and Tim, LJ and Titch; smiled knowingly at each other, scooped up the last mouthful of their supper and tapped their spoons twice on the sides of their dish. The others didn't notice but they did. It was the unspoken 'thank you' and the unspoken 'you're ok kid.'