Doppelgänger: Family Life

Out of Bounds!

AJ, Tom, Zora and Amy were spending the weekend with Jenny and Gibbs. Gibbs went upstairs to shower while the kids were in the living room watching TV.

"Hey, Tom. Let's go down in the basement and explore," AJ whispered. "It's getting boring up here."

"I dunno, AJ..."

"Come on! The girls are being all mushy and gross with this weird chick flick," AJ hissed. Tom looked over at the three girls who all looked close to tears while watching The Notebook.

Tom sighed but agreed. He and AJ snuck away from the girls and got to the door leading to the basement. Tom stopped AJ from reaching for the doorknob.

"Wait, AJ. Uncle Gibbs always told us never to go down here," Tom reminded him worriedly.

AJ scoffed. "Please, Uncle Gibbs was just messin' with us. He didn't say 'or else', did he?"

Tom shrugged. "Guess not."

"Okay then. And relax, what could happen?" AJ chuckled. He opened the door, and both boys started to go down the stairs. The smell of sawdust and old tools met them. What they saw shocked them.

"Whoa..." AJ remarked.

"Is that a boat??" Tom asked in disbelief.

The skeleton of a large wooden boat sat unfinished, with a bit of writing at the side.

"The...Payton?" AJ read. "He's building a boat in his basement and naming it after Pate? Why doesn't he name it 'The AJ'?

"Um, do you really want me to answer that?" Tom shook his head. "The more important thing is, how is he gonna get it out?" Tom wondered.

"Wow, Uncle Gibbs," AJ remarked, looking at the old, dusty wooden TV in the corner. "Very tech savvy."

Tom winced at the vintage TV and turned it on. It showed a staticy black and white screen. He couldn't imagine a time with no computers, video games, or color TV.

"What's in this jar?" Tom asked, picking up a jar filled with an amber colored liquid. He sniffed and screwed his face up in confusion.

"What's this smell like to you, AJ?" Tom inquired, handing the jar to AJ. AJ smelled the contents and grimaced.

"Bourbon. It's Aunt Jenny and Uncle Gibbs' favorite alcohol drink. There's a bottle of it under Aunt Jen's desk and a bottle in Uncle Gibbs' cabinet. Don't ask me how I know that," AJ answered, gagging slightly.

"It's in a dirty old nail jar," Tom winced. "That's not very sanitary."

"You ever seen Uncle Gibbs get sick? He doesn't care about sanitary rules," AJ replied. "Whoaaa, look at this!"

AJ had opened a long drawer to see a shiny black sniper rifle. He reached in to pull it out, when they both heard footsteps.

"Oh no! Uncle Gibbs is coming!" Tom whispered. "We gotta get out of here!"

"Hide!" AJ hissed.

"Where!?"

"In here, quick!" AJ grabbed his arm and pulled him into a storage closet near the stairs, shutting the door.

AJ pushed the door open a crack to see Gibbs come down the basement stairs, and sigh in contentment. He got a sanding block and began to carefully sand the side of the boat. After about 10 minutes, AJ turned to Tom.

"We wait till he turns around, and then we sneak outta here," AJ told him quietly. Tom nodded, but was worried about what Gibbs would do when he found out they had been there.

The boys saw Gibbs turn around to get a bottle of bourbon from his cupboard then freeze. Looking down, Gibbs found his gun drawer open. He slowly closed it and proceeded to get his bottle of bourbon, taking out a nail jar.