Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or any of its characters.

Chapter 1

"Taylor?"

Taylor looked up at Michael as she was reluctantly brought back to reality. "Huh?"

"What's your answer to question six?"

She didn't bother looking at the sheet in front of her before answering, there was no point, the page was blank. "Four point seven five."

Michael checked the answer sheet. "Nope."

"Fifteen point two?"

"No."

"Two point seven?"

Someone behind her snickered.

He gave her a warning look. "That's enough guesses Taylor!"

At least he would leave her alone for a while now, she figured, and retreated into her head again. Taylor wondered what her mom was doing right now. It had only been just over four days since Patricia left, but Taylor missed her. And what if she decided not to come back? Fighting back the tears that were welling up, she turned her attention to Mr Substitute Teacher, Michael. It was his fault she'd ended up in trouble for cutting school, when her mom and dad were on honeymoon. This thought just made her think about her mom again. Why'd she have to go help her brother anyway? Atlanta was an awful long distance away, she'd checked it out on the internet. Taylor blinked the tears away again and tried to think of something else.

When the bell rang, Taylor swept everything from the desk into her bag, but when she started to stand, Michael stopped her. Once they were alone Michael perched himself on the desk beside her and folded his arms.

"I thought after we had our little chat yesterday you were actually going to start making an effort."

Shrugging, Taylor checked her watch. "Can you make it quick? My dad gets worried if I'm late." Until Patricia returned, she was back to her old routine, and her first port of call when school was finished was NCIS.

"If that's the way you want to do it, that's fine." He pushed himself of the smaller desk, and reached over to his own. "Just give this to your dad."

Taylor stared at the envelope now in her hand. What was it with teachers and notes?"

"Well go on, you don't want to be late!"

Narrowing her eyes, Taylor was just about to tell him exactly what he could do with the note, but then she remembered what happened the last time she'd done that. It had not ended well. Keeping her mouth clamped firmly shut, she folded the letter in half and slipped it into her back pocket.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

The whole team was missing when Taylor reached the bullpen, so, dropping the letter onto her dad's desk, she went to find Abby.

Abby wasn't there either, so Taylor used the opportunity to take a closer look at some of the laboratory equipment. Knowing that she had a tendency to touch things without thinking first, Taylor kept her hands firmly in her pockets. She checked out the mass spec first, it was Abby's favourite, but Taylor couldn't see why. Her favourite was the microscope. Abby had some really cool slides, her parasite ones being the best. Taylor loved checking out the mini monsters, with their nasty looking fangs and numerous legs. Maybe Abby would let her look at a few when she got back.

Taylor was on her second lap around the lab when Abby appeared, Caf-Pow in hand. "Thought you might be hiding down here, your dad's looking for you."

For some reason that got Taylor's back up. "I'm not hiding! There was no one in the bullpen earlier."

Abby set her drink down, but before she could say anything else, Taylor had grabbed her bag and stalked out of the lab.

Her dad wasn't even there when she returned to the bullpen. Tony was though, and was in his element as he ordered Tim and Ziva around. He really was milking the whole 'shot in the line of duty' thing. Taylor wondered if they would be so considerate if they knew, like she did, that Tony didn't need the crutches any more.

"Hey, squirt!" Tony smiled over at her.

"Where'd he go?"

Tony nodded in the general direction of MTAC. "Shouldn't be long." He motioned for her to move closer, looking towards the stairs to make sure it was safe before he spoke. "No sign of your mom coming back yet, he's been a real pain in the…."

"He's been what, DiNozzo?" Gibbs appeared behind him.

"Nothing boss." He braced himself for a headslap, but it didn't happen.

Instead Gibbs grabbed his overcoat, from behind his own desk.

"Going home boss?" Tony could already see his two probies finishing up the rest of his work for him. His hopes were dashed however, when Gibbs replied.

"Yes Tony, and will you get rid of those crutches, you haven't needed them for days!"

Tim and Ziva both glared at Tony, who tried to look as innocent as he could.

Gibbs ignored them and softened his voice as he turned to his daughter. "You coming?"

She nodded and followed him towards the elevator. As they passed Ziva's desk her dad spoke to Ziva, making sure he was loud enough for Tony to hear.

"He's all yours!"

Taylor stopped to watch what was going to happen next. Quickly realising he was being thrown to the wolves, Tony swung his feet down off his desk, and bolted for the men's washroom, his limp miraculously cured.

Ziva winked at her. "He will have to come out sometime, yes?"

Grinning, Taylor moved quickly to catch up with her dad.

"How long do you think he'll stay in the bathroom?" She asked as they waited for the elevator to take them down to the parking garage.

He smiled down at her. "I don't know. How long would you hide in there if Ziva was after you?"

Thinking, Taylor shook her head. Tony always said it wasn't a good idea to piss off the 'crazy ninja chick'. "He's gonna be in there for a really long time, isn't he?"

"Uh huh."

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Taylor didn't say anything on the short car ride home. Jethro had glanced over a few times, but she seemed to be in a world of her own. That's exactly how Michael had described her behaviour in his letter. The fact that Taylor didn't seem to care that she's been sent home from school with a note for him was also completely out of character, and she hadn't even asked why they were going home earlier than usual.

As soon as they were home, Taylor made straight for the TV, and he left her to it while he went and changed. Ten minutes later he was back downstairs, rummaging through a drawer in the kitchen. Finding what he had been looking for he joined Taylor in the living room and dumped the pile of take away menus on the coffee table.

"You can pick."

Sliding off the couch she knelt down in front of the low table. Gibbs took her place, and watched her begin to sort through the pile.

"So how was school?"

Taylor shrugged, more interested in the fact that they were going to have something edible for dinner. Last night's attempt by her dad had not been a great success. Taylor had no idea how it was possible to screw up chilli, but what came out of that pot could not be described as food. They had ended up eating peanut butter sandwiches instead.

"You're missing your mom, huh?"

She nodded, and set some of the menus to the side, then spotted another one for the reject pile, Mexican was definitely out.

"She is comin' back, isn't she?" Taylor

"Course she's coming back."

"You sure? What if she likes where she is now, better than here?" Taylor moved another menu to the rest of the rejects.

"Come on, who wouldn't want to come back to us?" The instant the words were out of his mouth he realised what he'd said, and could of kicked himself, as well as his ex wife.

Taylor had frozen, but he knew what she was thinking, even though she had her back to him.

"Set those down for a minute."

Reaching down, he lifted her up beside him, and put his arm around her.

"Hey, look at me."

It took a moment for her to look up at him, and when she did, he was glad Ducky wasn't around because he'd have given him one hell of a head slap. Taylor was fighting hard not to cry as she waited for him to speak, eyes not only filled with unshed tears but with heart wrenching insecurity.

"Taylor, your mom is nothing like Melissa, she hasn't left us, and she WILL be coming home."

"How do you know?"

"I know. Just ask Abby, she'll tell you that I know everything.

She digested what he'd said. It was true, Abby was always telling her that.

"Your sure you didn't have a fight?" There was still a little doubt left.

"There was no fight."

"Well why didn't we go with her?"

"Now come on, you know she wasn't gonna take you out of class!"

"I wouldn't have minded."

"I can believe that. Is all this worrying been why you haven't been paying attention in school?"

"It's hard to concentrate." Then another thought struck her. If her mom was coming back after all she wouldn't be pleased when she saw the letter from Michael. "Are you gonna show her the letter?"

Jethro grinned, at least she seemed to accept the fact now that Patricia hadn't left them. "How about I don't tell your mom about the note, and you don't tell her that I nearly poisoned us last night."

Happy with that, Taylor nodded before picking the menus up again. "Maybe we should order something for Tony too, he's probably still hiding. Do you think they would deliver to a bathroom?"