Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or any of its characters.
Chapter 1
Taylor's rapidly increasing 'lack of effort' with her school work over the past few weeks, resulted in her having to do her homework in the kitchen again, under either her mom or dad's watchful eye. Up until the big show down the night before, Taylor had no idea that her mom was onto her, and had been kinda pissed about the surprise confrontation. Pissed or not, the outcome had been the same and it was now a case of buckle down or else! Yeah it rankled, but the 'or else' was enough to have her sitting in the kitchen now, homework spread out in front of her.
"If you'd spend less time scowling and more time thinking Taylor you'd be finished by now." Jethro had been watching his daughter forcing herself to answer the questions. He wondered how Patricia had the patience to teach. It was hard enough getting Taylor to spend as little as half an hour on her homework, never mind the whole day.
"I am thinking!" She just couldn't tell him what. "Where's mom anyway?" At least she didn't watch every pencil stroke.
"Meeting at the school."
"Meeting about what? They gonna close it down?" Now that would be cool.
Jethro closed the magazine he'd been flicking through and held his hand out. "Afraid not. Let's see how much you've done so far."
Taylor passed him the page of math problems and he scanned it quickly. There were only three questions left, but the kid was perfectly capable of dragging them out until bedtime. It was time for a little persuasion. "If you finish before your mom gets back you can watch the DVD Tony lent you."
"Really?" She'd thought Highlander was going to have to wait until the weekend.
He nodded.
Taylor chewed the top of her pencil as she quickly answered the remaining questions, before grabbing the DVD from the counter. Just about to leave the room, Taylor hesitated when she noticed her dad checking the answers. "They're right dad! Don't you wanna see the movie? Tony says it's good. It's got swords in it!" It was more fun watching a film with someone else.
"Swords huh?" He didn't want to disappoint her. "Suppose I better watch it then."
O
Patricia made it home just after Taylor had gone up to bed. She dropped onto the couch beside her husband.
Jethro put his arm around her and pulled her closer. "Tough day?"
She sighed. "Long day."
"Did you get the problem with the student exchange programme sorted out?" He felt her shift nervously, very like the way Taylor did when she was feeling guilty. It spoke volumes.
He figured he'd make it easy for her. "I take it we're going to have a house guest for a while."
"Do you mind?" She asked nervously.
"Hmmmmm ..that depends."
"On what?"
"On how you're gonna make it up to me." He felt her relax.
Patricia reached for one of the buttons on his shirt, opening it before slipping her hand in. "What do you have in mind?"
Jethro let out an involuntary gasp when hand met skin, then grinned down at her. "I'm sure I'll think of something."
O
The following morning at breakfast Taylor was full of questions. It was a pleasant change from her normal litany of complaints about school.
"Is it a boy or a girl?"
That got Jethro's attention, he hadn't even thought to ask that.
Patricia didn't miss the little panic attack. "Relax Jethro it's a girl. She's sixteen and from London."
"How come she's gotta stay with us?" Taylor reached for another slice of toast. "And what's her name?"
"Her name's Jennifer, Jennifer Emerson, and she was supposed to be staying with another student, but they had to pull out of the programme at the last minute." Patricia passed her the peanut butter. "There is some bad news though."
Taylor looked suspiciously at her mom. She was not givin' up her bedroom. "What?"
"We have to leave school early today to pick her up from the airport."
A huge smile spread across Taylor's face. "That is bad, but I think I can live with that one."
"Wouldn't it be a better idea to pick her up on your way back from the airport?" Jethro risked peeking over the top of his newspaper.
He was met with a glare that would rival one of his own. "Maybe not!" Jethro decided it was time to make a quick exit, and two kisses later he was safely on his way to work.
O
Sitting in the back of her mom's car Taylor watched the girl in the front passenger seat with interest. Jennifer looked like one of the models out of Vicky's magazines, long blonde hair and green eyes. Taylor had been surprised when the girl had introduced herself at the airport. Jennifer's height, combined with her confidence gave the impression she was much older than her sixteen years. They probably wouldn't have a lot in common, but Jennifer seemed to be nice and Taylor was not picking up any psycho vibes the way she had with Megan.
As soon as they reached the house Taylor made a beeline for her bedroom, dumping her backpack and changing quickly into her jeans. This was too good an opportunity to pass up. While her mom was getting Jennifer settled in the spare room Taylor slipped quietly out of the house, intent on meeting Jason on his way back from school. She could always do her homework later, or tomorrow morning, or even better, just forget about it altogether.
Jason was both surprised and pleased to find Taylor waiting for him outside the school gates. "They finally kick you out of that fancy school?"
"I wish!" Taylor returned his grin. "So what're we gonna do?"
He shrugged. "You checked out the new arcade yet?"
"Come on, you know I'm not allowed to go to arcades." It did sound tempting though.
"What about the mall? We could check out the latest PS3 releases."
That sounded like a much safer option. Taylor nodded, there might be new demos they could try out and that was almost as good as the arcade.
O
Having almost twenty minutes until her curfew, they were just about to take up their normal positions on the small wall surrounding Jason's front yard when Taylor found herself being summoned home by her dad. He stood just outside the front door as she checked her watch. Nope, it hadn't stopped.
"I'm not late dad!" Taylor yelled over to him as she sat down, assuming he would go back inside. He did not. Instead he strode towards her.
"Shit! Gotta go Jason." Taylor quickly pushed herself back up again.
When she started to walk towards him Jethro stopped and waited for her to reach him.
Stopping about five feet away, Taylor shoved her hands defensively into her pockets. "What'd I do?"
Her dad didn't answer the question, just nodded towards the open front door. "In!"
Taylor walked past him, and lost some of her concern when, instead of swatting he fell into step behind her. Her dad might be annoyed, but not as angry as she'd originally thought.
She tried again as soon as the door closed behind them. "What ever it is I didn't do it!"
Patricia appeared in the hallway. "We know you didn't. You didn't do your homework, you didn't tell me that you were going out and you didn't tell me where you were going!"
Trying to look suitably ashamed Taylor apologised. "Sorry, I only went to meet Jason, and I'll do my homework after dinner. That seemed to appease her mom a little. Her dad, not so much.
"Uh huh, you will. You'll do it properly, and you won't drag it out. As soon as you're done you can go to bed."
He stepped aside to let her past, and Taylor considered it a quite a victory as she entered the kitchen unscathed.
O
If Jennifer knew how to do something, it was talk. She never stopped. It was a miracle she actually had time to eat anything at dinner. Everything from her expensive boarding school, to the horses her parents owned were described in detail. Taylor lost interest after five minutes and zoned out, but her mom was eagerly soaking up the information. She glanced at her dad, he was bored too and she'd bet her allowance that he was trying to work out when he could escape to the basement. It was Taylor who presented him with the opportunity. The second she had placed her knife and fork down Jethro made his move.
He stood up. "Right, homework Taylor. You can bring it down to the basement where I can keep an eye on you!"
Pouting, Taylor left her mom and Jennifer still talking about life in the UK and went to fetch her bag. There had to be someway round this homework thing, and one of these days she was gonna figure out what it was.
Flamin' typical Taylor thought as she watched her dad sanding his latest project, the night she had to go to bed early the homework was relatively short. Still if she was faced with a choice between bed or school work she'd pick bed any day.
"Dad?"
He didn't look round. "Uh huh?"
Sidling over to him, Taylor reached out to feel the grain of the wood. "Do I really have to go to bed now? I could always help you instead."
Gibbs checked his watch, it was only eight o'clock, and she could of dragged her homework out a lot longer. He passed her a square of sandpaper. "Half an hour, then bed."
Taylor's face lit up. You'd have thought he'd just handed her the keys to a new car.
They sanded in silence for a while, Taylor concentrating hard on going with the grain until her mind drifted back to their house guest.
"Mom likes Jennifer huh?"
"Yep. You don't mind that do you?"
Taylor shook her head. "No. Mom can take her shopping instead of me, I think Jennifer would like shopping. Is she rich?"
"No. Her parents are."
"Oh."
"Money's not everything Taylor."
"I know. It must really suck having to live at school, even if you do have a horse." Taylor couldn't think of many things that would be worse.
Jethro grinned. "Your school doesn't seem so bad now does it?"
There was no way Taylor was going to agree with that statement. "I don't have a horse."
"You don't want a horse."
"No, but a dirt bike would be good."
He took the sandpaper from her hand and turned her to face the stairs. "No dirt bike! Bed."
Taylor stopped half way up the steps. "Aren't you even gonna negotiate?"
"Alright, I can do that. I'll get you a dirt bike if you agree to go to boarding school."
O
"NO WAY!" The kitchen echoed with Taylor's protest.
"Taylor, Abby's busy on Friday night." Patricia had expected some resistance, but not this much. "You like it when Tony comes over to babysit."
"I'm not a baby, and Tony's fine, but Cathy, no way!" Taylor pushed her plate away, she'd suddenly lost her appetite.
Jethro slid the plate back in front of his daughter. "Watch the temper Taylor." He warned.
Taylor stopped glaring at her mom and focused on her plate instead.
"Who's Cathy?" Jennifer ventured. Taylor's reaction had made her curious.
"She's a complete bit…OW!" Rubbing her thigh, Taylor shifted her chair a little further away from her father.
"What Taylor was trying to say Jennifer, is that Cathy is Tony's girlfriend."
"Yeah, and she's still a complete bitc …OW!" Taylor had underestimated how long her dad's arm was.
"Last chance Taylor!" Jethro was not going to warn her again.
Recognising the potential of the situation Jennifer spoke. "I can stay with Taylor if you want."
"You don't have to do that Jennifer, I know you were planning on going out too." Patricia didn't want the girl's night ruined.
"I was only going to meet up with Amanda, and she could always come round here." An empty house would be good.
"What do you think Jethro?" Patricia was leaving the decision up to her husband.
All eyes were on him. It probably was in Cathy's best interest if they weren't forced to spend time with each other. God only knew what Taylor would do if Cathy rubbed her up the wrong way. Jennifer did seem to have her head screwed on, and they'd only be a phone call away. "That depends on Taylor. You gonna do what Jennifer tells you to do, and go to bed on time?"
Anything was better than having Cathy bossing her around all night. "Sure."
Jethro nodded. "You better not make me regret this Taylor."
Grinning, Taylor picked up her fork again. "Course I won't dad."