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

Chapter 1

Patricia broke her good news to Taylor over dinner. "I've been offered a teaching position in another school."

It didn't take long for this piece of information, and what it meant to her, to filter through Taylor's brain. No-one there to check she showed up on time, or if she even bothered to show up. No-one standing over her all day, making sure she actually worked, and her old excuse she used at home 'I haven't got any homework' could definitely be resurrected. It wasn't that she didn't love her mom, she did, but as far as school was concerned, she couldn't get away with anything. Having Patricia as her teacher could be a real pain in the neck, or in some instances a pain in the ass literally. This was the best news she'd heard in a long time.

Taylor beamed at her mom across the table. "That's great mom. What school is it?" Hopefully it was one far enough from hers that her mom wouldn't insist on dropping her off in the mornings, or even worse, pick her up at the end of the day.

"Boyd Academy. It's the school Kayla and Jared go to."

"Who?"

'The Director's kids Taylor." Her dad added.

"Oh, them." Taylor had met them a couple of times and hadn't been impressed, they seemed a bit stuck up. Her mom was welcome to them.

"It's a private school Taylor, and a really good one. Great resources, brand new computer suites, and a massive library."

Her mom seemed pretty excited about working there. "Sounds good." Taylor checked the clock on the wall. If she wanted to give Jason the good news she'd have to do it soon, she still had her homework to do. "Can I go tell Jason?"

"We haven't told you the best bit yet." Her dad put his hand on the arm to stop her getting up. "Because your mom will be teaching there, it means there's a place available for you."

Taylor was speechless, and not in a good way. Shaking her head, Taylor looked from one to the other. They had to be winding her up, and it wasn't one bit funny. "No way!"

Again her dad stopped her from getting up. "It's too good an opportunity to pass up Taylor."

Pulling her arm away, she got to her feet, not prepared to talk about it anymore. "Well you go then! I'm going to do my homework." Taylor stalked out of the kitchen, up the stairs and into her room, slamming the door angrily behind her. Throwing herself down onto the bed she punched her pillow in frustration, not sure if she was madder about the fact she wasn't getting her freedom back after getting her hopes up, of that they actually expected her to go to a school like that. It was never going to happen. NEVER!

"That went better than I thought it would." Patricia said, then jumped at the bang as Taylor's door was nearly taken off its hinges. Jethro was out of his seat immediately, fully intent on setting a few things straight with their daughter.

"Leave her be Jethro. You can't blame her, it was rather unexpected. Give her some time on her own to think it over."

"There's nothing to think over." He protested, but sat down again anyway. "We've already talked this over, and like I told her, it's too good an opportunity to pass up. She's going, whether she likes it or not!"

"I know, but let her calm down a bit first, she might be easier to reason with if she's calmer. You know if you confront her now, she'll only dig her heels in deeper.

"It wasn't her heels I was going to confront." He ground out, still angry about Taylor's show of temper. Taking a deep, calming breath he added, "Fine, we'll wait a while before we talk to her again."

Patricia moved round behind him, and massaged some of the tension out of his shoulders. "Look on the bright side, at least we didn't have to remind her about her homework.

Homework was the last thing on Taylor's mind as she lay on her bed stewing over what had just happened. She needed to let her mom and dad realise she wasn't going to be pushed around. Her days with complying with her parents ideas about school were over. From now on she called the shots, and if she didn't feel like doing something, she wouldn't. See how they and their fancy school liked that!

Taylor didn't go back downstairs that evening, choosing instead to take a bath and go to bed early. When the alarm on her phone woke her the following morning her temper had disappeared, but she was still resolute about not changing schools. Aware that her mom was studying her carefully, Taylor grabbed a piece of toast and her bag without saying anything and headed out the front door.

As she made her way to school, Taylor was extremely tempted to veer off her normal route, just to see where she ended up. She couldn't find enough courage to do that though, and soon found herself seated at her desk.

"Where's your homework Taylor?" Patricia hadn't missed the fact her daughter hadn't passed any work up to the front, and stopped her as she started to follow her classmates from the room at lunchtime.

"The dog ate it."

From her mom's expression Taylor knew she wasn't happy, but then, neither was she. Turning away from her, Taylor made another attempt at reaching the door."

"Sit down."

Taylor stopped, but didn't turn. "It's lunchtime."

"I know what time it is, and you're going to spend it doing the work you were supposed to do last night."

Letting out a loud sigh, just to make sure her mom knew exactly what she thought of that suggestion, Taylor sat down anyway and pulled out the sheet of questions. "Don't I get to eat today?"

Taylor watched as her mom reached into a drawer in her desk and pulled out the lunch bag she'd forgotten to lift, and set it in front of her.

"You can multitask, and don't think we won't be talking about this later."

"I know you're upset about moving to another school….."

Patricia had followed Taylor up to her room as soon as they'd arrived home. She really wanted her daughter to snap out of her mood before her dad got home. Patricia very much doubted that Jethro would let the angry and sullen attitude slide a second time.

"I'm not upset, cause I'm not goin'"

Patricia shook her head. "Taylor it's one of those situations where you don't have a choice, and the sooner you realise that, the easier it'll be for all of us." When the only response from her daughter another angry glare, she knew there wasn't much point in going on.

"If you want to sit up here on your own and sulk that's fine with me, but I want to check your homework first if you're planning on going out."

Leaving her to it, Patricia decided to give Jacky a call and invite her to lunch on Sunday. Maybe if Taylor had the opportunity to talk to Jared and Kayla she would realise it wasn't so bad after all.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Taylor wasn't looking forward to lunch on Sunday, and true to form she'd tried just about everything she could think of to get out of it. None had worked, so instead she sat quietly ignoring everything and everyone around her. Her dad had managed to avoid their little social gathering so far, choosing instead to hide himself away in the basement.

"I hear you're going to be joining Kayla and Jared at school soon."

There it was, Taylor knew the subject was going to raise its ugly head at some point. "You heard wrong then." She spat out.

Ignoring her reply Jacky continued. "It's a great school. Kayla and Jared love it." She looked towards her children. "Don't you?"

They both nodded.

Taylor looked over at them, sitting there on the couch in their 'Sunday best'. "Somehow that doesn't surprise me." She told their mother, contempt almost dripping from each word. Taylor wasn't satisfied with that and turned to Jared.

"Wear your suit to school do you?"

He looked down at his clothes, not aware he was being insulted. "Of course not, we have to wear a uniform."

Taylor jumped to her feet. "Oh you gotta be shittin' me!"

"TAYLOR!" Her mom had picked the perfect moment to come up behind her.

Spinning round, Taylor confronted her mom. "Forgot to give me that little piece of information, did you? When did you plan on telling me about the uniform, huh? Were you going to wait until I felt guilty enough to agree to go without kicking up a fuss about it? Well you can just take your fancy school and its uniform, and stick it right up your ass!"

Patricia was so shocked by the outburst she didn't stop Taylor as she pushed past her and stormed out the front door.

Taylor was halfway down the path before she actually realised what she'd done. She stopped, not sure what to do. Well that wasn't exactly true, because she did know that she should go back in and apologise, but that would mean backing down, and she didn't want to do that.

The front door opened, and the decision was taken out of her hands.

"In." Her dad stood in the doorway, just daring her to defy him.

Easing past him warily, hands stuck firmly in the back pockets of her pants, Taylor made her way back to the war zone.

Taylor made a beeline towards the living room, trying to figure out what to say to her mom, but two hands on her shoulders guided her towards the basement instead.

They were both down the steps before her dad spoke. "Just what do you think you're playing at? Your mom's really upset!"

Hanging her head, Taylor scuffed her feet through the thin layer of sawdust covering the floor. Hell, now he was making her feel guilty.

"ANSWER ME!"

"I can't. I don't know what to say."

"Oh, you'd better come up with something a bit better than that!'

"Like what?"

"Well for a start you can tell me exactly what you said to your mom to upset her so much."

'F***!" Taylor thought, that's why he was so calm, he didn't know exactly what had happened. Swallowing hard she looked up at her dad and managed to squeak out, "She didn't tell you?"

He folded his arms. "I'm losing patience Taylor, now spit it out!"

"I…ah…..sorta…told her what she could….ah….do with her new school….and the uniform. Did you know there was a uniform? Cause I sure as hell didn't!" Anger rising again at the thought.

"I don't care if you have to go dressed as a clown! NOW WHAT DID YOU SAY?"

Taylor's answer came out as a whisper. " I told her she could stick them up her ass."

"YOU WHAT?" He took a threatening step towards her, and Taylor reacted by taking a defensive step back.

"I didn't mean it! I just got mad. It's not my fault! Wasn't my idea to bring the 'Stepford ' kids here. There's no way I'm gonna end up like one of them!"

Taylor waited for her father to start shouting the odds, but he just gave her a strange look, then climbed the steps. When he reached the top, Taylor's relief quickly vanished. Instead of leaving, Gibbs just closed the door before turning and descending again, eyes locked on her. It looked as if one of them was going to be making a lot of noise. Either that or he was trying to freak her out. It was working.

'We're gonna settle this here and now." He stated, voice laced with steel.

Taylor took another couple of steps back as he approached. "There's nothing to settle, I'm not going to that dumb school."

"Oh, you're going alright."

"Not." She shook her head, and forced herself to stand her ground, although she was beginning to doubt whether her level of confidence matched his determination.

Her dad didn't stop until he was standing so close to her that it was difficult to look up at him.

Taylor shuffled her feet, uncomfortably.

"This is how it's going to be. First, you're going to apologise to your mom. You had no right to speak to her like that. All she's trying to do is look out for your best interests, and you should count yourself lucky that she cares enough about you to do that."

She blushed, as the guilt of what she'd said to her mom washed over her again.

"As for the whole ' I'm not going to a new school' thing, it ends now. You'll be in that classroom, even if I have to blister your backside every morning and set you behind your desk myself. Got it?"

Taylor tried to take a step away from him, but he grabbed a hold of her arm and stopped her. "Answer me."

"You wouldn't!"

"When do I ever make promises I don't keep?"

She looked up at him, uncertain now. She had assumed it was an empty threat to scare her into submission. Taylor dropped her eyes to the floor. "I don't wanna go dad, and it's not fair that just cause you're bigger than me you can make me do what you want!"

He took a hold of her chin and tilted her head up. "I'm not making you go because I'm bigger than you. I'm making you go because I'm your father, and I know what's best for you."

Taylor jerked her head away, not believing that for a second. "They wear a uniform dad! That's just so….so…" She blinked back the tears of frustration that were threatening to fall. He just didn't get it.

"Hey! You think I never had to wear a uniform? You'll get used to it."

"I'm not a marine, and I don't want to get used to it!" Now Taylor did start to cry, and she brushed the tears away quickly with her sleeve, angry that she'd lost control.

Kneeling down, Gibbs made his daughter look at him again, as he held her arms.

"In a few weeks, when you've settled in, you won't even remember why you were worried."

"What do you mean, in a few weeks? Taylor had assumed she wouldn't have to start until the new school year, in the fall. Now her back was up again, and she pulled away from him. "When?"

He looked confused. "When what?"

"When do you THINK I'm gonna start?"

Gibbs stood up when the defiance returned. "You WILL be starting the week after next. Like it or not." He was done with this. Reaching for his belt he quickly slipped it off, and Taylor immediately backed away.

"Wh….what are you doing that for?"

"We still have the little matter of how you spoke to your mom to deal with."

"But everyone's upstairs, waiting!" Any excuse would do right now.

"That's okay. It won't take long."

For some dumb reason Taylor hadn't expected her dad to spank her. The last time he'd busted her butt had been in Stillwater, and that had been weeks ago. Since then she hadn't received as much as a single swat, and had been hoping it was because she was twelve now, and too old to spank. Hey, she could dream.

"But I'm gonna tell her I'm sorry!" She protested as he managed to grab her arm."

"I know you are!" Propping his foot up on a low stack of wood he lifted her over his knee. "And if you don't do a good enough job, we'll just come right back down here and keep repeating this, until you get it right. You really did hurt her feelings, and I don't think the fact you did it front of Jacky helped much either."

Taylor yelped with every lick her father landed, but didn't struggle. She did feel guilty about making her mom feel bad.

He'd been right, ten smacks didn't take long, but that didn't lessen the heat in her backside when he lifted her up again, and he didn't even give her the opportunity to rub some of the sting away before leading her up the stairs. As they headed towards the sound of voices in the kitchen he stayed close, making sure she wasn't going to bolt, while Taylor scrubbed at her face with her hands, not wanting anyone to know she'd been crying.

Her mom was sitting at the table chatting to Jacky. With a helpful push from her dad, Taylor shuffled over to stand beside her.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't of said….you know…" She didn't want to say it again.

"She looked back at her father, to see if that was good enough."

He just raised an eyebrow.

Obviously not.

Taylor turned back to her mom again. "And I'm sorry I hurt your feelings." That was all she had, so she didn't bother checking with her dad this time. If it wasn't, she'd find out soon enough anyway.

Patricia nodded, accepting her apology. "Why don't you take Jared and Kayla out to meet Jason. He's been sitting out there on his own for a while now. I'll call you when lunch is ready."

Taylor jumped at the chance to escape from the house, not caring that the two brats were coming with her. Making sure she shot her dad a 'hurt' look as she passed him, Taylor went in search of her two new schoolmates.