Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or any of it's characters.

Chapter 1

Gibbs sat with his feet up on the coffee table, Patricia beside him. When he glanced at the clock for the fourth time in the past few minutes Patricia slapped him gently on the leg.

"Will you relax, it's not eight o'clock yet."

"It will be in four minutes."

"Okay, that does it." Standing up she stepped over his legs and turned the clock to face the wall. "You can check the time when Taylor gets back."

He pulled her back down beside him again, "Taylor's got you wrapped round her little finger."

"No, I've got you wrapped…" Patricia didn't get to finish. There was a loud knock at the front door.

Gibbs opened the door expecting to find Taylor. Instead he stared at the woman standing in front of him, not knowing quite what to say.

"Aren't you going to invite me in Jethro?"

*******

Taylor sprinted towards home. This was the first day in a whole month where she hadn't been grounded. She had made the most out of every minute of her new found freedom and there was no way she wanted to blow it by being late. The past couple of hours had been spent playing football with Jason and his mates. There was probably more mud on her now, than there was left on the field, but it had been worth it, the team she had been on had won. Turning onto her street Taylor checked her watch. Just under a minute left. Ignoring the fact her dad was at the front door talking to a someone, Taylor picked up her pace and vaulted over the low fence, before hightailing it down the side of the house and in through the back door. Patricia entered the kitchen at the same moment Taylor did.

"I'm not late." Taylor announced when she managed to get her breath back.

Patricia stared at what she assumed was Taylor, it was hard to tell under all that dirt.

"What on earth have you been doing?"

Taylor lifted a glass, filled it with water and quickly drank about half of it before answering. "Playin' football." She grinned, "We won."

Patricia stopped her as she was about to sit down at the table.

"No you don't!"

Taylor straightened up again. "What?"

Standing behind her Patricia cautiously took a hold of her shirt, using as few fingers as possible to avoid the mud and steered her away from the table.

"Kick your shoes off."

When she'd done that Taylor felt herself being guided through the house, Patricia making sure she didn't come into contact with any furniture or walls. She was whisked past her dad who was still at the door, up the stairs, and straight into her bathroom.

"What am I doing?" Taylor asked when she was released.

"I think you need to take a shower, don't you?"

"I had a shower this morning."

Patricia didn't argue, just gently steered her over to the mirror.

Taylor stared at herself, finally realising why she'd been ushered upstairs. "Oh, okay, maybe another one wouldn't hurt."

"Just leave your clothes in a pile on the floor I'll get them when you're done."

*******

When Taylor emerged ten minutes later, squeaky clean in her pyjamas, Patricia was waiting for her in the bedroom.

"That's better." she told Taylor as she lifted the pile of dirty clothes. They were going straight into the machine.

Both headed back down to the kitchen. Taylor glanced briefly at the woman her dad was still talking to, but was more interested in her stomach, after all that running about she was hungry. Dropping a couple of slices of bread into the toaster she sat down at the table to wait for it to pop.

"Who's that dad's talking to at the door?"

Patricia started the washing machine and washed the muck off her hands at the sink. "I don't know who it is."

"Why doesn't he let her in?"

The toast popped and Patricia put it on a plate before setting it on the table. "I have no idea. What do you want on your toast?"

"Peanut butter. I think he's shouting at her now."

Well aware Jethro was losing his temper, Patricia switched on the radio, before sitting down opposite Taylor and handing her the jar of peanut butter and a knife. "So you won the football game then."

"Yep. Jason didn't like it though, he was on the other team."

"Aren't the others all bigger than you? You don't want to end up getting hurt.""I'm not gonna get hurt, most of the bigger kids are too slow. Besides cause I'm smaller it just means there's less of me to grab onto."

Patricia listened to Taylor's excited chatter, as she waited for Jethro to come back in.

*******

"No, I'm not going to invite you in Melissa." He stood squarely in the doorway making sure she realised she wasn't getting past him.

"Oh come on, that's not much of a welcome, haven't you missed me?"

"No." he ground out.

"I don't believe you, we used to have something special. You can't have forgotten."

"That was a long time ago, things change."

Melissa looked him over. You haven't changed much. Maybe a little more gray up top." She laughed. "Ok maybe a lot more, but other than that.."

When he didn't respond she continued talking. "Don't you even want to know what I've been doing, or where I've been?"

He took a step towards her "I DON'T CARE WHERE YOU'VE BEEN, YOU CAN JUST TURN AROUND AND GO BACK." He hadn't meant to yell, but she'd always been able to wind him up the wrong way.

As she stepped back she noticed some movement in the house. "You're not married again are you?"

"That's none of your business."

"Maybe not, but Taylor is. I want to see my daughter."