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

Chapter 3

Taylor made it into the elevator just as the doors began to close. Standing with her back against the cool metal wall she avoided looking at her father. Her eyes were locked instead on the control panel, as she repeated a mantra of "don't hit the switch" in her head. He didn't, and before she knew it they were in the car. Taylor had no idea what she was gonna say when they got home. She really didn't want either her dad or Patricia to find out the reason why she'd been fighting in case they thought she was annoyed at them being together. She wasn't, in fact she quite liked Patricia being around. It was just Ashley and Hannah, they'd wound her up, and she didn't like the fact that they figured the relationship was somehow wrong or weird. Taylor gazed out the window, one block left to go, now she wished she had actually landed that punch.

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Following her father into the house Taylor veered off into the living room as he punched the code into the alarm, and sat on the couch, feet up, with her arms wrapped around her knees. Watching him as he entered the room and locked up his gun, she tried to work out how mad he was, but it was impossible to tell. Taking up his usual spot on the coffee table her dad glared at her, obviously waiting for her to explain.

"I didn't hit her." Taylor offered up that small piece of information.

"You would have if Patricia hadn't stopped you."

"Maybe, maybe not."

"Why were you going to hit her?"

Taylor shrugged. "She made me mad."

"I thought I told you to count to ten when you were angry."

"I did!"

"So what happened?"

"I still wanted to hit her." Taylor looked up at him. "Maybe I should have gone for twenty."

Gibbs had to force himself not to grin, he knew she was serious. "Uh huh. You still haven't told me why she made you angry. What did she say to you?"

Taylor picked at the knee of her jeans. "It doesn't matter."

Putting his hand over hers to stop her, he waited until she looked at him again. "It matters, and before you answer I have to warn you, I already have a pretty good idea what went on so don't even think about lying."

Taylor sighed. "Ashley saw us at the mall on Saturday."

"You didn't want anyone to know about Patricia? I thought you'd got used to the idea." He sounded disappointed.

"See! I knew you'd think that! That's why I didn't want to give you the note. I don't care who knows. I like her"

Now he was confused. "So why were you mad at her then?"

"Cause Ashley and Hannah think it's weird that you're going out with my teacher, and they wanted everyone else to think it too."

He didn't know what to say to that. When he'd spoken to Patricia earlier he'd been worried Taylor was going to start up another full scale anti Patricia war. Moving from the coffee table to beside her he watched as she started to pick at her knee again. He nudged her with his elbow and she looked round. "So you like Patricia then?"

Taylor blushed and nodded.

He nudged her again. "You like Patricia?"

Taylor looked at him as if he had gone nuts. "I said I did, didn't I?"

This time instead of nudging her he slipped his hand behind Taylor and started to tickle her. "Who are you? And what have you done with my daughter?"

Taylor giggled and wriggled away. "Real funny dad!"

Reaching over he lifted her onto his knee and wrapped his arms around her.

"Dad?

"Yeah?"

"Are you gonna spank me?"

Gibbs looked down at his daughter who was now chewing on her bottom lip nervously.

"Not this time, but I will if it happens again."

Taylor grinned up at him.

"Don't think you're getting away with it completely, you still have a weeks worth of detention coming."

"Figures."

"Go on, you can make a start on your homework before dinner."

Standing up Taylor picked up her bag, pausing at the bottom of the stairs. "Patricia coming?"

"Yeah. I'll let her know it's safe." He reached for his phone.

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