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

Chapter 2

The expression on Jason's face was priceless as Taylor crossed the street with Jared and Kayla. She shrugged at him, then grinned.

"I thought we could give these two a guided tour of our hangouts."

Jason looked the pair over, not failing to notice what they were wearing.

"You sure that's a good idea?"

"Well what else are we gonna do?" She winked at him. "Now get a move on, we don't have all day."

Forty five minutes later when Jethro was sent out to fetch the kids, he opened the door to find an empty street and returned to his wife empty handed.

"We forgot to tell them to stay close by." He said as he lifted his car keys.

"They're not there?"

Leaning over, he kissed her on the cheek. "Nope. You two go ahead, they can't have gone far. I'll go round them up."

Jethro was right he didn't have to go far to find them. They were only a few streets away, already on their way home. He groaned as he pulled up alongside them. All four were absolutely filthy. When Taylor reached for the passenger door he quickly hit the door lock, then rolled down the window.

"You're not getting in here like that! What the hell were you doing?"

""Just showing Jared and Kayla around." His daughter replied innocently, in fact so innocently he knew straight away that she'd known exactly what she'd been doing.

"Uh huh, well the three of you can double time it back to the house, your lunch is ready."

By the time Jethro turned the car the kids were out of sight. He pulled over again to wait for a few minutes. There was no way he wanted to be there when Patricia and Jacky saw the state they were in.

"Sorry we're late." Taylor announced as she led the little group in through the kitchen door. She pulled out a chair at the table and sat down, seemingly unaware of just how dirty they all were. She had to try hard to stop herself grinning at the look on Jacky's face as she stared in horror at her children. It was a pretty safe bet she wouldn't be bringing them back here anytime soon.

"Jared, what were you doing? Your suit's ruined!" He didn't get the chance to speak before she turned to his sister. "And your dress Kyla? You know it's only new! What were you thinking?"

Taylor jumped to their defence, after all, it wasn't really their fault, and she had discovered she actually quite liked the pair. Both had been willing to take part in the mud throwing earlier. "Come on, it's just a little dirt! You can't expect to take a walk in the woods without some mud."

"You took them through the woods dressed like that?" Her mom was on her feet now, hands on her hips, looking extremely pissed.

"Well you never said I couldn't." Taylor grumbled. "I'm not a mind reader you know."

Patricia glared at her. "Go take a shower and get changed before I lose my temper Taylor."

Satisfied she'd achieved what she'd set out to do, Taylor left them to it, and headed up to her room.

When she was presentable again, Taylor made her way back down to the kitchen again. Everyone had already started eating, so she took the only remaining seat beside her dad. Judging by the looks their mother kept firing at them, it looked as if Jared and Kayla were still in trouble and Taylor was very tempted to stir it up again. Given her current position though, so close to her dad, she decided it would definitely be a suicide mission, and ruled it out.

Not surprisingly their guests didn't stay for long once the meal was over, and Taylor could hear her mom and dad apologising to Jacky as they showed her out. It was time to make herself scarce. Taking full advantage of the empty kitchen, Taylor slipped out the back door, before scaling the fence at the rear of the yard.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Taylor didn't reappear until dinnertime when she slunk guiltily into the kitchen. Her mom wasn't there, but her dad was, coffee in hand as usual.

"Where have you been?"

"With Jason." Taylor turned her back to him as she washed her hands at the sink.

"Proud of your behaviour today, are you?"

She looked over her shoulder, hands still under the running water. "I already apologised, remember?"

He set his cup down. "You know that's not what I'm talking about."

Taylor dried her hands and leant up against the counter.

"Where's mom?" She tried to steer the conversation in another direction.

"Lying down, she has a headache."

He was trying to make her feel guilty, and it was working. "Because of me?"

Jethro shrugged and lifted his coffee. "I don't know. What do you think?"

Taylor chewed on her lip as she thought. "Maybe." She finally admitted. "Is she mad at me?"

Gibbs was not going to make this any easier for his daughter, so just raised an eyebrow.

She shifted uncomfortably. "Mad enough that I should hide the spoon?"

"You're not hiding anything, you're in enough trouble as it is!" He warned. "You'd do better going up to see how she's feeling now.

"What? No way! You just said she's angry!" That was just plain crazy.

"Well the longer you stand here arguing about it the angrier I'm gonna get. So take your pick."

Taylor pushed herself away from the counter. Some choice. "Fine, but if I make her headache worse, don't blame me!"

She successfully dodged the swat her father aimed at her as she passed him and reluctantly went to find her mom, clinging to the hope that she would be asleep.

She wasn't. Taylor could see her mom sitting on the edge of the bed, through the open bedroom door. Approaching her slowly, trying to gauge what kind of mood her mom was in, Taylor stopped in front of her. She was just about to ask how her head was, when her mom spoke.

"Decided it was safe to come back, did you?"

At least she now she knew her mom was angry. Now was the time to play dumb. "What do you mean?"

"How could you do that to Jared and Kayla? Getting them into trouble like that?"

"I didn't mean to get…." She whined."

"Don't lie to me Taylor!" Patricia stopped her dead. "You knew exactly what you were doing when you dragged them through the woods!"

""I'm sorry." Taylor conceded and hung her head.

"Are you?"

"Yes."

Patricia was silent for a moment, then spoke again. "Okay, go and bring me the spoon."

Taylor's head snapped up. "What?"

"Your behaviour today was completely unacceptable Taylor. You've been so good up until recently, and just because you can't get your own way now, you don't care who you hurt just to make a point. Well I've had enough. Go and get me the spoon."

"I'm sorry mom you don…"

"I don't want to hear it Taylor. You told me you were sorry earlier after your outburst. It's obvious you didn't mean it. This time I'm going to make sure you are. Now go, you really don't want to make me any angrier!"

She was right about that. Taylor turned and walked towards the door. She edged past her dad, who was now adding pasta to a large pot of boiling water on the stove, and lifted the wooden spoon from the canister. When he didn't comment on what she was doing Taylor stopped.

"You knew she was gonna spank me, didn't you?"

"Uh huh."

"Can't you go talk to her?"

"Nope."

Taylor glared at him. "Some help you are!"

"You can't blame me, I tried to snap you out of it earlier. Now you'd better hurry up, I don't think you want your mom to come looking for you."

"Traitor." She mumbled, and having no other option went back upstairs.

Taylor hesitated in the doorway. Her mom was standing at the window, arms folded, looking out into the back yard. She was just about to reverse towards her own room when Patricia turned and held her hand out.

Sighing, Taylor moved closer, examining the spoon carefully before placing it in her mom's outstretched hand.

"Don't suppose you've changed your mind?"

"Sorry Taylor." Taking a gentle hold of her arm Patricia led her over to the bed and took a seat.

"You want to explain what you did today, to end up here?"

Taylor pouted. "You already know what I did. I got Jared and Kayla into trouble because I was piss…." She shook her head. "I was annoyed, no, I was angry at the reason they were here. You only invited them so they could talk about that flamin' school."

"So even after your dad talked to you in the basement you were still determined to get your own way?"

"Maybe." Taylor whispered. It didn't sound good. "But what if I hate it?"

"That has to be the dumbest thing I've ever heard!" Her mom gave her an incredulous look.

"Huh? How's it dumb?"

"Taylor, you hate school anyway, so what difference does it make which school you go to?"

She didn't have a clue what to say to that. It did make sense in a weird kind of way. Then Taylor remembered another sore point. "I have to wear a uniform, I'm gonna look stupid!"

"Now how exactly are you going to look stupid when everyone is wearing the same thing?"

"Oh…. But what about when I'm walking there and back? Someone might see me."

"That you don't have to worry about. It's too far to walk, so you'll be riding with me."

Patricia didn't say anything for a few moments, to give Taylor the opportunity to come up with any more objections, but her daughter remained silent. Taylor was too busy thinking about everything her mom had just said. Besides, she could hardly tell her the other reasons she didn't want to go.

"Do you understand how you could of avoided this spanking, by talking things over, instead of giving in to your temper?"

Taylor glanced nervously at the spoon. "Suppose."

"Good. Patricia reached out and pulled Taylor to her side.

"Mom, please. You don't have to spank me, I get it."

"I'm relieved you finally understand Taylor, but you're not talking yourself out of this one. Now take your pants down."

Taylor tried one more pleading look before lowering her pants.

Having second thoughts about cooperating, Taylor started to turn, but she'd left it too late. Instead of making a break for the door, she found herself staring at the floor.

"Mom…" Taylor felt cool air on her butt and realised her mom had pulled her shorts down. She'd never done that before. Not happy with this new development she tried to push herself up. All she got for her effort was a sharp smack from her mom's hand at the top of her thigh.

"That's enough Taylor!"

The tone of her mom's voice stilled her, but only until the wooden spoon made contact with bare skin.

Wriggling, kicking and crying didn't make any difference to the end result. Taylor's backside was well and truly ablaze. When her mom helped her up she quickly pulled up her pants and bounced from one foot to the other, trying to get the sting in her butt down to a dull roar, with little success. Taylor let her mom pull her closer, then held on tight as the tears began to fall again.

"I didn't mean to upset you when I said .." She didn't want to repeat it. "I didn't." Taylor managed to get out between sobs. "I don't know why I said it."

"Yes you do." Patricia told her softly.

She sniffed loudly and her mom passed her a tissue. "I lost my temper."

"And what usually happens when you lose your temper?"

Taylor mumbled her answer. "I get into trouble. I'm sorry." She thought again about how badly she'd treated her mom, and abruptly pulled away from her.

"What's wrong?"

Taylor looked nervously at the floor, but didn't say anything.

Patricia reached out and took her hand. "Taylor?"

Glancing up, Taylor couldn't maintain eye contact. "Do you hate me now cause of what I said?"

Taking a hold of her other hand, Patricia pulled her closer again, this time sitting her down on her lap. Taylor squirmed a little, when her backside made contact, but didn't get up.

"I don't want to ever hear you say that again. I could never hate you. I'll admit that sometimes you can make me angry, but I'm still your mom, and I'll always love you no matter what you do. Just like your dad does."

"No matter what?" Taylor rested her head on her mom's shoulder.

"Uh huh. But don't go getting any ideas, I'll still use my spoon when I have to."

Taylor considered what she'd just been told.

"Mom?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you too, even when you make me mad."