Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or any of its characters.
Chapter 14
Taylor's sentence of hard labour didn't start until the next day. She had planned to conveniently 'forget' that she was being punished, but her grandpa was thoughtful enough to have a mop and bucket waiting for her when he finally managed to get her out of bed. As unappealing as washing the floor appeared to Taylor, after yesterday's strapping she didn't want to risk getting into any more trouble. Hell, she still couldn't sit down. When Taylor had sat up in bed earlier, the pain in her butt had come as quite a shock, and had her on her feet in record time. That strap soooooo had to go!
o
By lunchtime Taylor had washed the shop, kitchen and store floors, and even managed to fit in a bit of dusting before she ate.
"Are you gonna keep me workin' all day?" Taylor finally asked as she leant against the counter in the kitchen, eating her cheese sandwich.
"That's the plan." He didn't seem concerned in the least that he was gonna work her to death. "Keeps you out of trouble."
"I'm not gonna get in trouble."
"I know you're not, you're going to be cleaning the bathroom this afternoon."
Taylor set down what was left of her sandwich, not quite so hungry now. She'd been hoping this was going to play out like the time when she'd only been grounded in the mornings, and was still allowed out in the afternoon.
"But I haven't even seen Katie or Lucas yet!"
Standing up, he set his plate into the sink. "You do remember why you're here, don't you? Or has your backside stopped reminding you already? If it has, your dad didn't do a good enough job."
Taylor glowered at him, but held her tongue.
Her grandfather ignored the glare. "If you're done eating, you can go make a start on the bathroom."
The old Taylor, the one who used to be able to sit down, would of told him what he could do with his mop, then bolted. The new one however, went in search of her cleaning supplies and headed upstairs. There was nothing for it. She was just going to have to work off her frustration.
o
If Taylor was pissed when she found out she'd be spending the afternoon working, that was nothing compared to how she felt when she found out she'd be doing after dinner.
"No way! I'll stay here." She protested.
"You're not staying on your own Taylor, it's only for a couple of hours."
"I don't do church, and it's not even Sunday!"
"Its choir practice, not church, and you're going!"
"It's in a church!" Taylor folded her arms, disgust evident in her voice.
"Do you want me to call your father and let him decide?" He threatened.
o
Less than ten minutes later Taylor found herself standing inside the church. Ear still ringing from the very one sided conversation with her dad, watching a small group of old people trying to sing. At first she didn't think she knew any of them, but then realised the sheriff was there. She just hadn't recognised him because he wasn't in uniform. After sending him a few dirty looks, just as a matter of principle, Taylor chose a spot as far away from everyone as was possible, and took up her favourite reading position. Luckily for her ass, this was on her stomach, and opened the magazine her grandpa had given her to keep her occupied. Time still dragged out though, and when her ordeal was finally over, she was greeted with the awful news that there was also choir practice on a Wednesday night. Great, she thought as she trailed after her grandpa, something to look forward to.
o
By nine o'clock Taylor was so bored she actually went to bed early. Well, it wasn't just that she was fed up, she was also afraid of losing her temper, and that would not help in her bid to regain her freedom. Close to exploding, Taylor didn't even bother saying goodnight to her grandpa, instead choosing to slink off, up to her bedroom, while he was on the phone with her dad again, probably talking about her. That thought only made her madder, and she knew that making herself scarce had been the right decision. As she lay in bed, light still filtering in through the curtains Taylor thought about Vicky, who would be arriving in D.C. tomorrow. Her cousin would probably be so busy with Jason that Vicky wouldn't even notice that she wasn't there. Taylor gave her pillow a therapeutic punch, before closing her eyes and willing herself to sleep, with the thought that tomorrow had to be better, running through her head.
XOXOXOXOXOXO
Once she'd unpacked, Vicky went off in search of Jason. She wanted the whole version of why Taylor had been packed off to Stillwater early, not the edited version her aunt had given her on the drive home from the airport. Jason wasn't at home, but it was a pretty safe bet that he was at the skate park, so after telling Patricia where she was going, Vicky started walking.
o
Her assumption had been correct and Jason was more than willing to give Vicky the uncensored version of events, throwing him in a few extra bits to make it sound more exciting. DJ appeared, just as he was winding up the story, and Jason pointed him out to Vicky.
"How come he isn't in jail?" She asked, not taking her eyes off the boy.
Jason shrugged. "Don't think he was carrying that much."
"And he hasn't confronted you?"
"Nope. I think Taylor's dad may have warned him off. I could take him anyway." He added, just to make sure Vicky knew he wasn't afraid of DJ, even though he was.
"Is he still dealing?"
"What do you think?" He asked as a load of kids crowded round DJ. "Ever since he was arrested and released again, he thinks he's invincible."
"We'll just see about that!" Vicky said as she pushed herself off the fence where she'd been sitting beside Jason, and walked straight over to DJ.
o
Hanging back, Vicky waited until DJ noticed her before speaking. "Hi."
DJ looked her up and down. "Hi"
"Thought you might wanna do something." She nodded at the couple of boys waiting to make their 'purchase'. "When you're done here, that is."
DJ blushed, but answered quickly. "Sure, whatever you want to do."
Five minutes later Jason watched as Vicky disappeared with DJ, not quite sure what was going on, or if this was a good time to panic.
XOXOXOXOXOXO
The next day was not better for Taylor, in fact, if anything it was worse. The jobs just kept coming, and there wasn't much point in stretching them out, because that just increased the boredom factor. No matter what she did, or how hard she tried to be good, Taylor couldn't win and her grandfather was showing absolutely no signs of leniency. By dinner on Wednesday, Taylor was ready to explode. She'd had enough, and wasn't going to go along with the unfair regime any longer. Not if she could find a way out of it.
o
Taylor tried everything she could think of to get out of going to choir practice with her grandpa again on Wednesday night, from pretending to feel sick, to offering to wash his car while he was out. Nothing worked, and Taylor found herself in the church again. This time however she was actually able to sit on one of the hard wooden pews. As Taylor sat and watched the minister fuss around the group, trying to reorganise them for some unknown reason she decided enough was enough.
o
She stood up, but instead of walking out through the door, she sat down right in the middle of the aisle facing the choir. Taylor crossed her legs, straightened her back, rested her hands on her knees and closed her eyes, assuming an almost perfect lotus position. Then began to softly hum.
o
It must have taken the minister a couple of minutes to either figure out what she was doing, or actually notice her on the floor. Taylor was just about to give up when she sensed someone standing right in front of her.
"Just what do you think you're doing?"
It was not her grandpa's voice, so Taylor didn't move, but she did open one eye to see who it was. It was one very red faced, angry minister.
"Don't mind me, you just go on with your Jesus thing."
"I asked you what you're doing!" His face was now beetroot.
"I'm trying to meditate. I've decided to become a Buddhist." She closed her eye again and resumed her low humming.
"Not in here you don't. This is a house of God!" the man was almost shouting now.
Taylor kept her eyes tightly shut. "Hey! You're putting me off. I'm gonna have to start ….OW!"
Someone had grabbed Taylor's left ear, and pulled her to her feet. This time both eyes opened to reveal her grandfather, face only slightly less red than the ministers, right in front of her.
"Enough Taylor!" He spat out, as he led her towards the doors, still gripping her ear painfully. He didn't let go until they were outside and he had her safely backed up against a wall so she couldn't bolt.
Taylor looked up at him accusingly as she rubbed her ear, surprised that it was still attached.
"Do you have any idea just how disrespectful that was?" He growled, sounding remarkably like her dad.
"What? I didn't hurt anyone!" She gave her ear another rub, just to show who the actual victim was here.
"I know what you were trying to do, but its not going to work."
Grabbing her chin, he tilted her head so she was looking right into his eyes. "You're going to march yourself back in there and apologise to everyone."
Taylor shook her head free. "I'm NOT gonna apologise for being a Buddhist!"
"You're not a Buddhist Taylor. You're just a bad tempered brat, throwing a tantrum because you can't get your own way!" Taking a firm hold of her shirt he continued. "Now, we're going to go back inside and you are going to apologise to everyone. Then you can spend the rest of the practice standing in a corner."
Opening her mouth to protest, she didn't get the chance to say anything.
"If you're not willing to do that, I'll just have to drag you inside, spank you until you do apologise, and you'll still end up in the corner. Same outcome, different methods. One's just more painful and embarrassing than the other.
Taylor tried to pull away, but he wasn't letting go, and easily guided her back inside again.
o
The babble coming from the choir abruptly stopped, and the church fell silent. Taylor was only released when they were both standing directly in front of the minister and his choir. It was so quiet Taylor could almost hear her own panicked heartbeat. Chewing her bottom lip she stared down at the floor.
"Do it!" He whispered harshly down at her.
"I'm sorry." Feeling embarrassed now all eyes were on her, she whispered up to the man who was now putting her in this uncomfortable position. "Which one?"
Her grandfather pointed to the corner nearest the choir. Keeping her head down Taylor walked quickly over to the spot he'd pointed to, positive her face was now as red as the minister's had been, and put her nose in the corner. The church was silent for the next few seconds, then the babble started up again and Taylor relaxed now they'd forgotten about her. That hadn't exactly gone to plan she thought. Maybe it hadn't been the brightest idea to try and pull off a stunt like that, in a church of all places.
o
When practice was over Taylor held her position in the corner, not wanting to turn around just yet. From what she could hear there were still quite a few people hanging around. Eventually the church was quiet again, and she was just about to risk a quick look over her shoulder, just to make sure her grandpa hadn't left her there, when he spoke.
"Taylor."
Slowly she turned around to find her grandfather standing beside the Reverend Moore. For a religious man he still looked kinda mad. Taking a deep breath, Taylor walked over to them.
"You're going to make up for tonight's little performance by spending tomorrow cleaning this place from top to bottom." He announced, along with a glare that clearly warned her not to argue about it.
She shuffled uncomfortably. "Yes sir." Taylor did not want to piss him off any more than he already was, before they got home. During her stint in the corner she had reverted back to Christianity, praying hard that her grandpa wouldn't crack up when he got her on her own.
o
It must have worked, because instead of shouting and spanking, he'd given her a couple of swats and sent her to bed early. Taylor was happy enough with that outcome and decided to class it as something of a miracle, although she was definitely not looking forward to cleaning the church. That place was massive.