Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or any of its characters.
Chapter 15
Jason waited in his driveway for Vicky to return. He had almost given up when she strolled around the corner into view. Jason was in front of her in seconds, blocking her path. "What the hell are you playing at? Are you crazy?"
Vicky rolled her eyes. "Overreact, why don't you!" She tried to step around him, but he wasn't going to let that happen.
"What is it with you and Taylor? Why can't you see that DJ's dangerous?" Jason couldn't understand how the two girls didn't get it.
She let out an exaggerated sigh. "I know he's dangerous, I just want to make sure he gets caught."
"You're setting him up?" He looked at her as if she had just grown another head.
"That's the idea. If he gets caught with enough gear, he won't walk this time."
"You are crazy! What do you think he'll do if he finds out you're Taylor's cousin? Or even worse, what happens if his supplier finds out what you're trying to do?"
"That's good Jason, just keep up the positive thinking!" Vicky told him sarcastically. She instantly regretted it though when she realised she'd hurt his feelings. "Sorry. I know you're trying to look out for me, but trust me, I'm not gonna do anything dumb."
Jason blushed, mainly at the concern in her voice, but also at the fact that he might look like a coward.
She sensed the change in his attitude. "I'm just gonna hang out with him for a while, and when I'm sure he's carrying enough I'll make a call. Don't you think he should pay for what he did to Taylor?"
"Well yeah, but ..."
Vicky quickly kissed him on the cheek, distracting him from coming up with any more excuses. "Don't worry, I'll be careful." She told him before darting up the path and letting herself into the house, leaving Jason standing alone on the sidewalk wondering just how she'd managed to change his mind.
XOXOXOXOXOXO
Yet again Taylor was not a happy bunny. She found it difficult to believe her grandfather was making her go through with the whole cleaning the church thing. The fact that he was actually sitting up at the front with the minister, drinking coffee, while she polished the pews was really pissing her off. There must be hundreds of them, well, maybe not hundreds, but there were a lot, and a bit of help wouldn't have gone amiss. Still, Taylor had to admit it was better than a spanking. When it came down to it, most things were, and considering how seriously her grandpa took the whole religion thing she'd got off pretty lightly. Didn't stop her firing a few dirty looks their way though, just to make herself feel better.
o
As Taylor worked her way towards the front of the church she began to pick up the occasional snippet of conversation. Nothing of any interest at first, baseball, fishing, the rising price of gas, so Taylor paid little attention as her mind drifted to more important things such as home, and what Vicky might be doing right now. Whatever it was it was bound to be better than this. Annoyed at the thought, she gave the wooden bench another squirt of polish. Maybe it would be slippy enough for someone to slide off and end up on their ass. Now that would be worth going to church to see. Taylor was just picturing this in her head when a single word from her grandpa snapped her out of her daydream. He'd mentioned Kelly.
o
Taylor was aware of the fact that she had a sister, but her dad only ever mentioned her when he was angry, and she'd scared the crap out of him by doing something dangerous. Curious, she edged a little closer. The minister must have known Kelly too. He was singing her praises, and telling her grandpa how good she'd been when she'd been in Sunday School, during her stays in town. Taylor shook her head as she moved another row closer. Who in their right mind went willingly to school on a Sunday? She would need a gun in her back to force her through the doors, and a set of handcuffs to keep her there.
Her grandpa let out a long sigh. "When Shannon and Kelly were killed it destroyed Leroy. He was never able to get over it, not completely. Even when Taylor was born, it wasn't the same, he..." Jackson stopped, suddenly aware Taylor was staring at him, but before he had the chance to say anything else she had dropped the duster and polish and hightailed it out of the church.
He called out after her, but by the time he made it outside, the street was empty and there was no sign of his granddaughter.
XOXOXOXOXOXO
Gibbs looked up to find Tony standing in front of his desk, looking extremely uncomfortable, and clutching a manila folder.
"Spit it out DiNozzo!" Taking his glasses off he braced himself for Tony's confession.
"Ah, boss ... you know the girl I've been dating, the cop, well I thought I'd check how the surveillance was going on the guy who gave Taylor ..." He checked no one was around to overhear before whispering "the ecstasy."
Gibbs straightened up a bit. "And?"
"There might be a bit of a problem." He handed the folder to his boss.
Opening the folder, he replaced his glasses before pulling out a number of photographs. Gibbs stared at them in disbelief. "What the hell?" He looked up at Tony, who had taken a step back. "I'm gonna kill her!"
"Now come on boss, there could be a perfectly reasonable explanation." Tony was already feeling sorry for the girl.
"And what would that be DiNozzo?"
"I haven't thought of one yet." He had to admit. "It could just be a ..."
Gibbs cut him off. "If you're about to say coincidence, don't! You know how I feel about them."
Tony couldn't think of anything else to say, but by the looks of it, Gibbs wasn't going to hang around to listen anyway. He'd already removed his badge and gun from the drawer and was replacing the pictures, clearly intent on taking the folder with him.
"There's only one way to find out exactly what's been going on." He called back to DiNozzo as he headed towards the elevator. "Vicky better have a damn good reason, or I swear to God I'm gonna..." The elevator doors closed behind him cutting off the rest of his threat.
XOXOXOXOXOXO
Taylor kept running, knowing that when she stopped she would have to think about what she'd just heard. For now, she focused on the rapidly growing ache in her legs, and the painful fight to get enough oxygen into her lungs to keep her moving. However she couldn't keep going forever, and finally had to give up, dropping to the ground beneath a tree. She had no idea where she was, but didn't care, all Taylor wanted right now was to be on her own. As her breathing slowly returned to normal, the sick feeling in her stomach grew. Drawing her knees up tightly in front of her, she allowed the tears to fall.
o
Long after the tears had stopped, Taylor was still sitting under the tree. All cried out, Taylor wasn't sure how to feel now. She was the replacement, who didn't quite cut it. Taylor couldn't understand how she hadn't realised that before. It was so obvious now that she thought about it. If Kelly and her mom hadn't died, she wouldn't be here. She'd be... Taylor tried to think back, past her earliest memories, to before she'd been born. Nothing. She'd be nothing. Would that have been better than being a reserve? She wasn't sure. Maybe while she'd been busy being a 'nothing', her dad might have ended up having more 'Kellys' and then when the accident happened he wouldn't even have needed an inferior reserve like her. Shit, if there had been no accident, Kelly could have kids of her own by now, and she'd still be floating around somewhere, a big useless 'nothing'. Taylor kicked at the ground with her heel, she was tying her brain up in knots with so many 'what ifs' bouncing about in her head, and the more she thought, the more confused she became.
o
At some point, in the warmth of the day, Taylor's brain gave up on trying to think, and she fell asleep. When she woke up, curled up at the foot of the tree she wasn't sure where she was, or what she was doing, but it didn't take long for it all to come flooding back. Fighting back a new wave of tears, Taylor straightened out slowly, limbs stiff from lying curled up on the hard ground for so long. Taking a quick look around to get her bearings, Taylor started walking in the direction she figured would take her to the lake. She liked it there, it was one of her favourite places, even though Ethan had pushed her in.
XOXOXOXOXOXO
Vicky was feeling pretty pleased with herself. It had only been a couple of days, but so far she'd managed to spend most of her time with DJ, and he didn't seem to have a problem trusting her with information about his little 'sideline'. To be honest, the boy wasn't really that bright, and from what she'd discovered so far, tomorrow was the day her would 'restock', and she intended to be there when he did.
o
Sitting in the kitchen Vicky was sipping at a can of coke, and going over in her head what she was going to do, when a cardboard folder was slammed down on the table in front of her, making her jump, and spill some of her drink.
"EXPLAIN!"
Her heart was racing. She hadn't heard her uncle come up behind her. Even though she'd been startled Vicky tried to keep her cool, hoping desperately that Jason hadn't told on her. "Explain what?"
Jethro pulled out a chair and sat down directly opposite her. He did not look happy as, without saying a word, he slid the folder closer to her.
Taking that as a sign to look inside, Vicky did. Then immediately wished she hadn't.
"Shit!" She whispered, then quickly apologised, remembering what her uncle thought about swearing. "Sorry, that just slipped out."
"I'm waiting!" He ground out.
He had his eyes locked on hers, and Vicky found it extremely difficult to tear her eyes away to look at the photographs again. "It's not what it looks like, I swear!"
The fact that she hadn't ask why the pictures had been taken, gave away quite a lot. "So you do know who he is then?"
Vicky nodded.
"And what he did?"
She nodded again, there was no point denying it.
"I'm going to say it one more time." He said it slowly as if talking to a small child. "EXPLAIN!"
Vicky cringed at the volume of the order. "I didn't think it was fair that he got away with giving Taylor ecstasy, so I figured I'd ..." Her plan didn't sound quite so good anymore. Her uncle was a lot more intimidating than Jason.
"You'd what?" His patience, what little that he had left, was wearing thin.
"I figured I'd get close to him and find out when he'd be carrying enough drugs to really get into trouble, then call the cops and they could pick him up."
Gibbs stared at his niece in disbelief, before standing. He had to pace. "HAVE YOU TAKEN LEAVE OF YOUR SENSES? DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW DANGEROUS THAT COULD BE? DRUG DEALERS ARE NOT PEOPLE YOU WANT TO CROSS!" The image of his first wife and daughter flashed through his mind. They'd paid the ultimate price for crossing drug dealers, and here was Vicky putting herself in the same type of position, right under his nose.
o
Patricia must have heard the commotion, hell, Jason probably heard it from across the street, because she appeared in the doorway before going to stand beside her husband. She'd picked up the gist of what was going on, and eyed Vicky carefully, but didn't speak. Their niece was crying quietly now as a result of his outburst, so Jethro sat down again and lowered his voice. "Vicky, look at me."
Vicky shook her head.
Reaching across the table he took her hand. "I understand you were trying to do something good, but you have to understand it has to stop now. It's not worth putting yourself in danger over, leave it to the professionals. "He spread the photographs over the table. "You can see from the photos, he's being watched pretty closely."
Blushing, Vicky flipped the one of her kissing DJ over, not wanting to look at it. "Do they know he's meeting his dealer tomorrow afternoon?"
"You sure about that?"
When Vicky nodded and sniffed at the same time, Patricia handed her a tissue.
Gibbs was silent for a minute or two as he decided what to do about the whole mess. Then he turned to Patricia. "Could you take Vicky to Stillwater tomorrow morning instead of the weekend?"
"That's probably the safest option. I'll go start packing." Patricia left the pair on their own again.
"Okay, this is what's going to happen. You're gonna tell me everything you know, and I'll pass it on to the police. You're not going anywhere DJ anymore, but you're going to have to break up with him. Send him a text and tell him you had to go back home, so it won't look quite so suspicious. Understand?"
"Yes." Right now she wasn't quite sure just how much trouble she was in, but was relieved she wasn't being sent back to Atlanta.
"Good. By the time he's arrested, you should be well out of the way." Jethro reached into a drawer behind him and pulled out a notepad and pen. "Okay, I want to know everything DJ said or did."
Closing her eyes to help her remember, Vicky started talking.