Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or any of its characters.
Chapter 20
** Okay, I have to confess I was extremely lazy in the last chapter as far as Vicky was concerned, so hopefully this chapter will clear everything up. **
Staring down at the girl asleep in the bed beside hers Taylor tried to determine if Vicky had been crying. No tear stained cheeks, no tissues, no evidence in fact whatsoever that her cousin had gone to bed upset. Taylor really wished she knew how Vicky did it. No matter what she'd done, or might have done, she always seemed to get away with it. On the other hand she herself only had to think about doing something wrong and she was up to her neck in it. Taylor briefly considered whacking her over the head with her pillow, but even though it would be extremely satisfying it would put an end to any hope she had of escaping undetected. Vicky would keep. Leaving the girl to her dreams, Taylor retrieved her backpack from under the bed and as quietly as she could, made her way down to the kitchen for the day's supplies.
o
Jethro was up early, he always was, but he was late enough to find a note from his daughter propped up in the middle of the table. He checked his watch. It had just gone six o'clock, he hadn't heard her moving around, so that meant Taylor had been gone for at least half an hour. By now she could be anywhere, so there was no point rushing off to find her. Switching on the coffee maker he sat down at the table and re-read the note. It didn't take long, the message was short and to the point. 'GONE OUT, TAYLOR.' Not exactly overflowing with information to help find her, but that didn't matter, after all he knew this area better than Taylor and the places she'd be drawn to. It shouldn't be hard tracking down his fugitive daughter.
o
By lunchtime Jethro was beginning to think Taylor actually knew Stillwater better than he did, and by dinnertime he was convinced of it. There hadn't been a sign of her, or Lucas for that matter anywhere. When her curfew came and passed anger quickly transformed into concern. This time Patricia helped in the search, checking a little further afield in the car, while he covered the same ground he'd covered three or four times already. He was just about to give up on the abandoned Anderson place when he spotted movement high up in one of the tall trees at the rear of the property. Gibbs kept calling out her name and whistling as he edged towards the trees, but the only response was more movement, this time from another tree. He assumed that was Lucas, right now Taylor would be motionless. All movement had stopped completely by the time he reached the trees, but instead of looking up he sat down at the foot of the tree Taylor was in. The only sounds that could be heard were coming from the birds, angry that their territory had been invaded. Jethro didn't speak until the birds had settled down again and he'd sent his wife a quick text message to let her know she could stop searching.
"Don't make me shoot you out of the tree." He waited for the pair to climb down.
Lucas was the first to hit the ground, and he looked guiltily at him before looking up towards Taylor as she too began to climb down. He could hear her mumbling as she worked her way towards him.
"Lucas you idiot, he doesn't have a gun."
Lucas must have heard too because the boy blushed and stuck his hands in his pockets.
On his feet now, Jethro reached up when Taylor was close enough and lowered her the rest of the way. She shot an annoyed glare at Lucas before turning her attention back to him.
"What are you doin' out here?" She asked as she asked as she took her bag from Lucas who'd fetched it from behind a nearby tree.
"Shouldn't I be asking you that?"
"Left a note, didn't I?"
"Uh huh. Do you have any idea what time it is?"
Taylor shook her head and held her empty wrist up as evidence. "No watch."
"It's almost eight thirty."
Lucas grabbed his own bag. "Crap! I'm late too! Gotta go!" With that he started to run back in the direction of town.
"That's why I'm hungry." His daughter stated simply as she watched her friend disappear.
"You're not the only one. Your mom's out looking for you too."
"Surprised she noticed I wasn't around. Wasn't Vicky there to….."
He watched as annoyance flashed across his daughter's face just before she seemed to realize what she was saying and abruptly changed the subject.
"We goin' home or what?" Taylor started walking.
o
It only took a few strides to catch up with his daughter, and he fell into step beside her. "What did you mean by that?"
"Nothin'." Taylor sped up making it clear she didn't want to talk about it.
Putting a hand on her shoulder he stopped her. "Yes you did."
He wasn't surprised when she shrugged it off, but he wasn't expecting the anger that came with it.
"I'm not talkin' to you, SO JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!"
"Taylor what ….."
She cut him off. "It's alright, I'll go to bed early, wouldn't want to get in your way too!" As soon as the last word was out she bolted.
o
Taylor knew she didn't stand a chance of outrunning her father, but she didn't care. When she ran she stopped thinking, except about her next step, and right now that was all she wanted. She had thought she'd have been angrier at her dad when he turned up, because of DJ, but she hadn't. Taylor had been glad to see him, she'd missed him, but for some reason even she couldn't understand she would have preferred to be mad at him. So she ran until she felt herself being lifted off her feet.
"What're you running for?"
Taylor had no idea what to tell him so her mouth took over. "I'm hungry."
"Uh huh." He wasn't letting go of her t-shirt as they started walking again. "You're going to have to come up with something better than that, because when we get home I want to know exactly what's been being on, and you're the one who's going to tell me."
o
Taylor was quiet for the remainder of the walk home. Jethro didn't ask any more questions, he was giving her the chance to think. When his dad and Patricia had described her behaviour they had both said she was bad tempered and angry. To him, right now anyway, she wasn't angry, she was confused. It might take a while, but he'd get the truth out of her eventually.
o
When they arrived back he led Taylor straight into the kitchen. The others had already eaten, so they had the room all to themselves. Taylor dumped her bag on the floor and kicked it under the table before sitting down.
Tidy as usual he thought, but didn't mention it. Instead he put her dinner into the microwave and regarded her carefully. Deep in thought she seemed to be in a world of her own. It just might be harder than he'd thought to get her to talk, it was always easier to get information from a temper filled Taylor than a withdrawn one. The microwave dinged and brought both out of their thoughts. Food first, then they could talk.
o
Taylor did eat, but not much. Jethro set the two plates beside the sink. "Alright, go say goodnight to your mom and grandpa." At first he thought she was going to refuse, but she pushed her chair back and he followed her as she made her way into the living room. He watched from the doorway as she hugged his father. Taylor turned to where her mom was sitting with Vicky and for a split second her expression completely changed, it was so fast he almost missed it. Stopping dead Taylor glared at Vicky before storming past him and up the stairs. His daughter was jealous.
o
When Taylor saw Vicky leaning up against her mom, taking her place again, it felt as if someone had punched her in the stomach. The jealousy hit her so hard it took her breath away. Hardly aware of what she was doing Taylor pushed past her dad, and didn't stop until she reached her bedroom. Closing the door behind her she reached up and flicked the little bar across to lock the door before she slid down and sat on the floor. Sitting down with her back against the door Taylor pulled her knees up in front of her and started to cry.
o
Still leaning against the door when her dad tried to open it Taylor ignored the movement of the handle. He hadn't followed her up immediately, taking the opportunity to talk to Patricia.
"Let me in Taylor." This was precisely the reason why he had no locks on any of the doors at home. He juggled the handle again. "Come on, I don't want to talk to you from out here."
Taylor sniffed. "Not talkin' to anyone. Just leave me alone!"
"Not going anywhere, now open the door. I really don't want to have to go and get a ladder." He warned.
She glanced towards the window. He would too, he'd done it before. Giving her eyes a quick rub with the heels of her hands she stood up and unlocked the door, then retreated to the safety of her bed.
o
Taylor watched warily as her father entered her room. He glanced up at the lock as he quietly closed the door. It was a dead cert it would be gone before tomorrow night. He didn't mention her locking the door though, just motioned for her to shuffle further onto the bed so that he could sit beside her.
"Okay, spill."
"Already said I'm not talkin' to you."
"You haven't told me why."
"You know why, you sent DJ to jail."
"He's a drug dealer Taylor, besides it's the supplier the police were really after. DJ's just a kid and will probably end up with a kick in the ass to straighten him out. It's highly unlikely he'll actually go to jail."
Taylor folded her arms defensively but kept quiet.
"I don't understand why you think you need to stick up for him."
She shrugged. "I like him."
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why do you like him, all he's done for you so far is get you into trouble."
"He's funny, besides it doesn't matter what you want, DJ can always get it for you."
"Like what?" He demanded.
Probably a little too much information she thought. "Just stuff."
"And does he get you this 'stuff' for free?"
Taylor shook her head. "Course not, except for the last time."
"That would make him a dealer Taylor, not a friend, and if he doesn't get his act together now he never will. You don't want him to end up spending his life in and out of prison do you?"
"No, but …" She didn't complete the sentence, realising just in time that asking him where she was going to get 'stuff' from now, probably wouldn't go down well.
"But what?"
"Nothin'"
"Just in case you're considering finding another DJ, don't. I can promise you it wouldn't be worth it."
Not confirming or denying anything Taylor kept her mouth clamped tightly shut.
When a few minutes had passed and her dad hadn't said anything further Taylor assumed he was done. She wanted to be on her own. "I'm tired. Can I go to bed now?"
"I'm not surprised you're tired, you might as well be on the night shift." He didn't move. So that was a no then she thought.
"You want to tell me what else is bugging you?"
Taylor looked up at him, eyes narrowed. How'd he know that when she'd just figured it out herself. "No." She tried to move further away from him, but an arm quickly placed around her shoulder stopped her.
"You really think you can hide it?" That earned him a glare, which was good. With a little bit of temper her mouth might start running off on it's own accord. "Why have you been giving Vicky such a hard time?"
"Who told you that?" Not that she had to ask.
"So it's not true?"
"If you ain't answering neither am I." Taylor tried to escape from the bed again. "Will you LET ….. ME … UP?"
"Your mom and grandpa told me, and you're not going anywhere."
Taylor stopped struggling, if he wasn't gonna let her up she wasn't going anywhere. "Yeah, well they would say that!" She mumbled.
"What do you mean?"
Frustration building up Taylor was starting to lose it. "Cause Vicky can't do anything wrong can she! Oh no, I only gotta sneeze and I'm in trouble. When I screwed up with the ecstasy I get shipped off here, on my own, you whale on me with that bloody strap, and then I gotta spend the whole week workin!" If I'd of done what Vicky did you'd have freaked out, but Vicky, she's just a fuckin' hero ain't she! All she ends up with is a longer vacation!" There, she felt better now she's said it.
Ignoring the language he asked. "Is that why you were going to let me think she was the one to try and warn DJ?"
She'd forgotten about that part. "Serves her right, since she's shown up I keep getting sent to bed early, for nothin' compared to what she did…." The thought of Vicky and her mom together raised it's ugly head in her mind again. They all just want me out of the way!" She'd had enough. "I wanna go to bed now."
"No. So you'd feel better if Vicky was punished?"
Taylor looked at him as if her was a complete idiot. "That's just dumb!"
Jethro was confused now. "Then what?"
"I don't want to be in trouble either, if she gets away with everything, so should I.
He almost laughed, but Taylor was serious.
"Taylor the only reason Vicky wasn't punished was because your mom felt sorry for her. Vicky was really upset by your reaction, hell Taylor she was only trying to protect you and you were going to beat the tar out of her for doing it."
"Yeah, well I didn't ask her to."
"No you didn't, but she did it anyway, just like last night when she was going to take the blame for calling DJ, even though she thought she would not only be punished but arrested as well."
It took a couple of seconds for it to sink in.
"Why would she do that?" It didn't make any sense.
Taylor felt him shrug.
"Said she didn't want you to hate her anymore."
Not liking the guilt that was building up she mumbled. "Probably lying."
"Not a lie Taylor."
"Suppose she hates me now, huh?"
"Nope."
"She doesn't?"
"No." He tapped her under the chin and she looked up at him. "Still think Vicky's trying to steal your mom?"
She shook her head, more than a little embarrassed, but didn't deny it or ask how he knew what went on in her head. "Still mad at me for trying to call DJ?"
"Oh yeah."
Taylor could sense a lot more work coming her way in the immediate future. "You missed me though, didn't you?"
"I missed you."