Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or any of its characters.
Chapter 22
"WHERE ARE THEY?" Jackson roared the instant he set foot in the kitchen.
"Calm down dad." Jethro intentionally blocked the doorway. "Coffee's fresh."
For a moment he thought his father was going to ask him to move, but taking a deep breath Jack hooked his walking stick over the back of a chair and sat down at the table. After pouring two cups Jethro pulled out a chair directly opposite.
"You're not going to try and justify their disgraceful behaviour are you?"
"I just want to make sure you don't over react dad."
"Over react?"
"Yes dad. Over react. You need to keep everything in perspective. Taylor, and Vicky for that matter, don't have the same reverence when it comes to church and religion that you do."
"And whose fault is that?" He asked, giving Jethro one of those looks that still made him extremely uncomfortable.
"We've been through this before. When Taylor's older she can made her own decision about religion. It's hard enough as it is to get her into a church a few times a year, I'm not going to force it down her throat, she'd only dig her heels in further."
"You let that child get away with far too much, she runs rings round you."
"Come on, they just got a little bored, and some of it was my fault, I startled Taylor. You're lucky she caught herself on, she's perfectly capable of turning the air blue without even thinking about it."
"You make it sound as if you're proud of the fact your daughter swears like a trooper."
"I'm not, but I am proud that this time Taylor was able to stop herself, and considering the fact she thought it was God who grabbed her I don't think she did too badly. If she hadn't I'd have been lining right up behind you to get my hands on her."
Jack almost choked on his coffee. "She thought what?" He spluttered."
Jethro shook his head. "I know, it'll be a while before she lives that one down. But when it comes down to it they shouldn't have been fooling around, so if you want the pair of them to clean out the storage shed it should be enough to make them think twice about doing it again. That place hasn't been cleaned out in years.
His dad had never been one to make a quick decision, so Jethro waited patiently while he mulled it over. Finally the older man nodded and got to his feet.
"Alright. Where are they hiding?"
o
Taylor heard the initial "WHERE ARE THEY?" and was extremely tempted to make a run for it. Instead she moved closer to her mom on the couch. Any closer and she'd have been sitting on her lap. Vicky in turn shuffled closer to Taylor. From the sound of it her grandpa hadn't missed what had gone on in the church and wasn't exactly happy about it. They waited for him to storm into the living room, but it didn't happen, not immediately anyway.
When he finally did appear with Jethro close behind, he had a face like thunder. Vicky had the good sense to keep quiet. Her cousin did not.
"Nice singin' grandpa, all that practice must be workin'."
Taylor's comment just fired his temper back up. "What on earth did you two think you were playing at? That's no way to behave in a church!" He looked from one to the other, before pointing a finger accusingly at Taylor. "And you! You have no idea how lucky you are. If you'd have shouted that filthy word out in the Lord's house I'd have strapped your backside 'till you couldn't sit for a week!"
Taylor dropped her eyes guiltily. "I thought it was a pretty good save."
Her mom gave her a barely perceptible nudge.
"Sorry grandpa." She tried to look repentant, then tried harder when her dad glared at her.
"Yeah, I'm sorry too." Vicky added seriously.
"Well that's good to hear." Jackson responded. "But the two of you are still going to spend tomorrow morning working."
That didn't sound too bad, but Taylor decided it was time to spread the blame. She pointed to her dad who seemed to be getting away scot free. "What about him, it was his fault. If he hadn't have scared the sh.. life out of me I wouldn't have yelled. He was supposed to be prayin' like everyone else, not pickin' people up and droppin' them on their butt." Folding her arms she locked eyes with her father, trying to make him feel guilty.
"Well?" Jackson asked his son.
"Well what?" Jethro stopped glaring at Taylor and glanced at his father.
"What do you have to say for yourself?" He expanded.
"Are you serious?" They were ganging up on him.
Taylor was grinning now, and looking rather smug. "He wants to know what you gotta say for yourself, causin' all that trouble. You could have got all of us banned you know!"
The expression on her uncle's face made it impossible to hold back and Vicky started to laugh. When Patricia began to giggle Jethro wasn't sure which of the three females on the couch to glare at. He was still trying to decide who to target first when his dad's hand made contact with the back of his head. Not hard enough to hurt, just enough to get his attention.
"You should know better. Don't let it happen again." Jack warned before winking at the girls as he left the room. He'd only made it half way up the stairs before the house erupted in squeals and laughter. Taylor was paying dearly for her traitorous behaviour as she faced an onslaught of tickles.
o
Later that night Taylor wasn't interested in the TV, although she would watch just about anything, she drew the line at documentaries. They were too much like school. Instead she watched her grandfather. He'd changed out of his suit and was reading, but every now and again he would look up and shake his head. He was still a bit pissed. Giving up her prime position beside her mom Taylor went and stood in front of her grandpa. When he lowered his book she slipped onto his lap and rested her head on his chest.
"What ya reading?"
He opened the book again to show her. "It's about the war." As he started telling her about the aircraft carriers in the pictures Taylor let his voice wash over her. Sometimes her grandpa was like Ducky, he liked to talk, and right now Taylor was content enough to let him do exactly that.
o
Vicky and Taylor stood in the middle of the shed and just stared at the huge stacks of boxes and crates. This looked like the place where all the unsold or out of date goods came to die. It was absolutely filthy. Maybe they hadn't got off as easily as they'd thought.
Jackson poked his head in through the door. "What are you waiting for?" He wanted to make sure he got a full mornings work out of them.
Taylor picked up the broom and he left them to it.
"Are there spiders?" Vicky asked nervously.
Taylor looked up at the mass of webs covering the ceiling. "Nah, they're probably all dead." She was not gonna let Vicky wuss out and leave her with all the work. "Here." She passed the broom to her cousin. "You can do the floor and I'll take the crates." A little happier, Vicky started to sweep.
o
"Holy shit!" Taylor exclaimed from behind a tower of wooden crates.
Vicky froze. "What is it? Is it a spider?" She was psyching herself up to run to somewhere safer if the need arose.
"No."
Curious now she knew that insects were not involved, Vicky edged closer. Taylor was kneeling in front of a large metal box. Peering over Taylor's shoulder she tried to see what was so interesting. "Its just fireworks Taylor." She said, sounding slightly disappointed. "Small ones."
Taylor couldn't understand why Vicky wasn't excited. "Don't you ever check out YouTube? There's an awesome video where some guys blow up a tree."
"With those fireworks you'd be lucky to blow off a few twigs. Besides they look kinda old so they probably wouldn't even explode."
Narrowing her eyes at Vicky's stupidity, Taylor sighed. "Don't be such an idiot!"
They found a tree with a hollow and packed it full of powder so the whole tree was like a giant pipe bomb."
"No Taylor." Vicky didn't like the way her cousin's mind was working.
"No what?"
"You're not doing that."
"Why?" Taylor was disappointed Vicky didn't share her enthusiasm.
"Way too dangerous, the clues in the 'bomb' part!" Leaning over she lowered hinged lid. "Forget you ever found them."
"You can't tell me what to do!" Pushing herself up from her knees Taylor turned to face her.
"I'm not." She protested. "But I want you to promise that you won't touch them. If you don't I'm going to have to tell your dad."
Taylor brushed some of the dust off her hands by wiping them on her jeans, and tried to hide the fact she was royally pissed.
For a second Vicky thought Taylor was going to launch herself at her. Taking a step backwards held up her hands. "Come on, you know that even if you didn't blow yourself up your dad would kill you when he found out. It's a lose-lose situation."
That was true Taylor thought, her mom and dad would both freak, if they found out she'd even considered doing something like that. She looked wistfully at the box. "Fine. I won't touch them."
"Promise."
"What do you want me to do? Sign somethin' in blood?" Taylor tried to stare her out, but Vicky stood her ground.
'Promise or I'm going to tell uncle Jethro right now!"
She had no choice. "Alright, I promise. Now can we forget about it?"
Vicky nodded, finally satisfied, and turned back to the area she'd been sweeping. As Taylor watched her cousin work, she slowly counted to ten, before uncrossing the fingers she had hidden behind her back.