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

Chapter 28

Taylor tried to ignore whoever it was, moving about behind her. She had other things to worry about right now. Like what kind of crazy idea had made her think it was a good idea to come home. No, scratch that. She'd already been through this a thousand times in her head. What crazy idea had made her think blowing up a tree had been a good idea, was what she should be figuring out, but it was an answer she couldn't come up with. That was the reason she was standing in the flamin' corner again, waiting. Taylor resisted the urge to kick the wall in frustration. Her fate had been sealed the instant she'd found the fireworks. They had been way too big a temptation to resist. Why hadn't she just listened to Vicky? It made little difference that she'd come back. After all, she had to come home sometime, and her dad was always gonna strap her because of what had so nearly happened. It was just a case of getting it over and done with. Unfortunately she had been a lot keener to get it over with when she had been at the boatshed. Now she was standing in the corner, putting off the strapping was a much more preferable option. Next time she was gonna ….

"Taylor."

He was back. Swallowing hard, Taylor turned.

Patricia was standing in the doorway, leaning up against the frame, but her mom only warranted a quick glance. It was her dad she was interested in. Taylor had expected him to be standing in the middle of the room, strap in hand to psych her out, but he wasn't. Her father was sitting on the couch where he had spanked her earlier. The strap was still there, but it lay on the couch beside him. Now she realised why her mom was still in the doorway. She was blocking her escape route, and it was probably just as well, running seemed like the perfect idea. But then …

"Hey! Get over here!" Jethro demanded.

Taylor hesitated before slowly walking towards him, stopping just out of reach.

"Dad, do you have to?" Her eyes moved to the leather strap.

"You know I do. You put yourself in one hell of a dangerous situation."

"I know that, but …."

"But nothing. Now's a good time to start proving you can do as you're told."

Fine time to test someone Taylor thought as she stepped close enough for her father to take her hand and guide her to his side.

"Look at me Taylor." He waited until she raised her eyes. "You know we both love you, right?"

Taylor looked back at her mom, then nodded, chewing at her lip as she did so.

"Why are you being punished?"

She dropped her eyes again.

"Eyes up Taylor." He tapped her under the chin.

"Cause I did somethin' dangerous and disobeyed you."

"Uh huh. And just so you know, if you hadn't come home under your own steam tonight, or accepted full responsibility for your actions instead of blaming everyone else, you'd be getting a whole lot more than I'm gonna give you now. Do you understand?"

Nodding, Taylor, despite her current situation, felt a little better.

"You ready to get this over with?" He asked as he squeezed her hand.

"Does it make any difference?" Taylor was willing to try anything to stall what was coming.

"Nope." Jethro let go of her hand and quickly unfastened her pants.

"Didn't think so." Taylor told the floor, which was a lot closer than it had been a second ago.

"Give me your hand Taylor."

Groaning, she reached behind her so that her dad could hold it safely out of the way. It was just a pity he wasn't quite so considerate about her butt.

When the first lick produced a blazing line of fire across her backside Taylor suddenly decided she did not want to be where she was, and tried unsuccessfully to wriggle off her dad's knees and onto the floor.

"Stay still!" He ordered as he brought the strap down again a little bit lower than before.

Taylor renewed her struggle. "I can't… it burns! …Dad !" She started to cry when she felt herself being held tighter.

Another four licks and Taylor's behind and the top of her thighs were well and truly ablaze. At first she thought he was just waiting for her to stop fighting and only realised he was done when he released her hand, and helped her up. Still crying, Taylor shifted her weight from one leg to another, trying to extinguish the flames, as her dad eased her pants back into place. The clothing did not help, and just made her cry harder. She reached back to pull the fabric off her skin. If that was getting off easy Taylor was so glad she'd come back and owned up. Letting her father pull her closer into a hug, she tried in vain to forget about the fire in her pants as she cried into his t-shirt.

The longer her dad held her, the more she calmed down. It took a while, but eventually Taylor got enough control over her sniffles to speak.

"That hurt!" She complained.

"Not as much as being blown to pieces." He stated simply.

"I'm sorry."

"I know."

Taylor lifted her head up from her dad's shoulder to check if her mom was still there. She was, only now she was right behind her instead of the doorway. Thankfully now the anger was gone from her face. Taylor did not want any more swats.

"Don't I get a hug too?" Her mom asked.

Taylor narrowed her eyes. "That depends. You gonna smack me again?"

"Only if you deserve it." Patricia replied, narrowing her eyes just like her daughter.

"Huh." Taylor gave the impression she was thinking about it, before wrapping her arms tightly around her mom. "That's alright then."

Within fifteen minutes Taylor was in bed and out cold, ordeal over.

Patricia found Jethro waiting outside the girls' bedroom as she eased the door closed.

"Notice anything when you hugged her?" He asked.

"You mean the cigarette smoke?"

""Yeah."

"I think Vicky's guilty of the same thing. Why didn't you say anything to her?"

Gibbs smirked. "Got a better idea. Gonna try marine style."

"You do know you can't just shoot them, don't you?"

"Don't worry, that's only the last resort." He took Patricia's hand and pulled her along the landing towards their room. "When this so called 'vacation' is over I'm gonna take you on a real one. Anywhere you want to go. Just us. No kids. "

o

Awake, but still buried under the duvet, Taylor felt the mattress dip as someone sat down beside her.

"You planning on staying in bed all day?" Jethro was trying to work out from the lump in the quilt which way was up. His daughter had a tendency to move about when she slept.

Taylor shifted a little. "Might as well." She mumbled. "Besides, I think you broke my butt."

Jethro pulled down the cover to reveal a tangled mess of red hair. "I did not break your butt."

"Did. Still hurts." She told him with a pout, before pushing herself up onto her knees. "Where's Vicky?"

"Downstairs."

"Grandpa?"

"Store."

"He still mad?"

"You can find that out for yourself when you get up."

Grabbing the quilt, Taylor lay down and pulled it over her head again in one fluid motion. "No thanks. I think I'll stay here."

"You're gonna get real hungry if you spend all day up here."

Taylor quickly poked her head out again. She was already hungry. "You're gonna let me starve?"

"Don't do room service." Ruffling her hair he stood up and walked towards the door. "You won't starve. Not if you hit the shower and make it downstairs before someone else eats the pancakes you mom's keeping warm for you." Grinning to himself he added. "You better get a wriggle on though, you know how much I like pancakes."

o

The carrot her dad had dangled in front of her had been enough to get her out of bed, and now she was up Taylor didn't feel quite so sorry for herself. Granted, her backside still had an aversion to sitting down, but she'd live.

Vicky didn't mention the fact that Taylor ate standing up, but did aim the occasional sympathetic glance in her direction.

"Are you seeing Patrick today Vicky?" Patricia asked.

"Yeah. That's okay isn't it?" Vicky looked worried.

"It's fine, but don't make any arrangements for the next couple of days. Your uncle has something planned."

That caught Taylor's interest. "For me too?"

Her mom nodded.

"What?" Taylor asked suspiciously.

Patricia took Taylor's empty plate from her hand. "I think your dad wants to surprise you."

Vicky's face lit up, she loved surprises.

Taylor however, knew her father way better than Vicky did. He was up to something. She was still being punished after all. "Is it bad? Cause if its fishin' I ain't goin'! I'm grounded, remember."

Patricia smiled. "It's not fishing Taylor and its not bad."

Taylor took a breath in preparation for her next question, but her mom placed a finger over her lips before she could speak.

"That's all the information you're getting out of me, so either forget about it until tomorrow or go interrogate your dad."

Taylor released the breath she'd been holding when Patricia removed her finger. She wasn't going to find out anything more until her dad decided to talk, and he wouldn't do that. For now she'd just have to put up with her gut trying to warn her, that her father had some sort of alterior motive.

o

Once Vicky had gone, it didn't take Taylor long to get bored in the kitchen, so she wandered through into the store. Folding her arms, Taylor leant on the counter and watched her grandpa serve a customer. She briefly wondered what her dad had planned and more importantly, why, but came up with nothing. There was always her grandfather, but he might still be angry. Deciding it was time to start earning brownie points, Taylor held the door open as the woman left, before walking back over to her grandpa. She wasn't that stupid though, and kept the counter between them, just in case. Looking guiltily at him, Taylor emptied the pocket of her jeans onto the counter top and sorted the coins and bills out from the rubbish. She returned the useless bits and pieces before sliding the money over to her grandfather.

"What's this for?" Jackson asked as he quickly totalled it up in his head. Seven dollars and thirty six cents.

"It's for the fireworks. I know it's not enough, but it's all I have."

"I don't want your money Taylor." He pushed it back towards her.

"But I don't wanna be a thief." Taylor protested.

Jackson sighed. "Just because you made a mistake doesn't mean you're a thief. You're not planning on taking anything else you don't own, are you?"

"No."

"Did your dad spank you?"

"Yeah. Twice."

"Well then you've been punished. You can't change what you did, just what you're going to do."

"But you said last night …" She didn't finish what she had been about to say. Maybe it wouldn't be such a good idea to remind him.

"I was worried and angry, like everyone else. You shouldn't have run off like that Taylor, you had all of us worried sick."

"Sorry."

"Uh huh, and I'm sure if you do it again you'll be even sorrier."

Taylor was pretty sure that was a threat. "I know."

Jack nodded and his face softened. "Well then, are you gonna stand here all day talking, or are you going to give me a hand? The floor doesn't sweep itself you know."