"Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or any of its characters.
Chapter 31
"Hey!" What about the bags?" Jethro hadn't had time to undo his seatbelt before the girls were out of the car and racing into the store. He followed them a few minutes later and found his wife sitting in the middle of the couch, flanked by Taylor and Vicky.
"Thanks for helping with all the gear girls." He complained before dropping into an armchair.
"You look tired." Patricia told him.
"So would be if you had to keep up with this pair."
Taylor piped in. "Dad says you can come next time we go camping, and I can show you how to read a map."
"You can read a map now?"
"Yep, and use a compass."
"Are you going to teach me that too?"
"I might, if you're good." Taylor grinned up at her. She'd missed her mom not being around.
Patricia looked at each one in turn. "Did any of you actually wash when you were gone?"
"They don't have showers in forests mom."
"Well we do. Who's first?"
o
A squeaky clean Taylor found herself in charge of the store while her grandpa took a rare afternoon break. It wasn't as if they were busy, there had only been a couple of customers in the past hour. Slightly bored, Taylor tried to amuse herself by poking about the shelves to see if there was anything new she hadn't seen before. Her exploration was interrupted by the bell above the door, signalling the arrival of a customer. Taylor emerged from behind the shelves to find the Reverend Moore.
"I wondered when you'd have the nerve to show your face again." Swaying, he reached out and grabbed a shelf.
"Huh?" Taylor stepped back when she smelt the alcohol on his breath.
"You know exactly what I mean you little heathen."
Taylor kept her mouth closed, guessing now was not a good time to ask him what a heathen was. She'd ask her grandpa later, he'd know. Right now all she wanted was him to leave. The man creeped her out at the best of times, but now his demeanour was just plain scary.
He stumbled towards her, almost losing his balance. "Someone needs to ... knock the devil out of you! Just look .. at...you. You don't even ... have ...the decency.. to be ashamed!"
Taylor was so busy trying to make sense of his slurred words, she didn't see the powerful backhander coming. One second she was trying to back away, the next she was sitting on the floor, cheek burning painfully. Taylor scooted back and climbed to her feet, before turning and bolting towards the stairs. Heading straight to the bathroom she slammed the door behind her and locked it.
o
Taylor checked out the damage again in the mirror. She'd been hiding for almost half an hour now, and an impressive bruise was already forming below her right eye. There was also a nasty looking cut which ran almost the entire length of her cheekbone. How the hell was she gonna be able to hide that? Soaking a cloth in cold water she dabbed at her cheek. At least it wasn't bleeding much. She tried to convince herself it wasn't quite so bad, and when she cleaned it up she downgraded it from a cut to a scratch. Still going to be hard to hide though. The cool cloth felt good and eased the throbbing, so Taylor ran it under the tap again then held it to her face. It was time to think seriously about what she was going to do.
One thing Taylor was sure of was that she couldn't tell anyone what had happened. That would just open a whole new can of worms and upset her grandpa. He liked the man, and his church. She couldn't take that away from him. Taylor figured she'd deserved it, and could always avoid him for the rest of the vacation. The only decision Taylor would have to make under the circumstances was whether to lie about what had happened or to say nothing.
Eventually Taylor came to the conclusion that because she was such a hopeless liar, the only thing she could do was not tell anyone. It wasn't gonna be easy, so she figured she'd put it off for as long as possible. Cracking open the door, Taylor checked the coast was clear before darting into her bedroom.
Taylor was immediately met with the first flaw in her plan. Vicky was lying on her bed, flicking through a magazine, and instantly sat up when she saw her cousin's face.
"What the fuck?"
Ignoring the comment Taylor lifted a hooded top out of her drawer, pulling it quickly over her head, leaving the hood up, before sitting down and looking across at Vicky.
"Taylor, who did that? Is Ethan back?"
"No, it wasn't Ethan."
"Then who?"
"I can't say." She looked at Vicky pleadingly. "Please don't tell anyone."
"If you think no one is going to notice that you're crazy!"
"I know that, I just don't want to be interrogated yet. Maybe it'll look better in a few hours."
Vicky stared at her for what seemed to be a very long time. "I won't tell anyone."
Satisfied, Taylor lifted her psp off the table where it had been charging, hoping to lose herself in a game.
Leaving her cousin alone, Vicky knew her aunt needed to know. It was not going to look better in a few hours, if anything, it was going to be worse. She needed to get her aunt upstairs.
o
Vicky found Patricia and Jethro in the living room. She knelt down at the end of the couch where her aunt was.
"Could you go and check our beds are made properly?"
Patricia looked at her as if she'd gone mad. "What's going on Vicky?" She didn't miss the worried look.
"Please. Just check."
Jethro folded his paper and took off his glasses as Patricia made a beeline for the stairs. "Should I be worried?"
Vicky nodded, and Jethro quickly followed after his wife.
Patricia found Taylor on her bed, knees up in front of her as she leant against the headboard. Even though it was warm, she was wearing a sweatshirt with the hood up, covering most of her face.
"Thought I'd check if you wanted to give me a hand with dinner."
The only response she got was a slight shake of Taylor's head.
Patricia sat down beside her. "Aren't you too hot in that?"
Again, a small head shake.
She glanced up at Jethro who was standing just outside the door. "Taylor, look at me."
"No." Taylor whispered.
"Don't you trust me?"
That hurt more than her face. "You know I do."
Gently, Patricia lowered the hood. "Let me see."
With no other option, Taylor turned and faced her mom.
Aware that her daughter was watching carefully for her reaction, she tried not to look shocked. "What happened?"
Taylor reverted to shaking her head.
"Did you fall?"
"No."
"Were you fighting?"
"No."
"Did someone hit you?"
Taylor had already decided against lying, although it was tempting. "Maybe."
"Who?" Jethro asked as he stepped in through the door, ice pack in his hand. Taylor didn't seem surprised by his appearance.
"Doesn't matter."
"Who was it Taylor?" He asked, a little more firmly.
She lowered her eyes and focused on her games console. "I can't tell you."
Setting the pack down, he moved close enough to examine her, but when he reached out to touch her face she quickly pulled her head away.
"Don't! It hurts."
"Okay, I won't touch. Not if you tell me if it was a punch or a smack."
"What difference does that make?"
He raised an eyebrow at the question. "I want to make sure nothing's broken."
"Smack."
"Front or back of the hand?"
Taylor thought hard. "Back"
At least that was some information. Whoever had hit his daughter had been wearing a ring. It wasn't enough though, he wanted to know exactly who was responsible, but it could wait. He passed her the ice pack. "Here, hold that on it for a while." She didn't look so sure, so he added, "It'll help, I promise."
Taylor held the cold pack to her cheek. It did help, and it even cooled her down a little, she was slowly cooking in that sweatshirt.
"Did he hit you anywhere else?"
Taylor was beginning to get fed up with all the questions. "No dad, he only hit me once and I don't wanna talk about it anymore."
Patricia held her hand out. "You don't have to hide up here. Why don't you come downstairs and watch some TV."
"You gonna ask more questions?" If the interrogation was just changing location she was stayin' where she was, promise of TV or not.
Her mom looked at Jethro before she answered. "Not right now."
Relaxing, Taylor swung her legs off the bed and took her hand. She was feeling better already.
o
As Taylor spent the remainder of the afternoon watching TV she was aware of the occasional glance from her mom and dad, but thankfully they hadn't asked anymore questions. It appeared from her grandpa's reaction he'd been pre-warned not to say anything, and that suited her just fine. If she was lucky the whole thing would soon be forgotten about.
Her dad had different ideas though, and followed her upstairs when she was going to bed. Taylor tried to draw out the time she spent getting changed and cleaning her teeth, but knew it wouldn't make any difference, he'd still be waiting.
She tried to ignore him, sitting calmly on Vicky's bed. He didn't speak until she climbed under the covers.
"You ready to talk yet?"
"I'm tired dad."
"Taylor ..." Jethro wasn't sure the best way to go about this.
If it hadn't been her right cheek that was hurt she'd have turned away and faced the wall.
"I'm not talking about it, so just leave me alone."
"Everyone's worried about you Taylor." He told her softly.
See, now he was trying to make her feel guilty. "Yeah? Well maybe I'll just go home then. I can stay with Tony. Even though she hadn't meant it, the idea did have a certain appeal.
"You're not going anywhere." Jethro moved over onto her bed, suddenly worried that his daughter had plans to take off again.
So much for that idea. Taylor didn't think she'd be brave enough to try that on her own. Her dad had been mad enough when she'd only gone a couple of miles away a few days ago, never mind a whole different state, like she'd done when they'd snuck off to New York. That hadn't exactly been successful. Nope. Not worth it. She'd be going home soon enough.
"I know I'm not, but I'm not sayin' anything either."
Taylor closed her eyes, hoping her father would finally get the message. She counted to one hundred before opening them again. Crap! He was still there.
"Why are you afraid to tell me who hit you?"
Ahhhhhhhhh... Taylor screamed inside her head. The man was gonna drive her nuts!
"I'm not. Why can't you just drop it?" Was he trying to make her lose her temper?
"Because I can't protect you unless I know who I'm protecting you from."
Oh, okay, maybe that made sense. "You don't need to protect me. I'm still grounded, so all I have to do is stay outta the store. Easy. Problem solved. Now can I go to sleep?
Jethro sighed. "Okay." Leaning down he kissed her forehead before switching off the bedside lamp. "I just want you to think about one thing."
"What?" Taylor asked suspiciously.
"How are you going to feel if he does the same thing to someone else?" The room went completely dark as he closed the door behind him.
That was so not fair! There was the guilt again. Now if he hit someone else it would be her fault. But then, what were the chances of someone else blowing up Jesus? Unless he was mad at Lucas too. Taylor sat up. How the hell was she supposed to sleep now? Almost before she realised what she was doing Taylor was making her way down the stairs.