Random on Purpose

After rescuing Abby from The Phantom killer, Callen sincerely hoped he wouldn't have to be rescuing Taylor like this any time soon. Although, she definitely had the attitude to be getting mixed up in something not so good. And he also really hopes he never finds his daughter in a bar like Abby and Eric had been in the night before. Because that would not end pretty for anyone.

After dropping Abby off at the airport, Callen and Sam take a walk along the beach. Out of the corner of his eye he saw someone familiar. Before he would have just passed over the group of Marines that had been talking, but, his teenage daughter happened to be in that group.

He motioned for Sam to come over and his partner just rolled his eyes and followed Callen.

"So," Callen started. "Taylor. Who are these guys?"

Taylor looked at him incredulously. "Really? That's the line you're going with now? Before you would just say me- your father, you- Taylor and drag me away from talking to any guy in the vicinity," Taylor smiled and put her hands on her hips.

"What are you doing here?" Callen asked.

She shrugged. "Well I was just walking and then…"

Sam came up to them. "You know you're a trouble magnet?" He asked her. Taylor shrugs. He turns to the group of Marines, all who looked pretty young. "What are you doing in Santa Monica?"

"Sir, we just finished our duty at Camp Pendleton and we're all being deployed in a couple days and thought we'd come up here and have some fun," one of the guys explained.

Callen raised his eyebrows. "Were you going to participate in that fun, Taylor?"

Taylor just smiles slyly and Callen knows what she had been thinking. Oh this girl was going to give him a heart attack at the rate she was going. Only a couple weeks back in her life and she was running him ragged.

"Don't you have soccer practice or something?" Sam asked.

"Actually I was just inviting Jon and the others to come watch my game," she replied innocently.

Before Sam and Callen could lecture her about inviting strange guys to watch a high school soccer game, one of the Marines introduced himself. "I'm Lance Corporal Jon Peterson, this is PFC Robbie White, PFC Brendan Carthers, Corporal Cole Sadoz and Lance Corporal Rick Firth," Jon said, pointing to everyone.

"Callen," he said, shaking Jon's hand. "Her father. She's also only 17. Let's go Taylor. You're going to be late for your game," he said warningly.

Taylor smiled over at the guys. "Add me on facebook and we'll keep in contact while you're in Afghanistan."

After dragging her away, Callen began his lecture. "Why are you talking to strange guys?"

"They weren't strange and I was just being friendly. Last time I checked, being friendly wasn't against the law."

"So who were they?" Sam asked, in his "father" tone.

Taylor shrugged. "Carthers is one of my buddy's older brothers. Ryan and I would sometimes drive down to Pendleton."

Taylor had walked to the beach. She had actually been with her friend, Jessica and Jess's boyfriend, but when Taylor spotted Brendan and the rest of them and went to go talk to them, Jess had left. So Sam and Callen were giving her a ride back to Skylar's.

"So you two…. Dating?" Taylor asked from the backseat.

Callen and Sam both laughed. "We're partners at work."

"Oh right. You guys work for the government and run around killing bad guys and acting like you own the world, including me," she texted out a message to Cody. Kill me now….

Sam snorted. "Something like that. And for the record, your father kind of does have control over your life."

Taylor raised an eyebrow. "Really? I'd like to see him control me."

"Taylor," Callen warned. She just smiled back and shut up for the rest of the ride back to Skylar's.

As soon as Callen opened the passenger seat for her to get out, she bolted to the house. She was at the front door when she turned around. "Cody's dropping me off at the game and Skylar said she'd come, so you guys don't need to come."

"Oh we are," Sam replied and Taylor rolled her eyes.

At the soccer game, those bunch of Marines did show up to watch her play and Callen just groaned when he saw them. He also spotted Cody James and the guys she had been with before when Sam met her. Oh his daughter was definitely a boy and trouble magnet.

After the game, Taylor checks her phone for any messages or missed calls. She's the last one in the locker room. The blinking red light on her phone is telling her she has a voicemail. The missed call shows it is from an "unknown" caller. Taylor pressed the voicemail button and went through the prompts to get the voicemail.

"Hi, Taylor. It's your mother. Just wanted to talk. Give me a call back."

Taylor's face went immediately stark white and she pressed the delete button. How in the world did Riaane Vandenhoven get this number? And what did her mother want? When Riaane called, it wasn't just to talk. Taylor wanted to know her agenda. Actually Taylor didn't really give a shit either way, she just didn't want Riaane back in her life.

Cody James was waiting outside the locker room, leaning against the wall, and texting on his phone. He looked up when he saw Taylor. "You look like you saw a ghost. What happened?"

"Nothing," Taylor lied. She wasn't going to tell anyone about the phone call. It was better that way.

AN: The next chapter shows Taylor's juvenile delinquent behavoir. And this isn't the last time we see or hear from Taylor's mom.