Kayla Vance has always been generally aware of Emily Fornell, though she doesn't ever remember learning about her. She knows that her mother was married to Agent Gibbs before she married Agent Fornell, and she heard whispers right before Diane's death that Diane and Tobias were getting back together again. She'd been envious at the time - she'd have given anything to see her own parents reunited - and was horrified when she learned that Diane had been murdered. That one she did remember hearing about; her dad had freaked out a little at the string of murders tied to Gibbs personally, and though they all knew that she and Jared were never really in any danger, he'd sent Agent Dornaget to pick them up from school just in case.
She's not thinking about any of this, though, as she turns off her phone GPS and pulls into Agent Gibbs' driveway. She's pretty sure she's been to his house before, though she can't remember when, and she's surprised by the number of cars in the driveway. No way do they all belong to Gibbs. A quick inventory tells her that, yep, her dad is here, so she sighs with relief as she parks along the curb and pulls the keys from the ignition. It's not really her job to keep up with her father's whereabouts, she knows, but he's been home by seven every night since she's been home for the summer, so when he still wasn't home by ten and wasn't answering his phone, she went out searching.
As she steps out onto the road and pushes her door shut, she's surprised by the sound of a small car pulling up and parking behind her. It's late - too late for new visitors to be arriving, even if it does seem that Gibbs is having some kind of party - and she grips her keys tightly between her fingers defensively without turning around. She stands still and silent by her car for a long moment of nervous hesitation, and then a bee-bopping blur of ginger hair passes her on its way to Agent Gibbs' driveway.
"Excuse me," Kayla calls, and the young woman looks expectantly over her shoulder. Between the long red hair ("Gibbs always loved redheads," her father had said,) and that distantly familiar face, not to mention the fact that she's here at Gibbs' house, Kayla's pretty sure she knows who this is, but she doesn't quite let her guard down as she asks, "Are you Emily? Emily Fornell?"
"That's me," Emily grins, and Kayla thinks that for the daughter of federal agents, her mother murdered and her father alive only because of some combination of medical magic and terrorists' poor aim, Emily seems much too comfortable here on the dark street with a stranger late at night. "Who's asking?" Emily adds, though there's no bite in her tone; she genuinely just wants to know.
Kayla finally relaxes a little, and she and Emily keep pace as they continue together towards Gibbs' door. "I'm Kayla Vance, Director Vance's daughter," she says, glancing at Emily for a long moment. She's struck by the realization that it would be incredibly easy to get lost in those bright blue eyes, and she fights the urge to reach for her hand.
"Nice to meet you!" Emily exclaims, then looks a little confused. "What, uh, what are you doing here at Gibbs' house?"
I could very well ask you the same! Kayla thinks, though all she says is, "Looking for my dad. His car is here, so it seems like I found him." She tells herself she's showing restraint out of sheer courtesy, not snapping back because doing so would be rude, but the devil on her other shoulder is quick to point out that flirting is easier if you don't insult a girl first.
Emily glances at the full driveway and nods. "Yeah, it seems like Uncle Gibbs is having some kind of party - very un-Gibbsean, if you ask me."
Uncle Gibbs? Kayla makes a mental note to ask her dad again about what the deal is with Agents Gibbs and Fornell, because it seems that Emily is remarkably close with her late mother's ex-husband.
When they arrive at the front door, Kayla reaches for the doorbell - after all, that's what one does at a person's front door; one knocks or rings and waits to be invited in! - but Emily just swings the door right open. "C'mon!" She says over her shoulder when she realizes Kayla is hesitating to follow her. "It's just Gibbs' place," she explains, then realizes from the look on the other woman's face that that means very little to her, so she adds, "His door is always open. Literally open. If he didn't want people to come in, he'd lock it."
She's not feeling super comfortable with that reasoning, but Emily seems confident that letting themselves in is no big deal (confidence – I like that in a woman), and she's clearly the Gibbs expert in this scenario, so Kayla follows her over the threshold. They both pause in the doorway; the cars in the driveway did seem to imply that Gibbs was having, as Emily suggested, "some kind of party," but the house is very quiet. Emily takes a few steps towards the stairs to the basement, listening for the familiar sounds of boatbuilding and other assorted woodworking, but hears nothing.
"Huh," she says mildly.
"Does Agent Gibbs know you're coming?" Kayla whispers loudly.
Emily scrunches up her (adorable) nose and shakes her head as if that's one of the most ridiculous questions she's ever heard. "It's Gibbs," she insists. Kayla still doesn't really know what's supposed to mean, but she doesn't comment.
The sound of slightly raised voices turns both their attentions to the next room. "Uncle Gibbs?" Emily calls out, and the voices suddenly go silent.
Gibbs emerges quickly from around the corner. He's only expecting Emily, and furrows his brow a little when he sees she's not alone. "Leon!" he calls over his shoulder before acknowledging either one of them.
Kayla hangs back, finding the whole turn of events very disconcerting. When she thought to look for her dad at Agent Gibbs' house, she never expected there would be a whole group of people here. Emily seems off-put, as if this isn't the kind of greeting she was expecting, and from the way the chatter went silent when they made themselves known, Kayla's getting a sinking feeling that something shady is going down in the kitchen.
Emily, on the other hand, steps forward. "Gibbs, what's going on?" she asks. "We saw all the cars out front."
Blinking slowly at Emily, then at Kayla, Gibbs hesitates for a long moment before answering her question with one of his own: "You two together?"
"We just ran into each other outside," Kayla's quick to supply (it's only after she says it that she realizes he was probably only asking if they had ridden together, not if they were together-together), and Gibbs nods. That makes a lot more sense; as far as he knows, if the girls have ever met before, it's been merely in passing, at a funeral, maybe, or perhaps at Jimmy Palmer's wedding reception.
"What're ya' doing here?" Gibbs asks next, his alternating gaze making it clear that the question is intended for both his unexpected visitors.
"I was looking for my dad," Kayla replies, thinking that the sooner she answers all of Agent Gibbs' questions, the sooner she can leave. (Maybe I should get her number first, though.) "He never showed up, and he wasn't answering his phone."
"You found me," Vance says, hurrying from the doorway to his daughter. "I'm sorry I didn't see that you called. I'll be home as soon as I can. Do you need something?" Kayla bristles a little as his tone; it feels as if he's mad at her for some reason, even though she knows she didn't do anything wrong.
At the sound of the front door swinging open again, four heads pivot to see who it could be. "Hey, Jethro, I came as soon as I -"
Tobias Fornell staggers to a halt when he sees the small crowd gathered in Gibbs' foyer, then does a double take when he sees his daughter.
"Emily! What are you doing here?" He turns to Jethro. "Did you call her, too?"
"No."
"Dad, I just came to see Gibbs," Emily whines. "I didn't realize he was going to give me the third degree."
Gibbs scowls and rolls his eyes. You're all interrupting! He thinks.
"Well, since I'm here, I'm at least going to grab a beer," Tobias announces to no one in particular, moving towards the kitchen. It takes Leon and Jethro about half a second too long to realize that Fornell has no subtlety whatsoever and is about to ruin everything. They both spin on their heels to rush after him, but they can't quite catch him before he makes it through the kitchen door and spies who's sitting at the table.
"DiNozzo?" Fornell roars. "David?"
Kayla's eyes go wide and Emily's jaw drops. They glance over at each other, finding a sudden unity in their common cluelessness.
Ziva? Emily mouths, brows knit together, and Kayla responds with raised eyebrows in a look she hopes conveys something to the general effect of, I have absolutely no idea.