Chapter 9
"She did what?!" Gibbs yelled, eyes wide with disbelief.
"Set off a stinker of mammoth proportions and a smoke grenade in the furnace of a house that was hosting a Sweet Sixteen birthday party," repeated the police officer calmly. "As well as setting off firecrackers and scaring the crap out of a bunch of dumb-ass teenagers. Although, from what I understand, they were having crapping issues anyway; something about a special delivery from a secret admirer earlier that day."
"Are either of the girls being charged with anything?" Gibbs asked, running a worried hand through his hair. It was eleven o'clock at night and he'd just gotten a call from a police officer on behalf of Emily Fornell and Dabi Moore-Gibbs, asking him to come down to a local police station. Now he was being briefed by the police officer.
"Under normal circumstances they'd be looking at public mischief, maybe trespassing, and possible damage to private property, if it gets that far."
"But?"
"But party had alcohol involved, resulting in one alcohol poisoning victim, and several others well on their way. Reports from the other responding officers say there were at least three cases of beer and numerous bottles of other hard liquor found at the party. Both girls saved a lot of lives tonight, especially that girl. She was already unconscious, and from what we're gathering, the girl had been dumped by someone. If it hadn't been for them, the girl might not have been found until it was too late. "
"Will the girl be okay?"
"Last report we got said yeah; she was lucky."
"I want to see them, now," Gibbs demanded.
"Right this way," the officer said, leading the way to the back offices.
Both Dabi and Emily were there, with Dabi holding a cup of coffee.
Gibbs looked at Dabi and growled, "Start. Talking. Now."
Dabi and Emily looked at each other, gulped, and Dabi started talking.
Yesterday:
Dabi entered her office and spotted Emily Fornell at her desk, chatting with a very confused-looking Owen. It was summer vacation and the weather was warm, so Dabi wasn't surprised to see her there.
"Seems she knows you," said Owen, jerking his head towards the teen.
"She does. She's my step-sister. Her mom married my dad, split from him, married her dad, who happens to be Uncle Toby, had her, split, and got married to each other again," Dabi explained, reaching for a Coke from her office refrigerator.
Owen blinked owlishly. "You have one weird family," he said.
"And about to get bigger. You remember Ducky's assistant, Jimmy Palmer?"
"Vaguely."
"He and his wife, Breena, are expecting a little one," Dabi explained. "We've been asked to do a Baby Celebration cake."
"Boy or girl?" Owen asked.
"Don't know yet. That's the fun part. The cake department has the details."
"Gotcha." Owen turned to Emily. "Nice meeting you," he said.
"Same," said Emily.
When Owen left the office, Emily pounced on her.
"You gotta help me!" she moaned dramatically.
Dabi raised an eyebrow. "I'm listening."
"You remember me telling you about Angelina Ronford?"
Dabi searched her memory, trying to recall the name. "Vaguely."
"Perfect hair, perfect skin..."
"And perfect bitch. I remember her now," said Dabi, recalling a teenage girl of about fifteen with wavy brown hair and brown eyes. The girl had once stopped by the bakery with her mother and it had been a battle with herself and another Front lady not to pie the pair of them, with their holier-than-thou attitudes. Just like Brenda had been Dabi's nemesis, Angelinaa was Emily's nemesis, and just as bad a bully. "What about her?"
"She's having a birthday party tomorrow night and I would love to get back at her for humiliating Sasha!"
Sasha was a girl in the same class year as Emily and the story went that Sasha had invited Angelina, abet reluctantly, to her birthday party. The upshot of it was Angelina had humiliated the poor girl so badly it was only swift intervention that had prevented her from committing suicide. Instead, Sasha was pulled out of the school and relocated elsewhere. Emily was one of the few students who knew where she was; they hadn't been best buds but they had been on good terms. As for Angelina, there was nothing the police could charge her with directly, which made Emily all the more determined to cause as much trouble for Angelina as she possibly could, without getting caught.
With Angelina's sixteenth birthday party just around the corner, it was the perfect opportunity for Emily to get what she wanted; revenge and hopefully complete and total humiliation for Angelina.
"Okay. What are you thinking?" Dabi asked.
"Special order crapper cake?" Emily asked hopefully. "I have a recipe that's guaranteed to cause super-duper stinkers." She handed Dabi a piece of paper with writing in it.
"That's a start, but if you really want to cause havoc, you have to play dirty," Dabi replied, glancing at the recipe and cringing. It contained natural bran, prune juice, whole wheat flour, unsweetened applesauce, seedless raisins, and chopped walnuts. The prune juice, applesauce, and bran were pretty much a guaranteed laxative mixture.
"I know. That's what I need your help with. Dad always said you've got a mean streak in you and you've pulled your fair share of pranks, especially on Tony. I loved the itching powder in the underwear thing!" Emily cackled.
"You heard about that, huh?"
"I heard Uncle Gibbs telling Dad about it," Emily admitted.
Dabi chewed on her lip, thinking. "I know a place that will get us what we need. Tomorrow, tell your parents you're spending the night with me."
"What about Leo?"
"He's out of town for a few days. Part of his courses or training or something," Dabi explained, briefly missing her lover. "I'll rent some movies so we have an alibi. Meet me back here with the party address tomorrow at twelve and an over-night bag. Make sure your over-night bag is exactly that; an over-night bag, but pack some dark clothes, like jeans and a hoodie jacket but nothing that screams 'up to no good'. We don't want to look too out-of-place in case we get spotted."
"Gotcha," said Emily, eagerly.
"We'll do these as muffins and decorate them real good and have them delivered. Send them as a secret admirer and that will guarantee they get eaten."
"Does that mean I get to help bake?" Emily asked hopefully.
"You started this, you darn well better be prepared to get dirty," Dabi replied.
"Yay!"
An idea came to Dabi. "Better yet, tell your mom and dad you're staying with me tonight because starting tomorrow morning, you're being 'borrowed' as a gofer, followed by a girl's only par-tay."
Emily whooped.
It didn't take much to convince Diane and Tobias Fornell to let Emily spend the day and two nights with Dabi, quoting summer work experience.
"You're a good person," Diane texted to Dabi.
"Don't tell my staff that; I'm Queen Bitch and I reign supreme with an iron hand."
"Not."
Next night:
"Okay, smoke grenades?"
"Check."
"Liquid ASS and syringe?"
"Check."
"Gloves?"
"Check."
"Cracklers and lighters?"
"Check."
"Flashlights?"
"Check."
"Phones?"
"Check."
"And last but not least, bags and wallets with cash?"
"Check again," said Emily. "We are good to go."
Both girls were wearing jeans, runners, t-shirts with no identifiable logos, and light-weight denim jackets. Dabi would use her messenger bag to carry the gear and there was a plastic kitchen garbage bag to dump any remaining evidence later.
The party address was about ten minutes from a local mall that had a movie theater. Their alibi? It was one of the few places left playing Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Dabi had read up on the movie enough to be able to provide enough plot details if asked.
A cab would pick them up and drop them off at the mall, they would purchase movie tickets, and then make their way to the party. Once sufficient mischief and mayhem was created and recorded, they would head back to the mall and cab it back home. Their time limit was two hours, about the length of the movie.
The muffins had been baked, decorated, and delivered. Dabi had paid a delivery boy to drop them off, along with a bunch of pretty flowers and a note from a so-called Secret Admirer.
Emily had proven to be useful enough in the bakery with both Dabi and the staff that Dabi was seriously considering doing the 'gofer' thing for real.
The first part of their plan went well. The cab dropped them off at the mall and Dabi bought two movie tickets for Captain America: Winter Soldier. She even bought pop and popcorn that Emily was quite happy to munch on.
Then they made their way towards Angelina's house.
A quick visual sweep of the three-story building showed the presence of a large, loud party in progress. The majority of the partiers were girls from Angelina's school, but there were also plenty of boys.
Due to the warm summer night, there were plenty of open windows, so it didn't take much for Emily and Dabi to get into the basement and find the breakers and the furnace.
Prior experience had taught Dabi a thing or two about furnaces and air flow. A smoke grenade in a furnace was a wonderful thing. So was the Liquid ASS, which would be carefully introduced to the main branch of the ducts and dispersed through the house the moment the furnace kicked on. A carefully-made hole would allow them to introduce the rank-smelling liquid into the air without compromising the whole system. A smoke grenade, also carefully put in the ducts, would spread smoke through the house nicely.
Once the breakers had been flipped by them and reset by some unsuspecting house member, Dabi and Emily would set off the firecrackers that would cause the rest of the general mayhem, before making like Dr. Jekyll and splitting, so they wouldn't get caught.
They managed to get the breakers, smoke grenade, and Liquid ASS part done with no problem.
Then Dabi had spotted the party sound system. A simple flick of the dial had guaranteed the volume would be at ear-shattering levels when the power was turned back on.
Emily was already heading for the back alley behind the house, carrying a small batch of firecrackers under her jacket. Dabi was heading that way, following the hedges, when she tripped over something.
It was a teenage girl with dark skin, in party clothes, and she was clearly unconscious. A quick check found a faint pulse and Dabi caught a whiff of alcohol, causing her to scowl.
They had to change plans, fast.
Normally Dabi wouldn't have moved the girl, but there was a risk she would be seriously hurt in the soon-to-be-ensuing mayhem, so she picked up the girl and went next door, texting Emily to come and join her.
As Dabi got the victim in the recovery position, she spoke to Emily, who was looking at the victim with wide eyes.
"Call 9-1-1; tell them you have a report of underage drinking at a party and a victim of alcohol poisoning. Give them the address but don't give them your name," she instructed. "Say you heard someone say something about firecrackers."
"Okay; what about her?" Emily asked, already taking out her phone.
"Tell them to look for a flashing white light on the lawn next door," Dabi replied, holding up an orange disk about the size of a hockey puck that she'd taken out of her bag. A push of a button had it flashing rapidly. "No way they're gonna miss this."
Emily nodded, already talking to an operator. Once Dabi was sure the girl was stable, she took off behind the house, grinning when she suddenly felt the sound wave from the speakers as the power came back on in the house.
"That's gonna hurt," she thought.
Seconds later, the firecrackers were going off and both Dabi and Emily were running for it. A tree provided a perfect hiding spot, or so they thought, giggling as their cameras recorded the ensuing events.
It was a cop that spotted them. That same cop happened to be a regular at Dabi's bakery, and upon recognizing her, hustled both her and Emily into the back of a police car. The resulting explanation from them, plus further information from others, had them taking a trip to the police station and someone calling Gibbs.
Gibbs stared at his daughter, not sure what to say or do.
"Please don't tell Mom and Dad," Emily begged. "They'll kill me and never let me hang with Dabi again!"
"And I really could use her help around the bakery," Dabi admitted, rubbing her temples and wishing for Tylenol.
Gibbs tossed some ideas around in his head. Some ideas involved handcuffing the pair of them to his basement work bench for the rest of the night, while others included speaking to the Fornells. Finally...
"Provided you two aren't being charged with anything, you are both heading back to Dabi's place. However, I will be spending the night with you, as you two clearly need a baby-sitter!"
"We do not!" Emily protested indignantly.
Gibbs glared at them. "Either I spend the night with you two or I call your parents right now and you can explain this to them." He held up his cell phone and waggled it.
Dabi and Emily looked at each other and Dabi shrugged. "He's good company, and better than your mom and dad," she said.
Emily nodded. "Hope you like animated movies," she said to Gibbs.
"Which ones?" Gibbs asked.
"Rio, Planes, and Despicable Me 2," said Emily.
"And maybe Kung Fu Panda 1 and 2," said Dabi.
Gibbs groaned mentally but smiled and said, "Hope you have popcorn."
An hour later Gibbs was still groaning, but this time it was from laughing so hard.
Tigress: [seeing Po bounce down the palace steps] If he's smart, he won't come back up those steps.
Monkey: But he will.
Viper: He's not gonna quit, is he?
Mantis: He's not gonna quit bouncing, I'll tell you that.
