The Bank Job

"Heirlooms, irreplaceable things that you can't put a price to," Kensi explains. She turns to Callen. "Doesn't your daughter have one of these?"

He pauses. "Uh. No, I don't think so. Her mom was never into keeping this kind of…stuff," he gestures to the box that Kensi has on her desk.

Sam and Callen were on their way to Jeffcoat's place and talking about what Sam had in his Class G6 safe, hidden in his den. "That's your 'I'm hiding something' look."

"No I'm not," Sam argues.

"I would know. I have a daughter that likes to keep stuff from me. Like having a boyfriend," Callen complains.

"Still haven't spoke to her?"

"Nope," Callen asks. "What else you have in that safe?"

"Tickets to the Lakers/Knicks game for tomorrow night. They're both spoken for."

As Callen and Sam were in the warehouse, Callen thought back to a certain warehouse in Paris. He hated warehouses. Good traps. He hated them for their memories as well. That certain warehouse in Paris is where him and Riaane had to work together on an op for the CIA and where she double-crossed him. Yep, that was Riaane Vandenhoven, for you. Callen would never tell Taylor about that op. It still haunted him to the day and one of the bullet holes on his shoulder stood a constant reminder to that little "incident."

Eric is describing Salerno. "He's the mastermind and the muscle all rolled into one felonious package."

"Sounds like your daughter in a couple years, G," Sam remarks.

Callen raises his eyebrows. "Don't even joke about that." His daughter certainly had the street smarts to become a career criminal but he hoped she inherited Skylar's smarts and stayed away from the streets, bad or good side of the law.

Kensi is looking at the medal her father had, and Callen and Sam are discussing the tickets to the Lakers/Knicks game tonight.

Her phone rings and its an unfamiliar number, but she answers it anyways. "Hello?"

"It's Taylor. Can you teach me how to shoot a gun?"

Kensi snorts. "You want me… to teach you how to shoot a gun?"

"Yeah. So can you?"

"First of all, you're underage. You don't need to know how to fire a gun. And second, what do I tell your father. And third, why do you want to learn how?" Kensi is really wondering.

Taylor laughs. "You don't need to tell my dad anything. And it's for my own protection. My mother's kind of a bitch," Taylor explains. Kensi can kind of relate, she's not close to her mother, either.

"I'll get back to you on that," Kensi says, hangs up and runs to where Callen and Sam are just getting into Sam's car.

"Callen. Your daughter called me," Kensi says breathlessly.

Callen stops. "Is she alright?"

"She's fine. She wants me to teach her how to fire a gun? Should I be worried?"

Sam laughs. "Knowing his kid, probably. That is one thing Taylor does not need to know how to do."

Callen groans. "I'll handle this."

After the Lakers/Knicks game, he's still trying to get ahold of Skylar. They keep playing phone tag and leaving each other voicemails. In her multiple voicemails, Skylar tells him Taylor hasn't said anything. Hell, she's rarely home, Skylar tells him. Taylor has also taken up softball. Meaning practices on Monday and Friday, games Thursday, for her high school soccer team; practices on Monday and Tuesday, games Sunday for her club soccer team; and practices Tuesday and Thursday, games Wednesday and Friday for her softball team. Just thinking about Taylor's busy schedule was enough to tire Callen out.

He's waiting for her, at 12 30 am, outside of Skylar's house. She told him that Taylor was at Cody's and he knows his daughter would be at her boyfriend's until then. He's just leaning casually against his car. He sees her headlights and the surprised look on her face.

"I'm not talking to you," Taylor announces as she gets out of her Jetta.

"You just did," Callen pointed out. He gets a glare as a response, but he follows her up the walk anyways. "You called Kensi."

The key is in the lock before Taylor turns around to face her father. "Is this what you're here about?"

"Yeah. And to talk. You're not returning my calls."

"No. I'm not," she replies.

"Why'd you call Kensi? Why do you want to know how to fire a gun? As Sam pointed out, that is one thing you don't need to learn how to do."

Taylor shrugs and leans against door frame. "Fine. Cody's place got robbed yesterday. Yeah, the IAB Detective's house got robbed. Anyways, I thought maybe I should learn how to shoot a gun, for protection. Because I am home alone a lot and God forbid a robber tries to rob this place. Or even worse, my mother comes back."

Callen smiles at her last comment. "I think a baseball bat will do just fine, honey."

Taylor unlocks the house and steps inside. "Goodnight, Dad."

Callen turns and walks down the walk, blowing out the breath he didn't think he was keeping. That conversation didn't turn out too bad, for Taylor. Maybe they were making progress.

Taylor's having a freezing cold shower, thinking about the conversation she just had with her father. Okay, probably not the best idea to learn how to shoot. A person with her "anger issues," as Mrs. Chatham had described to her, didn't need to know how to use a firearm.

As she washes her hair with shampoo, she's still thinking. The wanting to use the gun, wasn't for her safety's sake. She could careless about that. It was her mother that scared her. And fortunately for her, Callen realized why she wanted to learn how to shoot. Riaane Vandenhoven wasn't a topic anybody could really dance around with. It was a serious subject and she wonders when her mom's going to come back. Hopefully never, she decides as she washes the shampoo out.

The next morning, Callen and Sam are going to a crime scene when they start talking about a topic that seems to come up quite often. Taylor. "So you find out why your juvenile delinquent wants to shoot a gun?" 'Juvenile Delinquent' is Sam's new name for Taylor. He rarely refers her by her first name. Just that. Or 'Spawn of Satan.'

"Yeah. I guess her boyfriend's house got robbed. And she's alone a lot."

"Isn't his father that IAB Detective from LAPD?"

Callen nods. "Detective Andrew James."

"So you're daughter is dating a cop's son. Guess she could do worse?"

Again, Callen nods. "That she could. Not to mention Cody's mother did a stint on Miami-Dade PD before becoming a nurse."

"What are you thinking about?" Sam asks. "It's not about your daughter's future husband and having to visit with the LAPD inlaws. Maybe you can call up Bernhart and see what he thinks of his IAB Detective? Renko knows a few people in LAPD. Just like a family reunion."

Callen smiles and grimaces at that last statement. He doesn't want to picture Taylor married. And he's pretty sure that won't happen anytime soon. Or he sure as hell hopes not. "Nah, just something Taylor said."

"What did she say?"

"I think the real reason she wanted Kensi to teach her how to shoot was if her mom came back."

Sam casts a look at his partner. "Her mother really that bad?"

"Yeah."

"Wait. Isn't she Riaane Houghton?"

Callen shrugs. "I didn't know she got married."

"I can't believe I didn't see the resemblence until now," Sam says. "Although she had brown hair then."

"How did you get the unfortunate chance of meeting Riaane?"

Sam looks at Callen. Good thing the LA traffic is atrocious this time of morning, so Sam can drag out this conversation. "SEAL team. Serbia? Bosnia? I don't know. But she was a CIA operative."

Callen's silent, so Sam pokes the subject a little more. He's not sure if he should wake up the dog and force Callen to remember some not so great details and just get them out there, or let the sleeping dog lay. "I met Riaane for 15 minutes at the most. But, how did you two end up?" He makes a vague hand gesture, so he didn't have to elaborate on the last part.

"We were young. Met at a party. Drank a lot. It was only two or three weeks," Callen finally tells Sam after a couple minutes of silence. It's more than he told anyone. But then again, not many people knew about Taylor. He's sure Hetty somehow knows of the details, because Callen and Riaane were an unlikely couple.

"Destined to fail from the start?"

"More than you know. We were young, impuslive and stupid. And forced to raise a child, while her CIA father tried to meddle in both of our lives."

Sam nods. "You know Eric Vandenhoven is pretty legendary? Like Hetty legendary in the SEAL world?" Eric had been a Navy SEAL for 7 years, before going to the dark side and joining the CIA.

"Oh, I know. I know."