Missing scene from Silent Night:
Gibbs 'knew' the man standing at the Vietnam Memorial Wall was the man he was looking for, Ned Quinn. He just had to confront the man. He felt sorry that the rest of the team was missing their plans for Christmas. The only thing on his own agenda was to call and talk to his father. He'd wasted a lot of years with no contact of his father, and frankly his father looked old. Taking a glance at the wall he noted his own reflection and realized he was now on the other side of fifty.
He noticed a family standing at the wall, a girl who wouldn't be that many years younger than Kelly, with hair that reminded him of his daughter, the rest of the group had dark hair. A second look at the family and he recognized the man and woman, they must have married after all, he had not had any contact with them at JAG for a few years. The little boy and the little girl couldn't be more than one and two respectively, and it was almost midnight. But it was Christmas Eve, maybe they'd been at a church service. He remembered hearing scuttlebutt that the commander was now a Captain, stationed in England if her remembered right. Maybe they'd just got into town.
"Will, Lisa ,this has been a tradition, that I've done every year I've been DC. This is only the second time that Mattie's come with me, and its really the first time for your mom.. Thirty nine years ago tonight, your grandfather, my dad was shot down, and we didn't know what happened to him for close to thirty years." It was obvious the kids were too young to grasp the importance of what their dad had said, but it was obvious the sensed it was a place for quiet and not for play.
"Merry Christmas, Captain Rabb, Colonel MacKenzie" he said, stopping and honoring the man who'd given his life for his country, like the others on the wall.
"Merry Christmas, Gunny" Captain Rabb said when her recognized the man who had arrested him for murder, five and a half years earlier. That sort of thing would stick in your mind. Harm acknowledged the man, and then went back to lighting a candle in honor of his father. It was the first year since his promotion to Captain that he'd been in DC. The past two Christmases he'd not wanted to make the trip as both children had been born in early December. Lisa Patricia was truly their miracle child as Mac had become pregnant very quickly after the birth of her brother, William Frank. Mac had insisted they come to DC on their way to La Jolla to spend a whole month with his mother and stepfather. They had spent time with the Roberts family earlier in the day, attending the services, remembering the services that Chaplain Turner had performed each Christmas. The man had died peacefully in his sleep earlier in the summer. The new chaplain was okay, but it was not the same.
Jethro Gibbs was keeping an eye on the man he was pretty sure was Quinn, but for a moment he remembered the Christmases he'd spent with his wife and daughter and he couldn't understand why the man had not had any contact with his family, and had allowed them to think of him as dead. Maybe a miracle would happen and they'd find out Quinn was innocent, and the man would be reunited with his daughter. Gibbs knew he'd give anything for just a hug from his daughter. Her favorite carol had been Silent Night and he hummed it, quietly, as he continued his walk along the Memorial until he was next to Quinn.
Who knew how this would end? He hoped for good.