Thank you to all the people who reviewed the last chapter! I feel really grateful for it! So, here's the next chapter, people! I hope you enjoy it!

Gibbs sighed into the pillow. It was the first time in weeks that he was actually getting some real sleep, and Andy and Jessie had finally persuaded him to sleep in his bed upstairs. It wasn't until he'd actually gotten into bed that he'd realized how much he'd missed it.

And then the phone rang.

Gibbs groaned and turned over in bed. It was very uncharacteristic of him, he knew, but being a father meant he needed his sleep.

Which was cut short when Jessie burst into his room carrying the phone.

"Daddy! It's the office!" she cried as she jumped onto the bed.

Gibbs grunted as he grabbed the phone as it bounced into the air. "Yeah, Gibbs?" There was a murmur on the other line before he got up. "Yeah, I'll be there." He ended the call and sat up fully.

Jessie pouted. "Are you going into work, daddy?"

Gibbs nodded as he got off the bed. "I've got a case, honey." He grabbed his shirt from his bedside table and quickly slipped it on before grabbing his hoodie from his bedpost and putting that on over the top. He grabbed his jeans and quickly switched into those.

"But daddy, you said I could go to Vida's house today!" Jessie whined.

Gibbs sighed. Vida was a new friend that Jessie had acquired, mainly because she was half-Israeli and since she'd met Ziva she'd decided she loved Israelis. "Andy can drop you off."

Jessie pouted. "That means I have to take a bus, though!"

Gibbs sighed. "Jess…" He zipped up his hoodie and grabbed his cell phone. "Stop whining. I've gotta go." He gave Jessie a kiss on the forehead. "See ya."

"But daddy!" Jessie called out, only to be met by the shutting of a door as Gibbs ran past Andy downstairs and out the front door. She sighed.

That was meant to be their weekend together…

Gibbs pulled up at the crime scene in his car, putting his NCIS cap on before getting out of the car and proceeding towards the crime scene tape that surrounded the house – from the open door to the smashed window and beyond.

The officer smiled at Gibbs as he approached her. She was a young woman, maybe in her late twenties, with fair hair and hazel eyes. Her curly hair was tied back into a ponytail, which poked out of the back of her police hat.

Gibbs nodded at the officer. "What've we got here, officer?"

The officer pulled out a notepad. "A dead marine in the living room, killed by a bullet to the back. There's a broken window, but the doors don't show signs of forced entry. All three of your agents have already arrived. One's taking pictures, one's tagging evidence, and one's talking to the Chinese delivery guy."

Gibbs nodded before walking into the house. The front hall seemed relatively clean, until you reached the living room archway. Blood covered the carpets, staining them so much that they couldn't be cleaned properly.

"What've you got?" Gibbs called out as he walked in.

"Nothing much, boss," Tony answered. "Just blood samples, tissue samples, hair samples…"

"DiNozzo…"

"And it looks like the guy was sniped, boss." Tony pointed at the one window that had been left relatively intact, which had a small hole in it. He took a photo of it. "Looks like our Petty Officer had enemies."

"Anything else?"

"The man probably was sniped, Jethro," Ducky explained as he walked in, "but I would like to get a look at him first."

Palmer followed not long after, placing the doctor's bag right beside the body from Ducky to use. Ducky took out the liver probe and pushed it into the body, waiting a little while for the readings to come up. When they did, he frowned. "He was killed approximately twelve hours ago, which would make it –"

"2100," Gibbs answered.

Palmer looked at where the bullet entered the body. "It looks like the bullet went straight in, missing the ribs and going straight through the left lung to the heart." Palmer gave a small smile. "Gives a real meaning to the words 'shot in the back', huh?" He laughed nervously, until he caught Gibbs staring at him.

"I have footprints," Ziva called out from the corridor. Tony walked out to join her, taking photos of the large boot prints that had been left.

"This guy must've had big feet," Tony stated.

"They're as big as yours, Tony," Ziva pointed out.

Tony frowned. "Your point?"

McGee walked into the house. "Hey boss? The Chinese delivery guy said he arrived here at 2130, bringing the Petty Officer's delivery, when he found the door to the house open. He walked into the house and found the Petty Officer before calling 911."

"That's it?" Gibbs asked.

"That's all he knows," McGee corrected. "He wasn't here when the guy was shot, or when the killer left."

Tony frowned. "What I don't get is why the killer came into the house when the Petty Officer had already been sniped."

Ziva bit her lip as she looked around for clues, before noticing a thin blood trail running from the living room down the corridor. She frowned and followed it, not sure what to expect.

Tony put his finger to his chin thoughtfully. "Maybe he was a rookie?"

McGee raised an eyebrow at him. "A rookie? Tony, this was a professional job."

Ziva stopped when she noticed the blood trail stop. It came to an end right in front of the store cupboard, where she suspected all the supplies were kept. She was just about to open the cupboard when she heard a slight groan coming from inside. She frowned. Someone or something was in there… "Gibbs!"

Gibbs headed down the corridor to where Ziva stood, in front of a storage cupboard. "Yeah, David?"

Tony and McGee followed their boss, curious as to what the female agent had managed to find.

"Something is in there," she stated.

Tony raised an eyebrow. "How do you know?"

Another groan came from inside the cupboard, as well as a thump as something got hit and fell.

Gibbs and Ziva both pulled their guns out of their holsters instinctively, and Tony and McGee did the same. Gibbs nodded to the other three agents as he placed his hand on the door handle, and the three prepared themselves for when Gibbs would open the door.

One… two… THREE!

Gibbs pulled the door open, and the agents pointed their guns at whatever was in the closet… only to drop their guns slowly.

A boy, probably around the age of fifteen, had been shoved into the cupboard carelessly, blood dribbling across his forehead from a cut and a bruise right beside it. The boy's hair was messed up and stuck in clumps around his face, as if it had been wet and was still drying. His face was scrunched up in pain – the reason why he occasionally groaned.

Ziva reached forward and put two fingers to his neck. "He has a pulse."

McGee nodded. "I'll call 911." He headed off to the entrance of the house to make the call.

Tony looked around the cupboard. "It doesn't look as if he struggled when he was put in here, boss – everything seems pretty much clean."

"Apart from that box on the floor, DiNozzo," Gibbs stated, pulling gloves on before reaching out to pick up the box. Tony grabbed a bag as Gibbs picked it up before opening it for him to put the box in.

"It must've dropped when the kid was chucked in here, boss," Tony concluded.

Gibbs just handed the bag to Tony. "To the van."

Tony groaned and took the bag, heading over to the van so that the evidence could be taken back to the headquarters.

Not long after, the whirr and blares of sirens could be heard outside. Ziva stepped away from the boy's body.

"I think he should be fine – just a concussion," she summarized. "The paramedics will come to a firmer conclusion, though."

Gibbs nodded and watched as the paramedics filed in. He just hoped the boy would be alright.

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