A/N: Keep your eyes open for a special cameo in this chapter! ;)

oOo

When Steve and Danny re-entered the bullpen Chin was standing at the smart table while the remaining team members were poring over Clarke's reports on the desk at the back of the room.

"I pulled the security footage from the docks on the date Clarke tracked them to the harbour," Chin said as Steve and Danny came to a stop by the computer.

"Did you find anything?" Steve looked at the screen.

"Unfortunately, no," Chin flicked the security footage onto the screen and played it. "Here's the ship coming in," on the screen the Fleur de Lys could be seen docking, "but then right as it's about to be unloaded..." All of a sudden the video footage distorted and became pixelated and the image froze as the screen seemed to jump all over the place.

Steve sighed and rubbed his mouth with his hand. "Are there any other cameras in that area?"

"Sorry, Brah, that's it. And the footage is the same at the gates half an hour later as the trucks leave."

"Ok, what about security guards?" Danny asked. "Were there any in the area at the time?"

"Just one was in the area at the time," Chin flicked the guard's profile onto the screen. "Walter Jennings. Kono and I were going to head out and talk to him."

Steve glanced at his watch and took note of the dying sun outside and shook his head. "Save it for tomorrow," he suggested, turning to the rest of the two assembled teams he continued, "that goes for all of us. We can go over Clarke's reports tomorrow, see if we can find anything with fresh eyes."

Tony sighed as he leaned back in his chair. "I thought you'd never ask," he stretched in an attempt to remove the kinks in his back.

Gibbs stood and moved away from the table. "DiNozzo, David, collect the files, we can go over them at the hotel tonight."

"Yes, Boss," Tony finished putting his stack into a pile.

"Here, I'll take some of those to go through," Steve offered as he took a stack of reports from Tony's pile.

"Thanks," Tony picked up the remaining pile which was now considerably lighter.

"No problem. Ok, I'll see you all back here at eight tomorrow morning."

Gibbs nodded to McGarrett before he left the office followed by his team.

"See ya tomorrow, Boss," Kono said as she collected her bag from her office and followed the NCIS team out.

"What she said," Chin smiled at both Steve and Danny before leaving.

"You ready to go?" Danny turned to Steve, knowing that he was the ex-SEALs ride home.

"Yeah, let's go partner," Steve said as he headed towards the door.

Once they were seated in the Camaro Danny started up on what seemed to be his favourite topic of the day. "So I was talking to DiNozzo today, he told me Officer David's an assassin," he still seemed disbelieving.

"Yeah I know," Steve replied from the passenger seat.

"You know? How did you know?"

"I've worked with Mossad in the past, I can spot a trained assassin when I see one," he replied like it was the most casual thing in the world.

"Is there an agency you haven't worked with before?"

Steve smiled but didn't answer. Danny rolled his eyes, figuring that if he pushed the subject he would be given the classified routine.

"Let me ask you something that's been bugging me," Danny started, "And if you give me that 'it's classified' crap I swear to God I will hit you. I don't care if you don't tell me everything, just tell me enough."

"Well seeing as you asked so nicely, go ahead."

Danny ignored the sarcasm. "If Gibbs was investigating you why do you seem to respect him so much? I mean if it were me I'd hate the man's guts for even thinking I was dirty."

Steve sighed and looked out the window as he thought about how much he was going to say. Deciding that his partner would never be satisfied if he only threw him a bone, he replied, "When they started investigating our department, all the evidence was pointing to me..."

*Flashback*

"Special Agent Gibbs has requested to speak to you in private, Lieutenant."

Steve looked at his lawyer with a slight frown as he considered the proposal from where he sat behind the desk in the holding area where the two of them had been discussing his case. "Is that a good idea, Commander? Aren't you required to be present?"

"I've already spoken to Gibbs, Lieutenant, there's no need for you to have a lawyer present. I'll be back later this afternoon." Commander Harmon Rabb Jnr* held out his hand for Steve to shake before he left the holding area. As the door was opened to allow Rabb to exit, Gibbs entered carrying a folder and the two paused for a moment and shared a quick nod before the Commander exited.

Gibbs approached the table where McGarrett had remained seated and quickly took in his obviously sleep-deprived appearance before pulling out the chair opposite to where Steve sat, who was eyeing Gibbs off in turn.

"What is it you want, Gibbs?" Steve was unsure what to expect from the NCIS agent; his recent experience told him to expect bad news but his JAG lawyer had insisted there was no need for him to be present which hinted that it couldn't be all bad news.

"Commander Rabb tells me that you're adamant that you're being set up, Lieutenant."

"Like I've already said, I wouldn't betray my country and I sure as hell wouldn't murder a fellow sailor!"

Gibbs didn't say anything as he continued to watch McGarrett closely for a moment. After a few moments he replied, "I know."

Steve frowned as Gibbs' statement caught him off guard. "You know?"

Gibbs nodded. "Lieutenant Colley was murdered when he started investigating the possibility of a mole in your department and it was the same mole who killed him."

"And you know it's not me?" Gibbs nodded again. "How? What did you find?" Steve felt the anxiety that had built up over the past two days wash away as he watched Gibbs open the file and place its contents on the desk.

"There were only three people working on the weapons trafficking you were monitoring, if you weren't the mole then that only left one other person as a suspect."

"Lieutenant Griffith," Steve supplied.

Gibbs nodded. "To be sure we had the right man I had Griffith's financials pulled and after some digging, found that he had an off-shore account under a different name. For the past eighteen months, twenty thousand dollars was being wired into the account every month. Not only that, the eight thousand dollars found in your house traced back to this off-shore account."

Steve raised his eyebrows slightly at the new information. "Where was the money coming from?" Gibbs pulled out a piece of paper from the file that showed the payment summary for the account and dropped it in front of Steve for him to read. "Faraday Brothers Incorporated," he read off the sheet.

"It's a company based in Ireland," Gibbs explained, "I looked through its financial and employee records and they didn't check out; it's a shell corporation."

"Were you able to trace the company back to someone?"

"Yeah, I did. It should be a name you recognise; Hesse." Gibbs watched McGarrett's reaction to his statement.

Steve frowned and rubbed his hand over his mouth. "Victor and Anton Hesse?" Gibbs just nodded. "They're the brothers new to the arms dealing scene; we were able to trace the recent arms deals back to them."

"I know," Gibbs nodded. "There's more. After I found the pay-offs traced back to Lieutenant Griffith I had forensics go over all the evidence again; they had missed the fact that the padlock on your shed where the shovel was kept had signs of being picked and when they dusted it for prints they found a finger print belonging to Griffith on it. And his back-up weapon is the same model as yours and the murder weapon."

Steve released a breath that he didn't realise he had been holding as took in what Gibbs was saying. "I take it then that the charges against me have been dropped?"

Gibbs looked at the younger man and saw the relief written on his face and couldn't stop the corner of his mouth turning ever so slightly as he nodded again. "Yes, the charges have been dropped."

*End Flashback*

"Oh," was all Danny said after Steve's explanation. "What made him believe you?"

"I dunno," Steve shrugged, "His gut instinct I guess. If Gibbs hadn't kept searching when it looked like all the facts were there I probably would've ended up going down as a murderer and a traitor."

Danny nodded as they drew nearer to Steve's house. "Do you need any help going through those?" He asked as he looked at the reports Steve was holding.

"Nah, I was just going to have a quick look at them before turning in."

"In other words you're going to go over them with the proverbial fine-tooth comb until two o'clock in the morning."

Steve grinned as they pulled into his driveway. "You got it. See you tomorrow," he added as he stepped out of the car.

"Yeah, see ya then."

Steve lifted his hand in a wave as the Camaro pulled out of the drive.

Unlocking the door he pushed it open and placed the files down on the small table in front of the couch to the left before turning to enter the code to turn off the alarm. As he reached for the keypad, Steve noticed that once again the alarm had been deactivated and he immediately drew his gun. Looking around in what scarce daylight remained, he noticed that the house was considerably messier than when he had left that morning. He moved towards the back of the house through to the dining area, keeping his gun raised in front of him.

As he passed by the wall separating the rooms he caught movement before feeling a boot collide with his hands, sending his gun sliding across the floor and out of reach. Bringing his arms up in defence, Steve moved around the corner to face his opponent who was dressed in black and wore a ski mask to cover his face. The intruder threw a left-handed punch which Steve easily blocked with his right arm as he dealt out a strong left-handed punch of his own which he followed up with a knee to the man's abdomen. The intruder fell backwards but recovered in time to avoid the kick Steve aimed at his leg causing the ex-SEAL to lose his balance slightly, allowing his attacker to land a strong right cross to his jaw. Steve rolled with the punch before returning the favour by landing an upper-cut to the man's jaw. The intruder stumbled back a few steps and Steve swept his right foot along the ground, taking out the assailant's feet from beneath him and he landed with a thud on his back.

Steve leapt forward and put his weight onto the man's chest to prevent him from getting up. As he went to pull the ski-mask off, a boot collided heavily against Steve's ribs and dislodged him as he rolled onto the floor. Stifling a grunt of pain, Steve looked up to see a second intruder aiming another kick at him. Steve rolled again and managed to avoid the second kick before he jumped quickly to his feet.

As the first attacker got to his feet, the second man moved towards Steve and attempted to land a punch which Steve blocked. The back and forth between the two were rapid as the two men succeeded in blocking the others' attacks, until the intruder managed to land a blow to the same side of Steve's jaw from earlier. As his head snapped to the right, Steve felt a kick connect with the side of his left knee and he grunted in pain as it collapsed underneath him and sent him to the ground. As he moved to get up he heard a noise behind him and he turned in time to see the butt of his gun coming at him before it connected hard against the side of his face, and his vision went black.

TBC

oOo

* They've been playing heaps of J.A.G re-runs on TV recently and I've really gotten back into it so I couldn't resist this little cameo! After all, Steve deserves the best of the best, right? :)

A/N: As always reviews are appreciated :)