Tuesday morning, everyone was back at work. His father left for Stillwater after eating breakfast and with Spring Break over Shannon was headed back to the classroom.
"Good morning." Shannon's voice was slightly muffled by the blankets as she shifted and intertwined her hand with his at her waist.
"Good morning." Jethro spoke softly against his wife's neck following it with a line of kisses trailing from the back of her neck down to her shoulder.
He leaned contentedly against his elbow as he peered down at his wife. She looked up at him sweetly and then leaned up to press a kiss to his lips.
"Mmmhmm," he murmured softly into his wife's lips as Shannon started to shift from her side to her back, Jethro moving on top of her as she did so.
He felt her hands slipping from his but quickly moved to his hair as he deepened the morning kiss. His hand slipped behind her head as he kissed her on her lips before trailing a kiss down her neck to the spot where her neck met her body. The hollow dip where he pressed a kiss made Shannon's body arch. His lips curled into a small smile against her neck.
The pair continued to fool around for a couple more minutes before the alarm went off, signalling that it was time for them to get up and ready for work. Pushing the snooze button had been tempting, but Bailey jumped onto the bed.
"Oomph, denied!" Shannon said with a small chuckle.
He patted the puppy gently on the head. Bailey had been a great addition to their little family. "Yeah, it seems that way, doesn't it? Now get up; my coffee needs me."
The redhead rolled her eyes at him. "The most dangerous drinking game is seeing how long you can go without coffee."
Jethro just grinned in response.
They both quickly got dressed and had a quick bite to eat before Jethro had to give his wife a kiss goodbye and run out the door if he wanted to make it to work on time. "I love you and have a good day at work."
She kissed him back. "Love you too and be careful."
"You know I will," he replied. Jethro gave Shannon a small smile as he spoke and then headed out the front door, closing it behind him and hopping into his pickup.
Stopping by Elaine's Dinner quickly for some much-needed coffee, he then headed to the Navy Yard, immediately making his way up to the director's office to discuss the latest East African Threat Assessments, the meeting cut short by a call from dispatch.
Down in the squad room, his Senior Field Agent was clearly is frustrated. The younger man was digging in his desk drawer for something and as the team revisited his steps, the current theory being that DiNozzo had accidentally thrown them out with his empty pizza box the day prior, Jethro could resist messing with the younger agent. He knew exactly what DiNozoo was looking for.
"You-you know what? Today is garbage day," McGee reminded the Senior Field Agent. "You'd better... you'd better hurry."
"Where is the Dumpster?" Ziva inquired.
"In the basement," DiNozzo said, audibly and visibly concerned.
Swiftly covering up his amusement, Jethro finally made his presence known. "Did you lose something, Ziver?"
Ziva shook her head. "Not I. Tony did."
Jethro feigned slight surprise as he started to rummage through his desk and take out his gun and badge. "Tony, what'd you lose? Your watch? Driver's license?"
"Uh," DiNozzo admitted, "neither."
"Got a dead body," Jethro said, turning towards his team. "Navy diver. Who's driving?"
"Well, Boss," McGee said, "uh, there's a little problem."
"No," he countered, pulling the van keys out of his pocket and waving them in the air slightly, "the problem is that I found these on the elevator floor."
DiNozzo gave him a slightly guilty look. "That's my bad."
"Uh-huh," he agreed.
"Won't happen again," DiNozzo assured him.
"I doubt that," Jethro said, giving the younger man a small smile as he tossed the van keys over to the team. "Meet you all downstairs."
All three started clamouring for the keys, much to his amusement. They were all diving for the right to drive the van. Or maybe to keep Ziva from driving it.
When Ducky and Palmer walked up the beach at their crime scene, Ducky was singing a jaunty naval ditty. DiNozzo couldn't seem to help but steer the conversation to grilling Palmer about his attractive new girlfriend, Breena Slater. Palmer was utterly oblivious, his response making that much obvious, much to Jethro's own amusement.
The corpse was far from being in good condition. It was decayed and only recognizable by the uniform/wetsuit. Ducky couldn't rule out any COD at thah point. A propeller had seemingly hit the diver and cut off his left arm below the elbow… but after death. Ducky then found a puncture wound through the wetsuit, but wasn't sure what caused it. Ducky estimated COD between 3-5 days but the medical examiner couldn't be sure because of decomposition. Either way, Navy divers don't dive alone, so Jethro thought that was a long time to be gone without someone reporting the guy missing.
As it turned out, their victim was Navy Lieutenant Michael Jensen. He was a master diver based out of the Experimental Diving Unit in Panama City before being detailed to Little Creek.
NCIS then teamed up with the Coast Guard Investigative Services when a boat found off the coast with a dead body was linked to Jensen.
That had been interesting, Jethro and the lead CGIS Special Agent getting off on the wrong foot slightly.
Special Agent Abigail Borin was a fellow Marine-turned-federal-agent, and had, well, their similarities had proved intriguing.
"Oh, so this is NCIS!" Borin said, glancing around the conference room.
"Sorry to disappoint you," he retorted, passing her a coffee.
"Of course," the woman said, taking a slow sip of her coffee. "I'm going to need to talk to your director right away."
"Well," Jethro immediately countered, "my case, my questions." He eyed her. "Jensen's Navy. The case belongs to NCIS." He wasn't about to hand over the case.
"Well," she said, "that depends on his involvement."
"How's him being dead?" he said.
"He still could be my killer," she told him.
"Okay," he said, taking a seat, "whose murder are you investigating?"
Borin immediately took a seat as well. "About a week ago, one of our recon flights spotted a salvage boat adrift about eight miles off the coast of Virginia. Only one on board was the captain - a guy named Martin Lime. Found him bludgeoned to death. Case fell in my lap."
"How's Jensen fit?" he questioned.
"I found some security video of Jensen and Captain Lime talking at the marina," she informed him. "My gut said he might be worth questioning."
He eyed Borin. "Your gut?"
"Yeah," she said with a nod of the head.
He leaned forward slightly. "I like to conduct my own investigation."
"Right there with you," she said. "Any death on a U. S. registered vessel is FBI or Coast Guard jurisdiction."
"So where's the FBI?" he questioned.
"They told us to call if we get close on anything," she said.
He smiled slightly, starting to get up. "I got your number."
"No, you don't!" she said, rising to her feet as well. "So, what's your beef, Gibbs? That I'm Coast Guard? That I'm a woman? Or that I managed to get the drop on you in that house?"
He took her business card. "I don't know you."
"That's it?" she inquired as he closed the door behind him.
In any case, Jethro refused to be distracted from the case on hand. He swiftly headed down to Autopsy to see if Ducky had anything.
He did, just not as much as Jethro may have liked.
Autopsy results revealed that Jensen drowned but Ducky was unable to confirm the man's identity until his medical records arrived. Either way, Jensen was on leave so his Commanding Officer wouldn't have reported him UA.
"I mean, he's the same height and build as Lieutenant Jensen," Ducky said, "but the only way to confirm his identity is by DNA and dental records."
"Cause of death?" he inquired.
"Being shanked by a screwdriver didn't help," Palmer said, the young man instantly earning himself a rather pointed look from both Jethro and Ducky. "I'm sorry."
"Sea lice in his esophagus, the cyanosis, oh, and nasal hemorrhage," Ducky continued to explain, "all point to death by drowning."
"Master diver drowns swimming to shore?" he said incredulously.
"May I remind you," Ducky stated, "uh- an injured diver. Even the best of us meet our match. Abby is processing his diving equipment."
"Thank you, Duck!" he said, heading towards the autopsy doors.
"Tread softly, Jethro!" the long-time medical examiner called after him. "Ms. Sciuto, for some unexplained reason, is not herself today."
Heading across the basement floor to the forensics lab, Jethro quickly learned just how right Ducky was about that. Still, forewarned was forearmed and Jethro brought Abby a large Caf-POW, hoping that would cheer her up some.
Walking in, she was shaking Jensen's laptop really hard.
"Oh," she said, realizing he was there. "Hi."
"Hi," he replied, slightly concerned.
"I was just cleaning," she explained, "um, Jensen's laptop."
"Everything all right?" he asked.
"No, it's not!" she said. "What are you doing here?"
He eyed her, feeling even more concerned. "I work here."
"I know what you're doing here," she replied, making a vague gesture to the building, "but I always know when you're coming here, and I didn't."
"You don't have anything?" he pressed.
"I've got nothing," the forensic scientist told him. "Okay, Jensen drowned, but he still had plenty of nitrox in his tanks. I'm still processing these little rubber things that were in his teeth. I think they're from the regulator. And I have no idea how to get into Jensen's laptop. He's got a code built in here that would make the NSA proud. I'm just... I'm off my game."
He held out the drink he'd brought her. "Well, maybe this will help."
"You think I didn't try this already?" she said. I had two Caf-POWs this morning. That's kind of when things started going south. I just... I don't know what's wrong."
"Abbs," he said gently, "I need what's in that laptop."
"I know you do," she said. "Maybe a hug would help." Jethro opened his arms, his surrogate daughter immediately going in for the hug. "Didn't help," she said when they separated a moment later. "I guess I'm just going to keep banging my head."
"No, don't do that." He spoke gently and gave Abby a quick kiss on the head. "I need what's in that head."
Back in the squad room, they got Lieutenant Jensen's career background, most of which they knew already. The man's record was spotless, several commendations, two purple hearts. The team had found no connection to Lime, the CGIS dead guy, and there was only one irregularity in the man's finances: a payment to a storage facility in Alexandria for three years, with payment in full which Jethro's team would check out first thing in the morning.
With that done, Jethro headed up to Vance's office to update the director before Ziva passed a message along to him that Borin would meet him outside MTAC.
"Nice comm," CGIS Special Agent Kyle Omagi, Borin's second-in-command said. "Must have set the Navy back a few bucks."
"The Coast Guard does not have capabilities like this?" Ziva questioned, clearly holding back a laugh at that.
"We're still capable of plenty," Omagi stated.
"Just because CGIS is small," Borin said, "it doesn't mean we're impotent."
"Jensen and the boat connected?" he said, trying to get them all back on task.
Borin turned to the MTAC Control Officer. "Quantico, please."
"Yes, Ma'am!" the control officer replied, immediately doing as asked.
A young Korean woman wearing glasses and a lab coat appeared on the big screen. It took the woman a moment to notice them. "Hi."
"That one of yours?" he inquired.
"Outsourced," Borin explained.
"Downsizing's rough," he quipped.
"We make it work," Borin countered without missing a beat. "Ms. Choi, could you tell SSA Gibbs your findings, please?"
"We dusted Martin Lime's boat," the young forensic scientist informed the group, "and Lieutenant Jensen's prints were all over it."
"Blood?" Ziva pressed.
"Some," Choi said. "The type matched the lieutenant as well. Still waiting for DNA. We think you have a double homicide on your hands: Captain Lime and Lieutenant Jensen. One civilian, one Navy."
"Thank you," Borin said.
"Thank you," Choi replied before hanging up.
Borin immediately turned to him. "So, do we keep chasing each other in circles, or do we work together to find a killer?"
"We have everything we need right here," he said.
"I'm willing to try," she stated.
"Okay," he agreed. "Welcome aboard."
Given the hour, both he and Borin decided to call it a day, sending everyone home for the day and quickly meeting with Vance again.
The talk with the director was rather short and then the pair made their way into the elevator, finally going home for the night themselves.
"So, who's the lucky lady?" Borin asked, clearly eyeing the ring on his hand.
"Her name's Shannon," he said with a warm smile.
She nodded. "How long have you two been together?"
He wracked his brain quickly for how to best answer the rather complicated question. If Borin didn't already know what had transpired then Jethro didn't particularly want to hash it all out. "It's complicated."
"Ah," Borin said, "that's right. The news said something about a murder? Witness protection? That was your family, wasn't it?"
"Yes," he confirmed, still not exactly sure how he felt about it being the stuff of local news. "Shannon and I became friends in '72. I was eighteen. Fresh outta bootcamp. Didn't start dating though until late '77. Married in December of '81." Jethro gave her a sideways look. "And you seem to know the rest."
"That's one hell of a story," she said. "And you're back together?"
"Yeah," he confirmed. "Wasn't a question for either of us really. Neither of our feelings had changed and things just sort of naturally went that way."
Borin nodded. "I remember something about a daughter?"
"Kelly," he said. "Twenty-seven now."
"Well," she said, "I'm glad things worked out."
He dipped his head slightly. "Me too."
And that was an understatement. It had its challenges, of course, but coming home to Shannon and knowing his daughter was only a phone call away was amazing.
The stolen time still stung, especially when there were clear moments of him having not been there to raise Kelly, when something came up that he was clueless about, but they'd managed to reconnect and largely put the whole mess behind them.
Things had worked out rather well, although he'd never not resent having the chance to raise his baby girl taken from him. It still made him angry. He had missed so many things and hearing about it years later, although he loved hearing the stories, just was not the same as actually getting to share the moment with her.
Still, focusing on that too much just wasn't worth it. He refused to let the bastard take any more from him. From them.