Tuesday morning, Jethro woke up to the sun shining and the sound of birds chirping. He still didn't want to go to work. He really didn't want to leave Shannon. Regardless, he resigned himself to having to get up. Glancing at the clock, he was pleased to note he still had a few minutes before he actually had to get out of bed and get ready to go to work.

Taking advantage of the few minutes that remained, Jethro reached over to snuggle with Shannon who was starting to stir now as well. "You know, I'd like mornings better if they started a little later."

Shannon chuckled at Jethro's comment and then moved onto her left side so that they were both face to face. Locking eyes for a moment, they kissed.

When they broke apart, Shannon was the first to speak. "When do you have to be at the Navy Yard this morning?"

"By 0700," Jethro replied. That didn't mean that he had any desire whatsoever to get out of bed, though. He gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Hmmm, I changed my mind. I'm thinking bed, all day, with you."

She gave him a small smile. "I'll still be here when you get home."

He kissed her again and looked her in the eyes. "You better be." Sitting up in bed, he turned to face her once more. "What's the plan today?"

"Mother-daughter day," she said. "My mother wants to grab lunch, so she and I'll probably end up making a day out of it."

"Sounds nice," he replied, glad that she was able to spend time with her mother.

Forcing himself to get out of bed, he got dressed and headed downstairs, Shannon not far behind him, for some much-needed coffee before work.

Walking into the squad room at seven o'clock, it didn't take long before he was shaking his head. McGee and DiNozzo baffled him sometimes. The pair had somehow managed to start arguing about whether or not they were arguing. It was like they had the seven-year itch.

"It's called banter," DiNozzo claimed.

"No, it is not," McGee fired back. "Banter is lighthearted, witty repartee."

DiNozzo responded in a really cheesy voice. "Go on."

"It's your turn to get the coffee," McGee said seriously. "Go."

His Senior Field Agent opened his mouth to retort.

"Don't argue, DiNozzo," he quipped. "Can't we all just get along?" He walked to his desk to grab his gun and badge. Jethro had just gotten off the phone with dispatch a moment prior and they'd caught a case. "Coffee can wait, McGee. Dead Naval Officer can't. A naval commander was found dead in his rack aboard ship."

"Which one?" DiNozzo asked.

"The U.S.S. Benjamin Franklin," he stated. "Grab your gear." And if Jethro thought that was the end of it, he was mistaken. His Senior Field Agent had apparently decided that it was a swell idea to start teasing Ziva.

"Long-distance can be hard," DiNozzo said as all of them started to grab their go-bags. "Tele-friend from Tel Aviv?"

Ziva eyed DiNozzo. "You're jealous."

"I'm not jealous," DiNozzo claimed.

"Yes," Ziva said," you are."

"No," DiNozzo stated again. Jethro gave DiNozzo a look that clearly told him that he'd better smarten up as he walked by. "And I'm not arguing, Boss."

He rolled his eyes.

"Are too!" McGee said, now heading to the elevator.

"Am not!" DiNozzo exclaimed before making his own way to the elevator.

Getting to the scene, it didn't take long for them, Ducky included, to surmise that their victim, Commander Davis, may have committed suicide as he was facing imminent mandatory retirement and the Navy had been his life.

Still, even the most obvious suicide was investigated by NCIS as a murder.

"Hey," Jethro said, walking into the director's office, "Where's García? She said she needed to discuss something with me when I got back and I just got a message saying she needed a rain-cheque?" Agent Jenny García headed up the night crew.

"I sent Agents García and Anderson to rendezvous with the Los Angeles office. OSP," the director explained. "Normally I would've sent your team, but given your situation, I wasn't sure whether or not your team would be down a member." Jethro nodded and Vance gestured for the MTAC Control Officer to presumably pull up the photos from the case so that he could read Jethro in. "PFC Nick Chandler. Construction workers found him when they arrived to work this morning. His mother was beaten half to death in a home invasion last week. Before he left Kuwait, someone gave him a quarter of a million dollars. Told him if he delivered it to an address in Los Angeles, they wouldn't go back and finish the job on his mother." Vance eyed Jethro briefly. "He was an easy target. He was an only child." Jethro gave a curt nod to show he was in fact paying attention. "A local informant tipped off our field office. We were waiting when he got off his flight. He agreed to work with us. But on the way to make the drop, somebody took a shot at him. The kid panicked. Tried to get home to see his mother in West Virginia, got as far as D.C."

"Not just about a dead Marine, Leon." He eyed Vance. "Why'd you send agents?"

"I had a bad feeling about an arms-deal case we've been investigating in Los Angeles," Vance informed him.

"You think the two cases are linked?" he asked although it was more of a statement.

"Well, given what I found out during their last check-in," Vance confirmed, "I'd have to say yes." The director gave him a pointed look. "Now, how about our dead naval commander? Where are we on that?"

"It's looking more and more like a suicide," he said. "His hands had GSR on them and it looks like it was his father's old Smith & Wesson.32 kit that was used. We're just waiting on ballistics and prints to confirm. And multiple people we've interviewed have said he seemed more withdrawn lately. The navy was the man's life. He was a workaholic who was being forced out. That's never easy. We've seen it before. Ziva and Tony are currently doing an interview in the conference room, but -"

"But we're likely looking at a suicide." Vance sighed. "Alright, keep me posted."

Jethro nodded and started to walk towards the door. He'd barely gotten halfway there, however, before the director got his attention. "Gibbs."

He turned around to face Vance. "Yes?"

"How are you?" the man asked. "I mean, your wife and child coming back... that's got to be an adjustment."

"I'm fine, Director." He really did not want to get into the emotional rollercoaster that was his life currently at work. Anyway, it was what it was.

The director nodded. "Well, if that changes..."

"Appreciated, Leon." He then turned around and left MTAC.

Despite the staffroom coffee not being that great, he grabbed a cup and then made his way to the squad room to get an update from his team.

His Senior Field Agent immediately got his attention. "The interviews didn't give us anything new, Boss. Just more of the same. The commander was dedicated to the Navy, loved his job, and had been struggling with being forced out."

"I hate to say this, but we all know what this looks like," Ziva said. "I am certain that we are looking at a suicide."

McGee sighed. "I'm with Ziva on this one, Boss."

"And so am I," Abby said, walking in.

"Prints and ballistics came back on the slug?" he asked.

Abby looked over sadly and nodded. "Yeah. The commander's prints were everywhere and it was definitely his father's gun that killed him. The gun's serial number was a match and so was my test-fired slug."

He dipped his head slightly. "Commander Davis killed himself."

"Alright," Jethro said, immediately grabbing his gun and badge from his desk again. "I'll go to Alexandria and talk with the wife. Get your reports done."

"On it, Boss!" DiNozzo chirped as all the three of his field agents sat down at their desks to write their reports. The sooner that was done the sooner they could go home, if they didn't get called out on another case, that is.

The conversation with Commander Davis' wife had been less than pleasant, of course, Jethro always having hated that part of the job. You never got used to it. With that conversation done, though, Jethro headed back to the Navy Yard to see just where his team was at with their reports and to get his done.

He was so glad that they hadn't caught another case, though, and they were able to call it a day at a reasonable hour, which didn't happen more often than it did. That was the thing with NCIS, the job was 24/7.

It was a relief to pull into his driveway at 1730. He had talked with Shannon briefly earlier and he'd texted back and forth with Kelly a couple of times, but it all still felt like a dream and he felt as though he was waiting for the carpet to be pulled out from under him.

Walking into the house, his attention was immediately pulled to Shannon who was laying on the couch reading a book.

"New book?" Jethro asked, noticing that his wife seemed to only be a couple of chapters into whatever it was that she was reading.

"Yeah," Shannon confirmed happily, closing the novel. "I bought it when I was out with Mom earlier." Sitting up, she placed the book on the coffee table.

Walking over to the couch, Jethro offered Shannon his hand, pulling her to her feet.

She smiled softly. "I missed you today."

"I missed you too," he replied earnestly.

They locked eyes and then Jethro bent down, pressing his lips against his wife's cheek, brushing it lightly, causing her eyes to flutter.

"If you want me to stop, tell me now," Jethro said softly. When his wife said nothing, he brushed his mouth against her temple. "Or now." He traced the line of her cheekbone. "Or now." His lips were against hers. "Or—"

But Shannon just pulled Jethro in closer, and the rest of his words were lost against her mouth. He kissed his wife gently, carefully, until she knotted her fists in his shirt, pulling him harder against her. Jethro groaned softly, low in his throat, and then his arms circled Shannon, gathering her against him.

Giddiness overtook the both of them as they mirrored a playful smile mixed with this lightness that Jethro hadn't felt in a long time. No matter how much time had passed, Shannon still drove him crazy in the best way.