The next morning, Ziva and Jethro walked into the hotel lobby together. They hadn't been called in on another case, given the priority of their current one, so the pair just met up outside the hotel.

"Okay, so how many amendments to the Constitution?" Ziva asked eagerly, wanting to show him how well the studying for her citizenship test was going.

Jethro quickly wracked his brain trying to figure it out. "Uh... Bill of Rights is the first ten. Prohibition's 18. I'm guessing twenty-three."

"Twenty-seven," she said, beaming with pride.

Jethro gave her a cheeky grin, feeling more than a little proud of her himself. "Nobody likes a smart-ass, David."

She chuckled. "Why do I have to study all of this and you don't?"

"I was born here," he quipped.

Just then they walked past Anthony Dinozzo Senior, who was sitting in the lobby, the pair instantly turning back to greet the man.

Jethro watched as Senior turned on the charm, trying to flatter Ziva with his attention, telling them that he was just people-watching.

Jethro recognized the man's slick style immediately and wasted no time in starting to walk away, Ziva quickly following Jethro after the other man told her that her hair looked great when it was down.

Walking into the prince's hotel suite, both Jethro and Ziva were shocked.

One young, half-dressed, woman was asleep under a table. Another young woman was stretching DiNozzo's leg in a yoga position. Prince Sayif had yet another young woman nuzzled on his lap as he fed her sweets.

DiNozzo was wearing a grey, fabric, cowboy hat, glancing up at Jethro from below.

The prince offered him breakfast, and Jethro just shook his head.

Once the younger man was back on his feet, Jethro pulled the hat off DiNozzo's head. "Party's over." He tossed the hat down over the bottle of liquor that was right beside him. "Anthony, explain. Now."

DiNozzo looked at him a bit sheepishly. "Sayif had a date... He actually had a couple of dates." The younger man gestured towards the multiple women. "And he wanted to go clubbing, and I had to make a command decision that we would go clubbing here, in the penthouse suite, and then Ashley, the A.M yoga instructor arrived." The instructor got Jethro's attention, waggling her fingers by way of greeting. "And I guess things got a little out of hand."

"That's a good thing?" Jethro pressed, more irritated by the effect on the young man that his deadbeat father was having than anything else. It wasn't like the young man to get so completely off track. Mess around a bit, yes, but never to this extreme, and never while on security detail.

"Well," DiNozzo said, "nobody got hurt. I got in a stretch."

Prince Abdalla then showed up to announce that their father, Prince Omar, would be there any minute and that his brother Sayif better get his shit together.

He turned to his surrogate son. "Anthony... What were you thinking?"

"Honestly," the younger man said, "I didn't think you would be here for another hour."

Jethro just sighed in response. His irritation with the younger man was not improved in the slightest either by Ziva finding DiNozzo's handcuffs on one of the call girls when she was waking the girl up so she could escort her out.

Prince Abdalla, also quite displeased. headed out into the hallway to delay their father so that his brother could clean himself up somewhat.

Following Prince Sayif out into the hallway, they watched as Prince Omar came off the elevator, chatting with Anthony DiNozzo Senior. People-watching indeed. He eyed his Senior afield Agent who looked liked he wanted to disappear through the floor.

"I have a little family matter to attend to," Prince Omar said to Senior, "but, uh, then we should talk. Where are you staying?"

"Oh," Senior said, "right here in this hotel."

"Wonderful. Wonderful," Prince Omar said. "Come. Let's go."

Once they were alone, Jethro quietly chastised his agent. "I told you to handle it."

"I spoke to him," DiNozzo replied. "I think he's losing his hearing."

Jethro moved so that he was standing in front of the younger agent, looking DiNozzo square in the eye as he spoke. "Tony, I need you. Get your head on straight."

The younger agent dipped his head slightly in response. "I know, Boss. I won't let him out of my sight again."

Jethro gave his Senior Field Agent a curt nod before walking towards the hotel elevator so that he could go back down to the lobby.

Back at NCIS, Jethro spoke with Abby and McGee about the bomb.

"Whoever made this bomb... amateur," the forensic scientist told him. "Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. Cheap components, poorly constructed, and you want to know the weird thing? The timer didn't set it off."

"What?" he stated, more than a little confused.

"This bomb was supposed to go off thirty minutes after it actually did," she said. "Now, none of the wires were properly insulated or grounded. So, anything could have set it off." She eyed him. "Like a bump or a really, really strong vibration."

"Boss," McGee said, "witnesses saw a jet flying low overhead this morning."

"I know," he said. "Is there a point, McGee?"

McGee nodded. "Boss, I think that Walid was the bomber. I already asked Ducky to test the body for unexploded particles of nitromethane."

"Okay," he said. "What else?"

"After Sayif's car left the service station," McGee said, "it only went two places... hotel garage where security cameras show that no one approached it and Patuxent River the next morning. GPS shows that after Sayif was dropped off at the hangar, the car drove to a remote part of the base where there are no security cameras. That's the only place the bomb could have been planted."

He glanced between his field agent and forensic scientist. "Good work."

Jethro and Ziva both walked into the squad room at the same time. Ziva was rather exasperated with Sayif's behaviour yet again, and Jethro couldn't blame her. Senior was also there using DiNozzo's computer, the younger agent also visibly exasperated.

"Junior, that was the hotel spa," Senior said. "I'm a little tense. I need a massage." The man glanced up. "Oh, Gibbs, Ziva. Sayif behaving?"

"He is fine," Ziva said.

"Who's watching Prince Charming?" DiNozzo asked.

"He's in the air," Ziva explained, the young woman visibly relieved. "His check ride. He cannot get in trouble for the next three hours."

"Unless his instructor ejects him at 20,000 feet," DiNozzo quipped.

The look on Ziva's face said she'd understand if the man's instructor did just that.

"Well, you're busy and I'm in the way here," Senior said, finally getting off of his son's computer. "I'm going to go back to the hotel."

"Uh, you know what," DiNozzo said, "I am going to make you an offer you can't refuse. Very Special Probationary Agent Ziva David is going to give you a personal, special tour of NCIS headquarters." The young man chuckled. "Come on."

"Well, that is a lovely offer," Senior said, "but I'm sure Ziva must be busy."

"Yeah, she is," Jethro said, quickly throwing his jacket on. "I'll show you around."

DiNozzo immediately looked horrified. "Boss..."

"We'll start with the armoury," he said. "Back to work."

With that, he led Senior out of the squad room and to one of the conference rooms they had upstairs.

"This doesn't look like an armoury to me," Senior commented, giving the conference room a quick once over.

"Sit," Jethro ordered, tapping the table in front of one of the chairs and taking the seat directly across from it.

"When you offered to take me on the tour," the other man said, "I suspected you had an ulterior motive. What's on your mind?"

"Your son," he replied honestly.

The man gave a little chuckle as he finally sat down in front of Jethro. "What has, uh... Junior done now?"

"Tony likes to hide behind the face of a clown," he told the other man earnestly, "but he's the best young agent I've ever worked with."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that," the other man replied.

"When was the last time you talked to him?" he asked, more or less aware of what the answer was going to be. "I mean really talked to him?"

"Well," Senior said, "we keep in touch."

"Four years ago," he said, "your son came very close to dying from pneumonic plague. And I expected to see you. You didn't show then. Why are you here now?"

Jethro could see some concern but also that this was all clearly new information to the man seated in front of him. "He never told me he was sick."

"Oh," he said, "so you don't keep in touch."

He was definitely starting to touch a nerve. "What's your point?"

"Tony inherited his personality from you," he said, "but I get the feeling there's a lot about your life you don't share."

Senior remained still for a moment while both men eyed one another. The man leaned forward, looking intently into Jethro's eyes. The man's eyes then narrowed. "I should tell you to piss off. But I do know Junior thinks the world of you, so I'll keep this civil." Senior paused a moment then continued. "You have children, Gibbs?"

"I do. A daughter," Jethro confirmed. "Unfortunately... I was robbed of the chance to watch her grow up. She and her mother were put into witness protection after they'd witnessed a murder and I've had to fight like hell to get to know Kelly as an adult." He sighed. "I spent years wishing to have my daughter back, asking myself what she'd be like." Senior's eyes flickered away for a moment then back to him. "You don't have to ask. You have that opportunity to get to know Tony." His voice hardened. "Do it."

"Are we finished?" Senior asked. Jethro then watched as the man leaned back, got out of the chair, and moved towards the door, no doubt about to continue on taking his only child for granted.

As he followed the obtuse man back downstairs, Jethro found himself pulling his phone out and sending his daughter a text to see how she was doing. He'd have preferred to call her but didn't have the time to just yet.

Jethro just hoped that Senior would pull his head out of his ass for DiNozzo's sake. He deserved better than being constantly forgotten and shipped off somewhere so that he didn't have to be dealt with.

Senior's wife died and then the man found suddenly found himself the single father of an eight-year-old. That couldn't have been easy. Still, Jethro couldn't imagine deciding to ignore and ship Kelly off to boarding school if Shannon had died in that car crash in '91 and he'd been left alone to raise Kelly.

He just couldn't wrap his head around how Senior could willingly throw his relationship with his son away, time and time again.