Monday morning, Jethro and Shannon were both thrown back into the thick of things, the week definitely starting out with a bang. And as the next two months continued to fly on by, Jethro put the Reynosa cartel situation back out of his mind.
Work definitely wasn't letting up, however, and he ended up getting home well after Shannon was asleep more times than he'd like. It felt like he'd hardly seen his wife in the last couple of weeks. That was the nature of the job, though.
Abby had been over for dinner one night though, one of the only slower days he'd had lately, which had been rather nice.
They were planning on taking some time off again soon so they could go out to the cabin which he had managed to get some extra hands on board to do some work on. The renovations made it much more practical for multiple people.
"It'll definitely be nice to have a bit more room," Shannon said happily.
Jethro gave his wife a small smile. "That it will."
"So," she said, "what weekend were ya thinking of headin' down?"
"Not this coming weekend but the next?" he suggested.
She nodded. "Sure." She leaned in for a kiss. "By the way, the Ericksons want to know if we'd like to go bowling again." His thought on the matter clearly showed on his face because she chuckled. "Come on. It wasn't so bad last time, was it?"
"No," he admitted. "Minus the one moron." Jethro had enjoyed himself even if he was a little reluctant to admit it, the one minor incident notwithstanding.
Shannon rolled her eyes. "Move on, Tiger. Move on."
He eyed his wife. "Ok. So what night are we going?"
She gave him a small smile. "To be decided."
He gently kissed Shannon on the cheek. "Just let me know where and when."
His wife smirked. "I know where to find you."
He shook his head with a small chuckle as he poured himself a cup of coffee.
The most recent case that the MCRT had caught was a rape and the team worked it alongside Agent Maureen 'Mo' Cabot from the Family and Sexual Violence Program.
A junior naval officer, Amelia Powell, was arrested for a DUI while she was on leave in the District, but her ripped clothes and injuries led the police to call NCIS for help.
It didn't take long before a group of sailors from her unit were named as suspects in the rape. Powell had initially refused to cooperate with them for fear of damage to her reputation in the military. She drunkenly explained to Jethro and Ziva more than once that she was only an ensign and needed to get back to her ship immediately. Although Powell protested due to her unauthorized absence, Ziva eventually managed to get the ensign to agree to go to the hospital for further tests.
When her commanding officer also started hindering the investigation, well, that sent the investigation into a whole other direction.
Reluctantly, she eventually told them the attacker was Commander Caldwell. The man had been trying to sleep with Powell since day one, but she refused him and Caldwell then decided to teach her a lesson.
They had managed to get the case wrapped up, but it was cutting it close, and Jethro was getting antsy about going home. Deciding that their reports could wait until the following day, he dismissed his team. "Go home. Reports can wait."
"Are you sure, Boss?" McGee asked, getting a gentle slap in the head from DiNozzo.
"Yes," he said. "Get going. All of you."
"You heading straight to dinner?" Ziva asked once both boys had run off.
"Still have one more thing to do," he explained, "and then I'll head right there."
She tilted her head slightly. "The director?"
"The director," he confirmed with a small nod.
Jethro wanted to head out right then as well but he still had to meet with the director before he could do so, whether he wanted to at the moment or not. It came with the job though. He had work to do.
The meeting felt like it was just dragging on though and Jethro found himself glancing down at his watch a little more often than was probably acceptable.
Vance quirked a brow. "Have you got somewhere else to be, Agent Gibbs?"
He adopted a slightly sheepish look. "I'm listening, Director."
"With your feet pointed towards the door," Vance pointed out not unkindly. "How about we go over those new threat assessments tomorrow? I've been briefed on the Powell case and that's enough for me."
"Thanks," he said softly.
Vance gave a curt nod. "Family first."
He dipped his head slightly in response.
"So," the director asked with a small smile, "where exactly are you running off to?"
He smiled right back. "It's Kelly's birthday."
"Ah," Vance said. "Well, be sure to wish her a happy birthday from the family and me."
"I will," he said. "Night, Leon." With that, Jethro turned around and head out the door, making his way to the elevator as fast as possible and quickly texted his daughter that he was on his way and would see her soon.
Pulling up at the restaurant his daughter had picked out, Jethro hopped out of his old pickup and ran in. It didn't take him long to spot Shannon and Kelly's red hair, Michael, Ziva and Maddie seated around the table with an empty chair beside his wife.
Kelly had gone out with some friends of hers on Saturday night and tonight was just a small dinner on the actual day of.
Michael smiled at him. "Good to see you, sir."
"You too, Mike." Jethro gave Kelly a peck on the cheek. "Happy birthday, Kellz."
His daughter smiled. "Thanks, Dad."
Giving Shannon a quick kiss, Jethro took a seat beside his wife. "So, what'd I miss?"
"I was just telling the tooth fairy story," Shannon said with an amused glint in her eyes. "So, I was tucking her into bed when she told me she went to the school nurse's office that day with Maddie as she'd lost a tooth. Unfortunately, the school nurse said, 'You know, your mother is really the tooth fairy.' So, Kel looked up at me and asked if it was true. I said, 'Yes.' I wasn't sure how it was going to go but she just asked me, 'How do you fly around to all the houses?'
"Kids," he quipped, shooting Kelly an amused look. "They say the damnedest things."
"Hey," Kelly said with a laugh, "I was seven!"
Jethro raised an eyebrow. "And your point?"
Just then a waitress walked up, everyone at the table ordering some drinks and food. They then resumed their discussion.
"My sister Tali would mess around during school plays," Ziva said with a chuckle. "My mother would try and melt into the seat sometimes."
"Didn't she sing opera?" Kelly asked.
"Not professionally," Ziva said, "but she loved it and she was really good at it too. She always was a big performer."
Jethro smirked. "Kelly had just turned eight and she decided to purposefully throw first place in one of her piano competitions. Bragged about it to me in this tap recording she made with Shannon. Kellz had decided that one of the other girls had too much pressure from her parents and needed the win more than she did."
"That does sound like Kelly," Michael said with a smile.
"That's so sweet," Ziva said.
"I can't believe you remember that," Kelly said with slight surprise.
He gave his daughter a small smile. "Some things just stick with you."
The rest of the birthday dinner continued in much the same way, Jethro feeling rather appreciative of the fact that Vance had let him leave early. He'd missed way too many of Kelly's birthdays and that was always going to be a bitter pill to swallow. He didn't want to miss any more than he absolutely had to.
