Sunday was quite calm. They did a few things around the house, took Bailey out for a walk, talked with Kelly briefly, and Jethro called his father back in Stillwater for a chat. Nothing really out of the ordinary, in other words, until Tobias Fornell called him. The FBI agent wanted to meet with him and his girls regarding Kelly's hit and run.
Jethro honestly hoped that this mess would be dealt with sooner rather than later, and was more than a little tense when Tobias came by after lunch.
Kelly had apparently met with Tobias earlier in the day and Jethro was barely home for ten minutes when Tobias joined Shannon and himself in the living room ten.
Jethro gave his friend a pointed look. "Shoot, Alice."
Tobias rolled his eyes at the combat veteran. "Paloma Reynosa. The name ring a bell?"
"Reynosa does," he said. If Jethro felt a wave of anxiety wash over him at hearing the last name, he'd deny it even under oath.
"Well," Tobias stated, "sweet little Paloma was born Hernández-Rivera." Quite a bit of colour immediately left Jethro's face. "Paloma and her brother Alejandro Rivera are the children of Pedro Hernández."
"That's just great," Shannon said with a sigh.
Jethro honestly felt like his wife had just stolen the words right out of his mouth. He also was concerned about just where this conversation was going to go. He never felt guilty. Still didn't. What he did… needed doing. BUT he was admittedly scared at how it could change the way those he cared about saw him.
"Apparently Alejandro was the one working with Colonel Bell to get info on you," the FBI agent explained. "As we know, Bell then hired Margaret Allison Hart, Esquire. The real issue is Paloma. She's out for blood. She's the one who hired Fernández."
"Why are those two coming after us though?" Shannon pressed. "I mean, I get this Bell guy has a grudge because he went to prison, but-?" She eyed Jethro. "Why do I get the impression that you did something supremely asinine, Husband of Mine?"
He sighed, knowing that Shannon had connected the dots. "Because I did."
His wife took a deep breath. "Okay, so what do we do?"
"Alejandro will never prove anything," Tobias said, "and an agent of mine managed to get this off of Paloma during a recent run-in." The FBI agent pulled out an old bullet from his pocket and showed it to both of them. "She was in the U.S solidifying her cartel pipeline. Continuing the family business." The other man eyed him. "Lapua .308 casing. Boat-tail. Full metal jacket." Tobias then held out his right hand, Jethro swiftly taking the bullet from him. "Destroy that, Gibbs."
He nodded his head, not fully trusting his voice at the moment.
"Good," Tobias said pointedly. "As far as the rest of it, just stay out of Paloma's way. Neither of them can prove a thing and we have her on our radar for unrelated things. Let me handle it. And Kelly knows about the connection to the Reynosa's but not the why. I decided that wasn't my conversation to have."
He breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't particularly want Kelly to know. His wife knowing was unsettling enough.
"Alright," his wife said after a moment. "But you're sure you can nail her, Tobias?"
"Yes," Tobias confirmed. "I have a team set up already to handle the Reynosa pipeline specifically. We'll get her, Shannon."
He eyed his friend. "Sooner rather than later, Tobias."
That had been one conversation that Jethro had never wanted to have, hoping that what he'd done would never come to light. Shannon had forced him to talk a bit more after Tobias left, but had taken it surprisingly well. He'd been worried. Still, he wasn't sure how to look her in the eyes at first.
He knew she got it on some level, didn't blame him or judge him for it, but it was still unsettling information to learn. He got why she was a bit tense, but he also couldn't shake the nagging feeling of fear that if he looked her in the eyes he was going to see something shift in her gaze. That she'd look at him differently.
"Well, what did you think I'd think?" she asked. "That you're a bad person? Worse yet, do you feel you're a bad person?"
"I've arrested hundreds of bad people doing bad things," he pointed out. "They all had justification for what they did, just like me."
Shannon raised an eyebrow. "And that makes you just like them?"
"It makes me no different," he countered.
His wife sighed. "He had a body count, Jethro. The system seriously failed." She eyed him. "The reality is, you probably saved tons of lives." She squeezed his hand. "It'll be okay. We'll get through this. Together."
Abby had come over for dinner that night and the young goth had managed to break the ice nicely, the slight tension that had been in the house quickly fading as the girl started to tell some story about Sister Rosita and going bowling the day before. That girl was really something else.
By the end of the night, he and Shannon were largely back to normal. Additionally, most of the anxiety that he'd been feeling regarding the situation had left.
Monday ended up being more than a little interesting. Jethro's team spent most of the day catching up on any reports they were behind on and following up on a couple of cold cases of theirs, mainly a Portsmouth shooting from over a year prior.
A nineteen-year-old Navy sailor had been shot and killed during a fight between two groups on a residential street in Portsmouth. Jethro still couldn't figure out why the main pair involved in the shooting had been fighting about something so petty though. The loss of life was utterly pointless.
On the other hand, the slower day meant that he was able to leave work by 1700 and go home to his wife. Something that Jethro really needed to do.
Far from being the most romantic type, he stopped by a store to pick up some flowers before finally heading to the house. He really didn't want this situation to screw up his relationship with Shannon. The thought of losing her terrified him. He knew it wasn't a necessary concern given his conversations with his wife, but still, Jethro worried.
