The rest of the workweek was, frankly, brutal. Kelly had called them Thursday night upset, Michael having received notice that he was deploying in three months. Jethro also had to testify at a trial that had finally gone to court. The MCRT team also caught a case where a Marine reservist had been found dead in his backyard in Springfield, Virginia. The man had been brutally beaten to death. The victim's wife had been not only holding something back and it didn't take long before her medical records showed just what the dark secret was.
The dead Marine's wife was not only a Marine herself, but evidently, a better one than the sergeant himself had been. Gunnery Sergeant Georgia Wooten excelled, earning promotions and training in martial arts, while her husband was average.
Her unemotional reaction to her husband's death, coupled with a shady non-alibi, lies, and apparent disguising of a series of injuries, meant it didn't take much for Jethro to suspect that the woman was experiencing domestic abuse at Travis Wooten's hands.
However, in the end, the killer was Len Feeney, the owner of a bar that Travis Wooten had been frequenting a lot lately. The murder weapon of choice was a pool cue so once they knew that, it wasn't hard to figure out who had both access and motive. Feeney apparently had feelings for Georgia and snapped after Georgie called him crying.
They'd been running in circles for a couple of days, but once Abby was able to confirm the murder weapon for them, a lot of pieces quickly fell into place and the team was able to bring the case to a close, hopefully allowing both the woman and her young son to finally get their lives back.
They'd just worked a highly emotional case, so once they'd booked Travis Wooten that Friday afternoon, Jethro decided to send his team home for the weekend. The reports could wait until Monday and there was nothing else case-related keeping them there. Even Abby had finished all her lab work and was heading home.
Jethro had been awake well past when Shannon went to bed, eventually passing out in the basement a little after three o'clock in the morning. He just couldn't get the broken expression Georgie had when they'd talked out of his head. Rule #11: When the job is done, walk away. That was the one rule of his that he consistently had the hardest time with.
"That night, he found it!" the woman told him, visibly on the verge of breaking down completely. "He found the... the one thing that could make me... break."
"Your child," Jethro replied knowingly.
She nodded. "He... He threatened to take Jacob. You know, he'd tell the courts that I was unfit, that I been written up for fighting on the job, that I was away on duty more than I was home. He said, by the time he was done, I would never see Jacob again. You can hurt me all you want, but you don't touch my child. I'd die for him."
He could understand the sentiment and definitely felt for the Gunnery Sergeant.
Saturday morning, Jethro woke up in a less than ideal position, but groggily got up and headed upstairs to pour himself some much-needed coffee, trying to be quiet so as to not wake his still-sleeping wife up. Jethro wanted her to get some sleep before he and Shannon started running around to get the day's chores done.
Little after 0700, he could hear the tell-tale signs of Shannon hopping out of bed and starting to get dressed. Taking a swig of his coffee, Jethro placed the mug down on the table and started whipping up some breakfast.
"Smells good in here," she said as she leaned in to give him a kiss.
He flashed his wife a small smile. "Should be done in a minute."
"Great," the redhead replied happily before adopting a slightly more serious look. "You didn't come to bed last night."
He sighed. "Yeah, passed out while doing some woodwork."
"The case still bugging you?" she asked, evidently working to keep her tone neutral as she knew full well that Jethro never really handled concern or pity well.
"I'm fine," he assured her. "Nothing a couple of hours of sleep couldn't fix."
She nodded, giving him a somewhat assessing look. "Alright, if you're sure…"
He leaned in and gave her a peck on the cheek. "I'm fine, Shan."
"Okay," Shannon said, dropping the subject. "So, what's the plan for today?"
"Well," he said, "we have to -" He and Shannon then prattled on for a couple of minutes about all the stuff that they needed to get done before the pair went bowling with the Ericksons later that afternoon. Some of which were for Kelly and Michael.
As promised, though, it didn't take long before they were sitting down to eat. He then washed up after breakfast which consisted of scrapple, eggs, toast, and hash browns. While Jethro was doing that, his wife quickly threw a load of laundry on and get ready for them to run to the grocery store.
Somewhat surprisingly, by 1600 they had managed to get the majority of their to-do list done. They then hopped into Shannon's car and headed out to meet the Ericksons at Potomac Lanes Bowling Centre for a double date of sorts. Jethro and Wayne both had their VHIC cards, and there was no reason to not take advantage of the fact. They all preferred the atmosphere and prices there compared to Bowlero, for example. He had to admit, the bowling dates had kind of grown on him.
"Hope you two weren't waiting long," Stacy said as they finally walked up.
"Nah," Shannon replied. "We just got here a couple of minutes ago ourselves."
"Ah," Stacy said. "Good to hear."
"Admittedly," Wayne informed them, "we both kinda lost track of the time. We were at Evan's. The boy needed a hand with replacing some plumbing. Pretty much had to run out the door to get here on time."
"Children," Jethro quipped, "they'll keep ya busy." Cleaning your house while your kids were still growing was like shovelling the sidewalk before it stopped snowing. That little reality only changed marginally once they'd become adults.
Wayne chuckled. "Ain't that the truth."
Shannon's gaze flickered between the three of them. "Oh, the joys of being a parent."
"Indeed," Stacy quipped.
Paying for and throwing on their bowling shoes, the four of them headed to one of the far lanes and started to play, Wayne going first.
"And that's a strike for me!" he smirked, walked back up the bowling lane back to where the others sat waiting for their final turn of the game.
"Don't count your chickens just yet," his wife drawled in amusement as Wayne got up and prepared to take his own turn.
He rolled his eyes. "Eh, we all know I ain't winning this round, Shan."
"True," Wayne deadpanned. "Your better half's kicking your ass, Gunny."
As Wayne, unfortunately, landed a gutter ball, Jethro gave a little shrug of the shoulders and smiled warmly at his wife who'd been bowling a rather good game that afternoon. "Scoreboard speaks for itself."
A couple of turns later and it was Shannon's final turn.
The redhead got up lined up the ball and let it roll down the lane leaving only one pin upright. Silently she walked back and picked up the next ball waiting for the pins to be cleared. It was obvious who was going to win at this point. Shannon let the ball go and watched as it went in a perfectly straight line, knocking over the remaining pin as well as winning her the game.
While the girls went to pay for another game, the two guys headed across the room to the Spinz snack bar to grab everybody something to eat.
"How's Kelly doing?" Wayne asked as they waited for their food to be made.
"Good," he replied. "Driving her mom a little nuts with all the wedding planning 'cause she understandably wants the day to be special, but good."
The other man nodded. "Have they set a date yet?"
Jethro put his hands in his pockets. "April 9th."
Wayne leaned forward a tad. The date was coming up fast, but it wasn't exactly out of the normal for military families. Military couples often got married quite young and did things like eloping right before deployment. "Eh, I get it. We've both been there."
"Yeah," he said. "Funnily enough, she's older than I was when I married Shannon." He had gotten married at twenty-seven and his daughter was already twenty-eight. It did not exactly give him much room to talk. And the fact was, Jethro did understand.
The other man gave a little hum in response.
Finally, the group's food order arrived. As he and Wayne made their way back towards their wives, he smiled as he noted both Shannon and Stacy laughing about something as they walked towards their lane. He was happy to see Shannon so relaxed given how much stress she'd been under lately. That they'd both been under.
