With Detective Sportelli gone, McGee shared what he'd found. Lieutenant Commander Brett was an Academy grad and a Top Gun pilot. The man had flown F-18 Hornets in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He was also shot down over Kunar Province.

"Wait a second... I know him!" DiNozzo said, getting up from his desk and shifting some to get a better view of the photo that was now up on the plasma. "That's the guy that survived by eating mud, bark and bugs while evading the Taliban."

"Yep," McGee confirmed. "Took the Marines two weeks to find and rescue him."

Jethro was admittedly rather impressed. "One tough S.O.B."

"He's divorced," McGee said, continuing to fill them all in. "Has one daughter. Currently assigned as a legislative fellow to the House Armed Services Committee."

Deciding that they had sufficient background information to start with, Jethro had Ziva accompany him to speak with the lieutenant commander, the pair making their way to the Rayburn House Office Building.

Arriving at Brett's office, however, Jethro quickly realized that the man was going to be anything but cooperative. Hoping to find a way in, Jethro took a good look around the office. Lieutenant Commander Brett had quite a few photos up on the wall of a young blonde girl who was maybe seven or eight years old and in a wheelchair. He assumed the little girl was the lieutenant commander's daughter. He had a few work photos as well of him with planes and with President G.W. Bush. His young daughter and his job seemed to be the two most important things to him. He obviously loved his daughter and was proud of his career. Clearly single at the moment.

"You think this guy was trying to kill me?" Brett said in disbelief.

He gave a curt nod. "Got good reason to believe so."

"He's a wanted contract killer," Ziva added.

The man laughed. "This is crazy. I can't think of anyone who would want me dead, so, uh, it's gotta be a joke." Brett eyed him, still not taking it seriously. "Captain Thornton put you up to this, didn't he?"

"I don't know a Captain Thornton," he retorted.

"Well," Brett said, "clearly this must be some sort of mistake."

He turned to Brett. "Metro Police came to us with solid evidence."

"Well, you said the guy's been caught." Brett was starting to get on his nerves. "So, there's nothing to worry about."

Jethro shot the lieutenant commander a pointed look. "Whoever hired him to kill you wants you dead. They'll find someone else to do the job."

"We would like to put you in protective custody until we know more," Ziva added.

"You're serious?" Brett stated, clearly very unimpressed by Ziva's suggestion. The man chuckled softly. "I can take care of myself." The lieutenant commander's gaze flickered between both of the agents. "My job is to advise the members of the Armed Services Committee," the man proceeded to inform them. "There is a critical vote about to take place on the Hill regarding a substantial military expenditure. I'm gonna be in sensitive meetings all week."

"What's her name?" he inquired, gesturing to a photo of the man's daughter.

"Matilda," the man replied happily, his demeanour visibly changing instantly. Not that Jethro was surprised by the shift. As a father, he got it. "I call her Tilly. She's my life. She... She has special needs, but she doesn't let it stop her. She's a great kid."

He dipped his head slightly.

"She's adorable," Ziva chimed in. "How old is she?"

"Eight," the lieutenant commander said. "Do either of you have kids?"

"I do," he said. "A daughter. Kelly." Jethro gestured to one of the photos of Tilly. "Tilly would want you safe, Commander." He eyed the man pointedly. "Why don't you let an agent shadow you at work?" he requested, hoping the minor compromise would help earn some cooperation from the other man. "We'll set you up tonight at the officers' quarters at the Navy Yard."

"Yeah, I don't know. I've -" The man stopped, finally conceding somewhat. "And who will be the agent shadowing me?"

Reading the room, Jethro tilted his head towards the young Israeli. He didn't envy her the protective detail but figured Brett was much more likely to agree to have Ziva as a job shadow than to have Jethro himself do it.

Back at NCIS, things weren't going much more smoothly. Abby was having a hard time wrapping her head around a situation that came up during her earlier interview at the hospital. Per Abby, there was a second donor who matched and the donor coordinator was impressed that they had both a brother and sister willing to donate a kidney. The thing was Abby's younger brother, Luca, didn't know anything about it. Nevertheless, testing showed that Abby and this other guy were a 99% match as siblings, and now the goth was wondering if she had another brother out there.

While all that was going on, Arliss had passed away from his injuries. Unable to talk to the man, the team started to do a background search.

"Hard to believe this guy was an infamous killer," McGee said. "Up until yesterday, his only claim to fame was Salesman of the Year as a manufacturers' rep for a furniture company. He's got a wife, two kids, no criminal record. Not even a parking ticket."

"He evaded the FBI for years by hiding in plain sight," DiNozzo stated. "In a weird way, you got to admire the guy." He head-slapped his Senior Field Agent. "Uhn!"

Jethro was more than a little disgusted. "He's a mass murderer."

"Despicable," DiNozzo said. "Nothing to admire."

"Did you connect Arliss to anyone who knows Commander Brett?" he asked McGee.

"Not yet," McGee said. "Metro's got a team going through his house."

"If only I could have interrogated him," DiNozzo said. "I'll tell you, five minutes in my magic hands and I would have had him coughing up the name of that hitman."

"Five minutes?" McGee stated in disbelief.

"Five minutes," DiNozzo confirmed. "'Cause I learned from the best."

Jethro glanced between his field agents. "We need to find out who hired him."

"I've been looking for enemies," McGee replied, "but Commander Brett is a decorated hero. He's well-liked. I spoke to his former CO. Brett climbed over some people while angling for his plum assignment on the Hill, but no one denies he deserved it."

"'While angling for his plum assignment on the Hill?'" DiNozzo said, teasing McGee for not the first or last time. "Who talks like that?"

Jethro was quite fond of McGee but he did sometimes wondered if the younger agent didn't talk like that from time to time to purposefully get a response out of the Italian. Those two boys frequently bickered in a way that seemed to scream siblings.

Focusing back on the case, though, things just got messier. Unfortunately.

At Arliss's house, Sportelli and Jethro were talking about interviewing the wife and FBI taking over from Metro when DiNozzo found a hidey-hole off the garage Gibbs finds their way inside. It was a bolt hole, filled with rifles and a computer. Needless to say, Jethro immediately made a deal with Sportelli to get the computer back to NCIS.

McGee had been able to ascertain from the laptop that Arliss had received a $25k wire transfer the day that he was hit by the truck. From a guy named George Kaplan who lived nearby. That was something, at least.

Brett claimed to not know Kaplan whatsoever and made it blatantly obvious that he thought it was crazy that some rando would like to have him killed. But, he was now taking things seriously enough that he called his ex-wife to tell her to take their child to her parents' house in Hilton Head for a few days.

That conversation done, DiNozzo and McGee accompanied Jethro to the dumb that Kaplan was apparently living it. Not that it looked like the man was actually spending time there. He had apparently been there for about a year but there were no clothes in the closet and no food in the fridge. Furthermore, the landlady hadn't seen the man since the day that she rented the apartment out to him. Kaplan was her best tenant in terms of payment and silence so she wasn't asking questions. Apparently, Kaplan paid her via a business manager named Drew Turner.

The landlady had immediately started flirting with Jethro which just made him patently uncomfortable. She didn't even back off of Jethro when he rather politely pointed out the wedding ring on his finger. Jethro was just glad to finally get out of there.

The exasperation grew though when Ziva called Jethro to let him know that Brett had locked her in a staircase and ran off to God knows where. Of course, the veteran agent had quickly driven to the Rayburn House Office Building to give Ziva a hand and bring her back to Arlington for dinner.

"You look thrilled," his wife quipped as he and Ziva walked into the house shortly after 1730 that evening.

"Oh yeah," he said wryly. "Team's trying to protect somebody who refuses to take the threat against him seriously." Closing the patio door, Jethro pulled Shannon in for a kiss. "But enough about that. How was your day?"

"Good," Shannon said contentedly. "Though, marking a bunch of spelling tests isn't the most entertaining thing."

He gave a little snort. "That's fair."

Ziva smirked at him. "You just hate paperwork. Period."

Kelly pulled Jethro in for a one-armed hug, looking quite tired. It was easy to tell that she hadn't been sleeping well lately. Thankfully, her boss was great, adapting Kelly's responsibilities at work in light of the pregnancy. "She's got you there, Dad."

"Gee, thanks." He kissed his daughter on the forehead. "How was your day?"

"Long," his daughter replied. "I keep waking up in the middle of the night."

"Try some chamomile tea," Shannon suggested. "I know it helped me tons." She'd had the same issue in her third trimester. "You could try listening to some soft music too."

"Worth a shot," Kelly agreed. "So, I video chatted with Mike on my lunch break today. He finally got that care package I sent him a couple of weeks ago." Kelly had sent her husband a few care packages while the man was deployed but this particular one was special. She had found out the gender of the baby and came up with a pretty creative way to let Michael know. Jethro was honestly impressed by all the effort that she was putting in to keep Michael involved. "Totally flipped out, he's so excited."

"That's great," Shannon said. "You two settle on any names?"

"No," Kelly said. "We've emailed back and forth about it a couple of times since finding out I'm pregnant but haven't been able to really agree on any."

"It will come," Ziva commented. "You two still have time to decide."

"She's right, Kellz." He very much agreed with that. Stressing out about it wasn't going to help anything at all. Jethro knew that much, at least. It was a big decision, yes, but it wasn't exactly dire. They'd figure it out.

"And look on the bright side," Shannon said in jest, "now you and Mike will only fight about names half as much."

Kelly snickered. "Yeah, pretty sure I'm gonna win that one."

"Well," Ziva quipped, "you are doing all heavy lifting."

Jethro glanced between the three ladies, shaking his head in amusement. "Women."

Ziva swatted Jethro on the arm playfully, the veteran agent immediately reaching over and starting to ruffle the young Israeli's hair.

Kelly then jumped in, siding with Ziva, and he had both girls hanging off of him while his wife pulled out her cellphone so she could capture the goofy moment.

While all the girls were ganging up on him, Jethro couldn't keep the toothy grin off his face. You three are nuts, but I wouldn't have it any other way.