As they entered November, the temperatures, although still fairly mild, had noticeably dropped and it had been more than a little chilly out the last couple of days. Work had certainly kept Jethro on his toes, though, having to deal with CGIS and a Lebanese family who'd requested asylum. Two of which were terrorists who tried to take out half of Norfolk Naval Base with a homemade explosive.
He and Vance had disagreed on more than one occasion during that case, although it was interesting working with Agent Borin again. Unfortunately, his team had got stuck with the weekend duty two weekends in a row, which irked him slightly, but was what it was. It had been a while since they'd had the shift.
The last two days, though, seemed to drag on. Jethro's team hadn't caught any new cases, so spent two days catching up on paperwork and following up on a weak lead on a rather old cold case of theirs. He wasn't about to complain, though. Having things slow down somewhat after a hectic week, was actually kind of nice.
And it meant that he was home by 1630 that Monday and Tuesday, allowing for quite a bit of time with his family who it felt like he'd barely seen lately.
That Wednesday morning, things started out quite normal. He and Shannon woke up, got ready for work, and then chatted with Kelly over breakfast.
Kelly put her glass down on the table and looked over at him curiously. "So, a question for you, Dad. How did you learn Russian? I was talking to Ziva and it came up."
"Spent some time in Moscow," he explained simply.
Shannon's eyes widened. "Oh? And how was that?"
He raised an eyebrow, smiling wryly. "It's Russia."
"How long were you there for?" Kelly inquired.
"I was there for a year," he said. A very long year. "Six months undercover."
Kelly replied a tad sarcastically. "Bet that was fun."
"Well," he said, "let's just say it was nice to move back." He smiled. "Tony, he actually started to work with me a few months later."
"How did you two meet exactly?" Kelly asked. "Wasn't he a cop in Baltimore?"
He nodded his head. "Yeah, he was. I did a lot of undercover work though, travelling a lot. Met him on the job. Tony actually arrested me while I was on an op."
"Seriously?" Kelly said with a chuckle. "What happened?"
"Well," he begun explaining, "we got a tip someone was using a Navy payroll office to launder money. I went undercover, meeting up with the courier, and Baltimore P.D had had a BOLO out on the guy for like two days. Tony and his partner at the time showed up and busted me and the courier. He chased me for like two blocks before I faked out to let him arrest me." He chuckled softly at the memory.
Shannon eyed him curiously. "What's so funny?"
"The kid was screaming about tube socks while chasing me," he proceeded to explain. "It was absolutely ridiculous."
Kelly snickered. "I can actually see that."
"Yeah," he said with a smirk. "And I had him apply to NCIS later that week."
A pretty normal start to the day, all things considered. On the other hand, arriving at the Navy Yard for work that morning, things did not go quite how Jethro would have expected them to. First off, the Italian-American agent was obsessed with the fact he might be going bald, roping McGee into his dramatics.
Jethro, a fresh cup of coffee in hand, walked up right when it was getting good.
"You two are being ridiculous," Ziva said. "Everyone's hair thins. It's barely noticeable. And it's not like you guys are going grey."
Ziva's face when she realized Jethro was there was, frankly, hilarious.
"I'm so glad that wasn't me," DiNozzo said under his breath.
"Grey can be really sexy," Ziva said, stammering out a rather sorry excuse. That girl was an enigma. She was a trained assassin and yet the young woman couldn't for the life of her lie to Jethro in a remotely convincing manner.
Before Jethro could reply, his cellphone started to ring. "Yeah, Gibbs."
"Lucky," DiNozzo said dramatically as Jethro walked over to his desk.
Jethro shook his head and focused on the less-than-thrilling phone call with Diane. "If you have a moment, I need you to meet me outside so we can talk. It's important."
He gave a little hum in response.
"Is that coffee stand still there?" Diane inquired.
"Uh-huh." Jethro didn't particularly want to meet up with the woman, but he also knew that Diane wouldn't be calling him of all people if it weren't genuinely important.
He could feel his ex-wife's eye roll through the phone. "Okay. I'll see you in a minute." The redhead then hung up the call.
Closing his flip phone, Jethro grabbed his black overcoat so he could head outside.
"Dead body?" McGee asked.
"No," he quipped. "Worse."
That got DiNozzo's attention. "Where we going?"
"Nowhere." After his deadpan comment, he made his way over to the elevator, leaving three very confused field agents standing there.
Out at the coffee stand, Jethro ordered himself his usual black coffee and then spotted Tobias who was, surprisingly, there as well. Admittedly, he was now really beginning to feel concerned. What in the hell is going on?
"What are you doing here?" Tobias asked as Jethro finished paying for his coffee and took the seat directly beside him.
"I was going to ask you the same thing," he commented.
"She called both of us," Tobias pointed out. "That can't be good." The man eyed Jethro questioningly. "You have any idea what it's about?"
"No," he admitted before taking a swig of his coffee.
"I can't drink that," Tobias stated, pulling out some Pepto and drinking it. The guy then held out the bottle to Jethro.
He put a hand up, rejecting the offer. "Pass."
"Yeah," Tobias said. "I'll probably need something stronger."
"I heard that," their mutual ex-wife said, having just walked up. "Since when have you needed an excuse to drink more than you should?"
Tobias was clearly already exasperated. "Nice to see you, too, Mrs. Sterling."
Diane turned towards him. "Agent Gibbs, thank you for coming." She shook Jethro's hand and glanced between them. "Both of you. I didn't know who else to call."
"Figured that…" Tobias started.
Jethro finished the other man's sentence. "… When you called us."
"I need your help," she started to explain. "Victor didn't come home last night."
"That's a record," Tobias said. "Even for you. Only married six months?"
She shot Tobias an almost pleading look. "Okay, Tobias, please, not now."
He eyed the redhead questioningly. "You guys have a fight?"
"Did you call the police?" Tobias inquired.
She shook her head. "You know it's too soon for them to do anything."
"What do you want us to do?" Tobias exclaimed.
"I want you to look into it," she said. "I know what you guys are thinking, but Victor is not the kind of man to just disappear."
Jethro eyed the redhead. "I'm not sure how to say this..."
"I do," Tobias said. "Look, we're not your personal buddy-cop investigative service."
"No," Diane countered. "You're just my ex-husbands. And I need your help."
Both men sighed. They were going to be in for a very long day. Sharing a look though, they both agreed the situation was worth looking into, agreeing to help.
Hopefully, they'd be able to clear this mess up sooner rather than later.
