The following morning, Jethro woke up with a jolt. Calming down when he laid eyes on his still-sleeping wife. She's here. She's safe. Closing his eyes, he tried to relax and go back to sleep for a bit, dozing off not much later.
He woke up a half-hour later in a much better mood, the sun now coming through the curtains in streams, illuminating the room, birds chirping outside the window.
He shifted and noted that Shannon was smiling over at him. He returned the look with a small smile of his own. "Looks like morning happened again."
"Yep," his wife replied with a happy little hum as she sat up. Shannon glanced around the room, contentedly. "The sun - so pretty in this room."
Jethro smiled more warmly. "It is." He now gave her a slightly questioning look. "That field trip of yours is today, right?" Shannon's class was supposed to go out to Arcadia Farm with another class at some point this week.
"Yep," the redhead immediately confirmed. "Have a couple of parent chaperones who'll be helping out, so should be a good day."
Shannon leaned over and kissed him. He could only focus on how soft she felt against his mouth, how addictively she invaded all his senses.
He wasn't sure how he had gotten so lucky. Back when they'd first become friends, he never thought she could possibly return him feelings, but there was raw emotion in the way her fingers curled around his, and here they were, years later.
When their lips finally parted, he and Shannon laid there for a long minute before they both finally got showered and ready for work and headed downstairs for breakfast and a freshly brewed cup of coffee.
Instead of heading to the Navy Yard first thing that Monday morning, he met up with Dr. Ryan and they brought Jonathan Cole back to NCIS. With any luck, they'd be able to recruit Cole and use the guy as a double agent to take down Dearing.
Walking into the squad room, Jethro's team was obviously giving Palmer their wedding gifts and hugging. The young man's flight left in two hours. Both McGee and Ziva gave really appropriate and thoughtful gifts, whilst DiNozzo re-gifted Palmer a DVD. Typical! He and Shannon had gifted the newlyweds-to-be a customized memory box as well as a cookbook, trying to keep the gifts practical. Everyone stopped in their tracks though when they realized Cole had walked in with Jethro.
Not wanting to waste time they just didn't have, Jethro just kept walking and escorted Cole towards Interrogation #1. Irritatingly, the man insisted on stopping by a vending machine for a snack on the way.
The only reason Jethro obliged was because they needed Cole on their side.
"Sour cream and onion," the young man stated as he started shoving potato chips into his mouth. Cole had no table manners whatsoever. "Everything really does taste better on the outside." Cole then gave Dr. Ryan a cheeky look. "Way I'm chewing tell you my dad didn't hug me enough as a kid, Doc?"
"Tells me he wasn't big on manners," she replied.
"Oh, he was plenty big on manners!" Cole replied happily, still shoving chips into his mouth as he spoke. "I just wasn't big on listening."
Jethro places several photos of the recent attacks and victims down on the table for Cole to look at.
Cole scanned the photos. "Sad story."
"You should know," Dr. Ryan said. "You wrote it."
"You give me too much credit," Cole countered.
"You and Latham sold Harper Dearing the microchip," Jethro said. "You handed him the fleet's weaknesses. You made this possible."
Cole placed the back of chips down and wiped his hands off on each other. The young man then nodded, gathering all the photos into a pile. "You're right, Gibbs. I do know things. Things about Dearing. Things that could help you catch him."
"He's bluffing," Dr. Ryan said. "He doesn't know crap."
"Then pray tell," Cole asked, "why am I here?"
He eyed the man. "Penance."
"We want you to offer your services to Dearing," Dr. Ryan explained, "and lure him into a trap."
"Hang on a second here," Cole said. "You're recruiting me?"
"Well, yeah, Cole!" he retorted. "There weren't a whole lot of other candidates."
"And if it works?" the young man asked.
"Maybe, just maybe," Dr. Ryan stated, "we can talk about putting a light at the end of your tunnel."
He leaned across the table slightly. "Maybe keep you away from the firing squad."
Cole picked up the bag of chips again and shoved one into his mouth. You know, my old man did pass along one pearl of wisdom. Even a bad hand can win the pot." Cole shoved another chip into his mouth. "So, what's the catch?
"You could get killed," he stated simply.
"That's not the catch," Cole replied cheekily. "That's the fun."
Leaving interrogation, they immediately worked to get the wheels of injustice turning. Their phony brief leaked and all federal agencies were on the lookout for Cole. As far as they were concerned, he'd escaped and is somewhere in the Tri-State area. DiNozzo also talked to Victoria Dearing and told her that Cole was looking for her ex. With any luck, the woman would pass the message on.
By the time that was done, his team sat down and had some pizza for lunch. Now was the hard part; the waiting.
Dearing really seemed to have it in for Dr. Ryan, though. He'd paid off a judge and got her abusive ex from prison. She feared for her son's safety and so she swiftly prepared to take Parker and run, leaving the District.
Jethro tried to offer assistance but was shot down. She was dead-set on fleeing.
Back at the Navy Yard, Jethro was reeling slightly. He'd talked to his wife and daughter briefly, and knew they were okay, but he couldn't shake the feeling that Dearing might try and use them against him like the guy had done to Dr. Ryan.
"I don't even know what I'd do if I had to deal with all that," he heard DiNozzo say as he walked into the squad room after a meeting up in Vance's office.
"Elope?" Ziva suggested.
"Yeah, well, it worked for me!" he deadpanned. "Give me an update."
"We're just waiting for Dearing to take the bait," DiNozzo stated.
"Boss!" McGee said as the younger agent walked up behind him. "An e-mail just came into the dummy account we set up for Cole."
"Dearing?" he asked.
"I guess he still wanted to recruit Cole," McGee stated. "Address is encrypted, but the text sure sounds like him."
McGee pulled the aforementioned email up onto the plasma screen for them all to see. The email read: 'Where Golden Eagles rest. Tomorrow 0800.'
"The Golden Eagles are an Israeli Air Force squadron," Ziva offered.
DiNozzo turned to her. "Something tells me this isn't about Israel, Ziva."
"It's a nickname for retired Navy pilots," he explained.
"So where do they rest?" Ziva asked.
"Isn't there an old coffee shop downtown where they hang out?" McGee asked before Jethro could reply.
Jethro dipped his head slightly. "Everybody's got their spot." He then glanced down at his watch, checking the time. "Go home. Dearing's not going anywhere tonight. Eat. Hit the rack. We'll start fresh in the morning."
