Unfortunately, the sting Tobias had his people running went wrong. A female FBI agent found and lured Harper Dearing back to a hotel room and somehow got made. Dearing managed to sneak out the bathroom window. When the FBI SWAT team went to check on Dearing, all that was left was a bomb. More needless death.

Needless to say, when Jethro's team met up with Tobias at the Navy Yard the following morning, the FBI agent was pissed. Jethro could relate.

"Those were my people he blew up last night," Tobias stated angrily. "Lorraine was one of the best we had."

Ziva gave the FBI agent an understanding look, not faltering in her step whatsoever as they all walked and talked. "I am truly sorry, Agent Fornell."

"Traps won't work, Tobias." His gaze flickered between the FBI agent and the direction he was walking. "I told you that."

"That guy's that smart?" Tobias asked.

"Yeah," he stated matter-of-factly. Underestimating Dearing's a fatal mistake.

"But he did not start the altercation, we did!" Ziva pointed out, bringing the group to a halt. "He was just defending himself."

DiNozzo eyed her. "Whose side are you on?"

"Whose side am I on?" Ziva immediately scoffed. "Look, I'm merely trying to point out he is no longer taunting us. We are taunting him."

She did make a good point. Maybe they could use that?

"Uh-oh," DiNozzo said, eying Jethro. "I know that look." His SFA had always been able to read him well. Apparently now was not any different. "That's the 'stay-up-all-night, no-sleep, take-one-for-the-team, I-got-a-plan' look."

Tobias turned to him, curious. "Jethro?"

"Well," he stated, "Ziva's right. Force the turnover. We take the fight to him. And make him keep playing." We can't let him go under.

Jethro's play involved Dearing's ex-wife. He pretended to detain her, while placing the woman under federal protection, in the hopes that Dearing would fear she was going to talk and he'd be provoked into action. Director Vance was not a big fan of the plan, but Jethro didn't think they had many other options.

"The FBI held a press conference today," a ZNN reporter said during the Satellite News segment just after 1100 that morning. "They've arrested Victoria Dearing, ex-wife of wanted homeland terrorist Harper Dearing, in connection to this week's bombing at NCIS headquarters. Charges ranging from murder to conspiracy to commit a terrorist act have been filed against her."

The statement was out and now they just had to wait. That was always the worst part. Director Vance wasn't doing well, either.

"What do you want from me, Gibbs?" Vance pressed.

"Stop feeling sorry for yourself," he replied.

"It was my car that caused this," the director pointed out, confirming his suspicions of misplaced guilt. "I drove that bomb in here. Navy men and women, innocent people, are dead, injured, and missing because of something that I did."

His expression sorted slightly. "You couldn't have known, Leon."

"It's my job to know," the man countered.

"Leon," Jethro said knowingly, "this is what Dearing wants. He wants you to question yourself. Wants this to gnaw away at you from the inside out. Gotta be stronger than that, Leon." He paused slightly. "For all of us."

After hashing the situation out with the man, he headed back down to the squad room and resumed working at his desk.

"Boss, I just got back from the armoury." DiNozzo had just got off the elevator, walked into the room and toward his own desk. "They got hit pretty hard down there."

"Yeah, well, they were close." The structural damage was brutal and there were still a handful of agents missing, such as retired Marine Captain Midge Watkins. She'd been working in the armoury, serving as an NCIS weapons administrator, since '06. "We help any way we can, DiNozzo."

"Can I ask you a question?" his Senior Field Agent asked.

Jethro nodded, not sure where this was going.

"Have you talked to Shannon since all this happened?" DiNozzo asked a tad cautiously. "Really talked, I mean?"

He sighed but decided to be honest. Usually, if the younger man decided to take him to task, there was a good reason. "Not as much as I maybe should've."

DiNozzo's expression softened some, more confident now that he wasn't as concerned about Jethro's reaction. "Think maybe you should... actually let her help?"

Jethro nodded, conceding the younger man's point. She had fought to not get shut out the night before and that wasn't fair to her. He'd fallen back into a bad habit and really didn't want to push Shannon away. He quickly checked the time. His wife was probably busy at the moment, but he could leave her a message. 'Thanks for last night and this morning. We'll talk tonight. Love you.'

He was pleasantly surprised when the response was almost immediate. 'I love you too. Have to go get the kids from music, but I'll see you when you get home. xoxo'

He turned his attention back to DiNozzo. "How are you holdin' up, Bubba?"

The younger man gave him a small smile. "Doing okay. Been talking with Jimmy, Ziva, and Tim. My old man actually reached out..."

He returned the smile. "I'm glad. If you need anything, Tony…"

DiNozzo dipped his head slightly, still smiling. "I know, Jefe."

As Jethro shoved his cellphone into his pocket, the director walked up to the railing of the upstairs balcony and called out for his attention. "Gibbs! MTAC. Now."

It was impossible to miss the sense of urgency in his boss' tone so Jethro rushed up to the Multiple Threat Alert Centre.

Years of practice meant that he unlocked the door with the eye scanner on the first try. Walking in, Jethro was relieved to see McGee was there and sitting down at one of the MTAC stations. "Welcome back, Tim."

"Thanks, Boss!" McGee replied. "Nothing a band-aid wouldn't fix."

He gave the young man a small smile.

"Agent McGee," Vance said, "put him up."

Harper Dearing immediately appeared on the screen. "Did you really think that that was gonna work, Agent Gibbs? Accusing my ex-wife of aiding and abetting when you knew she was innocent? You're playing games!"

He shot the man an incredulous look. "What, and you're not?"

"Games have a winner," Dearing said. "Nobody won yesterday. People got hurt."

"People got hurt by your hand," Vance snapped.

"Well, consider it cause and effect!" Dearing fired back easily, not even missing a beat. "Your cause, my effect. Lesson learned."

Vance eyed the man. "There's easier ways to teach somebody a lesson."

"Well," Dearing replied, "I thought it was appropriate."

"What you think doesn't matter much," he stated, carefully glancing at McGee to see if the younger man had succeeded with the trace. He'd gotten a gesture to keep Dearing talking longer as McGee needed more time.

Dearing scoffed and then gave Jethro a pointed look. "You don't give people enough credit, Agent Gibbs. The Navy turned a blind eye to flaws in the system, and I made sure that that would not happen again."

"You killed people," he stated.

"I am a whistle-blower," Dearing countered.

"You're a murderer!" he snapped.

"What do you want?" Vance demanded. "You got our attention. What's next?"

"Oh, there's nothing next, Director." Something then shifted in Dearing's expression as the man spoke that he couldn't quite pin down. "And if you insist on coming after me, keep this in mind: There is no better player than a man who's got nothing to lose."

The second that Dearing ended the call, the director turned to McGee to find out if he was able to get the trace. "Agent McGee?"

"Got a trace on Dearing's cell," McGee said. "Broke through his firewall."

"Or he let you," Jethro muttered.

McGee chose to momentarily ignore that particular comment of his. "He's parked in an abandoned restaurant parking lot off Route 9."

"McGee," Vance ordered, "get me the SecNav."

McGee immediately did as asked. "Connecting."

Secretary Jarvis appeared up on the big screen a short moment later.'

The director was the one who spoke first. Jethro was still wracking his brain. He had a bad feeling about this. "Sir? We got him. Is there still a SWAT team on standby?"

The Secretary of the Navy immediately nodded in confirmation. "Airborne, Leon. Send the coordinates; they'll make it happen."

Vance eyed the junior agent. "McGee."

McGee started typing away. "Target coordinates delivered, Director."

"Traffic cams," he ordered.

"Uh, not responding." McGee started typing away again. "Switching to thermal satellite."

This time, it worked. They had a good view of the area Dearing supposedly was. Jethro would've preferred traffic cameras for clarity, but satellite footage would do.

"The engine's running," Vance noted.

"The car's hot," he added.

"The heater's on inside too," McGee commented. "Can't be sure, but that looks like one passenger in the driver's seat."

"We are ten seconds from touchdown," the SWAT leader informed the Secretary of the Navy. "Request command confirmation."

"Team One," Secretary Jarvis responded, "this is SECNAV. Confirmation is go. I repeat: Confirmation is go."

"Roger that," the SWAT leader said. "We are locked and loaded. Touching down in four, three, two, one. Go! Go! Go! Approaching from right flank! Securing the vehicle!" The group watched as the car just up and exploded. "Get down! Get down! Target is gone. Repeat: Vehicle is destroyed."

The SecNav was baffled. "What the hell just happened, Leon?"

"He took himself out, Sir." Jethro wasn't too sure. "He blew the car up."

"So he's dead?" Secretary Jarvis asked. "It's over?"

Jethro's gut was telling him that something was off, but he didn't want to come across as paranoid either when he spoke. "Sir, you need remains for confirmation."

Thankfully, Secretary Jarvis didn't have a problem with Jethro verifying the identity of the remains. "Dot your Is and cross your Ts, Gibbs. Just get it done."

Setting the wheels in motion, Jethro ordered his team some Chinese food and they all once again found themselves playing the waiting game.

A couple of hours later, Palmer had arrived back in D.C and had begun the autopsy on the body that was suspected to be Harper Dearing's. Abby was standing outside as she waited on the expedited DNA results, apparently scared of the room. It wasn't the first time that she'd had that particular fear.

"Abby, will you stop!" Palmer snapped before realizing who it was that had walked into the room. "Gentlemen, hi."

He smiled at the man. "Congrats, Palmer."

"Thank you," Palmer replied. "Although, I think under the current circumstances, my being here doing Dr. Mallard's job is hardly worthy of congratulations." Jethro shot the younger man a pointed look. "You meant congratulations on the marriage, didn't you?" Palmer chuckled. "You know, I think I'm still getting used to all this."

Vance eyed him. "Get used to it faster, Palmer. Talk."

"Yes, Sir!" Palmer said. "Um, I was finally able to find a usable tissue sample from the deceased, and Abby is standing by waiting expedited DNA confirmation."

Abby opened the autopsy doors to speak. "This is top priority, so it should be here any time now." She closed the doors only to open them again a second later. "Got it."

"The suspense is killing me," Tobias deadpanned.

"Abby?" he asked.

"Is it Dearing?" Vance pressed.

The forensic scientist quickly scanned the report she'd just been sent before speaking to the group. "Okay... According to the DNA results, we have a 50% match, which, given the severely compromised condition of the remains, is closer than I expected."

Palmer took his eyeglasses off, noticeably relieved by the news.

Vance nodded, visibly relieved as well. "It's him."

He just stood there not saying anything, but Tobias got his attention. "You did it, Jethro. You got the bastard."

Jethro couldn't help but feel that it was all much too easy, but as he didn't have a leg to stand on, the Secretary of the Navy was briefed and the case was closed.

Even so, Harper Dearing had made one hell an impact.