Leaving the bar with the ever-vocal Diane Sterling in tow, Jethro had DiNozzo and Ziva take her to the main interrogation room. Something was going on, and she was clearly not going to talk to them unless they applied some pressure.

While Diane was being dealt with, Jethro headed down to Frankie's Crew Cuts, arriving at the barbershop just in time to make his appointment. In addition to getting his hair trimmed, he'd opted to have it changed to a side-part. Something that his lovely wife had been not-so-subtly hinting at. Still Marine regulation, but just the change of part. He had to admit, it did look a sight better.

Driving to the Navy Yard, Jethro pulled out his cellphone and called Shannon to let her know, as promised, how Tobias was faring. Given the time, Jethro knew that his wife's class was in the middle of recess. She picked up on the fourth ring. "Hey, Shan."

"Hey, Tiger!" Shannon replied. "So, how's the work wife doing?"

He rolled his eyes despite knowing that she couldn't see it. It wasn't the first time that she had used that particular monicker in reference to Tobias Fornell; probably enjoying the fact it messed with him. Like during the Sergeant Dempsey fiasco.

"We both agreed we hate that place," he said.

"We did," the other man agreed, "but I got a twofer coupon in the mail."

"Well," he said, "did you order it spicy or mild?"

Tobias glanced up from the table at him. "Atomic."

Shannon rolled her eyes at them and turned to Jethro. "So, babe, I'll leave you and your work husband to your shoptalk." Jethro tried to keep his expression straight at her 'work husband' comment, not knowing how to respond to that. "I'll be over having a few drinks with Stace if you need me. Taking Bailey."

Jethro gave her a quick kiss. "Ok. Have fun. I'll see you in a bit."

Jethro decided not to let the playful teasing get to him like it had last time and to try and turn the tables on his wife instead. "You're such a mean flirt. If you wanna date me you can just ask, ya know."

"I don't know," his wife quipped without missing a beat. "You smell like sawdust, but I guess you're not a lumberjack."

"Nah," he replied with a warm smile. "Couldn't get hired." He then shook his head in a mix of amusement and slight exasperation and amusement. "Tobias is fine. The man's back at work and being his usual self already."

"Glad to hear it," Shannon said. "I gotta go, but I'll see you after work. Love you."

"Love you too," he replied with a warm smile before ending their call.

Shoving his cellphone firmly back into his pocket, Jethro headed to the squad room to touch base with his team once more.

He hadn't been in the squad room for very long when DiNozzo and Ziva finally walked in, clearly trying to cover up the fact they'd stolen a private moment on the way there from getting Diane settled in. Jethro was just glad that the relationship was going well and not causing any conflicts at work.

"We got her settled in Interrogation," his Senior Field Agent informed him. "Good thing I had my tetanus shot. I almost lost a hand."

Ziva seemed a bit unsure about voicing her opinion on the matter. "Uh, she was quite, uh, vocal about her displeasure. Perhaps, uh, the conference room... would have been a more suitable place to question her."

Tobias didn't overly like that. "Oh... they stick together, don't they?"

"I tried small talk," DiNozzo said, "but... she wouldn't say a word."

"No," he said as he glanced up from his desk. "She needs to cool off first."

DiNozzo glanced between both of the team leaders. "You really gonna hit your ex-wife with an obstruction of justice charge?"

"Yes," Tobias barked out. "The manager said she was interested in buying the bar; she never mentioned anything about any audit."

He was firmly on Tobias' side with this. "Which means she lied to a federal agent."

"He also said she introduced herself as Diane Fornell," Tobias continued.

And God only knows why. "Which means she's using an alias."

Before anything else could be said, McGee walked up. "Actually, she's using two. Look what I found in her purse." Slipping a USB into his computer, McGee pulled up two I.D photographs onto the plasma for them to see. "And please, don't ever make me spend time alone with her again, ever."

Jethro blinked as he realized exactly what the second alias Diane was using was. Diane Gibbs. He wasn't sure what to make of that. He was far from impressed though as she knew full damn well that he was married. What is she dragging me into?

Tobias' gaze flickered between the images up on the plasma screen and Jethro himself. "She sucked you in too. But what's the game?"

"I didn't know then," he said as he got to his feet, "I sure as hell don't know now."

Ziva eyed both of the field team leaders as she spoke. "Her presence at the bar where Seaman Brown worked might have simply been a coincidence."

"No way," Tobias instantly fired back. "And enough with the girl power. More likely she finally hired that hitman she's been talking about for years, to take me out."

Everyone shot Tobias a look at that comment.

"No!" Tobias exclaimed. "No." The man didn't sound quite as confident the second time around. "But we should put a pin in that."

He decided to do just that. "Seaman Brown - what do we know about him?"

DiNozzo walked over to his computer to pull some info up on the plasma. "Background confirms what the annoying drunk guy told you. Brown wasn't exactly model Navy."

Ziva jumped in without missing a beat. "He was reprimanded several times for fighting with his shipmates and for being late for duty."

"He was actually in the process of getting a bad-conduct discharge," DiNozzo said.

McGee gave then a slightly regretful look. "But we didn't find a thing in his background that connects him to Agent Fornell."

"Other than the fact that my ex-wife showed up at his workplace today," Tobias said as he turned to face Jethro. "No putting it off any longer. Interrogation time."

His Senior Field Agent looked just a little too giddy as he spoke quietly with Ziva about the situation. "I can't wait to see this."

Jethro turned around and then put an arm around DiNozzo while shooting the younger man a shit-eating grin. "Don't worry about it. You're gonna have a front-row seat."

Neither he nor Tobias wanted to be in that interrogation room. Hell, Jethro had been on the woman's bad side before. It never went well. He wasn't exactly itching a repeat of when Diane had tried to crack his skull open with a seven iron.

Heading to the observation room with Tobias, they watched as the interrogation played out. Diane had definitely not calmed down any.

Diane was pacing the one side of the interrogation room and DiNozzo was seated and running his fingers through his hair with a groan as she, as expected, went off on the much younger man. "How dare you! Questioning me like some common criminal! Who do you think you are?" She leaned into DiNozzo. "When I get through with you, Agent Coif... you're gonna be wishing your parents hadn't even been born."

DiNozzo glanced up at her. "Coif?"

Diane turned towards the two-way mirror and then proceeded to march right up to it. "And you two! What? Are you too afraid to come in here and face me yourselves?"

"I won't dignify that with a response!" Tobias fired back.

He eyed his long-time friend. "You just did."

His Senior Field Agent rose to his feet and eyed Diane. "Okay, I don't want to be here, either. Will you please sit down?!" The next couple of words came out as much more of a plea. "Will you please just sit down?"

After a beat, Diane finally relented and took a seat across from his Senior Field Agent. "I have already told you, I don't know Seaman Brown."

"She's lying," Tobias stated. "Her lip curled."

"I saw it," he agreed. She's definitely holding something back.

His Senior Field Agent eyed the fiery redhead much more confidentially now. "You also told Agent Gibbs and Fornell you were at the bar for a tax audit," DiNozzo stated, "but you told the bar manager you were interested in buying the place."

"It is a woman's prerogative to change her mind," Diane quipped.

DiNozzo pulled out the evidence bag with the two I.D.s she'd been using inside. "Is it a woman's prerogative to carry two fake I.D.s?"

That information clearly pissed his ex-wife off. "You went through my purse?"

"No," DiNozzo countered without missing a beat. "McGee did." Jethro fought a smirk at what his SFA just did. "Now, uh... does your husband know that your... walking around town posing as Mrs. Fornell?"

"Victor is in Turks and Caicos at a destination wedding with my daughter," Diane said, clearly less than thrilled with the line of questioning.

DiNozzo eyed her. "What's the matter, you didn't get invited?"

Diane sighed. "Yes, I was invited. I just needed a little... time to myself." Both he and Tobias smirked slightly at the implications that she was having marital problems. Their ex-wife knew them very well, though. "Stop it! You two! I can hear you smirking from in here." She turned back to DiNozzo. "Listen, you tell Agent... uh, MuGee that when I catch up with his scrawny ass..."

What the redhead was going to say, they never found out because Director Vance had chosen that exact moment to walk into the interrogation room and interrupt the little chat. "Gibbs, the interrogation is ov..."As Vance realized that Jethro wasn't in there, Diane gestured pointedly towards the observation room. "Right. Should've seen that one coming." Walking up to it, his boss eyed him through the two-way mirror. "Gibbs... the interrogation is over."

Tobias inhaled, clearly confused about what had just happened.

He could relate to that and turned to face his long-time friend. "Why?"

Feeling more than a little smug, Diane marched with purpose past the director and out of the interrogation room. "Well, it took you long enough!"

He tilted his head slightly. What does she mean by that?

"I bet she's a panther in the sack," DiNozzo said once she was out of earshot.

Jethro sighed. He could already feel the headache coming on.