When the director called after the little incident with the rigged package, Jethro quickly changed back into his regular clothes and made his way back to headquarters to speak with the man regarding the situation.

Jethro was honestly quite pleased. The second part of his bifurcated plan was going as intended. Ziva had left DiNozzo in the cell with Khan for a bit and had helped stage an entire security mainframe crash. Having select cell doors appear to open on their own, and some personnel dressing up as detainees. The shoot-out that they'd staged was maybe a little much but was effective. By all accounts, their young hacker had fallen for the ruse hook, line, and sinker.

Now they just needed to keep applying pressure and get the young man to finally talk and turn on his employer. Without giving themselves away still.

Vance was more on board with the plan than he had been previously, although his boss still wasn't a huge fan. The director did concede that it was probably the best course of action for them at the moment. "Put a lot of trust to that follow-your-lead, Gibbs."

He gave his boss a curt nod. "Every day, Leon."

"You really think this will work?" Vance asked.

"I don't know," he replied. "If it doesn't, no sense worrying about it."

The director smiled wryly at him. "Spoken like a true Marine."

He smirked at Vance's comment and then adopted a slightly more serious expression. "I think that Khan'll talk to save his own skin."

The director dipped his head slightly, seemingly satisfied by the MCRT Special Agent in Charge's rather blunt response.

Taking his leave, Jethro went to grab himself a hot cup of coffee before sending McGee to MTAC and making his way to Joint Base Andrews to oversee the rest of his little op. After having to deal with my Khan's lawyer who'd finally showed up.

Twenty-eight minutes later and Jethro'd arrived at his destination. Going through base security easily, he headed over to the building where he knew the brig, as well as Ajay Khan currently, was located. Despite the snow that was coming down, the roads hadn't been too bad, thankfully.

There was a large sign on the gate that the person standing guard opened for him as he walked up. Building 31: Detention Facility.

Eager to be out of the snow, he walked straight through the gate and to the door. He then made his way directly to the security office, being greeted by several personnel who were in on the mind game. It took another half-hour or so, but eventually, Jethro's SFA and JFA got the young hacker to crack.

Eventually, DiNozzo passed Khan his cellphone. Despite the lack of audio, Jethro knew that McGee was on the other end of the phone call. With any luck, they were about to finally get the information they'd been after.

A couple of minutes later, DiNozzo ended the call and Jethro's own phone started to ring. Suspecting he knew what the call was about, he answered it. "Yeah, McGee?"

He could hear the grin on McGee's face. "Boss, we got it."

"Good job." Ending the call, Jethro shoved his cellphone back into his pocket. Heading out of the security office and into the main area of the brig, he whistled loudly, ending the ruse. Glad that they'd gotten what they needed, Jethro then marched with purpose over to the aforementioned cell.

"Finally," he could hear DiNozzo comment.

"Hey, hey, hey! What are you doing?!" Khan cried out as Ziva placed the mattress she had been using to 'protect' them back onto the floor. "I told you everything!"

"And that wasn't so hard, was it?" DiNozzo drawled.

"What the hell?" Khan scoffed as

"You know," DiNozzo said, "these squibs really hurt."

Ziva quirked a brow. "More than a pair of heels?"

Kevin Hussein walked up and yelled something out in Arabic quite enthusiastically. "Ya lah min artijali!" Jethro didn't understand the last word, but he was still able to get the main spirit and sentiment behind the comment.

His SFA turned to face I.T Keven. "You can stop the act now, Kev."

The Systems Administrator grinned. "I only said, 'How's that for improv?'"

Ah, so the word I missed means improvisation. He filed the new vocabulary word away for future reference and turned his focus back to the ongoing conversation.

"It was good," DiNozzo replied. The Italian-American man's tone was quite reminiscent of an older brother humouring their younger sibling's good friend. "You did good."

With a proud grin, I.T Kevin played a snippet of the audio that had been used to mimic the voices of several of the Khan's former, and less than satisfied, employers.

Hearing the audio, Khan finally caught on. "You mean, this whole thing was..."

The veteran agent eyed the young hacker. "Old school."

Turning around, Jethro left Ziva and DiNozzo with the rather taken aback hacker who had, with any luck, learned a bit of a lesson.

He then made his way towards the exit, quickly spotting his boss. "Director."

"Congratulations Gibbs," the man said. "That's another face off of the Most Wanted wall."

He gave Vance a small smile. "It's a team effort."

The director gave a little hum in response, making a subtle gesture with his right hand to tell Jethro to walk and talk. "And what rule is that again?"

Jethro smirked. "Number Fifteen." Rule #15: Always work as a team.

"Ah," Vance said. "Then I just have one more question. Whatever happened to Khan's lawyer? He must have shown up."

"We told him we transferred his client to another location," he replied without missing a beat. "Agent Dorneget drove him all the way down to Norfolk."

The director gave a small chuckle. "Clerical error."

Jethro noticed the crew chief Michael Lane and Seargent Chad Spooner - the man who played the part of a detainee that escaped and got shot - talking off to the side. Jethro gave them an appreciative smile. "Hey, guys, thank you."

Both men nodded as he and the director kept walking.

"Next part of this investigation is gonna step on a lot of toes," Vance said. "And we still need to track and take down the man previously known as MC."

He dipped his head slightly. "The job's never done, Leon."

The director gave a little snort. "Oh, I know, Gibbs. Believe me."

The pair continued to converse for another minute before DiNozzo and Ziva caught up, a restrained Ajay Khan in tow. The group then made their way outside together.

"You know," DiNozzo commented as they all walked out into the snow. "Cuba's colder than I remember." Walking and talking, his SFA approached the rear passenger's side door. "Let me get that for you." Ziva started putting the younger hacker in the vehicle. "Watch your head."

Jethro was about to hop into his own car when he heard two jets take off. The veteran agent stopped where he stood for a moment, glancing up to watch as the two jets flew overhead. Mind reeling, he couldn't help the smile that appeared on his face, nodding as he lowered his gaze once more.

Arriving home just before 1945, Jethro wasn't all that surprised to see Tobias' vehicle in the driveway, having clearly decided to drop in for a visit. His friend rarely - if ever - announced his intent to stop by. The man just showed up.

He could hear his wife laughing as he walked through the front door.

"Hey, Gibbs, perfect timing!" Tobias said as Jethro walked over to the pair. His wife had evidently decided to pull his poker chip set out of the closet. "Would you loan me $20? Your ol' lady has just cleaned me out."

He chuckled softly. "I'm not surprised."

"Poker wasn't my choice," Shannon quipped. "He talked me into it."

Tobias shot Shannon a look of fond exasperation. "My bad."

He shot his friend a cheeky look. "Sorry, can you say that again?"

The FBI agent rolled his eyes. "You heard me."

His wife made an amused little hum at that.

He shook his head slightly before giving his wife a quick kiss. He then glanced between the pair. "What did I miss?"

"I was just filling your work wife in on our plans for the weekend," the redhead replied with a playful smile. "Dad's birthday gift came in today."

"Ah," he said as he went to the fridge to grab a beer. It had been a hectic few days, so Tobias' idea to blow off some steam actually sounded nice.

"New game?" Tobias suggested. "I'm dealing."

He smiled as he opened his beer. "Yeah, I'm in."

Three hands later and Jethro was winning. He had accumulated a healthy pile of poker chips in front of him and was genuinely enjoying himself.

"I'll raise you twenty," Tobias said before tossing two chips into the centre pile.

Shannon smiled. "I see your twenty and raise you twenty."

"I'm in," he replied, shoving his bet forward.

Shannon grinned. "Alright, let's see 'em!"

Tobias laid down his hand, smiling. He had a Two Pair; tens and fours.

Feeling quite confident, Jethro put down his own hand. A Full House.

"Oh, so close!" Shannon exclaimed happily as she laid her hand down on the table. "I believe my Royal Flush beats your full house."

Jethro shook his head in amusement and slight surprise as his wife pulled all the poker chips over to her side of the table.

Tobias shot him a look. "She beat both of us."

"Thought you'd be used to losing your money to a redhead by now, Tobias!" he teased as he took a swig of his beer.

Tobias gave a little shrug. "Eh, I'll get over it. I just need to be dramatic first."

Shannon instantly cracked up at that retort and Jethro couldn't help but roll his eyes. Before the conversation could go much farther, the doorbell rang.

"That'd be the pizza," Shannon commented.

"Pepperoni and onions?" he questioned.

Shannon gave a cheeky little hum. "And I'm not even making you eat that lamb curry from the Punjab Express."

He pointed at Tobias. "He somehow forgot we both hate that place."

Tobias gave another shrug. "I got a twofer coupon in the mail."

Jethro shook his head in amusement. It felt really good to hang out and relax with his wife and the man who had somehow become like a brother to him.