The next several weeks flew by. Besides Christmas and New Year's, Jethro also ended up being quite busy at work. He had to help McGee through a bit of a disagreement with Delilah regarding attending the Conrad Gala and found himself through right back into the Benham Parsa situation. Ziva was also showing enough now that he needed to put the pregnant agent on desk duty.

AN agent down, the MCRT investigated the death of a petty officer who was killed by a drone strike. Specifically, the man was taken down by a U.S Navy Angelus surveillance drone. Someone had used their own technology against them.

Hollis Mann, one of his ex-girlfriends, joined the team as part of an NCIS-DOD team-up. They then learned that Benham Parsa was behind the killing and that it was done as a test run for a larger target: the Conrad Institute dinner gala, where McGee's girlfriend Delilah was to be honoured for her work in counter-terrorism. Parsa's attack was much to his horror, successful. Four people were killed that night and many other individuals were seriously injured, including Delilah Fielding. The shrapnel from the explosion had injured Delilah, and she was now paralyzed.

Mann and Jethro managed to find the terrorist cell's base of operations and managed to kill two of the members of the cell. Parsa had managed to escape in a getaway car, however. The following morning, Jethro found the bullet he had fired off at Parsa's driver. DNA testing showed that the driver was Bashir Malik, a man who had previously come up on the radar when Camp Pendleton was bombed back in April 1990. It turns out that Malik was a transporter: of goods, of people, and of anything else that anyone would pay him to transport.

Malik eventually told Jethro everything he knew about Parsa but it wasn't much. Malik took Parsa to a train headed to Miami and knew that Parsa was going to get off of the train before it reached its destination, but Malik didn't know where that was.

He then got word that Port Authority in Portsmouth had found a body in the water that matched a BOLO that was put out on Parsa's bodyguard. But, it wasn't the bodyguard. Parsa had killed a Port Authority officer and then dressed the officer up to look like his bodyguard, making things even more complicated.

They did manage to successfully track Benham Parsa all the way to Pakistan, however, when the young terrorist fled there on the anniversary of his parents' deaths. After they located him, Navy Seals stormed his compound and after shooting him in the shoulder, took Parsa into custody. That felt rather weird to see after everything that the younger man had done. He felt a mix of relief and uncertainty.

Apparently, the myriad of emotions was showing on his face because his boss turned and addressed him "Not over yet, Gibbs. We cut the head off one snack. There's still a whole nest out there."

"What are SecNav's orders?" he asked.

"Now that we have Parsa," the director said, "press him for intel. Enough to disable his entire terrorist network."

"How hard?" he inquired.

"Whatever it takes," the director replied.

Jethro, eagerly, left the room and made all the necessary transportation arrangements to go and interrogate the young terrorist. He understood exactly what Vance had tried to tell him and had needed the reminder to stay focused. Catching Parsa only ends the chase, it doesn't erase the damage he's done.

"Special Agent Gibbs," the young man greeted the veteran agent calmly as he entered the ship's brig that Friday evening. "My first visitor." He quirked a brow. "They say you always remember your first."

He eyed the man. "You're lucky."

Parsa tilted his head slightly in question. "Lucky is getting shot?"

"No," he replied icily. "You're lucky you didn't get shot by me, because I wouldn't have shot you in the shoulder."

"And what's stopping you from shooting me now?" Parsa asked.

"Not much," he retorted.

"You're a smart man, not a reckless one." Jethro eyed the younger man, curious as to exactly where this conversation was going. "Kill me and you won't get the answers you came for."

He leaned across the table slightly. "Yeah, well, I'd get over that."

"I'm a smart man too," Parsa said unperturbed. "That is why I will fully cooperate and tell you what you want to know."

Jethro was a little taken aback when the man agreed to tell him everything. The offer sounded too good to be true but the younger man claimed that he would rather destroy what he'd spent years building than watch someone else have control of it.

The conversation went alright initially until the young terrorist pretended to faint and proceeded to shoot his guard and sealed the section, leaving Jethro trapped with him. The man's intent was to kill both Jethro and himself. DiNozzo, thankfully, distracted Parsa by having Parsa's sister Hayat talk to him over the P.A., in order to convince him not to kill himself. His Senior Field Agent then finally got into the area and shot Parsa dead.

It's over. It's finally over. As he eyed the still body of the young terrorist Jethro really couldn't help but think of the assassination attempt back in Iran, the violent assault by Vernon Dale, and everything else that had happened.

Getting back into D.C after the interrogation out on the U.S.S Wilmington, Jethro went and briefed the director before finally heading home to his wife.

Walking into his house, he could hear someone - presumably his wife - in the kitchen washing some dishes. He sighed as he took off his shoes and winter jacket. It was a huge relief to know that Benham Parsa was finally dealt with. That it was over. It had been a long time coming and he wasn't about to lose any sleep over that death.

His wife walked out of the kitchen, smiling over at Jethro as she made her way over to the front door where he was still standing. He gave her a small smile as she pulled him in close. "Welcome home, Babe."

He leaned in and then gently kissed Shannon on the forehead. "It's good to be home," he said. "Though I could use a drink after the day we've had."

"You guys finally get your man?" she inquired. He could see that she was trying to ask him about his day without stepping on any landmines, so to speak.

"Yep," he confirmed. "And we got some good intel."

"Even better," she said before pulling him in for a less-than-chaste kiss. Once their lips parted, they both made their way to the fridge to grab a drink. "So, Wayne and Stacy invited us to go bowling tomorrow. You in?"

He shot his wife a warmer smile now as he replied. She could always read him and tell when he wasn't in the mood to talk about something. "Yeah, might be nice."

"Great," she said. "It's been a while." Cold beer in hand, the couple turned and headed back into the living room, Shannon quickly throwing on some HGTV show for them to watch together while chatting about something lighter and waiting on dinner.