Bound by Blood, Forged in Fire

The Doc

Jace was sitting in his therapist's office for his final session before returning to active duty. They had been tracing his career backward, all the way to his time as a Hospital Corpsman. Once they finished with that they went over to his first deployment as a sniper.

"Why did you make the transition from a corpsman to a sniper?" asked Dr. Whitehall.

"I heard there was a slot available, one of the new guys assigned to the platoon graduated from SOCM," answered Jace, allowing the details to come out. "They offered, it was a no-brainer."

"I graduated the course a month before the second battle of Fallujah, Chief Special Warfare Operator Ben Grayson and I were part of one of the three sniper elements."

"But you didn't serve as the platoon's official sniper, before all this you were a part of the SEAL assault forces in Ramadi in 2004?"

"Yes."

Julian felt heavy thinking about all this, but as he let everything out he became lighter.

"Why did you transfer to Team Four after Fallujah?"

"Quite a few reasons, My dad lived in D.C., and he still does. Kathleen's sister moved to Maryland to be closer to their parents. So when I finished my CPO365 I requested a transfer to Little Creek."

"So your decision was based on your immediate family."

"Kath was pregnant, we decided that it would be better that way."

"I understand that your father had a near-death experience upon your arrival," inquired the doctor.

"He was involved in an intel operation that went awry," said Jace. "He was gravely injured and suffered serious brain injuries."

"It was then you became acquainted with his team."

"Yes, it was the first time I met them."

"You and Agent David became especially close."

"Ziva's been a close friend ever since, Kathleen liked her especially too."

"Sounds like you have a good support team on both your work and personal fronts," said the doctor, looking at his watch. Their session was officially over.

The doctor was going to meet with Captain Dawes for Julian's reinstatement.

. . .

Jace was on his way to the Navy Yard to meet Director Vance and Commanders Rorke and Webber. A security issue had come up, someone had leaked details about an operation. Jace knew in his gut that none of his guys were involved, but SEALs, in general, were under the spotlight.

It was unnatural, 'I do not advertise the nature of my work, nor seek recognition for my actions.'

When Jace came into Vance's office the SCIF activated. Not a good sign.

"As you know the details of one of our ops were leaked three months ago," started Rorke. "No names or targets were revealed, but the location says it all."

"The Afghanistan-Iranian border," said Vance.

"The raid that took out Azza," Jace blanched at the news if any more details were leaked then operators and their families could become targets.

"Two weeks ago some sailors overheard some loud-mouth bragging about how he killed Azza in close quarters, with a pistol," said Webber. "They reported it to us directly."

"I don't—"

"Senior, your identity's been poached," said Rorke. "The guy never gave an exact name, just went by 'Jay'."

"How's this possible?" asked Julian.

"We're not sure, but it's starting to look like an inside job," answered Vance.

. . .

Back in the squad room, the team was going over the AARs from Operation Ex Lege, the Azza Raid. Jace and the rest of Echo Team were going over the story the witness heard from the impostor, it was accurate. They were going through the records of the support personnel from the raid, logistics clerks, communications specialists, and the likes.

Ziva was out checking on Jace's family, she was taking them to Gibbs' house. Amato was at the bar interviewing anyone who might've met the fake.

"Why would anyone impersonate Jace?" inquired McGee. "Anyone who knows him respects enough not to do anything that dumb."

"Not to mention the fact that they'd have Big Gibbs rain down on them," said DiNozzo.

"And Jace, also anyone with a trident on their uniform."

McGee found no signs of hacking in the Pentagon databases or anything that pointed to stolen valor in the personnel roster.

Gibbs came down, and Jace and the other SEALs were going to stay at the Navy Yard.

"Jace hasn't had any interactions that flagged," said the retired Marine. "He never talks about his deployments to anyone, not even to Zoey and Walt."

"If he didn't get it from Jace then he must've gotten it second hand from someone who was involved in Jace's missions, that is if he wasn't a part of them himself," said DiNozzo.

Amato came back, no one had ever seen the impostor before so he wasn't a regular.

"They described him as loud, flashy, and vain," reported Amato. "Struck out with the female patrons especially."

"Dumbass doesn't know Jace at all," said Gibbs, his mind completely on his son. Jace was almost fully recovered from his time as a POW and now had to deal with someone stealing his name.

. . .

Ziva watched as the triplets played with a dollhouse their grandfather built for them, it was meant to be a Christmas gift but Gibbs told her to bring it out to distract them. Jace had a lot to deal with, just a few months ago he became the first Navy SEAL to be a POW.

He had been making steady progress in therapy, worked as a liaison between DEVGRU and the Intelligence Community, and also as a Green Team instructor. Having his identity stolen could destroy his career, especially if any more details about his service became public.

Ziva's thoughts broke when her phone rang, it was one of Jace's neighbors, they saw a blue Ford SUV staking out the house. They had asked around, apparently, it was there multiple times. The local police tried to track him down, but they never got a hold of him. This time someone had managed to get a license plate.

Ziva immediately dialed Gibbs.

. . .

Gibbs visited Jace in his temporary quarters, he had done some paperwork in the meantime. He was now on his way to the gym, where he spent his energy on a punching bag.

"He was outside my house?" said Jace, in between grunts. "He keeping tabs on me or my kids?"

"Hard to say, every time he was there you were deployed."

"What's his endgame?"

"Could just be trying to get attention, but we don't know why he'd be outside your house."

"He knows how my deployments work," said Jace.

"Jace, none of this is your fault," said the elder Gibbs. "DOD got hacked."

"I should've noticed that he was watching."

"The only time he watched the kids and impersonated you were when you were deployed."

Gibbs's phone rang, it was Amato.

They detained the imposter.