Bound by Blood, Forged in Fire

In Deep

When Jace woke up he saw his father and Ziva were at his bedside, he tried to speak but once his body reminded him of his injuries all that came out was a groan.

"He's awake," said Gibbs, alerting Ziva.

"What do you remember?" asked the Israeli woman.

"I was waiting to meet Blake at a bar, I got there thirty minutes early but he never showed," said Jace. "I was on my way to my car when I noticed that I was being followed. I went for my pistol but the first guy grabbed me, and we grappled."

Jace remembered the fight and how well his attackers fought back against him.

"When he went down the second one came at me with a knife, I managed to get hold of it, hit him in the hip, and triple tapped him. The other one got up and I had to put him down."

Gibbs relayed this to McGee, who confirmed that it checked out with the video feed from a camera in a store across from the attack.

"Guys, please tell me it was in my head," said Jace, his dismay was written all over his face. "Tell me that the men who attacked me weren't Team Guys."

"I'm sorry Jules," said Ziva, sitting by him.

It wasn't long ago when someone she trusted betrayed her, now someone from Julian's brotherhood had taken action against him. But still, there was more.

"Did Staff Sergeant Watson tell you why he wanted to meet?" asked Gibbs, knowing that holding back on Jace would only do more harm than good.

"He said he wanted to ask me about some guys from the Silver Squadron," answered the injured sailor.

"Special Warfare Operator First Class David Hodgkins and Chief Green," inserted Ziva.

Jace looked at the two agents, they had expressions that weren't unlike the ones on the doctors' faces when they told him about Kathleen's death.

"We're working with Army CID on a homicide that took place in Northern Africa," said Gibbs. "The victim was Staff Sergeant Watson, the suspects are in holding now."

Jace tried to get up but was immediately stopped by his father and girlfriend.

. . .

The OSP team was greeted by McGee and DiNozzo, Sam was withdrawn from the others. He recalled the investigation into Taskforce Delta and how adamant he was about defending the SEALs.

"The Director is waiting in his office for a briefing," said DiNozzo, guiding the visiting agents to Vance.

McGee looked at the LA team cautiously, he looked through the official report into the investigation relating to their current persons of interest. The investigation was ruled a cold case and cleared the operators of any wrongdoing. The investigation revealed the treason of the murdered intel officer, but no one was charged for the murder.

Ducky and Abby went over the forensics and autopsy files, it didn't nail the SEALs for the crime but at the same time it didn't clear them. As circumstantial as it was it still pointed to the sailors for the murder.

. . .

Ducky had finished the autopsy of Petty Officers Torres and Foster, their injuries and cause of death were consistent with the footage of the attack and Jace's account of the attack. He was now going over the autopsy report of the investigation to which the suspects of the current case were connected. He discovered that the stab wound was consistent with a karambit, a combat knife favored for close-quarter combat. Julian and Jethro had mentioned that service members specialized in hand-to-hand combat often had custom-made knives made for their use. Out of the four suspects, Torres was the only one who owned a knife matching the weapon. In addition to the fact that Torres was the one with a similar knife during the attack on Julian, it was likely that the men were involved with the murder of the intelligence officer.

However, in an after-action report, Torres stated that he lost his karambit in a firefight with insurgents, suggesting a degree of premeditation.

In the lab, Abby was locating the manufacturer of the knife used in both attacks, she found that three knives of that specification were made. Torres owned the original, another ordered by OSP at the time of their investigation, and Torres again purchased a third knife.

This did not add up, the only reason she could think of why Special Projects would order that knife for their investigation was that they liked Torres for the murder and attempted to psych out the sailor. But the murder of the Naval Officer suggested multiple assailants, suggesting the involvement of the other three.

So why did the SEALs get cleared of the charges?

The Goth forensic specialist also found that Torres and Foster were suspected of drug abuse and that the latter was a suspect in the sexual assault of a female sailor during deployment after being transferred to the east coast. The DNA on file matched Foster to the two cases.

How did these men get cleared?

. . .

Amato was looking through Army CID's report and found that Staff Sergeant Watson had filed numerous complaints about the SEALs in the Taskforce they were assigned to. Watson was a part of an ISA Crisis Response Team assigned to the same AO. The victim had filed numerous complaints about the suspects' "immaturity and lack of discipline".

Watson's cellphone records showed that he frequently called his wife during his downtime while on deployment. In the past five days before his death, he exchanged calls with Jace several times, the latest being hours before his death.

An email between the two regarded Jace's knowledge of the suspects' service history, specifically their conduct.

. . .

Gibbs and Ziva were going over Jace's contact with Staff Sergeant Watson from the past few weeks. The victim had encountered Hodgkins and Green during a joint intelligence gathering mission. Watson accused the SEALs of nearly compromising a reconnaissance operation by unnecessarily engaging an enemy patrol. Green claimed their actions protected the team while Blake said it drew attention to American operations in the country.

"I knew them from Green Team," said Jace going into detail. "They weren't the kind of guys you leave without supervision."

"And all of Watson's complaints concerned them?" asked Ziva.

"He sent me copies of the reports, he mentioned them by name."

Gibbs was on his way to watch the triplets, he needed to clear his head. Callen and the OSP team were capable investigators, how did these men get past them? Speaking of Callen he got a text asking him to meet.

He called Zoey and Walt to let them know he was going to be late.

The Senior Agent met with his old friend at a cop bar he frequented every once in a while.

"You remembered our last discussion," pointed out Callen.

"What'd you want to talk about?"

"I protected my partner from something, he was protecting some people who did something out of line for a greater good," admitted the younger agent. "And now that it's coming to light I don't know how to protect him, but protecting him means obstructing justice."

Gibbs immediately knew what his friend was talking about.

"You fix the problem," answered the retired Marine. "You can't change the past, I got your back."

"Thanks, Jet."

He later got a call from McGee.

"Boss, the transport escorting the SEALs to the Navy Yard got ambushed. Hodgkins and Green are in the wind."