NCIS (TV Series)

Handle with Care (2018)

Rocky Carroll: Leon Vance

Quotes 

• Navy Petty Officer Third Class Albert Dale : John Ross? Yeah, I-I know him.

  Leroy Jethro Gibbs : How?

  Navy Petty Officer Third Class Albert Dale : The guy's basically Santa Claus for sailors. I mean, ev-everyone knows who he is.

  Leon Vance : Did Petty Officer Sweeney ever mention that he talked to Ross before he received the care package?

  Navy Petty Officer Third Class Albert Dale : I don't think so. I heard a rumor we aren't gonna be getting boxes anymore.

  Leon Vance : We're working on it.

  Navy Petty Officer Third Class Albert Dale : It's just that morale's been pretty low ever since Sweeney died. We could all use a little something from home.

• Timothy McGee : Care package sent to Sweeney was dropped in a blue mailbox less than a mile from John Ross' house in Franconia.

  Leon Vance : But?

  Timothy McGee : But the woman at the post office says that John Ross always dropped off packages in person.

  Leroy Jethro Gibbs : Box was full of poison. Ross didn't want to be seen with it.

  Timothy McGee : Yeah, I checked Ross' timeline. Mailman picked up the package on February 16, while Ross was in Chicago at a Marine Corps reunion.

  Leroy Jethro Gibbs : Then he couldn't have sent the package.

  Leon Vance : Well, someone sure wanted it to look like he did.

• Whit Dexter : So, a government organization known as NCIS just paid me a visit. These scumbags are trying to frame me for the murder of a sailor named James Sweeney. Now, I've learned that this sailor was about to go on record, exposing our old friend John Ross. But now that sailor's dead. How did he die? From poisoned cookies in care packages sent by John Ross.

  Clayton Reeves : We never said a word to him about Ross.

  Nick Torres : Or anything about poison.

  Timothy McGee : Dexter shouldn't know how Sweeney died.

  Leon Vance : Unless he had something to do with it.

• Leon Vance : Six years ago, an up-and-coming shock jock accused me of running a money laundering ring out of the Navy Yard.

  Nick Torres : Dexter reminds you of him?

  Leon Vance : Dexter is him. His claims about me were so outrageous, they never caught any mainstream attention. But over the years, he's learned.

• Leon Vance : What do you mean Ross seemed off?

  Jack Sloane : Oh. It was sad. He seemed really scared.

  Leon Vance : You think he sent that package?

  Jack Sloane : Not sure.

  Leon Vance : Sounds like there's a "but" in there.

  Jack Sloane : Well, I did some digging. Ross has a checkered past.

  Leon Vance : How so?

  Jack Sloane : He had some violent outbursts after his rescue in Iran; a bar fight in '85, road rage in '87. Fired from several jobs.

  Leon Vance : Sounds familiar.

  Jack Sloane : Well, when he came back, they didn't have the same sort of psychiatric support system they do now. They barely knew what PTSD was back then.

  Leon Vance : So you think he may be unstable?

  Jack Sloane : Uh, I-I don't know. Uh, I-I'd like to meet with him somewhere where he feels safe. Could get a better read.

  Leon Vance : All right, but do it quickly. There's a hold on all care packages to the military 'till this gets sorted out.

• Nick Torres : Dexter confess yet?

  Leon Vance : Not quite.

  Whit Dexter : You know, everyone in this country is done following the old establishment.

  [Gibbs stands to leave] 

  Whit Dexter : And I'm just providing them with something new to follow.

  Nick Torres : Whoa, whoa, where's he going?

  Leon Vance : He's letting Dexter stew. Gibbs has him right where he wants him.

  Nick Torres : Oh, good. 'Cause I want to be here when he breaks him.

  Leon Vance : Me, too.

• Jack Sloane : I told him what happened to me.

  Leon Vance : I know that's a very difficult thing for you to talk about.

  Jack Sloane : He has a daughter that doesn't even know he exists.

  Leon Vance : Does he know where she is?

  Jack Sloane : He wouldn't say. He's fighting the demons that came after his escape, not the experience itself, so...

  Leon Vance : What about that scares you?

  Jack Sloane : Seeing what burying his feelings has done to John. He's, uh... he's angry. He's lonely.

  Leon Vance : You're not like John Ross.

• Leon Vance : Takes a long time to get past what happened to you.

  Jack Sloane : This is not about getting hooked up to a car battery! These are not emotions I can just get over. This is not a problem that can be solved!

  [her voice breaking, she starts to cry] 

  Jack Sloane : I should have saved them.

  Leon Vance : You didn't kil them.

  Jack Sloane : But I let them die, right?