Trama

Gibbs's boat, which he gave to Franks, drifts into the Naval Station at San Diego with two bodies aboard. Vance and the team investigate. Franks, and two relatives, show up at Gibbs's house. The gang solve the case and make an arrest.

At the Naval Station, San Diego, California, Gibbs's sailboat, which he gave to Franks, drifts in, unmanned but laden with two bodies; Vance, Gibbs, Ducky, and a local agent investigate; they check out Franks's home (in Mexico) but find nobody. The boat and the bodies arrive in Washington, DC. The gang identify the dead -- enlisted men, one Army, one Navy, both dishonorably discharged, more recently working as functionaries of a large private military contractor. Franks shows up at Gibbs's house with Franks's daughter-in-law and granddaughter (Gibbs's goddaughter). Gibbs and Franks get a bad surprise; Gibbs thinks and reminisces, then he and Franks have a chat. The daughter-in-law's mother arrives in Washington from Iraq; McGee meets her and takes her to the NCIS headquarters. After a rumble in the dark inside Gibbs's house, Gibbs arrests a bad guy, and Franks, along with his relatives and the grandmother, go to his house, on the beach in Mexico.—DocRushing

When a boat floats into San Diego with two bodies in it. An investigation reveals that the boat was made by Gibbs. So Gibbs and Vance go to San Diego and Gibbs reveals he gave the boat to Mike Franks. Vance wants to know what Franks has to do with this. So they go to Mexico to Franks' place and finds no one there. They learn the two men were military men who were dishonorably discharged, who now work for a private contractor. Franks and his family, his daughter in law and granddaughter arrive at Gibbs'. When Gibbs asks him why did he kill those men. Franks says he was hoping Gibbs would find out. Gibbs and Vance talk to the dead men's' boss a Colonel who says he was not after Mike Franks. He was working for his daughter in law's mother, who wants her and her grand daughter back.—rcs0411@yahoo.com

A sailboat approaches a Naval vessel, whose crew scopes it out with binoculars. There are two dead bodies on the sailboat. The sailboat is "Kelly" - one of Gibbs'.

In the office, Tony and McGee decide whether to mess with a sleeping Ziva. Tony's about to give her a fake mustache when she warns him off. She's been there since 1 a.m. when Gibbs called her in. He, Duckie and Vance flew out to San Diego the night before.

Tony finds that Ziva is studying to become an American citizen - she has to to be an NCIS agent.

Gibbs calls McGee to tell him photos of the scene are on the way.

At the scene, Duckie's examining the bodies. One has dollars and pesos stuffed in his pocket. Based on the currents, they're guessing the boat came from Mexico.

Vance remembers that Gibbs' last vacation was to Mexico. Gibbs says he gave the boat to his god daughter as a gift, "he" trailered it to the Gulf.

Cut to the team knocking on Mike Frank's door. Gibbs walks the beach and finds a paintbrush and empty cans of paint in the sand.

No one's home.

Back in DC, Abby shows off the crime scene -- Gibbs' boat. She's excited to figure out the mystery, sure they'll need to solve the murders, but she wants to know how he got it out of the basement.

Vance and Gibbs are back in town, Gibbs hasn't had any luck tracking Frank's aliases. Duckie says the bodies have been there at least three days. The victims are Calvin Blanchard and Roy Keenan, both dishonorably discharged from the military after Franks retired.

They heard the victims were asking about Franks last week. Vance thinks that because Franks is underground, whatever's going on might not be over. He'll give Gibbs some leeway on looking into it.

In the morgue, Duckie tells Gibbs one victim was shot six times, the other five. He thinks a lot of thought went into the killings, and the staging of the crime scene. He found splinters in their rears; they were dragged onto the boat.

Gibbs visits Abby on his boat. She's looking for slugs. There's one bullet mark on the hull, showing it was out of the water during the firefight. She's worried about hurting the boat looking for evidence, but as he leaves Gibbs tells her to take it apart.

Tony harasses Ziva about her citizenship test, making sure she knows about Little Orphan Annie as she relates to the American dream. Gibbs walks through and tells them to find the victims' connection to Franks.

At home, Gibbs hears voices. It's a woman and his god daughter. Mike is right behind them. Gibbs asks him why the two men he killed were after him. "Damn probie," Mike says, "I was hoping you could tell me."

He tells Gibbs how it went down. A bartender told him two guys were asking around for him. He'd never seen either victim before. But he was ready for them when they came packing heat. He felt bad using Kelly like that, but he didn't want to risk being investigated by strangers. So he steered the bodies toward the Navy.

He got his daughter-in-law and grand daughter safe before he did anything. He thinks leaving them might be the only way to keep them safe.

In the office, the team has found the victims were private military contractors, working for Murton Bell, a former tank commander working in the Middle East.

Vance wanders by, asking if they've found Franks. Gibbs says no. Vance doesn't want them bringing in Bell.

Privately, he's tells Gibbs he's worried Bell would get the impression they're harboring a murderer since they're not busy tracking Franks down.

Gibbs tells Vance that Franks and his family are at his house. Vance suggests he send agents over to watch them, while he paves the way with Bell.

At the house, Ziva and Tony watch the ladies while Franks gets a ride to NCIS with McGee.

Vance talks to Bell. He says the victims did "public interface." Gibbs joins them and implies they have dangerous methods and unstable personnel.

Bell says he knew his men were in Mexico, they informed him when they accepted the contract. But he's never heard of Mike Franks.

Bell and Franks pass each other without recognition coming and leaving the elevator.

Seeing Bell leave, Franks asks Gibbs if that's who put the hit out on him. Gibbs tells his mentor angrily that he wasn't the target, his Iraqi daughter-in-law was: her family was trying to find her.

Gibbs suggests if Franks wants to know who the bad guy is, he take a look in the mirror.

In his office, Vance tells Franks it looks like he killed them in cold blood. He tells Vance and Gibbs that Layla's family disowned her when his son (now dead) got her pregnant. He says Layla's mother is a vicious tribal leader.

Vance asks how it went down. Franks says he had a beer and radio on on the boat and watched them go on, guns drawn. He shot one five times, the other six. He says it was self-defense.

Vance tells Gibbs to take his statement. Vance says the evidence better bear him out.

In the garage, Abby dissects the Kelly hull with a chainsaw. She found a secret stash box with gun grease in it. She asks McGee if Franks has a .22. He doesn't think so.

Abby found a lump of metal that she thinks it one bullet smashed into another.

The computer comes up with something.

Ziva talks to Layla at Gibbs' about meeting Mike's son, Liam. Ziva asks her if she misses home. She says leaving for the right reasons made it easier.

Tony asks if they were inside when "it" started. Layla says yes, she ran to her daughter when it started. Tony asks where Amira was when it started. Mom doesn't answer right away.

At the office, McGee briefs them on Layla's scary mom. She has lots of enemies. Her oldest son was killed in a bombing last year and they increased security, which is how she got acquainted with Bell's group.

In the morgue, Duckie begins by telling Gibbs they know he's loyal to his friends. He and Abby think his friendship is blinding him. Duckie says Franks is lying to them.

Duckie says every shot came from straight above the victims. He's about to tell Gibbs what they think happened when Gibbs steals his thunder, saying the men were killed by a .22 rifle and Mike Franks shot through where they were already shot. He didn't kill them.

Gibbs stops Vance just before he signs his statement. He reminds Franks of a case they worked in which a sergeant dragged his dead friend home from hunting and Franks insisted on believing it was an accident when it clearly wasn't. But the man's young boy had done it accidentally. Gibbs says he's been thinking about that a lot lately.

The man put his gun in the wound and fired, planning to take the blame. Franks tears up his statement. He asks Gibbs when he figured it out.

McGee interrupts to say that Layla's mother is on a commercial plane to DC right now.

At the airport, McGee picks her up at a limo driver. They take her into custody.

In the observation room, Franks freely admits to Vance that his statement was a load of crap. They don't have anything to charge the mother with. Vance suggests Franks try the interrogation.

She knows who he is. She says his "accursed offspring ruined" her daughter. She doesn't care that she disowned her daughter, she's lost too much family.

She says she was trying to rescue them from Franks. She says she was assured by Bell that they wouldn't use violence. He says he didn't fire the first shot.

He tells her he never even saw them coming. He was playing on the boat with his grand daughter.

Layla saw them from the house and shot them with a rifle. He taught her how to shoot.

Her mother understands a mother trying to protect her daughter. But her face darkens. Bell assured her the contract would be carried out. They think with the chip on his shoulder, he won't back down now.

Gibbs calls Ziva and Tony at his house to warn them. Seconds later, commandos bust into the house and catch them by surprise. One has Ziva on the ground disarmed when he recognizes her. They know each other. They think they're rescuing a kidnapped little girl, but Ziva informs them they'd actually be abducting them.

Cut to the commandos meeting up with Bell. NCIS is there. Bells assures them he hasn't broken any laws. Gibbs says that may be true, but the federales want to talk to him -- bounty hunting is illegal in Mexico.

Back at the office, Vance asks Gibbs if he thinks the grandparents can work things out. He tells Vance a story about his grandfathers as we see Layla's mom and Mike watching Layla and their grand daughter play in the sand on the beach. Gibbs describes his pappies spending every day on the front porch in a couple of wicker rocking chairs as we see the grandparents in Mexico, sharing a porch.