NCIS

Hello.

Several blocks, still.

I'd say maybe ten minutes.

Mateen?

Is he safe?

Thank you, Bill.

Inshallah.

Yes, I understand you're upset,

but this is not up for discussion.

I... No, I'm being perfectly reasonable.

And...

Sweetheart, I can tell those are fake tears

even though I can't see you.

All right, we're gonna talk about this later tonight.

Just know that I love you and y...

Hi.

What was that?

That was the never-ending pushback of a preteen.

It's exhausting.

But Victoria's the sweetest kid I know.

Oh, sure, whenever you're around.

As soon as you leave, she morphs into some devil spawn hell-bent

on questioning every word that comes out of my mouth.

- The wonders of adolescence. - Hmm.

So what are we not discussing?

Yeah, she wants to go out this weekend

with her friends to a movie.

With boys.

Her first group date?

That's adorable.

Okay, first off, no.

It's not. Secondly,

we don't use that word "date."

Oh.

- I know that look. - What look?

You purse your lips like that

whenever I order pineapple on pizza.

Well, if you want to eat soggy pizza,

you might as well just dip it in water.

Jess, you're biting your tongue. Come on, just spill it. What?

I just don't see what the big deal is

about Vic going out on her first group...

hang.

The big deal is, it's unchaperoned.

The bigger deal is Austin.

- The city? - No, it's a boy.

I don't know who he is.

Vic talks about him nonstop.

Austin.

You know, you never forget your first crush.

Elliot Spencer had the cutest dimples.

Okay, well, she is not gonna remember Austin because

this thing's not happening, not unless I get to tag along.

Oh.

You're doing the pineapple lips again.

I just don't know if you want to be that dad.

How does this make me that dad?

I mean, she is way too young for this, right?

I wonder if it's more about whether

Vic is mature enough to handle this?

Oh, certainly she is, but the boys are not.

I used to be one of those boys, okay?

I know what hormones can do.

And...

Maybe just... sit with it.

You don't want to let a knee-jerk reaction

cause a rift between you and your daughter.

I'm getting pretty sick of hearing myself say

"Over my dead body" about this.

That's good.

That's bad.

Speaking of bodies, we have a body

waiting for us in Norfolk.

Austin.

My first crush was Emily Tisdale.

Oh, man, I had it bad for her.

How'd you meet?

Middle school.

We were, uh, rivals. Mathletes.

She could recite pi to a thousand digits. It was so hot.

What about you, Nick?

Yeah, bet you had your choice

of, uh, girls crushing on you.

Actually, pequeño Nico was a,

- uh, late bloomer. - What?

I always figured you were the boy parents were terrified

to have their daughters around.

Well, believe it or not, this handsome face was terrified

of those daughters until high school.

So who brought you around?

Oh, my Sofia.

She was my first date.

I was so nervous that I went to the wrong restaurant.

That's what Jimmy doesn't get.

Victoria deserves a future walk down memory lane about...

Austin.

Wow, that is a lot of blood.

Yeah, courtesy of what appears to be a kitchen knife.

My guess is, it severed the carotid artery.

And then he lost consciousness.

- And his heart kept pumping. - Who is he?

He is Marine Private William Huxley.

Neighbor walking the dog noticed the garage door open.

Dog did the rest.

Led him right in here to this body.

- Time of death? - Given lividity,

I would say he bled out somewhere around 12 hours ago.

Look at all this flour, sugar, oil.

Enough ingredients to feed an entire platoon.

Yeah, I wonder who he was cooking for.

Not his family.

According to Huxley's service record,

he was single, no kids.

Ooh, that reminds me.

I got to pick up chocolate chips

for the twins' bake sale cookies.

Hey, McGee.

It's too bad these are evidence.

'Cause you could have...

Unfortunately, Delilah insists

upon at least 70% dark chocolate

'cause it's healthier.

As a doctor, I can attest to that.

More importantly, way more delish, right?

How about we finish grocery shopping later and...

figure out what happened here?

Looks like the killer jumped him as he unloaded the car?

Guys, is it me, or does, uh,

Huxley have a lot of gray hair for a Marine private?

He does look kind of elder for a grunt.

Yeah, you're right. His license says Huxley was 46.

Corps's oldest-serving private.

There's got to be a story there.

There is, and it's a whopper.

According to his former C.O.,

Huxley was a gunnery sergeant who used

to lead a Marine Force Recon team.

Force Recon?

Wow, those guys are badasses. They go toe to toe with SEALs.

He must have really screwed up to get busted down to private.

He pulled multiple tours in Afghanistan,

then he went missing from his unit after the U.S. withdrawal

and, uh...

was declared a deserter.

Where'd he go?

Back to Afghanistan.

Apparently, Huxley returned to Kabul

to sneak out more families and allies

who missed the airlift.

He really held on to the Marine code of "leave no man behind."

Even at the risk of his own career.

Sounded like a hero to me.

Yeah, well,

clearly someone disagrees.

- All right, Doc, what do we got? - Stop.

No food while a body's on the table.

There's a trash can in the hallway there.

Well, the only way that I'm disposing

of this, uh, deep-fried,

perfectly pistachio-ed treat

- is in my belly. - Yeah, what kind of pastry is it?

I don't know, but it's the third one I've had today.

It's like baklava, but...

I've never tasted anything like this before.

Huh, where'd you get it?

I was interviewing, uh, one of Huxley's neighbors

and she offered them, said

he baked treats for everyone on the block all the time.

Must be why he had all those baking supplies in his SUV.

The guy on your table was a damn gastronomic genius.

He was serving out the rest of his tour

as a Marine food service specialist.

He was demoted to a cook?

A chef.

A chef that we will avenge.

Well, what do we know about our Private Huxley here?

Well, as I suspected, cause of death was

penetrating trauma due to the knife wound.

The murder weapon was a paring knife

that severed the external carotid artery.

Exsanguination took one, maybe two minutes.

Huxley was Special Ops-trained.

It's hard to imagine anyone would get the drop on him

for a close-range kill.

He must have known his attacker. Allowed 'em to get close enough,

catch him off guard.

I heard, uh...

your daughter caught you off guard this morning.

Something about the, uh...

big first date?

We don't use that word "date."

No, and there is none.

At least not yet.

You're thinking about letting her go?

Jess says that I should "sit with it"

so I don't make any decisions clouded

by parental emotions.

You ever think about doing a little, uh,

light background check on the kid?

Nothing creepy. Just, you know, maybe