- Two passersby find the bodies of a Marine and a young woman in a wrecked car; Gibbs and company investigate; Ducky raises questions. Flashbacks trouble Abby. The gang find anger, hostility, a feud, a history, a solution, and the bad guy.
- Two passersby find the scene of a one-car crash and the bodies of a Marine lance corporal and a young woman; Gibbs and company investigate; Ducky presents a "two-pronged curiosity", and he says that the event may not be either simple or an accident. Abby starts to have flashbacks about a very early case, which still bugs her. Ziva learns that the fathers of the victims experienced a mutual problem 10 years ago while serving aboard the Marine Corps Base, Quantico, Virginia; the gang interview the parents, and the fathers show much anger and hostility toward each other; Gibbs and Ziva learn about the feud. McGee has a chat with Abby. Gibbs, Tony, and Ziva check out a cousin and his pad and his gear; Tony finds a suspicious object; they get both a solution and the bad guy. Gibbs also chats with Abby, who seems to understand better and feel better.—DocRushing
- Civilian Lila Cutwright and Marine Lance Corporal Chad Dunn are the victims of the car crash.
At the scene, Duckie immediately notices Lila has a wound on her head that doesn't match the accident. There are no skid marks at the scene.
Gibbs declares it a possible murder-suicide and orders the car taken to Abby.
In the garage, Abby looks at the spiderweb impact on the windshield.
Flashback to Abby as a young girl playing in the junkyard with Luca, wondering how a truck windshield got the same crack. She finds a teddy bear in the truck and resolves to get it back to the young owner, whoever she is.
Back in the garage, she doesn't want to tell McGee about it.
Upstairs, McGee worries about Abby. Gibbs comes in for a report. Lila Cutwright was 19, attending community college. Her father dropped her off at class yesterday.
Chad Dunn was 20, last seen leaving the barracks on weekend leave. Cutwright's father owns a drycleaner at Quantico and Dunn's father was stationed there 10 years ago. They knew each other as kids, but don't seem to have been in touch since fourth grade.
A decade ago the dads got in a fight and both men were charged with disorderly conduct.
Gibbs visits Duckie in the morgue. Dunn was ejected from the vehicle and died of blunt force trauma. He confirmed Lila was dead before the crash.
Abby is testing fragments of whatever hit her head and stuff that was under her nails. Duckie warns Gibbs that Abby is acting stranger than usual.
Gibbs visits Abby in the garage, where she has laid out all the evidence on the ground. She didn't find any DNA under Lila's nails and the murder weapon was made of chestnut.
She's spacey and distracted, but explains Cutwright was attacked when she was seated in the car facing out.
Flashback Young Abby cuts opens a 2 liter bottle and pours water in to magnify the name on the teddy bear's tag: Ricki Evans.
Ziva shows in Walter and Meredith Dunn. They run into Lila's dad Scott Cutwright, who accuses the Dunn's son of killing his daughter. Walter Dunn decks him.
Ziva sets the families up in separate interview rooms, neither will talk about their feud.
McGee finds a phone record that Lila Cutwright called 911 and hung up last week. Dunn called a disposable phone the night before the crash was discovered and multiple times in the days before.
Gibbs talks to the Dunns and Ziva sits down with Scott.
Walter says a decade ago Scott's wife died and he started spreading lies about his family. Scott tells Ziva he had an affair with Meredith and told Walter about it so she could leave him. Walter beat him badly. The kids knew about it. Walter claims it's ancient history.
Scott and Meredith exchanged letters last year and Scott says she was ready to leave Walter this time.
In the lab, Abby tells Gibbs that at the time of the crash, Chad was unconscious. First the killer whacked Lila then shoved Chad's head against the car and put him behind the wheel, using the murder weapon to hold down the gas pedal. But she was wrong, it wasn't chestnut, it was aluminum. She gets defensive and yells at Gibbs that she's not perfect.
Flashback Abby brings Ricki her teddy bear back. Ricki's mom died in the car crash and her funeral is today. Ricki explains that she can't have the bear because her grandfather gave it to her and she's only allowed to see him with her mom. Ricki's dad sees Abby with the bear and is mad at his daughter.
McGee and Gibbs trace the disposable phone Dunn called to his cousin, Brandon Singer, who owns an alternative energy company.
They find him tinkering with solar panels in the back yard of his house. Brian says he was supposed to go hiking with Chad, but he canceled. Chad and Lila were dating secretly. They reconnected after Chad found the love letters Scott wrote to Meredith and Chad tracked the Cutwrights down.
Brian says Chad was afraid what his dad might do if he found out about them.
Back at NCIS, Walter Dunn told Gibbs he was home at the time of the accident.
Gibbs says Abby called in sick, so they'll have to pick up the slack for her. He wants McGee to run DNA.
Gibbs meets with Meredith for coffee. She says she doesn't love her husband anymore, but he was home with her at the time of the crash.
In the garage, Tony and Ziva try to catalogue the evidence according to Abby's complicated system. They find a bank receipt for a $15,000 cash withdrawal.
Gibbs visits McGee in the lab, he's been trying to run Walter Dunn's DNA but Major Mass Spec won't cooperate. He checks the "Abby's Lab for Dummies" book (he's featured on the cover). Gibbs tells McGee to find Abby and make sure she's OK.
Meanwhile, Abby calls out Bingo numbers for old people. McGee finds her there after tracing her phone. He tells her everyone is worried about her. She shows him a small pink felt heart.
Flashback to young Abby with the teddy bear, with the heart stitched into it. She takes it to Jake's barbershop. Jake is Ricki's grandfather. Abby suggests he take the bear to her, but he says it's bigger than what she can understand.
Grown up Abby gets overwhelmed by the idea that bad things outweigh the good things, in which case why should she even try?
Back at NCIS, they find the $15,000 came from Lila Cutwright's trust account. They found job searches on the Cutwright's computer in the city where Camp Pendleton is, where Dunn was being transferred. They think Lila was moving with Chad. Chad also tried to get a loan for $5,000, but was turned down.
Tony and Gibbs talk to the loan officer, who really wanted to give Chad the money but couldn't justify it. Chad said he wanted to use it for an investment in something solar, but the paperwork made her nervous.
Ziva and Gibbs take a search warrant to Brian, and accuse him of taking their $15,000 in a Ponzi scheme. He denies killing them, but Tony finds an aluminum bat in his Dumpster.
In the office, Abby tries to write a note to McGee.
Flashback Abby watches Ricki's dad pack their things into a moving van. She watches as Ricki comes out and sees the stuffed bunny Abby left for her. Abby hangs onto Ricki's teddy bear.
Gibbs finds Abby with the pink felt heart from the bear. She tells Gibbs about having a bear as a kid that she loved to pieces.
She tells Gibbs she's trying to find a way to be OK with not being able to do enough good. He tells her she can't always see the payoff of the good she does.
He reminds her of the first day they met, when she gave him the fortune from her cookie because she wanted it to be about him.
He pulls it out of his wallet. "The things you do mean something to people," he tells her.
Flashback to Abby in her childhood home, surrounded by hippos and early goth gear. She cries to Luca that she couldn't fix things so Ricki could see her grandfather again. He assures her Ricki won't forget that Abby gave her her rabbit.
Back in the present, Abby reads the fortune: "Today's new friend is tomorrow's family."
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