- Ellie Bishop: So your fingers aren't broken.
- Nick Torres: What, now?
- Ellie Bishop: Oh, just figured that was the reason you haven't RSVPed to my e-vite. For my painting party?
- Nick Torres: Oh, I thought that was a joke.
- [seeing her expression of insult]
- Nick Torres: I'm sorry, what's a painting party?
- Ellie Bishop: It is like a housewarming party, except of standing around, you just... you get to get your hands dirty.
- Nick Torres: That sounds more like free labor than a party.
- Ellie Bishop: Come on. Painting is fun.
- Nick Torres: Unless someone is posing nude, I am not interested.
- Ellie Bishop: You do not know what you're missing.
- Nick Torres: Look, if this is just a ploy to see me with my shirt off, I can make that happen right now.
- Ellie Bishop: You have quite the imagination.
- Nick Torres: The offer still stands. You say the word, I'll lose my shirt.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: [entering] And the job, Torres.
- Alex Quinn: [at the crime scene] Well, my mom always said "If you're not careful, you'll end up face-down in the mud somewhere."
- Timothy McGee: I always thought that was a figure of speech.
- Alex Quinn: [meaning the victim] Tell that to him.
- Abby Sciuto: So, the bad guys used a jerry-rigged cell phone as a detonator.
- Nick Torres: Prepaid burner, untraceable?
- Abby Sciuto: That word is blasphemous in the house of Sciuto. Like John Paul Jones said...
- Nick Torres: Ramble on.
- Abby Sciuto: No, no, the other John Paul Jones. "I have not yet begun to fight."
- Nick Torres: I don't doubt it.
- Abby Sciuto: Seriously, Nick, you got to promise me you're gonna be careful around these dudes. You're lucky to be alive.
- Nick Torres: Abby, luck has a funny way of evaporating when you need it. If this bomb was meant to kill me, it would have. They wanted me alive.
- Abby Sciuto: Why?
- Nick Torres: Well, that's what I intend to find out.
- Timothy McGee: You know, I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but it definitely wasn't this. Wow.
- Alex Quinn: Welcome to motocross, McGee! This is fun stuff.
- Timothy McGee: This is not fun. This is every mother's worst nightmare.
- Timothy McGee: Boss, how'd you even know that was the Rosewood Boyz?
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: The bike tipped me off.
- Alex Quinn: How'd you know which bike?
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: The one with the big rose painted on the side.
- Jimmy Palmer: It's sad when they come in so young.
- Donald Mallard: It is indeed, but then you and I both know that all of life is a near-death experience. We must never cease to give thanks for the gift of today. Isn't that right, Jethro?
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: [entering] I'll tell you tomorrow.
- Donald Mallard: Well, if one is an incident and two is a coincidence, then three is most certainly a pattern. Like our Marine, these two died of double tap.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: Same technique, bigger weapon.
- Nick Torres: Why'd you hit the... the emergency button?
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: Because I can.
- Nick Torres: We don't have an emergency, Gibbs.
- [seeing his stoic expression]
- Nick Torres: Or do we?
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: Tell me.
- Nick Torres: Tell you what?
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: What are you hiding?
- Nick Torres: Okay. Let's talk. Where to start?
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: The truth.
- Nick Torres: What if I'm not sure I know it anymore?
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: We find it. I can't help unless you help yourself. Time to tear off that Band-Aid.
- Nick Torres: I planted evidence. I planted evidence to get Monroe off the streets, so no other people, especially my friends, would get murdered.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: Gang members.
- Nick Torres: What they do. Not who they are.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: Any regrets?
- Nick Torres: Zero. No regrets. That Rosewood investigation swallowed me up whole. And when another two Rosewoods got smoked... I swiped the pistol he used to do it and I tossed it in the bushes next to the victims.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: His victims?
- Nick Torres: Yes.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: You're sure?
- Nick Torres: Absolutely. He looked me in the eye and said "I killed them both." And that was just the tip of the spear. Gibbs, he was cleaning house. I had no choice. I had to do it.
- [Gibbs remains silent]
- Nick Torres: I was hoping this is the part where you'd say "Hey, Torres, your job is secure. When I was a young NIS agent, uh... I did the same thing."
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: [starting the elevator] Torres, we got a lot more in common than you think. But my Band-Aids, they always stay on.
- [reaching their floor, Gibbs gets off and Torres moves to follow him]
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: Abby. Mud. Go. Don't come back without an answer.
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs: You did the wrong thing for the right reasons. Never do that again. Been a long week, Torres. Late. Go home.