NCIS opened with Megan Porter, the daughter of the Secretary of the Navy, walking to school with her boyfriend, Dean Campbell. They are having a good time and are about to kiss when a van pulls up and assailants grab them both, pulling them into the van.
Meanwhile, the team is preparing for advanced tactics training and Ellie is surprised Gibbs won’t be joining them. They are interrupted by the arrival of NCIS agent Valerie Page, who is an old friend of Tim’s from when their families were moving around on the bases. She informs them she will be their trainer for the REACT session. Tony learns Tim’s nickname, Farragut, and becomes curious about how the two knew each other in the past. They are interrupted with the alert of the kidnapping.
While Gibbs talks to Sarah Porter, the team meets up with Fornell since the FBI has also been called in. Fornell tells them a neighbor witnessed the kidnapping but there doesn’t seem to be a clear motive yet and the teens’ cell phones were turned off. They figure Abby may be able to turn them on remotely.
Gibbs tries to talk to Sarah as she tries in vain to reach Megan on her cell phone. He asks about the boyfriend, who Sarah made sure to look into and his family is clean. Tim comes to tell Gibbs that Dean’s cell phone was pinging five miles away. They find the abandoned van with Dean bound in the bushes. Megan is still missing.
Back at the bullpen, Val and Tim discuss how they wish they could have caught up. Ellie and Tony ask about their experiences growing up in military families and find out what Tim was like with the girls. Tony is stunned to find out his nickname was McStudMuffin.
Gibbs comes in for an update. They talk about the case, which is still in the early stages and Vance is being kept in the loop since he is away. While Ellie and Tony leave to talk to Dean, Page asks Gibbs to help on the case.
Ellie and Tony talk to Dean, who recognized the code words used by the kidnappers as language used by special forces. He is also able to identify their weapons since he recognized them from a video game.
Fornell and Gibbs wait as Sarah argues with her ex-husband, Richard, who is there with his girlfriend, Justine Wolfe. Richard is angry and doesn’t feel the agents are doing all they can to find Megan. Sarah tells Gibbs about what she has worked on that could lead to enemies. One person is Christian Broderick, who was relieved of his position after arguing publically against her decision to add women to special forces.
Tim and Val talk about how Val has always uprooted her life and changed her work. She asks about him and he says he couldn’t leave his family. They talk to Christian and find out that he had an alibi for the kidnapping and harbored no ill will toward SecNav since he knew he had been wrong to speak publically.
The FBI and Gibbs are at Sarah’s house and she is still feeling horrible about all that has happened. After a talk with Gibbs, they get a call asking for ransom money of $10 million.
Tony visits Abby in the garage. She got nothing from the van since the kidnappers had bleached it so well that her favorite coveralls even got bleached. He diverts the topic to Page and Tim, but Abby is secretive about something Tony doesn’t know about. When he tries to bribe her with Tim’s middle name, he is stunned to find out she knew it already.
In the bullpen, Ellie tells Tim she found out the cell phone used to call Sarah was a burner that was bought at a gas station, but there is no surveillance. Tim also verifies that Christian Broderick is not their guy before Page comes in with information about a ransom policy that Sarah took out on Megan.
Much to Richard’s dismay when he finds out, Sarah tells him it was policy and she didn’t do anything to harm Megan. They get another call from the kidnapper and Sarah asks to speak to Megan. When they don’t agree, Gibbs hangs it up. They call back and Sarah talks to Megan before the kidnapper orders her to come to the mall.
Tony, Gibbs and Fornell look over satellite imagery of the mall as Tim is away preparing tracking devices to go into the bags for the money. With Ellie in MTAC with Tony, Gibbs and Fornell plan to be there, but Sarah and Richard refuse since she wanted to make the exchange without cops like the kidnapper wanted. They don’t want to put the SecNav in danger so Richard offers to take the money to save his daughter.
While Ellie and Tony watch in MTAC, Tim, Gibbs and Fornell discreetly watch Richard with the money. Eventually, he gets a call from the kidnappers to go down to a garage. Fornell, Gibbs and Tim follow along as Richard goes toward a truck. When a van pulls up and they see Megan, one of the men comes out and retrieves the money, but does not let Megan out. The man shoots Richard and as the agents move in to stop them, an explosion blows Gibbs and Fornell back. Before Tim can finish calling for help, a second explosion throws him to the ground, much to Tony’s worry.
In autopsy, Ducky looks over Gibbs and angrily chastises him when he tries to leave without being looked over properly. Tim and Fornell are alright and are at the hospital. With Richard in surgery and the kidnapper having the money, Gibbs wonders why the man wanted Megan. Val comes down upon Gibbs’ request and they go into the elevator. Without a word, Gibbs signs a piece of paper and gives it to Val. An unspoken agreement passes them.
Tim and Fornell come back to the bullpen and Ellie tells them that Richard’s company, D-Tav Biofuel, is in financial trouble and while it would not affect Richard as CEO, it would hurt Justine Wolfe, his girlfriend and business partner. Apparently, she put over $5 million into the company and she’s a likely suspect for the kidnapping.
Tony and Ellie go to her home to interview her, but when they see smoke from under the garage, they go in to find Justine dead from a gun shot wound to the head.
Abby tells Gibbs that the second van abandoned by the kidnappers still had Megan’s class ring inside and that Megan had scratched her kidnapper. They discover his name is Owen Dixon, who was a former operative overseas who was angry with SecNav for decisions she made. Now working for Wynnewood Security, Abby also found that Justine used to be on the Board of Directors and likely knew about his history with Sarah.
Ducky shows Sarah that Justine is dead and she learns about the connection between Dixon and Justine from Gibbs and Fornell. She realizes that the bullets that hit Richard had been meant for her. Dixon calls and orders a plane to be ready. But Fornell and Gibbs think this is a trick.
After finding out about the rest of Dixon’s unit from the team, Gibbs learns from Abby that one of the members of Dixon’s crew called a helicopter pilot for a private company. He received money recently and has a flight scheduled at a private airspace to go over the border.
While Fornell goes to the airfield, Tim wonders out loud if they will have backup at the private airspace since the FBI will not be there. Gibbs assures him he already got help. They find Val and the rest of the REACT unit preparing for the mission to rescue Megan.
Just as Dixon is taking Megan to the helicopter, the team arrives to stop the crew. He threatens Megan, but the REACT team uses lasers to stop the men from firing. Dixon is shot dead when he raises his weapon and Gibbs rescues Megan to take her home.
After the arrest, the team prepares for their session, but not before learning about Val and Tim being each other’s first date and what happened when Tim accidentally messed up her tooth.
At her home, Sarah and Gibbs talk about her priorities when it comes to being a mother and her career. After sort of giving her advice, Gibbs sees Megan come down, ready to go see her father. Gibbs returns her ring and tells her it was smart to drop it. Megan credits her mom, saying she has talked about Gibbs before.