“Family” first aired Tuesday, October 2, 2007.

”Family” opens with a gentleman in formal attire driving and, ill-advisedly, speaking on his cell phone. The well-dressed-man encounters another fast-moving car that fails to yield and the two collide. Our temporary protagonist bumps his head and subsequently breaks his nose when the safety airbag inflates. Apparently late for some formal engagement the gentleman speaks into the cell phone he is still holding, looks out the driver’s side window into the side-by-side barrels of a 12-gauge shotgun just as it releases its soft lead pellets into his face, killing him instantly. The game is afoot.

Typical of most NCIS episodes, following the credits, the scene changes to elsewhere, in this case NCIS headquarters. Mossad Agent-on-Loan-to-NCIS Ziva David (Cote de Pablo) and Special Agent Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) are properly antagonizing Special Agent Tim McGee (Sean Murray) by, in turn, questioning him about his virginity status (McGee in the past had a tryst, if one can still call it that, with NCIS Forensics Specialist  Abby Sciuto (Pauley Perrette)) and super-gluing McGee’s fingers to his computer keyboard. Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) enters, informing his team to mount up, NCIS has a dead Navy Petty Officer to tend to.

At the scene of the crash, NCIS Medical Examiner Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard (David McCallum) examines the remains, discovering that the dead petty officer’s formal attire peels off like a basketball player's shooting warm-ups, concluding that the petty officer was supplementing his income as a male stripper on the side. Next Ducky notes the shotgun insult, turning what Gibbs thought was a “hit and run” into a “shoot and scoot.” Furthermore, the car’s body damage and petty officer’s body injuries and position don’t add up, sending Ducky into the woods to find the body of the projectile, a woman.

The scene returns to headquarters where the team inspects the evidence (the car belongs to one Nicholas Barnes [Owen Beckman]), lending them clues pointing toward the dead woman's boyfriend, who turns out to be the son of an auto mechanic, Joseph Barnes (Nick Searcy). The dead woman is identified as Heidi, a well-known grifter with a mile-long police sheet. Ducky's autopsy reveals that Heidi died before the car accident due to blunt force trauma and that she had very recently given birth, the baby missing. Gibbs is briefed and sets Abby to work.

Abby identifies from amniotic DNA that Nicholas Barnes is not the father of Heidi's missing baby. McGee identifies a series of bank checks regularly deposited to Heidi's bank account by one Adrian Nelson. When questioned Mr. and Mrs. Nelson deny all knowledge of Heidi, but when Gibbs happens to speak with Mr. Nelson in private, the latter admits to having known Heidi and claims that she purloined and forged the checks. Unbeknownst to the Nelsons, McGee purloins DNA evidence from the couple to use to compare with that Abby has isolated from Heidi’s amniotic fluid.