Reading Time: 111 Minutes

Title: Pit of Arrogance
Author: SASundance
Fandom: NCIS
Genre: Angst, Crime Drama, Drama, Episode Related
Relationship(s): Gen, background pairings.
Content Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Canon typical violence, discussion of infertility issues, surrogacy and adoption, not MCRT friendly.
Word Count: 160,158
Summary: When the deputy manager of HR, Delores Bromstead, witnesses the MCRT’s junior agents’ insubordination of the Senior Field Agent, she decides she has had enough. If Gibbs refuses to enforce the chain of command on his team, then it is time for her to act. She might not be able to make Special Agent L.J. Gibbs follow agency rules and regulations, but she refuses to stand by and let the rookies continually get away with insubordination. Her actions will end up having far reaching repercussions for every member of NCIS, including Delores. Set during Forced Entry S02e09.
Artist: Kylia

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Prologue

NCIS assistant manager of Human Resources, Delores Bromstead was an early bird, she loved to get up before the dawn and watch the sunrise. She liked to get into work early, too. There was just something about being one of the first people to arrive in the office that was soothing to her meticulous nature (although she was aware that many people described her as officious rather than having a love for attention to detail). She knew she was not exactly popular at NCIS, her moniker among the staff was the Dragon Lady because she insisted upon rules being followed. Although honestly, any federally funded agency was always going to have to make sure they crossed all the T’s and dotted their I’s if they expected to be able to function properly and continued to receive government funding. It was just a lucky happenstance (for both herself, and the agency) that she was an attention to detail person and understood the need for everything to be properly documented and filed correctly. That said, it was a constant source of frustration to her that NCIS had agents who seemed to think rules, laws and procedures did not apply to themselves. Such blatant arrogance appalled her.

As she entered the building a little after 0630, Delores sighed in satisfaction at being one of just a handful of people in the office. Of course, there were the agents who were on call on the graveyard shift and many of the analysts worked to overseas timeframes, depending upon their region of expertise. Mostly though, the administrative staff kept regular business hours which meant that on her floor, very few people made it into work before Delores. Getting to start her working day when the office was quiet and generally empty was soothing to the 2IC of the Human Resources Department – she was convinced that she did her best work early in the mornings. She was most definitely not a night person, unlike one resident night owl who, while leaving at night, would according to security logs, come back in and work after midnight and was the bane of her life with all the overtime he clocked up.

Bromstead, despite her position as assistant manager of HR was something of an enigma, in that she was not overly comfortable in dealing with people, undoubtedly that was why she was perfectly happy not to hold the position of head of the department. She was fairly certain she would be terrible at it and was far happier dealing with the regulatory and records keeping aspects of her job. So, it also shouldn’t come as a surprise that she preferred to work before the vast majority of people arrived. That way, she wasn’t getting distracted by people interrupting her asking trivial questions.

Even as she kissed her partner Trevor goodbye, still peacefully slumbering, and left for the day, she had already switched into work mode, mentally going through what was on her agenda for today. She was also mindful of the annual performance reviews were due in seventeen days’ time. Delores generally preferred to make an early start on them because Human Resources always had to run around chasing up most of the other departments, who were frequently tardy about submitting them on time. Plus, Special Agent Matthew Anderson’ paperwork for parental leave today needed finalising today so it could be processed asap. He and his wife, Dalisay were adopting a baby from the Philippines and were on standby, awaiting on a call to fly out to Manilla to collect the child from the orphanage where she’d been abandoned. Matt, and his Filipino born wife, (who’d emigrated to the US when she was a child) already had one child, a son who was almost seven now. According to Anderson, Matikas (whose name meant elegant or graceful in Tagalog) was very excited about becoming a big brother to Luzviminda, which was the name Dalisay had chosen for the baby.

Delores smothered a smile as she recalled Matt’s rather lukewarm reaction when he told her of the name choice. It seemed the senior field agent not so keen on the name Luzviminda, although he did admit that he was even less enamoured by the other two names that his wife was considering. Angel and Princess, both common Filipino names weren’t exactly his cup of tea. Matt told her that Luzviminda was also quite a common name in the Philippines – it was a geographical name, a combination of the three main geographic Filipino regions. Matt explained that his wife thought that it would be a way to honour their daughter’s origins, so she never forgot where she’d come from. Dolores had thought it was a beautiful thought and pointed out that lots of parents called their children place names like Paris, Geneva, India, and Vienna, this was just a little more poignant and they could always shorten it later on if they, or she wanted to.

She also knew just how much this newest member of the Anderson family was wanted. Dalisay had suffered an ectopic pregnancy several years ago and had been incredibly lucky to be alive – not all ectopic pregnancies ended up with the mother surviving. Sadly, for the grieving parents, Dalisay was unable to conceive anymore children and wanting another child, had decided to adopt a little one, rather than try surrogacy. Delores had been extremely empathetic, she too was unable to bear children and had in recent years, been considering surrogacy and adoption as options. She had been with Trevor for several years now and he was very supportive of her need to become a parent, but she was still undecided which option was best for them. Delores felt she was almost as excited as the Andersons about the expansion of their family and wanted to make sure that Matt’s parental leave was handled as smoothly as possible.

The fact that they might have to take off suddenly, once all the bureaucratic hoops had been jumped through and they were finally cleared to take custody of the little one, made the implementation of his leave somewhat tricky, considering the important role he played on Special Agent Balboa’s team. Matt had suggested that Dalisay and Matikas go to Manila without him, knowing that Ric’s son Mitchell was unwell and was having ongoing medical tests. Balboa was trying to be there for his own family but if Matt was off on leave, it would be very difficult to leave a TAD senior field agent in charge of the team. Anderson said that he could ask his mother-in-law to go with his wife and son in his stead, but Delores and Ric had both insisted that he should at least go to Manila with his family to meet his daughter. If things ended up going pear shaped, then maybe he might need to cut short his six month parental leave and return to work early, but Delores was hoping she could find someone with the experience to not only fill in for the SFA but also take over running the team if Balboa should have to step down temporarily. She’d been working for the agency for long enough that she knew of several old timers, SSAs nearing retirement age who might be willing to help out the two fellow agents for such important family obligations.

As she was going through the paperwork that Agent Anderson had already supplied to Human Resources last night, she noticed several gaps where he’d omitted crucial data, or it was not complete enough for their requirements. Sighing, she decided to head up to the bull pen and hand deliver them to him to complete, as well as a few other forms that needed to be filled out asap for Luzviminda to be added to his healthcare. While up there Delores could remind the MCRT about the pending performance evaluations, since Gibbs was probably one of the worst offenders when it came to submitting them on time. Not only did he rarely submit them in a timely manner, but he also didn’t bother to take them seriously, usually adding a paltry handful of words such as satisfactory, or she/he’ll do. Never anything to acknowledge his agents’ strengths which was important for people to know that their boss was aware of what they contributed to the team or identify weaknesses so they could focus on correcting them.

When she pointed out that he needed to pinpoint areas where their performance could improve, Gibbs told her that they didn’t have weaknesses. When he explained to her in his slightly mocking tone that he’d personally selected them, and he only picked exceptional people to join his team, she’d longed to grab him by the shoulders and shake him. Of course she resisted her impulse, but it didn’t stop her fantasising about it, though, because she knew that his agents (and the team leader especially) were far from perfect. To pretend otherwise was foolhardy and arrogant.

Sighing in exasperation at Gibbs and his egotism, she got up from her desk and headed for the tiny tearoom to make herself a cup of peppermint tea, knowing that the Agents wouldn’t have arrived just yet. A cup of aromatic herbal tea in hand, she returned to her office to work her way through the routine requests for leave, notifications of personnel who were out on sick leave and then following up on agents who were injured on the job. Naturally at NCIS, this tended to be a category where injuries happened far more frequently than most workplaces, mostly amongst the field agents whose jobs involved apprehending suspects, so sometimes those suspects were dangerous criminals prepared to use violence to avoid being arrested. Although occasionally, despite the dangerous nature of a field agent’s job agent’s job, an individual or a team would collect an alarming number of injuries, not just out in the field but during workplace training activities too.

If it was more than one agent, that usually pointed to it being an issue with the team leader being negligent but if it was a single member of a team, then HR’s policy was to assume there could be an attitudinal causes on the team or due to the team leader such as: genderism, racism, or homophobia. Sometimes it pointed to someone who ignored workplace safety regulations or that perhaps the rest of the team weren’t sharing the load fairly and leaving it up to one individual. Very occasionally, it could indicate a boss who was trying to get the individual transferred off the team and was deliberately putting them in dangerous situations.

It was important for HR to keep their eyes peeled and try to re-educate anyone who was not following agency guidelines on inclusivity. Unfortunately many older field agents tended to cling to outdated societal norms with the stubbornness of barnacles on a boat’s hull.

Next she checked on the planning for routine scheduled training sessions on the newest software upgrades for record keeping for human resources and training for the finance department on payroll tax changes. Delores was pleased to see that their training officer, Clinton O’Shaunessy seemed to have the matter well in hand. Glancing at her vintage Longines 14k white gold diamond watch, she realised she could fit in a trip down to Balboa’s team if she left now. Rising from her chair, she headed to the tearoom to return her empty mug, conscientiously washing, drying, and putting her mug back into the cupboard before returning to her desk to collect the parental leave forms that Matt needed to amend.

Delores was just about to head out when her manager requested her presence immediately. One of the payroll clerks in the financial department had just lodged a sexual harassment claim against her superior, a ‘happily married’ male who was denying any wrong doing. So it was going to be all hands on deck interviewing the complainant and the respondent, along with all of the complainants fellow workers.

The forms for Agent Anderson would have to wait until she was on a break. This was important.

Delores interviewed the complainant, Janice Everett, while her Boss Marla Sweeten interviewed Everett’s boss, Wayne Finkel. Everett was alleging that Finkel had made inappropriate sexual advances towards her, trying to kiss her and fondle her buttocks. After requesting that he stop, she informed him that she preferred females to males, hoping to convince him to leave her alone, but unfortunately his attentions had escalated. It seemed that the creep had seen her orientation as a challenge and he’d up the ante, trying to blackmail her into having sex with him so that the rest of her workmates didn’t learn about her sexual orientation. Unfortunately for Finkel, Janice was not hiding the fact she was a lesbian, she just was a naturally reticent person. However, his threats to out her at NCIS had incensed her and persuaded her to make a formal complaint about his sleazy sexually inappropriate workplace behaviour.

Interestingly, it seemed that Everett wasn’t the only young female who he’d been harassing and assaulting; it had just taken one person to have the courage to make a complaint. Not only were they busy interviewing everyone to see if anyone else had seen Wayne being inappropriate with Janice, but several more women had admitted he’d sexually harassed them too. Realising they weren’t the only ones to have it happen to them, they had also complained, and the HR was kept extremely busy.

Delores had been extremely preoccupied all morning and when her lunch hour had rolled around, she called down to find out if Agent Anderson was in the building but discovered they were out questioning witnesses. It was half past three, according to her watch when one of the security guards, Jack Rollins informed her they returned. She snatched up the partially filled in forms and headed to the bull pen shared among others by Agent Balboa’s team, the MCRT and the Foreign Desk. As she arrived third floor bull pens the deputy HR manager heard the dinging of the escalator, delivering agents into the bullpen. Slipping in unnoticed, she noted that Agent Anderson and his team leader, Agent Balboa were seated at their desks. Making her way to Matt Anderson’s desk Delores issued a cordial request to Agent Balboa for his permission to speak to his senior field agent for a few minutes. Granted with a friendly wave of his hand and a nod, she handed over the incomplete request for Parental Leave form with a flourish after a quick inquiry about how Dalisay and Matikas were doing.

Even as Matt was apologising and starting to fix the omissions, Delores couldn’t help being peripherally aware that in the adjoining bullpen where the team or at least two of the agents had just arrived, Agent Caitlin Todd was informing Agents Timothy McGee and Tony DiNozzo that a suspected rapist in whatever case they were investigating believed that the victim had invited him over to have consensual sex. It sounded very much like the inexperienced agent believed the suspect, based purely on his word and that worried Delores, considering the HR administrator was aware of prior instances when the agent had misread a suspect, with disastrous consequences. She exchanged a look of concern with Balboa as they both began to listen to the MCRT discussion more intently.

Their senior field agent, Tony DiNozzo was sitting at his desk but at Agent Todd’s proclamation, he had immediately leapt to him feet.

“Oh! What was that little tip that I picked up as a cop in Baltimore?” he asked Cate who had only finished her probationary period nine week ago.

Delores had filed the paperwork herself, so she knew exactly how green Todd was still. Even Delores who was not good at reading people could tell that the oft-times juvenile agent was becoming extremely agitated, and his reaction bore out that assessment. He slapped his forehead three times with the palm of his hand before, in an uncharacteristically flustered fashion, ruffled his hair which was usually artfully coiffed before wiping his hand down his face.

He answered his own previously asked rhetorical question, saying, “ It’s right on my …’ and then he paused for dramatic affect as he touched the tip of his outstretched tongue with his index finger before continuing his lecture, “Oh, yeah. Rapists are liars, Cate.”

Noting that Agent Balboa was observing the scene closely as was Matt, while their two junior agents, Emmy Lyndhurst and Charlie Zeng were all agog, Delores surmised from their reaction that this scene was not common behaviour from Agent DiNozzo. While it was common to receive complaints about Agent Gibbs yelling at his team or yelling at other teams, and complaints about Agent DiNozzo’s chatter and jokes, she was getting the distinct impression that this reaction had not been characteristic. Yet his reaction to Agent Todd was fairly mild as it turned out.

McGee decided to throw his own two cents worth in, saying, “Well, I don’t think we should rule out anything, Tony.”

She exchanged a silent look of consternation with Ric Balboa, which may have even included a tiny eye roll on both their parts… because seriously? Timothy McGee had all of eight weeks experience as a field agent. He was so fresh and green that it was a wonder that bunnies didn’t follow him around, seeing him as dinner and try to nibble on him. Yet, in spite of his newness and inexperience, the probationary agent was condescending to lecture an agent with a decade worth of law enforcement experience under his belt. On what planet did the probie think it was his place to pontificate about investigative procedure to such an experienced veteran investigator?

It wasn’t surprising that his patronising attitude only served to rile his superior further, not that she could blame DiNozzo even if she was not a fan of the man, finding his banter annoying. So, she was expecting him to put the probation agent in his place.

DiNozzo retorted in obvious anger, “Oh, really? Do you now, Probie?”

“All we have is Mrs Rowen’s word for what happened last night,” McGee chided Agent DiNozzo portentously.

It seemed that instead of catching a clue when faced with Agent DiNozzo’s response and shutting up, the gormless probationary agent was intent on digging himself a deeper hole to fall into. Delores was struck dumb by his appallingly insubordinate behaviour.

“So you want to drag her in and accuse her of attempted murder, McGee?” Agent DiNozzo demanded, coming up close to the younger man.

“No, I didn’t say that,” he denied.

You just implied it, Delores thought incredulously. She found herself becoming increasingly incensed by Probationary Agent McGee’s brashness, particularly considering it was highly probable he’d never even worked a rape case before. Yet evidently, he felt he was more than qualified to be holding forth on the matter to an experienced agent who also just happened to be his superior. She could not believe what she was hearing, it was so egregiously out of line and potentially dangerous if his attitude should translate into the field too.

At which point Agent DiNozzo apparently decided to call his bluff, saying. “No… let’s do it. It’s not like she hasn’t been through enough crap, already.”

McGee clearly didn’t appreciating being criticised for his unsolicited and naïve opinion when it came to rapists by his teammate and superior. He snapped back at the senior field agent, telling him, “Well, you would know. You’re the master at giving it.”

There was a collective gasp in Balboa’s bullpen. Agents’ Lyndhurst and Zeng’s eyes almost popped out of their heads. Matt was visibly seething and Balboa, even though he was beyond furious, was watching something other than the two agents.

Following his gaze, she noted Agent Gibbs standing several feet outside his bullpen, a few steps away from Agent Todd’s desk. Well thank goodness! After that blatant example of insubordination, Bromstead expected Gibbs to tear the cocky probie a new one. That remark was way out of order and definitely grounds for disciplinary action of the highest order, and she would support it, particularly as the probationary agent had made the remarks in public, i.e., in her presence.

His senior field agent was not impressed. And who could blame him when he told McGee sharply, “Watch your lip, Probie.”

Agent Todd, who had served in the Secret Service up until a year ago, and therefore knew about insubordination of superiors, decided to stick her oar into the SFA’s business just as he was right in the middle of delivering a well-deserved verbal smackdown, yelled, “Hey!”

While Agent DiNozzo added angrily to McGee, “Your quivering lip!”

The disgraced former Secret Service agent then proceeded to engage in her own insubordination to her superior, saying, “Hey! My God, I swear the two of you are worse than my brothers, and they are practically psychotic”

Woah! Calling a superior full of crap and psychotic! What was wrong with those two rookie investigators and how/ why had Gibbs permitted such insubordinate attitudes to fester on his team?

Then the delusional junior agent decided, somehow under the impression it was her place to begin issuing orders, said. ”We have to ID this guy. If we find a connection between the two of them, we bring Laura Rowens in for questioning. Agreed?”

What was Todd thinking because Delores would really like to know?

McGee’s arrogance, his insubordination and DiNozzo’s attempt to school both agents about rapists was not some stupid siblings’ spat between agents of equal rank. This was a workplace, and the team was no democracy. There was a strict chain of command for a whole bunch of reasons!

She looked over at Agent Gibbs, expecting him to stride in and back up his senior field agent and give both junior agents the severe bollocking they both so richly deserved. Instead, she was woefully disappointed by his response.

Gibbs completely ignored the situation, “His name is Jeremy Davison. Sgt Hegarty found his car parked outside the Quantico rear gate. Keys, wallet, ID all inside. Run his phone records. See if he ever communicated with Mrs Rowens.”

And just like Pavlov’s dogs, the team swung into action. Delores didn’t need her post grad degree in psychology to recognise a conditioned response when she saw it.

Agent DiNozzo took the rapist’s identification documentation, with a terse, “I am on it,” before departing off the floor.

Gibbs then demanded, “Give me a search warrant for that address.”

Probationary Agent McGee responded, “On it,” before he too disappeared, probably heading downstairs to Legal.

Looking smug, Gibbs watched as Agent Todd stood in the middle of their bullpen looking directionless before tossing her a bone, “Hey, Cate, your brothers are really like that?”

“Sadly, yes,” she replied with a martyred air.

Gibbs responded with, “Ah…explains a lot.”

As shocked as Delores was that Gibbs ignored such blatant insubordination, she felt a modicum of amusement at the priceless expression on Todd’s face as she processed his rejoinder. However all too soon, he and Todd left the bullpen too, possibly to go down to the lab and confer with Dr Sciuto.

With their departure leaving the MCRT area empty, and feeling shell shocked over what she’d just observed, Delores turned to looked at the fuming supervisory special agent beside her, hoping for…what? Answers maybe as to why Gibbs, a former gunnery sergeant in the USMC would tolerate such disrespect for a supervisor and his second in charge as she just witnessed.

 

Chapter 1

Delores was still reeling from what she had just witnessed.  If someone had come to HR to report this situation she had just seen with her own eyes, she would assume they were exaggerating or delusional. She would have said that a former gunnery sergeant in the United States Marine Corps would never permit rookie agents with negligible investigatory experience to hold worth on topics they were ill-equipped and lecture a season investigator and superior agent, yet that’s exactly what happened.  Then when he rightly raked them over the coals for such outrageous behaviour, his team leader failed to support him, effectively undercutting his authority which was worse!

Particularly when Agent DiNozzo was not only within his rights to demand respect, but he was also absolutely correct that he pointed out that rapists lied as easily as they breathed. To be honest, she was more than a little surprised that it was Agent DiNozzo who was the passionate defender of the victim, given his reputation as a player. Based on the rookie investigator’s rather strident feminist agenda, Delores would have expected that Agent Todd would be the one passionately defending the female victim of a male rapist come what may. A lot of cops and agents, particularly the older males, still tended to side with the accused individual in rape and sexual assault cases, but DiNozzo’s defence of the victim thankfully was swift and genuine.

Taking a deep breath to try to retain a professional mien, she pulled Balboa aside to ask, “Did that really just happen? Did two junior agents with minimal if any experience in investigating sex crimes just undermine the authority of their highly experienced senior field agent in public? And did the team leader do nothing to reprimand either one of them, effectively also undermining the chain of command, even when they were both grossly insubordinate?” she demanded irately.

So much for professional demeanour, she thought.

Wincing, Ric nodded reluctantly. “Yes it did unfortunately, and in their defence, they have zero respect for the chain of command because Agent Gibbs informed the junior agents explicitly and implicitly that they don’t have to obey their immediate superior, they only have to take orders from the team leader,” he said in exasperation.

“Agent Gibbs did what?” she spluttered wrathfully. “But he’s a Marine…he knows that’s not how it works,” she protested.

Matt how had joined them, chimed in, sharing his leader’s frustration. “Maybe he used to, but he thinks the rules at NCIS don’t apply to him. He undermines Tony repeatedly and gives the probationary and junior agent an inflated impression about their professional worth as field agents.”

Going by what she’d just witnessed, Matt was obviously correct, Delores conceded, shocked to the core. It did appear like they felt a perfect right to speak to their direct supervisor in such derogatory terms. She was appalled.

“What are the chances Agent Gibbs will take either agent to task in private,” she asked.

Ric shook his head. “About the same of anyone locating Big Foot,” he said cynically.

“Why hasn’t this been reported?” she asked sharply.

“To HR? To Director Morrow?” Matt asked sceptically. “It has, and more than once, by SFAs and SSAs and nothing comes of it.”

“Matt’s correct,” Ric confirmed. “It seems that Supervisory Special Agent Gibbs knows where the bodies are buried. He’s untouchable.”

Delores thought about her ongoing battle to stop the head slaps that Special Agent Gibbs regularly inflicted on his team and conceded that Ric Balboa might just have a point. Well, she might not be able to stop Gibbs hitting his agents, although she hadn’t ruled out making a complaint to the FBI about the repeated assaults on Agent DiNozzo who seemed to bear the brunt of them, as the FBI did handled attacks on all federal agents. As an accomplished archer who consistently ranked in the top three in the state of Virginia, she had been known to have the odd daydream about landing an arrow into SSA Gibbs stubborn ass when he annoyed her, she decided she was not about to wasn’t about to let this slide. Insubordination was dangerous in the field…even life-threatening.

Realistically, she may not be able to do anything about Gibbs playing fast and loose with the chain of command, even though it was risky. If something happened to the senior supervisory agent and they were unable to lead the team, the senior field agent was supposed to be able to immediately assume command. That meant having their orders obeyed without question or argument and from what she witnessed today, Agent Todd felt she could take charge and issue orders, not DiNozzo. Clearly, Probationary Agent McGee didn’t respect the rank of his superior either. It seemed he was under the rather shocking misapprehension that they were equals.

However, even if she failed to bring Gibbs to heel, after having a front row seat to the inexcusable situation she’d just observed, Delores Bromstead knew that she wouldn’t rest until she had resolved this farce. Gibbs may be untouchable – although she wasn’t going to give up yet, but the two junior agents were not. She was going to make sure that the disgraced former Secret Service agent who seemed to think she was above DiNozzo in the pecking order, and the self-important probationary agent with two months experience, learnt their proper place in the power pyramid.

THEY, WERE NOT UNTOUCHABLE.

She was a pragmatist. Gibbs might hold sway over a deputy head of the Department of Human Resources, although she wasn’t done with him yet. That said, a barely junior agent who already had a massive black mark on her personnel file for fraternisation while she was guarding the POTUS, stood little chance against the determined HR veteran. The same could equally be said for the probationary field agent, who from what she’d just seen, seemed to be under the mistaken belief he was God’s gift to the MCRT. If scuttlebutt could be believed that attitude may have something to do with the college degrees he’d obtained. Normally she wasn’t one to listen to scuttlebutt but perhaps in this particular instance it had been correct.

Delores intended to bury the pair, going all the way up to the head of Human Resources in the Department of Defence if she had to. She wasn’t just going to nip this insubordination, this arrogance and flagrant contempt for the chain of command in the bud, she was going to kick it firmly in the butt and make it cry uncle!

“Right, I need everyone here to immediately write up an account of the incident you all witnessed between the major case response members,” she addressed the floor, speaking to everyone who’d been rubbernecking as the sensational incident had unfolded.

“Obviously, please refrain from discussing it amongst yourselves or others before you do, to avoid any accusations of collusion. Then after you submit your reports I suggest that if you feel impelled to discuss it, to do so in private and discreetly. If for no other reason that out of respect for Senior Field Agent DiNozzo’s privacy,” she said.

He’d already been humiliated professionally by his team, he didn’t need to become fodder for the latest breakroom gossip.

She glanced over at Agent Balboa who told her. “It would carry more weight if we both were to file separate complaints as supervisors, reporting Agent Todd and Probationary Agent McGee’s insubordination, Ms Bromstead,” he suggested gravely before she had a chance to open her mouth.

Delores nodded her head, her eyes conveying to the experienced senior supervisory agent what she wasn’t able to say out loud.

“Thank you Agent Balboa, that would indeed be very useful.” It was going to be twice as difficult to brush aside both her and Balboa’s complaints than it would be if she was the only one lodging a report.

Later she returned to her office to prepare her official complaint of the two agent’s behaviour, discovering that not only had Balboa’s team already forwarded their witness accounts but eight other agents who were also in the bullpen at the time of the incident had submitted accounts of what they’d witnessed too. She was impressed by the quality of the additional eyewitness accounts and pleased but not surprised they were as horrified as she was at what had taken place, including Gibbs failure to act.

Permitting Gibbs to thumb his nose at the chain of command and get away with it set up a bad precedent for the other teams and made it harder for all the other team leaders to enforce chain of command too. The more people who saw and reported it and then it was ignored by management, then the more damage was done to morale. When she found that someone on the international desk directly behind the MCRT bullpen had gone to the trouble of filming the whole incident, she was ecstatic to have such supportive evidence. Any of the Bigwigs who watched that footage and tried to excuse it was an idiot and they deserved to be booted too.

Ninety minutes later, having briefed her boss, the head of Human Resources as to what she observed and her intention to censure Agents Todd and McGee, Marla Sweeten pursed her lips and sighed. “I wish you good luck, Delores. I think that going after Gibbs’s minions rather than himself may prove to a be a far more effective strategy. You have my support on this of course. Undermining of the chain of command is extremely serious,” she told her 2IC.

“Thanks, Marla. I appreciate your support.”

“I notice in your report that while the matter is investigated you are not recommending that they be stood down while James Reinbold from the DoD carries out an independent investigation. Why is that?” Sweeten note curiously.

“No,” Delores confirmed. “I want them reassigned, so that if worst comes to worst, if SECNAV overrules what should be no-brainer recommendations, they will have been exposed to teams where there is strict adherence to the chain of command,” she shrugged. It was worth a shot. Whether it worked on those two remained to be seen. The arrogance was strong in that pair, but maybe that was why chose them.

“I’ll approve that,” Marla told her deputy wholeheartedly. “Any thoughts about which teams we should recommend they be send to? I take it you want them separated.”

Smiling at her stolidly built six foot African American boss gratefully, she noted in passing Marla’s rather flamboyant dress sense with a touch of envy yet again. Today Marla was wearing a deep purple business suit with a yellow silk blouse and matching turban which looked stunning on her. Delores permitted herself the briefest of smiles, wishing she had the bearing, plus the complexion to pull something like that off. On her it would look ridiculous but Sweeten totally rocked it.

“I was thinking that probationary agent Timothy McGee should be assigned to Craig Shepperton’s team,” she said mildly.

Sweeten suppressed her own grin, nodding her agreement because SSA Shepparton was an absolute stickler for the rules. If anyone could beat the importance of the chain of command into the probationary agent’s head it was Craig.

“His senior field agent is rumoured to be big on breaking agents down to rebuild them,” Sweetin noted faux casually.

Delores nodded, equally innocently. “Well, she was a drill sergeant in the Marines, so that’s hardly surprising, but so far as I know, Agent Lopez confines her breaking down of agents to physical stuff like making them run seven-minute miles or doing pushups and the like, but she never crosses the line to head slaps. And every probie their team had always improved their fitness quals by leaps and bounds, and let’s be honest McGee’s are borderline,” she stated factually.

Marla considered her deputy’s rationale and decided that Timothy McGee could do with improving his fitness levels, particularly since he spent so much time behind a computer. And SFA Anna Lopez never crossed over the line to abusing the new agents under her, but she got some impressive results with her probies.

“Fine, I’ll authorise his temporary reassignment, pending the results of the investigation,” Marla conceded. “And what of Agent Todd? Where should we assign her?”

“I recommend we send her to SSA Maureen Cabot’s team,” Delores said quickly.

Marla smirked, “The Family and Sexual Violence Unit,” she mused. “”That’s an excellent idea, Delores. Not only would she get some valuable experience about the nature of a rapist that may make her less ready to take his word over the victim, but Agent Cabot’s 2IC, Agent Ruth Jacobs has a PhD in feminist theory and gender equality,” she mused.

Exchanging meaningful looks with Marla, Delores observed, “Ruth has not been a fan of Agent Todd’s habit of publicly calling out anything she doesn’t like as sexism.”

Permitting herself a predatory grin, the HR manager replied, “Oh Agent Jacobs will eviscerate her if she tries any of her crap with the male agents on the FSVU,” the HR manager observed with a touch of schadenfreude.

Hearing her boss muttering about supplying the popcorn, Delores looked at her boss with a wide-eyed innocent look. “I had thought about Agent Dr Jacobs until you mentioned it,” she cooed. “I was thinking about Agent Iverson. Patrick is a qualified criminal profiler. I think that spending time on Agent Cabot’s team might work out well,” she declared with a butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth expression that didn’t fool her boss, even for a second.

“Alright, I’m taking your recommendations on this on board. You know Agent Gibbs is going to be fit to be tied?” she looked at her deputy head.

“I know. I feel sorry for poor Agent DiNozzo,” she commiserated.

Sweeten cocked her head as she regarded Delores, appraisingly. “Do I detect rather a change of tune in your attitude to Agent DiNozzo? You have been less than complementary about him at times, especially since Todd and McGee joined the team,” she observed.

Delores conceded that Marla had a point, she was not fan of his out of the box unorthodoxy or his wild Lothario reputation and flirtatiousness. To be honest though, she had been more than a little bit taken aback by the almost instant change in DiNozzo’s demeanour from class clown to staunch professional she’d seen, advocating for the victim of an attempted rape crime. The image he often projected in the bullpen, was of someone who never took anything seriously, but she’d heard a few rumours that he possessed a temper. It was one rumour she had quickly discounted yet from what she’d observed today, it was definitely no longer just speculation.

Delores had concluded that his unserious demeanour at work was likely just a façade, and that he was unusually good at keeping his anger hidden from sight. Still, she figured that with Gibbs’ default setting of perpetual wrath as his main emotional response, the SFA’s joking demeanour was undeniably a good thing for Agent DiNozzo, if it help to contain his own bad temper. If both of them were emoting anger vibes at work, the MCRT would never manage to retain any additional team members. Certainly before he was hired, Gibbs went through assigned agents like a dose of cod liver oil.

With a sudden flash of insight, Delores Bromstead understood as to why the former detective was always joking around and playing practical jokes on the junior agents – not that Delores was a fan of pranking. Still, she knew that it more often than not, led to Gibbs going off at him and…what was the parlance? Ah yes that was it… ripping him a new ass hole. Agent DiNozzo had probably been trying to ease tension on what must be an incredibly stressful environment. Not only because of the nature of the cases which they were assigned, but due to the evil temper and psychological mind games that Leroy Jethro Gibbs seemed to positively revelled in.

Realising that Marla was waiting for a response, she grimaced. “While it’s true that in the past I’ve been quite critical of his clowning around and his childish antics, the events of today have given me a fresh perspective on Agent DiNozzo. It was his steadfast defence of victims of rape and sexual assault, that made me reassess what I previously thought of him. Not to mention seeing the dynamic on the team caused by Agent Gibbs’ undermining his authority with the junior members… well it’s made me realise that much of his behaviour is likely to be a defence mechanism,” she admitted unhappily.

HR had failed to rein in Gibbs, who seemed to think that laws and regulations didn’t apply to him. It was deeply offensive to Delores, and she vowed that she would find some way to bring him to heel, even if she had to dig up the bodies in DC that he was reputed to know about herself, to do so. And as bad as she was with dealing with people, she was going to make sure that DiNozzo’s needs were taken care of for a change. She had checked his personnel file when she returned to the office because his fury was so uncharacteristic of the undercover agent. She learnt that aside from his stint on the elite Homicide unit as a detective in Baltimore PD he’d also served in the Vice Department in Philadelphia, so chances were he’d encountered a lot of rape and sex crimes during his years as a cop.

She wondered if he not only had professional but also personal reasons for reacting so strongly against Agent Todd’s seeming support for the rapist’s denial, but only for a few moments. If he did, given his undercover assignments for Vice then it was no one’s business but his own. Delores had her own highly person secret that she had no wish for her co-workers to know about. Still she hoped he was alright. Trauma had a way of coming back and biting you on the butt when you were least expecting it.

Chapter 2

Jethro Gibbs was incensed when the Human Resources Department paused their petty targeting of him and instead, they focused their attention on his team. Having witnessed what, she claimed was insubordinate behaviour of Cate and McGee by deputy manager Delores Bromstead who was right dragon, both agents were, as of now under investigation. So of course, that other bitch and head of the HR department, Marla Sweeten had taken the opportunity to transfer both Cate and McGee to other teams while the complaint was investigated.

Unfortunately, someone had filmed the entire incident, so even if the deputy manager of the department hadn’t been present when the whole thing had gone down there was documented proof it had happened. If …WHEN he found out who filmed a perfectly normal interaction for his team and submitted a complaint, Gibbs was going to head slap them into oblivion for interfering with how he ran the MCRT. But for now, it left him two agents down and Morrow was refusing to intercede, claiming that he couldn’t interfere with the Department of Defence investigation, that the process once invoked, it had to be followed through to its conclusion. Director Morrow did offer to reassign the Rowen’s case to Balboa’s team since the MCRT were missing half their team, but Gibbs refused to let the case go.

He’d also offered to them two TAD agents though, but Gibbs had churlishly knocked back his offer, telling him surlily, “Don’t need a bunch of probies messing up my case, Tom.”

Tom had shrugged, “Up to you, Gibbs. The offer stands though.”

So now it was just DiNozzo and himself left to figure out this case. Abby had run Davison’s prints, but they didn’t get a hit, which meant he’d never been convicted, nor served in the military. Disappointed, Gibbs told her to run his blood, which Tony collected at the scene for DNA and compare it to every database she could think of.

“That could take months, Gibbs,” she warned him. “There isn’t a centralised DNA data base.”

He’d replied sourly, “Then you’d better get started.”

When he arrived back in the bullpen, the two empty desks where McGee and Cate usually sat was like a slap in the face. He was well aware that this stunt was an piss-poor attempt to make him follow protocol. If he’d simply issued a verbal smackdown when he witnessed McGee’s insubordination of his immediate superior and Cate’s equal lack of respect when DiNozzo had been tearing the Probie a new one, then neither of his agents would be facing charges of insubordination and ignoring the chain of command. It pissed him off that instead of going after him, which he could have squelched by calling in favours, like every other time they tried to sanction him for his leadership style, to wit his head slaps, this time, Davenport had refused to lift a finger to stop it.

“Look Gibbs, I can’t interfere in an investigation once it’s in progress. And since the complainant happens to be the deputy manager of NCIS’ Human Resources department, the investigation can’t be aborted either. Maybe once the investigation has concluded, I may be able to persuade Director Morrow to slap both of them over the wrists and send them back to you, but you have to be patient.”

That was not what Gibbs wanted to hear. Davenport had promised him after the debacle with Vivien Blackadder (where she got him blown up and very nearly blew the operation to take down Hussan Mohammed in Rota, Spain) that he would have carte blanche to pick and run his team the way he wanted without interference. He tried to persuade Philip to change his tune, dropping a few not-so-subtle hints about politicians and their fetishes but Phil had been uncharacteristically obdurate. He couldn’t or wouldn’t interfere once the HR investigation had been opened. Gibbs was furious and he’d seriously thought about digging up SECNAV’s dirty little secret and exposing it to that reporter on ZNN, Diane Fontaine but figured he’d wait and see if Davenport followed through after the investigation ended.

Perhaps he should just drop an anonymous hint to the Washington Post’s gossip columnist that one of the Secretaries of the Armed forces liked to wear diapers and not because they had an incontinence issue, to remind him to keep his promise. It was not a good idea to cross Leroy Jethro Gibbs, particular if you had bodies buried or skeletons in the closet. And the beauty of being in DC with all the politicians and their aides…they all had bodies buried or skeletons rattling around in cupboards, ripe for the picking. Sighing in frustration, he looked over at his sole agent, wanting a report on the case.

DiNozzo obliged, immediately knowing what Gibbs needed after working with him for three and a half years. “Still going through Davison’s phone records, Boss, but there’s nothing so far from his home phone, office or cell phones.”

Gibbs grunted as a young lawyer from legal, Michelle Lee dropped off the search warrant for Davison’s apartment which McGee requested yesterday before his removal from the MCRT. She looked worried before DiNozzo informed her comfortingly that his grunt was Gibbs version of, ‘Thanks for bringing it up and handing it to me personally’ and she nodded at him uncertainly. In reality, his grunt was more along the lines of, ’why the hell did it take so long?’. He knew it and DiNozzo knew it too, but the lawyer looked like she might piss her pants and he knew that DiNozzo was trying to protect her.

“Um, you’re welcome, Special Agent Gibbs,” she addressed Gibbs cautiously before turning back to DiNozzo and smiling at him brightly. “Thanks, Tony.”

He flashed her a million dollar smile and nodded, “No problem, Michelle. Have a nice one.”

Staring at DiNozzo irately, he said, “Really, DiNozzo? You scraping the bottom of the barrel now, sleeping with the lawyers? Already worked your way through the secretarial pool and the evidence clerks?”

DiNozzo chuckled, “Just because I’m polite to the people who work in Legal doesn’t mean I’m sleeping with them, Gibbs. You can catch more flies with honey and the guys in Legal are not the enemy,” he admonished the surly man. “Besides, if I’m not mistaken, Joe Landon’s protégé has her eye on someone else. Think she digs guys with glasses,” he said flippantly.

With a grunt of disgust, Jethro looked around the bullpen reflexively, mentally deciding to take Cate as payback for DiNozzo’s less than subtle dig at his rudeness, before remembering Todd wasn’t there. She’d been transferred to another team, along with McGee. Angry because he realised, unless he wanted to search Jeremy Davison’s apartment alone, he would have to take DiNozzo, he yelled, “Grab your gear,” and grabbed his own weapon and creds before he stomped off towards for the elevator.

Jeremy Davison’s apartment was definitely no palace. DiNozzo suggested they seize his computer and search it back at the office, either with Abby’s input or request someone from Cyber to give them a hand. He’d also bagged several toothbrushes and observed that there were signs that someone else lived there with Jeremy. Judging by the amount of toiletries in the bathroom, Gibbs hazarded a guess his housemate was female.

Tony chuckled before remarking, “Ah you should see my bathroom cupboards, Boss. I probably have just as many, but he held up a hair removal product and said, “But this and a couple of other items do suggest that he may have a woman living here. Although, maybe they are left over from an ex,” he said logically. “Good thing I bagged the toothbrushes.”

Gibbs nodded as they started looking through the living room which was in a state of disarray when they heard a key in the lock. Automatically both agents drew their weapons and took cover as a blonde woman entered the apartment, shrieking in surprise when two armed federal agents confronted her. DiNozzo was disgusted when she didn’t know what NCIS stood for, but Gibbs was more pragmatic. He was used to it by now.

She identified herself as Jeremy Davison’s sister, Michelle and then DiNozzo immediately started flirting with her. Honestly, the man could not help himself and Gibbs wanted to head slap him, but just his luck, she’d probably report him and DiNozzo would be transferred off the team too. Focusing back on DiNozzo interviewing her, she was telling him that she was worried about her brother because she hadn’t seen him since last night.

Gibbs told her, “He was shot last night while attacking someone.”

Michelle Davison expressed shock, “My brother wouldn’t hurt a fly, but I told him I didn’t think he should go on that date with the woman he met over the internet,” she said.

DiNozzo had agreed noncommittally that internet dating definitely carried some serious risks. When they told her which hospital Jeremy was in, his sister rushed off to be with him. DiNozzo managed to get her phone number before he let her go.

Once she left and they resumed searching the apartment, Gibbs lit into the agent. “Flirt on your own time, DiNozzo,” he reproached him. “I pay you to investigate, not flirt and collect phone numbers.”

“First off, you don’t pay me, Gibbs and second of all, I do get paid to collect phone numbers when I want to run a background check on someone who claims to be Davison’s sister. Wanted to compare her number to Jeremy’s phone records,” he said promptly.

Gibbs realised vexedly he may have just broken Rule # 8 Never take anything for granted. Not that he would ever admit to being wrong of course. That would mean breaking Rule # 6 too, Never say you’re sorry, because apologies were a sign of weakness.

“By the way, flirting is a perfectly valid investigative technique,” DiNozzo countered firmly. Seeing Gibbs getting ready to argue with him, he observed, “Case in point, take Michelle Davison…if that is her real name, because I’m not convinced that she is who she said she is. She didn’t respond to my flirting with her and that makes me wonder if Michelle isn’t Jeremy’s sister but his lover,” he said with a shrug.

“Or she just isn’t into you,” Gibbs said brutally, even though he realised that DiNozzo had been testing her, not trying to date her. As experienced an investigator as he was, DiNozzo wouldn’t get involved in anyone involved in an active case.

“Maybe,” DiNozzo conceded, “but I’m still gonna check her out thoroughly. If she is his sister and she’s living here, it’s a bit hinky. If they were living together in their old family home, that’s one thing. But living together in a rented apartment at their age is weird. It’s certainly not exactly normal. Besides, it’s a one bedroom apartment with one bed, so where does she sleep?”

And Gibbs mentally acknowledged that was a very good question. One that he would be asking Davison when they grilled him. He wondered when they would get medical clearance to question the man and if he would talk to them without a lawyer present. Davison already told Cate that he was set up. Would he continue to claim he was the victim and continue to accuse Laura Rowens of trying to kill him?

By the time they arrived back at NCIS, Tony had already teed up for someone from Cyber to be temporarily assigned the MCRT to check out Jeremy Davison’s computer. She was already waiting for them in the lab, chatting to Abby when they dropped off their evidence.

Tony grinned when he saw her. “Hey Larry. Thanks for the assist,” he said gratefully.

Gibbs raised his eyebrows and stole a glance at Abby who was so not happy about McGee and Cate being transferred off Gibbs team during the investigation into their insubordination. She was acting kinda frosty with DiNozzo. He wasn’t sure if the forensic scientist blamed him because he was still on the team, and they weren’t, or she felt like DiNozzo was to blame for what happened in the first place. If she wasn’t going to put her feelings aside so they could work this case, he was going having to have some harsh words to say because it wasn’t like he wasn’t pissed off with DiNozzo too.

What mattered right now was what had happened to Laura Rowens warranted a proper investigation and while he didn’t like working with outsiders, he appreciated DiNozzo organising someone from Cyber. Still he wondered how the pretty young agent would appreciate DiNozzo’s propensity for nicknames. McGee certainly didn’t welcome them.

“So Larry, where do you want to set up? Here if Abby’s cool with it, or you’re welcome to work in the bullpen, if you can cope with the pumpkin like surroundings,” he joked.

The cyber agent looked over at Abby. “Is it okay if I work down here?”

Abby looked at Gibbs who was acting positively charming by comparison to his normal demeanour when outsiders worked with the MCRT, so she shrugged. “No, that’s fine, Larry,” she told Callie Lawrence and pointed to the spot where McGee usually set up.

DiNozzo, who obviously knew the agent well, grinned. “Okay, I have to finish going through the phone records of Davison, looking to see if he had any contact with Laura Rowens and run backgrounds on Jeremy and his sister Michelle. Call me if you need anything,” he told Larry who nodded smiling as he exited the lab.

Gibbs was glad that DiNozzo had a contact at the base hospital, a Lieutenant Kim who he’d called to order that Jeremy Davison be denied visitors until after NCIS had the opportunity to question him. Meanwhile Jethro had called Sgt Hegarty to inform the security guards at his door that no one was allowed to speak to him until they gave the okay.

As Gibbs prepared to return to the bullpen, he wondered why Davison who claimed if Laura Rowens had invited him to her home as he told Cate, then why would he leave his car keys, wallet and his ID in the car parked outside the base. That didn’t seem normal dating behaviour and if base security had stopped him, he would have need to show ID.

By the time Jethro stepped out for coffee before heading to the bullpen, DiNozzo informed him he’d finished going through Davison’s phone records. He’d found zero trace of phone contact between Davison and Laura but there were many calls to the number that belonged to Michelle Davison, which made Tony shudder.

“If that pair are siblings then they have to be the sibling version of kissing cousins,” he grimaced. And even if he and Rowens were having an online affair, which I don’t buy, she would hardly be stupid enough to invite him onto a military base for sex where her neighbours are all military families and then kill him. The likelihood of them ratting her out to her husband would surely be pretty high because they’d probably take a dim view of her cheating on Major Rowens. Any sane person would go rent a motel room, if they wanted to cheat on their partner, not invite them to a military base, ” he said frowning.

Gibbs had to agree, if mentally that was a damned good point.

DiNozzo stood up and looked at Gibbs. “I should probably go grab Mrs Rowens’ computer too, so Larry can check it out. Maybe Davison was spying on her via her webcam,” he said, waiting for Gibbs to approve his suggestion.

Jethro thought about his suggestion and figured DiNozzo knew more about all this online dating and these sex sites they he did. He remembered how last year they investigated the case of murdered Marine wives participating in the Naughty Naughty Neighbours sex site that Marine wives Jaime Carr and Leanne Roberts set up with a bunch of other Marine wives while their husbands were deployed overseas. Jaime Carr appeared to have been murdered while she was doing a strip tease for an online client. Her murderer had cut her throat online; except she faked the whole thing to steal the profits that the site had generated.

Leanne Roberts had been killed by the husband of a Marine who’d help set up the site and had blackmailed her into having an affair. If he remembered, Abby had used the web camera to track down Mrs Roberts address, which was how they learnt she had gone missing and they’d discovered her body, so DiNozzo’s suggestion made sense, sort of. Jethro vaguely recalled another case where someone was spying on a teenager via their computer and the kid had no idea, so he nodded.

“Go but be quick. Need those background checks asap before we question Davison. Doc says that they’ll give us a few minutes with him later today.”

Grabbing his cred and firearm, plus his backpack, Tony shot off with a, “On it Boss.”

He was cursing that he couldn’t get Cate to start running the backgrounds in the meantime but pushed away his fury at HR breaking up his team and tamped down his emotions. Anger was something he didn’t have the luxury of indulging in right now, there’d be time enough after they solved the case.

That he and DiNozzo would close the case, he was in no doubt; hadn’t they worked as a two-agent team with an outstanding solve rate for a year before taking on Cate and more recently, McGee. It would just take them a bit longer which infuriated the impatient predator. He decided to start doing the background check on Michelle Davison and he wondered if Tony was right, and they weren’t siblings. He decided that he’d have Abbs run DNA on those toothbrushes as a priority as he took a quick detour down to the lab to tell her.

When he re-entered the lab he saw Abby and Agent Lawrence standing around looking at a picture of Laura Rowens in sexy underwear. “Where did you find that?” he demanded.

It was in Davison’s email, Lawrence told him. I also found these emails from Rowens, she said, handing him a bunch of emails she printed off for him to read. He was wishing he’d brought his glasses down with him, when he realised he could read them because of the type size was enlarged and he briefly wondered if that was Abby’s doing, before dismissing the thought as irrelevant to the case. Gibbs chose to focus instead on the content of the emails which appeared to have been written by Rowens to Davison. To say they were sexually explicit would be an understatement,

He put them down. “Do we know if these are real or not?” he demanded impatiently.

Agent Lawrence shrugged. “Not yet, I only just found them and printed them out. I’ll get right on it. I recommend that we get Tony to examine the emails content though. He’s a lot more proficient at using SCAN than I am,” she admitted. Plus, he’ll definitely be able to analyse them a lot faster than me.”

Chapter 3

Gibbs was wondering if SCAN was some sort of computer software, but he didn’t ask. He did not want to add to his reputation as a computer luddite (even if he was), so he was pleased that Abby was seemingly as much in the dark as he was.

“What’s SCAN, Larry?” she asked the agent from Cyber.

Apparently DiNozzo had got Abby using his dumb nicknamed for Lawrence too.

“Stands for scientific content analysis or some people use the term, statement analysis. It is a method a lot of LEOs use to analyse words people subconsciously choose to determine if what they say is accurate,” Lawrence told them as Gibbs nodded.

DiNozzo mentioned that several of the departments he’d been assigned before NCIS used content analysis and he’d attended training in it at the FBI when he was Baltimore Homicide. Gibbs wondered how the agent from Cyber knew that DiNozzo used statement analysis, though. Were they dating? He’d have to remind him of Rule # 12 – Never date a coworker, when he got back with Laura Rowens’ computer.

“DiNozzo’s gone to seize Mrs Rowens’ computer,” he said. “Abbs, I need you to process the two toothbrushes we brought back from Davison’s apartment, asap. We met a woman there who claims to be Jeremy Davison’s sister. DiNozzo doesn’t think they are siblings.

Agent Lawrence frowned. “Not questioning Tony’s judgement because he’s good at reading people, Agent Gibbs, but why would someone lie about being related to Davison?”

“Don’t know but if he’s right, then we need to figure that out,” he told her, walking out of the lab, heading to the elevator to go back upstairs to his desk and continue the background checks of Michelle Davison.

Later that evening, he and DiNozzo were sitting around in the almost empty bullpen, eating Chinese takeout, Abby and Lawrence having joined them briefly to eat before heading back down to the lab. Initially Lawrence and Abs had declared the emails and the sexy underwear picture to be genuine and Gibbs ordered DiNozzo to go and haul in Laura Rowens so he could formally question her, but Tony had cautioned him to wait. He’d suggested that perhaps they should ask her to come in and give a sworn statement since Gibbs had only got her verbal account after the shooting. Meanwhile, he worked his way through the emails that were found on Davison’s computer that purported to be from her.

Even from his very brief initial assessment, he was dubious that they had been written by Laura Rowens, chiefly because he suspected they were written by a guy. When he went through them with a fine-tooth comb, also comparing them with the emails she’d sent her husband while he was deployed which they’d pulled off her computer, the writing style was very different. When DiNozzo pointed that out to Gibbs, Lawrence and Abby the subtle and not so subtle tells that his statement analysis had identified, he categorically stated that in his opinion, Laura Rowens did not write the emails they found on Jeremy Davison’s computer.

That had been cause enough to doubt for both women to head back down after eating their Chinese food and recheck the results. Meanwhile, Tony and Gibbs continued to check out the Davison siblings and found that while there were tangible records for both going back nearly 14 months, that was not the case the further back they dug. While on paper, Jeremy and Michelle Davison had solid histories, verifying their prior records from Boston where they had supposedly lived before moving to DC was not as conclusive as it seemed. They found bank accounts, including rental payments for a real apartment building and could confirm that the companies where they both were reported to work did exist. Checking the bank statements, they found salary payments that matched their employment records, and even credit card payments for not just utility bills in their names, but also providing proof of shopping and social activity, all of which looked pretty legit.

However, no one seemed to confirm that they’d been there in Boston. It was all a paper trail, albeit a very sophisticated one – because the building manager where they were supposed to have leased an apartment, denied that either of them had ever resided there, not even under other names. Likewise, the businesses where they were supposed to have been employed also denied knowing or employing them, which was highly suggestive that their backgrounds were fake.

They had pretty much done everything they could, considering the late hour. Tomorrow they would contact the Boston banks where the pair were supposed to have held bank accounts and they’d interview Jeremy Davison and his ‘sister’ but for now there wasn’t a lot more to be done. Since this case wasn’t a murder investigation, Jethro was just about ready to call it an night and tell Abbs and Lawrence to go home too when Abby called Gibbs, tell him they had something.

Trooping wearily down to the lab, Gibbs looked at DiNozzo who was frowning in a way that he remembered he’d do when he used to do the lion’s share of the computer searches. That was before McGee joined the team and Jethro knew that it was because he got headaches from staring at the screen too long. He wondered how long Sweeten would take to investigate the complaint against Todd and McGee and they could return to the MCRT. He supposed they’d get a black mark on their jackets, but he didn’t care , after all, his own personnel file was littered with them. As far as Jethro was concern, it was all a storm in a teacup, aside from the inconvenience of them not being at his beck and call. He sighed, because so far, DiNozzo had proven correct about Davison. They may not have proven he was a rapist, but it was pretty clear that he was lying to them, and Michelle ‘Davison’ was lying too.

As they arrived in the lab, Abby and Lawrence looked suitably shaken. DiNozzo went over to the Cyber agent and gave her a hug.

“You okay, Larry?” he asked concerned as she hugged him back briefly and Gibbs remembered he’d been going to tear DiNozzo a new one for dating another coworker but had got caught up with other things and forgotten about it.

“Right, if you pair are done playing grab ass, can we get back to it?” he barked at them, feeling tired and frustrated.

Abby, who was sucking down on a Caf-Pow! started choking on it, while her eyes widened like headlights.

Lawrence stiffened visibly in DiNozzo’s arms before she said, “Wasn’t playing grab ass, Special Agent Gibbs. I don’t think…” she trailed off as DiNozzo shook his head and released her, stepping back to engage in a non-verbal communication with her.

Adopting a teasing tone, despite the signs of fatigue Jethro had witnessed in the elevator, his agent replied, “Aw, I think someone’s feeling jealous. Does the Boss need a hug‽”

Before DiNozzo could offer to hug him, Abby bounced up and down on her platform boots a couple of times before launching herself Gibbs, throwing her arms around him in a bone crushing hug so tight that Jethro was having trouble breathing. Despite this, reflexively he found his arms embracing her despite NOT needing a hug. Although he realised belatedly that she probably did, detecting subtle tremors from her as their bodies were pressed tight against each other.

After almost a minute, DiNozzo commenting jokingly, “Right then, when you pair are done playing grab ass with each other, maybe Larry can brief us on what they’d found, Gibbs,” he said as Lawrence snickered at him.

Untangling himself from the octopus-like embrace of Abbs was surprisingly difficult and he pissed that Tony had used his words against him, especially when Abby hugged him, and he was just giving her comfort…ah well. He could hardly head slap DiNozzo like he longed to do and not just because the Cyber chick would probably report him to HR. And he didn’t need them on his case again when he was already down two of his agents.

Holding his temper in check with a gargantuan degree of iron will, he gritted his teeth and growled, “What do you got, Agent Lawrence?”

Becoming serious immediately, she stole a glance at DiNozzo. “You were right, the emails were fake. Someone else sent them to Davison. Laura Rowens was set up by some who is good…like really really good. If you hadn’t examined those emails and compared them to the genuine article she sent her hubby, we could have ended up dragging her in here. We’d have accused an innocent woman of trying to kill Davison when she is the traumatised victim who was almost raped,” she told them, clearly shaken.

“Did Davison send them to himself?” Gibbs demanded angrily, knowing that the scenario with Rowens that she painted was a scarily accurate one.

When Lawrence and Abby had first declared the emails were real, he wanted to haul Rowens ass in and drag the truth out of her because he was so damned pissed that she’d played him for a fool. And knowing how badly he reacted to being suckered, it wouldn’t have been a pretty interrogation.

Fuck! He would have caused so much psychological damaged to a victim, Major Rowens would have probably come gunning for him, and not with a lawyer. But Hell, Jethro would have done the same thing too if some NCIS agent had treated Shannon like that.

“No, he couldn’t have sent them to himself. The email trail of the hacker was created right about the same time that Laura Rowens shot him in self-defence,” Abby admitted sheepishly, looking at the Cyber agent. “Someone else did it.”

Lawrence nodded, “Unfortunately there’s no way to back trace the hacker’s computer either,” she said in frustration.

Jethro looked at Abby seeking her opinion.

She nodded, “Larry’s right, Gibbs. It’s possible that he didn’t just set up Laura Rowens but maybe set Jeremy Davison too. This guy is damned good.”

“Guy’s a dirtbag, Abby,” he yelled in frustration. “ I want him.”

DiNozzo deescalated the situation by telling Abby and Agent Lawrence that the Davison siblings’ past was sketchy, and it was not holding up to scrutiny.

“I wonder if their background has been created by the same person who wrote the fake emails,” Lawrence asked, looking at Abby who shrugged.

Gibbs said, “Check it out, but tomorrow. Been a long hard day. Go home and start fresh.”

Lawrence shook her head, “Wait, we’re not done. We think we’ve figured out how the hacker might have zeroed in on Rowens, Agent Gibbs.”

Having been half-way out the door of the lab, he whirled around and came back. “Okay, where?”

Abby clicked her clicker thingy and a sex site popped up onto the large plasma screen. “Here, Gibbs. We traced the emails that appear to have been exchanged by Davison and Rowens back to this website called The Scarlett Letter.”

She clicked on a page and the sexy underwear photograph of Rowens popped up with her profile on it. She sighed, according to this, both her and Davison have the same fetish in common.”

Gibbs quirked his eyebrows at her, and she acquiesced. “Rape fantasy,” she admitted.

Tony asked, “How easy is it to fake a profile, Larry?”

Stifling a chuckle, she said, “Shockingly, not all that hard, Tony,” she admitted before clicking on her laptop.

A new page popped up on the screen and DiNozzo started laughing before he swiftly choked it back, seeing Gibbs ‘so not amused’ expression at the sight of the profile ostensibly of the boss dressed in black leather BDSM get up, including a riding crop, declaring him a Dom looking for submissives. His online screen name – Sexy Silver Fox left neither man in any doubt as to who had created the fake profile.

“Take it down, now, Abby! What were you thinking? I’m a federal agent and that’s effing likely to ruin my reputation,” he yelled, wanting to let loose a whole stream of curse words at her but mindful of HR gunning for him.

“HR will bury me when they see that,” he snarled. “Can’t believe you did this.”

Agent Lawrence told him soothingly, “No they won’t. Abby informed Director Morrow and got approval and I informed Human Resources and the head of Cyber too. And we only just put it up right before you came in,” she said.

Seeming remarkable sangfroid about him yelling at her, Abby asked him teasingly, “Are you sure you want me to delete it, my Sexy Silver Fox? As Larry said, I only just launched it and look, already you have nearly one hundred hits and seventeen private messages”, she said scrolling through them quickly. “Huh, twenty-eight are from ladies and the rest are guys,” she chuckled in her throaty contralto as Gibbs looked about ready to throttle her.

Lawrence sensing that he was at the point of exploding at them or having an apoplectic fit, deleted it quickly. “There, it’s gone, Agent Gibbs,” she said pacifyingly. After a few minutes tapping at the lap top, she looked at him, “And I removed all trace of it.”

Abby chuckled, “Except for anyone who screen shot it,” she remarked as Gibbs started to get red in the face.

Lawrence clicked again and Abby’s profile appeared from the screen; her Scarlett Secret on-line name declaring her to be The Mistress of the Dark Side. Gibbs glared at her, distracted.

“You belong to this group, Abs?” he said, outraged.

“Punching his bicep, she told him, “I set one up so I could explore the site, Gibbs, she told him exasperatedly. “Besides, if I was to join something, this is way too mainstream and boring for my tastes,” she chortled, seeing his grimace at her admission.

“Too much information Abbs,” he said, only partly facetiously.

He loved Abbs like the Goth daughter he never had or indeed knew he wanted, but he was just a happy not to know all of the risqué and downright hinky stuff she was into. As they said, ignorance is bliss and that was definitely the case in this instance.

“So now we know about The Scarlett Letter, we’ll get a warrant tomorrow morning to get into their web servers and track him down,” DiNozzo said, moving the conversation back on track.

Lawrence shook her head and Abby informed them, “The owner of the site has a reputation of fighting any legal attempts to breach the privacy of members. Realistically, even with a warrant it could take months to get the information,” she said grimly.

DiNozzo asked, “Okay, so can we hack in and find the guy this way?”

“No, that’s not gonna work, Tony.” Abby said. “If we want to track this guy we need core-level access with full admin privileges to do it.”

“Which means we’d have to be on the inside to do it,” Agent Lawrence explained to the two investigators upon seeing their incomprehension.

“Well, find another way,” Gibbs orders them grumpily. He hated when people said something couldn’t be done.

Tony said, “So we have to be on site, yeah?” Seeing the nods from Abby and Lawrence he suggested. “So we send someone in undercover.”

Agent Lawrence nodded. “That would work.”

Gibbs pointed at her, “Okay, Agent Lawrence, you go.”

She shook her head. “No can do, Agent Gibbs. I don’t have field status. My boss would fire me if I did,” she said. “And HR would back him to the hilt.”

Gibbs looked at Abby who looked like she was going to volunteer before DiNozzo leapt in. “No Abby, not going to be you. You don’t have field agent status either, and Morrow would never allow it.” He looked at Lawrence. “So I could go. Can you coach me on what I need to know to find our dirtbag, Larry?”

She nodded, “I guess, but what about asking Danny to do it? That gets around the field agent status issue.”

DiNozzo grinned. “I like it. Danny is almost as good as McGeek when it comes to computers,” he mused. “Do you think Danny would do it?”

Lawrence shrugged, “Probably, I’ll ask. I guess the bigger question is will Danny’s boss permit it?”

DiNozzo grinned, “If Danny says yes, I’ll talk to Ted,” he volunteered earnestly. I’m sure he’ll be sympathetic.”

“Who’s this Danny person?” Gibbs demanded impatiently, not all that keen on letting an outsider in on the case.

Lawrence replied. “Danny is my partner, Agent Gibbs and works here as a field agent.”

“On the Fraud and Financial Crimes team Unit under SSA Ted Ryles,” DiNozzo added, grinning at Lawrence.

Jethro belatedly realised that DiNozzo wasn’t sleeping with Lawrence after all. And while technically they weren’t breaking Rule 12, he didn’t like it, even if Agent Lawrence and this Danny person were clearly in a relationship, they weren’t on the same team. Still, they were coworkers and that was never a good idea in his experience. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about it since Callie Lawrence was only TAD to his team and her partner was on Ryles team, who clearly didn’t have a problem with their relationship. His inability to impose his rules on other agents was making him feel pissed off but realistically he didn’t have the power to act. Time to call it a night since there was little else to do until the morning.

Grumpily he said, “Right. Go home everyone. Meet back here at 0800 tomorrow.”

Entering the Lab the next morning at 0750 he was surprised to realise everyone had already arrived. Plus, there was a brunette with a spiky hairdo and elfin features there with them, laughing and joking. As he strode in with his coffee he was a tiny bit embarrassed to realise someone, probably DiNozzo had bought a round of coffee and Danish parties for everyone, including him. It never even occurred to him to bring in breakfast for the rest of the crew, not even when Cate and McGee were on the team.

Feeling defensive, he looked at Lawrence. “Did you ask Danny ‘bout go undercover in The Scarlett Letter?” he asked, dispensing with any social niceties. He saw greetings and farewells as wasting his precious time. That, and he hated engaging in superfluous conversations.

The brunette who had a pair of stunning cerulean blue eyes, long legs, and an athletic build, glanced over at him laughing. “Yes she did.”

Gibbs glared at her. “Who are you?” he demanded rudely, and the why are you here interfering in my case was his tacit question, yet not exactly hard to translate. He wasn’t exactly subtle.

Clearing his throat, DiNozzo stepped in to make the introductions. “Ah, I thought you two had already met. This is Special Agent Janie Daniels. Danny, this is Senior Supervisory Agent Jethro Gibb. And a word of warning, unless you deliberately want to piss him off, don’t call him Sir,” he finished up the introduction with a cheeky smile.

Scowling, Gibbs realised that he’d broken one of his rules – again, by assuming that Danny was a guy, because Lawrence was female. Now he felt like a fool. No one told him Danny was a female field agent, though.

Feeling he needed to say something, he asked, “How long have you worked here, Agent Daniels?”

“Going on six years,” she replied. “And Agent Gibbs, you and I have met before. It was on a case while Stan Burley was still SFA here, not long after I started,” she said, looking at Tony.

There was an awkward silence before Tony filled it, shooting Abby a wicked look. “Danny says she’s happy to help out. The Scarlett Letter is applying for a computer programmer on their website, so she and Larry are in the middle of working on her fake resume now.”

Feeling foolish, Gibbs ordered, “Get it done. We need that information ASAP!” Snagging the coffee that DiNozzo had brought him, plus a cherry Danish, he stomped out of the lab in a rotten mood.

Chapter 4

A few hours later, Gibbs and DiNozzo sat outside the premise of The Scarlet Letter in a black generic looking company car, listening in on comms as backup for Daniels up in case she got made. Jethro concluded that DiNozzo had been surprisingly quiet lately, ever since that old dragon, Bromstead lodged a complaint against Cate and McGee. Hopefully he was feeling chastened about getting their junior agents into trouble because he couldn’t keep his temper and mouth under control, Jethro thought snidely. This case would probably already be solved by now if McGee and Cate hadn’t been removed from the MCRT for no good reason.

He would greatly have preferred sending in Abby undercover and not to be forced to bring in another outsider. As for Tom not allowing it, well he’d had no intention of asking his permission. Rule # 18 existed for a reason! Had it just been his agents, none of them would have dared to argue with him about protocol. Unfortunately, when Agent Lawrence refused because of her lack of field status, it emboldened DiNozzo to object too, damn him.

Not that he would ever put Abby in danger but really, how dangerous could it be to go undercover at The Scarlett Letter? What could possibly go wrong?

Yet here they were, wasting valuable time sitting outside The Scarlett Letter because DiNozzo had promised Lawrence to watch her lover’s six. And that’s exactly why he had Rule #12 – never date a coworker because people got ridiculously clingy, and it interfered with his investigation. Okay, it might also have something his probie, g to do with Jenny Sheppard abandoning their partnership when she decided to end their torrid love affair.

Right now, he and DiNozzo should be over at the hospital interviewing Jeremy Davison. With two agents down, they didn’t have time for babysitting field agents. Yet when he suggested they split up, DiNozzo pointed out that if Davison said anything incriminating that later ended up being used in court it was a case of he said, he said, so they needed a second agent for corroboration. He was right damn it, but still it rankled because Jethro didn’t think wasting time here was solving the case.

Jethro decided to try to make conversation to pass the time. Usually DiNozzo wouldn’t shut up and as much as it usually irritated the shit out of Jethro, today he would welcome the distraction to help pass the time. Searching around for some topic of small talk which he sucked at, he thought about the surprising revelation that Daniels and Lawrence were lesbians. He hadn’t picked up on that at all.

So he asked. “What’s the deal with the Larry and Danny crap?”

Jethro wondered if it was some attempt to hide their status…after all, they did work for a federal agency and a lot of cops and feds were homophobic.

Tony chuckled, “When Lainie and Callie got together, they realised that they both had last names that were also first names for males. They just started calling each other Danny and Larry as a joke. In time everyone else just adopted the habit as well.”

“Thought Daniels was a male agent,” he said, a touch gruffly. Not because of homophobia but because he didn’t like being played for a fool.

“Yeah, I kinda figured that out,” DiNozzo huffed at him.

“You set me up?” he growled at his agent.

“No Gibbs, it’s just a habit calling them Larry and Danny. Besides, Danny’s been working at NCIS longer than I have. We all just foolishly just assumed you’d know who she was,” he retorted acerbically. “Shame on us!”

Hmm, so maybe he wasn’t chasten after all. More like pissed off! The guy did tend to get quiet when he was angry. But what got him so hot under the collar, Jethro wondered.

Time crawled agonisingly slowly as Agent Daniels managed to get hired for the position of computer programmer that was advertised on the web page. Once she filled out employment paper work and was given admin privileges and left to start her work, over an hour had gone by. Gibbs was irate that they were just sitting around on their asses, twiddling their thumbs when they should be working.

Yet when he complained that hanging out babysitting a field agent was a waste of their time, , DiNozzo got very tetchy. He was quick to point out Agents should always have backup and Gibbs figured that it was his not so subtle reminder of what happened to Chris Pacci and himself when they were working on their own. Pacci was murdered and DiNozzo was abducted by a serial killer and held captive underground in the DC sewers.

While DiNozzo might have had a point, Gibbs gut was telling him that this undercover op. wasn’t dangerous, and he chaffed against having to sit in a car and do nothing. He’d never truly appreciated that DiNozzo’s inability to zip his lip was actually a boon on stakeouts, making time go more quickly, not to mention if they were being observed, engaging in conversation was far less suspicious than a couple of guys sitting silently in a car.

As Jethro reach the limit of his patience and was going to order them to head to the base hospital at Quantico, his gut telling him that they didn’t need to be here in case Daniels was made, his inner voice, the one he ascribed to his Shannon rebuked him. It reminded him tartly that his gut had failed to alert him to the dangers that Pacci and DiNozzo were facing when they were off on their own with no one watching their six. So Gibbs’ bit his lip, even though he was silently raging about the ridiculous loss of time.

Almost another hour past before Daniels informed them softly over comms that she’d been left alone by the rest of The Scarlett Letter workers, who’d all wander by her desk to check out the newbie and chat. By the time she said she was good to go, Gibbs was ready to shoot someone. Once she began looking for their hacker, Abby and Lawrence started discussing technical crap with her that made Gibbs brain feel like it was exploding.

He’d impatiently been waiting for Daniels to get a move on and find the intel they needed but now they were doing so, he had the unforgivable urge to turn off the radio. Just so he didn’t have to listen to the mumbo jumbo technobabble that the three females engaged in to find their hacker. Giving himself a mental head slap, Gibbs was appalled at himself for thinking about it, even for a second. If any of his agents or anyone else’s agent for that matter ever turned off the radio on an undercover agent during a mission, Gibbs would personally tear them a new one that was big enough to insert his entire boot while connected to his foot! Even in a case that was as pedestrian as this was seemed to be despite DiNozzo’s paranoia, turning off comms was unforgivable, no excuses.

Almost an hour later they had what they needed, and Gibbs was more than ready to pull Daniels out, eager to end the undercover mission and start doing some real investigation. DiNozzo, who’d been acting unusually bolshie since McGee and Cate were transferred, argued vociferously that if they did that, The Scarlett Letter were likely to smell a rat and go looking for what Daniels had been up to. Since that was the last thing that NCIS wanted, they needed to be much more subtle than Daniels just getting up and resigning for no good reason after a couple of hours.

Gibbs snorted before telling him sarcastically, “I’m not sitting here all damned day, DiNozzo. We need to question Davison, asap!”

“Did I say that we should? I’m just saying that we need to provide The Scarlett Letter with a reasonable excuse for her leaving after just getting hired,” he retorted, with equal sarcasm.

“Then what are ya sayin’, DiNozzo,” he growled at his agent who infuriatingly grinned brightly at him and picked up his cell phone.

“Watch and learn, Gibbs. Watch and learn,” he said, despite being well aware that Gibbs was majorly pissed off with him already.

Making a call, he said, “Hey Andy, Tony here. That favour I asked you about. Yeah, need it now.”

Andy (whoever the hell that was) was obviously speaking as DiNozzo was silent.

“Need to pull our undercover agent out without arousing suspicions. Can you have a couple of Unies drop into The Scarlett Letter and ask to speak to the manager? His name is Devon Kane.”

He proceeded to spell it using the NATO alphabet, “Delta, Echo, Victor, Oscar, November.” He paused before continuing, “Last name: Kilo, Alpha, November, Echo.”

The person on the other end must have repeated it back to him

Yeah, tell Kane that Ms Davis’ partner who’s a Capitol Hill cop was involved in a MVA and is being transported to George Washington Hospital. Explain he has potentially life threatening injuries and she’s his medical proxy and you’ve had to track her cell phone because she needs to be there ASAP to sign consent forms,” he said, before listening to Andy speaking.

Gibbs went to speak, but DiNozzo held up his finger, gesturing him to wait. That further pissed him, mostly because his senior field agent was right about needlessly burning undercover identities, which annoyed Gibbs even more.

“Yeah, thanks, Andy. Appreciate it. Yep as soon as you can. I’ll text you the address.” DiNozzo ended the call, sending a text message to the guy he was talking to…although maybe Andy was short for Andrea, not Andrew. Gibbs wasn’t going to be caught out a second time.

“Who was that?”

DiNozzo eyed him casually. “Detective Kochofis,” he said. “Realising Jethro didn’t know who he was talking about he said, “From Metro PD. The MCRT worked with him on the Yankee White case and then on the Suzanne McNeil/ Bombe Fermentdeckung Fabrik bombing case.”

“Yankee White?” Gibbs asked frowning.

“Andy was called out to Major Kerry’s body, found dead in his car. He called me in,” DiNozzo answered.

“And on the basis of those two minor contacts he’s going to help NCIS extract Agent Daniels?” he asked his agent sceptically. Metro PD was not exactly on the best of terms with NCIS, having what Gibbs diagnosed as severe dose of inferiority syndrome when it came to Feds.

“ He’s gonna help me…NCIS, not so much.”

“Because he knows you were a cop?”

“Partly that and because we play basketball together when I’m not working a case,” he said shrugging. “The cops aren’t our enemies,” he said bluntly.

Gibbs recognised the rebuke for what it was. He had a less than cordial relationship with them. Not just MPD but police in general. Gibbs, even more so than most federal agents, felt superior to cops.

Jethro could read DiNozzo’s unspoken criticism that Gibbs was xenophobic since it wouldn’t be the first time that DiNozzo had accused him of being irrationally afraid of outsiders. Morrow might have also mentioned xenophobia a time or two, although Gibbs rejected the accusation. He didn’t have a fear of strangers, he feared no one…he just didn’t trust them.

He held to the maxim, if you wanted something done, do it yourself, although he extended it to include his people who were all schooled in his rules. Still Jethro figured that if he expressed his thoughts, DiNozzo would counter with the motto that the proof of the pudding was in the eating. An observation that would be hard to refute when a Metro PD patrol car arrived twenty minutes later to escort Daniels out of the building to her car.

Although his impatience to start interviewing Davison made him want to leave, knowing Metro would soon be there, he was damned sure that DiNozzo wasn’t going to go for it. While McGee and Cate were on the team, he’d been much more malleable. Ever since their transfer following the insubordination bullshit complaint he was a lot less tractable. It forced Jethro to recall how they had worked for a full year as a two man team and how DiNozzo had been a lot less easy to push around back then. Sure, he’d never defied Jethro, but he had argued with him. Quite voraciously at times when he thought Gibbs was making the wrong call…like when he’d wanted Daniels to go in undercover without any back up.

They were in the middle of a friendly debate about how much of what they’d learnt that they would reveal to Jeremy Davison during their forthcoming interview with him while they waited. DiNozzo favouring what he termed ‘The Mushroom Approach’ of keeping him in the dark and basically feeding him bullshit and Gibbs agreed that it would be stupid to reveal their hand. All discussion ceased as a Metro PD patrol car pulled into the parking lot of The Scarlett Letter. DiNozzo immediately alerted Lawrence.

“Hey Danny, the cops are here. Are you ready for your Oscar winning performance. Remember to think of something that made you super sad in the past,” he coached her.

Softly, she replied, “I hope I’m ready.”

“You’ll be fine,” he said bracingly.

Gibbs watched the male and female uniformed officers put on their covers as they exited the squad car and headed inside. Personally, he thought this charade was unnecessary, why couldn’t Daniels simply claim to have gotten a phone call with the bad news of her partner’s unfortunate accident? It seemed like an overcomplication, purely for the sake of DiNozzo’s flair for the dramatic. He sighed, at least they could get on with real investigation soon, he reminded himself, deploring all the time they’d already wasted.

“It wasn’t a waste of time,” DiNozzo rebuked him. “And having the Unies go in, and fetch Danny isn’t over complicating things, “ he argued, somehow able to read Jethro’s mind, since he’d bitten his tongue and somehow managed to stay mute about his objections.

While he always told his team to anticipate his wants, reading his thoughts was not what the former Marine had in mind.

“They’re there to add credibility to her story so that when Danny rings up later and tells them that her partner was severely injured and she to needs to resign so she can care for him, Devon Kane will not be suspicious,” DiNozzo said seriously.

“Seems like a lot of bother,” he grunted in frustrated.

“Exfiltrating an undercover op. without blowing your cover is as important as infiltrating. Why would you burn a cover when you can keep it in play? ” DiNozzo said seriously.

Gibbs huffed exasperatedly. Deep down he knew DiNozzo was right, they didn’t need Kane getting suspicion and kicking up a stink about their questionable tactics to get data they needed. Better to keep The Scarlett Letter in the dark, much as he would prefer to rub the slimy git’s nose in it. And should they have need of Daniels’ undercover ID at some later date, it made sense not to burn it just for the sake of expediency. Of course Jethro had no intention of admitting that to his agent or apologising either. Rule # 6 existed for a damned good reason – he hated being wrong and he loathed saying sorry!

Finally, when they got to interview Davison at the hospital, they informed him that since he was a person of interest in an attempted rape of Laura Rowens, he was entitled to have a lawyer present while they questioned him, he’d refused. He’d reiterated what he told Cate when she’d snuck into his room to scan his fingerprints, insisting that he and Rawlins were on a date and both of them were into rape fantasy.

When DiNozzo informed him, that Laura Rowens denied writing those emails they’d found on Jeremy’s computer, (which wasn’t true since they hadn’t question her regarding them yet, but they knew they them to be fake) Davison stepped up the lonely social misfit persona. He was good, almost sobbing in his denial, insisting that they loved each other.

As they were driving back from Quantico, both men were deep in thought, reviewing the interview, before DiNozzo asked him, “Did Laura Rowens mention that the rapist stuttered?”

“No, but I never asked her, ”Gibbs admitted. “Why?”

“I don’t know. Just like it’s something I’d have expected a victim might bring up, maybe,” he said, with a shrug.

“Well I guess we can call and ask her,” he said thoughtfully. “You doubting her now?”

“No. Doubting the veracity of him stuttering,” DiNozzo said shortly.

If his background was fake, as seemed likely based on what they’d uncovered yesterday, maybe the stutter was too. Gibbs hate to admit it, but stuttering did make him seem kinda pathetic and…well harmless. If he hadn’t already known about his sketchy background check Jethro might have been tempted to undo the handcuffs that kept him chained him to the bed when Davison plaintively asked Gibbs if it was really necessary. His whole unlucky in love, not a stud guise was a pretty damned effective act.

If they hadn’t already done a substantial background check on the guy and his ‘sister’ maybe they’d have had doubts too, like Cate had but then, she’d proven repeatedly that she was terribly gullible. As it was, with the doubts DiNozzo had about Michelle Davison, along with their fake Boston backgrounds, they gotten him to repeat the claims he’d made to Cate, but this time made in the presence of two witnesses. If he was lying, and Gibbs’ noted his raised pulse rate when they put pressure on him, it was well documented.

As DiNozzo was dialling Laura Rowens, Abby called Gibbs’ cell to inform him that they managed ID the hacker thanks to Daniels’ undercover work. His name was Victor Grotinski and he lived on Davis Ford Rd, Woodbridge, Virginia. Jethro thanked Abbs which was unusual because normally he just hung up on people in the middle of their conversations. Well this case was weird, or else he was off his game due to the unwanted changes to HIS team. Gibbs hated change.

He looked at DiNozzo who answered his question without him having to ask. “No answer on her cell phone. I left her a message to call back.”

“Abby found our hacker,” Gibbs told him, mainly to circumvent DiNozzo asking questions.

While they were sitting around in the company car on a stakeout, Gibbs might have wished DiNozzo would let loose his usual chatter to make time pass more quickly. Now they were back doing real investigative work, not wasting time babysitting an agent who should have been perfectly safe running a simple errand by themselves, he wanted to focus. The last thing Jethro wanted was to listen to any of DiNozzo’s crap when he was still pissed off with him for Cate and McGee getting ripped off his team. Sure he was staying focused on the case right now, and he finally had the scent of prey now, so he was hopeful that soon they’d be able to catch their dirtbag.

This was what he lived for, the thrill of the chase, knowing that he was closing in on a dirtbag; it made life feel like it was worth living. It also was when he was able to forget that life had dealt him a shitty hand and he was able to just live in the moment. To forget that dirtbags had taken away everything that was precious to him.

Gibbs desperately wanted to savour these precious moments: the thrill of the chase, the triumph of getting one over on the dirtbags who thought they were so smart, so invincible. Jethro wanted to anticipate the moment when they realised how wrong they’d been to underestimate him. He wanted to savour that feeling when they slapped the cuffs on yet another deluded fool who thought they were never going to get caught.

Arriving at the address Abby had given him, Gibbs got out of the car, pleased to be making progress, in spite of McGee and Cate’s absence. Entering the premises, Gibbs was disappointed to discover that they weren’t going to learn anything more from Grotinski. At least they believed it was Grotinski, although confirmation of his ID would need to wait until they got the murdered man back to Ducky’s autopsy table. Arguably, the guy they found slumped in his chair in front of his computer set up, with his throat slashed probably didn’t require the attention of a medical examiner of the calibre of Duck in order to establish cause of death. Although the victim had both of his eyeballs removed, whether that happened pre or post-mortem would require an autopsy to determine which. So, in the meantime, until they were sure it was Victor Grotinski who’d departed this mortal coil, Gibbs was going to call the victim Oedipus.

If Oedipus was Grotinski, it was extremely frustrating that someone had decided to clean up loose ends. It also pointed to someone else other than the hacker calling the shots but then that begs the question – what was the damned motive?

Jethro growled, looking around this dank, dark place, deciding that while they were waiting for Ducky and his foot- in-mouth autopsy assistant to arrive, they needed to start processing the scene.

Chapter 5

Telling DiNozzo to find him answers, Gibbs noticed that the agent had pulled out his phone and was calling NCIS for floodlights to illuminate the room, as well as a ladder. He also pulled in several agents from the agent pool, which comprised of agents who were awaiting permanent assignment to a team and requested someone with cyber training who could pack up Grotinski’s computer set up without destroying any critical evidence during transit. Before Jethro had a chance to goad him on being lazy or afraid of a little hard work and/or remind him that Jethro didn’t like outsiders interfering with his crime scene, particularly the inexperience agents barely out of FLETC that usually comprised the agent pool, DiNozzo read his mind again and countered swiftly.

Scowling at Jethro, he argued, “We need the extra help on this one, Boss. The sooner we can get trace evidence back to the lab to Abby and have her process it, the sooner we can figure out who did this. So goes for those computers of Grotinski’s – we need Larry working on them asap, not hours from now which will be the case if just you and I process the scene.”

The former cop shook his head, “Think who ever behind this is trying to clean up by getting rid of anyone involved? Maybe we should alert the Marines guarding Davison’s room and we should find Mrs Rowens, too. After all, we impounded her handgun as evidence, so if someone is targeting her as a loose end, she doesn’t have protection,” he argued.

“Fine, DiNozzo. But if they screw up my crime scene, it’s your ass. This is your scene – supervise the baby agents,” he warned dangerously.

“And that would be different to normal, how?” the suitably unimpressed agent snarked back at Gibbs. He muttered under his breath, “At least these rookies are likely to actually listen to what I tell them, and they’ll follow my orders, unlike the ones on our team.”

Gibbs heard his sotte voce comment though. He almost head slapped the shit out of DiNozzo, only managing to restrain himself from doing just that with great difficulty because of Ducky and Palmer’s much anticipated, yet untimely arrival. As they descended the steps to enter the cave like premises, the ME was holding forth about some obscure place he’d been to in his youth as Palmer listen raptly.

Jethro knew that Duck was likely to ignore him head slapping DiNozzo, he did it all the time. However Palmer had no damned filter and said things without thinking. With HR gunning for the MCRT, he did not want to risk Jimmy Palmer inadvertently dropping him in it by blabbing in front of that Delores dragon. Personally he thought Palmers lips needed to be sutured shut since the ME’s assistant constantly made dumbass comments!

Taking a moment to centre himself with a deep breath, he thought about the other points raised by DiNozzo about Oedipus’ killer trying to get rid of anyone related to the case. It was along the same lines as his own musing moments earlier, but Jethro admitted mentally he hadn’t thought that Davison or Rowens might also be at risk. It was questionable but still it was a possibility they couldn’t afford to ignore.

“Stay here and supervise the scene. I’ll head back to Quantico Base and try to find Laura Rowens. Call the Marines guarding Davison and give them a heads up that he could be in danger, and they need to tighten security,” he ordered as he made his way up the stairs, taking then two at a time.

By the time Gibbs arrived at the Rowen’s residence to find that Laura wasn’t there, and her mother claimed not to have seen her since yesterday, he was concerned. He called Abbs and had her try to locate her via her cell phone but was informed that it didn’t seem to be on. He put out a Be On The Lookout alert for her and her car and checked in with Sgt Hegarty who also hadn’t seen her.

Deciding he’d better check the house again in case she was lying in there with her throat slashed like Oedipus, he used his lock pics to open the back door, only to be confronted by a pair of disembodied eyeballs, with what he figured was the optic nerves still attached. Gibbs hoped they didn’t belong to Laura, and he did a quick sweep of the house, thankfully not finding her body anywhere. Although just because she wasn’t here, it didn’t rule out that she might still be dead.

Pulling out his phone, he called Hegarty and DiNozzo to inform them of what he’d found. He told his agent to get on to the civilian LEOs to request an immediate heads up if anyone turned up un the cops radar, sans eyeballs. Also to tell him to have Duck call in on their way back to NCIS to pick up the disembodied eyes for examination. Hopefully they were Oedipus’ eyes, and they were just looking at one murder.

Hearing someone entering the house he hid in case it was the dirtbag returning although it turned out to be Sgt Hegarty who was standing staring at the two eyes displayed on the Rowen’s kitchen countertop.

Sgt Hegarty was staring at the eyes, intensely. “Are those Mrs Rowen’s?”

Gibbs shrugged. “Too soon to say, Sergeant. We found a suspect in the case, with his throat slashed and his eyeballs removed. Could be his, could be someone else’s. Need to wait for the forensics,” he cautioned the head of base security.

“Did DiNozzo fill you in about a possible threat to Jeremy Davison?”

“Yeah, he said that someone might be trying to clean house. We have added extra security including extra MP to guard him,” he answered.

“Any sign of Rowens?”

Hegarty shook his head before gesturing to the eyes, “If those aren’t Mrs Rowens, could she be the suspect?”

“Anything’s possible, Sergeant. But why if she killed our hacker, would she leave eyes of the victim on her on kitchen countertop? Doesn’t make sense. More likely someone is trying to set her up. That seems to have been someone’s intent right from the start,” Gibbs observed.

“Unless she’s setting herself up and she did do it but figures we’ll think someone is trying to incriminate her,” Hegarty mused as Gibbs tried to hide his grin.

Like he told Hegarty, anything was possible and over the course of his career with NCIS he’d seen some pretty bizarre shit. He just didn’t see what Laura Rowens stood to gain from a double bluff. He still thought she was a victim. Okay it had been dumb of her messing around on the internet because she was lonely and missed her husband. It didn’t make her a murderer.

Of course, in deference to Hegarty’s suspicions, if he’d gone with the initial evidence faked evidence suggesting she and Davison were exchanging sexually explicit emails via a sex website, probably he would have dragged her into interrogation by her hair, kicking and screaming and tried to gut her like a fish. Cheating spouses were a particular trigger for him – cheating spouses of deployed military were and even bigger trigger for him. Thankfully, they figured out that Mrs Rowens had been set up in time to prevent him dragging her into interrogation, accusing her of lying to them and shooting Davison for some sick psycho game.

Back at NCIS several hours later, Gibbs was feeling edgy, impatiently waiting for DiNozzo’s return from Woodbridge with his litter of baby agents. He’d reported in that they were finished processing the scene, and in addition to Grotinski’s computer set up, he’d found a video camera hidden in a vent that he said had recorded the victim’s murder. Due to the low level of light in what he quipped was Grotinski’s bat cave, he was hoping that Abby or Lawrence could clean up the recording enough for them to ID their killer. Meanwhile, according to Ducky, Grotinski’s ex-wife had tentatively identified Oedipus as Victor Grotinski, based on photographs since he was still completing his autopsy.

Yet despite having made progress, Jethro was aggravated since this case seemed best characterised by the phrase ‘hurry up and wait’. As an apex predator, his need was to be actively hunting down the dirtbag/s or failing that, to be able to ‘exhort’ his team to find what he needed. Sure he had been a Marine Recon Sniper once and damned good at his job. It was a job that required great patience as he waited for his target to come to him, and he’d excelled at it. These days though he much preferred the thrill of the chase.

Perhaps because he needed to be kept busy enough to forget about all that he’d lost with that piece of shit murdered his girls. And hunting down dirtbags worked in keeping him too busy to remember. All of his focus was on catching his prey, ensuring that other families got the comfort of knowing that the dirtbag who hurt them, or their loved ones was locked up tight. Even better in Gibbs opinion was if the dirtbags decided to commit suicide by cop when they tried to resist arrest, the family got the comfort of knowing that the monster who hurt them no longer drew breath..

Without someone that he could target and without half of his agents, it was much harder to find leads he could hunt down. Instead Jethro had to hang around waiting until they had something from forensics. Hopefully, the toothbrushes they found at Davison’s apartment which Abs ran yesterday for DNA, would be available soon and maybe her pessimistic admonishment that it could take months for a match to come up in the multiple DNA databases, if any, she might be wrong. They might get lucky!

DiNozzo appeared a little while later in the bullpen to report on what they’d found at the crime scene. Jethro grimaced when he learnt that they’d discovered that Grotinski’s premise was also apparently his resided, and it was sans a bathroom. Which accounted for the multiple containers of urine and faeces they found which was disgusting. There were also almost no paper records of his clients, although considering his business activities, that hardly seemed surprising.

“Larry is going through his computers now and Abby is trying to clean up the recording of the murder. All we can tell from its current state is that the killer was female, and she had sex with him before she slashed his throat,” DiNozzo told him with a grimace.

“Ducky confirms that the eyeballs are probably his, based on his ex-wife’s statement of eye colour but that he will need forensics to verify. DNA will take time,” Gibbs scowled. He hated being told that getting answers would take time.

“Yeah, just talked to him. Wanted to know if the method of remove them gave us any clues about the killer and he said that the fact they were removed with the optic nerve attached suggests that the killer probably had more than rudimentary skill with a scalpel. Going start looking for any other cases of victims with slashed throat where the killer removed their eyeballs.”

“You think that it is a serial killer?”

“Yeah, I do. It has that feel about it, although I know statistically, we’ve already exceeded our allotment of serial killers this last 18 months with the Sgt Atlas and his Marine buddies and Jeffery White cases,” he said, his voice carefully neutral, since he’d been right of the thick of it, involved closely to both killers. Both times he’d been lucky to escape with his life.

“I mean, what are the odds we’ve stumbled into a third one? We aren’t the BAU,” he rambled, trying to sound dispassionate, but Gibbs could see he was clearly rattled.

Since serial killers were a whole lot more uncommon than other type of killers, especially your garden variety, and female serial killers were even rarer. Jethro conceded that the chances of encountering another one was extremely low. Still, they couldn’t afford to rule it out, just because they’d already exceeded their quota for the year, either. He told DiNozzo to check if Laura Rowens had any medical background and the former cop replied that he was on it.

Chaffing at the lack of activity, Gibbs was just about to grab his gun and creds, to see if he could find Rowens by interviewing her mother and her friends when Hegarty rang. He informed Jethro that she’d just turned up on base and he’d placed her in protective custody. After thanking the head of base security, the Marine sergeant offered to have the MPs deliver her to the Naval Yard and Gibbs gratefully accepted. If nothing else, he could take her formal statement about the night of the shooting and question her about Davison’s stutter and that sexy underwear picture.

Jethro knew it was going to be a while before she arrived, so he decided to get a cup of joe or three and pick up a Caf-Pow! while he was out. Otherwise, he might be tempted to storm Tom Morrow’s citadel, demanding to know how long before he got his agents back.

In the end, closing the case proved to be rather anticlimactic, seeing as the dirtbag was lying in the Quantico base hospital recovering from the gunshot wounds he’d incurred after messing with the wrong Marine’s wife. He and his ‘sister’ were taken when they allowed her to finally visit her brother and Michelle tried to sneak Davison out of the hospital. Of course, when he and DiNozzo interviewed the so-called siblings, they may have implied that Davison was no longer under suspicion because they’d found the hacker who’d used his and Laura’s profiles on The Secret Letter to set them up.

Gibbs told them NCIS was still trying to figure out who might have motive for wanting him dead that badly they’d hired Grotinski to lure him into sneaking onto a Marine base. DiNozzo explained to the seemingly clueless victim that there was a high probability he would have been shot by the Quantico base security, even if Rowens hadn’t been armed so that he was likely to be the target, not Laura Rawlins so they would be digging into his history, knowing that would make the brother and sister nervous. Before they left the pair, they’d apologised profusely for not believing his story, uncuffed him and inferred that he was no longer a person of interest.

In essence they played the ‘siblings’ like a fiddle!

When the pair tried to make their escape soon afterwards, they found the two NCIS agents and two Marine MPs waiting for them, their guns cocked. Michelle, who they discovered had been Grotinski’s killer, tried to reach for her gun which was concealed but was soon convinced that would be a really stupid idea. The pair were arrested and charged with the attempted rape of Laura Rowens and eventually, they faced additional charges of rape and murder as five more unsolved rape/homicide cases came to light based on DNA. Those crimes had taken place in various states including New York State, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, South Carolina, and there was a further victim across the border in Canada. With the cases spread out across state lines and two federal borders it explained how they’d gotten away with it for so long before anyone realised that there was a serial killer on the loose.

Additionally, they charged Michelle (not her real name, nor her brother’s) with the premeditated murder of Victor Grotinski. Tony’s processing of the scene along with his baby agents had yielded several hairs and Ducky found her saliva inside Grotinski’s mouth. And that was aside from the video footage, which had come as s a nasty little surprise for the murderess.

Further investigation determined that Michelle and Jeremy Davison were completely bogus identities created by the deceased Grotinski. Cyber Crimes, under the supervision of Agent Callie Lawrence’s as the cyber agent of record on the case were combing through mountains of Grotinski’s computer evidence, trying to trace a number of other false identities used by the killers. Plus they were hunting down the serial killers’ true identities via a media campaign which was going to take time to sift through the mountain of intel coming in from the public. It was plausible that there could be even more additional victims

Meanwhile, thanks to the DNA recovered from the toothbrushes, Abby had also been able to establish that Tony had called it correctly. Jeremy and Michelle were not siblings. They weren’t even distantly related. What they were was lovers as well as accomplices. They were also serial killers, despite the odds of the MCRT running into another lot in the space of twelve months.

While he was ecstatic to have solved the case and clear five related rape homicide cases that no one else had been able to solve, Jethro was unhappy that the various legal eagles would be arguing over who got to try the pair first. He knew that the lawyers would likely maintain that actual rape/homicide eclipsed the attempted rape of Laura Rowens in terms of the seriousness of the crime, although Gibbs was positive that Major Rowens and his wife with disagree about that. Especially since without Laura shooting her would-be attacker (who she’d confirmed, had shown no sign of a stutter when he’d been trying to attack her) the chances of solving the case were slim.

Still, with the open and shut case of Michelle murdering Grotinski, thanks to the video footage the hacker had recorded, maybe they would get first crack at her, if not her boyfriend. After all they had done all the heavy lifting in solving a bunch of unsolved murders. Although as DiNozzo was quick to point out, if this was a movie it would probably be titled Victim’s Revenge, as without Laura shooting Jeremy and Grotinski filming his own death, they could easily gone on to commit who knows how many more rape/homicides to add to their previous tally.

Now, all that was left was to try to get them to confess to their crimes, possibly by using the tried but true technique of convincing one or both of them that they’d been ratted out by the other accomplice. The Department of Justice added to the pressure, informing them that if they fail to gain confessions then agents from the FBI’s Behavioural Analyst Unit would be directed to take over. The DOJ’s rationale was that they were much more experienced in interview serial killers and rapists. Gibbs was furious but as Morrow had informed him, NCIS would cooperate since there were five murders riding on obtaining confessions. If they could secure admissions of guilt it would simplify the trial process, it may even result in them pleading guilty, saving both taxpayers the expense and victims’ loved ones a lot of trauma of a trial.

Gibbs knew it was a persuasive argument. One he wasn’t likely to win. So he knew that there was a lot riding on his ability to crack the pair of serial killers known as Jeremy and Michelle Davison. He needed to be the one who brought them down.

Jethro tried not to think about the feebees coming in at the last gasp and getting all the credit for their hard work – he knew it would only piss him off. Gibbs needed to focus on figuring out how to break these two before the profilers stuck their bibs in. Thankfully, the BAU were off working on an abduction case down in Texas where a dirtbag abducted a busload of elementary school kids and their teachers on an overnight field trip to a planetarium. So there was still time for him to finish what they started.

As the senior supervisory agent went in search of his ubiquitous dose of coffee at his favourite coffee shop, he decided to send DiNozzo in to soften up Jeremy while he took a crack at Michelle. Ideally, Gibbs wanted both of them to confess but if he had to, he’d settle for one flipping on the other. It would still be a win for the good guys.

After Tony was able to get under Jeremy’s skin by claiming it was a waste of time talking to him because clearly Michelle was the brains in the partnership and he was just the brawns, the murderer became increasingly angry, claiming that he was the mastermind not her. He blamed her for them getting caught, alleging it had been her stupid idea to setting up Laura Rowens after she befriended her on some chat group. After he’d dumped on her, it was fairly simple to crack Michelle which had proved well worth the effort. She informed them that before they got together, Jeremy told her he’d already raped a whole bunch of women, but their first rape/homicide was the one in New York.

It was at that point that the interfering powers that be ruled that Gibbs didn’t have jurisdiction to investigate any of the alleged rapes of civilians. He hated having to cede jurisdiction but at least they were the ones to get confessions for the five rape/murders and the attempted rape/murder of number six – Laura Rowens. It had definitely been a good victory despite being short two agents.

Chapter 6

“I wish you’d come to me, Timothy. I would have appreciated hearing about the insubordination complaint from you personally, not second hand,” Admiral McGee told his son coldly, as he started to lower himself into a booth at a bar, a few streets away from Tim’s apartment.

“Good to see you too, Dad,” he sighed, knowing that his father hadn’t called him up out of the blue and ordered his eldest offspring to meet him for a drink, just for a social catchup. Father and son were like oil and water. They didn’t mix well together- never had. In fact mostly, they avoided each other like the plague.

To be honest, John McGee expressing his disappointed in his son wasn’t hardly an uncommon occurrence for Tim. Usually he would at least wait for him to park his ass down on the seat and order a drink, order a beer before he started to criticise him. But his father had already ordered them drinks, two neat scotches, despite the fact that Tim didn’t really like liquor. Even beer was something he drank, more because it seemed to be almost obligatory as a federal agent, when if truth be told, he preferred a refreshing wine cooler or two or a mimosa.

Of course that wasn’t really part of the tough cynical federal agent vibe that he was desperately trying to project. Agent McGregor, his literary alter ego drank beer with the best of them!

Just as he didn’t really like the taste of coffee all that much, but it seemed de rigueur for federal agents. Gibbs mainlined the stuff after all, and Tim didn’t want the other agents to mock him for preferring to drink hot chocolate instead. He already copped enough shit over his obsession with Nutter Butters. What the hell was wrong with Nutter Butters?

Sighing, Tim wondered what he’d done this time to bring down the wrath of his father this time. He wished that just once his father could tell him he was proud of him. He thought about all the times he’d disappointed John McGee and how Sarah could be a brat and get into all kinds of trouble and still never earn the level of disapproval that he did, just by breathing. Might it have been different if she’d been the elder sibling and he’d been the younger one?

But like it or not, Sarah was the baby of the family who could do no wrong

“Well, have you nothing to say for yourself, Son?” John McGee fixed him with that look that said he’d let his father down.

Sighing, Tim said what was expected of him, “I’m sorry I disappointed you, Sir.”

“Philip gleefully filled me in when he realised I hadn’t been read in during our Friday night poker game,” he said.

“What…Philip…who?” Tim muttered owlishly before realising his father was talking about Philip Davenport. “SECNAV knows?”

“Yes, I must say, even for you, Timothy it is a new low. What has it been? Nine, ten weeks since you got a slot as a field agent and already you’re under investigation for insubordinate behaviour to a superior,” he said, his tone a mixture of embarrassment and anger.

“And you didn’t see fit to inform me, I had to learn about it from our mutual boss? What were you thinking? As the son of an admiral and a grandfather who was an admiral, you know better than that. All those years growing up as a military brat, living on base, you and your sister know damned well how the chain of command works. Insubordination?” he asked, condemnation leaking out of every pore.

Tim’s stomach clenched with the realisation that his father knew that he’d been charged with insubordination. Why would Davenport know about some petty complaint filed by that hag in HR who clearly didn’t know what an idiot Very Special Agent DiNozzo was, or else he’d pulled the wool over her eyes, like he did with most of the females at NCIS. Tony probably slept with her like he did with everyone one else. That would explain why he and Caitlin Todd were singled out, transferred off the MCRT, and being investigated.

“Well…Tim? Have you nothing to say in your own defence? At the very least you could pretend to be remorseful for the shame you’ve brought upon our good name. I’m just relieved that your grandfather isn’t alive to see it; he’s probably turning over in his grave in mortification,” John McGee told his son, who when McGee failed to show sufficient contrition found his father becoming increasingly frustrated.

“Maybe your Grandmother was right when she said it was for the best when you refused to enlist. As embarrassing as this is for me, a charge of insubordination would be even worse were you were Navy,” he said scathingly.

At which point, Tim’s last nerve snapped. Hardly surprising since it was already stretched beyond breaking point. Had been ever since he’d been transferred off the MCRT during the investigation by the Head of the Human Resources, Marla Sweeten (and wasn’t that just the world’s most inappropriate name for the old witch) while investigating her 2IC’s charge of insubordination towards a superior. And wasn’t that a joke right there because DiNozzo wasn’t his superior…the guy was a vainglorious cretin. He couldn’t even defrag his own computer, for Pete’s sake.

“It was just Agent DiNozzo, Dad. Everyone knows he’s an idiot. I don’t see what the big deal is.”

“The big deal Timothy is that he is your superior in the chain of command, and you respect the rank, even if you think he’s an idiot. I brought you up to know better than that, young man!”

“No one respects him, Dad. Gibbs said we don’t have to follow his orders, so even he obviously thinks he’s incompetent too,” McGee told him belligerently.

“If that was the case, then why would Gibbs promote him, Timothy? Have you ever stopped to ask yourself that question?”

“Maybe the Director forced him to,” McGee said sulkily.

John McGee laughed right in his face. “Yeah, right, Son. As if anyone could force Leroy Jethro Gibbs to do anything he didn’t want to. You must not know the man very well if you believe that for a second,” he spoke mockingly.

“If you want the truth of the matter, my sources tell me that he met DiNozzo when Gibbs was undercover in Baltimore where DiNozzo was a homicide detective and one of the youngest and brightest cops to earn a gold shield ever. Gibbs had lost his senior field agent and couldn’t keep junior agents on his team because…well that’s beside the point… and you’ve worked with the man. You’re supposed to be a genius,” he said dismissively, “so I’ll let you figure it why. The gunny was so impressed with the detective, he offered him a spot on his team and practically dragged him back to DC. Heard at the time he’d called in a boatload of favours to have him assigned to his team, which is not how these things usually work, Son.”

John McGee ignored his son’s gobsmacked expression as he continued to catalogue how ‘the idiot’ came to work at NCIS.

“Jethro managed to accelerate his recruitment, which as you know can take up to a year; signed off on him completing an expedited course at FLETC due to DiNozzo already having prior credit for over half of the subjects. Then Gibbs pulled more strings with SECNAV, got his probationary period cut down to six months and at the end of it, he further rocked the bureaucratic pencil pushers in HR by immediately calling in extra markers to appoint him as Senior Field Agent,” John McGee told him sarcastically.

Seeing Tim’s expression of shock, he snarked, “Hardly sounds like someone was holding a gun to Gibbs head, forcing him to do anything, to me. But I’m not the genius son. I’m just a simple military man.”

“Then why does he tell us that DiNozzo doesn’t get to order us around. And why are we the ones who are being held accountable for it?” Tim whined pathetically.

“For God’s sake, Timothy. Stop whining. You’re a McGee and McGee’s don’t whine like children,” his father rebuked him harshly. He looked at his offspring’s sulky countenance and snapped at him. “McGees don’t sulk, pout or show petulance either,” he said disapprovingly.

“You’re the investigator, I’ll let you figure that mystery out, Son. But let me ask you this. If you and Gibbs arrested an unarmed man who is suspected of killing a sailor and once he was apprehended, your team leader gave you an order to shoot the suspect, would you do it?”

Tim rolled his eye, but only in his mind. He knew his father would rip him a new one if he were to do so physically. “Of course I wouldn’t, but why would he do that?”

“It doesn’t matter why but for the sake of the argument, let’s say the dead sailor was Gibbs’ girlfriend. Tell me why wouldn’t you follow his order to shoot the suspect?”

“Because it would be an unlawful order,” McGee said mulishly.

“And…?”

“And if I did, I could be charged with a crime,” he replied reluctantly.

His father merely nodded and knocked back the last of his scotch before pointing at the second glass. “You gonna drink that?”

Tim shook his head, rising and going over to the bar to order a beer instead, using it as an excuse to think about what his father had told him. Returning to the booth, he sat down, using the excuse of drinking some of the ale to examine what John McGee had told him, trying to find a weakness…any weakness. Unfortunately his father seemed to have other ideas.

“So I hear you are quite the expert on sexual assault and rape, Timothy? How many cases have you investigated now?”

“Including the Laura Rowen’s case?” he said grudgingly. “One, but I topped my classes at FLETC,” he prevaricated, unable to keep the pride out of his voice.

“Well, you didn’t actually work on the entire Rowen’s case, did you, Son? So I’m not sure that it counts, but let’s say that we count that as a case. How many cases do you suppose Gibbs senior field agent has investigated?”

Tim was pissed but trying hard not to show it since his father did not appreciate disrespect. “A few,” he said grudgingly.

“”Try eighty odd investigations,” John McGee told him sharply.

“That’s impossible,” Tim blurted out angrily.

“You doubting your own Grandmother, now? She did the research,” John demanded sharply.

“Penny knows? You asked her to investigate DiNozzo, Dad. How could you?” he said feeling betrayed once again by his own father.

“Yes she knows, but not because I told her. You know she wasn’t happy when you applied to NCIS. She’s been keeping tabs on you just like I have. She was the one who investigated Agent DiNozzo after she heard about the insubordination complaints and while she’s no fan of law enforcement per se, she’s pretty impressed with this agent’s record after what she found out about him.”

“But not eighty cases… that’s not possible. Maybe if he worked on the Special Victims Unit as a cop or the Family and Sexual Violence Unit at NCIS,” McGee scoffed in disbelief.

Pulling out a list, John McGee told him. “Why not. He’s served as a cop then an agent for over nine years: Peoria, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and DC. How many years have you been an agent, Timothy?”

“One,” McGee said reluctantly.

“At Norfolk as a case agent. Correct me if I’m wrong but there’s not a lot of major crime happening there,” his father said dismissively before referring to a list.

“Okay well according to your grandmother, DiNozzo was a homicide detective in Baltimore where Penny tells me at least a third of his murder cases were rape/homicides. He and his former partner solved seventeen rape/homicides and worked on 7 others that they couldn’t solve, or which the DA declined to prosecute. That’s 24 cases,” John said contemplatively.

Tim looked at him truculently, his jaw protruding when he was feeling put upon. Feeling frustrated that his genius son was being wilfully blind, he continued down the list his mother had provided him.

“Officer DiNozzo worked for just over a year as a Vice cop in Philadelphia and put just over twenty rapists behind bars in that year alone. According to Penny, rape is a common occurrence in red light districts because most people don’t care about the sex workers. Mainly because so many of them are underage runaways or are drug addict or veterans with mental issues,” he frowned.

Penny talked to some do-gooder homeless mission worker there in Philly who said the sex workers had nothing but good things to say about Officer DiNozzo and that some continue to stay in touch, which Penny found was a good endorsement. You know about her views on sex workers,” John McGee confided as Tim rolled his eyes.

Penny was a champion of sex workers, had long campaigned for the decriminalisation of prostitution. She’d proudly attended protest rallies over the years, getting herself arrest more than a few times. She’d even ended up on the nightly news when McGee was growing up, much to his mortification. John McGee huffed, finding his mother’s political activism to be deeply embarrassing too.

Working his way down Penny’s list, John continued, trying to give Tim a wakeup call. “He’s been on the MCRT since joining the agency and solved twenty five more rape and or sexual assault cases in that time, including five counts of rape/murder of this Davison monster who attacked the Marine wife on base. He’s also managed in that time to close 15 cold cases from NCIS files.

McGee was feeling rather poleaxed by the statistics that Penny had dug up but still unwilling to concede he’d made a fool of himself. Unfortunately, the admiral was determined to flog a dead horse as he persisted.

“Penny also says that he’s investigated 23 more active and cold cases for sexual assault and rape as a patrol cop and a beat cop in Peoria and Baltimore. She said the numbers could be higher, but he spent a lot of time undercover, almost 18 months combined when he was a cop. One time he was undercover for a year, investigating and bringing down the mob.”

“So…as you said, he’s being a LEO for over nine years,” Tim shrugged trying to appear nonchalant.

“And yet, you, who’ve never solve a sexual assault or rape case, felt that it was incumbent upon yourself to lecture a very capable and experienced agent about how he shouldn’t rule anything out?” John asked, giving him a withering look. “Just out of curiosity, Timothy, who did the rapist turn out to be in the Laura Rowens investigation?”

McGee, gritting his teeth, ground out, “Jeremy Davison.”

“And wasn’t he and his accomplice, who murdered the hacker who was helping him, found to be serial rapists and murders?” John McGee inquired, obviously well informed on the goings on at NCIS. No doubt thanks to SECNAV

“Your point, Dad?” he asked snidely.

“That you would have done well to listen and learn from an experienced agent, since his observation that rapists lie was proven to be startling accurate. Jeremy Davison lied to your teammate Agent Todd, who was also woefully inexperienced, and she fell for it, hook line and sinker,” he said scathingly. “You’d have been far better served listening to your superior, than following the lead of a junior agent when it comes to investigating sexual crimes. Especially one who was barely out of her own probationary period, his father told him contemptuously.

“Cate’s a psychological profiler,” McGee protested. “And she used to protect the President,”

“Agent Todd is no more a psychological profiler that a medical student is qualified to carry out brain surgery,” John McGee snapped. “The Secret Service trains it’s agents in profiling crowds in threat assessment situations while guarding their protectants. Her pathetic attempts to use psychological profiling as an investigative tool directly contributed to a Navy ship being blown up and a Naval contractor’s premises incurring damage from an employee who she wrongly ‘psychologically profiled’ my boy. Besides, Timothy, she’s never investigated a sex crime case before, either, and had no business questioning Agent DiNozzo’s judgement,” he informed him acerbically.

“But she’s been a federal agent longer than DiNozzo has. She should be the senior field agent. He was just a cop.”

John shook his head in frustration. “Protection is an important job, obviously, but she has no experience in investigating crimes, Timothy. How she ever got hired, let alone placed on the MCRT which deals with high profile crimes, I can’t fathom. Nor can I imagine why Gibbs would want two neophytes on his team which is supposed to be the best of the best. Agent DiNozzo is a mighty fine investigator…his record speaks for itself, but he deserves to have more experienced agents backing him up, not snotty nosed novices that are told they can disrespect and ignore him.”

“Cate’s a great agent,” Tim blurted out belligerently, his tacit ‘and so am I’ may have been left unsaid, but he was pretty sure that his father caught the subtext of what Tim meant, if the scowl he gave Tim was anything to go by.

“It’s clear to me that Agent Todd obviously never bothered to inform you about why she left the Secret Service so precipitously, right before the official investigation into the terrorist attempt to assassinate the President on Air Force One. If she hadn’t resigned, she would have been fired for breaking fraternisation regulations. Another black mark was her failure to proper vet the journalism who tried to kill the President, who had terrorist links,” he told his son bluntly.

“I don’t believe it,” McGee retorted angrily.

“She was having an affair with one of the POTUS’ football carriers! Believe it. The only reason he wasn’t court-martialled was because he died. The terrorists poisoned him,” John McGee told him sternly.

Tim wanted to tell his old man he was full of crap, but he managed to bite his tongue… barely. Surely his father was making that shit up…he had to be. After all, who in their right mind would hire an agent who was sleeping with the President’s football carrier? Not Gibbs, that was for damned sure.

Tim was even more resolved to investigate the matter himself and then when he learnt it was false, he’d take great pleasure in telling the Great Admiral John McGee that as usual, he was full of bull-crap. And he’d be sure to check out DiNozzo’s record while he was at it because maybe there was another DiNozzo or Penny had must have been given bogus information or something.

“If as you say, she’s a great agent who’s been a fed for years, then she also knows that regardless of what Gibbs told her, the chain of command exists for a reason She cannot simply ignore it. The fact she did so and told a superior he was psychotic like her brothers and then started issuing orders to him, tells me she is far from being a great agent, Timothy.”

Tim was fuming, he couldn’t wait to prove his father wrong. He had no idea what a great agent Caitlin Todd was. If only she’d been the SFA this would never have happened.

“Even excluding her obvious lack of investigatory experience, her failures to look beyond her prejudices cost the navy dearly,” John told his son angrily. “Her biases and her delusion that she didn’t have to observe the chain of command contributed to the costly structural damage to the USS Foster. It was sheer luck Commander Rivers wasn’t injured or killed. And then the Navy was forced to pay out a massive sum of money when the person who was in her protective custody, managed to gain access to explosives and blow herself and the CEO of the Navy’s contractor up, killing them and damaging the company’s corporate headquarters. If I’d been SECNAV I’d have fired her ass over a year ago. Yet this is the agent who you’ve decided is worthy of you emulating?” he demanded belligerently.

Tim was thoroughly fed up with his father finding fault with him. He’d been coping with a heap of crap ever since that Bromstead hag, lodged a complaint against himself and Cate for insubordination towards a supervisor. Which was just so much crap. Who in their right mind would ever think that Tony DiNozzo was superior in any way to a computer prodigy such as himself or someone who’d guarded the President of the United States.

‘And broke fraternisation regulations,’ a small inner voice added, which he promptly discounted as nothing more gossip. Gibbs would never hire someone who’d done that and compromised the safety of the president. Tim would never believe that until he had verified his father’s  claims for himself, or Cate told him that it was true.

Chapter 7

Admiral John McGee could see the stubborn set of his son’s jaw. He wasn’t surprised. If he said the sky blue then his son would no doubt dispute that, just because his father said it. It seemed that they were destined to always butt heads.

His mother Penny had insisted that John was too hard on Timothy, who she utterly doted upon when he was growing up. Strangely, her attitude towards her granddaughter had seemed to be almost perfunctory by comparison – Tim had always been the apple of her eye, especially when he favoured her in intellectual leanings. Although she was decidedly lukewarm when he announced his plan to join NCIS, seeing it as a waste of his prodigious talents. Particularly when he applied to be a field agent rather than working as an analyst or as a cyber security expert and her support had been half-hearted at best.

Nonetheless, his mother had insisted to John that Timothy needed a gentle hand, not the stern discipline and the high expectations with which he had been reared by his own father and had thrived under. Perhaps he should have listened to Penny, but the trouble was that he’d seen his former wife and his mother smothering the boy with constant praise, and felt that they had gone overboard, instilling in him an exaggerated belief in his ‘specialness’. He had no desire for a son of his to turn into a raging narcissist and so, even when he was top of his class or earned a place at elite institutes such as MIT or Johns Hopkins, John McGee wanted his son to realise that complacency and smugness were never acceptable. After a lifetime in the navy, Admiral McGee was well aware that no matter how smart someone was, there would inevitably be people as smart or even smarter, so resting on your laurels was not a smart approach to life.

Plus, while he was admittedly quite proud of how intelligent his son was and admired him for earning his degrees, John was forced to admit that he’d been bitterly disappointed in his son when he chose not to enlist in the navy, like his old man and his Grandfather Nelson McGee. John had followed his old man into the navy, finally achieving the rank of Admiral, like his father had, and he was hoping that Timothy would want to emulate the two older generations.

His son tried to make excuses his decision not to enlist, claiming it was because he got sea sick but John knew that was merely an excuse, and a rather pathetic one at that. With Timothy’s talent with computers, and his master’s thesis on string theory, the admiral could have easily ensured that Timothy never had to serve at sea. Certainly, there were many individuals doing research who’d never set foot onboard a navy ship during their own distinguished careers – at least unless the ships were docked at port. The truth was that his son didn’t want to follow in his father and grandfather’s footsteps but wasn’t man enough to admit it.

With his failure to follow in their footsteps, John had broadcast his disappointment so that his son knew his father felt like he’d let them down. Their relationship, which wasn’t great before that had become even more rocky, and John knew his Mother was vehemently opposed to Timothy joining the navy cops. She had no doubt planned to recruit him for some elitist think-tank, wanting him to follow in her footsteps too. In the end, he had ended up pleasing neither his grandmother or his father, and their relationships with him had suffered as a result.

So even though he knew Timothy had achieved his stated goal and was granted a position as a field agent, and not just on any team but earning a spot on the elite MCRT, John felt that perhaps his son was finally looking to develop a more balanced side rather than being totally focused on computers. Manly activities such as handling a firearm and learning hand to hand combat (opposed to playing his computer fantasy roleplay games) was stuff he’d previously offered to teach a young Tim. However, at the time, his proposals to be met with barely civil refusal by his son. Maybe now they would have more things in common he’d hoped, especially when John had learnt that his team leader was former Marine and not just any former Marine. Former Gunnery Sergeant Leroy Jethro Gibbs had a reputation as a sniper that was larger than life.

Yet, just over two months into his probationary period as a field agent, Timothy had been brought up on charges of insubordination, along with another agent just nine weeks out of her own probationary period. Which left Admiral John McGee at a complete loss and with a whole bunch of questions.

Like what the hell was his supervisor, former Marine Gunnery Sergeant Gibbs doing, hiring two rookies for the elite case response team? A team that consisted of half of his four-person team with no investigative experience or skills did not seem to be a wise decision. One might get away with having two complete rookies on a team of eight or ten agents but four only agents. That was not the sign of sound leadership.

Sailors and Marines deserved the best of the best when they needed navy cops to investigate crimes that affected them, and hiring two newbies on such a small team just didn’t afford them that expertise in the Admiral’s opinion. And as a flag officer in the US Navy, his informed opinion mattered more than most.

He also couldn’t fathom why a Marine reservist like Gibbs would foster a workplace where insubordination was tolerated in a job where it was crucial to observe the chain of command. Rather than cultivating defiance, he should have been firmly squashed it like a bug, long before it reached the state where formal complaints were levelled at the junior agents. In his opinion as a CO, the leader of the team was always culpable for the team members actions and failures, particular when they weren’t isolated one offs. One rookie agent might have an attitude that required readjustment but two agents – well that indicated structural issues within the team, specifically it pointed to deficiencies of leadership.

So when a maliciously amused Davenport gave him the heads up, knowing it would be embarrassing to John, he’d used his contact at NCIS to do some digging. What he found about the MCRT disturbed him greatly. But when he used his extensive network of military contacts to dig up additional information, John McGee’s anxiety levels skyrocketed. He already that Leroy Jethro Gibbs was a sniper of extraordinary ability with an enviable record. He had the patience of the Sphinx, eye hand coordination that was freakish and even sans a spotter, an innate ability to be able to read conditions and adjust his shot instinctively. The gunny could lie in a sniper’s nest for hours, sometimes days at a time, practically immobile until he could gain a clear shot at his target before taking the critical shot.

Yet John McGee’s digging uncovered a far more disturbing picture. The man was a legend and yet after the tragic murder of his wife and child, something changed. There was chatter (solid chatter) that Gibbs had gone rogue, killing the head of the drug cartel believed to be responsible for his family’s death, down in Mexico while he was on compassionate leave. An official investigation had been launched by the Corps Military Police with a Lieutenant Lara Macy assigned to the investigation. After Sitreps to her boss indicating she was close to charging the gunny with premeditated murder of a Mexican national (albeit a drug lord), she had suddenly declared he was innocent, that she had been wrong. It sure smelt of a coverup to Admiral McGee, especially since Gibbs and Macy had both left the Corps and started working for NCIS. Even more suspicious was that Gibbs worked under the senior supervisory agent Mike Franks, another former Marine – whose agent had been killed guarding Gibbs’ wife and daughter.

Of course, the fact that NCIS had eagerly sent Gibbs off on wet work missions to terminate various spies and arms dealers made John McGee’s suspicions seem even more credible. Then eight years ago, they brought him home to DC and he was put in charge of the DC major case response team, the ‘jewel’ in the crown of the agency. Even though Gibbs had a brief stint in the Marines where he served in the MPs, and a couple of years serving under SSA Michael Franks as a field agent, getting a promotion to SSA of their agency’s elite investigatory team seemed unusual. Admiral McGee detected undercurrents of quid pro quo in his elevation to senior supervisory agent. Still, he had to give the devil his due, Gibbs team had racked up an enviable closure rate, particularly when it came to murder cases.

John’s cynical side (and let’s face it, one did not achieve the rank of a flag officer in the US Navy without acquiring a good dose of cynicism), wondered if Gibbs’ ability to get inside the head of killers was due not just to his personal experiences for NCIS as an assassin but his off-the-books personal tête-à-tête with a Señor Hernandez. It was possibly a variation on a theme of employ a thief to catch a thief but in this case, employ a killer to catch a killer. The more he learnt, the less sure John McGee felt about such scheme, which was morally and ethically unpalatable to him. Not to mention having a killer who’d committed a premeditated murder as a navy cop, covered up by people at the top, was also highly illegal.

Shep was a former officer who served under John as a fresh-faced lieutenant, who had left the Navy twelve years ago before joining NCIS as a federal agent. Special Agent Craig Shepperton had filled his former CO in about the DC major case response team. Shep, now also a senior supervisory agent himself (and well known for being a stickler for the rules) coincidentally had been the SSA that the Human Resources Department had seen fit to transfer his son to while they investigated the complaint of insubordination against Tim. John was grateful to Supervisory Special Agent Shepparton, who was still very much of the straight shooter he’d remembered when the lieutenant served under his command, and for that, John was mighty glad.

Shep had never been one to blow smoke up his superior’s asses just to get ahead, and he certainly hadn’t changed one whit. In fact, he’d been pretty blunt about Tim’s attitude. He’d told John that his son was passive aggressive, smugly superior, and had been openly disrespectful to his former senior field agent on numerous occasions before he was transferred. He also spoke disparaging of him for having a Phys Ed degree from OSU.

Shep said that Tim’s former SFA Anthony DiNozzo had mention to a fellow SFA that during his case after being assign to the MCRT as a probationary field agent, Tim had reassured DiNozzo that he was not after the SFA’s job. The fact that he as a probie even mentioned such a likelihood to an agent who had nine years seniority and experience as a LEO was quite shocking to his father. Why would you even say something like that unless you’d already thought about it. As his former lieutenant pointed out, that was highly suggestive that right from day of his probationary period, he saw himself as being the senior field agent’s equal at the very least.

When John heard that gem of information, he was suddenly very relieved that his son hadn’t signed up with the navy. With a such an arrogant and ambitious attitude, had Tim seen fit to make a remark like that to a superior, it would have been highly embarrassing for John and his grandfather, At least at NCIS, John was thankfully, somewhat removed from such an extreme degree of egotism of his son.

Tim’s father couldn’t imagine such an attitude going over well with the other agents, either. Especially those agents who like Shep were former Navy or Marine members. It was akin a seaman or ensign on their first mission aboard a ship, reassuring an XO that they weren’t after their job. It showed not only a lack of understanding about the skills and the complexities required of an XO, and vastly overestimated the importance of their own status, skills, and abilities. Sadly, his conversation today with his son had seemed to bear out that smug if deluded attitude.

While Penny and his ex-wife Lydia had often berated John, claiming that his tough unbending expectations of his son damaged his self-esteem, yet that hardly seemed to be the picture that Shepparton was painting. He said that since being assigned to Shep’s team during the investigation, McGee was adamant that Gibbs had told him and Cate when he was assigned to the MCRT that DiNozzo didn’t get to give them orders. And that was why Shep had decided that for the duration of his stay on his team, his SFA, Anna Lopez, a former Marine master sergeant would give Tim orders and he would confer with her privately.

He also assigned her to train Timothy because his fitness quals were to be charitable, average at best and everyone else on Shep’s team had fitness, hand to hand and firearms qualifications that were outstanding. Agent Lopez was determined to remind him about the importance of the chain of command, Craig had informed him wryly. The Admiral had shared his amusement but also felt undeniably embarrassed that a son of a navy admiral whose grandfather had also been an admiral would need such a reminder – it was mortifying to say the least.

What John was having difficulty with was that Tim and his relationship, always problematic had been steadily deteriorating over the years. He knew his parenting style was autocratic – it was how his own father had raised him, and he probably treated Tim more like a recruit than a child growing up. Yet he had loved his son, even if he’d failed to say so as often as he should have or as explicitly as Tim needed to hear. And yet, he’d paid for his college education, including his post graduate degree and all of his accommodation so that his son never had to worry about supporting himself while he studied. When he graduated early from high school, John had bought him a new car as a graduation present to demonstrate how proud of him he was. He let Tim choose the car, despite him writing it off not long after he gave it to him, and he’d always provided well for his children, even after his marriage broke down. Perhaps he’d been more permissive with Sarah because she was the baby of the family…and she was a girl. But also because he was her hero, while to Tim, he acted as if John was a monster to be feared and avoided, certainly never looked up to.

So, when he learnt about the trouble Timothy had gotten himself into at work, despite him never truly approving of him joined NCIS rather than the navy, his natural instinct had been to reach out and try to help his son. As an Admiral, he had influence with SECNAV, and he was not above using it to help his only son. However, as he began to delve into what had occurred and perhaps more importantly, ask why it happened, he’d uncovered some troubling information about the major case response team.

He was particularly perturbed by what he discovered about his son’s team leader, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, and not just the whole letting him skate over killing Hernandez, either. Gibbs was autocratic and drove his team into the ground to close cases, oftentimes not even letting them take a break to refuel or sleep. Yet the man himself was constantly disappearing to purchase coffee which he was apparently addicted to. He set impossibly high standards that no one could achieve and was miserly with any form of praise for a job well done. He was reputed to have difficulty expressing himself, but Gibbs was able to communicate more than adequately when yelling at his team for infractions – real or imagined. It was like he was a clone of John but much worse.

John was told, and not just by his former lieutenant that Gibbs had massive anger issues that he’d take out on his team, physically head slapping the male agents…ostensibly to deliver a wakeup call and make them focus. And that right there was a deal breaker because not only was it against DoD regulations, but it indicated to him that Gibbs was a poor leader. Perhaps if he permitted his team to take adequate breaks for meals and sleep, his team wouldn’t have difficulty concentrating and there would be no need to resort to physically abusive behaviour. It was something else that the people at the top turned a blind eye to, when it came to Gibbs. What the hell was it about this guy?

John knew he was not exactly father of the year material, since Timothy avoided being around him at all costs. And yet his son had willingly accepted a position on Agent Gibbs team who was more autocratic, more emotionally remote, more demanding of his team than he had been with Tim. He was also physically and emotionally abusive and yet his son had eschewed his own father’s overbearing parenting style, but willingly signed up to be harangued by a bullying, domineering dictator. It confused the hell out of him and wondered yet again if this was his fault.

One thing John McGee promised himself, if his influence helped give Tim a second chance to be a field agent after this inauspicious start (which was uncertain as he was in his probationary year), then he’d pull strings to make sure Tim remain under Shepparton’s leadership. Going back to Gibbs’ team was not an option. Craig had hinted that the reason Gibbs wanted him on the MCRT was chiefly because of his computer skills and propensity to hack so he could gain illegal access into databases and get Gibbs answers without waiting for legal methods, which required him to wait. That a Marine sniper of Gibbs skill, who would wait patiently for hours at a stretch to take the perfect shot, couldn’t even wait to obtain information by going through legal channels seemed incomprehensible to John.

At the same time, it rang true as to why he would have two rookies on the MCRT. Tim was nothing more than a convenient tool for Gibbs to use so he could achieve his goal. When his luck ran out and he was charged with hacking, it would be Tim who paid the price by going to jail, not former gunnery sergeant Gibbs. Well Admiral John McGee was damned if he was going to let that selfish bastard ruin his son’s life. He may be a shitty parent (Tim obviously thought so), but the Admiral was damned if he was going to stand by and let Gibbs ruin his son’s career for some fucked up notion of loyalty that Timothy seemed to have for the man.

Shepparton on the other hand was a stickler for the rules . He would never allow Tim to illegally hack information just to solve a case. John was fairly certain Gibbs, however, would have no qualms about doing so if for no other reason than it helped him clear a case sooner. The admiral had genuine fears about the arrogant team leader’s distain for the law and what could happen if McGee continued to hack for Gibbs. Would the gunny put his hand up and take responsibility when the proverbial shit hit the fan, or would he throw Tim under the bus to save himself? It was clear to John (who’d been accused of being an arrogant narcissist on more than a few occasions), that Gibbs had a messiah complex so massive that it was hard to see how the man managed to fit through doorways.

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