Gibbs stood in the office of Director Leon Vance, letting the silence carefully poke its way through Vance's patience. Once it did, there was absolutely no pleasure in the conversation to come.
"I'm assigning a new member to your team Gibbs."
Gibbs' piercing blue eyes narrowed as he looked at Vance. "Are we not doing a good enough job for you?" He asked, a calm frustration floating in his deep voice.
"How well your team is doing has nothing to do with it. There are some new arrivals and they need somewhere to go. We are short staffed, Gibbs. You know that as well as I do. It's time for one of us to make the step to fix that problem."
"Training a new probie right now can jeopardize the whole team. It takes too much time. We've got cases that we need to solve and training someone will only hold us up." Gibbs argued. If his frustration was not obvious before, it was seething now.
"Well, to make the process easier for you, I want you to pick. If you choose to not make that decision, I'll do it for you. Either way, you will get a new member of your team. The only question will be if you want to make that process easy or difficult on your end of things." Vance said, a small, but clear smirk on his face.
Gibbs noticed a stack a manila folders resting on the corner of Vance's desk. He opened the one on the top and shook his head. "Hollywood marineā¦" He muttered, unimpressed, and then put that file to the side. He opened the second one.
"Stole from a convenience store a year ago. Carton of cigarettes and a pack of Rollo's. Promising." Gibbs continued to the third after not so gingerly dropping that folder on top of the first.
Opening the third, he muttered, "Oh, good. This one spiked on the psyche eval. I'm sure nothing could go wrong with that one." He locked eyes with Vance as he threw that one on top of the stack of failures and grabbed the second to last of the recruits. He opened that folder, determined to find something wrong. All he had to do was read the name and he felt an old scar tear open. His chest tightened as he looked at the picture of the prospect.
"Gibbs? You okay?" Vance asked, standing up from his chair. He glanced at the file and the confusion only grew. "She is the strongest of the candidates. I thought you would like her. Reminded me a lot of you actually."
"No." His voice was firm. Almost harsh.
"What do you mean? She's clearly the best pick."
"She's unstable." Gibbs answered gruffly.
Vance shook his head. "If you say so. Take the files and get back to me when you've made your choice." Vance said before sitting back down, watching as Gibbs picked up the files and walked out of the room. The look on Gibbs' face when he had read the file confused Vance to no end, but he shrugged it off and looked down at the paperwork on his desk.
Only an hour passed before Gibbs returned to Vance's office with all the files.
"None of them are worth the training." Gibbs said, dropping them on the Director's desk.
"So, you pick none of them?"
"That's right." grumbled Gibbs.
"I'll pick for you then." He retorted, not appreciating Gibbs' unwilling attitude towards the new arrivals.
"No. Every single one of them will put my team at risk."
"You don't have a choice Gibbs." Vance said as he slid one of the manila folders towards him. "Meet your new team member."
Gibbs picked up the folder and opened it. As soon as he read the name, he gave Vance an angry look. "I told you she's unstable! You can read up on what she did! I know you've looked into her case. You must have if you have her information."
"She had a reason."
"People that kill at that young of an age are screwed up."
"You don't even know her."
That caused Gibbs to become silent. This made Vance curious, but he didn't say anything about it.
"She is the best choice. Look at her training. She managed to turn her life around at the drop of a dime. Went from delinquent to United States Marine. Has a Purple Heart. Honorably discharged. Doesn't that mean something to you?"
Gibbs shook his head. "Not this time."
"You're going to throw Semper Fi out the window then? As much as that means to you?"
This stopped Gibbs. Silence followed for a moment before he finally said, "I'll give her a week." Then stormed out. He would have to prepare to meet the new team member.
Two days later, the silver doors of the elevator opened, revealing the warm colored walls and the agents scurrying around the room, many of them carrying papers and folders. A young woman made her way into the huge office floor. She was slender and dressed in a light blue button up blouse and black pants. Her light brown hair fell just below her shoulders and her bangs were swept to one side. Her tan skin caused her deep green eyes to stand out.
She walked to a group of three people, who were all sitting in the bullpen at desks all near each other. They seemed to be arguing. From what she could make of it, the nerdy one of the three was a victim of some prank. She guessed that it was the obnoxious one that pulled it. The only woman in the group rolled her eyes, and in doing so, she locked eyes with her.
"Ziva. What are you looking at?" Asked the obnoxious man as he turned to see. When he saw her, a confident smile grew on his face. He nearly jumped to his feet and rushed over to her.
This caused the other man to look. His jaw dropped when he saw her, and a nervous, scared look came across his face.
"Hel-lo" Tony said, getting a little too close, causing her to back away. "I'm Anthony DiNozzo. Friends call me Tony." He said, as if he practiced that line in the mirror every day.
"Hi, Anthony." She said, emphasizing his name. "I'm Robyn." She said, taking a step away from him.
A crushed DiNozzo, feeling the sting of rejection, made his way back to his desk, but didn't sit down. He had a look of stubbornness on his face, not giving up on getting the girl that easily.
"Do you know where I can find Gibbs?"
"You don't have to look too much harder." Appeared a new voice, causing Robyn to jump. She turned to see a silver haired, tall man standing in front of her.
A flicker of recognition hit her face, but she seemed to smother it as she just nodded. "Nice to meet you." She said, looking for a handshake. The request was denied as Gibbs walked past her, sitting at his desk. Her hand dropped her side, a hurt look flashed across her face. She shook it off and stood in front of his desk.
"Your desk is right there." Gibbs said without looking up.
Robyn just nodded, knowing Gibbs didn't see it. She walked to her desk and sat down heavily.
Tony looked stunned. "Boss?"
"That's right. Meet your new teammate."
