Chapter One

"Gibbs," Picking up the phone, he placed it to his ear. He didn't even wait to hear a voice to know who it was. It was just the start to the week and already he was dreading it.

"Up here now." Vance demanded before Gibbs sighed.

"On my way," He answered before hanging up the phone. As he did he noticed that Tony, Ziva, and McGee all reached for their bags ready to be told to gas up the car and grab their gear for a new mission. "Not yet," He stood up as they

Putting their bags back down, Ziva went back to sharpening her army knife as Gibbs walked up the stairs. DiNozzo was on his computer attempting to type up his report from the last case they had closed. Meanwhile, McGee was tapping the tip of his pen on the desk as he stared at the computer screen, most likely thinking of a plot for his next novel. They had just finished closing out a case dealing with a Naval Officer that was raping young women in boot camp and he could see his team was drained. It wasn't the worst case they had seen, but they had been working round the clock almost every day of the week.

As soon as he headed up the stairs, Tony ripped out a page in a car magazine. Scrunching it up into a ball, he waited until Gibbs walked into the Director's office before throwing it up in the air for entertainment. Taking the first crumbled up ball of paper, he tossed it at Ziva, hitting her in the chest taking her attention off her knife. Scowling, she gave him a look of distain as he ripped out another piece and crumbled it up.

"So Ziva, what are you making for dinner?" Tony tossed a ball up into the air and caught it. He continued to toss the paper up and down until it was caught by Ziva who was now standing by his side. Throwing the paper into the garbage, she leaned over his desk looking him in the eyes.

"Why do you ask Tony?" She smirked. "Do you think that you are coming over?"

"Well, I am still the only one who hasn't come over for dinner." He reminded her. "But, I might have a hot date tonight so even if you did invite me I might have to turn it down."

"She's a great cook." McGee chimed in as he came out of his trance. "That filet the other night was fantastic."

"Maybe you should write about it in your next novel McFake."

"Just because you're jealous Tony doesn't mean you have to take it out on everyone around you."

"Where'd you learn that?"

"High School in Psychology."

"Did you also learn in that class why you can't get a girl?" Tony argued with him as Ziva walked back to her desk.

"It's because I'm looking for someone with quality not looking for quantity." McGee shrugged.

"Shut up Probie." Tony ripped another paper out of his magazine and threw it at McGee.

"That's why you aren't invited to dinner Tony." Ziva pointed out. "You don't treat anyone with respect."

"But Ziva, I treated you with respect when we slept together and you snored the whole night and speaking of sleeping together…I think since we slept together dinner is in order." He joked, watching her eyes dart up to glare at him.

"We did not sleep together." Ziva rejected his claim. "You never made it to one hundred push ups."

"I did too." Tony flexed his muscles. "These have yet to let me down."

"Text book narcissist that is what you are Tony." McGee commented as he shuffled through papers that were still sitting on his desk from earlier. As he did so the cover page of the packet drifted down to the floor and landed next to his trash can.

"Hey McGeek, you dropped something." Tony pointed to the piece of paper on the ground by the side of his desk.

"Thanks Tony," McGee looked down to see a paper of his on the ground.

Reaching down to the floor, McGee went to lean forward only to hear a tear from his pants. Over the past few months he had lost a substantial amount of weight and thought he could fit into his pants from college. Apparently he found his guess wrong. Grabbing the piece of paper, he slowly sat back up hoping that no one had heard the tear. Shuffling the papers back into an organized pile, he could feel his face heating up and his face most likely turning red. Looking up, he watched as Tony and Ziva tried to keep a straight face.

Sighing to himself, he knew the jokes were going to come sooner or later and it might as well be sooner. As he put the papers down and placed his head down on the desk in defeat, he could hear Tony and Ziva start to laugh hysterically. McGee reached back to feel for the tear and see how bad it was. Unfortunately, it was right next to the pocket and went a good few inches along the seam.

"This isn't funny guys. I just fixed these." McGee whined.

"Nothing like gluing Probie to his seat." Tony couldn't have been prouder of himself.

"Beware Tony, what goes around is right around the end." Ziva smirked.

"It's what goes around comes around, Ziva." He corrected her.

"Wait," McGee went to stand up. "You glued me to the seat?" He found that he couldn't stand without further tearing. "Tony, these pants were over two hundred dollars."

"A little pricy for you McMillions, don't you think?"

"Tony, I'm serious. You're buying me new pants." He stood up and heard the tear completely spread.

"Where you going McHoley?" Tony asked as he laughed.

"To see Director Vance."

"Are you going to tattle on me?" Tony looked to Ziva who was still laughing.

"No, I'm going to see if I can go home and change." McGee looked around his desk for something to take with him. His eyes returned to the packet of papers he had just filed away on his desk. Grabbing it, he put the packet of papers behind his back, covering the large tear in the butt of his pants.

"Still think his butt is better than mine Ziva?" Tony watched as McGee slinked along the wall to the elevator.

"Yes." She replied.

"But he doesn't even have a butt with all the weight he lost."

"Precisely," Ziva smiled as the elevator doors closed and McGee headed upstairs. "You are in so much trouble."

"He had it coming…Deep Six…" Tony shook his head as he looked at McGee's book that he had kept in the drawer of his desk.

As the elevator door opened, McGee walked into the waiting room and sat down across from the secretary who gave him a half smile. On the other side of the door, Agent Gibbs was meeting with Director Vance and already it didn't seem like it was going too well. Looking up at the secretary, she gave him a strange look as he sat on top of the packet he had used to cover himself. Pulling the packet out from underneath himself, he held it in his lap as he waited.

"Leon." Gibbs addressed the Director as he stood in the middle of the room.

"Agent Gibbs, I would say the pleasure is mine but it's not. Would you care to sit down?" Leon Vance was a man of routine. He sat behind the desk that had once belonged to Jenny Shepard a past love of Jethro's who chose the job over him. Reaching in his desk, he pulled out a toothpick that was wrapped in clear plastic. Slipping it out, he tossed the plastic into the trash before inserting the toothpick into his mouth as Jethro chose to stand rather than sit.

"What is so important?" Gibbs questioned as he looked on Vance's desk to see a file sitting on it facing Gibbs. If this was Vance's way of telling Gibbs he was splitting up his team again, he wasn't going to stand for it whether there was a mole or not.

"I want you to meet Alexandra Castanzo." He gestured to the back corner of the room where the couch was.

Turning around, Gibbs watched as a young slender woman stood up from her seat and fixed her black suit skirt before walking over towards him. Although he was not as accurate as DiNozzo, he'd estimate her to be about five feet nine but slightly taller now with the heels on. Guessing her age, he would have to say that she was around twenty six, but definitely younger than thirty. There was no smile on her face, but rather a stern look as if she were fixed on something.

Her figure reminded him of Agent Cassidy for a moment, but this woman's hair was shoulder length dirty blonde hair rather than the shorter cut Paula had sported before her death. The woman stopped about a foot short of where Gibbs was standing and made direct eye contact with him. It was the first time a new Agent had made direct eye contact with him knowing his reputation to be rude. However, there was something about her personality that told him that she could be rather relentless in her pursuits.

"Special Agent Gibbs," She extended her hand before he shook it. "You're not as scary as the others make you out to be."

"What is this about?" Gibbs released her hand and turned back to look directly at Vance.

"I want you to accept Miss. Castanzo as an addition to your team. She is well qualified and I figured that the team would willingly accept her and teach her the trade."

"How old are you? Don't answer that. She is a child and not ready for any type of field work. I have a full team and don't have time to train a new agent." Looking back at her, he was surprised that she was showing no indifference to what he was saying about her.

"I beg to differ Agent Gibbs. I am twenty six years old and trained in counter intelligence." She stepped into the conversation before Director Vance could answer for her. She gave him a side glance and Gibbs took notice to it.

"No." Gibbs shook his head as he now tried to figure out the connection between Director Vance and this new Agent he was presenting.

He glanced over at her once again and there was yet again something about her that sparked a memory. Her demeanor reminded him of an Agent that had once worked for him. She reminded him of Caitlin Todd, who was murdered by Ziva's half brother years ago. The thought of the loss of his agent hit Gibbs and made him take a step back.

"I don't believe you have a say Gibbs." He was snapped out of his trance as the young woman directed her comment at him. For a second he was taken aback by her presence. It was exactly like Caitlin's persistence and Jenny's determination to go over his head and get done whatever was on her personal agenda.

"Do you even know how to handle a gun?" Gibbs questioned, knowing that even though there were others in the building who handled Counter Intelligence, it did not mean they were trained in the field. If anything, their training was in a classroom and was very brief because of the need for personnel in the office.

"Do you know how to handle yours?" She snapped back, knowing full well that when he was in the Marines he was a sniper. Taking a step closer to him, she knew more about him that he knew about her and that was the way she was going to keep it. Holding out her hand, he looked down at her hand strangely before looking back up at her.

"What do you want?" He asked as Vance just sat back and watched the exchange.

"Give me your weapon." She offered to show him at least one thing she knew how to do well.

"It's not on me."

"That's a mistake. Director Vance may I have my personal affects back?" Alexandra Castanzo asked as she waited for him to return her Swiss Army knife and the black forty five caliber nine millimeter gun. "Thank you."

Giving Vance a quick smile, she stuck her pocket knife back in her pocket before returning to her personal weapon. Taking the gun, she had owned for years, she dissembled it before waiting a second for Gibbs to see. Unimpressed, he watched on as she reassembled the weapon, cocked it, and presented it to him. He had a forensic specialist downstairs who could do the exact same thing with at least fifteen other guns and probably at a quicker pace.

"I can assure you that my shooting is much better than your ability to accept orders." She snapped at him as she removed the bullet from the chamber and put her gun back in its holder on her side.

"Why is she here Leon?" He watched as Leon pushed what he assumed to be the girl's file closer to Gibbs.

"I told you, I assigned her to your team. You are the best and produce the best." Vance watched as Gibbs picked up the file and flipped through it.

"You'll see that I had adequate training at Quantico." She pointed out, knowing that he would assume she had no field training. "I went to the Police Academy up in Pennsylvania."

"Have you ever been in a shoot out?" Gibbs tried to make the point that training was different from actual field experience.

"No, but I can assure you that what I lack in experience I will make up quickly." She adjusted her green camisole so that it slipped beneath her gun holster.

"You make one mistake I am putting you on desk duty. Make a second mistake and you're gone." His eyes met hers, but she refused to back down.

"She begins today Agent Gibbs and I want her in the field as soon as possible. It took too long for Agent McGee to get into the field." Vance commented.

"Leon, I train my team as I see fit. If you want her on my team I do things my way. I'll know when she is ready."

"Fine." Smiling, Alexandra looked from Vance to Gibbs. "I'm willing to accept those terms."

"Go downstairs and tell McGee to clear a desk for you. Introduce yourself to the team, and put the six hour away. You won't need to be armed in the building and you won't be using it anytime soon. You'll be issued your own agency gun."

"Thank you." She shook hands with Director Vance before making eye contact with Gibbs once again and nodding.

Taking her leave, she walked over to the door and exited, closing the door behind her. Looking to her right, she saw a younger man sitting on the couch waiting to see the Director. Thanking the secretary, she thought nothing of the man before going over to the stairs and walking down them rather than taking the elevator.

As she walked down the stairs she noticed another younger man, who she'd consider to be good looking sitting across from a young woman who she assumed was not from the States. The man she already knew to be Agent Anthony DiNozzo, but the woman she was not as familiar with. Word was that she was a Mossad agent now turned into an N.C.I.S. agent and that her name was something like Ziva.

Getting down into the bull pit, she watched as Agent DiNozzo stopped tossing his ball of paper in the air to watch her walk past him. She assumed that both Ziva and Tony exchanged glances as she walked over and sat behind Gibbs' desk.

"What?" Alex looked to them. "Is there something on my face?"

"No." They both shook their head as they heard McGee from upstairs.

"Boss, I need to go home." McGee wasn't asking. The next thing they heard was what sounded like a slap.

"That's for letting DiNozzo glue you to your chair. Now go downstairs and change. I told you to keep a spare pair of pants in your locker."

"Yes boss." McGee and Gibbs both disappeared into the elevator, but when it reached the main floor only Gibbs stepped off of the elevator. His eyes went directly to Alexandra Castanzo, who was sitting in his seat which was one of the mistakes no one on his team makes.

"DiNozzo." Gibbs stayed near the elevator as he barked orders.

"Yes boss?"

"Come here." DiNozzo walked over only to be slapped upside the head with the packet of papers McGee had been carrying earlier. "That's McGee."

"Got it."

"One more thing DiNozzo."

"Yes Boss?" DiNozzo prepared himself for another hit that didn't come.

"Find Agent Castanzo a desk a chair." He watched as Tony gave him a confused look. "Now DiNozzo."

Right away," He headed back over towards where Ziva was sitting. There was a vacant desk they had been using to pile papers on that was near McGee's desk.

"Miss. Castanzo," Gibbs beckoned her.

"Yes Agent Gibbs?"

"Over here now," He ordered her as she stood up, leaving her jacket on the desk. Walking over to where he was he grabbed her arm and escorted her into the elevator. As the doors shut Tony looked to Ziva and they both knew that it was a meeting no one was supposed to hear.

"He really needs to get his own office." Tony shook his head. "Last time he did that I had to take the stairs."

"Stairs are good for you Tony; they will help tone your butt." Ziva smirked.