Zinger - a noun - a striking or amusing remark.
A/N: One of the things which I find intensely irritating on NCIS is the writers' bad habit of throwing in supposedly 'witty' zingers that really aren't at all amusing. They're generally thrown in, completely out of the blue and have you asking what the hell just happened, or they're just nasty put downs, plain and simple. It shouldn't come as a surprise that after the zinger there's never any consequence or perhaps worse, no resolution either – it's simply thrown out like a hand grenade, it explodes and then the writers and characters ignored for it for ever more. Then again, the writers don't write consequences for huge stuff like revenge killing by their main characters, and they ignore procedure and the rule of law on a regular basis, so in the big scheme of things ignoring some type of consequences caused by these zingers seems pretty insignificant.
I can't help wondering though, if the little things had been properly addressed on the team, how might it have changed the bigger picture and the development of characters.
This is a tag from the season five episode Designated Target that had been sitting on my hard drive for a quite a while now (3+ years) and periodically I pull it up and play around with it. It has two parts and my thanks to Arress for the beta, although as mentioned above, further tinkering has taken place and errors are my bad. Thanks to the Trips for their feedback and RCEpups for her input on procedural stuff. Currently, as 2017 draws to a close I'm finding time to write new material to be in very short supply atm so I am finally getting around to posting this. Think of it as my Christmas gift to everyone (even if it isn't your average festive-fare-fluffy-tooth- rottenly-sweet fic) patiently awaiting (hint, hint) me to update my stories. So while it may not be your average holiday season story - call me The Grinch or Ebenezer Scrooge if you will – just don't say I left you with nothing in your stocking!
Warning: This two-parter is most definitely NOT a warm and fuzzy team-is- just- one-big-happy-family story. If you know anything about me you'll know I'm a cynic. I don't write fairy tales or suffer from Pollyanna-rose-coloured-glasses delusions either. I'm guessing Gibbs, McGee and Ziva fans will not like how they are portrayed. If you ignore this dire warning, before complaining about content - then I challenge you to try repeating this particular 'zinger' to your immediate superior at work and see what happens in real life. Of course, you could just not read something that will annoy you, although in my experience some peoples' whole raisons d'etre for reading fan fic is to find stories they'll hate just so they can complain about them. Most of us read warnings, pairings, genres and if it isn't our thing we use the back button – I know I do.
Disclaimer: Don't own the characters; don't make money from this story. I just get personal satisfaction in fixing some wrongs.
Showdown at the Not Okay Corral
A leader does not deserve the name unless he is willing occasionally to stand alone. Henry A. Kissinger
"There have been 11 attacks on cab drivers in the last 60 days in DC and Maryland. Three are very interesting." [Ziva David]
"DiNozzo, put them up." [Leroy Jethro Gibbs]
"All three were shot with a 9mm and all three autopsies showed a tooth missing." [Ziva David]
"Enlarge the photos." [Leroy Jethro Gibbs orders Tony DiNozzo]
[Sounds of panic as DiNozzo struggles]
"C'mon tell me you just didn't lose all that information." [Gibbs growls at DiNozzo]
"McGee – I hit the space bar." [Tony DiNozzo]
"Just push the buttons I tell you to push, Monkey." [Tim McGee]
"Love is not treating you well, my friend." [Tony]
"Yeah; no kidding." [Tim]
Dialogue taken from Designated Target S05e08
Supervisory Special Agent Ric Balboa was working away quietly at his desk in the bustling bull pen, trying to get a-heads-up on his team's mid yearly evaluations. Endeavouring to let the general chaos of the bull pen wash over him, he grudgingly completed these blasted forms. Seriously they were the bane of a team leader's life. He honestly didn't see why it wasn't sufficient to complete performance evaluations once a year but the paper pushers in Human Resources just loved their paperwork. It justified their own existence when all was said and done.
He was peripherally aware of the MCRT as background noise. They'd just caught a case with an admiral and a gypsy cab driver who had both been callously gunned down earlier that day. The team was giving Gibbs a run down on the state of play so far.
"C'mon tell me you just didn't lose all that information." Gibbs yelled at his SFA in irritation. Yeah cuz Jethro was just so handy with all things techie.
"McGee – I hit the space bar." Tony DiNozzo yelped desperately as Gibbs fumed impatiently.
"Press the buttons I tell you to press, Monkey!" McGee retorted irritated.
That blatantly insulting and wholly insubordinate comment made by Special Agent Timothy McGee managed to catch his full attention. The sheer nastiness and the tone with which it was delivered making it immediately apparent to Balboa that he didn't intend it to be a joke and even if he had, it was a whole inappropriate way to address his immediate superior.
The MCRT was legend amongst the other teams for what Gibbs et al referred to as their 'banter' but what the rest of the teams on the floor saw as toxic abuse, pure and simple. The other SFAs were quick to point out that most of the cutting comments were aimed almost exclusively at one individual – the major case response team's SFA, Tony DiNozzo. It had become much worse lately, ever since the end of his long-term secret mission for the director, it had become a free for all for all of Gibbs' team to put the boot in at every opportunity.
Speak of the devil - Ric noticed Director Shepard who was walking along the mezzanine level to the stairs. She paused and glared at the MCRT bullpen – unable to mask a shocked expression. Clearly, she had heard the exchange too and she was waiting with baited breath, like everyone else for Gibbs to tear the foolish miscreant a new one for such patent insubordination to a superior agent.
Balboa looked over the office partition to make sure the team leader was still present. He vaguely remembered hearing Jethro's voice but he hadn't been truly focused on them until McGee's totally inappropriate remark bludgeoned its way across his focus on his administrative work. And Ric was correct, Gibbs was there and no way that he hadn't heard McGee's outrageous comment since he was well known to have the hearing of a bat (especially when an underling made a disparaging remark about him). Since the remark had been made so publicly, surely this time he would have to act and discipline the very junior agent who at this point at about five years as a federal agent – long enough to know better.
Honestly, how could he let such barefaced insubordination from a junior agent towards the senior field agent go?
But nope, Ric was wrong, again. Gibbs didn't even bat an eye. It was the target of the insolent remark who responded.
"Love is not treating you well, my friend." DiNozzo enquired solicitously.
"Yeah; no kidding," McGee replied sarcastically. You could practically hear the eye roll.
'God damn it DiNozzo, I want to shake you till you get a clue, you idiot! STOP being so freaking understanding, so forgiving…STOP turning the other cheek.
A couple of months ago, you got attacked by a drug dealer, your car - your pride and joy was blown up, you were supposed to be driving and you broke up with a woman you were in love with. All in the space of a day. Yet you managed not to lash out at your superiors and insult them when they told you to do the job you were paid to do. No one would have blamed you if you'd told the director to go screw herself, but you stayed professional and delivered a sit rep despite everything that you'd endured in her illicit Op.
Stop excusing insubordination – McGee had an argument with his girlfriend – how long have they been together anyway. So. Feakin. What? Never going to be a justification for what he just said to you or any superior.'
Damn it - Balboa really, really wanted to march into the bull pen and drag Gibbs' SFA off by his ear to shake the stuffing out of him for continuing to accept this inappropriate behaviour. He was going to have a serious talk with DiNozzo. Rip him a new one about allowing himself to be the whipping boy for his damned team. Letting them all get away with the disrespect for his position, was wrong. He had an obligation as a senior field agent to report serious infractions, especially insubordination and their repeated failures to observe the chain of command. To not do so made him equally responsible too.
Which was when it hit him like a bolt of lightning – didn't that equally apply to the rest of the agents as well. Certainly, the senior supervisory agents and senior field agents were culpable – well maybe the SSAs more so than Tony or the SFAs since they were of higher rank, yet they stood around and did nothing to stop it. He knew that Tony had tried to talk to Gibbs about the procedural problems on the team before. More than once in fact but Gibbs denied there was a problem – trotted out the 'My Team My Rules' crapola. Plus, to be fair, DiNozzo had gone to Director Shepard when Gibbs was in Mexico, wanting the Bobsie Twins disciplined and she'd fobbed him off, effectively making him a lame duck leader since no matter how they behaved he couldn't exert any consequences for their actions.
And everyone else had basically colluded with Shepard by doing nothing. Except burying their heads in the sand.
Balboa glanced around the room, noting the unresolved tension coming from others in the bull pen. Sure, it had only been a few seconds duration for the whole interaction to take place but time had seemed to freeze, maybe at the enormity of what went down or maybe the building of anticipation for everyone present. They were all expecting a MF of a Gibbs' ass kicking or at the very least an epic head slap, neither of which occurred. Even with Tony's typical efforts to diffuse the situation with empathy laced with humour, the heightened atmosphere on the floor still persisted. Up above, on the mezzanine level Director Shepard finally managed to school her expression into a blank mask, everyone taking their cue from her and went back about their business.
Except for Balboa who swore most uncharacteristically under his breath, "Fuck!" He knew there was times when a leader must lead, even if no one chooses to follow them. He'd heard somewhere that courage was contagious and hoped it was true. For too long now he's looked the other way and today he finally realised that it made him culpable too.
He turned to his computer savagely. Watching as Shepard headed into MTAC as of nothing had happened, he swiftly typed up an email and sent it off. If the director wouldn't do anything to stop this bullshit he'd be damned if he could or would ignore it any longer. None of them liked interfering in how another senior supervisory agent ran their team but this wasn't just about him or his team, it affected all team leaders – all their teams.
Ric and a few of the other SSAs who had seniority had actually tried talking to Gibbs unofficially about the abuse and insubordination by the junior members of his team and their lack of respect for their SFA. Gibbs just got pissed at them and brushed them off, claiming that the team engaged in harmless banter - it was part of their 'process' in solving cases. He insisted it was innocuous teasing, DiNozzo gave as good as he got and the rest of the team was just blowing smoke up his ass because he'd lied to them when he was undercover. As far as Gibbs was concerned, Tony should just suck it up and deal with it because he'd brought it on himself.
The problem, as far as he and others were concerned was that the junior team members didn't joke - actually their "remarks" were deliberately insulting and belittling and in the case if the two younger agents, insubordinate. To Balboa, there was nothing affectionate about their comments. Their so-called humour was always intended to wound...to demean DiNozzo and then there was the fact that it was always two of them or even three of them when Gibbs joined in, ganging up against one, sticking the boot into Tony. Even before Ziva's arrival, Cate had delighted in hitting him below the belt too but it had escalated even more since Gibbs return from retirement.
Particularly with the revelation that DiNozzo had been undercover, right under their noses – despite them supposedly being the top investigative team- well it sure had made a mockery of their ability to notice what was going on. So, from Ric's perspective the escalation, the venomous nature of their recent putdowns smacked of Gibbs punishing him for following Shepard's orders that he couldn't inform his team he was on an undercover mission.
In fact, the whole ganging up, three against one, especially when it was actively encouraged by the team leader taking part, amounted to workplace bullying in Ric's book. And not just his opinion but in all the workplace literature on the topic he'd consulted, too. Along with several other significant examples of workplace bullying that seemed very apropos - like excluding a member of the team from a workplace or social gathering and making an employee perform tasks well above or below their abilities.
Gibbs was definitely guilty of forcing DiNozzo to perform plenty of shit tasks well below his skills and level of seniority. Things like always making him gas the truck (despite it being a job that Cate, Ziva or McGee should be doing) especially since his return from his retirement -oops, his margarita safari, because he was pissed with Tony over keeping mum about the La Grenouille Op. Then there was the notorious team dinner organised by Ziva when she first joined the team and the rest of the MCRT team were more than happy to participate in and exclude DiNozzo. To Balboa, it pointed to a well-entrenched team culture of bullying rather than a single individual being the culprit.
And while Gibbs was accurate as far as it went, Tony most definitely teased his team mates, unlike them, it certainly wasn't done viciously nor was it deliberately demeaning, and he was never calculatingly insubordinate to a superior either. DiNozzo had far too much respect for the chain-of-command, even though no one else on his team ever did. And wasn't that odd, cuz two of the MCRT had served in the military and the third had come from a military family and lived on a variety of Naval bases, so there was absolutely no excuse for their behaviour or insubordination for that matter. No, it was the kid who some people sneered at for being born with a silver spoon in his mouth, the one who McGee and David theorised had his father buy his Phys Ed. degree, who was compulsive about observing the chain of command. Weird didn't begin to explain that!
Yes, DiNozzo was an inveterate prankster who liked to lighten the grim nature of their oft gruesome, thankless job and there were occasions when his sense of humour was frankly ill-timed and inappropriate. However, considering he also the team's whipping boy and he took it upon himself to deflect Gibbs' fury onto himself and away from others, including Ziva, Tim and Cate when she was on the team, Balboa was prepared to cut him a fair amount of slack.
As a team leader Ric couldn't find it in himself to be too critical of DiNozzo's antics as he knew the exceedingly high cost cops and feds paid for the horrific crimes, suicides and even accidental deaths they were routinely exposed to. Burnout and suicides were far too common, particularly amongst major case response teams or sex crimes teams and stress relief, via even off-colour jokes and or pranking were a recognised way of relieving pressure and far healthier coping mechanism than using alcohol or drugs as a crutch.
Balboa also suspected that DiNozzo's pranks and goofiness were a carefully crafted construct that hide the senior field agent's darker side. On rare occasions he'd seen glimpses of a fury that he believed would eclipse even the self-indulgent tantrum throwing anger of Leroy Gibbs, should he ever unleash his inner beast and wreck devastation upon anything near ground zero.
He rather wished that he had a Tony on his own team to defuse pressure when things got too intense. Someone who was prepared to have people irritated at him rather than being trapped inside of their own head, picturing the depravity and abject cruelty that humans could inflict on one another. His technique was actually a variant of the common team building tactic where the boss made themselves the target of hatred when two team members weren't getting along, to give them a common enemy to hate upon and band together to create cohesion. A displacement tactic and if anyone was adept at displacement and deflection it was Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo.
Ric also had a fair idea that the frat boy humour would have been exponentially dialled back if Gibbs wasn't such an absolute bastard of a boss (it had definitely been the case that the pranks had markedly decreased during Gibbs' Mexican sojourn). The supervisory agent surmised that having to deal with Gibbs constant failure to observe the chain of command, the lack of respect for his senior field agent's position and requiring Tony to compete with the two juniors would be totally galling to an agent of DiNozzo's calibre and seniority. Hell, if Balboa had to serve under Gunny Asshat Gibbs, he'd likely punch Gibbs in the nose on a regular basis just to let off steam. Ric had no doubt though that the agency shrink would classify Tony's clowning around as a far more adaptive coping mechanism than physical violence.
Anyway, regardless of Ric's radically dissimilar definition of banter to Gibbs' et al, McGee's monkey comment had gone so far beyond what constituted teasing repartee that even if it hadn't been directed at a supervisor it still would have required action by his team leader. And yet...nothing.
As far as Balboa was concerned, the delivery had been intended to rubbish his superior in a way that was incredibly brazen. McGee obviously felt there wouldn't be any punitive consequence for it and well to be fair, there hadn't been any in the past so the senior supervisory agent couldn't exactly blame him for thinking that there wouldn't be any consequences this time either.
And so far, there hadn't been any. However, Ric to refused to collude by looking the other way a moment longer. Why couldn't other people see how inappropriate it was to allow it to continue?
Resolving to finally take some long overdue action, Balboa had sent emails to all the DC senior supervisory agents, (bar one who would not appreciate their 'meddling' in his affairs) for an urgent SSA meeting in Conference Room 2 in 20 minutes. He knew not everyone could make it but that enough team leads would be there to take decisive action. Not before time he was ashamed to say.
Wandering off to get some coffee he felt a huge sense of relief. Maybe after today he'd be able to sleep soundly again. Leo Tolstoy said that 'wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it' and that seemed to be a pretty apropos to this situation.
Slowly the other team leaders started to drift into conference room two, those on the same floor as the MCRT and had been present today had an inkling of the purpose of the meeting but others were looking bemused. As all the senior supervisory agent s bar five who were off on investigations took seats, Balboa thanked them for their prompt attendance and got to the point without preamble.
"Okay, we all have stuff to do so let's get to it. There's a giant elephant in the room regarding chain of command and the MCRT. After what just happened, I'm no longer prepared to let things slide. I'd like to think I have all your support but regardless, I'm no longer going to stand idly by and do nothing. I'm giving you all fair warning. I intend to take action – no backing down!" He stated firmly.
"What happened today, Ric?" Thomas Walsh inquired curiously. As the senior supervisory agent for the financial crimes team who was housed one floor down from them, he hadn't been privy to the earlier occurrence.
Ric recounted the conversation succinctly.
There was shocked murmuring from those who hadn't already heard the conversation.
"Oh man, if DiNozzo had said that to one of the juniors on the team, his ass would be toast," Marisol Myers exclaimed stunned, her dark brown eyes expressing her dismay.
"Yeah Gibbs would have head smacked him so hard he'd have a grade two concussion," asserted one of the old timers, Ed Benson.
"Gibbs would have reacted if he was there. He'd have no choice! He must have left the bull pen," Walsh protested instantly, his dark forehead furrowed refusing to accept that a senior supervisory agent would be complicit in such inappropriate behaviour.
Balboa shook his head. "No, I checked, Tom. He was there – never batted an eye or opened his mouth. Others can vouch that what I'm saying is true. Even Director Shepard heard it and looked shocked but surprise, surprise, she chose not to get involved."
Jeramiah Rankin snorted loudly. "Hardly surprising, since she's partly to blame for all this chain of command crap."
Myers stared at the veteran senior supervisory agent. "How do you figure that, Jerry? This is a longstanding issue that existed in the MCRT even before she took over. Ever since Gibbs hired a former Secret Service agent with dubious profiling skills and zero investigative training."
"Yeah but it's gotten a lot worse since Gibbs' so-called margarita safari. Director Shepard giving a rookie agent like McGee the senior field agent job against regulations was bound to cause trouble, as I distinctly remember telling you all at the time. Far be it for me to say I told you so, but I did tell you so," Jerry smirked at his colleagues. His nicotine stained fingers scratched the side of his weathered face as he spoke.
"Two years' experience as a field agent – one of which was as a probationary agent when the minimum requirement is five years field experience before being eligible for promotion to senior field agent – always going to make him cocky. He thinks he's better, smarter than DiNozzo. The truth is all supervisory positions were irrevocably tarnished when she ignored procedure and appointed someone who clearly failed to meet the minimum level of experience and qualifications for the job. We all know there were several other eminently well qualified candidates, seasoned agents and investigators who should have been appointed to the job. Agents who would have jumped at the chance.
"Plus, the other senior field agents were mad as rattlesnakes because it lowered their standing by insinuating that specialised leadership skills and job experience weren't required to do the job – that any newbie fresh outta FLETC could do their job. Once he assumed the senior field agent role, McGee and that psycho Israeli spy were even more insubordinate and out of control and Shepard did nothing to back DiNozzo. Now that Gibbs is back, they're worse if that is possible and Jethro seems to think the chain of command begins and ends with him – that it's fine for his junior agents to do as they damn well please."
Balboa nodded. "You're right, Jerry. We should have taken our concerns to Director Shepard or if she refused to listen, then gone to Sec Nav. But I think that Shepard deliberately appointed a complete rookie as senior field agent knowing it would inflate McGee's arrogance and insubordinate attitude since she wanted DiNozzo isolated by his team. Being constantly attacked by them made him extremely vulnerable to her manipulation so she could gain his loyalty quickly.
"Plus, he was too busy trying to stave off attacks from David and McGee while working the cases so he wouldn't have time to do any independent digging into the so called 'mission.' She obviously never intended for the appointments to be permanent, since she didn't file Gibbs retirement papers with HR and just let him come waltzing back in, no questions asked."
Marisol rolled her eyes and observed, "She didn't even insist he undergo a proper psychological or medical examination, merely requested that Dr Mallard check him over and clear his return to duty.
"Which was a problem since Dr Mallard wasn't a psychologist and his physical exam was obviously constrained by the fact that he didn't have a lot of diagnostic equipment. Certainly not to assess someone who'd previously suffered numerous closed head injuries."
All present at the meeting nodded at Marisol's comments, although as they all knew, Ducky had been absolutely furious with Gibbs at that time and they'd barely been able to exchange a civil word between them. Clearly that must have hindered his ability to examine the Marine, who was infamous about avoiding medical aid at the best of times.
Ed Benson, a grizzled veteran, an agent from the NIS days nodded. "I agree. If she'd really been serious about supporting DiNozzo and the welfare of the MCRT she'd have given him a qualified senior field agent, one with an appropriate level of experience. She wanted him to struggle. You do all realise that the team she gave him, aside from his own 11 years' field experience, had a woefully inadequate three years investigative experience between David, Lee and McGee. The Flag Ship team that handled all the major cases for our agency in DC who had just lost its most experienced agent (Gibbs with over 15 years' experience) was replaced with Michelle Lee? Talk about setting someone up to fail."
Myers looked surprised. "You know Ed, I never really did the math! And that was totally inexcusable for a MCRT to be so completely inexperienced. To go from a collective 30 years of field experience to less than half that with just 14 years – most of which was centred in just one agent. So how in heck did the solve rate stay steady after Gibbs left?"
"DiNozzo basically lived at the office, except when he was running errands for the director. Probably would have been easier for him if he'd been working solo," Balboa remarked dryly. "Less conflict to have to cope with."
"Plus, by giving him a bunch of rookies, two who were also as arrogant as they were inexperienced, believing they were better qualified to lead, chances were that they'd never notice that he was running a long term undercover mission. She couldn't take a chance on her unauthorised op being discovered but she knew they'd never believe that he could do both. A real senior field agent would have been watching DiNozzo's six and glommed onto what was going on straight away." Ed observed cynically.
Marisol snorted somewhat inelegantly. "Well Shepard was dead right about that."
Rankin looked at his fellow senior supervisory agents and shrugged. "Okay that was then – this is now. We can't change any of that unfortunately. What do you suggest we do now? Gibbs has made it clear since his return that he doesn't welcome interference, especially when it comes to his team. We've all tried speaking to him privately, Ric, trying to talk some sense into him but he refuses to see there's a problem. You say the Director heard the insubordinate comments and did nothing? If that's the case, realistically what the hell can we do?"
Myers nodded, along with most of the other SSAs who were yet to speak. "I agree. Much as I abhor what is going on in the MCRT and I wish that Tony was getting the support he deserves – the support his position demands, I don't know there's much that can be done about it. And being practical here, I don't see the point in making an enemy out of Gibbs for no good reason. Isn't that why we've always taken the Sergeant Schultz approach of 'I see nothing' in the past?" she asked, referring a character to in the 70s sitcom Hogan's Heroes. "So, what's changed Ric that you want to go up against the Bastard with Two Bs all of a sudden?"
Ric looked around the conference table at the other Senior Supervisory Agents. There'd been fourteen who'd been available to attend their impromptu meeting at such short notice. He was disappointed to see that while they all agreed with him in principle, there was also a strong reluctance to take on Gibbs.
"A number of reasons." He replied. "First off, because it's the right thing to do, Marisol. I'm so damned tired of not sleeping well at night. And I finally realised that this laissez faire approach of ours was a heap of crap that was going to come back and bite us on our asses."
Caroline Whitty looked alarmed since she was one of the more conservative senior supervisory agents and was alarmed at anything that might threaten her neatly ordered world. "How so, Balboa?"
"I have it on good authority that our senior field agents feel they can't count on our support anymore because we just stand by and let two junior agents crap all over the position of senior field agent. They believe that we don't trust or respect them either. They argue it sends a message to all the other junior agents that they can disobey their orders and be insubordinate with impunity too. It's breeding discord and dissent on our teams, not just the MCRT."
The senior supervisory agents looked disturbed. "That's not the case. No one approves of the failure of the MCRT to enforce the chain of command, Ric." Marisol objected strenuously.
"Maybe not philosophically but if we don't make it stop then aren't we to all intents and purposes, supporting it." Rod Averson, their newest SSA pointed out.
Benson looked at the young gun appraisingly. "Desmond Tutu, the human rights activist once said, 'It is small comfort to a mouse, if an elephant is standing on its tail, to say 'I am impartial.' In this instance, you are really supporting the elephant in its cruelty."
Rod nodded. "Exactly, if you aren't part of the solution then you're a part of the problem. Look, I haven't been team lead here in DC all that long and I've probably missed earlier discussions. Maybe you've already thrashed out these issues but I have some concerns I'd like to raise."
Jerry Rankin smiled at the young gun. "Go ahead, Rod. A fresh perspective is always helpful. Sometimes it's hard to see the forest for the trees."
"Okay, well I know that Gibbs hates to work with other teams but we are a small agency. When we get big cases, or are in a takedown that requires more than one team, there is no choice but to work together with other teams. Personally, I have serious reservations about working with his – they're cowboys. It seems to me that the only person they will accept orders from is Gibbs. They refuse to follow orders from DiNozzo without an argument, not as their senior field agent and from what I've heard, not even when he was the team lead."
Pausing, Rod stared meaningfully at his fellow senior supervisory agents. "What makes any of you think that they would obey one of us out in the field or if it came down to it, follow the orders our own SFAs issued in a life or death situation? Despite their obvious lack of experience, they already think they're better agents than Tony.
"So, tell me... why would they obey senior supervisory agents and senior field agents they hardly know?" The fledgling team lead demanded of his more seasoned team leaders.
Balboa noted with amusement that Rod's sandy hair was sticking up crazily in every which direction from the young gun running agitated fingers through it as he talked. Rod despite his youthful inexperience as a senior supervisory agent eyeballed each person in the room to underline his point. It didn't go unnoticed by Balboa and several others that many of them failed to return his eye contact.
Ryan Donnelly, an unassuming leader who handled sexual assaults nodded thoughtfully. Until now he'd stayed out of the discussion, not seeing that it really impacted on him all that much. "You're right Rod, I'd never thought that far ahead. If terrorists tried to take out the building, I don't want that pair arguing about my orders if we're trying to evacuate everyone. If I tell them to take people down the stairs and not use the elevator I don't want to have to explain why. I want them to jump – and I'd expect them to follow Carmen's orders too," he said, referring to his senior field agent. "But would they?"
Ric acknowledged the point. "They're insubordinate enough to push you into the lift with them, simply to be bloody minded. But as someone whose team does back up the major case response team out in the field a number of times per year, I agree that the chain of command failures pose a problem for my team that I haven't fully considered either. I have to say, I have grave concerns too."
He saw some senior supervisory agents looking cynical. "Okay... say for instance, what if Gibbs gets taken out – either KIA or unconscious and he can't lead? I'm not at all confident those two agents would follow my orders any more than they would accept Tony's either now you've mentioned it, Rod." He acknowledged the newbie senior supervisory agent. "They could very easily get us all killed and every one of us would have some responsibility for it since we were aware of the situation and chose to ignore it to make our lives' easier."
Ric shook his head in disgust. "Well no more!"
"Valid point, Balboa," Rankin shook his head. "Okay so let's change up your scenario a little bit. Let's say that Gibbs team has just rescued some hostages and they get caught up in a second firefight when reinforcements arrive, ambushing the team. Gibbs is unconscious and needs immediate assistance due or he'll bleed out. As the senior field agent, DiNozzo assumes command and David and McGee start questioning his orders then go renegade. Hostages are shot and killed, as is McGee, since in a gunfight he's the least experienced agent on that team and combined with his arrogance, the most likely one to be taken down."
A few people nodded in agreement of his assessment.
"Any subsequent IA inquiry is going to uncover the chain of command shit on the MCRT and they'll want to know why we all sat around braiding each ours' hair and why we let people die so we wouldn't piss off an ass-hole senior supervisory agent." The veteran stated bluntly, rather pointedly directing his comments at agents like Walsh and Whitty.
"Call me stupid but somehow, I don't think that the excuse that a former director gave Gibbs carte blanche to choose his own team will get our asses out of the fire or the new director won't rock the boat now she's got him back from Mexico. Nor that she doesn't stop him because now she's got the top job, she figures a little hide the salami with Jethro on the director's desk wouldn't go astray." He finished up rather crudely, alluding to her unprofessional and extremely obvious attempts to seduce Gibbs.
A few people chuckled despite the seriousness of the topic. It was after all the worst kept secret in the building. Opinion was divided on whether Gibbs would continue to rebuff Shepard's ham-fisted attempts to get into his pants or he'd screw her silly to remind her what she'd let go. Then compound the insult by dumping her in post coital bliss with a 'Dear Jane letter' saying he wanted to focus on his career.
Slightly more SSAs leant towards the second option since it was well recognised that he could be a vindictive SOB when it suited his purposes. Which was probably why they'd all let this chain of command issue slide for far too long.
Ed Benson chuckled grimly before refocusing on the serious subject at hand, offering up his thoughts on the matter. "I agree with most of your scenario guys but I think that it is much more likely DiNozzo would step in front of a bullet for his probie...or anyone on the team if he could."
The other team leaders looked bleak, tacitly acknowledging Ed's assessment. DiNozzo had already proved he would sacrificing his own life for each member of the MCRT on numerous occasions. Even though his team were insubordinate and disrespectful he wouldn't hesitate to save their lives if he could.
The senior supervisory agents were silent, imagining what the fallout was from Rankin and Benson's hypothetical scenarios and or the IA investigation would be, and none of it was good. They were all slowly coming around to seeing that their laissez faire tactic could easily blow up in their faces, just as Balboa had predicted. Self-preservation being a stronger motivator than purely ethical or professional considerations, all the team leaders were now firmly convinced that they should act.
But the question remained – what should they do?
Rod Averson who'd struck up a casual friendship with DiNozzo after discovering they both played a mean game of one-on-one, decided to drive the point home even more in case anyone had lingering doubts. "Apart from any concerns about our own asses, if something like that ever went wrong and someone was hurt under Tony's temporary command, regardless of any findings that IA or an independent commission of enquiry might make, DiNozzo would blame himself. He'd end up drowning in guilt but it would be our fault because we didn't have his six when it counted.
Rod looked across at Ric who having called the meeting was acting as the unofficial chair of their meeting. "I'm in Balboa. What do ya want us to do?" Others murmured in accord.
Ric grinned – a mixture of relief and victory. "I think we need to confront Gibbs en masse. Lay out for him - all the points that we made today and insist that he start observing regs and enforcing the chain of command on his team. We stipulate that David and McGee must respect the position of senior field agent, even if they can't/won't respect the man."
"And when he's told us to get our heads out of our asses like he has ever other time we've approached him informally about the issue over the years?" Whitty asked, playing devil's advocate.
"Then we inform him that we will be issuing written censures for every incident we observe of insubordination, every single failure of David and McGee to follow orders of their superior, Caroline. Each and every failure to observe the chain of command by his team – starting with the gross insubordination that took place in the bull pen just now. If we act collectively and submit any censures directly to HR, Gibbs and Director Shepard will not have any choice but to put a stop to all the crap." Ric replied harshly although he knew that Caroline was merely speaking the truth.
"We could also start giving them orders too and encourage our SFAs to throw their weight around, instead of going out of our way to avoid them to keep on Gibbs' not-such- a- bastard side." Marisol suggested a little tentatively. "Instead of avoiding them, really come down hard on them. Make sure they get the message we're not going to accept them ignoring procedure anymore and they have to obey the rules, same as everyone else."
Jerry Rankin smirked. Badass Marisol! I like it...okay, it's a plan, people. Let's take back the collective control of our agency." He stood up and the rest of the senior supervisory agent s stood, applauding jubilantly.
Ed Benson climbed on one of the tables and yelled – Viva la revolucion! More cheers ensued along with foot stomping, serving as a much-needed relief valve to the high tensions the team leaders were feeling.
Ric had the final word before the meeting adjourned. "Okay, everyone - I suggest we go grab a very strong coffee to fortify ourselves before we call in Gibbs and unleash what is bound to be an almighty shit storm. Should be fun!" he observed wryly.
TBC