Note: Written for the Getty and Hibbs Challenge at NFA. Charlie Townsend is the employer from the TV series Charlie's Angels. In this scenario, the Angels have just wrapped up a case with Gibbs' team (from a Season Three in which Kate Todd was not killed by Ari). The other important thing is that the Office of Special Projects exists, and timeline-wise is at the equivalent to Season One of NCIS: Los Angeles. Please enjoy
Los Angeles, California
Plenty of people, of course, had seen Charlie Townsend, even if they didn't recognize him as such.
It wasn't like the gentleman went out in public hiding behind a mask. He just liked to hide in plain sight, and he liked for his Angels not to know what he looked like.
He was a man of contradictions. He has been described time and again as an old-fashioned chauvinist by the women who worked for him, yet freely employing strong, intelligent, assertive women to do his investigative work; he loves entertaining multiple beautiful women at a time, even as he realizes the need to support women's equality.
He worked for the CIA after serving in Vietnam, then worked as a police officer before forming his private investigation agency. He's extremely wealthy and has connections to influential people in every field worldwide from Congress to China, from Saudi Arabia to Wall Street, from the Vatican to Hollywood.
If there's anyone who would think himself to be untouchable, it would be Charlie Townsend.
And yet, he isn't surprised that a certain federal agent not only found him here in Los Angeles, but had the guts to walk into his mansion without an invitation, right into his home office.
Charlie, of course, knew exactly who Leroy Jethro Gibbs was: the special agent in charge of the Major Case Response Team operating out of NCIS headquarters at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C.
The Townsend Agency's private detectives had assisted Gibbs and his team, on a case involving two east coast drug dealers, a murdered actress and her blackmailed ex-Marine husband, and helped save the life of the NCIS Director, Jenny Shepard.
Townsend was very impressed with Gibbs' team, especially his two female agents. One of his own Angels was flying his coop for other opportunities, and Charlie was looking to expand his roster from three private detectives to four, five or six if the right ladies came along.
"Agent Gibbs," Charlie said, motioning for him to sit down on the luxurious leather couch. "Have a seat, my friend. Let me pour you some of my finest whiskey."
Gibbs sat down on the couch, although standing would have been fine by him.
"This is a bottle of Jim Beam, given to me nineteen years ago in Louisville, Kentucky by a Saudi Arabian prince who now runs one of the biggest oil companies in the world," Charlie said, pouring Gibbs and himself a drink. "The prince wanted nothing more than to race thoroughbreds, and spent some of his considerable inheritance raising them. He gave me the bottle to celebrate his good fortune, which was finishing second in the Kentucky Derby. This young man never complained about finishing second; he appreciated what he had been given and sought to make the most of it."
Gibbs took a sip, and another, of the whiskey.
"Fine whiskey," he said to Charlie.
"They said you're a man of few words, and yet you don't waste a single one," Charlie replied. "Kentucky whiskey is some of the finest you can get. I'm sure you can tell - if you don't already know - that I enjoy the finer things in life. I extend that to my agency, and who I hire to work for me. I guess that is what you came here to discuss."
"Then I'll get to the point, Townsend," Gibbs said, taking another drink, a half-smile on his face. "Ziva and Kate work for me. For that matter, so do DiNozzo, McGee, Ducky and Abby."
"A man after my own heart, one not to waste his time nor others," Charlie said, with a smile of his own. "I'm aware that the gentlemen you just mentioned are very good in their own right. I'm not looking for a medical examiner, however, and Miss Sciuto - as talented as she is - is perhaps rather too unconventional for this particular job."
"They're not looking to move to Los Angeles," Gibbs said.
"Mister DiNozzo and young Mister McGee happen to lack one very specific trait that disqualifies them for a job I'm sure they would otherwise excel at," Townsend said.
"Did you not hear what I said?" Gibbs replied. "My people like where they are."
"Your people?" Townsend answered.
"You're going after two of the best agents I've had," Gibbs said.
"And yet, Ziva especially seemed receptive to hearing my offer," Townsend replied. "I realize that Sabrina was uncomfortable delivering my proposal, but she knows there are things, on occasion, one must do that one simply doesn't like. Perhaps Officer David was receptive, Jethro, because the rest of your team has not been as accepting of her as you...maybe except for Mr. DiNozzo, who seems to be quite the ladies' man.
"I do know people in Israel, you know. Businessmen, politicians, military leaders. The head of Mossad, who happens to be Miss Ziva's father. I've dined with him before in Amsterdam, at a lovely kosher restaurant."
"I know Eli David too, Townsend," Gibbs said. "Ziva can make her own decision."
"Of course, she can," Townsend said. "It is curious you say that, as you've just told me she belongs to your team."
"I'm not trying to poach her from someone else," Gibbs told him, "and I know her situation far better than you or your people do."
"You can't blame me for wanting to have a Mossad officer, not even 25 years old, in my employ," Townsend replied. "Nor for wanting to employ a former Secret Service and federal agent who survived a murder attempt from an Al-Qaida-level terrorist...nor to want to hire them both."
"I won't deny wanting them on my team for their talent and ability," Gibbs said to Townsend. "But both of those women need to be in a situation where they're with a family, especially Ziva. I chose them both for specific reasons. I didn't bring them in to use them."
"Of course not," Townsend said, finishing off the last of his whiskey in his glass. "Although, one of your own 'family' insists on drooling over both ladies, and you yourself insist on riding them hard like a Marine drill sergeant when it suits you."
"I run my team as I see fit, I put muzzles on them when appropriate, and I care about and for them unconditionally," Gibbs said, putting down his half-finished glass and getting up from the couch. "Kate doesn't want to work for you, and Ziva doesn't need to be anywhere near you."
Gibbs made his way to the door of Townsend's office.
"My team. My family," he said, opening it to leave. "Hands off."
Charlie contemplated the conversation he just had with Agent Gibbs and poured himself another glass of whiskey. His phone rang, and he put it on the same speaker he'd used for the past 30 years.
"Mister Bosley," Charlie said. "Let me call you back. Do make sure that Jill's sister, Kris, is there. I'm ready to make her a job offer...and see if that young girl, Kensi Blye, is still interested."
As Gibbs walked towards his rental car parked on the edge of Townsend's estate, he was spotted by a diminutive older woman who had just pulled in and gotten out of her Mini Cooper.
"Hetty?" Gibbs said, recognizing her as fellow NCIS agent Henrietta Lange.
"Jethro," she said, "so good to see you. I see you've finally made the acquaintance of Mister Townsend, perhaps to clarify certain things and make sure he knows where you stand."
"You could say that," Gibbs said. "Going inside to have a drink?"
"He'd like that, I'm sure," Hetty answered. "My purpose, however, is to tell him, in so many words, the same thing you just told him about Miss Todd and Officer David."
"Is he trying to poach a couple of your own agents, Hetty?"
"Yes. Miss Blye and Miss Hunter are invaluable, and much better suited to NCIS than to his sexed-up private eye agency...to tell the truth, Jethro, if there's going to be any poaching, it's going to be by me."
"Have a nice day, Hetty, and tell Callen he owes me a drink."
"I'll have him bring it by your basement and help you work on that boat," Hetty said, as she walked toward the mansion, and Gibbs got in his car, driving back to the airport and to his flight back to Washington.
He changed his mind and made a detour.
Henrietta Lange found her way into Townsend's office, and for an hour they talked about old friends and past cases, she with NIS and he with the CIA, how the spy game had changed and how old-fashioned Charlie himself ran his agency.
"I hear you are doing a wonderful job with your agency's Office of Special Projects," Charlie told her, over a glass of brandy. "People underestimate NCIS and the work its agents do. How many terrorist operations have your people stopped in the past year alone?"
"Several," Hetty told him. "It's all in a day's work, as the saying goes, and yet you learn never to take it for granted."
"I know," Charlie said. "I lost fellow agents, comrades, friends during my time in the CIA and in LAPD. One is too many, Henrietta, something you know as well."
"Sometimes it becomes overwhelming, does it not?"
"When it does, Hetty, you have to remember why you chose this line of work in the first place...I know you recently lost an agent. I wanted to extend my condolescences."
"Thank you," Hetty replied, as she put down her glass. "Mister Vail was young, Charlie. His whole life ahead of him. Kidnapped by thugs, held hostage underneath our noses. We couldn't save him, Charlie...it's been hard on us all."
"The same age as Jill, Kelly and Sabrina, if I'm not mistaken."
"You took Miss Blye's resume," Hetty said, speaking of one of her own female agents, Kensi Blye.
After Vail - her partner - was gunned down, she went through a range of emotions and reactions. She sent her resume to several private agencies - including Townsend's - before realizing that she had done so in reaction to her pain, not because she truly wanted to leave OSP.
"Were you aware of Dominic and his death at the time?" Hetty asked.
"I was not," Charlie said. "It was something I uncovered much later. But she did express interest, so I saw an obligation to check into her background."
"Just like you saw an obligation to check into Miss Todd and Officer David's backgrounds, after your team worked with Agent Gibbs in Washington."
"I'm losing a member of my team," Charlie said, "and I am always open to bringing in talented people."
"One might interpret your openness as poaching."
"You aren't the first person to say that, Henrietta."
"Not today, apparently."
"Ah...you met Agent Gibbs. A very sharp man. An incredible asset for your agency."
"I've known Jethro for quite a while. We took down Haswari's sleeper cell here, and later helped save his agents' lives. He didn't appreciate your...proposals to Miss Todd and Officer David. Just as I don't appreciate how you approached Miss Blye and Miss Hunter."
"As I said, Hetty, I-"
"You should have approached me first, Charles. I probably would have told you no in so many words, but it would have been better than going behind my back."
"They are adults, and can make decisions for themselves."
"Would you be so pragmatic if I approached your people?"
"They wouldn't work for NCIS."
"Are you so certain?"
"Henrietta, don't tell me you..."
"No, Charles, I didn't 'approach' nor hire Jill Munroe. Nor Sabrina Duncan nor Kelly Garrett. You may be surprised, however, at how much of your detectives' skills transfer over into Special Ops and a Major Case Response Team."
"Ahhhhh, Hetty. You haven't changed a bit in the years I've known you."
"And neither have you, Charlie."
"I suppose you are telling me hands off of your people, then. Gibbs told me the same thing, in his own unique way, with few words."
"Do I have to say it, Charlie?"
"No. I'll tell Bosley to stop pursuing Miss Blye and Miss Hunter, although if their paths take them from NCIS in the future I'd love to speak with them again."
"Don't be so certain about that, Charlie," Hetty said. "Both of them are valuable assets to NCIS, and Lauren Hunter is too busy in Europe anyway. Besides...neither of them would fit into your sexed-up private eye agency."
Townsend laughed, and the two long-time comrades talked more about their own pasts, the present and their agents' future.
Afterwards, Hetty returned to the building for the NCIS Office of Special Projects that looked like a cross between a water company station and a Mexican restaurant.
Almost everyone had gone home for the day, except for Kensi, who was working on some paperwork at her desk in the agents' bullpen. Next to her was Dominic Vail's replacement: Marty Deeks, an LAPD undercover detective who officially was the department's liaison to NCIS.
Deeks was very different from Vail, but was a good detective and cop who wasn't well-liked in the LAPD; Hetty saw great potential in him and planned to make him an NCIS agent, and a damn good one at that. If his banter with Kensi was any indication, Deeks already was blending well as part of the team.
Surprisingly to Hetty, Jethro Gibbs was waiting in her office.
"Jethro, did you miss your flight?"
"Didn't miss my plane, Hetty. How was your conversation with Townsend?"
"Pleasant enough, and he got the message when I told him hands off."
"That's good, because if Ziva and Kate were to take him up on his 'offer', I'd have to take Callen and probably Kensi Blye over there."
"Get that nonsense out of your head, Jethro. You can't afford her and you know it."
"And you can't afford any of my people, Hetty. Though you might be surprised at how well Kate and Tony would do here."
"I wouldn't be surprised at all, Jethro. And don't underestimate young Mr. McGee nor Ms. Sciuto, either. Ziva's performance and skills, of course, speak for themselves. However she's one agent I wouldn't take on because she needs to be with you. Not here in Los Angeles, not even with us, and certainly not with Charlie's 'Angels.'"
"You think he got the message, Hetty?"
"He may not have liked it, but he got it...now, that we've established we can't have the other's agents-"
"What about that guy?" Gibbs looked at Deeks, knowing very little about the detective, except he badly needed a haircut and a shave.
"Posh," Hetty said. "Mr. Deeks wouldn't last a week."
"You hired him, Hetty."
"No, it isn't that he doesn't have the skills...it's that he and Mr. DiNozzo would likely kill each other."
In the distance, Deeks and Kensi were talking - more like bantering - and getting on very well. Then Deeks' dog ran off, and Deeks ran after him, Kensi following behind and laughing.
"Good to see her laughing," Gibbs said.
"It is indeed, Jethro," Hetty replied. "We all took Dominic's death hard, Kensi especially."
"When we lost Pacci it was harder than I thought. When we almost lost Kate it was rough. It's a dangerous business. That doesn't make it any easier when you lose people."
Hetty pulled out a bottle of bourbon, and poured herself and Gibbs a drink.
"Here's to friends and colleagues, here and gone," she said. "To those we've known in the past, like Dominic and Chris, and those we work with in the present. Like Ducky, and Leon, and Jenny. And to those we will meet in the future."
"Like Kensi," said Gibbs. "Deeks. Kate. Tony, McGee, Callen, Sam, Lauren, Ziva. Lara."
"And Abby, James, Eric and Nate. To the future indeed," Hetty replied, clanking her glass against Jethro's.