I've had this idea for a couple of months now, and wanted to give it a try.
Sorry for any spelling/grammatical errors. I wrote this quickly for a transition to the other chapters.
Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or any of its characters.
"…And that's why we all need to be respectful of each other. When coworkers get along, the workplace is more productive and a happier place for everyone."
Special Agent Tony DiNozzo tipped back in his chair, glanced at his watch, and groaned. He had been sitting, bored out of his mind for almost an hour as the speaker from the Human Resources Department, Thomas Brown, droned on and on about making the workplace better.
On Tony's left, McGee was sitting straight in his chair, his gaze fixed on Brown. Tony peered closer and noticed that though McGee's was looking at the speaker, his eyes were glazed over and trained on the board behind the speaker's head.
Tony couldn't help but let out a snort. Even McGee couldn't pay attention to this.
Ziva leaned over from Tony's other side and poked his arm. "Pay attention," she hissed softly.
"Why? We don't need to learn any of this stuff. We know it already. We just don't do it."
"The Human Resources department disagrees with you, DiNozzo."
Tony looked up to find Director Vance standing over him, glaring. He let his chair fall back to the ground and looked down sheepishly.
"That's exactly why we need to work on our behavior," Brown said, jumping into the conversation excitedly. "Everyone knows what they should do, but they don't do it. With a few slight modifications, we could make NCIS a better place for everyone."
"Very true," Vance said, nodding. He glared at Tony again before striding to the front of the room and turning to face his employees. "Human Resources has re-vamped their policies pertaining to employee relations and workplace safety. These changes are in the new NCIS Employee Conduct Handbooks. The guidelines will formally be instated at the end of the month, so you have a grace period before they become active. Be sure to pick one up on the way out."
The trapped employees suddenly realized that they had been dismissed, and scrambled for the door.
Vance held up a hand as Ziva made a break for the door. "Not you, David. I need to talk to you, DiNozzo and McGee."
Tony smirked at Ziva as she made her way back to the door, obviously disappointed that she would have to stay in the conference room.
Vance waited until the crowd dwindled before speaking again. "The new rules in the handbook are technically still guidelines. They need to be field tested before we can make them official."
"I don't really see how we can help with that," McGee said doubtfully.
"We're using your team to for field testing."
"What?" McGee spat out.
Ziva shook her head. "No!"
"Gibbs will never let that happen!" Tony exclaimed vehemently. Gibbs loved rules, as long as he was the one to make them. But following ones made by Human Resources was a totally different story.
Vance shook his head. "It is. Next time, tell Gibbs that if he wants to run his team his way, he had better show up to the department meeting."
As Vance left the room, avoiding his employee's complaints, Brown slipped over to them. "It'll be easy, really. All you have to do is look over the handbook tonight so that you have a better understanding of the guidelines. Seeing how the guidelines work in action will help my depart do some last minute tweaking before they become official rules."
"Then what?" Tony asked, crossing his arms.
Brown smiled. "Then you just act like your normal selves. Whenever there's an incident, try to figure out what rule was violated and how you can solve the problem. Then record what happened and how you solved it."
"That's it?" McGee asked suspiciously. "No meetings?"
"I may ask for your feedback at the end, but it shouldn't take long." Brown smiled. "Relax, I'm sure that once you all understand how to act, you'll do fine. "
"Yeah, I'm sure," Tony muttered under his breath. "If we don't kill each other first."
The first actual chapter comes next. This was just an introduction.