December 26
Navy Yard
"Gibbs? It's a woman named Henrietta Lange. She said she urgently needed-"
Gibbs gave Bishop an impatient glare as she spoke, and abruptly stopped her train of thought.
"Sending her to you," Bishop said, and a suddenly cranky Boss picked up his phone. "Yeah, Gibbs...uh huh...no...Bremerton..."
Tony and McGee had stopped their work on the cold case to watch Gibbs' half of the conversation, which so far had been four words - 'no' most prominent - and a series of grunts. After four minutes, Gibbs hung up, noticing his agents staring at him, Bishop partly curious and partly mystified, and Tony and McGee appearing to be waiting for the Gibbs of Old to erupt.
"Get back to our cold case," Gibbs said quietly but firmly.
"Boss?" Tony said a half-minute after he, McGee and Bishop had resumed their work. "L.A. need our help?"
"Told 'em we have a case," Gibbs said just before his desk phone rang. His expression returned to annoyance when he saw the name on the phone's ID; he picked up on the fourth ring.
"Leon."
Tony, McGee and Bishop watched Gibbs grimmace during the brief conversation with the Director before hanging up, sitting up and quickly walking from his desk towards the stairs.
"Don't need your go bags," Gibbs told his agents as he glanced at them while ascending the stairs. "Keep workin' the case."
Director Leon Vance's office
"Would you like to explain to me why in hell you told OSP you wouldn't work with them?"
Vance leaned on the front of his desk, arms crossed, impatient. "I'm in no mood for whatever game you're playing or rule you're pulling out of your rear end to cover himself."
"Not pulling anything out my ass, Leon," Gibbs said, standing two feet in front of him, hands in pockets, casual but firm. "We're working a case."
"A COLD case. A 23 YEAR OLD case, Gibbs," Vance said. "Killing time until you catch a new case...which, I remind you, you DID when Hetty called."
"We don't work with outsiders," Gibbs replied, emphatically. Had this been Day One on the job, Vance's eyes would've popped out of his head, even with Gibbs' reputation throughout the agency and intelligence community. Having worked with the man for six years, however, Vance realized the man generally didn't even like working with other NCIS agents - Dewayne Pride's team in New Orleans being the notable exception.
"That's a load of bull and we both know it, Gibbs," Vance said. "In the last year alone: NSA. ATF. FBI - Agent Fornell-"
"I don't work with people I don't trust," Gibbs replied, hands still in pockets. Vance thought that sounded familiar - then remembered scuttlebutt regarding when he was forced to work with Agent E.J. Barrett. Vance had tried to understand Gibbs' point of view, although he concluded the man had judged her too harshly. Then again, Barrett and DiNozzo were sleeping together, breaking Gibbs' most important rule.
And Vance knew damn well no one - even when Abby Sciuto and Eric Beale went clubbing together during her case in L.A. - from Gibbs' team had slept with anyone from the Office of Special Projects team.
"Los Angeles is one of the finest teams this agency has ever had; I'd put them and your own team in the top two," Vance said. "Their agents are world-class. Their solve rate is impressive, they've stopped countless threats to the United States and the Navy and Marine Corps, hell, you even worked with Callen in Europe."
"Never said they didn't, Leon."
"Then what possible objection, especially when you're not working a case, do you have to working with OSP?" Vance continued. "I didn't even mention the time you and Agent McGee went to L.A. to work with them."
"Yeah, and when the work was done, we walked away," Gibbs said. Vance - realizing Gibbs had just dropped one of his rules on him - rolled his eyes and exhaled.
"They're normally self-sufficient, so they don't call on other NCIS agents except on the rare occasion," Vance said. "Hetty isn't going to call you for help because one of them got a hangnail. When she calls you-"
"She wants something," Gibbs interjected. "Wanted our help with a Russian mobster. Didn't need our help."
"You came to that conclusion in a four-minute conversation, Gibbs?"
"You listening in on my conversations, now, Leon? Bugging my desk?"
"If it involves national security, and the security of the Navy and Marine Corps, yes," Vance said, turning around to pick up a folder, then handed it to Gibbs. "Read this."
Gibbs read through a folder, with names he didn't recognize and pages of redacted files. "This is what Callen and his team trained for, Leon," Gibbs said after tossing the folder back to Leon. "Better than we are."
"I'm about to send you, your agents, Ms. Sciuto and Dr. Mallard on a C-130 to Los Angeles," Vance said, having heard enough of what he considered to be Gibbs' baloney. "Before I do, Gibbs, I really want to know why you said no to Hetty."
Gibbs, to Vance's mild surprise, hestitated before answering.
"You know what happened between Agent Barrett and Agent DiNozzo?" Gibbs said. "Port to Port case. You gave her the lead. I told you her methods were wrong, she wasn't close to having the necessary experience to investigate that important of a case and solve it. The fact she was related to Davenport-"
"And Rule 12, that she and DiNozzo were sleeping together," Vance said. "You two made up if I'm not mistaken."
"Yeah; she's still welcome back anytime," Gibbs said.
"So unless one of your people are taking red-eyes to the west coast, the two can't possibly be related," Vance said. "So your explanation so far as to why you don't want to work with Los Angeles - I'm not buying it, and I'm not even seeing it...so explain yourself to me before I put you and your team on that C-130."
Gibbs looked to his left.
"Rule 12," he said. "Never sleep with a coworker."
"As you've told me on numerous occasions."
"Blye," Gibbs said. "Sleeps with Deeks-"
"How in the hell do you know that?"
"Scuttlebutt...and, reading between the lines in the reports."
"Reports?...Agent Gibbs. Those reports are classified-" Vance stopped himself; he shouldn't have been surprised that Gibbs got his hands on at least some of Callen's reports.
"Blye was on a classified op; affected Deeks' work."
That is what all this is about? Vance thought. "Deeks did exemplary work in Agent Blye's absence, just as he has before and after; in fact, Gibbs, I'd put them up against any two of your agents, and would say they both are in the same class as your people."
"I'm not arguing that, Leon," Gibbs said. "I just don't trust them...together."
"What the hell?" Vance said. "Why on earth would you care about Detective Deeks and Agent Blye's personal life? Especially when you don't manage them? When your closest interactions with her when she was assigned to the Navy Yard before L.A. was a nod of the head and an evaluation?"
"Rule 12, Leon," Gibbs said. "I saw how not having a Rule 12 screwed up a team. Did it for myself and Jenny Shepard."
"So you and Dir-then-Agent Shepard, in Europe...you're going to apply that throughout the agency," Vance said.
"Not my call, Leon. Doesn't mean it's necessarily a bad idea."
"And yet I wonder why when Jenny made you temporary director - which indirectly led to her naming me as Assistant Director, incidentially - she didn't have to revoke some version of that rule."
"Must've been too busy working on a case, Leon."
"I heard about you in the parking lot," Vance said. "And yet, instead of going on some crusade to ban agents from dating and marrying one another throughout the agency, you did your job and only dealt with the subject as it came up in the course of your job. Although...there is the matter of Agent McGee and Ms. Sciuto...and Agent DiNozzo and Agent David."
Gibbs looked to his right, then back at Vance - hard.
"I know Tim and Abby dated, not now, not for a long time, but once," Vance said. "And we both knew Tony and Ziva fooled around, even if they never acknowledged it in private, nor told you, nor took the step that Deeks and Blye have taken."
"I dealt with it, Leon."
"By looking the other way."
"They know Rule 12."
"I understand that, Gibbs. I also understand they're your people...and that you are not a dumbass. You know the L.A. team's record, Deeks and Blye's records, and you also know Callen - and Hanna, not to mention Hetty and Assistant Director Granger - would not look the other way if their relationship caused their performance in the field to drop or posed a danger to their teammates."
"How do you know it doesn't pose a danger?" Gibbs said. "To them. To US."
"That why you called Agent Pride and suggested to him his team refuse to work with L.A.?"
"Leon," Gibbs said, annoyed. "I told Agent Pride they could use San Diego's services far better than his team's."
"So why not call San Diego or Bremerton's SACs and warn them?"
"Come on, Leon-"
"Makes as much damn sense as you thinking Blye and Deeks are a threat to you because they play patty cake while you're telling one of your agents to go home and watch a movie and the other to go to her apartment and-"
"I don't trust them, Leon!" Gibbs barked. "We get in a situation. What if those mobsters are with Mishnev? They capture Blye and Deeks, and two of my own. Torture them. You think Blye and Deeks are going to sacrifice themselves - or each other - for Tony or Bishop or McGee?"
"Yes and yes," Vance said. "Just like you taught your own people."
"Still got problems with it, Leon," Gibbs said. "We haven't even touched on Beale and Jones."
Vance rolled his eyes, forced himself to exhale normally, and walked right up to Gibbs.
"That's a personnel issue for Mr. Callen, Ms. Lange, and Assistant Director Granger to handle and be concerned about - not you," Vance reminded him. "Whatever rules your people voluntarily place themselves under when they work for you, are superseded by the rules that apply to every agent and employee of this agency, that affect ALL of us. That includes you and your people."
"I have them for damn good reasons, Leon."
"And I'm certain they're damn good ones. But they're yours, not necessarily the agency's," Vance said. "Rule 12? Your Rule 12, Gibbs. Not theirs."
Vance stepped back behind his desk and picked up the receiver on his phone. "45 minutes to get to Andrews to catch that C-130, Gibbs. I'll tell Hetty to expect you-"
Gibbs phone rang, and he picked up.
"Yeah, Gibbs...okay...good. On our way." Gibbs hung up. "Leon, we caught a case - dead JAG and Naval Captain dead in Rock Creek Park. Multiple gunshot wounds."
"I'll tell Metro-"
"Secretary of the Navy Glassberg called," Gibbs said, with what Vance swore was a slight twinkle in his eye. "Guess that L.A. reunion's gonna have to wait." Gibbs headed out of Vance's office, towards his live case.
Vance, meanwhile, was left holding a receiver and hearing a loud beep. He would call Hetty, and tell her to approach one of the West Coast offices for assistance on her case - then about sneaking in Agent Blye and Detective Deeks to D.C. for some interagency work and observation with the MCRT.
THE END?