Silver Fox in the Hen House

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Tony had been gone over two months and the team was down an agent. Gibbs had tried to get a replacement, but no one would fill the bill. Finally Vance stepped in and gave him what he needed - or did he?

Silver Fox in the Hen House

A/N. Written from the prompt that NCIS is looking for a particular person to fill the void when Tony leaves the show. We have no idea who they are trying to tempt into the role, just a generic idea of what her type of agent will be like. This is gonna be so totally AU when we finally find out, but it is fun to speculate. For what it is worth he is my my semi sequel to 'Rule Six be Damned'.

Silver Fox in the Hen House

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NCIS Headquarters || Navy Yard, Washington, D.C.

Leroy Jethro Gibbs was quickly running out of options. It had been two months since he found Tony DiNozzo's letter, service weapon, and credentials, sitting on his desk. Tony finally had turned his back on the life that he had here at NCIS and launched out to find a 'normal' life while he was still young enough to enjoy it.

He was still a senior agent down in his team at the MCRT. There was not a single agent on any of the secondary teams that he felt comfortable elevating to the number one team. He could move McGee up to senior agent status, but he still would need another agent to pair up with Bishop. And the probie was still not far enough along in her training for him to feel comfortable to advance her to full agent status.

He was in a quandary. He looked up at the names up on the wall, so many of them would have been an easy choice to move into Tony's vacant slot. William Decker, Jim Nelson, Ned Dorneget, all were no longer with them, having offered them up in the service of their country. Thoughts of Dorney brought a tear to his eye and his hand ghosted to where his latest wound had scarred over already. He replayed the events of that day in his mind, so proud of how many other lives he saved, and regretting that he had to lose his own.

Stanley Burley had his own team in Miami and probably would not want to transfer out off the land of fun and sun. Tom Survoy followed up on leaving NCIS and went to work in the private sector, even though Gibbs refused to put in a word for him. Nikki Jardine had the experience, but her background was that of an NCIS intelligence analyst. In addition to having the same opinion of intelligence analysts that Hetty Lange had, Gibbs did not need another one on his team. Bishop was an intelligence analyst with NSA, but there was just something about her that Gibbs noticed that got him to invite her as a probie on his team. So another analyst was not needed on the team. Cassie Yates was on a deep cover assignment somewhere in the world, but since it was a 'need to know' mission, Gibbs was not provided with any of the particulars. Unofficially, he was told that he needed to look somewhere else for another member of his team, because Cassie would be unavailable for the foreseeable future.

He thought that he had found the perfect person when he brought in Tina Larson. She had the experience he needed in a team member and the intelligence to match McGee. She had been on his team before, so she knew how they operated. The reason she left was that Tony constantly hit on her. Since Tony was no longer part of the team, Gibbs figured that she could seamlessly transition to the MCRT again. But that was years ago and time changed a lot of things. Although Tina still on good terms with McGee, Tony's presence still haunted the squad room, and she felt as if he still was there watching her. After three weeks she went to Gibbs, explained her problem, and asked for a transfer.

Gibbs had gone over the list of agents in all of the NCIS resident agencies throughout the world. Of all the agents that were assigned to each of those agencies, there was no one that he felt that he could steal and make a member of his team. All of the good ones were already taken and usually had teams of their own.

He tried to get CGIS special agent Abigail Borin to switch over and join NCIS. But she tried just as hard to recruit him to transfer over to CGIS, telling him it would be easier for him to move than her. NCIS had more rules and regulations that one had to remember, and she did not want to have to go back to school.

The Special Agent in Charge shook his head at the options with which he was left. It would take at least another six months before he would feel comfortable signing off on Bishop's agent status. Even at that, he would want at least another year before he could consider her training complete. He just didn't have the time to take another newbie fresh out of FLETC and train them from scratch. He highly doubted if he still had that many years left in him. He'd faced his own mortality earlier this year, and it rocked him to his core. Normally an extremely closed off man, he sought out his surgeon, Dr. Cyril Taft, to talk to him about his near-death experience and all the things he felt about it. Even a year ago something like that would never have happened. Gibbs would have just grinned and bore it, like he always did in the past. It would be locked away, along with all his other feelings, where no one else could see them, where only he would deal with them.

But something had changed him. He no longer could do it all alone. When he tried it again after his surgery, he ended up collapsing. Yeah he was getting older, but that had always been the case. Others had noticed it too. Gibbs wondered if that was the reason why Director Vance kept a close eye on him now. Almost every time he looked, he could see Vance at the door of his office looking down at him. It was almost getting to the point of paranoia. He had no idea of what it would take, but he had to get Vance off of his back. He knew that Vance had an attempt on his own life, that left his wife and Eli David murdered. Talking about it didn't help Vance. He wanted vengeance.

Gibbs had been down that route after the death of Shannon and Kelly, and found that it didn't help. It didn't bring them back. It didn't lessen the pain. They still were gone and there was a hole in his heart that Dr. Taft could never fix. And the older he got, the more he thought about it and all that he had lost the day that they were taken from him. If it weren't for his damn sense of duty in wanting to give his people every advantage that he possibly could from all his years of service, he would have quit a long time ago and looked for something that would be less stressful to live out his life.

But none of this speculation was helping his problem. He still needed another agent to fill out the team, and he had no idea where he was going to find one that would meet all of his qualifications.

Just then the Director's door opened up and he led a woman in her late thirties down the stairs into the squad room. The click of her heels brought everyone's eyes onto her, wondering who she was and why she was there. Vance led her up to Gibbs' desk, and gentleman that he was, he rose to meet her, "Gibbs, this is Tess. Tess, Gibbs. She is the new member of your team. I'll leave you two to get acquainted." With that he turned and headed back up to his office.

Gibbs' eyes grew wide at the announcement. "Wait a minute, Leon. Don't I get a say in any of this?" he demanded.

"You've had two months, Gibbs, and even I can see the desk is still empty. Do you have an alternative agent to fill that spot?" Vance shot back at him.

"You know I don't." was the answer he received.

"Well, I've solved your problem, haven't I?" he answered his agent. Turning to the newcomer, Vance said, "I told he wouldn't take it well. I'm sure that you have dealt with people like him before. He's all yours, Tess." Vance continued to walk up the stairs to his office.

Gibbs took off after him, protesting all the way. Tess trailed behind the two men, as she quickly ascended the stairs back up to the Director's office. Again the click of her heels was the only sound in the squad room, until Vance's office door slammed shut with a concluding concussion.

None of them saw the brief signal that Gibbs had given to McGee as he started to chase the Director. Tim had been with the team long enough to understand the unspoken language that had gone on between Gibbs and Tony. Now with Tony gone, it would fall to him to carry on these unvoiced conversations. McGee understood that Gibbs wanted him to find out all he could on the newest 'member' of their team. With just a slight nod, he answered, 'On it, boss," and fired up his computer, running a facial recognition program throughout all the federal databases.

And there she was, large as life. Former FBI agent who had worked in the counter-terrorism office in New York City. Fifteen years with the bureau, bounced around from one office to another, She received fantastic reviews for her insight and her bravery and reprimands for her sarcastic attitude with her superiors.

Tim looked up at Gibbs and thought, God, this was just so much what the boss didn't need. A good agent with bad people skills, and from the looks of these reports, Tess would be even worse than Tony. I gotta find something redeeming in all this, or it is gonna be like living in a swamp, with alligators on both sides of me, chewing on my ass.

He went over to the personal statistics side of her file and was appalled. A natural redhead, Tim looked up toward Vance's office, slightly shaking his head. What the hell was Vance thinking? He knew about Gibbs and redheads. Was he trying to get Gibbs to resign?"

Fifteen years in government service had gotten her three governmental husbands and three governmental divorces. There was a personal note added to the file on her last husband, by Eric Britt, her supervisor, "If you value your life when talking about marriage, do not push it further if Tess says that she tried with men, 'but none of her husbands could keep up with her.'" At least she didn't have any children to complicate her life. Tim shook his head again. It looked like they were not getting Tony's replacement, but a female Gibbs. Maybe he should alert Abby right now and start a pool on when the first major explosion within the MCRT would take place. If he were quick enough, he could even get his bet down for today.

McGee did a little further digging, using one of the tricks that he was shown once by Eric Beale, that was highly illegal but utterly informative. It got him into a section of Tess' files that were normally closed off to anyone less than assistant director status. He began to read the excerpted comments on agent performance that were placed into her file over the past fifteen years.

The earliest comment was by Joe Duram, her captain during her training period. He described her as a 'hard-edged' probie, uncompromising in her dedication to the job. He was surprised that she spent eighteen hours in a car on a stakeout with her partner, awake the whole time. When he asked her about it, she claimed that sleep and sex were highly 'overrated' but if he was offering her a good martini and a rare bacon cheeseburger when she got off duty, she would follow him anywhere.

Four years later she was working undercover for various operations throughout the New York area. Detective Dave Ortega, commented on just two of the operations that happened back to back. He said she "can just as easily keep up with a group of politicians talking at a black-tie fundraiser as she can truck drivers at a roadside diner. She is extremely quick-witted and can adapt herself to any and all situations."

Then there was the time when her partner, a young black man named Scott Fry, was accused of conduct unbecoming an agent, by Hector Reeves, a member of another team. Reeves had no idea what was going on in the life of Fry, all he saw was Tess, giving her partner a shoulder to cry on, to help him deal with the pain of his wife of six months being diagnosed with breast cancer. When she found out of what Reeves had accused them, Lieutenant Tom McCall said she came storming into his office, like a mother bear, protecting her cubs. When Lieutenant McCall said that he knew all about it, and had placed a reprimand in Reeves' file, her demeanor changed instantly. His big note in her file, in capital letters, DO NOT MAKE THIS WOMAN ANGRY AT YOU. The woman is 'two parts bulldog, one part sweet kitten,' and her bite is a lot worse than her purr,"

Scattered here and there throughout the comments section are mention of her sarcastic remarks to her superiors. She constantly butts heads with them and does not care how much she ruffles their feathers, especially when she is certain that she is right.

Tim thought to himself, Oh, boy. I know a few women that are just like that, as his thoughts turned to the last 'discussion' he had with Delilah. How high will the estrogen level get here in the squad room before the walls will get repainted from the orange they are now to a beautiful pink, and do I wanna be around to see it?

One thing was certain, Gibbs wouldn't have to raid the OSP in Los Angeles and bring Callen here to join his squad. In Tess he has a renaissance woman, a special agent that is every bit as good as Callen is, at least on paper. A female combination of Gibbs himself and his so-called son was going to join the team and try work with them. Future life in the MCRT is going to be anything by dull with Tony gone and Tess aboard.

And from the amount of time that Gibbs had already spent in Vance's office, trying to get him to change his mind, Tim knew that, like her or not, Tess was here to stay. He started putting together all this information into a report for Gibbs and marked it for his eyes only. He knew his boss was not going to be happy with what he read and really wondered how long the old silver fox would be able to live in this hen-house.