AN: Ok there are spoilers for the whole show mixed in there, and possible implied slash, but it doens't have to be if you don't want it. It's up to the reader how they interpret it.

AN 2: Please be kind I wrote this during my lunch hour, hasn't been betaed and only very quickly reread before I posted it so there are probably waffly bits and lots of glaring errors. But as always please read and review!

Leadership was about politics, mind games, knowing people, knowing who was important and damage control.

That was a big one, knowing who was important and who was expendable in a team, and this team, her team, was no different.

Only her team was made up of many smaller teams and parts.

She'd known that this job was going to be a challenge when she accepted it, for more than one reason, but she'd looked forward to it.

As soon as she had accepted the job, before she had even officially started, her predecessor had taken her out to lunch to fill her in on some of the finer points of her new job. Finer points that he'd learned the hard way and points that some people might have over looked without knowing it.

Yes her new job as Director of NCIS was going to be one hell of a challenge.

Their lunch had turned into dinner as well by the time that they had finished, and she felt that she was ready to face her new command. It was a big step.

The politics of the position were more complex than she'd realised, often requiring her to be the peacemaker between government agencies that had tendencies to not get along, but that was to be expected.

But one of the most important things that had come out of that meeting had been the who's who in NCIS. Sure she'd worked NCIS before, had even worked under a few people that she would now be leading, and she knew that she'd have to prove herself to some of her underlings, that just came with being new top dog in any organisation. And it always paid to have some intelligence about your job before you get there.

Tom Morrow had been a great man, who was respected by all who had worked under him, and knowing that he's still be doing his job as Director of NCIS if he hadn't been chased for his new position was a little daunting. Knowing that if she fucked up he'd be more than willing to come back and take his old job back again was just plain fucking scary.

But she knew she worked well under pressure. She'd had good teachers through her career.

Tom had taken time to tell her about some of the teams that she'd be watching over, letting her know what to watch with some of them, little quirks that could, if not watched carefully, cause problems for her further down the track, and others that worked well with little supervision.

Then there had been the key people, that in Tom's opinion, she should make damn sure to keep around no matter what she had to do.

She had smiled as he had told her that.

Sure he thought that they were important but surely it was up to her now not him.

But she'd listened to him, and his reasons, and after a short time in her new job she'd learned just how right Tom had been about those 4 people.

That's right.

4 People.

That in Tom's and now her own opinion were a major part of what held NCIS together.

The glue if you were.

And what a motley group they made.

First had been one Leroy Jethro Gibbs. She may have been the director of NCIS now, but he had the real power. He had the loyalty of all those who worked in the building and those who he'd worked with in the past. Tom had told her to give him as much leeway as he needed to do his job, be that ordering other teams around, or borrowing members from other teams to hiring and firing of people for his own team, Tom had said to just roll with what Gibbs wanted because in the end he'd get it and it always seemed to work out for the best. She knew from her own history with the man he only worked with the best, he expected the best out of those he worked with. His knowledge and investigative skills were some of the best that she had ever seen, hell he'd trained her, taught her all she had needed to get this far in her career, and for a time they had even had more.

Even now she couldn't deny that she still had feelings for him. Would love to have another chance with him, but knew that it wasn't going to happen. For more than one reason and one of those reasons was because of another of the 4 people.

Anthony DiNozzo. When she'd first meet him she couldn't believe that it was the same man that Tom had been telling her about over lunch. Looking at him, talking to him he seemed like an immature idiot, and she had trouble seeing what it was that Jethro had seen in the younger man. Tom had told her that Gibbs had found him while investigating a case with the Baltimore PD and when the case was done he'd immediately offered him a job. Knowing Jethro like she did she knew that there must have been something about Tony that had caught his eye, and not just his looks, she knew that Jethro was just as likely to take a male lover as a female, but he'd never offer a job to someone simply because he wanted to sleep with them.

It had taken her a while to see what Jethro had apparently seen in an instant with Tony. But once she'd seen it for herself she was in no doubt that Jethro still had the ability to find the best. It had been a case that had baffled not just other NCIS offices, but also other jurisdictions as well. The case had been forwarded to her with the request that it be given to Gibbs and his team to handle, it had needed to be solved quickly and delicately. And it had. She had watched them work, the team, the way that Gibbs led, the others followed, but she'd watched as Tony worked, looking at evidence, dealing with people, heading off others before they approached Gibbs to piss him off, making sure that Gibbs had everything he needed, even sometimes before Gibbs asked for it himself, and then she'd seen the remarkable mind that was hiding behind the jock exterior that was all most people saw. She watched as he pulled pieces of seemingly unrelated evidence together to help solve the case, pieces of evidence that others had ignored or simply hadn't seen how they related. Once they had that link they had solved the rest of the case with no trouble, even getting the confessions that they needed.

She had to admit that she had been amazed to see it. She knew he had to be intelligent, he'd gone to College on a Sporting Scholarship but he'd actually done a double major, which most people didn't know, and had even gone on to quietly do a masters later, which even fewer people knew. But until she'd watched him working on that case she'd never seen past the mask that he showed most of the world, and the only reason that she'd seen it then was because she had been looking, and looking hard.

Most people had a tendency to accept him at face value and that was a huge mistake, as more time went on she saw how he'd disarm people with his smile, or his attitude, and then get the information that was needed to solve cases.

Together as a team Gibbs and DiNozzo had on hell of a solve rate. They worked seamlessly together, she could admit to herself that she was a little jealous of that, she'd never been able to work that closely with Gibbs, even when they had been lovers.

Their team grew, with the addition of Cait, and then McGee, and while they were good at what they did, they were not irreplaceable, not like Jethro and Tony. When Cait had been killed they had all hurt, but eventually everyone had been able to move forward with only a few hiccups here and there. The real power of the team was Gibbs and DiNozzo, everyone looked to them for guidance.

Next was Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard. His knowledge was unlimited and his talent as a ME was unrivalled. There was little he couldn't do with a dead body, and even some live ones...but that was another story. He had been with NCIS for years, and well respected in his field. But it was more than that. His respect for both the dead and the living drew people to him. Once you had met the doctor you found yourself inexplicably drawn to him, found yourself listening to one of his endless stories, or just asking for advice about just about anything, but also you found that you'd do just about anything that he asked for. He tended to be a father/grandfather figure to just about everyone in the building but especially to Jethro, Tony, Abby, Tim, Ziva and Cait when she was alive. There was just something about the ME that touched all those around him.

Then lastly there was Abigail "Abby" Scuito. Again she was one of the top of her field, and NCIS had been lucky to get her shortly after she graduated college, but again she had had trouble seeing what Tom had seen, she had had trouble seeing past the Goth clothing, and the almost innocent appearance that seemed to surround the young woman. Sure she couldn't deny that when it came to forensic evidence Abby was one of the best, she'd seen the way that Abby worked and had been impressed with that even though she had tried to get her to fall into line with dress code, which had fallen quickly by the wayside with a few choice words from Jethro, and had even at one point tried to help Abby out by giving her a lab tech to help lighten some of her work load, not that it had worked out that way, and boy did she feel bad about that. She had received a dressing down from more than one of her superiors over that one. But all in all Abby was just a force to be reckoned with. You didn't go against her if you didn't want to loose something you held dear, or if you wanted to live.

The four of them were NCIS.

And if she lost any of them permanently she'd have to watch out for herself.

Not that she'd want to see any of them go, over the past couple of years she had grown closer to all of them and considered them important to herself as well as the job.

But one explosion had ripped the very fabric of NCIS apart. Hurt each of them in different ways, which was still having fallout now, six months after the fact.

Gibbs had been badly injured, and had retired, or so he thought, I hadn't accepted his resignation, not that he knew that at the time. I had decided to put him on leave until we could convince him to come back. Some bad luck that Ziva had had helped to get him back here, and the others had drawn together to help convince him to stay.

But his leaving and then return had fallout that most still couldn't see. But she'd seen it, and had even spoken to Gibbs and Ducky about it.

And she was worried.

Damage control that she had started six moths ago was still being done, being patched and tended.

The way that Gibbs chose to leave had been hard on everyone at NCIS, but none more so than Tony. Sure Abby had taken it hard, but she had Tony, Ducky, Tim and even Ziva to fall back on, to help her through the hurt of his leaving. Tony however had had to be strong for everyone else. He'd been given command of the team by Gibbs. Gibbs words still haunted her, "You'll do". She couldn't believe he'd said it that way, as if since he was there he could have it, but Gibbs was sure that there should have been someone else that would have been better. She seen the mask Tony had pulled into place so quickly then. But she'd also seen the hurt and sadness that the mask was hiding.

No one else did.

Tony had done a fantastic job of leading the team. Of holding everyone together, but even so the absence of Gibbs was still felt throughout the office, and he'd spent many hours with her trying to figure out ways to get Gibbs back to Washington and NCIS. She had known that he was ready for his own team for some time, and he'd proved her right, but she could also see that leading his team was costing him, the effort of maintaining his strong exterior for everyone around him was slowly eating away at him. And she watched, waited and acted when she could to help ease his burden.

When they had finally gotten Gibbs back, she thought that the worst would be behind them, their leader would be back, and things would settle down again, but it hadn't happened that way and her heart ached for all of them. None more so than Tony.

She had hated the way that Jethro had strode back into the office and reclaimed his desk and his position, simply grabbing a box and sweeping Tony's stuff into it as if he meant nothing. She knew that that wasn't true though, but when she saw it and Tony's reaction, she had gotten mad.

She had seen his reaction, and again she thought she had been the only one to see it, was probably the only one who had been looking for it before he slid another of his masks into place.

She had stood back and watched as the others welcomed Gibbs back as if nothing had happened, had heard the stirring and jibs that Ziva and McGee both shot at Tony, about his no longer being in charge and would have loved to have let them know what she thought about their treatment of their co-worker, their friend, but she also knew that she couldn't do that.

She had offered Tony an escape, hoping that he wouldn't take it, a chance to have his own team. Ok so she had taken a chance at loosing one of the ones she's learned shouldn't be let go, but she had done it out of fear. Fear that if she didn't show him her support, that if she didn't show him her faith that they would loose him anyway.

It had been a gamble.

It had been close.

But he had chosen to stay.

But at what cost?

He had turned her down, but had asked her not to tell the others about the offer. Again he'd put the others ahead of himself, as he usually did, but at what cost to himself?

She'd tried to talk to Jethro about Tony, tried to tell him what a great job Tony had done, some of the things that he'd accomplished while Jethro was relaxing in Mexico, but he'd just shrugged it off as if it was nothing special.

She felt like shooting him in that moment.

She still had all four of them, but for how much longer? How long before the mask shattered and the man behind the mask finally left them.

So here she was.

She was in damage control.

Desperately clutching at straws, to keep these two men from self destructing and taking everyone else with them.

She had watched as Jethro had made peace with first Abby and then Ducky, and she had hoped that he'd also make peace with Tony as well, but it hadn't happened. He kept the younger man at arms length and it was slowly killing both of them.

So she had gotten together with Abby and Ducky and asked for their help. It had taken them some time to come up with a plan that they all agreed had the best, or really only chance at succeeding.

That brought them here.

As much as she still loved Jethro she knew that she was not what he needed, that his heart didn't belong to her, but to another.

Their plan was simple.

She had called them both to her office where she was going to tell them both a few home truths, which she had just finished delivering, and now she stood and walked over to her office door.

"Now I'm going to leave, and you two are going to work everything out." She opened the door, "Oh and don't even think about trying to leave here until you do."

With that she stepped out and locked the door behind her.