Those who can't do, teach.
Alex Quinn agreed wholeheartedly with the old saying.
She had failed as a field agent, but she had succeeded as a teacher, and there was nothing wrong with that. NCIS needed good teachers just as much as it needed good agents – more so, even, because without good teachers, there would be no good agents. Alex wasn't ashamed of being a teacher. She was proud of the agents she'd trained. McGee, Bishop, and Torres were prime examples. They were very different, but skilled in their own ways. She had helped them develop those skills.
So when Gibbs came along and said that she'd obviously wanted to be back out in the field... oh, his comments made her seethe. She was happy as a teacher. She had sent good agents to Gibbs' team. True, none of them were DiNozzo Juniors, but few agents were as talented as Gibbs' prodigy had been. He couldn't have expected any agent to come close to DiNozzo.
But he did.
Not only that, he expected it out of her.
Part of Alex was flattered. Gibbs had been on the review board after her partner died, and yet, he still believed that she was a talented agent. The other part of Alex was irritated beyond belief. She did not want to be in the field. She was a teacher. NCIS needed teachers.
She could nearly hear Gibbs in her head. "Excuses, Quinn," he said. "You've got to stop making excuses."
He was right.
Alex hadn't become an agent to be a teacher. She had become an agent because she wanted to serve and protect the US Navy and Marine Corps. She could do that indirectly as a teacher, but in her heart of hearts, in the place she hadn't allowed herself to look since her partner died... she wanted to be out there, hunting down criminals who threatened her country.
One mistake didn't disqualify her from that calling.
Gibbs knew that. McGee, Bishop, Torres, they all knew that. It was time for her to learn that, too.
Rule 5: You don't waste good.
Just a one-shot to get my creative juices flowing again. I can't decide how I feel about Quinn and Torres. What do you think? Accurate portrayal from what we know so far?