DISCLAIMER: Don't own it... No money is made... Just for fun and enjoyment!
SUMMARY: Sequel to "The SecDef Cheats." Lt. Col Cassidy moves in to NCIS and this will mean for Abby in the long run. McAbby, Drama/Romance/Angst
RATING: T - Adult subject matter, rare mild language, killer smooching.
A/N: I have finally nailed down all the things I wanted to with the storyline for this sequel, so I decided to get it started. There will be a guaranteed minimum of one post a week.
REVIEWS: I am always trying to improve my writing, so all constructive criticism is welcome. I would also like to thank you in advance for any reviews you might wish to leave. They really are a great boon to a writer's ego and gives you a huge incentive to live up to your expectations.
Chapter 1
As Gibbs waited for the four Marine enlisted men to exit the reception area of the newly constructed office on the administrative level of NCIS headquarters, he was careful to protect the item he held under his arm. When he was finally able to enter the reception area, he found a junior Naval officer behind the desk. The man looked familiar to him, but he could not quite place where he remembered him from. As he approached the desk, the younger man looked up, recognized him and stood at attention in full salute, "Gunnery Sergeant Gibbs."
The display was impressive, and unwarranted for a man of his former rank. Gibbs looked at the man's name tag, hoping to jog his memory as to the identity of the man. "Uh, Lieutenant Tyner, is it?" The name was not ringing any bells for Gibbs, but then again, he never was very good at names.
"Aye, Sir. May I announce your arrival, Sir?" The young Naval officer seemed hell bent on continuing the display, so Gibbs concluded that he must have been another Pentagon junkie.
"You may, Tyner." He nodded and waited for the young man to return to his station to allow him entrance into the office.
He did not have long to wait. The man stood at the open door and gestured for Gibbs to enter, "Sir, Lieutenant Colonel Cassidy was expecting you, Sir." Gibbs was surprised by that announcement, since he had not told anyone he was even coming up to the administrative level.
"Thank you, Lieutenant." Gibbs walked past the man and into the office where he found the Colonel removing the plastic from the desk that had obviously just been delivered by the Marines he passed in the hallway.
She looked up to notice his entrance and nodded to him in acknowledgement. She then turned to regard the lieutenant, "Dismissed, Tyner… And close the door, please."
"Aye, aye, Sir." And with that confusing statement, the young man disappeared behind the closed door.
"Do you make him that nervous on purpose?" Gibbs could not help but comment about Tyner's apparent slip up.
"I don't follow, Gunny." The Colonel was trying to discern the meaning of his question.
"Well, he's snapping to for me, and calling you 'Sir', so I figured you were making him awful nervous." Gibbs was practically jovial with his observation.
The Colonel laughed at his conclusion, "Not at all. I am a firm believer in equality in the Corps, and the military for that matter. But that means that everyone should be equal, with equal treatment. No special treatment for women." She shrugged off the statement, but continued, "I also think that anything that can be seen as causing confusion for Marines (or Sailors) is bad, and after watching enough of them get confused trying to remember when to use 'ma'am', I refuse to allow anyone in my command the opportunity for that particular confusion."
Gibbs was a little taken aback by her comments, "So, where do you stand on the physical evaluation adjustments?"
"I find them offensive and just another barrier to an equitable military playing field. I refused the adjustments when I was at the Yard, even though it drew the ire of several of the other female Middies." The Colonel was being one hundred percent honest with Gibbs, and he was actually fairly impressed. She motioned for him to take a seat and she did the same.
"I've heard rumors there were a few of you around, but I've never had the pleasure." Gibbs shot his off-handed compliment at the Colonel.
She chuckled at his intent, "A few of what?"
Gibbs looked away, realizing that using the term in mixed company still bothered him. "I'm afraid that, while I agree with you about the standards, I'm still a very old-fashioned male and don't feel comfortable using the term."
"Ah… You must be referring to the 'Brass Assed Bitch' one… I've been called that one so often, I've thought about putting it on my footlocker." The Colonel laughed it off, and Gibbs felt a little more comfortable about the situation, "Sorry, Gunny, but you cannot serve as a woman in this man's Corps for almost eighteen years without developing a thick skin."
He nodded and smirked, "I am learning that very quickly, Colonel."
"So, what brings you to my office, Agent Gibbs?" She decided to quit beating around the bush and get back to work.
Gibbs suddenly remembered the package he had set on the floor upon taking his seat and reached down to retrieve it. "Well, Colonel, I took the liberty of peeking in here last week to get a gist of the color scheme for this." He handed her the package and she stood to take it from him.
The Colonel placed the large, flat, brown wrapped item on her desk and carefully unwrapped it, after turning it over to get at the folds being held down by the masking tape. Once the paper had been unfolded, it revealed the back of a cherrywood picture frame (which matched the office décor). She gingerly turned it right-side up and found a wonderful, crème colored, matted commissioning picture of a Cruiser, and a young Naval captain in an oval beside it. "Gunny?"
"I've got some friends in the archives, so when I heard you were moving in, I had them dig up the commissioning photo of the ship your husband's grandfather was the first captain on, and the photo from when he accepted his rank of captain." He stood up and turned the frame back around again, "That little envelope has the negatives they made from the originals, in case you wanted to make some more copies." She smiled broadly, and he could tell she had been touched by the gesture.
She shook her head in shock at the gift and then spoke, with the emotion apparent in her voice, "You couldn't have known it, but I had plans to create a wall in honor of my family's service to their country here in this office. I've actually been planning it for a while, and working my way from the first members to the more recent ones. I just hadn't gotten to the captain yet." She pointed at the stack of frames sitting against the wall to his right. "I'll have to get your contact's name, so I can finish it up."
He walked over to the stack and motioned for permission to look at them, "May I?"
She joined him at the wall, "Of course." And Gibbs knelt down to start flipping through the many photographs.
He shook his head and turned to her with a smirk, "You've got copies of tin-types going back to the Mexican War?"
"Yeah, I just wish I had pictures of the ones from before that, but I do have one sketch from the War of 1812, so that's my oldest one." There was pride in her voice when she spoke of her family, "Serving as a Marine at the Navy Yard when they torched D.C. One of the last men to leave his post, and even then only under direct order."
"How many did you lose in action?" Gibbs stood up from the floor to look on the woman as she answered the question.
"We haven't lost a soul since the Civil War. One of those serious points of pride for us Baldwins." She was smiling with her admission.
Gibbs nodded with reverence, "I can imagine, Colonel… I can imagine."
Once an appropriate amount of silence had passed with that acknowledgement, the Colonel started to walk back to her desk, took her seat and then regarded Gibbs, "So, what is the real reason for your visit, Agent Gibbs?"
"That obvious?" He also returned to his seat, since he knew they were getting down to business at that point.
"Only to the trained eye, Sir." She had her own smirk to flash at him that time.
"Okay… I'll get right to it. I got a call from Abby this weekend, and she was practically coming unglued about some personnel evaluation notice that she had been sent." Gibbs leaned slightly forward in his chair as he spoke.
"Correct… I sent it to her, because she did not respond to the email I sent requesting a meeting to review her personnel file." The Colonel was not giving him anything, so Gibbs knew he was going to have to lay all his cards on the table.
He sat back in the chair and decided he might as well go for broke, "There's a few things you should know about Abby, Colone-…"
"There are a few things you should know, Agent Gibbs." The Colonel interrupted him, and pulled out a file folder, "Are you aware that she has never attended a single post incident counseling session? Even though she has been involved in three major events that would require counseling?"
"Well, she's doing okay on that en-…"
"Did you know she's been picked up twice in the last eighteen months in raids at different illegal parties?" The Colonel continued to show Gibbs that maybe his assumptions were not on point.
"Well, no… Picked up by who?"
"Fortunately for her, she was not under the influence either time, and was released on her own recognizance after showing her ID. However, both incidents were recorded and flagged in her personnel file." The Colonel started flipping through the pages and Gibbs was getting a sinking suspicion that he needed to have a long talk with Abby.
"Okay, she has some trouble, but she's the best at her job, and she's very dedicated."
"Are you aware that she has logged more than eighty hours per week, on average, for the last twelve months?" The Colonel was assaulting him with facts that he was completely blind to. "And that average is quickly climbing. There are several incidents of her not having left the building for four and five day periods."
"I guess she is here too much," Gibbs took a deep breath before continuing, "but none of these things are grounds for dismissing her."
The Colonel finally looked up from the folder, "Do you believe this exercise is being performed to in order to get rid of her, Agent Gibbs?"
"Well, she has a bad history with the people in personnel, and she was worried that they had gotten to you." Gibbs was trying to get his point across.
"Agent Gibbs… I don't want to fire her, I want to use her in the command structure for the new division, but if she's unstable, I can't do that, Gunny." She handed Gibbs the folder so that he could review all the items. "I know that you are an important authority figure in her life and I am hoping that I can count on you to help me get her to submit to counseling so that I can be assured she is ready for the job I want to put her in."
Gibbs started leafing through the folder and was even more surprised by the items contained in it, "Wait, there's a dismissal form in here. Why?"
"Personnel recommended her termination six months ago when she failed to complete a single post incident counseling session, which is standard policy. It would appear that the recommendation may have been lost by Director Sheppard's office." The Colonel was being completely open with Gibbs and he was beginning to wonder just why.
"Normally, I wouldn't be shown someone's personnel file, why now?" Gibbs presented the question with a conspiratorial tone.
"Based on her profile, I assumed that she would contact you to intervene for her. But I also knew, based on your typically protective behavior, that you were most likely unaware of her predicament. So, I naturally assumed you would be paying me a visit today." The Colonel sat back in her own seat at the conclusion of her evaluation and Gibbs continued to look through the folder.
He finally exhaled sharply and closed the folder, "What do you need me to do?"
"Bring her to the meeting tomorrow morning, and support me in requiring her to attend counseling sessions." The Colonel reached forward and took the folder from Gibbs' grasp.
"Now that I know what the real deal is, you can count on me. What time?"
"0900 tomorrow, right here." The Colonel stood, realizing that their conversation was officially coming to a close.
"I'll have her here, on time." He also stood and extended his hand as she rounded the back of the desk, "How do you take your coffee?"
The Colonel took his hand and shook it, "I'm afraid I am not part of that culture. Caffeine makes it hard for me to concentrate on anything, and I've never been a fan of the taste."
Gibbs gave her a puzzled expression and then said, "Abby's right… You really are off the charts." They both laughed as she walked him to the door.