There's Always Tom Morrow

by SASundance

A look at how things might have gone if the MCRT had to face the consequences of ignoring protocol, procedures and the rule of law. In this universe Tom Morrow holds his agents accountable and delivers well earned smack downs and consequences when they screw up and praise when deserved. This series consists of tags from season 1 and each tag is a stand-alone vignette.

3. Chapter 3: Show Me The Money

Warning: if you are a Caitlyn Todd fan be warned that this is not a flattering tag.

A/N Thank-you to everyone for your feedback and reviews. Thanks also to Arress for beta'ing this tag. Some people requested some Tony introspection so I hope you like this one.

Finally, just wanted to try to clear up some confusion. These tags are all stand alone pieces which means that regardless of what happened in the tag before, at the end it reverts back to cannon again. Why I hear you ask :D Several reasons - first because I've written a lot of 'what if' stories and once you change one thing, it begins to get extremely complicated. That would mean that canon would quickly change and soon the various episodes would be unrecognisable and this series would be finished. So each tag is separate and I'm taking the view that when Tom takes action in each tag, each time is the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back and he tears people a new one. I leave it up to imaginations about what might have happened at the end of each tag. For example - in Hung Out To Dry - if Gibbs had been reactivated and serving in the Marines and Pacci was leading the team, how would Dead Man Talking, Beta Noire and Missing have turned out. Would they have ended differently?

Series: There's Always Tom Morrow

Chapter Title: Show Me The Money…

Episode: Sea Dog

Characters: Tom Morrow, Tony DiNozzo and Chris Pacci

Tom Morrow was wandering around his domain, checking to see that everything was running smoothly. He usually started at the bottom and worked his way up to the top, ending up in MTAC so he could touch base with everyone working in the building. Then he'd return to his office and write up his impressions, noting concerns or anything that needed addressing before he forgot. He tried to do the rounds once a week if he could manage it – it was good for staff morale and it made him seem less remote, more approachable. Tom knew that setting one's self up in an ivory tower ultimately led to a leader becoming too isolated, often missing out on seeing problems arising before they turned into crises. Of course, it wasn't always possible to do his weekly rounds, but he looked forward to it and considered it to be an important part of the week. It was no mean feat keeping so many people working well together in such a high pressure environment.

As he made his way around the bullpen, he noticed Tony DiNozzo sitting rather stiffly at his desk, the tension seemed to be radiating off the young agent. No doubt, Dr Sciuto would claim his aura was in disarray and need stroking, whatever the hell that meant. But from his perspective, this looked like a problem so naturally he was keen to tackle it before it turned into a disaster. He got along well with the young agent, not least of all because he did a fine job of keeping Jethro in check – no easy task as Tom knew and yet the former cop made it look easy.

Of course, Morrow knew that this was an illusion; there was nothing easy about being Gibbs' SFA, just as there was nothing easy about being Jethro's boss either. The man frequently drove him to drink. Parking his ass on the corner of the senior field agent's desk, he greeted him with a friendly hello. Tom kept a close eye on all his up and coming agents, but Tony fell into a special category.

First and foremost, he'd managed to work solo for a year with Gibbs, whose temper tantrums were legendary, which made DiNozzo worth his weight in gold. And second, the agent, although having legitimate reasons, did have a pattern of not staying in a job for long. He tended to stay a maximum of 24 months before handing in his resignation and moving on. Gibbs had assured him that it was boredom that made Tony antsy, although there had been extenuating circumstances in his departure from Philly PD. Then in Baltimore, Gibbs had recruited him, even though Tom felt there was more to his hasty resignation than being headhunted by the former Marine.

But they were coming up to the two-year anniversary of his being employed at NCIS and Director Morrow really didn't want to lose him from the team or the agency. The trouble was though, that there had been the incident where he'd been flung out of a mortuary van in a body bag while impersonating a cadaver. That had resulted in a lot of abrasions and bruising, all because of Gibbs' rashness and lack of care, just a few weeks ago. Then the very next case after that, Gibbs had been too damned impatient to wait a paltry 24 hours for a DNA test and so he'd decided it was a good idea to drag DiNozzo on a night training parachute jump with the Marines. All to trap a killer they would have got the goods on next day with forensic testing. The Marines went ballistic to learn Corporal Dafelmair was the real killer and in the melee DiNozzo was accidentally tossed out of the plane.

The fact was he'd only received a few illicit minutes of parachute instruction prior to that as preparation, certainly not enough to jump, let alone to be jumping at night. He was damned lucky he only tore some ligaments in his knee and sprained his ankle. And then there was the matter of Gibbs deciding on the spur of the moment to hire a new female agent from outside the agency to join the team. A situation which would definitely impact dramatically on the team dynamic.

SecNav had been on Tom's back for ages, wanting him to expand the MCRT and, since Blackadder's departure, he'd tried desperately to get Gibbs to agree to take on Chris Pacci's old probie, Cassie Yates, but he resisted – possibly due to his bloody-mindedness. Gibbs had been given carte blanche to hire who he wanted and after investigating the assassination attempt on the President, he'd hired the former Secret Service agent who was forced to resign due to sexual misconduct.

She had no investigative training and the only thing Morrow could see she had going for her was that, according to Jethro, she had balls. Which concerned him for several reasons. 1. Because Gibbs had balls enough to spare for the whole damned agency and he didn't think it was fair for DiNozzo to have to deal with two ball breakers and still work cases. 2. That the MCRT was the crème de la crème of the agency's investigative teams – earning a place was supposed to be reserved for the very best investigators the agency had. A reward for excellence if you will, not because the size of one's anatomy.

Tony had created quite the controversy when Gibbs hired him from outside the agency, but people eventually recognised, despite their bitching, that he was an exceptionally talented investigator and highly skilled in undercover work. As much as they envied him his spot on the MCRT, they also knew he deserved to be there. Todd, however, was trained in conducting protection details and, while it was an important job and he had no wish to denigrate the professionals who did it, it certainly in no way qualified her to become an investigator on the top team in the agency.

Her hiring was going to create a good deal of resentment amongst the other agents and, he had to say, he could see their point. He didn't deny that perhaps in years to come, Todd would grow into a fine investigator and earn her spot. The point being she didn't earn it now – Gibbs gave it to her because he was able to bypass much of the regular agent selection process. Tom did not see that this as a positive occurrence.

Of course, Tom's very immediate concern was how she would affect the dynamics of the team. He hoped she would take the opportunity she'd been offered, display humility, and make the most of the chance that many an NCIS agent would kill for. After all, there weren't many agents in her position who'd screwed the pooch so badly and then got handed a plum job with such piss poor qualifications. He normally required more than balls for an agent to secure a field position, let alone work on the major case response team. Sighing, he hoped he was wrong about how this latest acquisition was going to pan out.

Showing none of these concerns, he smiled at DiNozzo, inquiring, "So, how are things going with your new teammate, DiNozzo? No major problems so far?"

Tony DiNozzo flinched. Crap, how am I supposed to answer that without sounding like a whiny baby? Second case and she's already making vicious attacks... 'Good guess, DiNozzo'... 'No horse on the boat, Tony'... 'You'd think a man who can find heroin in a horse's ass could find this'... All said to make me look stupid, especially in front of the DEA agent. When I'd come back from the marina with the clue to finding the terrorists, she commented with much sarcasm... 'that's really smart, Tony,' like it was a shock that I was capable of producing good leads... or when I made an innocent comment about not knowing about the match on the terrorist, she retorted nastily...'who could get a word in?'

Well, excuse me for trying to report what I'd found out about the terrorist and the vehicle they were driving. The intel I discovered did break the case wide open and saved the electricity grid... but my bad!

How am I supposed to mention to Director Morrow without sounding like a complainer how Todd seems to consider me to be worse than dog crap on her shoes. How she takes a work related statement and turns it into a vicious personal attack. Like when Gibbs had accused Fornell of target fixation and Cate didn't known its meaning, so like a good little SFA, I explained to the new team member that it was when a fighter pilot became so fixated on the target that they flew right into it. So then she'd gleefully replied, 'Like you and women.'

What was that about? I mean... what the freakin' hell did I ever do to you, Lady?

And no way, Director, I'm so not going to tell you that on the second case we worked together, Gibbs already told the probie with no investigative experience that she didn't have to follow my orders, only his. Or how she wasted little time in vindictively informing me Gibbs had effectively neutered me. But who will be expected to teach her the mountain of details that Gibbs has no patience for? Tell me that? How am I supposed to supervise her?

Or can anyone explain to me why all of a sudden my partner of two years suddenly seems to find it really funny to make me look stupid whenever we're around Cate. Yet treats me like a colleague worthy of respect when we're interrogating the drug smugglers and she's not around? And while we're at it, maybe someone can explain why Abby has entered the 'let's make Tony feel about two inches tall and dumb as a rock club' by joining in the belittling with the new team of Gibbs and Todd.

I'm starting to think that Gibbs had hired Cate because he was tired of having me on the team. It might be time to think about a getting a transfer... maybe some place warm. Besides Gibbs not wanting me around any longer, I seriously doubt I can deal with Cate's personal attacks on me all the time. It like a female version of my father. She's made it plain that she considered me a sexist pig, flat out accused me of sexual harassment over an accidental touching in the truck on the way to a case. Please, sharp tongued shrews are so not my idea of either a fun time or relationship material. Plus, on her first case she asked me how I got this job and her implication was pretty obvious. It's clear she has minimal respect for me as a person, let alone an agent, and I wonder for the nth time just what I'd done to upset her so badly.

Finally, realising that he'd zoned out and Director Morrow was waiting, he babbled. "Oh well... you know... just peachy, Couldn't be better. Just super duper – one big 'ol happy family – that's Team Gibbs, Sir. Swept in and took control over the forged Benjamins on her second case. Better watch out, Director, she'll have your job before we know it," he joked with just a touch of cynicism, but you had to know him really well to pick up on the sarcasm.

Tony was a master of masking his emotion or perhaps, Tom reflected, displaying a more socially acceptable emotional response than what he was feeling. His default mechanism was always to joke when he was hurt physically, feeling angry, sad, or threatened because he wasn't willing to show anyone his vulnerable side. What had Tom was worried now was why he felt that he needed humour to mask his emotions over such a simple question. A team was supposed to be able to trust one another. What the hell was going on?

Tom frowned. Oh, yes, the reply seemed innocuous enough, but Tony had flinched before drifting off and was clearly thinking about things he wasn't willing to share. Last but not least, Tony wasn't usually prone to bitter sarcasm even if it was buried, deep down under the DiNozzo wit, mostly since he forgave everyone too easily. Tom's gut was churning.

Deciding to relieve the tension a bit, he offered up a tid-bit to the tense agent. "Just between the two of us, Agent DiNozzo, I think my job is safe enough for the time being. You see, Secret Service agents specialise in either protection duties or investigating financial crime including counterfeiting of US currency and US treasury securities, but not both. Agent Todd would no more know about financial counterfeit investigating than you would've known about art fraud just because you worked in the police department and it had an art fraud task force. I suspect she's just trying to impress everyone since she's new."

"Yes, I know, Director."

"You know?"

"Yes, Sir. I met a couple of agents who used to work in the Secret Service, in the Financial Crimes branch at a law enforcement seminar. We compared our training experiences over a few beers at the meet-and-greet."

"So, you knew Agent Todd was, er, showboating, when she was holding forth on the Treasury anti-counterfeiting micro-printing process of the fake Benjamins?"

Showboating? B.S. is what I'd call it. "Yeah, I did. She's simply not old enough to have worked in both branches of the service and also made it all the way to the top in the Presidential Protection team." Guess that's why she wanted to make me look like an idiot in front of Agent Fuller since she was effectively talking through her hat with intel about micro-printing and security measures. She more than likely got the info from elevator chatter on the job.

"So, why didn't you call her on it?"

"She's a teammate. Rule 1 – never screw over your partner, Director."

"You're a good man, Tony. Hang in there... there's bound to be some teething problems with a new team member. Things will settle down, I'm sure," Tom counselled the young SFA, hoping it was so.

Tony's megawatt grin was so blinding it was painful, and Tom figured it was about as genuine as a used car salesman telling a mark that the car was only driven once a week to church by a little old lady. Sighing, the NCIS director rose and patted him on the back as he made his way round the rest of the bullpen, noting the absence of Gibbs and Todd.

He was somewhat comforted by Chris Pacci's sotto voce comment, "I'll keep an eye on him, Sir."

Chris was a good man. Good agent too, not flashy or arrogant, but solid as they come. On paper, Jethro might be a far superior investigator, but his style and arrogance caused as many issues for the director and the agency as his investigative skills solved. Tom would gladly take one Pacci over a half a dozen Gibbs, any day of the week. Apart from looking out for his fellow agents because it was in his nature, Pacci had also done the background security check on Tony, so he knew more about the intensely private young man than anyone at NCIS, other than himself and Gibbs. He was obviously concerned too, fuelling the director's qualms.

He cast an inquiring look at the veteran agent and Chris offered his observations. "Seems to have him pegged as a skirt-chasing sexist with not a whole lot of intelligence. Wanted to know how he got hired."

"What did Tony tell her?"

"Said he smiled." Chris laughed.

Tom frowned. He knew where the self-deprecation was coming from, but what annoyed him was that Todd had to resign before she was terminated for fraternization offences. Not to mention letting a terrorist get past security screening, included her own profiling, and almost killing the POTUS, and she had the gall to insinuate his undercover specialist didn't belong on the MCRT.

Pacci wasn't done though. "Been bombarding him with some pretty vicious verbal attacks and, unfortunately, Gibbs seems to be playing up to her and tag teaming him as well with his delightfully barbed retorts. If I didn't know better, I'd say he was flirting with her."

"Course, the fact he told her that she didn't have to follow Tony's orders, only his didn't do anything to bolster his authority either. I don't know what he's thinking. He never undermined him with Blackadder and Dobbs or the other TADS that passed through," he observed wryly.

Tom smirked at the moue of distaste that crossed Pacci's round somewhat homely features. Clapping him gratefully on the shoulder, he replied, "Thanks Chris. Look out for him, I don't want to lose him to one of the other alphabets."

As he made his way up to MTAC, Tom realised that his fears were well founded. Gibbs and DiNozzo balanced each other nicely – ball breaker and a people reader, but add another ball breaker to the mix and that balance went into the crapper. A team worked best with a mix of personalities to complement each other.

He hoped that Gibbs wised up about abusing Tony before he decided that with his skills and talent, he didn't need to put up with that sort of bullshit.

Reaching his office and gaining his desk, Tom made notes as was his wont after his weekly roam-around. There was the usually grumbling about people not washing up their coffee mugs or leaving the milk out of the fridge. Speaking of – he decided it was time to drag out his can the staff please clean up after yourselves memo –again. There had been an issue between two of the janitorial staff about stealing a Walkman and Tom had referred that to security to review CCTV, hopefully settling the accusation.

Then there was the issue with the MCRT, especially Gibbs telling Probationary Agent Todd that she wasn't required to follow her immediate superior's orders, especially in the field. He sighed! No way could he let that go. Chain of command was critical in law enforcement and people could get hurt or killed if it was ignored. So looking at his daily diary he made time to deal with this before it came back to bite them all on the ass.

The director really hoped it wasn't a portent of things to come. Sighing as he stared at the entry he'd made to address the breech of protocol. He was going to have to:

1. Censure Gibbs for not instilling CoC into his probationary agent and inciting insubordination.

2. Apprise Probationary Agent Todd that she was required to follow the chain of command like any other agent, regardless of her previous job.

Rubbing his bald pate ruefully, he wondered if he was director of an agency sans Leroy Jethro Gibbs, would he still have a luxurious head of hair. Probably not but a guy – even a director could dream.

The End

End Notes::

After analysing this episode for the series I found that in Cate's second case with the team, she bawled out Gibbs and DiNozzo for sexism because they expected her to ride back with the boat to ensure that chain of custody was maintained. She had sarcastic digs at Tony, she also tried to belittle him in front of Fuller (DEA) and Fornell (FBI) - two feds from other agencies and was insulting to him 12 other times. In comparison, Tony made two mildly suggestive comments (about what aroused her with the money) and two comments that possibly could be construed as chauvinistic if you squinted hard enough. To me that isn't the 'good natured banter' which people often describe the Cate and Tony years as being. Such an imbalance in interactions between them hardly seems like banter, rather it screams abusiveness to me - not to mention insubordination. Fact is that Cate was brand new to the job, was damned lucky to get hired by Gibbs because it is unlikely she would have been hired by anyone else after her impropriety. Not to mention she was a complete novice when it came to investigations and before anyone protests that she was a profiler, she absolutely sucked as a profiler. So I find it unbelievable that she wouldn't show a little humility and gratitude for being given a second chance, rather than acting arrogant and insubordinate. Certainly not how I would act in a brand new job, even if I hadn't screwed the pooch on my old one.