Chapter Four:
Not Possible
"Well…I guess you are British…or at least not an American…most likely British because of the whole MI6 ties…" Tony said slowly and with a widening smile. There was a long dead lull in conversation after his comment.
Gibbs watched Max carefully; the man showed no emotion whatsoever except for a slight flash of anger that vanished almost before it appeared.
"Sooooo," McGee finally broke the silent stare down going on between Gibbs and Max. "Are you hungry? Max?" He asked carefully, they'd already found out from the blonde woman outside that Max had refused any food of drink she'd offered him. He'd also refused her number despite her vigorous advances.
"No. But I wouldn't mind a good cup of coffee if you knew where I could get some." Max said with a grateful smile in McGee's direction.
Gibbs couldn't tell if this was a play to get McGee to like him or if Max really was thankful.
"Here, you may have mine." Ziva offered, sliding the disposable cup across the table to sit in front of the man's hand.
Max smiled again as he picked up the steaming beverage and raised the rim to his lips. "Good." He said after a moment before his eyes re-locked with Gibbs' ice blue gaze.
"Do you know how to fire a semi-automatic hand gun?" Gibbs asked out of the blue second later.
Max put down the coffee cup and then met Gibbs' eyes again. "Yes."
"Whichever one of you scores the highest gets to go home early tonight! That includes you Payton, for the time being you're mine to do with as I please! Is that clear?" Gibbs yelled over the noise of the gun fire in the background of the shooting range he'd brought his team and Alex to.
Alex nodded and took his place on the line, preparing to shoot at a paper target.
"Easy as pie." He muttered under his breath as he took aim.
Bang…Bang…Bang…Bang…Bang…Bang… There were ten shots total from each team member plus Alex.
Alex, Tony, Ziva, McGee, and Gibbs all emptied their clips into the range; the targets were as far away as possible in this range. When they had all finished, Gibbs signaled for the papers to be brought forward. It was one point for hitting the paper at all and two points for hitting anywhere on the black and three points for a kill shot.
Tony's and McGee's were compared first: Tony had beaten McGee by thirteen points. Needless to say McGee wasn't a very good shot; he only earned six points total.
Then Gibbs' was compared to Tony's: Gibbs had two more points than Tony.
Next Gibbs and Ziva: Ziva earned twenty-nine points, one away from being perfect.
Finally Alex's was compared to Ziva's.
Everyone scoffed before seeing his scores: there was no way this little nobody was going to beat a trained assassin…but somehow, he did.
Alex got all thirty points, a perfect score.
"This is just not possible! Again! Just me and him this time!" Ziva declared, it had to of been a mistake. This…Brit couldn't have beaten her! He just couldn't have!
Gibbs handed Alex a new clip while Ziva reloaded her gun and new papers were prepared.
Tony and McGee stood back while Gibbs watched Alex prepare to fire again.
Bang…Bang…Bang…Bang…Bang…Bang… Ziva and Alex once again emptied their clips into the range. This time there were twenty shots fired from both boy and woman.
"Let's find out who did better this time! Shall we?" Ziva asked confidently as she waved her hand to have the papers brought forward, tossing her long braid over one shoulder. By now everyone on the range had gathered around to see if this ex Mossad agent had been beaten out by the nobody that nobody knew anything about or of it had just been beginners luck the first time around.
"I'll be damned." Gibbs muttered under his breath before staring at Alex hard. "He did it. He won." Gibbs was much more stunned that he allowed himself to appear.
Ziva's mouth dropped open and she snatched to two papers out of Gibbs' hands. She had earned fifty-seven points compared to Alex's fifty-nine point score.
"Impossible!" Ziva cried and balled her fists before throwing her hands in the air and storming out of the range.
Tony's gaze flickered between Ziva and the young man before backing away and following his female co-worker out the doors.
"I guess that might not have been the smartest move to pull on day one…huh?" Alex asked McGee jokingly.
"No. I would say not." The other man answered, dead serious.
"Oh well," Alex sighed. "Better luck next time…at a first day of work." And with that enigmatic comment, Alex left the firing range. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and began whistling contentedly as if he didn't realize what he'd just brought down upon himself by beating Ziva.
McGee stared after the other man. "Must have a death wish…taking on Ziva." He muttered before slowly following Alex out. "Or he's just stupid."
Gibbs cast a look to the other agents on the firing range. The recipients of his gaze quickly took the hit and got back to work.
Satisfied that everyone was properly admonished for their behavior during what would soon become known as "the incident", Gibbs left the firing range.