Chapter 7: In The Field

McLaren was quiet during the ride to the crime scene as Gibbs navigated their way through the congested city traffic. She took the time to quickly twist her hair up and secure it before slipping on her brand new NCIS cap. She knew very little about her new boss, but she was fairly certain by his demeanor that he would not appreciate sitting next to some rapidly chattering squirrel. So she thought she would just follow his lead. If he wanted quiet, then quiet it would be.

Halfway to the scene, however, it was Gibbs who actually broke the silence.

"If you're going to a member of my team," she said, never taking his eyes from the road. "You're going to have to learn my rules."

"OK," Emily replied agreeably. "Such as?"

Gibbs actually cracked a brief grin. "No, no, it's not that easy," he said patiently. "This is not just some quick walk-through. It's more of a… process."

"Oh," she answered, not quite sure exactly what he meant by that. "Well, alright."

Gibbs glanced over at her, then looked down at her pack. "You got gloves in there?"

"Of course," Emily retorted incredulously. "You never go to a crime scene without wearing gloves."

This time she was treated to an actual smile from him, along with an appreciative nod. "Good. You just got Rule number Two."

Any more conversation about rules was halted as they pulled to a stop close to a stretch of yellow police tape. The second car arrived right behind them. Everyone exited their vehicles, and began gearing up.

Emily opened up her pack and pulled out her camera. She reached back into the bag and as she pulled out her gloves, a frightening foreign object came out with them. Her eyes went wide and she jumped back, letting out a shrill yelp, dropping everything and immediately reached for her gun.

Everyone looked up quickly and focused solely on her as she stood staring down at the ground, hand on her side-arm, breathing rapidly. There at her feet lay a brightly colored rubber snake, and a broken camera lens.

DiNozzo couldn't help it, he muffled a giggle.

"Oh, Tony," said McGee under his breath. "You didn't."

"Mmm," chimed in Ziva softly. "Yes, he did."

Emily was immediately embarrassed, and quite annoyed with herself for reacting so dramatically to such a childish prank. But quickly reigning herself in, she relaxed and took her hand off her weapon. She looked over, and saw Tony smiling broadly, look of elfen mischief plastered on his face.

"Everything alright there… Agent McLaren?" Tony quipped.

She smiled sweetly, and looked down at the ground, slowly nodding. Then she leaned down and picked up the broken camera and the toy snake. Then, drawing herself up to her full military bearing, she maintained an amused looking smile as she walked purposefully over and stood right in front of Tony. Gibbs was standing right beside Tony, not two feet away, watching.

She held up the offending rubber reptile in front of Tony's face. "Yours?" She asked, the mock grin on her face.

"It was just a joke…" Tony replied with a jovial grin. "You uh… you do have a sense of humor, right?"

"Who me?" She answered, her smile fading completely and her eyes narrowing and darkening, in direct and frightening contrast to the words that she spoke. "Oh, I have a wonderful sense of humor."

She looked down for a moment and dropped the rubber snake into his pack. She looked back up at him, eyes boring like lasers into his. Tony became immediately concerned.

"You know, messing around with me in the office is one thing. But out here, in the field, a whole different story," She said acidly. "There's a dead Marine over there. And I find your willingness to potentially compromise a crime scene as unprofessional as it is disrespectful. So, Senior Field Agent DiNozzo. How about you focus your efforts on doing your job, instead of wasting everyone's time trying to screw around with mine?"

"I… I um…" Tony stammered. "Sorry…"

She stooped down and put the broken camera on the ground, then forcefully yanked his camera out of his pack.

"I'm borrowing your camera," she said seriously. "Until you have a chance to fix mine."

"Yes Ma'am," Tony answered chagrined. "Not a problem."

Emily turned and went back to her pack, and retrieved her gloves from the ground where she had dropped them, and stuffed them into a side pocket of her pack. She then pulled out a fresh, sterile pair and carefully snapped them on.

Tony cautiously looked over at Gibbs, who gave him a stern look in return.

"You heard the lady, DiNozzo," his boss said matter-of-factly. "Get to work."

"On it Boss," Tony said and gladly hurried off.

Ziva and McGee looked at each other and raised their eyebrows, impressed.

"Oh, I like her. I really like her," Ziva said quietly as they all walked towards the scene.

Damn. So do I, Gibbs thought to himself silently.

He was impressed with how she had just handled that situation. Couldn't have done it better himself. He was very impressed indeed.