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.

25. Chapter 25 Pyrrhic Victory 4

A/N: So, in this instalment we have three separate missing scenes which are linked but separate. I really went overboard with this episode but there were just too many issues which I had with this episode. One more instalment after this one. Next episode tag is being written atm and I promise to be more focused. On another subject, there are 23 eps in season one so 23 tags in TATM series. Many times, when the director takes someone to task for some of the gargantuan procedural errors or blatant ignoring of laws it is tempting just to fire them. That's what would happen in the real world, right? But it would also be repetitive and boring to write, and to read. So sometimes I come up with solutions that would not necessarily be in someone's best interests or even practical purely to keep it fresh -then I need to find ways to justify my choices. This is one of those solutions that I don't think would have been in Tony's best interests.

Thanks everyone for your reviews, as always, they are much appreciated. Earthdragon I couldn't answer your question obviously, so I did it in endnotes since my response is quite lengthy. It's a good question :)

I'm sure you'll all join me in welcoming back my BR - the awesome Arress who has been doing it tough recently.

Episode: Split Decision

Title: Pyrrhic Victory – missing scenes 3-5

Characters: Tony DiNozzo, Harmon Rabb (JAG) Sarah (Mac) MacKenzie, Tom Morrow, Gordon 'Biff' Creswell (JAG), Ric Balboa, Kerry Ishida, (OC),

Nate Getz (NCIS LA).

Missing Scenes # 3 [This scene takes place at the end of the day of the original story tag]

Tony looked around the bar, trying to spot the two lawyers in the busy establishment. Eventually, he heard his name being called, and noticed Harm and Mac standing up and waving their arms around, beckoning him over to the table they where they were seated, with a round of drinks already awaiting his arrival. Pushing his way through the throng of drinkers, Tony set a course for the table where the two officers were seated in the back of the bar and he noticed immediately, they'd picked a spot which had good visibility.

Although crowded, the bar was mainly a DC hangout for lawyers, but it was also frequented by cops and legal investigators. While any potential dangers might seem minimal, Tony appreciated that they'd picked out a spot where they could watch each other's backs if it became necessary. It wasn't probable, given the clientele, yet bitter experience had taught Tony to be prepared - because trouble seemed to follow him around. People accused him of courting trouble, but he honestly didn't go out looking for it.

The fact that Mac and Harm automatically were on the lookout for any danger made him feel safe being with them. It was one of the reasons he and Harm got along so well together, despite their rather rocky start. Neither Mac nor Harm was your average lawyer or officer either.

They'd both done their fair share of field work – he'd even heard whispers that the CIA guy, Clayton Webb, had recruited both for several 'missions' which seemed highly irregular but then again, that was the spooks for you.

After greeting the two lawyers, he noted that Bud was conspicuously absent and when he commented, Mac laughed. "The MCRT is not exactly on Bud's Christmas card list, Tony."

He bowed his head, embarrassed. "Yeah... I can understand why."

Bud was a real straight shooter, honest, decent, and not into mind games. He hadn't responded well to Gibbs' psychological games in the Fuentes case. Tony had heard via the grapevine that the newly minted lieutenant commander had a father who was a bully (yeah, so maybe Tony had snooped a little into his background), so it wasn't surprising that Gibbs' intimidation went down like a lead balloon with him.

And maybe after experiencing his own type of head games courtesy of Leroy Jethro Bastard Gibbs in the last ten months, he had even more insight into Bud's avoidance of the whole damned team. Which was a shame since he rather liked the self-effacing young judge advocate, Tony knew he was one of the good guys.

"Still, I'm sorry he didn't come. Bud's a nice guy – I admire him. Tell him hi from me and on behalf of NCIS that I'm sorry, will you?" he asked Harm, who nodded.

Mac pushed a full glass of amber ale across towards him. "Here, Tony, we got you a beer, although if you want something a little stronger I can get it. It was a shitty day all round."

Harm nodded sympathetically. "Hear that the whole MCRT got ripped a new one by the JAG. Scuttlebutt is that he didn't hold anything back – went through the entire list of balls ups in the last ten months or so. Petty Officer Coates reckoned you could hear it two floors down."

Tony grabbed the beer and in two gulps had downed over half of it gratefully.

Mac said, "Looks as if you need something stronger than that," and rose to get it for him.

He realised that after what had been a truly shitty day that he desperately wanted to get drunk and almost said yes to her offer. That was until he thought of his drunk father and his mother who'd drank his sea monkeys because she thought it was a mint julep. He thought about the boss, about Jethro getting drunk on bourbon while constructing those hand-built damned monuments to his guilt and grief over his failures. The cop turned NCIS agent recognised that he didn't want to become like any of them, using alcohol as an emotional crutch.

"Thanks, for the offer but no," he replied wearily. "I think I need to stick with beer," he said, before pushing it away.

Harm suggested, "How 'bout we get something to eat, maybe a burger?"

With a start, Tony realised that he hadn't eaten all day. The truth was that he was feeling off balance after the 'challenging' day he'd had. It had started out with Harm approaching the judge to get Master Sergeant Rafael's confession tossed out as inadmissible.

Then there had been the confrontation with the Judge Advocate General who was furious that a rookie had been allowed to interrogate a Marine who'd stolen high power weapons such as SMAWs. Of course, without supervision, it wasn't surprising that she'd screwed up and obtained an illegal confession or that the JAG was fit to be tied. Then Director Morrow had weighed in, cutting a swathe through the team and Tony was still reeling from the aftershocks of his later meeting with the director.

Ha, challenging didn't even begin to begin to describe the last 12 hours.

Looking at Mac, he decided to apologise for the team's incompetence, screw Rule 6! He knew she hated to lose a case and glancing at Harm, he didn't seem his usually cocky self after getting a client let off.

"Mac, I'm sorry about Master Sergeant Rafael's confession. He shouldn't have got off the charges, but that was our bad, not yours."

The lawyer stared at her mineral water and scowled. "Yeah, it was, and thanks for acknowledging it, and from what I know, it wasn't your fault. But I do hate it when I know that someone is guilty, and they get off on a technicality. I can't stand the thought that he is still in the Corps despite what he has done. It's an absolute affront to all the hardworking, honourable Marines who have to serve with him," the proud Marine declared heatedly.

Harm grimaced. "Yeah, I know what you mean. It sucks to get someone off when you know damned well that they are guilty as charged but their rights haven't been properly observed. Makes everyone hate my guts and make jokes about lawyers."

Mac nodded her agreement. "I'm thinking about approaching JAG about launching a JAGMAN investigation into the Master Sergeant," she said, referring to her boss, Major General Gordon Creswell, USMC.

Harm looked interested in her suggestion, but Tony shook his head. "I don't think that is such a good idea, Mac. Tom Morrow has already asked me to investigate Rafael. Seems the Commandant of the Marines wants him gone, too."

Harm interspersed with a wry, "I can't imagine why that would be," and Mac's angry countenance melted a little.

"In fact, I think that we might be able to nail him on other weapons charges. I've already asked Joe Landers to obtain search authorisations for Rafael's cell phone and landline records for the past three years. He told Cate that this was a one-off, but people lie. I want to double check his assertion that it was a one-off time. At this point, I'm not convinced that is the case."

Mac looked happy. "Well, that's good, but why not increase the pressure on him, make him sweat?"

Harm shook his head. "Not a good idea, he could claim this is a witch hunt because he got let off on a technicality. His lawyer could claim that he was being victimised and after the FUBAR - with his failure to be read his Article 31s - if he decided to sue, it could look bad. Even if we do find something to charge him with, it needs to be done strictly by the book and no slip ups or he'll try to get off on a technicality again."

Tony nodded. "Agreed. He's a wily bastard, which is why Joe and I are working on this jointly and the director is supervising every move I make. Any charges that are laid will be above board and fully vetted. Hell, Joe will read him his 31s if I question him. If there is anything there, he won't manage get the better of me like he did with Probationary Agent Todd."

Mac looked intrigued, but Harm was quick to object. "You make him sound like a criminal mastermind, but don't forget, it was Agent Todd who screwed up by not reading him Article 31 rights when she decided he was lying. It was a real rookie blunder. As soon as he became a suspect, he should have been advised of his rights not to incriminate himself and been offered legal advice."

Tony held his palms up in surrender. "Yeah, absolutely, she screwed up big time and Gibbs should never have let her do the interview alone. You won't get any argument from me on that score. All I'm saying is that in my humble opinion, when she started trying to make him talk by threatening to gain access to his phone records, he knew the game was up. But he was sticking to his story even when Cate showed him the PM shots of Master Sergeant Grimm. It was after she pretended to leave the interrogation room and threatened that she'd be back to read him the Article 30 charges and his Article 31 Rights that he folded like a house of cards."

"Yeah, she coerced him into confessing," Mac commented, her voice dripping with disdain.

Tony nodded. "Maybe. Personally, Rafael didn't strike me as someone to fold under pressure. He's a Marine. I think that Master Sergeant Rafael saw an opportunity and grabbed onto it with both hands. When Cate reminded him that he hadn't been read his Article 31's, I think he saw a way to get out of the FUBAR mess he was in. He knew he could confess and implicate Patricia McClain, put the blame on her for Grimm's murder and the stolen weapons. Claim it was just a one-off deal and when the confession was used against him in a court martial, he had a get out of jail free card since it wasn't legally obtained."

His two companions looked at him, startled by his out of the box take on the situation. As if he could read Mac's mind, he continued with his analysis.

"Do I think it was planned? Of course not," he declared. "How could he possibly know she'd screw up like that? Bottom line, he didn't know. But the Marine saw an opportunity, a weakness, and he took advantage of it, like he was trained to do. And it worked!"

Both lawyers remained silent as they examined Tony's theory. It was true that Master Sergeant Rafael was an intimidating guy, both physically and mentally. It also wasn't that likely that he'd caved due to fear or pressure – it was more conceivable that he realised Todd had committed a grave error, leaving herself totally vulnerable to attack and like the apex predator he was trained to be, sensing her inexperience, he'd seized the moment. In other words, he'd checkmated her without even working up a sweat!

Sarah and Harm exchanged enigmatic looks before Mac sighed. "Okay, you've convinced me. It's a much more plausible scenario. He's cunning as a weasel. Is that why you think he killed Grimm?"

"It is only partially why. I think he has more to hide – but I'll know more later and keep you updated," he promised.

"Fine, I won't bring up a JAGMAN investigation, but Caldwell is furious, too. He might be the JAG, but once a Marine... " She shrugged, knowing he'd worked with Gibbs.

"Yeah, I'll ask Director Morrow to inform him about our new investigation."

Harm agreed. "Wouldn't hurt. Good luck, Tony! I hope you nail him." He looked at Tony and Mac who were eyeing him speculatively.

"What? Just because I got him off, doesn't mean I enjoyed it. But the bottom line is what Todd did is a threat to everyone who might be coerced into giving a false confession, especially if they are innocent. It is the foundation upon which of our justice system is built that people have the right not to incriminate themselves," the commander argued strenuously.

As they sipped their drinks a little morosely, Mac shook her head. "Okay, we asked you here for a drink after the case, DiNozzo. What happened sucks, but what's done is done. Hopefully, we'll learn from this situation and make sure it doesn't happen again." Raising her glass of mineral water (with a slice of lime) into the air, Mac looked expectantly at her two companions.

Harm raised his second glass of beer, clinking glasses with his partner. "I'll drink to that. Cheers!"

They both looked at Tony who participated somewhat guiltily. "I'm sorry we stuffed it up, guys. If I have anything to say about it, it won't happen again."

Sarah realised as mad as she was, Tony probably felt worse. Everyone knew the cop was honest and ethical and he hated criminals. Patting him in a business-like fashion on the shoulder since she sensed that he wasn't a touchy-feely type, (and neither was she, she was a badass Marine, thank you very much) she told him firmly, "Enough with the guilt, Tony. As far as I understand it, it wasn't you who screwed the pooch."

He shook his head stubbornly. "There is no I in TEAM, Mac. You know that! Besides, I'm the senior field agent – I should have made sure I explained to her how important it was NOT to question a suspect without reading them Miranda or Article 31 Rights, so it IS my bad!"

Harm exchanged an inscrutable look with Mac who shrugged and nodded, sending her long-term partner a nonverbal message. You tell him. Harm scowled back at her.

"Would that have made much difference, though? As far as I've heard, Gibbs told her she didn't have to follow your orders and she followed that rule to the letter."

Tony flashed a brief glance at Mac, who didn't seem stunned by what Harm had said. He was both shocked and embarrassed, and as frustrating as Gibbs was when it came down to chain of command ever since Caitlin Todd had replaced Vivian Blackadder, he'd certainly never bitched about it to Rabb... or anyone. Damn it, if he was honest, he was in denial about it most of the time.

Mac looked bemused. "I just don't get it. Gibbs was a Marine and by all accounts a damned good one once. He was a gunnery sergeant, too, not merely a lowly grunt who dreamed of having power and didn't. An NCO damned well knows how chain-of command works and that you NEVER EVER encourage people of unequal rank and skill sets to compete against each other. This wasn't on you."

Tony was mortified. Harm and Mac were stationed out of the Virginia Office, at Falls Creek. Did that mean that all the judge advocates who worked out of the Navy Yard know that Gibbs had told Caitlin Todd to ignore his orders, too? Had they been gossiping and laughing about it to their colleagues at other offices. Did everyone at the Naval Yard know that Gibbs didn't have any faith in his abilities? Was he a big fat JOKE as a federal agent?"

Just as he was about to offer an excuse to get out of the bar, the burgers arrived, and the moment passed, albeit awkwardly.

Wishing a sinkhole could open up and help him disappear, he wondered, idly looking around the bar at the other clientele, if they all knew about how Gibbs really felt about him, too? Was he the talk of DC? No... more likely, he'd be the joke, he corrected himself bitterly. What made him think he was a good cop/agent? Perhaps Gibbs was right about him?

Just as he was thinking that he couldn't do this, Harm and Mac realised he was merely playing with his food instead of eating it. Calling over a waiter which Tony only realised later must have been a prearranged signal, he arrived with a bottle of moderately expensive champagne and glasses. Welcoming the deflection, he found his nosy gene rubbing its eyes and trying to wake up.

"What are we celebrating, people? Have you two got something to tell me?" Tony insinuated with a waggle of his eyebrows. There were a bunch of betting pools in existence and the pots kept getting bigger by the year. Tony figured they must be huge by this point re the age-old question of when Harm and Mac would finally realise or stop deluding themselves about what was so plain to everyone else and get engaged.

Although there had been a couple of close calls, Mac having been engaged a couple of times, or almost engaged, and Harm having a couple of serious relationships, none of the partners had made it past the fact that the two JAs were like a pair of Siamese twins, practically joined at the hip. Oh, sure they had differences, but their differences were just enough to make it not married to your brother/sister/clone creepiness, but our differences-make-us-mirror-images-and-therefore-we-complemented-each-other sort of way.

Well, that was the prevailing wisdom around the watercoolers at JAG and NCIS. Tony wouldn't know about them being perfect for each other – the woman he fell head over heels for and wanted to settle down with, have ha home, kids and a dog, had left him the night before his wedding, without an explanation. He figured when it came to relationships, he was a hopeless cause, so he never deigned to hand out advice.

Still, he couldn't help teasing them both just a little.

Swapping inscrutable looks, Harm finally answered, "We are talking about your promotion, Tony. Congratulations."

Mac smiled. "Yes, congratulations, DiNozzo." Passing him a glass and one to Harm, she raised her own glass, although Tony noticed that it wasn't champagne in her glass. She saw him looking and proffered the information serenely, "Non-alcoholic cider."

He nodded. Mac made no secret of her alcoholism.

She raised her glass. "I propose a toast – to the new supervisory senior agent of the Major Case Response Team. May we have a long and fruitful collaboration together to ensure that justice is carried out."

"And seen to be carried out," Harm amended. "I'll second that. To an exceptional agent. Cheers!"

Tony tried to smile, but it ended up being more of a wince or maybe a smince if you were into the whole portmanteau word thingy.

"As much as I appreciate the sentiment guys, it's only temporary. Just until Gibbs gets his shit together."

Mac pulled a face, "Oh well in that case, it will happen...never. In Gibbs' warped perspective, if he ever gets his shit together, he'll see that as an admission that he was wrong...and if he was wrong then TPTB were right. Well rule 5 and all. Gibbs will view backing down and following orders as an admission of weakness and that will never happen.

"So, looks like you're it for the foreseeable future. You know, Tony, most people when they get a promotion think it's a good thing," she teased gently, seeing his glum expression.

"You're kinda acting like it's a punishment instead of a reward," Harm observed quizzically. "Aren't you pleased about getting it?"

Maybe because it is punishment! "Not the way it's happened, Harm. Gibbs was supposed to retire in a few years, not get demoted. He was going to hand the team over to me and go sun himself down on some beach in Mexico, after he'd sail his boat down there. If I'd earned the promotion, I might feel different, but I got it by default because everyone knows I don't deserve this." Hell, even they know that Gibbs thought I was incompetent, so why me?

"What a crock, DiNozzo!" Harm retorted. "We know you're a gifted investigator. The JAs that you work with know you'll cross every T and dot every single I before the case is handed over to us. We know that any search warrants you obtain will be legit and you will execute them according to the law."

Mac nodded emphatically.

"We know that when you have to testify that you will keep it simple and clear and you won't let anyone trip you up or make you appear to be an arrogant SOB," Harm stated. Not like Gibbs remained unspoken but understood by all three officers of the court. They all conceded that some jurors loved him, but an equal number loathed the former Marine.

"What he just said," Mac pointed a well-manicured nail at Harm. "And in addition to the PDs and departments you've worked in, you've also worked on the major case response team for almost three years, much of it working solo with Gibbs. That surely qualifies you for sainthood in my books. I'm a damned Marine and I sure as hell couldn't do it."

Sarah shook her head and gave him a a nudge with her shoulder before continuing to bolster his spirits.

"I also know that your closure rate when you were in homicide mirrors that of the MCRT, so I don't see as how you think you haven't earned it. You have!"

Tony stared at the riled up Marine colonel, recalling the meeting with Director Morrow earlier that afternoon:

I'm sorry to do this to you, Agent DiNozzo, but as of tomorrow you will be taking over the MCRT as Acting Supervisory Agent. For the next couple of weeks, I'm afraid that will be a somewhat empty promotion since Agent Gibbs has been suspended for two weeks. That's in addition to being demoted to senior field agent, as I told you about at the start of the meeting.

"In addition, if Probationary Agent Todd decides to accept the conditions of her continued employment, which include the disciplinary action of attending investigator training at FLETC, then she will not be available to work on the MCRT for the immediate future. So, for the next two weeks, you can either work solo or Agent Balboa has offered to lend you his junior agent. Which would you prefer?"

Tony replied without even having to think about it. "I'd prefer to work with Agent Ishida if Balboa can spare her, Sir." Being kidnapped by a deranged female intend on avenging the death of her friends by killing Marines who'd tried smuggling them to the US from the Philippines (except that they died of dehydration and starvation) and nearly sharing the same fate, made the decision a no-brainer.

Tony preferred to have someone competent watching his back and Kerry Ishida was both competent and followed orders. Bonus. That would make for a pleasant change.

Tom nodded, pleased. "Good, I'll organise that." He made a note on his computer.

"Now, I wish I could give you a new team to lead, but confidentially, there is no one else who can or will take Gibbs as their SFA, so I'm afraid you'll have to deal with him. He's going to have to start respecting the chain of command or else he will never lead his own team again. If he is being uncooperative, then I want to know right away."

The director must have seen his reluctance and called him on it. "Agent Gibbs was demoted not just because he failed to properly supervise Agent Todd, a rookie. He is also being disciplined because he created a toxic environment on the team that made it impossible for you to carry out all your duties as senior field agent, including helping to train and supervise Todd.

"Until he gets his shit together, he is not going to have his rank reinstated. In fact, if he doesn't get his act together, the next step he'll take will be right out the door."

Morrow leaned back in his chair and regarded DiNozzo seriously.

"Tony, I believe in your ability to lead the team. You've done well whenever you've filled in for Agent Gibbs in the past and excelled when you filled in for Reese Williams in his absence. You're very innovative – Agent Reese's team were very enthusiastic about your group campfires."

Tony had snorted. "Maybe, Director but that is a far cry from expecting me to lead a team with Gibbs as SFA."

Morrow bowed his head in acknowledgement. "I know I'm asking a lot, Agent DiNozzo. But you are a creative problem solver which is why you've managed to work with Agent Gibbs so successfully. Don't try to copy him, do things your way."

Tony had looked at him incredulously. "You're kidding. He'll hate that!"

"Yes, but even if you try to do things his way, he'll hate it anyway, so you might as well be yourself. I'm sure there's a lot of things you've thought could be done better – now's your chance to give it a go. Think of it as compensation for having to have Gibbs as your senior field agent."

Even now, Tony thought the director was crazy, but orders were orders. He could suck it up or he could resign. Since he felt he'd failed to train Cate, resigning was taking the easy way out. So that left sucking it up and leading the team until Gibbs regained his position.

"There's another issue re the team which I want to discuss with you. You may or may not know that Gibbs was considering taking Special Agent McGee on as a probie in the next few months. Since I've extended Agent Todd's probationary period for at least another 12 months, possibly longer, I'm not prepared to assign him to the MCRT."

Tony chuckled mirthlessly – a far cry from his normal good humour. "Abby Sciuto is not going to be happy about that, Sir. She's been nagging at Gibbs for a while now about him coming to work on the MCRT."

Tom shook his head. "I'm aware of the water cooler gossip that has them as an item, Tony. But even though he's not going to be joining your team, there is probably going to be a slot opening up here at the Navy Yard, so she'll still get to see him as often as if he was on the MCRT."

Real chuckles bubbled up – Tom could tell the difference since Tony's eyes were dancing with mischief. "Ah, but she doesn't want to see him more often, Sir. She wanted him on the MCRT because of Rule 12." When Morrow still looked bemused, he supplied more data. "Gibbs' Rule 12 – never date a co-worker."

Frowning, the director nodded. "I'm aware of Gibbs' Rule 12, Tony, and you do know that there is nothing in the regs against co-workers dating? The only exception is when it is a supervisor, they are forbidden to have a relationship with someone who is a subordinate. But that aside, I don't understand why Abby would want her boyfriend on Gibbs' team because of Rule 12? If McGee had been assigned to the team, he would have had to..." Breaking off, he looked gobsmacked. "Oh, wow, sneaky... "

"Exactly. Abby is getting antsy because McGee is becoming serious about them. Meet his parents and sister serious. Dr. Sciuto is not a big fan of commitment and tires of guys relatively quickly. But Abby thinks McGee is sensitive and won't handle it if she tells him to take a hike. She's looking for a good time, not a long time. If he's on Gibbs' team, then McGee will be forced to break up with her."

Chuckling with amusement, he winked. "Gottcha! Well, she's going to have to find some other way to manage her affairs."

Tony just hoped that Abby didn't blame him for McGee getting assigned to another team. She was going be pissed when she heard about Gibbs' demotion and suspension – not to mention Cate's mandatory sojourn at FLETC. And he needed to have her on his side for once.

Tom, oblivious to the thoughts going through Tony's head, pressed on with the next point. "So, I wanted to talk about another option now that McGee won't be coming aboard in the immediate future. You can either decide to keep the MCRT to the three existing team members or I can assign you a junior agent.

"Agent Balboa has offered to give up Ishida if you would like her to join the team. She's a whiz with anything computer related by the way, and he said he'd take McGee. His probationary agent isn't officially a probie anymore. For what it's worth, I think that it might do Todd good to have a junior agent above her in the pecking order on the team should she return."

Pursing his lips, he confided, "From what happened when she took it upon herself to delegate McGee to check out Corporal McClain's alibi, if McGee were to join the MCRT, I think she would not be a good influence, nor is Gibbs for that matter. Balboa will give him a much better chance to develop and remain on the straight and narrow.

Correctly identifying Tony's expression, he spoke up. "That isn't a slur on your ability to train him, Tony. Rather it's recognition that you're going to have your hands full with that pair."

"No, I understand, Director. Rule 45!"

The director quirked an eyebrow at him. "I'm not familiar with that one, I'm afraid."

"Always clean up your own messes. This is my fault because I didn't stop Gibbs. So, it's only fair that I get to sort it out."

Director Morrow frowned. "This is not your fault – if anyone is to blame, that would be me. Plus, Gibbs. He's a former Marine and he knows about chain of command. Don't forget that Todd was a team leader at the Secret Service. So, she damned well knows about the importance of chain of command, too, and not to ignore it. There is no place for misplaced guilt here.

"What I meant was that there isn't anyone else who I can get to lead the team who is capable of overseeing the type of cases that the MCRT get assigned who isn't afraid of Gibbs and will stand up to him. But I'm sorry to ask you to deal with his crap – I wish I could say he will take his disciplinary action gracefully." He looked regretful as he said, "But you and I both know he's going to be an absolute prick about the changes."

Tony smiled slightly. Not that he felt like smiling, but he didn't wish to make the director feel worse than he already did. "A leopard can't change its spots," he agreed.

Morrow started and looked at him. "Yes... well, Gibbs is not a leopard or a grizzly bear with a sore head and if he doesn't shape up, he can ship out. I've already told him that – and the only reason I decided not to bust him back to a junior or probationary agent was because I wanted him to remember first-hand what a critical role a senior field agent performs and how much he disrespected you and your position."

"Anyway, take a couple of days, get to know Kerry Ishida and then let me know if you want her to join the team or not. You could try talking to the other SSAs get their thoughts on the pros and cons of having a fourth. And Agents Balboa, Williams, Dawes, and Ericson have offered to mentor you, get you up to speed on the finer points of the job, including the administrative side, and just to support you when the going gets tough. And it will with that pair. But remember, if they aren't pulling their weight – I want to know about it, so I can support you, too."

He paused and looked searchingly at Tony, who nodded dutifully as he said, "Message received, Director."

Looking less than happy, Morrow sighed and seemed to come to a decision. "So, is now a good time to give me a SitRep on your investigation into Master Sergeant Rafael?"

As Tony realised that there was an uncomfortable silence at the table and Mac and Harm were looking at him with concern, he noted that he'd been wool-gathering, probably for a while. He smiled at his companions, one of his fake smiles that was all teeth but never reached his eyes (which remained bleak and hard).

"Sorry, I didn't catch that last bit you said," he stalled expertly. He was good at deflection after all.

"I said that I know that your closure rate when you were in homicide at Baltimore mirrors that of the MCRT, so I don't see as how you think you haven't earned it. You have!" Mac repeated what she had told him over five minutes previously.

Tony wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. "Why, Sarah, have you been checking up on me?" he flirted automatically since they all knew that it was SOP when they were using an agent to give evidence at a trial to make sure they were honest and trustworthy.

"Damned straight!" she shot back without missing a beat.

After making a token effort to finish his burger and failing rather spectacularly, he made excuses to go home soon after. Pleading that he'd had a hellish-long day and he needed to be up early to go through Rafael's phone records, which he would obtain in the morning. Plus, he had a TAD agent to get settled in and brought up to speed.

Making his departure with promises to let them know if he found something, he disappeared into the throng of bodies, drinking, socialising, celebrating a win, or commiserating a lost case. Tony decided that next time they met for drinks, he'd suggest the bar.

Somewhere quieter, less crowded, maybe some live music.

~o0o~

Mac watched him disappear into the seething crowd of mostly revellers and turned to her partner. "Do you think we are doing the right thing leaving the investigation to DiNozzo?"

Harm said, "Absolutely. He's a top-notch investigator and just as stubborn as Gibbs but, unlike Jethro, he won't cut legal corners to solve the case. He's by the book when it comes down to nailing someone," he tried to reassure his partner.

"I thought you told me he thought outside the box, Harm?

"Yep, and he does. Think that's what pisses off Gibbs so much that he is a by the book kind of agent and he thinks outside the box when he is looking for connections during an investigation. His mind sees correlations and relationships where no one else can. BUT when it comes to gathering evidence, he is meticulous. I honestly think he is our best shot at discovering if Rafael has been stealing and selling military weapons, Mac," Harm said earnestly.

"Good, because it makes me sick to my stomach that he might get away with it. He's a disgrace to the Corps and I want him gone," Mac stated emphatically. "I want him in Fort Leavenworth, but I'd settle for a DD if that is the only option."

Harm nodded, understanding that Marines held themselves to a higher standard and when someone betrayed that standard, they were particularly unforgiving.

Switching topics, Mac asked her partner. "Do you think DiNozzo is alright?"

Harm thought carefully. "I think he hates to lose a case as much as you do, Mac. Yeah, he takes it to heart, but he won't let it interfere with the investigation, if that's what you're worried about. He's a professional... like us."

"No, I wasn't. I'm thinking that it will be nice to have the MCRT not screw up cases because Gibbs is too damned arrogant to follow rules (apart from his own) and because he has a rookie investigator that barely knows her ass from her nose, but thinks she's God's gift to the world. But I'm just worried that Tony's promotion is going to be a Pyrrhic victory given that the composition of the team."

Harm considered her statement before replying. "I'd have expected him to be over the moon about his new job."

Mac stared at him. "Really? Try putting yourself in his shoes; it's like he's been given the poison chalice to drink from. A new command - having his demoted former superior as his 2IC and a former Secret Service agent and team leader who knows squat about investigating crime and has nothing but scorn for Tony?"

"So, what are you thinking, Mac, that they're trying to set him up to fail?"

"Gibbs should have at the very least been transferred to another team," she said critically.

"Bud reckoned none of the other team leads would permit him within forty feet of their teams," Harm reminded her of the gossip that had been rife, even at JAG, Falls Creek, Virginia.

"So? They should have taken him out of the field – given him a desk job. He's getting close to mandatory retirement, anyway," she maintained callously.

Harm shook his head. "Don't you remember what Webb said about him? That if they tried to give him a desk job, Gibbs would retire."

Mac shrugged. "And that would be a bad thing because?"

It was her partner's turn to shrug his shoulders. "Well, until this last ten months or so, he has done good work for NCIS. It's lately he's gone off the rails and let mistakes creep in." Seeing Mac's expression, he amended his statement hurriedly. "Okay, he's screwed the pooch massively on a bunch of high profile cases. "

Mac nodded. She'd lost several cases she was prosecuting thanks to him taking short cuts to solve a case. Most people felt it was because Gibbs was too busy sleeping with Caitlin Todd, who he sure let get away with insubordination and incompetence. Giving credence to him having a sexual relationship with his probationary agent, observers were quick to compare the female agent's multiple fuck ups since her hiring with the previous female agent, Vivian Blackadder.

She'd made one error, albeit a serious one, and was unceremoniously booted off the MCRT by Gibbs who was reportedly furious she'd messed up his takedown. But Todd had easily trumped Blackadder's fiasco in Rota many times over and yet she was still there. Why?

Plus, Mac couldn't help but think about the old maxim, 'People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.' The gunny had made some huge faux pas of his own this year, so it was easy to feel sorry for the luckless Blackadder. She'd definitely gotten a rough deal from Gibbs. Hardly surprising then that people thought Gibbs was sleeping with Caitlin Todd.

Oblivious to Mac's musings on Gibbs' unfathomable behaviour, Harm interrupted her thoughts, "As to why it would be a bad thing if he retired, I suspect that the CIA or another even more shadowy, shady alphabet would love to recruit him for black ops. SecNav and the JCOS probably don't want to lose him in case they need him at some point in the future to do their black ops. So, they can't afford to pull him from the field."

The Marine colonel grimaced. She hated politics.

Missing Scene # 5 [This takes place the next day after Tony, Mac and Harm have their tête-à-tête at the bar.]

"So, what's your end game, Tom?" General Creswell, Judge Advocate General, asked bluntly.

Morrow had called the JAG to formally notify him of the new investigation into Master Sergeant Rafael and his cohorts and the arms trafficking activities. Creswell had been very enthusiastic, although cautioned against leaving themselves open to charges of harassment. Tom had reassured him that Joe Landers was overseeing the investigation and DiNozzo had been given point. With his background in law enforcement, the former cop was painfully aware of the consequences of them stepping over the line with this subsequent investigation.

The director had then discussed the demotion and disciplinary action taken against the MCRT due to the debacle resulting in the charges against Rafael being dropped on a technicality. It had prompted Creswell's question.

"End game?" Morrow questioned, bemused.

"Do you want Gibbs back in charge? Aren't you simply setting DiNozzo up to fall flat on his face by giving him a temporary promotion? Do you really expect him to go back to being Gibbs' 2IC once the gunny has served out his sentence?"

Tom frowned. He could see where Creswell was coming from with his rather pointed questioning. Sure, TPTB were pissed off with Gibbs – which was why they were demanding he be brought to heel - he was out of control. It was a real risk that unless he removed his head from his ass, he could bring down even his most ardent supporters with him. Obviously, that was unacceptable to them, explaining their fervent desire to see he got one almighty wake-up call and why they'd been on board with his temporary demotion.

Sighing with exasperation, Morrow thought about the JAG's very pertinent questions. The truth was that over the course of his career, Gibbs had collected a lot of markers from some extremely well-connected people, including a US Senator who'd served in the Marines with him. The rumour periodically doing the rounds was that Gibbs knew where all the bodies were buried in DC and, to be honest, Tom had no idea if there was any truth to it or it was merely an urban legend. What the director did know, though, was that a lot of people in DC had gotten to the top of the heap by scrambling over the top of people who stood between them and power; DC was definitely a dog eat dog kinda place.

That fact alone opened people up to cultivate secrets, their own and other peoples'. Not to mention encouraging everyone to lie, cheat, and be deceitful. Besides, people in power weren't all that different from your average Joe when it came to secrets, most people had them or had things that they didn't want other people to know about them. Tom was no different – there were things about him and his family that he wouldn't want his enemies to know about.

What he did know was that irrespective of Gibbs knowing 'the secrets' of powerful people – or not; those individuals on Capitol Hill in positions of power viewed Gibbs as a useful commodity when they needed their various messes cleaned up. One thing about Jethro, he wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty when he felt it was necessary to get the job done!

Therefore, Gibbs' cheer squad wanted him someplace where he was easily accessible when they needed his special skills. Their solution had been to give him the lead of the MCRT when he'd returned from Russia, although the problem with that was Gibbs was allergic to being told what to do and didn't play nice with others.

Despite the big picture which was that the power brokers wanted to keep their 'Fixer Upper' close by, his increasingly unstable behaviour (probably due to the terrorist getting the jump on him) was impacting negatively on them. Thus, they were clamouring for him to be brought under control but NOT shown the door, which was Morrow's preferred option for a while now (after having to clean up after Gibbs and Todd way too often).

Ultimately, that meant they expected Gibbs' to resume his role as team lead of the MCRT because if he wasn't calling the shots, then Jethro was going to throw a huge tantrum and resign. Yeah, that got that right! Gibbs was the epitome of the word control freak – couldn't cope with not being able to call the shots.

Morrow was perfectly aware that Gibbs' Cheer Squad (GCS) had directed him to temporarily promote DiNozzo as team lead, cognizant that a) it would be a real slap in the face to Gibbs if he was replaced by his protégé and b) appointing a SSA as team lead (even if it was just temporary) would be so much more difficult reverse.

In principle, Tom agreed with their rationale. It would be way more problematic to reinstate Gibbs if say Balboa had been leading Gibbs' old team. Of course, that was supposing Balboa would agree to tale on the job with Jethro as his SFA – which he might…when Hell freezes over. No, it was far easier to give a temporary promotion to the team's SFA, who also idolised Gibbs and would willingly step aside when (if in Tom's opinion and a big if at that) Gibbs pulled his head out of his ass. The elephant in the room was – and General Creswell had identified it so well – that in order to keep Leroy Jethro Gibbs, NCIS would effectively be sacrificing a valuable resource. There was no way that Tony would be able to return to being Gibbs 2IC after being his boss – and it wasn't fair to expect it of him, even if he was prepared to attempt it.

He got that the power brokers didn't give a flying fuck about a young agent like DiNozzo or his career. They would argue that the greater good (doubtless their greater good) required that they have Gibbs' with his much-vaunted skills set on hand for when it was needed. As far as the political power brokers were concerned, DiNozzo was just another young, albeit gifted, agent who could be easily replaced – in theory.

Morrow knew that the theory was flawed though. DiNozzo was equally as unique an agent as Gibbs; his ability to think laterally and his superior abilities undercover were exceptional. Those two skills alone were reason enough why he should be nurtured by the agency – not thrown to the wolves. Bottom line though, Gibbs' pals didn't care that DiNozzo was an outstanding young agent, only that they had a pet assassin in their backyard who could clean-up the shit they made when needed.

Truth to tell, Morrow wasn't altogether sure if their investigative wunderkind wasn't already too compromised by all of Gibbs' psychological mind games this year, undermining of DiNozzo's position whenever he encouraged Todd's insubordination and disrespect. He hoped not. DiNozzo was resilient and forgiving. Far too forgiving in his humble opinion and one day he would ask Nate Getz to explain why that was, but not today.

Sighing, Morrow considered the situation. While his smackdown of Gibbs had been highly satisfying, especially knowing that no one was going to lift a finger to prevent Jethro's suspension or temporary demotion, the euphoria he'd been riding since their confrontation had faded. Yes, he'd finally been able to make him come to heel but Jethro was such an alpha personality that Tom knew that it probably wouldn't be enough deterrent to stop him ignoring procedure in the future. Nevertheless, for once he'd come out on top and he needed to relish his rare win even if the war was still ongoing.

The various power brokers who signed off on the agency's funding or who had friends who were in a position to do so had made their wishes plain and Morrow had been given his instructions. 'Pull the gunny into line (and do it fast), but ultimately give him back his former rank.'

Even so, Morrow wasn't above performing some fancy footwork of his own; following orders but still pursuing his own agenda.

Instead of responding to Biff Creswell's series of pointed digs, because that would be extremely foolish, even if Biff wasn't one of Gibbs' supporters, he changed the subject.

"You've perused Agent Gibbs' jacket?" Tom asked him, knowing that JAG would also have access to his psychological profile since Jethro regularly gave evidence. "Any insights as a CO and fellow Marine into his leadership style?"

Creswell was momentarily silenced at the non-sequitur coming at him out of left field. "He's shite!" he joked irreverently before noting the director's intense silence over the phone line and sighed deeply as he considered the question properly.

"Gibbs is one paranoid sonofabitch and a lone wolf. His people-skills are mostly non-existent, and he lacks empathy or patience in social settings. As I'm sure you're already aware, the gunny is an obsessive bastard – prone to bouts of the most extreme target fixation I've ever seen, and that's saying something. So, let me ask you, does that sound like someone who has the temperament to be leading and training others?" he demanded gruffly.

Tom chuckled. "Go on."

"Given those particular personality traits, I personally don't think it's a coincidence that the role Gibbs truly excelled at when he was in the Corps was as a special ops sniper, which is a solitary occupation. At the most, he was required to interact with a spotter. That's not the profile of someone that I'd want supervising young agents. In my opinion, it's the profile of someone uniquely suited to working as a solo agent in a field office or as an agent afloat, policing a shipload full of jarheads and squids."

Morrow sighed. It was most illuminating to hear the general's assessment of his fellow Marine's abilities, particularly his suggestion for appropriate deployment options too. It also gelled neatly with Jethro's previous Black Ops history in NCIS where he excelled as both a spy and assassin; tasks imminently suited to a paranoid, asocial lone wolf type.

Creswell's suggestions about how Jethro would be best utilised by the agency resonated with Morrow. Alas, his current orders to make sure that Gibbs stayed in DC and at the agency, weren't exactly compatible with Creswell's suggestions. Damn it!

Still, Tom had a secret weapon up his sleeve and, fingers crossed, it would work. Yeah, okay, so he'd always been a glass half full kind of guy – but it was better than being a bad-tempered pessimist. At least for those people around him.

He had to give credit to NCIS' operational psychologist, Nate Getz, for giving him the idea in the first place, even if he'd never know it. Hopefully if it worked, it would give him a chance to fix this mess once and for all. Although back when they were chewing the fat re leaders, Tom was merely curious about what had gone so massively wrong between Gibbs and DiNozzo after he hired an ex-secret service agent for the MCRT out of the blue. Prior to that, Gibbs and DiNozzo used to work together seamlessly and Tom had been making himself crazy trying to figure out why it had fallen apart.

Getz had been in DC, conducting special training sessions with their counter intelligence teams and intelligence analysts. Desperate for answers and knowing he was in town, Morrow sent him Gibbs' personnel file and files on the MCRT for him to study. It wasn't that unusual; periodically, Nate was asked to evaluate NCIS personnel, especially when they were struggling. Morrow found him to be very insightful and down to earth. He was easy to talk to but, unfortunately, he tended to be kept busy dealing with the undercover and special ops teams.

"Okay, so give me your take on the management skills of Special Agent Gibbs," Tom had asked Getz after both men had settled in with a cup of the director's good coffee.

After considering the question carefully, Nate answered briefly, "I'd classify him as an authoritarian leader, also known as an autocratic leader. Well, if you want to buy into leadership as a purely dichotomic taxonomy," he said slowly. Morrow felt as if Nate was sizing him up, probably wondering what he was looking for.

At that stage, Morrow wasn't sure what he was looking for except to figure out what had gone wrong with the MCRT, but even if he did have a specific agenda, he'd learned not to reveal too much information. People had a habit of telling him what they thought he wanted to hear because he was sitting in the big chair.

"You're talking about authoritarian versus authoritative leaders?" Tom asked the psychologist, checking to make sure he understood him.

Nate regarded him before nodding. "Yep!"

Leaning back in his office chair and sipping his coffee, he regarded Getz gravely. "You don't like the autocratic/versus authoritative distinction, Nate?"

Nate stared out Morrow's office window contemplatively, before finally responding. "I just find it a rather simplistic model, but it has its place in a discussion about leadership styles," he conceded grudgingly.

Tom settled in for what he hoped would be a fruitful conversation. "Okay, so let's have a discussion about leadership, shall we, Doctor?"

Getz acquiesced readily enough. "Fine, let's do that!" he replied, standing up and walking over to the coffee pot to refresh their coffee cups before sitting back down again.

He was silent as he gathered his thoughts, the silence broken by sibilant sounds of both men sipping their drinks before he began to speak. "I guess my issue with autocratic/authoritative classification is the same problem which I have with other dichotomic classifications."

Tom raised one eyebrow, asking for more information.

Nate noted the nonverbal cue and responded. "Ah, well, for instance, anal retentive versus anal expulsive types or the popular personality classification, extrovert versus introvert. People rarely fall into one discrete category despite the misconceptions perpetuated by pop culture." The affable psychologist appeared to be getting unusually animated and he took a deep breath.

"Pidgeon-holing people is a convenient heuristic and we all do it to some degree, but my problem with it is that there are very few people who are so black or white as to fit into such limited and limiting categories. Most of us are shades of grey and the spectrum ranges from almost black to almost white and every combination in between – with lots of people clustered around the middle of the spectrum."

Tom nodded. "Makes sense."

Nate absently traced invisible patterns across the conference table, deep in thought. "The problem with most dichotomic classification systems is that it's also too easy to fall into using it as a crude classification of good and bad which is simplistic. While most experts would agree that in general, authoritative leaders are more effective, autocratic leadership can be more successful in some highly specific but limited situations."

The director nodded his understanding. "When you're out in the field during a firefight, the last thing you need to be worrying about is being open to new ideas, inclusive, or giving out constructive feedback."

"Yeah, absolutely," Nate agreed with the director readily. "You definitely need someone to take charge and be decisive and autocratic. You don't want people standing around arguing about what to do; you want them to follow orders instantaneously."

Tom nodded seriously. "Agreed."

"The problem arises when a leader only has an autocratic approach to leading their team." Getz responded. "The authoritarian style, where one person takes absolute control and makes decisions with little input from the group members has significant limitations. For instance, autocratic leaders make choices based on their own ideas and aren't known for accepting input or the opinions of others, particularly underlings."

As Nate was talking, Tom's thoughts had immediately summoned up an image of Leroy Jethro Gibbs. He recalled hearing the autocratic leadership style summed up as 'do as I do,' which was rather paternalistic. Though, when it came to Gibbs, the mantra would surely need amending to 'do as I say, not as I do.' The truth was the former Marine expected people to blindly follow his rules while blatantly ignoring them himself if they proved inconvenient.

To Tom, it was the height of arrogance – placing yourself above the law – and was partially why he felt that Gibbs wasn't a suitable team leader for the MCRT. His attitude generated a lot of ill will from LEO's and the other alphabets. Putting yourself above the rules, imposing your own rules, insisting your team follow them to the letter, ignoring them yourself when you couldn't be bothered. How narcissistic was that?

Meanwhile Nate had continued talking, "As we agreed, while autocratic leadership during a crisis can result in goals being reached, people who are always autocratic are often seen as dictatorial, cold, and bossy. Long term, leaders who are only authoritarian cause discontent and resentment among group members.

"Authoritarian leadership stifles individual being able to develop as they aren't given a chance to mature and grow nurture nascent abilities. It can often lead to people feeling undervalued and not trusted. The members feel like they can't contribute ideas/opinions and feel their knowledge and expertise is overlooked. Ultimately," Getz concluded gravely, "that leads to a lack of creative problem solving, which comes back and bites the team or organisation on the butt. Big time."

Morrow pursed his lips before taking another hit of coffee. "But there was a time when people considered an authoritarian style was essential to be an effective leader."

"Or an effective parent," Nate agreed.

"I'm guessing that the majority of experts now deem an authoritative leadership style as best?" Morrow used air quotes around the term experts.

Nate nodded, briefly smirking. "Pretty much! Authoritative leaders steer the group or team toward common goals, managing to engage and energise team members along the way. Yes, they lead, but still give people a degree of autonomy or control too. With their 'come with me' style of leading, they're willing to participate and aren't afraid to get their hands dirty."

The psychologist frowned, staring down at his fingernails which were immaculately manicured apart from one ragged nail which seemed to be annoying him. He rubbed it absentmindedly before continuing to speak.

"Authoritative leaders will see situations as opportunities to learn and to share knowledge with their team and unlike autocratic leaders, whose expectation is 'do what I tell you to do because I said so,' authoritative leaders explain why. They revel in the team's competence and achievements rather than focusing on failures or playing the blame game. They inspire creativity, enthusiasm, and an entrepreneurial spirit in their people."

Morrow considered the brief yet succinct information that Nate had shared and couldn't help but compare it to the agent who was the bane of his existence - one Leroy Jethro Gibbs. He was the epitome of an autocratic team leader. He also couldn't help but contrast him to his protégé, Anthony DiNozzo, who had many of the qualities of an authoritative leader.

How ironic that they should both be on the same team together and he wondered how long it would take before Gibbs managed to extinguish DiNozzo's creativity and enthusiasm. He was already beginning to second guess himself.

Nate was still holding forth on the subject – clearly it was something he'd spent a lot of time considering. "Leadership can and should be situational, depending on what the team needs," the agency's operational psychologist declared forcefully. "Needs are fluid. Sometimes a teammate needs empathy or even just a hug or waterproof shoulder to cry on when something goes wrong. Sometimes the team needs someone with vision to lead, or perhaps a new style of coaching, someone to demonstrate the way forward or even, on rare occasions when the shit hits the fan, to be an autocratic asshole.

"For that reason, great leaders choose their leadership style like a carpenter picks the right tool for the job. They don't just pick one tool and expect to use it for every situation. They use a hammer to drive in nails, but they don't try to use it to screw in nails, undo bolts or saw a piece of wood in two. Sure, the hammer might do the job at a pinch if you apply enough force and you didn't care about the damage it caused, but it was nowhere near as effectively as a screwdriver, a spanner or a saw to cut wood. The right tool for the job will always work much better and not cause harm, either."

Tom snorted, trying not to laugh. Getz might be speaking about leadership styles generally, but he had a vivid mental image of Gibbs – wielding a giant hammer through a bunch of law enforcement agencies not to mention NCIS and his team. Determined to get the job done as quickly as possible and damn the consequences to the group. His was the proverbial square peg in a round hole approach, favoured by toddlers the world over – the if it won't fit, hit it harder method and make it fit method.

Nate had looked at him curiously, no doubt due to the snort although his facial contortions or as Ducky called it – gurning - could have contributed too.

Their discussion had certainly given Tom a lot of food for thought. It was clear that Gibbs and DiNozzo's leadership styles were diametrically opposed to each other and how ironic was that. Obviously as director he'd read DiNozzo's psychological profile plus the exhaustive background check that Gibbs had Chris Pacci carry out before he was hired. So, it was also pretty obvious that there were some factors that made him uniquely suited to being able to work on Gibbs' team, even if it wasn't in his best interests psychologically, especially on a long-term basis.

And sidebar, Tom wondered why Jethro had decided it had necessary to run a full background check on DiNozzo which included talking to people who had known him as a child. Yet why hadn't he bothered running the same investigation on Todd before he offered her a job. People might say that Gibbs' knew that anyone on the presidential protection team would already have had an exhaustive security and background check done before gaining such an important role, although Morrow doubted it. Jethro was usually pretty scathing of other law enforcement agencies and their work product, believing that no one reached his impossibly high standards. Come to think about it, Jethro had been pretty contemptuous of the Secret Service during their investigation on Air Force One.

Knowing how Machiavellian Jethro could be (he carried out Black Ops after all), Tom couldn't help wondering if Gibbs felt knowing highly intimate details about Tony's childhood would make him easier to control. Why else would he want to know highly embarrassing childhood details of DiNozzo's father forcing his young son to carry around a bucket of shit and being nicknamed the Poo-Boy by a bunch of middle-aged losers playing dress up? Why dig up details of him being targeted by bullies in numerous boarding schools he'd attended after his mother died when he was eight, including hoisting him up a flagpole in his underwear? (God, but kids could be cruel rotten little bastards!)

Come on, why would Gibbs need to know DiNozzo had been disowned aged twelve, forgotten for days in a Hawaiian hotel or had been beaten within an inch of his life when he made his own Halloween costume to go trick or treating? While all that information might or might not be pertinent to NCIS to determine his security clearance, Gibbs didn't get to determine that. Bottom line, his team leader having so many highly personal details about one of his team members was a huge invasion of privacy. He bet Gibbs would hate his team knowing all his dirty little secrets about his own childhood – hell, he was a closed mouth bastard, even when it came to what he did on his down time. Yet Jethro felt like he had every right to know all DiNozzo's most embarrassing secrets.

Morrow hated the cynical direction his mind was headed in, yet seeing how effectively, how utterly ruthlessly Gibbs had been isolating DiNozzo since Todd had joined the team, it was hard not to. Tom suspected that while the rational side of Gibbs saw him as his protégé – his heir apparent - the apex predator side of Jethro saw DiNozzo as a natural competitor to his position and took action to undermine him. By knowing so much about his vulnerabilities it made it that much easier to make him impotent so he was less threatening.

He and Nate had continued their discussion over a heap more coffee, eventually switching to a glass of Tom's single malt scotch. Nate recommended that Tom read a new book on leadership which he found useful called Primal Leadership by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee. It was based on studying successful managers to understand what leadership qualities were necessary for managers to be effective leaders and Goleman had identified six types which he'd linked to emotional intelligence. These were the commanding/coercive leader, the authoritative leader, affiliative leader, democratic leader, the pacesetting leader, and the coaching leader.

Getz explained that he really liked this model of leadership, feeling it was much more helpful that the dichotomic autocratic/ authoritarian model. He went on to suggest that they should develop a seminar based on the six types of leadership styles. Morrow agreed that it would probably be beneficial for all supervisory and management staff to attend so they could better understand and utilise these different styles of leadership. Tom had told Nate to get together a proposal for him to consider, wondering how to get Gibbs to attend.

Finishing the last dregs of his scotch, the director silently acknowledged that even if he was forced to attend, it would be a hollow victory because Gibbs wouldn't change since he believed he was right and everyone else was wrong.

Anyway... refocusing his thoughts on the present, to wit TPTB's plan to temporarily promote DiNozzo to acting team leader. Morrow was under no illusions that despite the demotion, Gibbs would try to impose control over the team regardless of his demotion. With Todd as his wingman aiding and abetting the dissing of DiNozzo, the scenario was a train wreck waiting to happen. Fortunately, she would be off at FLETC for several months at least, which would present Morrow with the best opportunity to carry out his evil plan. Fingers crossed!

After reading Goleman's book - Primal Leadership, Tom concluded that DiNozzo, prior to Jethro's year-long project of making him irrelevant, had shown a number of leadership qualities including: visionary/authoritative, affiliative, democratic and coaching leadership qualities. Maybe it explained why he and Gibbs were such a good team (or they had been 'til this year) as his qualities complemented Gibbs coercive/commanding and pacesetting styles of leadership.

Unfortunately, having such an extreme alpha personality as team leader trying to undermine him constantly, didn't exactly give Tony a lot of opportunities to display coercive/commanding traits, let alone fully take advantage of his strengths either. Which was why Tom had pushed for him to fill in as team leader for Reese Williams when the team leader needed to take family leave.

Morrow had needed to see if DiNozzo was able to lead a team after almost a year of having his authority undermined and his skills essentially mocked. And Tom was relieved to see that he'd stepped up and taken control. The team had caught a murder case and ended up chasing down the killer, quite literally when he tried to evade capture, resulting in a potentially nasty shootout at a neighbourhood park.

It had been the final proof for the director that DiNozzo had what it took to lead the major case response team, particularly if Gibbs wasn't able to deal with being demoted to second banana status. The former Marine wasn't exactly celebrated for his flexibility or ability to handle change. Tony was extremely adaptable and pertinently, his leadership style was diametrically opposed to Gibbs' own style. Particularly if DiNozzo had the mentorship of leaders such as Ric Balboa or Reese Williams encouraging him to utilise visionary, affiliative, democratic, and coaching traits to lead the major case response team. If DiNozzo could be persuaded to introduce his 'team campfires', which were the antithesis of Gibbs' do as I say mentality, he was pretty sure it would be the equivalent to fingernails across a blackboard to the gunny.

Gibbs found it difficult dealing with Tony's mercurial disposition and eccentric thought processes, resorting to physical discipline to make him conform to what the gunny deemed as 'appropriate' behavior for his team. Encouraging DiNozzo to unleash all of his unorthodox 'Tony-ness' to lead the team would probably be nothing short of pure torture to the autocratic Marine. Combined with his well-known hatred of an anyone else taking point on a case, the director was hoping that Gibbs wouldn't be able to control his famous temper. If they got lucky, it could push him over the edge and he just might resign

The truth was that Morrow had long standing plans for the major case response team which had been on hold for a while now. It included the MCRT expanding so it consisted of at least eight agents, perhaps more in the fullness of time. His dream team would comprise of a range of forensic experts, including forensic scientists, financial and cyber experts to collect and analyse the evidence, and several investigative agents to chase up the evidence and leads and interview witnesses and persons of interest.

Initially, he'd envisaged those investigators would be Gibbs and DiNozzo, particularly after they worked together as partners so successfully after Blackadder's departure. Unfortunately, this year had demonstrated that Gibbs was not a team player. Him leading an expanded MCRT would be a recipe for disaster.

Eventually, if the situation played out the way he hoped and not how TPTB envisaged, he'd have DiNozzo and Balboa as co-leads and field investigators on an expanding major case response team.

Still, there was so much that needed to be done before that was a possibility.

At the moment, it was very much pie in the sky.

Time would tell if Morrow's plan would triumph or things would go back to the status quo.

Missing Scene #6

[This takes place two days after the original tag]

Tony arrived at work, still finding the whole reorganisation of the team to be bizarre, even after three days. It felt really weird with Gibbs being on two weeks' suspension. He never took time off, even when he was injured. He'd smugly claimed to be so damned healthy that he'd never even had a cold. So, it was little wonder really that the bullpen seemed so freakily empty in his absence. Tony was pretty sure that it wasn't just him that was finding Gibbs' empty desk unnatural; other people seemed just as jumpy and out of sorts as he was.

Plus, Cate had been sent back to FLETC, which she'd detest, seeing it as a humiliating loss of face; however, Tony felt like it was absolutely necessary if she was at all serious about being a good investigator. Although her heart was in the right place, she constantly allowed it to rule her head and couldn't seem to realise or she couldn't accept that people lied...people cheated, especially when they did bad things. Unfortunately, she was way too trusting - which was a bad thing when you investigated violent crimes.

Hearing the elevator ping, Tony looked up and watched as a bunch of agents spilled out of the metal cage, Kerry Ishida among them. Balboa had lent his junior agent to Tony temporarily to help him reinvestigate Master Sergeant Rafael and the theft of Marine Corps obsolete weapons. He'd already admitted to being involved in the theft of the weapons along with Corporal McClain and her partner, Master Sergeant Grimm, who'd ended up dead. Grimm's demise had been the catalyst sparking off the original investigation after determining he'd been killed with a weapon which was supposed to have been destroyed.

Although Rafael had confessed, the confession had been thrown out because Cate had failed to advise him of his Article 31 rights before she began questioning him. As it should have been! After the judge threw out Rafael's admission of guilt, the case had collapsed for lack of admissible evidence and all hell had broken loose.

Tony snorted, at that understatement of what occurred.

Their whole world was turned upside down as The Powers That Be demanded answers and change. Tony honestly wasn't sure about how he was supposed to lead the team when Gibbs returned to the team as his senior field agent. The whole situation felt like he'd stepped out of a SG1 mirror into an alternate universe where life at NCIS went on, but everything was slightly askew. Like that episode where Jack O'Neill was the commander of the Stargate and George Hammond was his 2IC and a colonel – bizarro.

Straight up, Leroy Jethro Gibbs was a control freak who (at least this year) had demonstrated that he had to be in charge. Lately, the guy couldn't even cope with having Tony acting as his second in charge, so he wasn't sanguine that the swap over was feasible. The ex-cop wasn't sure what had changed, because there was a time when Gibbs absolutely wasn't threatened by having Tony do his job as senior field agent. They'd worked together seamlessly, hardly needing words to be able to communicate and work together successfully although those times were long gone.

All Tony knew was that something had drastically changed in Gibbs by the time that Caitlin Todd had joined the MCRT. And it would be simple to blame it all on her – guilt by association, but correlation does not equal causation. As an investigator, Tony was very aware of this fact and besides, it just didn't add up. Why would Cate's appearance cause such a dramatic change in his boss?

Sure, he'd heard the speculation that Gibbs and Cate were having an affair, but Tony didn't really buy that theory. Yeah, he had seen evidence that Cate was crushing on the boss. He just wasn't convinced that it was reciprocated. Plus, there was the fact that Gibbs was running around with that mysterious redhead of his with the gorgeous silver convertible that Tony would love to take for a spin. The car... not the red head!

In fact, you could actually argue that Gibbs' decision to hire Todd was already a sign that something was seriously amiss with the guy (based on the director's comments when he'd been ripping them all a new one over Rafael), that Cate had left the Secret Service because she was flouting fraternization rules and been caught out. The Gibbs he'd worked with (prior to Cate's recruitment) didn't tolerate mediocrity in the people he worked with, nor could he abide people who were stupid.

Risking the POTUS' security by screwing your colleague was not smart, it left you open to being manipulated or blackmailed. Not to mention that for the proud former Marine who was all about the mission, it demonstrated that self and gratification took precedent over duty – or it should have. Plus, the former secret service agent had profiled the journalist who tried to murder the POTUS and failed to identify him as a potential threat.

To have asked her to join the premier investigative team in spite of such serious failings was inconceivable for someone of Gibbs' impossibly high standards. And yet... he'd done exactly that.

Sighing as he recognised that he didn't have time for these doubts and random thoughts right now, Tony could literally feel Ishida's eagerness to get stuck into the case radiating off the young raven-haired agent. It was good to have a fresh set of eyes on the case and someone who seemed happy to listen to him.

"Morning, Kerry." he greeted her, smiling at her enthusiasm. "We finally got the records for Rafael, McClain, and Grimm's phones, thank goodness. Their financial records should also be here before midday."

Having different service carriers had complicated things, plus they were taking a softly, softly approach, not wanting to tip anyone off that they were still investigating the case. Aside from laying them open to charges of harassment if he was aware of what they were doing, he wanted Rafael to believe that he'd gotten away with murder and stealing weapons. That he'd outfoxed the MCRT.

Agent Ishida nodded. "So, now we go through them and see if we can prove that the theft wasn't a one off? Let's get to it."

Tony chuckled. "Yeah, but don't only focus on calls between Rafael, McClain, and Grimm. There could be others involved, too, so look for other numbers which are also called regularly. We need to maintain an open mind," he explained patiently.

While TPTB were trying to light a fire under them to fix the mess, Tony knew that they had to proceed slowly; they couldn't afford for there to be another slip up. In one sense, the pressure to obtain a result – that Rafael was guilty – was what had gotten them into this mess in the first place. He was damned well determined to make sure it was done by-the-book this time around.

Okay, so maybe by-the-book was the Tony DiNozzo Think Outside the Box kind of book, but even if he wasn't conventional, he never ignored the rules. Rules made sure that everyone's rights were respected because newsflash... cops, feds, juries and yes, even judges, were not infallible nor omnipotent. Mistakes happened, especially when you ignored the law.

Kerry looked at him watchfully, as if considering if she should speak or not.

"Problem?" Tony asked her, deciding to take the bull by the horns.

Ishida shook her head. "Not really. I was just wondering why it took such a long time for us to get the phone and financial records? It doesn't usually take that long to get hold of them." She looked at him warily, hoping that she hadn't overstepped the mark.

Tony was amused, her deference was like a breath of fresh air. "You're right. Normally, we can get records much quicker, but this is a special situation. Landers, the head of Legal personally handled the subpoenas because it was crucial that every T was crossed and every I dotted correctly after the FUBAR with Rafael's confession. As the confession was disallowed, we couldn't use anything from it to make a case against him in the reinvestigation.

"Fortunately, Agent Todd didn't bother to request Rafael's phone and bank records before he was charged so it qualifies as new evidence and we can use it to investigate. If we find evidence in the records that he committed additional crimes, we can convict him of those acts. Trouble is that because of the debacle with the confession, a lot of judges didn't want to touch the subpoenas with a 40-foot barge pole. Took Joe a while to get someone willing to sign off on them... that's why we had a wait for it."

Kerry nodded. "Okay... got it, Tony. Guess we need to start going through those records. Should I take phone or bank records?" He stifled a smile – she was practically bouncing with eagerness.

"Phone records please, Kerry, and I'll trawl through the financial records when they get here."

His borrowed agent began to examine Rafael's phone calls, using her considerable computer skills, honed whilst attending Carnegie Mellon University, to speed up the search. While waiting for the financial records to arrive, he turned his attention to checking any deaths, suspicious or otherwise, in the past five years that Rafael had been stationed at Quantico.

Tony felt that Rafael was hiding a lot more than what he'd confessed to – the operation had been logistically too well organised for it to have been a one-off job in his humble opinion. So, now he was working his way through a surprising large number of deceased Marines from the Quantico base and by the time he was done, Tony had zeroed in on five that were hinky, as Abby would say.

The first death was a colleague of Rafael's who died in a firearms mishap at Quantico five years ago. The second death was Corporal Peter Jenise, Grimm's previous partner three years ago, before Patricia McClain. He'd committed suicide – supposedly by driving off a cliff. The three other deaths had been accidents – one when a gas bottle exploded when someone in Rafael's platoon fired up his barbeque and two Marines who'd died in a car crash. Yes, all five deaths had already been investigated, but each one had been viewed as isolated incident, but they had a different context now in which to view them.

Tony would reinvestigate all five deaths again – particularly the suicide of Corporal Jenise. In fact, he would start with the suicide because it was leaping out at him as the dodgiest one.

Taking a trip down to Evidence, he retrieved the closed file for the case and took it into a conference room where he could spread out the evidence to start sorting through it. Normally he'd do this down in Abby's lab, but she wasn't handling the fallout from the MCRT's last investigation too well. As the only one of the team not to have received a sanction, (which was a matter of opinion since he was feeling that making him SSA over Todd and Gibbs was actually the harshest) Tony was having to deal with the brunt of her ire.

Plus, Abbs had a big mouth and couldn't keep a secret to save her life. So, Tony chose to work in the conference room on the big table.

Perusing the case file, he noted that it was one that Gibbs and Stan Burley had investigated several months before he'd had joined the agency, so he needed to start from scratch and familiarise himself with the case. He would ask Ducky to recheck his autopsy findings – a longshot since he was meticulous although not infallible. Gathering up the autopsy report, DiNozzo noticed it had been written by a Dr. Brian Walsh, an ME who filled in for Ducky when he was on annual leave. Tony felt a spark of hope that something had been missed, since Ducky was usually painstaking. It would make asking Ducky to re-examine the case much less fraught since Ducky was frequently asked to give a second opinion on cases for other agencies and PDs.

Luckily for him, Ducky was not acting like Tony had stabbed Gibbs in the back, so at least he knew that he'd get a fair hearing. He was grateful the ME seemed to realise he'd been put into a difficult situation and was just doing his job, the best way he knew how.

After discussing the need to reinvestigate the corporal's death, he left Ducky reviewing the autopsy findings of the suicide. Meanwhile, Tony reviewed the rest of the case file. He wasn't exactly surprised that Corporal Jenise's father and mother were adamant that their son would never kill himself – that he wasn't depressed. That was pretty much par for the course in suicides, those who were closest to the deceased, especially parents, were often completely unaware that their loved one was suicidal and refused to believe they would commit suicide.

Interestingly, Peter's best friend from school had told Gibbs that Peter was preoccupied and seemed worried about something. Tony decided he would start off by trying to find out what the corporal was preoccupied about.

After delivering an update on the case to the director, Tony started locating the corporal's friends – sticking to civilians to avoid tipping off Rafael that they were nosing around. He knew it was too soon to be sure, but he got that feeling he used to get when someone threw him the football and he started running up the middle of the field towards the goal line. He suspected that they were onto something.

By the time Master Sergeant's Rafael's financial records arrived around noon, Ducky had confirmed that there were injuries to Peter Jenise which were not consistent with suicide. He suspected they were due to being beaten prior to him plunging over the cliff.

Tony had also located Jenise's girlfriend and persuaded her to talk to him. She very reluctantly revealed that Peter had boasted to her several weeks prior to his death about coming into a lot of money and then right before he died had become extremely nervous. Peter had told her literally days before his death not to tell anyone about the money – that it wasn't safe, and she should forget that he'd ever said anything about it.

In light of what he'd uncovered, Director Morrow was keen to speed up their progress and suggested that Balboa and the remainder of his team help out with the mountains of data analysis that were now accruing. Jenise's phone and financial records needed to be obtained and examined too. Ric's senior field agent, Tina Harrison, had accountancy qualifications prior to entering law enforcement and knew her way around financial spreadsheets. Tony gratefully handed over the financial records of the Marines, leaving him to start looking for signs that more obsolete weapons had disappeared around the time of Corporal Jenise's 'suicide'.

He and Ric had decided to approach the corporal's parents with the delicate task of asking them to agree to having their son's body exhumed so Ducky could conduct a second autopsy. Balboa's youngest agent, Martin Ryan, was assigned to track down a Corporal Mendez who had been assigned to partner Master Sergeant Grimm prior to Jenise working with him. Mendez had left the Corps and was working in his own motorcycle shop somewhere in New Jersey.

Tony was starting to hear the metaphoric roar of the crowd – the sign that he was nearing the line and he was about to score a touchdown.

Two days later, they'd broke the case wide open.

When Ducky finished the second autopsy and ruled Corporal Jenise's death as murder, Peter's sister had finally come forward with a journal that he'd entrusted to her care. It contained details of their plans for the theft and sale of decommissioned weapons, implicating himself, Grimm, and Rafael. When her brother died, and his death was ruled a suicide, her parents were devastated. Thinking that he'd been ashamed of what he'd done and decided to take the coward's way out, she'd decided that revealing that he was intending to traffic stolen weapons would destroy her parents and she'd remained silent.

Now with the cat was out of the bag anyway and Alison Jenise's realisation that her brother had been murdered, she'd decided to hand over his journal containing details of the shipment. Along with a growing amount of corroborating evidence, that would ensure that Master Sergeant Rafael was charged with murder and weapons trafficking.

This time, the Marine was going down and they didn't even need a confession to convict him. His downfall was due to good old-fashion investigative work and teamwork!

Working with Ric Balboa's agents had been illuminating for DiNozzo – a wake-up call of sorts. The team bantered and teased each other and yet they observed the chain-of-command. Moreover, Ric didn't play the individual team members off against each other, yet they'd gone all out to find enough legitimate evidence to charge Rafael.

As much as Tony admired Gibbs... considered him a mentor who had much to teach him, a part of the ex-detective wished that he was on Balboa's team instead of Gibbs' team. Maybe when Gibbs 'punishment' was done and the boss had assumed the mantle of leadership once more, he'd look at moving to a new team. Although Tony had filled in as acting SSA when Gibbs was on various missions, he was pragmatic enough to know that after being demoted to SFA, once Gibbs was reinstated, Tony would need to find a new job because their dynamic would be too fucked up to continue working together after the role reversal.

The director had told them all when that there were going to be consequences for the whole team, which was fair enough – there was no 'I' in team so they all had to bear responsibility for what had gone wrong. Plus, unlike Mac, he was certain that Gibbs would be reinstated just as soon as TPTB felt like he had gotten the message that he needed to toe the line. If they really didn't intend to let Gibbs resume his position then they would have brought in another supervisory agent, not give Tony a temporary promotion.

Which left him out in the cold.

End Notes:

1. Obviously NCIS LA didn't exist back in 2004 but I'm assuming that Nate Getz would have been around although based on the west coast. *Shrugs* it was easier than writing an OC for one scene.

2. Re Tom's vision of a rejigged MCRT - it was based on the following info on MCRT's on the Naval Criminal Investigative Service website:

"The typical MCRT consists of 8-10 people and is led by a designated forensic specialist with advanced training, often including a Master's Degree in Forensic Science. Individual team members have enhanced training in specialties such as crime scene management, photography, scene documentation, latent fingerprint processing, biological and trace evidence detection and collection, and the proper documentation of impression evidence.

There are 27 deployable MCRTs stationed around the world. They respond to death scenes and assist with the investigation of many other high-impact crimes, including sexual and/or aggravated assaults, acts of arson and wrongful destruction, and thefts. MCRT members also help NCIS case agents (Special Agents assigned to lead investigations in the field) by conducting complex searches, attending autopsies, and performing other duties related to their areas of specialized training.

The specialized team approach is key to NCIS' ability to quickly dispatch people with the necessary skills to detect, preserve, and interpret important details at crime scenes. Case agents especially recognize the value of the MCRT; with a dedicated team of specialists on the scene, they are able to focus on pursuing leads and other time-sensitive aspects of the investigation."

http colon /www ncis dot navy dot mil/Pages/MCRT dot aspx close up the gaps and swap out the punctuation words for symbols. FYI this site won't let you post email or web addresses so to give links we have to get creative : )

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3. My apologies to everyone for the lengthy response to a guest reviewer's question but I can't do this via a PM. Feel free to skip this A/N Earthdragon: To answer your question, in the beginning of Twilight, Tony is due to return from sick leave due to the plague and Cate and McGee are in the bull pen where Cate bemoans the fact that she missed Tony and he agrees. To make Tim angry at him instead of happy Tony's coming back, she tells him DiNozzo told the girls downstairs that Tim was gay. Tony isn't given a chance to answer the accusation – so much for innocent until proven guilty. People who hate DiNozzo seized upon that sentence in Twilight – usually the same people who also claim that Ziva and McGee would never turn the radio off on a fellow team member in Dead Air. These same fans conveniently ignore the fact that both admitted they'd turned the radio off and claim Ziva and McGee were just joking when they admitted to a crime. Double standard much?

Cate said that Tony told people Tim was gay so let's look at her form. She attacks Tony's professionalism and his intelligence constantly, is insubordinate, calls him a pig, makes jokes about him being gay in One Shot, One Kill. She berates him about kissing a transgender female in Dead Man Talking (while he was undercover trying to catch Pacci's killer) and Split Decision. Then she taunts him about it again and makes disparaging remarks about PO Horlacher in the ep An Eye For An Eye when it appears the PO is a closeted transgender female.

In contrast, Tony doesn't bat an eye when the building superintendent mistakes him and Gibbs for a gay couple in Dead Man Talking, or the scene in Leap of Faith where the psychiatrist they're going to interview, assumes he and Tim are his gay couple clients. McGee freaks but Tony again hams it up, as he did with Gibbs. Both times he seems amused by the mistake rather than outraged – not exactly in keeping with being a homophobic jerk. BUT an ex-cop would also know how dangerous it is to be thought gay. As protective of his team as he is, I can't see he endanger McGee's life like that? Not when he ordered him away from the car bomb and took his place.

Yes, he teases Tim about all his cosmetics and warns him that people will think he is gay, not metrosexual. He also tells McGee that there isn't anything wrong with being gay. What I inferred was that it was fine to be gay, but you didn't want cops/feds to think you are gay. Seriously, if Tony had been going around telling people Tim was gay, why would he be concerned so about McGee's image? Surely encouraging him to broadcast that he has bubble baths and lavender hand creams etc. would play into his lie about McGee's sexual orientation if he'd told people Tim was gay.

Based on their actions, I know which person I think is more likely to have said Tim was gay. IMHO Cate was projecting - a common defence mechanism when someone accuses other people of the traits or crimes that they are guilty of. But the bottom line is that Tony never had a chance to answer the accusation she made. We never saw it take place and since a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty, all we know is that Cate accused him.