Another slow day of paperwork was in perspective for the Major Case Response Team and it was about to kill them all.
"Going for coffee" were the only words spoken before Gibbs disappeared behind the elevator's doors.
"Am I the only one who got moving letters ?"asked a desperate Tony with a grunt.
"Yes, Tony. Mine are just fading the more I look" responded Ziva.
"Come on guys, complaining won't get us anywhere."
"Alright McWisdom, then I guess you'll be happy to just take care of all these late reports for both of us."said Tony, clearly on edge after a week of nothing but reports and cold cases.
"In your dreams, Tony. And even there I wouldn't give up without a fight." As soon as he said the words, the young agent knew he had just opened a path for the SFA to bother him even more.
"Oh really, want to take this to the gym McAsthmatic ? "grinned Tony with a renewed sparkle in his eyes. If there was anyhthing he enjoyed more than teasing Tim at the office it was reaffirming his superiority in any physical activity.
"Why do you keep claiming I'm an asthmatic when you perfectly know I'm not ?" Tim was annoyed, yes he wasn't as athletic as his three colleagues but it didn't mean he had a breathing default.
"I don't know." responded Tony, obviously enjoying the banter keeping his eyes and mind away from the stupid documents on his desk. "Maybe it's 'cause it's less humiliating than having seasickness when you work for the US Navy." he finished proudly.
"And since when do you care about me being humiliated ?"
"Oh Tim, I'm hurt -"
"Not as much as you'll be if you don't shut your damn mouth DiNozzo." interrupted Gibbs entering the bullpen. He had gone for coffee, dropped a Caf-Pow! to Abby and was now putting a hot tea on Ziva's desk.
"Thank you Gibbs" she smiled.
He simply raised his cup at her with a smirk and went to sit at his desk, glaring at the mountain of files waiting for him.
Feeling left out by his beloved boss, Tony couldn't help but say "No coffee for me Boss ?" with a fake sad tone.
"You'll get coffee when you learn to work in silence DiNozzo. Now get back to work before I make you." threatened Gibbs.
"Yes Boss! Getting back to work Boss!" came the automatic response.
Looking at one of the monitors on his desk, Gibbs was about to die of boredom, he hated slow days like this. It meant a hole lot of paperwork, his team fighting like kindergartners and himself with no other choice but to take care of everything he was trying so hard to delay.
He loved being a team leader, to forge his own team out of the raw potential he saw, to teach and train them in order to get the best out of them and show them how capable they really were even when they were completely blind to it. But the administrative part that came with the job combined with the politics almost pushed him to resign more than once. Not only was he a team leader, but he was also the chief of the criminal department, here at the NCIS HQ. This position meant that all reports had to be verified and signed by him before being submitted to the director who barely read them but also had to sign for legal reasons.
He was available for anyone who needed his help with a case, questions or even individual issues.
Because of his reputation, team leaders were usually the only ones bold enough to bother him either because they knew him better and were almost on a friendly basis with him, or they had really legitimate reasons even Gibbs wouldn't want to ignore.
Besides this role of "proximity", he had to prepare and basically run the monthly reunions during which each team leader had to report their results, improvements and difficulties faced the past 30 days or so, then try to bring solutions to their issues with the director. He had several mandatory trainings with new agents (at the gym and the firing range), helped recruiting agents from other NCIS offices and was often asked to intervene in different cases through MTAC. He had to keep in touch with the other departments such as accounting to make sure Abby always had good equipment to provide everybody with good results and HR to make sure none of Tony's flirting was taken as sexual harassment. Leroy Jethro Gibbs was known as the last person to compromise or play nice with others but as the head of the criminal department he knew how to deal with all the impediments in order to assure his subordinates the most effective work environment.
As if this wasn't enough work for one man, his skills in interrogation were admired. Sure, being the number 1 interrogator had its perks when it came to solving his own cases but it also meant that he was sometimes asked to fly across the country to make a bastard confess when the agents there couldn't.
He was taken out of his self reflective thoughts by a *ping* coming from his computer, warning him of an incoming email. Reading the sender's name, his brows furrowed in confusion.
From Special Agent Paula Cassidy
Hey Gibbs,
I know it's been a while and our last encounter was yet another occasion for you to point out one of my mistakes (seem to be making a lot of those these days). Anyway, I've been promoted from afloat Agent to team leader and the word has it that you're the best person to ask to get the best out of a team. Maybe, we could talk over lunch or dinner or I could just give you a quick call since I know you're not a fan of breaks.
Give me a date and a time and I will make myself available.
FYI, I'll be in DC in two weeks but if you want to meet before I can try to be here. Let me know what works best with your schedule.
And by the way, Tony doesn't know yet and I'd like to keep it that way for now.
Hope to hear from you soon,
Paula
Well that was a surprise, he knew Paula's time as an afloat agent was coming to an end and the director had asked him for his thoughts on the young woman as an agent. That, of course, was a clue for the positions the director was considering for Cassidy's next mission but he never thought she would agree to work here at the HQ, where his own team was. She was an investigator so there was no other choice for her but to join the criminal department.. his department. The director would be warning him in the next week or so of a new team's arrival under his responsibility.
It barely made sense that she wanted to work so close to them. As she had said in her email, the few times they had worked together weren't her most successful or enjoyable moments and the thing she had with DiNozzo wouldn't be as easy to ignore when she was on the same floor as the man. She asked him to keep her moving to DC for himself which was only going to make the younger man even more whiny and annoying when she'd get here.
Judging by the last time she was there and help them with a case, she wasn't as seriously committed in whatever they were as Tony; if his ignorance of her contraception method was any indication. He didn't know why he was even thinking about it, his investigator's brain was probably making connections naturally and acquiring as much information as he could on everybody work-related. He didn't care about his SFA's love life (if it could even be described as such) but couldn't help but being bothered when it caused so much drama on the workplace and polluted their job with unnecessary tension. He was a professional and he didn't have time to worry about his agent's personal issues when dividing tasks. His decisions were made based of the agents' skills and not their feelings at the moment.
That was the main reason behind his famous rule 12, this and the pain he had to go through when Jenny left him with nothing but a Dear John letter.