There's Always Tom Morrow (Season Two)

by SASundance

This is 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. The series consists of tags from season 2 episodes, each tag is a stand-alone vignette. At the end of each tag, everything will revert to canon norms again.

8. Chapter 8

Warnings: I've been instructed to warn about consuming drinks and choking hazards. There, you've been warned although personally, I don't think it is hilarious – just a touch snarky in parts.

Also, as this is a long tag, (approx. 24, 000 words) you may want to pace yourselves…bring snacks lol. Next two tags are much briefer.

I use Aussie/Brit spelling not US.

But in all seriousness, please read this warning. This episode deals with suicide and as a consequence so does the tag. There is a suicide-by cop-shooting of a troubled young sailor by the MCRT and while it wasn't the main focus of the episode - a suspected case of spontaneous combustion is because as everyone knows, that's freakin hilarious. So, the more time I spent analysing this episode the more incensed I became regarding Ensign Hayes' tragic death. If you think you may be triggered, you might wish to sit this one out.

Series: There's Always Tom Morrow

Episode: Heart Break

Title: Held To Higher Standards

Characters: L.J. Gibbs, Ducky Mallard, Tom Morrow, Caitlin Todd, Ric Balboa, Anthony DiNozzo, Paula Cassidy, Dr Marty Ryerson (OC), Jonathon DeWayne (OC) Delores Bromstead, Aaron Hotchner (a blink, and you'll miss it reference)

Held To A Higher Standards

Tony DiNozzo, senior field agent for the MCRT, placed the receiver of his office phone back into position with an aggravated sigh. Paula Cassidy wasn't picking up and he'd tried leaving messages to check on her. He knew she was pissed off with Gibbs over the case and he didn't blame her.

Special Agent Hypocrisy was in fine form on this one – ripping Paula a new asshole for not following regs was typical Gibbs' modus operandi. Do as I say, not as I do was pretty much pro forma for El Jefe.

If he'd bothered to listen to Cassidy – the boss wouldn't have gone into the high school gym/swimming pool all guns blazing, taking Cate as his trusty sidekick. Paula had as good as told him that Ensign Evan Hayes was psychologically vulnerable, having been singled out and repeatedly picked on by the deceased Commander Dornan until the ensign broke under the pressure and verbally lashed out at the jack-hole. No doubt it had played right into the safety officer's hands allowing him to put the kid on rivet duty when they arrived back in port at Norfolk after nine months at sea.

Tony briefly wondered if Gibbs was the long-lost secret brother of Cmdr. Dornan, since by all reports, he was as much of an asshat bastard as the NCIS team lead. He thought about the debacle of their case; it had all the hallmarks that pushed his buttons and made him nuts, arrogant bullies, people turning a blind eye to what was going on and an introverted but talented kid pushed beyond his limits and choosing death over the alternative. Such a fucking waste and it didn't need to end that way.

Paula Cassidy, the Kennedy's agent afloat had made it pretty plain that she did not think Ensign Hayes was to blame for the incident with their jerk of a safety officer, which pissed Gibbs off. He was furious at her for not opening an official investigation into the threats because she didn't take them seriously and Cmdr. Dornan asked that he deal with it. Gibbs delivered what Tony considered to be an unwarranted ass kicking because Cassidy hadn't wanted Hayes to end up with an undeserved black mark on his record and going by what Hayes fellow sailors had told him, Tony thought she'd been justified.

Thinking back to their last case with Ernie Yost, it had been spent trying not to charge the psychologically fragile Medal of Honour recipient who'd confessed to murdering his buddy at Iwo Jima. DiNozzo was sure that Commander Faith Coleman would say that they hadn't exactly followed regs on that case either. It was undeniable that Gibbs had busted his gut to help Ernie and Tony felt like it was a case of Pot Paula met Kettle Leroy Jethro.

So yeah, Special Agent Hypocrisy was way wa-aay out of line when it came to tearing Cassidy a new one. Still, that was the boss for you, pretty much in a nutshell. Can anyone say double standards on steroids?

And don't get him started on how the boss had done it, in the bullpen, no less. That was fucking pathetic and completely unprofessional. Oh sure, Gibbs did it to his agents all the time and no one said didley squat to him because he was the man, but Paula was not on his team.

And that shit he pulled, telling Tony to go along with her to make sure that they brought the Ensign back to headquarters? No! No! No! that was so far out of line – even for Gibbs.

While Tony was technically the senior field agent, at least on paper, on Gibbs team, he let the junior agents ignore any order DiNozzo gave. Then suddenly Tony was supposed to be telling Paula what to do, even though an agent afloat outranked a senior field agent. Somewhat ironic that Gibbs seemed to resent Paula almost as much as that jerk Commander Dornan hated poor fucked up Evan Hayes and his sperm donor.

If Gibbs had bothered to get his anger under control and he'd bothered listened to Paula, who had hands-on experience dealing with the tormented young ensign, it might have altered how he handled the situation with the young sailor. He would have known not going in all authoritarian Gunnery Sergeant I have huge balls Gibbs, throwing his weight around. Unfortunately for Evan Hayes, he'd been so angry, so damned focused on taking down the 'heinous killer of safety officers', who in the real world wasn't a killer at all. Nope, Evan was just a very mixed-up suicidal kid, desperately in need of help, who instead of help got nothing but shit from everyone.

Likewise, if Gibbs hadn't been in such a tearing hurry to arrest Evan, he might have thought to ask why a youngster like Hayes would hand over his credit card to a bunch of spoilt high school brats and tell them to enjoy themselves with it because he wasn't going to need it any more. A credit card for someone as young as Evan, whose parents weren't filthy rich was a highly valued possession – especially since in all probability he'd earned it himself.

Suicidal persons often gave away their important possessions before killing themselves because they knew that they wouldn't need them if they were dead, and a young man giving away his credit card should have been set alarm bells blaring. Tony had wrongly assumed that was why the boss had rushed off in such a tearing hurry, because he realised the kid was desperate enough to top himself.

He should have recognised it for what it was, a variation on a theme – Great White Whale Hunt redux. What were the odds that Gibbs had been an intrepid whale boat captain in a past life or the Master of the Hunt? At the first scent of prey by the hounds, he was off and running. And like in a foxhunt, there were often casualties – riders and horses injured or killed because the thrill of the chase, the taste of blood overrode normal common-sense in the race to capture the fox at all costs.

Although there was no way to ever know, Tony couldn't help wondering if it might have been a different outcome if he and Paula had been sent in to retrieve the ensign? Paula knew the kid, had his measure and being female, she might well have had a better chance of reaching him and talking him down than a male figure of authority like Gibbs coming in all guns blazing. The boss could easily have triggered painful memories of Evan's father and Commander Dornan bullying him unmercifully and been the absolute last person the messed- up kid needed to hear from.

Hell, even Tony (who totally absolutely sucked at talking to kids) would probably have been a better chance of getting through to the young man. Maybe because of what others saw as his sophomoric personality, there was the fact that they were both athletes which might have given him common ground with the kid. Of course, the truth was that he shared a similar background, having an abusive father (and a boss who had impossibly high expectations) which may well have given him ample common ground to be able to connect with the kid.

He hadn't even met Evan Hayes, but he couldn't help empathising with the dead sailor over his jerk of a father. Ultimately, there were way too many similarities for Tony not to identify with him. Both athletes, he and the ensign probably used sport to cope with their crappy home lives and had fathers who were abusive and controlling. At a few low points during high school and when he got injured in college and when he'd failed to save a little girl from a burning building, Tony had been so down he'd thought about killing himself; he could well imagine just how much pain Evan must have been feeling. DiNozzo felt that they'd failed the ensign badly – he didn't need to die.

If Cate wasn't such a linear thinker, was more flexible and capable of performing a swift paradigm shift from the belief that Evan was a murderer (a case that turned out to be medical malpractice, not murder) to seeing him as someone innocent caught up in the investigation, she might have been able to talk the kid down. But to do that she would have needed to be able to separate his desire to kill himself with her black and white assumption that it was due to him being guilty because he killed Dornan.

It was oddly ironic how quick she was to shove her profiling skills in their faces, but Tony had profiling skills too (both academic and hands on) he knew only too well that it was an art as much as it was a science. You needed to be able to sort through information to form assumptions and equally, you had to be prepared to discard and form new ones when the previous ones didn't pan out. A skilled profiler needed to be mercurial and mentally adaptable – two traits DiNozzo didn't exactly associate with Caitlin Todd. Fact was, she could give Gibbs a run for his money in the stubborn jackass department.

It probably didn't help and was terribly unlucky that of all the people that Gibbs could have chosen to go with him including Tony, Paula, or even the probie, Tim McGee, the boss picked the one person on the team with such unyielding views on suicide. Her strongly religious view got in the way of her ability to be clear-minded about suicide - she viewed it as a mortal sin. It was fair to say that she wasn't the most empathetic individual to be around someone like Evan Hayes who was so desperate he could see no other option. Gibbs knew about her massive blind spot and if his famous gut had been working as it was claimed to, he would have anticipated what he was walking into… a shitstorm.

Heretical perhaps, but Tony was starting to think that Gibbs' gut was not all it was cracked up to be. If Ensign Hayes could render an opinion on the matter, the senior field agent reckoned he might agree that Gibbs' gut sucked the big one!

Now, forced into shooting Evan because the kid had raised his gun to Gibbs, Cate was devastated to learn that she'd shot and killed a messed-up kid who hadn't committed a crime. Okay….no crime apart from going UA after being punished with rivet duty by that asshole Dornan after nine months at sea bullying him. All because Dornan used him as a surrogate for Hayes' old man to extract petty revenge for the commander's treatment when he'd served under Captain Hayes.

Dornan was a dishonourable cowardly douche – fuck not speaking ill of the dead! Tony hoped he was roasting in the ninth circle of Hell right now.

While Anthony DiNozzo was on the fence about the whole existence of an all-powerful, all-knowing God, unlike Cate who was a fervent believer, he did sometime like to think that karma was a thing. Certainly, it seemed that the unpleasant Commander Dornan with his overbearing manner, might have been bulldozed by it, insisting that his doctor perform a valve repair rather than a replacement. As the Kennedy's safety officer, Tony was sure the commander wouldn't entertain a repair on a ship's component or piece of equipment instead of replacing it with a new one. But hey, a heart valve…sure, go for it so he could go back onto active duty and continue making kids like Evan Hayes lives an utter misery... so admirable to have something worthy to aspire to.

Bottom line both Dornan and Captain Hayes were abusive pricks and Paula's assessment of the ensign had been vindicated. Some people can handle that shit but not Ensign Hayes. Yeah, she'd called that right. That poor fucked up kid couldn't even face his abuser when the asshole was lying helpless in a hospital bed.

They should have run a full background check on Evan – talked to some of his shipmates but Gibbs, despite having the gall to chastise Cassidy about not following procedures, had been far too eager to assume that Ensign Hayes was their killer. Now, Evan was dead, and DiNozzo knew with one hundred percent certainty that Paula was hole up somewhere, second-guessing herself since he knew she wasn't as tough as she pretended to be. And then there was Cate, who was down in Autopsy, devastated after learning she had shot an innocent kid. And while suicide by cop was one of the totally shitty parts of the job, Cate would have to live with that fact for the rest of her life.

The people around the kid, his shipmates, his superiors onboard the Kennedy and NCIS had all let Ensign Hayes down. If only CPO Velat had spoken up about Dornan and his real reasons for bullying Evan, the ensign would probably not be lying dead in one of their autopsy drawers. Tony was pissed off at the waste of his young life – a high school swimming star – he had talent and discipline. His former swimming coach had obviously believed in him; just a pity that the kid didn't reach out and confide in the guy about how depressed he was or how much he was being tortured by Dornan.

As Senior Supervisory Agent, Ric Balboa wandered into Gibbs' section of the bullpen, he placed a cup of coffee on Tony's desk.

"Agent Cassidy not returning your calls, Tony?" he asked solicitously.

Taking a grateful sip of the breakroom coffee, which if nothing else was hot, Tony shook his head. "Radio silence. I get she's pissed off with Gibbs, but I just want to make sure she's okay, you know? This was a bad one."

Looking sympathetic he told him, "Technically, she isn't your responsibility. She's not on the team and she outranks you."

"Yeah, I know that Ric, but she was working the case jointly with the MCRT and as SFA it is my responsibility to make sure that the rest of the team is okay. She liked the kid – felt sorry for him. Hell. I never even met him, and I feel like shit!" He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration as he gave a huge sigh.

"I know Cassidy, she'll be beating herself up but even if she had conducted an official investigation and put a black mark on his record, I can't see that it would have made a difference. If it were up to me, I'd be wanting to know how Chief Petty Officer Velat knew that Commander Dornan was bullying Hayes as payback for his own disciplinary issues with Evan's father and yet he did nothing about it. It had to be some pretty bad shit because he told Paula and me that he wouldn't blame the Ensign for killing Commander Dornan," he said dispiritedly because NCIS agents weren't the bad guys here.

Ric shook his head. "And no doubt he never thought to enlighten the Agent Afloat about the situation."

"It's the damned 'Them and Us' mentality. Never going to squeal on one of their own to a navy cop," Tony agreed cynically. "Even if Dornan was an arrogant bully with a massive chip on his shoulder, they wouldn't say anything to an outsider."

A mutinous little voice inside his head whispered, 'Just like with Gibbs.'

"So maybe you need to give Agent Cassidy some space," Balboa suggested mildly, parking his butt on the edge of DiNozzo's desk. "Or you could drive up there and check on her," he said, sensing that his observation wasn't popular with the senior field agent.

Tony looked frustrated. "I would if I knew for sure she'd gone back to Norfolk, but she could be anywhere, plus I also need to check up on Cate, too. She's down in Autopsy."

"You told Ducky that you didn't know where Todd was. I assumed she'd gone home."

"Ducky wanted to take her to the opera, Ric. Plus, he's all angsty over Dr Byers. If he tries to justify what she did around Cate, she's not going to be impressed, having just been involved in a suicide by cop shooting due to the doctor's choices. Ducky tried to comfort Byers by telling her that she wasn't responsible for killing Dornan."

Ric stared at him, agape. "What the fuck!"

"Yeah, I know. Cate already had Gibbs telling her to just get over it. If Ducky expressed sympathy for Byers in her presence, that would be rubbing even more salt into her wounds for sure," DiNozzo shook his head in disgust.

"I sure as hell wouldn't appreciate it if I were in her shoes; I'd probably haul off and hit him. That's why I lied and said I didn't know where she was…so sue me," he said irately.

"Fair enough, too. What was Ducky thinking, anyway?" Ric demanded.

"He was smitten by Byers, took her on a date and he'd bought tickets to the opera which was why he was looking for Cate, to see if she wanted to go instead, since Byers was otherwise detained."

Ric snorted disparagingly. "Hardly Mr Sensitive New Age Guy, is he? Good call, on derailing his invitation, Tony."

Nodding his head wearily, he responded, "Yeah, obviously Ducky feels sorry for Byers, maybe because she expressed relief that she'd been caught, and she didn't have to lie anymore. According to the record of interview, he told her that it wasn't her fault Dornan was dead."

He thumped the desk in frustration. "I can't believe he said that – her attorney is going to have a field day at her court-martial. If it had been one of us who said that on the record during an interrogation, Gibbs would have eviscerated us, guaranteed.

"True dat," Ric sniggered briefly before becoming deadly serious once more. "As to it not being her fault, maybe that's true and maybe it's not since she was following his wishes, but I'll tell you something for nothing. It's her fault that Ensign Hayes is dead by Agent Todd's gun. She as good as killed him by setting up the scene to look like Commander Dornan had been murdered," the supervisory agent ranted, scowling across the bullpen at the Most Wanted wall like it was somehow to blame for the catastrophe.

Tony nodded, unable to disagree. "Yeah, her selfish desire to protect herself and her precious career was the final nail in the coffin for Evan Hayes. That poor kid!

"And what the hell was he thinking, getting all cosy with a person of significance during the investigation. It looked to be a murder crime when he asked her out. Talk about a massive breach of protocol!" Balboa blustered.

"Which is why I've organised your request for Critical Incident Stress Debrief counselling for first thing in the morning, Special Agent DiNozzo," Director Morrow informed them, having come into the bullpen unnoticed as the two agents had heatedly discussed the case.

"Good job, Son."

Ric looked shocked and pretended to take the younger agent's pulse. "DiNozzo did? Are you feeling okay, Tony?"

Unapologetic, Tony shrugged. "It is standard operating procedure after a suicide by cop shooting, Agent Balboa."

Nodding wryly, the team leader said, "Sure, I know that, but Gibbs won't be happy about it," he predicted grimly. "Hell, you know his thoughts about trauma counsellors."

"Which is why I'm glad that DiNozzo contacted me to set it up. We have a rookie agent who needs a helluva lot more than a 'suck it up' admonishment from her team leader. Not to mention an agent afloat who has no peer support whatsoever onboard the Kennedy, which is why I'm glad you followed up on it, Tony. Plus, we have an ME who was dating the person responsible for the whole debacle."

"You might want to clue in the CISD counsellor about McGee too, Sir," Tony suggested respectfully.

"I didn't think he had any interaction with Ensign Hayes," Tom objected. "He was dealing with the medical equipment and security footage side of the investigation."

"He's also a green-as-grass probie. It's his first suicide-by-cop shooting even if he wasn't there when it went down. There is such a thing as vicarious traumatisation," Tony countered mildly. "And…well there are some similarities between him and the victim."

Morrow and Balboa looked askance at the SFA who checked discreetly before replying sotto voce, "Domineering fathers who were high ranking naval officers with sons who didn't meet their impossibly high parental expectations. Both sons introverted sensitive types who avoid confrontation until backed into a corner."

Tom pursed his lips, "You're suggesting McGee might identify with Evan Hayes?"

"It isn't beyond the realms of possibility. I reckon after suicide there is a lot of 'there but for the grace of god' stuff going on with everyone, even if their involvement is peripheral."

Tony had good reason to know this was the truth, not that he'd admit it to anyone.

Balboa looked fairly sceptical. "From what I saw tonight before he raced out of here for a hot date, the only thing he had on his mind was deriving a good deal of pleasure out of lecturing you about accepting Agent Cassidy's rejection and telling you to move on. Because he has so much experience with women, insensitive little jerk." Both men heard the last comment even if it was muttered under his breath. "He didn't even realise you were doing welfare checks on her!"

Tony looked at Ric's irate expression and realised he wasn't the only one who had been pissed off by McGee's obnoxious attitude at the end of a truly horrible case but kept his feelings masked.

"All I'm saying is that he's a probie and there are commonalities between them. Although Tim avoided enlisting in the Navy, he did the next best thing and joined NCIS to try to make his father proud of him. I just think it might be pertinent to mention it out to the counsellor as something to be aware of. And maybe give the counsellor a heads up about Cate's religious bigotry about suicide so they don't come in here tomorrow, flying blind."

The NCIS director nodded. "You're right of course, it can't do any harm to let them know what they might encounter. As to Agent Todd, do you know if she has anyone here who might support her tonight? I don't think it is wise for her to go home alone."

DiNozzo thought about it. "Ah, I don't think Cate's reached out and connected with any of the other agents at NCIS," he said tactfully as Ric pulled a face. "But she's pretty tight with Abby. I think that Sciuto would be cool about having a sleepover," he said, knowing that Cate wouldn't want to stay with him so he wouldn't waste his breath offering. No doubt Special Agent Ima Profiler would think he was trying to get into her pants.

"Good, can I leave her in your capable hands, Agent DiNozzo?" Morrow requested. "I have to go and organise for the CISD and mandatory counselling for Agents Gibbs and Todd.

"Of course, Director Morrow," he acknowledged, heading off to Autopsy to find his wayward teammate.

~o0o~

As Tony departed, Balboa looked at Tom. "Could you also check up on Agent Cassidy, Sir? DiNozzo has been trying to make sure she's okay for several hours now with no response. Gibbs reamed her out in the middle of the bullpen pretty harshly, all but blaming her for Ensign Hayes' deaths. She was pretty upset when she left here, and Tony's concerned about her."

The director signed. "Thanks for the heads up, Ric. This case is such a fuck up." He looked at the supervisory agent knowingly. "Considering his lapses during this case and his failure to step in and caution Dr Mallard, Jethro's got a damned huge case of pot-meet-kettle when it comes to calling out Agent Cassidy not following procedures."

"Particularly since he spent so much of NCIS' time and resources trying not to investigate his last case," Balboa snarked, thinking about Corporal Yost. Not that he disagreed over the Medal of Honour recipient. However, Agent Cassidy's instinct about Ensign Hayes had been pretty damned prescient, even without the benefit of knowing the real motivation behind Dornan making Hayes' life a misery. When he said as much to the director he nodded.

"Yes, so many people let that young man down by not speaking up for him. If Agent Cassidy had known that there was bad blood between the Ensign's father and that bastard Dornan it might have made a difference."

"Instead of humiliating her in the bullpen, it would have been a helluva lot more expeditious if Gibbs had gone to Norfolk and ripped that chief petty officer a new asshole for not speaking up about Dornan when it could have done some good for the ensign. Telling Cassidy and DiNozzo after Dornan died that he wouldn't blame Hayes for killing him gave a huge insight into just how bad the payback must have been. He damned well should have reported it," Balboa said in frustration.

Tom shook his head. "This isn't going to go away. SECNAV wants an enquiry into the circumstances leading up to Evan Hayes death. Captain Hayes may be retired but he's still got considerable influence amongst the top brass, so the Secretary is hoping to get in first – be seen as proactive."

"Of course, the fact that a messed-up kid didn't need to have died, isn't reason enough to investigate," Ric observed cynically, his urbane features marred by anger at such a pointless waste of a young life.

Tom looked at him, pulling a face. The team leader understood that Morrow agreed but couldn't be seen to be insubordinate to the Secretary of the Navy, his immediate superior.

Changing the subject, he told Ric," I'll go and make that call to Agent Cassidy about the CISD tomorrow and also let her know about the inquiry into Ensign Hayes death."

"Director, can you ask her to at least respond to Tony's welfare check and leave a message, and let him know yourself in case she doesn't respond?" he asked, knowing that DiNozzo was genuinely concerned about her.

He thought back to the first verbal attack in the middle of the bullpen when Gibbs had ripped into her for not conducting an official investigation into Hayes making threats against Dornan. Ordered back to Norfolk to find Ensign Hayes by a feral Gibbs, Tony had led her out of the building, his hand gently resting on her back. Despite what Todd had insinuated, to Balboa's keen eye and knowledge of the complex agent, there hadn't been anything remotely sexual about the contact. In his opinion his gesture was merely intended to provide comfort… to signal his support, and to ensure she didn't go back and get into it with Gibbs. DiNozzo's behaviour was analogous to how he was when he was looking out for junior agents, trying to protect them from Gibbs' wrath.

Balboa also knew that the SFA had dated Agent Cassidy last year after the case which the MCRT investigated at Guantanamo Bay. While Tony claimed to be a player, and Agents Todd and McGee fell for his act every time, Ric could tell that Tony had genuine feelings for her and he was nowhere near as much of a skirt chaser as he made out.

It was fairly obvious to Ric that Gibbs did not like Agent Cassidy, which made it even more awkward for Tony to navigate the waters of keeping Gibbs in check on this case. To Balboa, his hand on her back after Gibbs dressing down was also intended to be an unequivocal declaration of whose side DiNozzo was on when it came down to Cassidy's call not to put a black mark on the kid's file. No doubt as a cop, he had to make dozens of similar calls on whether or not to let kids off with a warning rather than pressing charges. After all, the role of an agent afloat for the vast majority of their deployment had a lot more in common with beat cops than an agent on the MCRT. It was all about proactive policing.

Hearing the elevator deliver Agent Todd and DiNozzo back into the bullpen, he belatedly realised he'd been wool-gathering and he started getting ready to leave for the night. As he watched Todd who was subduedly closing down her computer and gathering her things, he walked over to Tony.

"Has Todd got someone to stay with her tonight?"

"Yeah, Abby said she'd stay over at her apartment. Considering her sleeping arrangements, I thought it might be better." He shot the team lead a meaningful look and Ric nodded.

Belatedly realising DiNozzo was referring to Abby's coffin bed, he grimaced. "Good thinking." Lowering his voice he said, "Director Morrow is going to check up on Cassidy and inform her that she needs to be here for CISD tomorrow."

Tony looked at him appreciatively. "Thanks, Ric. See ya tomorrow."

Ric looked at Cate who was pale and moving mechanically. "C'mon Agent Todd. I'll walk you out. Tony is driving you home, I hope?"

He looked at Tony who shrugged. "I offered but Cate insisted she was fine."

Staring at her appraisingly, Ric said, "Special Agent Todd, you've had a traumatic day. What happened was terrible and no one expects you to just act like everything is fine. This is why your team will be undergoing critical incidence stress debriefing tomorrow, as per NCIS and DOD protocol.

"As a senior supervisory agent, it would be highly remiss of me if I allowed you to drive yourself home tonight after being involved in a suicide by cop shooting. I am ordering Special Agent DiNozzo to drive you home. Is that clear?"

Looking surprised, she said, "But Gibb said…"

"Gibbs was involved, same as you. He is also subject to traumatisation so I really would ignore anything he said to you regarding your situation."

Seeing her look of shock, he sighed. "Agent DiNozzo, ever been involved in a suicide by cop shooting?"

Tony looked pained. "Personally? Yeah, once but I've known quite a few other cops who went through it too."

"My condolences, Tony. So, tell me, did sucking it up and pretending that it was situation-normal help at all?"

"Yeah…not so much. One of my colleagues who tried that approach ended up eating his gun about eight months later. Much as I hated it, mandatory counselling helped, as did support from other cops who'd been through it too. Pretty exclusive club but it helps to talk to others who know how it feels."

"So, if Cate needs to talk…"

"Then I'll be happy to listen, of course. Well, not happy…willing. Or I can check around with my cop contacts in Metro PD and track down a female cop if she'd prefer talking to another female. Vice cops find themselves in suicide by cop situations more than average, partially due to the indigent population. A lot of indigents are mentally ill, and/or are veterans."

Balboa looked sympathetic. "You worked Vice, didn't you?"

"Yeah, almost two years. Lot of it undercover."

As they talked, the two agents had been herding Cate towards the elevator.

Looking at Cate, Ric asked, "So Special Agent, are you going to allow DiNozzo to carry out my order to drive you home to your apartment?" Perhaps he sensed her intention to argue with him, as he followed up with, "If you are seriously considering disobeying the order of a senior supervisory agent, I'm happy to have Director Morrow re-issue it, if necessary," he warned her sternly.

Shooting a don't-be-an-idiot look at Cate that even a particularly clueless probie could interpret, Tony stepped in smoothly. "Of course, that won't be necessary, will it, Agent Todd? We'll both be happy to follow your orders," he assured the veteran agent, shooting a grateful look at the team lead.

Ric nodded gravely. "Good to hear," he stated, manfully restraining himself from rolling his eyes at the rookie NCIS agent. Her borderline insubordination was hard to tolerate, even under the current tragic circumstances. She was always so self-righteous and sure that she knew everything. To be honest, the team leader often had to control a strong urge to shake her up, but this was not that time.

Not being the most trusting of agents, Balboa escorted Cate down to the garage and watch her climb into Tony's corvette and stood watching as they drove out of the NCIS parking lot towards the security barriers.

Sighing, he set off towards his car, satisfied that he'd fulfilled his duty of care towards a vulnerable and inexperienced agent which was his responsibility as a team leader. However, it was blatantly clear that Todd hadn't been happy about it. Well, tough shit – in her emotionally traumatised state she could easily have had an accident driving home. Knowing what he did about the dynamics of the MCRT, he felt safe in assuming that Tony had already tried pulling rank to drive her home and she'd told him to take a flying leap. That's what happened when your lead agent undermined the chain of command and then left others holding the baby when it all went FUBAR.

Man, was Ric pissed at Jethro for the mess he'd made of the case! Balboa was still literally shaking his head at the lame-ass advice Gibbs had offered to Dr Mallard this afternoon. Ducky was upset that Commander Dornan's doctor (who he was dating) having botched the aortic valve replacement surgery, then compounded her error by making the safety officer's death look like a murder to cover her six. So, Special Agent I've Been Divorced Thrice told him that no woman was worth getting upset over, especially one that Ducky hardly knew.

Really?

Well, Balboa couldn't help but wonder where the hell was Jethro, with his oh so wise insights about the perils of dating the fairer sex when the ME was pursuing a personal relationship with Dr Byers in direct contravention of procedure? That's right, he was standing around cheering him on to all intents and appearances or at the very least, turning a blind eye to it. There was no way that Jethro could claim he wasn't aware of what was going on. If Rocky was any judge, he'd seemed to be giving tacit support to the attempt when Agent Todd had brought it up.

She'd said, "Is that Ducky with Dr Byers?"

Gibbs replied, "Ducky's old, he's not dead."

And while Ric had no beef with Ducky dating if he chose to and didn't believe age should ever be a barrier, the senior supervisory agent did have an issue with the ME going out with someone involved in an active investigation. As did NCIS, like any respectable law enforcement agency.

Gibbs could hardly slither out of turning a blind eye to her potentially being involved either. Balboa had overheard Probationary Agent McGee give Jethro a sitrep about viewing the hospital surveillance video of anyone who had access to Commander Dornan's room between the end of hospital visiting hours and his death. McGee said that there were only five individuals who weren't hospital staff, and he was trying to identify them.

"Are you eliminating the hospital personnel, McGee," Jethro had rightly questioned the probie in a way that was crystal clear to even the dumbest agent that it wasn't a statement? Particularly as he'd already told him not to ignore hospital personnel when he ordered McGee to find out who had access to Dornan's room before he'd died.

McGee quickly getting a clue, had backtracked, replying that he would check out the hospital staff too. Since Dr Byers fell within that category and had seen him shortly before Dorn's death, there was no excuse for Ducky to be wooing her, even if he was old, not dead. And there was simply no excuse for Gibbs to condone it, either.

Seriously, if anyone but Gibbs tried to pull that same shit, they'd be looking for a new job.

~o0o~

The clinical psychologist glanced around the NCIS office, although she wasn't exactly taking it in, too busy cataloguing the motley bunch of individuals whose files she'd spent hours poring over. Idly, she speculated about the odds of finding such extreme personality types all working on the one team. Marty Ryerson's wife was a cop, so the psychologist was well versed in law enforcement culture, however, she was already getting a strong sense that the Naval Criminal Investigative Service was not your run of the mill federal agency.

This was not her usual hunting ground when it came to patients. The truth was that she was only at the agency temporarily filling in for her colleague, Rodney Berenson, who was also a long-time friend. Rod had gone to graduate school with Marty, and they completed their clinical work alongside each other. Rod had worked as the NCIS resident psychologist in DC for the last six years and a couple of weeks ago, he'd approached her, pleading with her to fill in for him while he was having orthopaedic surgery on his knee. He'd injured it last year on one of their joint family skiing trips to Lake Louise in Alberta, Canada and he'd been putting off having it fixed – a self-confessed wimp, he was not being a fan of surgery.

Since his wife, Marty plus Marty's wife Jayna and all their kids had been nagging him to go and get it repaired so they could go skiing again, Marty didn't feel like she could refuse to take on the short-term contract to fill in for Rod, especially when she was in between gigs. Besides, if he couldn't find someone to cover for him, he would likely back out of the surgical slot and she knew from Lena, Rod's wife that his orthopaedist was ready to shoot him. So, she'd agreed to a short-term contract.

Now that she had signed the contract and was ensconced in his office she was starting to wonder if it had all been on the up and up or had Rod suckered her into this. Could he have experienced some sort of premonition and decided that surgery was infinitely preferable to dealing with the infamous Naval Criminal Investigative Services MCRT, led by the perpetually incensed the whole damned world just pisses me off Leroy Jethro Gibbs? If it had just been one of the members of the major case response team undergoing mandatory counselling in a tragic suicide-by-cop shooting, she wouldn't have given it a second thought.

All suicides were tragic but what made this one even more disturbing was the role played by a horrifically entitled surgeon who felt her career was worth preserving at all costs, even though she screwed up badly by opting for the wrong procedure and losing the patient. It made it worse was that it wasn't even the first time it had happened to her, either. What the hell ever happened to ethics and personal responsibility? The concept appeared to be entirely foreign to the cardiac surgeon, Janice Byers, and Ryerson hoped that she was never able to wield a scalpel ever again.

Determined to hold onto a cushy civilian job waiting for her after serving her term in the navy, Byers had the brilliant idea to make her screwup (dead patient) look like a murder. The ensuing investigation led the MCRT to a depressed sailor as their chief suspect because he'd made verbal threats against the disagreeable victim, Commander Dornan. Cornered by two MCRT members, the young ensign opted to commit suicide by cop, not being unable to pull the trigger and kill himself. Now the team was left to deal with the fallout as best as they could.

Ryerson was asked to conduct mandatory counselling for two agents from the major case response team directly involved in the suicide by cop shooting, plus the agent from the USS Kennedy, Agent Paula Cassidy who'd had prior contact with the suicide victim, Ensign Evan Hayes in her professional capacity as Agent Afloat. Subsequently, Special Agent Jonathon DeWayne, an internal affairs investigator had requested that she conduct an interview of the DC medical examiner as part of IA's ongoing investigation into the circumstances surrounding Hayes suicide.

The internal affairs investigator admitted he was confused about the ME's rather odd reaction to his screw ups during the case. He felt it was out of character for the esteemed Doctor Mallard and wanted Dr Ryerson's views on the situation.

Dr Ryerson most definitely had a lot on her plate, particularly as several of the individuals had larger than life personalities which presented some interesting challenges and then there was SSA Gibbs who had a violent aversion to talking to psychologists. His file was a veritable graveyard of past psychologists' failures to engage with the team leader in any meaningful way. She just knew it was going to be an interminably long two months; Rod owed her big time for this solid.

When Gibbs stomped into her temporary office (well, technically it was Rod's office) scowling at her, she smirked inwardly even as she maintained what she insisted was an appropriately neutral expression. Her wife Jayna called it her stock I'm not here to judge you, even if you are a fucking asshole Therapeutic Expression number 5.

It was their private joke between themselves that she wore it like some people wore perfume – as in Chanel No. 5.

Ryerson was fully aware that Special Agent Gibbs strongly resented her – for several reasons. First and foremost, as he told her numerous times at their first two encounters, "He hated shrinks." And lawyers, and the FBI and any number of federal sister agencies that were known affectionately as alphabets. He also hated LEOs, officers in the military, politicians, judges, bureaucrats, and no doubt many other persons deeply offended him too.

She felt as if she'd only begun to scratch the surface of people who he found offensive to his arrogantly entitled overinflated alpha male sensibilities. Perhaps as homework, she'd order him to make a list of people or groups that he really liked as opposed to merely tolerated. She suspected it would be a very short list, consisting of Non-Com Marines, redheads, and kids.

While Gibbs had taken an immediate dislike to her on principle, just because she belonged to one the hated group he rudely called 'shrinks', she also had earned his ire because she was a red-head and he assumed, wrongly, that in spite her profession she'd be putty in his hands. Regardless of him being a chronically angry arrogant man, Marty noted that he could and did ooze charismatic charm towards people who found him sexually attractive, particularly when they stood in the way of him achieving his objective, being a pathologically goal orientated person. Sadly, for him, Marty was impervious to the charms of a straight guy perpetually angry with the world, which according to his file was also his go-to technique for dealing with female psychologists and counsellors.

Charming the pants off her wouldn't work, and nor did any of his other common methods of dealing with people with the audacity to try to rein him. Most unfortunate for Agent Gibbs that the lesbian psychologist was equally immune to his usurping power by threats, manipulation, or ruthless psychological mind games and intimidation. It meant that thus far he was stymied in his goal of returning to active field status, which left him with quite the hate on for her.

Watching him parade his repertoire of tried-and-true behaviours, Marty couldn't help but liken him to an exceedingly sulky toddler trying to test his parent's patience, determined to smash through the boundaries they'd established to seize control. Complicating matters further, Agent Gibbs was hands down the single most competitive individual she had ever encountered. It was reported that he disregarded the chain-of-command on his team, allowing the greenest of agents to disregard orders from his second in charge, telling them that they only took orders from him. Marty straight up perplexed, since it was an extremely dangerous thing to do and for a highly decorated ex-Marine gunnery sergeant, such disinformation should be anathema. And yet, clearly not.

The clinical psychologist had spent considerable time pondering how he was permitted to get away with such egregious and unsafe leadership techniques and frankly she didn't like her conclusions. Gibbs was a manipulator par excellence – no doubt why he was such an excellent interrogator and why he hated for the shoe to be on the other foot when forced to attend mandatory counselling. His persona of angry agent perpetually on the precipice of exploding, while not an artifice, was in all likelihood an exaggeration. However, it was useful in that people tried to avoid lighting the match to set him off hoping to avoid explosions, which in turn gave him a lot of leeway in behaving badly.

Plus, he'd quite cleverly crafted an image of being there for the little guy - the poor, the powerless, the forgotten and particularly those folks who felt like they'd been robbed of natural justice - when in fact the vast majority of them (and Gibbs) just went through life with an oversized chip on their shoulders and a Grande-sized serving of entitlement. His anti-authority vibe particular appealed to people whose anarchic streak was conceal but simmering barely below the surface.

These folk ate up his whole sticking it to the man vibe, which hecleverly combined with his don't call me Sir, I work for a living shtick and the passive-aggressive and equally contemptuous 'ya think?' put downs to colleagues and peers when they said anything noteworthy or significant. It helped to bolster his hero-like status quite successfully; effectively it gave him carte blanche to do whatever he fucking-well pleased and he pleased.

Marty found it particularly scary how easily he could manipulate people. During casual conversations with other staff, whenever his name came up, even when ranting about what he'd said or done, people were super quick to assure her that despite his faults, Gibbs was motivated by the best intentions, and he just wanted justice. They were quick to cite his selflessness, amply demonstrated they claimed by his steadfast refusal to accept awards which the powers that be insisted on bestowing on him. They pointed to the fact that he didn't even bother attending the ceremonies – saying that he was merely doing his job and didn't need any reward or award.

Yet, that was a total lie and Gibbs wasn't doing his job! Most of the time he was ignoring it – breaking rules and regulations with a scant regard for the law since he was in a unique position to be able to cover up his transgressions.

Despite him supposedly refusing to accept awards (because it fitted his narrative of sticking it to the man) the reality was he did accept the awards by default. If he truly didn't want the awards, Gibbs could formally request for his name be removed from consideration or order his team not to accept them on his behalf. Yet he did neither, which led the cynical psychologist to conclude that it fed his massive ego when year after year he was recognised

(by the officer-class and others in authority who he despised) while he played up his anti-hero persona by claiming to ignore them.

Marty also found it quite disturbing how he manipulated Agent DiNozzo to be so sycophantic, turning up to collect Gibbs' awards for him, reputedly storing them in a box in his desk. Marty was sure that if Gibbs told DiNozzo to stop collecting them, he'd obey instantly, such was his SFA's case of extreme hero-worship, despite Gibbs chronic undercutting of his authority on the team. No doubt it was all part of Jethro's mind fucks coupled with his need for admiration and control, even if it was via unorthodox means.

And really! What could The Powers That Be possibly be thinking, handing out prestigious multiple Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Awards to him for fuck's sake?

Outstanding agents didn't go around ignoring chain-of-command or working their agents to the point of physical and mental exhaustion. They didn't repeatedly assault their co-workers by slapping them on the head (that was definitely against the law) or ignoring proper procedures for obtaining confessions that would stand up in court. The only thing that Marty could see that was outstanding about Leroy Jethro Gibbs was how he had managed to twist the perceptions of his superiors around into thinking his behaviour was exemplary or worthy of emulation by the greater law enforcement community.

Ryerson's wife, Jayna as an upstanding detective at the Metropolitan Police Department, was also a vehement critic of both incompetent and corrupt cops. She said that until they were held to a higher standard; unless they were weeded out and punished harshly, civilians would become increasingly desensitised to the dangers they posed to society. It also meant that civilians became increasingly distrustful of law enforcement structures and individuals.

The justice system elevated society out of a feudalist system of dog-eat-dog, revenge and survival of the richest. Well okay… it strived to, even if it often failed in said objective. Still, it was a darned sight better than the alternatives of anarchy and fascism.

For individuals to hijack it for their own agendas (even so-called noble ones and that was highly questionable) was terribly dangerous and very short-sighted. Unsurprisingly, Marty agreed with Jayna unreservedly. It wasn't good enough to venerate cops simply because they wore a badge and carried a gun and look the other way when they didn't follow the rules. They needed to be held to a higher standard of behaviour than the average citizen in the street because blind justice was imperative for social cohesion.

It wasn't just real-life cops and their federal counterparts that needed to be held to the highest standards. When movies and television portrayed cops who ignored the rule of law as being above it and made them into heroes, it was extremely damaging to the national psyche, definitely adding to the general cynicism and moral malaise.

When there was never any pushback for cops (real or fictional) who broke the law: no loss of rank, no loss of pay, no suspension, no termination, or charges being laid, no ending up in jail where criminals were supposed to go when they broke the law, it had huge consequences for real life. It changed peoples' perceptions slowly but fundamentally about what was acceptable, plus audiences gradually became more and more ignorant of the rule of law. Particularly the most basic tenet of a civilised society – that no one should be above the law. NOT EVEN COPS!

To believe otherwise was to find yourself on a very slippery slope. One, which over time, as the moral compass shifted, society may not be able to recover from. Bad cops too frequently were portrayed as heroes. All in the name of entertainment for the masses and filling the coffers of multinational corporations who readily put the making of obscene amounts of money over what was ethical or for a greater good.

Portraying a corrupt cop as a hero was a dangerous precedent. Allowing cops and feds to break the law, whether it was on screen or in real life might not cause the immediate downfall of society, but it was still a solid link in the chain. It was not a future that she wanted her kids to face or the generations that came after them.

So, Marty nodded politely to Agent Gibbs, bound and determined not to lose this battle between psychologist and lawless agent if she could help it. She would not permit him to cross the line any longer, even if it cost him his field status. In the long run, the price was just too high for everyone.

She watched, mildly amused as the federal agent stomped…yes stomped around the office, marking his territory before eventually sinking into the steel-grey pleather armchair. She wondered if in his perfect Utopian world if he was tempted to unzip his fly and piss on the furniture (and herself) if he thought she'd let him get away with it. He was such an alpha personality in many respects.

He grunted a greeting that by no stretch of the imagination could be called polite and glared at her. He was demonstrably unhappy to be present for their third session, yet Marty expected nothing less. Getting him in the office, even if it was mandatory, was a battle of epic proportions. He was accustomed to doing as he pleased, so it meant that he fought even harder when she had dug in and refused to sign off on his return to active duties.

For every action, there is a reaction and Gibbs were always disproportionate. Lucky that Marty was no shrinking violet.

Ryerson almost expected that he'd get someone to overruled her and have his field status rubberstamped as had happened in the past. Gibbs had a reputation for getting his own way because according to the gossip in the DC law enforcement community 'he knew where all the bodies were buried'. However, the NCIS director had surprised her somewhat, seeming relieved she wouldn't cave to Agent Gibbs' flirtations (as if), his tantrums (never worked with her own two kids), or his intimidation tactics (in fact, it backfired. Marty may have hinted to him when he tried it that she knew several contract killers which, technically, she did as they were now ex-CIA assassins who she treated.

In the face of her intractability re clearing him for fieldwork if he didn't attend the mandatory counselling, Marty had the upper hand, and she wasn't budging. Finally, he'd realised she wasn't going to be pressured, and he turned up to the second session in a filthy temper. He thought that turning up would be enough to get him cleared for duty, only to discover that she was no pushover. He made little attempt to participate, and she'd read him the riot act – threatened dire consequences if he didn't start to cooperate, as in permanent loss of his field status.

Gibbs had ranted at her before he threatened her, "You wouldn't dare."

Marty chuckled in amusement at the very hackneyed warning. "I pushed two ginormous ten-pound babies out of my vagina, Bud. After that, nothing, not even big bad Agent Gibbs scares me," Marty said, surprising him with her earthy retort. "Do you really want to try calling my bluff, Superman," she inquired, resolutely?

The fact that she had so swiftly glommed onto what was Gibbs' kryptonite (losing field status) and he finally realised he couldn't charm her, seduce her, browbeat her, or blackmail her, meant that the power dynamic shifted dramatically. For the first time in a long while, Leroy Jethro Gibbs realised he was not in charge and was forced to obey rules, her rules, NCIS rules regarding agents being cleared for active duty and he was not a happy camper. He was churlish and uncooperative... hence the juvenile and passive aggressive stomping around.

Picking up her cup of coffee and taking a swallow of the Ethiopian blend, (Rod's personal stash and responsibly sourced) the psychologist nodded professionally, although inwardly, she was smiling triumphantly. "Hello to you too, Agent Gibbs. I trust you're well."

"Need to get back to work," he growled, dispensing with the social niceties that most normal people understood were part of civilised behaviour and normal conversation.

"Ignoring his pressure tactic, she decided to jump straight in. "So today, I want to start by talking about the rules, specifically, Rule 3." She paused and waited, expectantly.

"Never be uncontactable. Pretty self-explanatory, I'd a thought."

"I guess what I want to know is, is it an all-encompassing rule as in NEVER EVER or is it referring to when you have an active case. Is it during business hours?"

Gibbs snarled at her, ever the mean old junk-yard dog. "Never means never."

Marty wrote something on her pad (knowing it unsettled him, she made it a point to continue doing it) before responding, "Okay, let's ignore some obvious issues for now about how autocratic, unreasonable, and invasive that rule is, and the most important point - that it is laughable and legally unenforceable. What I'd like to look at is a specific situation that has pertinence to this case. I'm wondering why didn't you say anything to Dr Mallard about deliberately going off-grid during the investigation into Commander Dornan's death in the middle of the case?"

Growling furiously, he muttered under his breath, "Ducky's entitled to a sex life."

"Everyone's entitled to a sex life, Gibbs, as long as it is between consenting adults and doesn't break regulations or harm others, but I'm curious. Do you allow your agents to go off on a date when you are in the middle of an unsolved and active investigation?"

"Hell no!"

"That's what I thought. So why was it okay for Dr Mallard to go on a date and be intentionally incommunicado? He deliberately left his phone behind."

"Ducky had finished the autopsy."

"That's not true. He hadn't signed off on the cause of death – he was still waiting on the pending toxicology and stomach contents results. They came back before the shootout with Ensign Hayes. If the ME had been contactable, he would have instantly known that Dr Byers was lying to you," she argued.

"But let's ignore for a moment the fact that NCIS received evidence that Evan Hayes had nothing to do with Commander Dornan's death in time to have saved his life. Let's just overlook the undisputable reality that it was left sitting on Dr Mallard's desk, waiting for his analysis," she told him, fiddling with her pen absently.

"Let's just pretend for a moment that Dr Byers had been a vicious murderer, not merely an incompetent thoracic surgeon. One who'd let herself to be bullied by the patient into performing a surgical option which wasn't viable juts so he could remain on active duty and tried to cover up her mistake when he died. Had she been a murderer, Dr Mallard could have been in grave danger, especially since they were off the grid at the Smithsonian after it was closed to the public, and he was without his cell phone. A good example for rookies on why it's SOP not to indulge in personal relationships with anyone connected with an investigation."

Gibbs looked irritated – he hated being held to account or being forced to justify his actions or in this case his lack of actions. Marty figured it was connected to his Rule 6 – never say you're sorry. If you don't apologise, then you didn't have to second guess or examine your actions, you never admit you fucked up.

"Yeah?" he responded with a question mark, failing to agree with her eminently logical assertions.

What an asshat! He couldn't concede, not even an inch. Such a competitive control freak – always had to have the last word. But if he thought he could make her lose her shit with him, he was woefully mistaken.

Marty Ryerson had spent a lifetime fighting against homophobia so dealing with Gibbs childish mindfucks didn't even come close to making her lose her shit. He was merely a gnat on her windshield by comparison to the shit she'd dealt with personally.

Ironically, Leroy Jethro Gibbs' attitudes reminded her of her son, Hayden. Especially when he was an autocratic four-year-old, furious that the world around him wouldn't bend to his whims and capable of throwing the best (worst) temper tantrums ever. The only difference between her son and Agent Gibbs was that Hayden (thanks to firm boundaries set by his loving mothers and predictable consequences when he ignored those boundaries) had grown into an articulate and empathetic adolescent as he matured. Thankfully, with an emotional IQ that matched his cognitive development.

Gibbs' maturation had been mostly physical, his psychological and emotional growth were severely underdeveloped and likely to remain that way unless Gibbs was motivated to change. She wasn't sure how likely that might be, but she wasn't sanguine about the chances that he'd want to. That said, Dr Ryerson would do everything in her power to see that it happened if he expressed a desire for change.

On the other hand, she truly believed that his personal kryptonite was his desire to be a field agent. Noted on Gibbs' file by numerous superiors and counsellors was his addiction to coffee and bourbon but Marty felt that his obsessive drive to solve cases was a far stronger addiction. That need, used judiciously and with finesse may motivate him to evolve sufficiently to regain his field status...anything was possible if not probable.

But focusing on the here and now, she observed, "A seriously troubled young man lost his life, which is tragic for him, his family and friends."

She noted a flicker of regret from the mulish agent which was swiftly shut down. If she hadn't been watching carefully, Marty would have missed it entirely.

She pressed on, "Not to mention that two agents were involved in a suicide by cop shootout, including yourself and are now undergoing a review by IA and mandatory counselling. Other agents and his shipmates, particularly Agent Cassidy were impacted by his death, too." She reminded him calmly.

Seeing his glare intensify at the mention of the agent afloat she said, "Today I want to explore the reasons why you were so harsh on Agent Cassidy and so lacking in support of Agent Todd, yet so empathetic to Dr Mallard, who with decades of experience should have known better. To an outsider, it smacks of double standards."

"Ducky isn't on my team. Not under my chain of command. Besides, he made a mistake."

"Agent Cassidy on not on your team, and she isn't in your direct chain-of-command either, yet it didn't stop you throwing her under the bus and in plain view of everyone who happened to be in the bullpen at the time. But then she is a female who you don't approve of, and the medical examiner is both a male and your friend."

Rolling his eyes in anger, he snarked, "See ya been jawing with Cate. Should have guessed YOU'D be one of those feminazis, Doc. Not happy 'til ya have all males neutered."

"I take it that Agent Todd has expressed her opinion that you unfairly discriminate against female agents based on their gender?" She refused to rise to the bait.

"Only 24/7," he growled in disgust.

Ryerson nodded and made more notes on her pad. She had only had one session so far with Agent Todd who was decidedly unhappy with having Marty as her counsellor.

Her first impression of her had been of a militant feminist, seeing the big bad boogey-man of male patriarchy lurking under every desk in the workplace, waiting to assault her. While first impressions weren't always correct, one thing Marty knew, every time a zealously paranoid reactionary calling themselves a feminist complained about sexual discrimination and didn't back up their claims, because they were crying wolf or didn't have the guts to hold people accountable, it made it that much easier for all women to be ignored. Included women who had real cause to complain about sexual discrimination which threatened their wellbeing, safety, and their jobs. Constantly harping on about being discriminated against because of having a vagina without being willing to report it, trivialised the hard-fought campaign for true equal opportunity.

As she focused back on Gibbs and his obvious biases, she said, "I see. Still, even if she is far too quick to throw around the chauvinist pig accusations, you do know that twice a day, a broken clock will be right."

Gibbs looked at her bemused. "What?"

"I'm saying that she may or may not be right most of the time when she accuses you of discrimination based on gender, although in this situation, from my perspective, it looks like your markedly different behaviour towards Dr Mallard and Agent Cassidy may well be due to gender bias. You say that Dr Mallard isn't on your team, but that didn't stop you from reaming him out over a lapse in professionalism in the past."

Snarling at her, he responded, "Bullshit!"

"You did so during the Lieutenant Jane Doe murder, Gibbs. But you ripped him a new one in private," she told him equally as forcefully but minus his belligerence.

"You could have… you should have taken Agent Cassidy aside and criticised her actions as agent afloat in private if it were merited, yet you did it in front of your team and anyone who happened to be in the bullpen. It's my understanding that Cassidy has seniority over even your senior field agent and yet you deliberately chose to undermine her authority in public.

"You humiliated her in front of a probationary agent who's barely been on the team for two months, but yet not Dr Mallard when you chose to do so over his actions during the Lieutenant Jane Doe investigation. That's not how the chain-of-command works and why do I have to explain this to you, former Gunnery Sergeant Gibbs?"

Okay, Gibbs his clenched fists, the tension of his lips and tightened jawline signalled his intention to remain mute. Marty still had a shot left in the chamber for the Marine sniper.

"I've read your jacket, I know that when you've been taken to task by the director, he calls you up to his office and does so in private so that he doesn't undermine your authority with agents who are below you in the chain of command."

Glaring at her, Gibbs returned to one of his default defences, "My team, my rules."

"Except that Agent Cassidy is not on your team."

"Then she shouldn't have screwed the pooched,"

Gibbs gave an infuriating self-satisfied little smirk that said he held all the cards, so Marty decided to burst that particular bubble… but not yet. She would let him think he won that round for now.

Appearing to grow cocky, he folded his arms and leaned back slightly in the chair. Marty imagined it was how he appeared when interrogating someone. "What's this gotta do with if I'm fit for active field status?"

"Agent Cassidy had already expressed her concern to you that Ensign Hayes was not someone who could handle being bullied by Cmdr. Dornan. If you'd bothered to listen to her, you might have sent her and Agent DiNozzo to retrieve Hayes from the high school swimming pool, because on your best days, you're an extremely intimidating authority figure, like Dornan. Besides, you sent them to the USS Kennedy to get him, but he'd already gone UA when they got there which was a shame. His agent afloat would have stood a much better chance of getting him to surrender himself and I have a suspicion that DiNozzo can probably connect quite easily with young recruits who wouldn't feel comfortable revealing themselves to an authoritarian type like yourself.

"You made Agent Cassidy guard the stairway at the hotel because you were pissed off at her and angry at the desk clerk daring to question your right to storm into a hotel room in search of the ensign. You decided to belittle her to make yourself feel better. When you didn't find Ensign Hayes there where you thought he'd be, you were so angry you failed to hear the crucial subtext of what the witnesses said about why the ensign had given them his credit card which was because he didn't need it anymore."

Cocking her head as she watched him quizzically, she told him, "To an experience agent, that should have been an immediate been a sign of suicidality in your so-called suspect. Yet you were too pissed off to hear it or process it appropriately because your intense prey drive was thwarted when Hayes wasn't there at the hotel. Plus, you were too caught up in getting back at Agent Cassidy by making her babysit a bunch of dumb teenagers."

"Calling me a dog?" Gibbs growled at her angrily.

"Deliberately missing the point," she goaded. "Surely you aren't trying to deny possessing an overly exaggerated instinctive need to find, pursue, and capture your suspects, Gibbs?"

Gibbs stayed stubbornly mute even if a vein was throbbing in his forehead and blood had suffused his capillaries, turning his face red.

Ryerson shook her head. "I'd dispute that quite strenuously if you were trying to deny it. Just because the term prey drive is mostly used to describe canine behaviour by animal trainers doesn't mean the concept isn't applicable to other predators, even apex predators such as special forces Marines."

"You think catching dirtbags is a bad thing…Doc," he said sarcastically.

"I'm saying that a strong instinctual drive to capture your prey – to hunt them down and capture them comes with inherent risks that need to be managed."

"Such as?"

"Oh gee, off the top of my head, I can think of a couple. Skipping over what the primitive brain centre considers to be data that is extraneous to the mission, for a start,

plus, the real possibility of predatory drift. Ignoring extraneous data being the point I was making about what happened in the hotel room by the way. Your hindbrain ignored the credit card and what Hayes had said to those kids because it was peripheral to the physical hunt. BUT it was a central clue regarding his state of mind, and it might just have made all the difference to the confrontation. That's if you hadn't gone in with a raging hard on to take him down.

"Thankfully, in this case, predatory drift didn't come into play, however, your chronic and well-documented inability to control anger mean it is a distinct risk that you could end up killing your prey as opposed to merely subduing it. I'll admit that it concerns me."

Agent and psychologist were silent for over a minute before Marty picked up the thread of conversation before they diverged.

"Cassidy wasn't the only one who made a mistake, you did too! Multiple ones and I'd argue that your errors were at least as significant, if not more so if you consider your failure to control Dr Mallard's professional behaviour.

"Bottom line - you have a chronic problem controlling your anger, and in this case, it impacted the outcome. Can we say that if Agents, Cassidy and DiNozzo had gone to retrieve Ensign Hayes, as was their original assignment, that he would still be alive?" The psychologist shrugged as she stared him in the eyes.

"I guess we'll never know," she said, deliberately parroting Gibbs' speech to Paula Cassidy as she stared at him intensely and he broke contact first, making her wonder if it might not have already occurred some time in the past.

Shrugging, she continued, "So, go ahead. Convince me that next time you'll respond more rationally because at the moment I think your anger issues impede your leadership of the MCRT. To that end, I'm not comfortable with signing you off as fit for fieldwork at this stage."

The rest of the session was mostly Gibbs trying (and failing) to intimidate Ryerson, but she was obdurate, reminding him she held the power to bench him not just temporarily but take him out of the field permanently. He finally stalked out of the office at the end of their session, no doubt to try to intimidate Director Morrow or call in some of his markers from his friends in high places.

Well, she doubted it was going to work this time around. NCIS was already facing a JAGMAN investigation into Ensign Hayes death, ordered by the Judge Advocate General, who a hard-assed Marine General from what Marty had been told. The JAG report would examine Commander Dornan's death and the investigation that followed. It would also investigate if Dr Byers could be legally held accountable for her part in the ensign's death and if other naval personnel played a role in his suicide by their actions or failure to act that was negligent. Captain Hayes might be retired from the navy, but according to Special Agent DeWayne, of Internal Affairs, he had a lot of influence – easily as much as Gibbs, maybe because he was just as much of a bastard as the former Marine and, the grieving father wanted answers.

Seeing how much weight the Captain could throw around, she thought it was highly likely he also knew where bodies were buried and was not afraid to dig them up if needed. She didn't think that Gibbs stood a chance in Hell if he pitted himself against him, especially when she was now fairly confident that if anyone went looking deeply enough in Gibbs' files, there would be examples of predatory drift occurring in his NIS and NCIS cases. It was rare but not unheard of for cops who possessed a strong prey drive to kill their prey when triggered, and Gibbs was a likely candidate in her opinion, just not on this occasion.

Having about forty minutes until her session with Special Agent Todd, Marty decided that now was as good a time as any to burst Gibbs' smugness bubble. She crossed over Rod's desk and logged onto the laptop. She quickly drafted an email, proofed it, and sent it to Gibbs, CC'ing it to Director Morrow, the other agents on the MCRT and Agent Cassidy aboard the USS Kennedy.

Dear Special Agent Gibbs,

Upon review of our last session, I've decided that your next mandatory counselling session will be conducted in the bullpen instead of my office. In addition, I will require the presence of Director Morrow and Agents Cassidy, DiNozzo, Todd and Probationary Agent McGee.

Cordially M. Ryerson PhD.

PS Don't forget to complete your homework and bring it with you to your session.

Thanx

Despite his apparent lack of concern re undermining agents' authority or the chain-of-command, she didn't think that it would extend to him being eager to have his dirty laundry being aired in front of his subordinates in the busy bullpen. On the contrary, in such a control freak as Agent Gibbs with his reputed abhorrence of appearing to be weak, she was reasonably sure he'd raise holy hell about scheduling his mandatory counselling there. That's if he bothered to read his emails. Maybe she should ask his SFA to print out a copy for him.

She was rather looking forward to telling him smugly when he hit the roof, "My sessions, my rules."

It should be quite entertaining to watch the fireworks. Not that she would deliberately and publicly undermine him in front of his agents, she was merely making a point, but he didn't know she was bluffing, and she would drag it out for as long as she could to drive home her point as bluntly as possible. If it failed to shift his thinking, she would simply use her ultimate power and refuse to sign his fitness eval but before she took that drastic step, she didn't mind climbing into his sandbox to out psych him.

Noting automatically that she had thirty-eight minutes before Agent Todd's arrival, she decided to duck out for a bathroom break and to grab an herbal tea. As she settled back into her chair with approximately twenty-five minutes to spare, she checked her voice mail to see if Jayna or the kids had left her any messages, frowning to see that there was nothing except a request from a fellow psychologist, Dr Rachel Cranston to please call her when she had time.

Deciding to call and see what her colleague wanted, she was stunned to learn that Rachel was the older sister of Agent Todd. The poor woman was embarrassed about her sister's bigoted views and wanted to assure her that it didn't reflect the rest of her family's values. She also shared some snippets about her baby sister, who despite disagreeing with many of her values, she still adored and was deeply concerned about. Rachel felt her sister was struggling with having killed Ensign Hayes. Marty wasn't exactly surprised, although the jury was still out on precisely why Cate Todd was upset about Ensign Hayes' tragic death.

Was it because of her religious views of suicide being a mortal sin? Did she feel that she'd been made complicit in it against her will (a fair reason to be angry) and was now somehow compromised in the eyes of her Lord? Was Todd angry because as a profiler she had been caught off guard and missed some pretty clear signs of what had been happening or was it simply that she was distressed that a troubled young man was so desperately distressed and depressed that he thought death was a preferable alternative to living?

Interestingly, Rachel also filled her in on another case that had hit Agent Todd extremely hard last year. It was a case involving the murder-suicide of a female explosive expert who blew herself and her married ex-lover up after he dumped her and tried to kill her. According to Rachel, her sister had become emotionally involved in it, seeing the woman as a victim of a violent assault, and she'd bonded with the victim/killer. However, Cate's 'victim' turned out to have been a killer, murdering a man she worked with prior to carrying out her murder-suicide plan.

Marty felt that this was a case that she would be examining further – the fact that it ended in suicide was too much of a coincidence not to delve into it. The psychologist wondered why there wasn't a psych. eval in her personnel file related to that case or for that matter, an investigation into her actions and she resolved to go back through her jacket and the cases she'd worked upon much more thoroughly.

As she terminated the informative if brief phone call from Dr Cranston, Marty realised that she'd met Cate's sister once at an APA seminar on PTSD in Boston a couple of years ago. They'd both been on a panel discussing treatment modalities in the military and law enforcement. Maybe that explained why Agent Todd had looked so annoyingly familiar if the sisters shared a familial resemblance, although psychologically, they seemed quite different.

Briefly, while waiting for Todd to arrive she reviewed her notes from the first session almost two weeks ago.

The fact was that they hadn't gotten off to the best of starts after Special Agent Caitlyn Todd belatedly realised that Marty was exactly what she looked like – a lesbian. Maybe the Doc Martens and practical jeans and t-shirt instead of the power suit that most professional females considered de rigueur business attire wasn't enough of a clue. Maybe the NCIS profiler just thought she was an anarchic therapist, especially since her one concession to femininity was her riot of unruly red curls, customarily worn in a French braid and pinned up out of the way so that it didn't bug the crap out of her, but today it was unrestrained, falling down her back.

Honestly, Marty was frequently impatient with her long hair and only kept it because Jayna asked her to. Every time she was fed up with the effort it took, she'd ruefully remind herself, happy wife, happy life.'

Cate had ignored fairly blatant hints of Marty's sexuality, including the photo of her herself, Jayna and their kids, probably because she didn't approve of anyone who wasn't straight or else, she totally sucked at profiling. Okay, there was a third possibility – it was a combination of options A and B.

Finally, when Ryerson mentioned her wife was a cop and the two kids they co-parented, Agent Todd wasn't able to remain in denial about who Marty was which should have been obvious from the start. Forced into confronting the truth, Agent Todd was unable or just not willing to hide her disapproval of Marty's sexual orientation, referring to it as a sinful lifestyle choice.

After the session had been cut short due to her refusal to participate in any meaningful way, Cate had followed up by putting in a request for another psychologist. Director Morrow had immediately turned down her request when he learnt why she was requesting the substitution. He'd informed her that he wasn't going facilitate homophobic behaviour in his agency and pointed out that as someone who was such an outspoken critic of females being discriminated against due to gender, it was fairly hypocritical of her to victimise someone due to their attraction to someone of their own gender.

All of which was all water under the bridge as far as Ryerson was concerned. She was used to bigots. Agent Todd was certainly not the first to find her very existence offensive and as long as the world continued, she wouldn't be the last. Even if Agent Todd would prefer to avoid dealing with Marty, she was committed to helping Cate come to terms with killing Ensign Hayes so the agent could return to her job. Suicide by cop was an awful burden for anyone to have to carry. Despite Todd formerly being with the Secret Service and serving on the POTUS protection team – she was ill-equipped to shoot a psychologically unstable victim of abuse. Marty could help her come to terms with what had happened…if Cate let her.

That said, as much as Marty wanted to support Agent Todd so she could process what had occurred in a psychologically healthy manner, the psychologist was also not prepared to put up with homophobic bullshit either. Marty was proud of who she was, and while she didn't wrap herself up in a rainbow flag and parade through the streets in it, or rub her lesbianism in anyone's face, nor was she going to hide who she was either, especially not to soothe someone else's bigotry. She refused to pretend that she wasn't in a same-sex marriage. Why should she and Jayna be forced to hide their loving relationship because it made homophobic heterosexuals such as Agent Todd uncomfortable?

Of course, if their professional relationship had involved Agent Todd voluntarily seeking her out for therapy, Marty would be the first to say that it was critical to have a good fit viz à vis being comfortable with each other. Since this was mandatory counselling and assessing whether the cop/federal agent was psychologically fit to return to active duty i.e., going out into the field with a gun, sometimes an ambivalent therapeutic relationship could work better. She only had limited time and resources to make a crucial call on a person's fitness to be back on duty and a slightly antagonistic one made it harder for the participant to hide behind masks.

Given that Morrow had refused to reassign the rookie just because of her homophobia, Marty refused to lose must sleep worrying over Agent Todd's prejudice – frankly, after a lifetime of it she was more or less immune so long as it didn't impact her kids. She and Jayna were adults, but their kids…now that was a different matter.

Frowning slightly as Agent Todd knocked and entered Rod's office, she steeled herself for an awkward and emotionally fraught hour.

~o0o~

Special Agent Jonathon Ellis DeWayne regarded Dr Mallard appraisingly, his spidey- sense pinging loudly. The charmingly urbane Scottish medical examiner sitting across the table in his usual sartorial splendour, including his ubiquitous bow tie, had shown himself to be excruciatingly polite and very verbose. It made a pleasant change from the other NCIS personnel he dealt with during investigations. To be fair, most people were uncomfortable having to talk to Internal Affairs, so it wasn't surprising they were usually deeply defensive bordering on paranoia, even about matters unrelated to those being investigated and were frequently uncooperative.

Ellis (who chose to use his second name to avoid ridicule because seriously what had his mom been thinking) figured it was human nature since IA was seen as the enemy, even though it didn't make his job any easier because he understood people's resentment and suspicion. That said, the veteran of over sixty odd IA investigations at NCIS found that Dr Mallard's behaviour was so far from the norm that he couldn't help feeling a tad suspicious. He wondered if the ME's personable demeanour was merely a sophisticated mask to fool people and if so, what was he hiding? Of course, Ellis was aware that while he was a sceptical SOB by nature, his job certainly contributed to his rather jaundiced perspective on human behaviour.

Ellis was definitely no Pollyanna and although Mallard was well respected in the forensic and law enforcement communities, the IA investigator had trouble understanding how things had reached this stage of completely cocked up. How could such an eminent and highly experienced medical examiner have conducted himself so utterly unprofessionally in precipitously chasing a romantic relationship with Dr Janice Byers when she should have been off-limits instead of waiting until the case was closed before making a move?

The IA investigator's disapproval wasn't because the ME wasn't entitled to have a sex life but because the surgeon had operated on a patient who died in bizarre circumstances. Therefore, she was directly involved in the investigation and a potential suspect if any crime had taken place.

Since all deaths, even suicides were investigated as potential murders until proved otherwise, going out with her was inappropriate during the investigation. Compounding the behaviour by ensuring he was incommunicado when important forensic results were pending was equally indefensible conduct which also highlighted a systemic flaw in NCIS' procedures. What if he had been uncontactable because he'd been involved in an MVA or was dead?

A case shouldn't ever be left hanging on one individual. There should be an ME on call or if that was outside of budgetary constraints, then staff should be able to contact other NCIS medical examiners and ask them to review the case file, plus the additional forensic results and interpret their relevance to the investigation.

The bottom line was, had there been a backup ME on hand, Ensign Evan Hayes could well have still been alive.

Doctor Mallard's inexplicable lapse led DeWayne to check the man's personnel file, finding several things that jumped out at him such as an allegation by a suspect of intimidatory behaviour and death threats against the ME and SSA Gibbs. According to the alleged terrorist bomb maker, they'd forced him to observe an autopsy so that he would understand what his own autopsy would look like after they killed him, then faked his death to look like a suicide unless he agreed to talk.

Not surprisingly, his account had been flatly denied by Gibbs and the ME and given that it was their word against a terrorist, the account it was dismissed as posturing. Yet not too long after that incident, there was the lapse during the investigation of Lieutenant Jane Doe, where the doctor had withheld crucial information and potentially may have compromised chain of custody of some blood samples use to run DNA. Fortunately, the killer was already dead, or he could have gotten off on a technicality, a shocking cockup for someone of Dr Mallard's standing and an unpardonable mistake.

It added up to too many errors recently, which in turn made the allegations by the terrorist about being coerced into talking way more credible. And then there was a complaint from a former female agent, Vivian Blackadder made 18 months ago. She'd complained to HR about his predatory behaviour and his constant pursuit of her, asking her to go out with him despite her repeated refusals that she wasn't interested. She claimed that his failure to take no for an answer made her feel extremely uncomfortable and unsafe, particularly when she was sent down to autopsy on her own.

Ultimately, although HR found his behaviour was inappropriate and had counselled him on correct workplace interactions, Agent Blackadder was involved in an undercover mission that had gone bad. It resulted in her departure from the agency and the matter was subsequently dropped. No doubt the powers that be were not willing to lose the skills of such an esteemed forensic pathologist, revered across the world and well-published in numerous forensic medical journals.

Following Special Agent Blackadder's return to the FBI, Dr Mallard appeared to have turned over a new leaf as there were no more complaints made concerning sexual harassment, although the IA investigator was somewhat sceptical. He was fairly sure that if one were to look hard enough, Agent Blackadder's complaint would not be the only instance of sexual harassment.

As part of his brief, Ellis had been asked to make recommendations to prevent such a debacle as Ensign Hayes situation from happening again. He made a note on his legal pad, recommending to Director Morrow that he needed to organise mandatory ethics and sexual harassment courses for all NCIS employees. Since the agency's raison d'etre was mainly law enforcement, one would expect that the staff would already conduct themselves according to the rule of law and rules and procedures but clearly not.

What Ellis found disturbing was that Dr Mallard still seemed remarkably unfazed by his ethical lapse in flouting procedures by dating Janice Byers. Dr Mallard refused to acknowledge the possibility that if he hadn't been focused on 'wooing' Commander Dornan's doctor, he might have discovered that Byers faked the crime scene to look like a murder at least 12 hours before he did.

If DeWayne needed further reasons to justify his recommendation for additional training was necessary, it was scuttlebutt that Dr Mallard had offered to date Dr Sciuto – the forensic scientist - if his relationship with Dr Byers didn't work out. Now maybe it had been a little harmless workplace flirting, but Agent DeWayne cringed at the possibility that it might have been serious, given the complaint by Agent Blackadder. Dr Sciuto had made little secret of the fact she had dated much older men in the past, including her middle-aged college professor – which showed a concerning lack of ethics and judgement by both parties. Hopefully, Sciuto had matured and would behave with more professionalism now, but what if she didn't?

The internal affairs investigator was generally open-minded about who people chose to sleep with, so long as both parties were consenting adults, he truly didn't care. That said, as someone who worked with various law enforcement agencies, the idea that an NCIS medical examiner and their chief forensic scientist might enter into a relationship was massively problematic. Such a relationship could potentially contaminant their evidence or in the hands of a halfway competent defence attorney, could plant doubt about the integrity of evidence into the minds of juries or judges. Often, it wasn't about if the evidence had been tainted, it was about the perception that it might have been. This was why the highest ethical standards and conduct must not only be expected of personnel but must be seen to be upheld as well. Perceptions were hugely important!

Talking about perception and its effects on others, Ellis snorted out loud at the failure of the probationary agent Timothy McGee to run a background check on Dr Byers. Such a rookie mistake! And that was despite Gibbs telling him to investigate everyone (including the medical staff) who'd had contact with the victim after visiting hours ended and the victim had exploded.

Since Dr Byers had already had a malpractice suit brought against her for the wrongful death of a patient in an identical surgical procedure (an aortic valve repair) she had an obvious motive to tamper with the crime scene to make it look like someone murdered Dornan. Running a background check was normally standard operating procedure while conducting an investigation and would have revealed her motive to conceal an identical failed surgery. When DeWayne had asked Agent McGee why he hadn't run a background check on Byers as he'd been ordered to, he replied that because Dr Mallard was dating her and Gibbs endorsed them going out, he just assumed that she was clean.

While it was a rookie error – the kid was a rookie. Gibbs should have been supervising him much more closely and checked that he'd run a background check, not just assumed. DeWayne was pretty certain that McGee had supposed that Mallard would have checked her out since he was a doctor like she was, which in hindsight had been a big mistake. The lapse on its own wasn't fatal but in his professional opinion, added to all the other lapses in the investigation, it had contributed to the death of an innocent man.

He made a note to recommend that in future, team leaders maintain much more stringent supervision of probationary agents and not merely assume that their orders were being carried out properly.

He stared at his list of recommendations critically:

Backup ME on call 24/7 to handle forensic results regarding open investigations if the relevant medical examiner wasn't able to be contacted within a reasonable timeframe.

Mandatory Ethics and Professional Workplace Relationship education for all NCIS staff.

Stricter supervision of probationary agents including sighting and reviewing of probationary agent's work product.

He thought they were fair and reasonable recommendations to prevent a mess like this from occurring in the future. He knew that Director Morrow was also expecting recommendations regarding the various individuals who'd been involved in the case.

Specifically, he didn't feel that Agent McGee's mistake warranted censure – he was a probationary agent and probies made mistakes which was why they should be supervised. The blame for his failure should be borne by the agent supervising him, either the senior field agent or the senior supervisory agent. Since in this case, Gibbs was supervising, the buck needed to stop with him. Especially since he'd screwed up so massively all the way along the line when it came to this investigation.

He'd failed to call out the ME for dating a potential suspect, even going so far as to give tacit approval for such a dumbass stunt by shutting down Agent Todd's querying of his actions by telling her that the ME was old, not dead. For someone whose reputation as a bastard and functional mute was well known, the perception in the bullpen had overwhelmingly been that he was fully supported Mallard dating a suspect. Plus, he'd missed two critical pieces of information about Ensign Hayes because he was pissed off with agent afloat, Agent Paula Cassidy for failing to follow regs. That data should have set alarm bells ringing in such an experienced agent and a former non-com Marine but hadn't.

As to Agent Todd, although he'd cleared Todd's shooting of Ensign Hayes, overall, Ellis did have some concerns about other aspects of her work. She'd briefly spoken to Ensign Hayes mother, and she was privy to the information that Agent Cassidy felt that he had been unable to handle Commander Dornan's bullying. So, he wondered why the profiler hadn't inquired further about that issue when speaking to the ensign's mother, other than the cursory check about his whereabouts. While a regular agent wouldn't be expected to pick up on his psychological vulnerability, DeWayne couldn't help wondering what was the point in having a profiler who didn't profile?

Ellis wondered if her failure to profile Hayes (which was supposed to be her speciality) might have had something to do with sleep deprivation. She'd been heard to complain about being tired at various points during the day. When examining her phone records, he'd determined that she had not spent the night before they caught the case at home. DeWayne wondered if fatigue had contributed to the MCRT's overall flawed performance. Of the four special agents on the team, Agent DiNozzo, the supposed jock/skirt chaser was the only one who seemed to have been at home, sleeping. Which considering their team had been on call to take the next case, wasn't particularly professional behaviour for the three other team members.

Now Gibbs was famous for his ability to function on very little sleep, but Ellis was not convinced that it didn't impact his performance. He was very much of the opinion that rookie investigators such as Todd and McGee couldn't be expected to function properly if they were sleep deprived. Even though Gibbs pushed his agents, forcing them to work ridiculous amounts of overtime, especially when they were on an active case, there was enough credible research that proved that employees required adequate periods of rest to function optimally. Factor in, unlike most employees, that federal agents carried a gun and when required to discharge it, needed to have good judgement and reflexes, it should go without saying that they get adequate amounts of sleep.

He did wonder if the JAGMAN investigation might focus on this issue. He didn't see that Todd had any choice when she took that shot – while it was doubtful Hayes would have hurt Gibbs by discharging his weapon, there was no way to be sure of that except by shooting him. As tragic as it was, DeWayne felt she did the only thing possible. However, he was not convinced that fatigue didn't contribute to some of the missteps that led up to the unfortunate shooting.

He made an addition to his list of recommendations that agents were expected to receive adequate breaks to ensure they were fit for duty and if agents chose to work compromised by inadequate rest, that it be considered to be analogous to working under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Of course, if three of the four team members were running around like cats on heat when they should have been getting adequate amounts of rest, it did bode the question of why. DeWayne would take a wild guess and say it could probably be blamed upon the fact that Gibbs had completely unrealistic and unhealthy expectations of his team, forcing them to work unreasonable amounts of hours on open investigations.

If Gibbs promoted a healthy work-life balance on the team, then maybe his agents would be able to enjoy a normal social life that didn't interfere with their work. In the absence of proper time for a social life, younger agents were likely to prioritise sex over sleep, even when on call. Maybe they needed to recommend that agents had a compulsory number of hours off per working day. While it seemed not to be a problem on most teams, Gibbs had failed to get the memo and so it probably required mandating, for his team's sake if no one else's. And for any future managers like Gibbs, god forbid!

Deciding that he should take his own advice and finish up soon and start fresh tomorrow, the dark-skinned agent's thought came full circle to Dr Mallard and his failure to accept that his unprofessional actions may have caused Ensign Hayes suicide by cop. Reportedly, he'd seemed more upset about having tickets to the opera and no one to accompany him than the death of the troubled ensign. Even more bizarre was he'd been heard to wonder if Agent Todd would consider going as his date, which was damned coldblooded, considering she'd been forced to shoot a messed-up kid who'd done nothing wrong apart from being UA because of a sadist bully. DeWayne would have expected Gibbs to behave in such an indifferent manner to his agent (in fact he already had) but he would have expected the medical examiner to have shown a little more sensitivity than that.

Ellis also couldn't help but contrast Mallard's seemingly callousness with that of the senior field agent on Gibbs team who despite his reported flirting with Agent Cassidy at the start of the case, was blaming himself for not coming up with the proof that Dr Byers killed Commander Dornan, earlier. Given that he was only told by Gibbs to examine the forensic evidence the morning after Hayes' death when the toxicology results had been available to Dr Mallard the night before when Evan was still alive, it was an interesting juxtaposition by the two men regarding how they regarded responsibility. Also, considering Dr Sciuto held several degrees in forensic science and was lauded by the forensic community, the IA agent thought it was rather embarrassing that Agent DiNozzo was the one who managed to figure out who had created the explosion and how.

As he exited the building and approached his Ford Taurus and unlocked the car, his mind returned to the whole issue of Dr Mallard's baffling conduct during the investigation. He wondered was he ill? His mother had Alzheimer's Disease - was he not coping, was he showing early symptoms too?

Trying to put the matter aside for the night, Ellis reminded himself that there was no way to know that for sure if the troubled young sailor could have been saved, even if the ME had received the results. Ironically that was what Gibbs had begrudgingly conceded as he was mercilessly dressing down Agent Cassidy after the ensign's death. As he started up the car and backed carefully out of the parking lot, even though few cars remained, he thought about that scene in the bullpen when everyone was devastated by Evan Hayes death. He'd checked out the CTV footage and spoken to people who'd witnessed it and he found himself feeling furious at Gibbs. An experienced leader should not have taken his anger out on Cassidy like that, especially not in the middle of the bullpen. He should have been looking after his people, particularly Cassidy who knew the ensign, and Todd who had had to kill him. So much for 'leave no one behind.'

That stunt in the bullpen – well Gibbs was a real asshat and a damned hypocrite to boot. He had one set of standards for female agents and another set entirely when it came to a male getting their rocks off during a case with someone involved in the investigation. No, Gibbs hadn't exactly come out and said so in as many words, but Agents Gibbs was big on the whole actions speak louder than words bullshit. The fact that Gibbs hadn't torn the ME a new one over his egregious lapses in procedure spoke volumes to everyone.

If you examined Agent Cassidy's motivation for not charging Ensign Hayes, it had been because of her concern for a troubled young man. On the other hand, the medical examiner was motived by his libido, yet Gibbs saw fit to subject her to public humiliation and ridicule.

It seemed to be a huge inequity in the way Agent Cassidy and Dr Mallard were treated by the head of the MCRT and Agent DeWayne couldn't help thinking it was gender-based.

Sighing, he added mentally added a fifth major recommendation to his list. NCIS urgently needed to address such issues with in-service training asap.

Leaving the Navy yard, he checked carefully before pulling out and heading home.

~o0o~

Director Morrow stared at the reports waiting for him on his desk. He'd decided when the HR report came in a couple of days ago to wait and read them all together. He had already read the IA findings into the actual shooting of Ensign Hayes by Agent Todd as soon as it was complete. He wouldn't leave an agent hanging like that, waiting until the other reports were complete. As he'd expected, the IA findings into the shooting found that Todd had no other choice but to shoot Ensign Hayes given that he pulled a gun on Gibbs and threatened to shoot him. He hoped it was, in some small way a comfort to Caitlin Todd that she was cleared of any wrongdoing in the suicide by cop shooting.

Still, that wasn't the end of the matter or IA's investigation into Ensign Hayes shooting even if they had ruled that it was a righteous shoot. There were so many missteps leading up to Evan Hayes death that indicated it should never have reached that point. JAG at the behest of SECNAV had launched an investigation, concurrent with the prosecution of Dr Byers who would probably lose her medical license and hopefully get acquainted with Fort Leavenworth. Knowing that JAG was looking into the whole NCIS investigation leading up to Ensign Hayes death, Morrow had ordered internal investigations based upon preliminary information garnered during the CISD sessions with the MCRT, plus other relevant staff and data coming out of recommendations from Dr Ryerson based on mandatory counselling of various staff.

Forearmed is forewarned so the saying goes, and Tom needed to know what JAG might uncover. Now he had the reports and recommendations from Dr Ryerson, IA and HR and he winced, anticipating that it would not be pretty. Aside from being prepared for the results of the JAGMAN investigation, he needed to ensure that this debacle didn't happen again. Anticipating his request for fortification, his awesome executive assistant arrived bearing his favourite blend of coffee in an extra-large mug and a mixed plate of sandwiches and fruit.

He grinned at her appreciatively. "Thank you, Cynthia."

"You're welcome, Sir. Do you want me to stop all your calls?" Sommers enquired tactfully, looking at the numerous thick files awaiting him on his desk.

"Except for urgent ones, that would be most helpful," he told her as he settled into his chair and picked up the psychology report and commenced reading. It was gonna be a long day.

It wasn't exactly a surprise that Dr Ryerson was refusing to sign off on Gibbs return to active field status until he agreed to enter into therapy to address his anger issues. He'd had several verbal conversations with the psychologist where she'd warned him it was a likely outcome. What was surprising was her recommendation that due to the complex and longstanding nature of his anger issues, Gibbs posed a real danger to the agency and the public by being allowed to act in a supervisory capacity, even if he were undergoing treatment. Consequently, Dr Ryerson stated that should he agree to seek help for his pathological anger she would only clear him for fieldwork if he was under the supervision of someone who could control him.

Tom snorted; Jethro was a control freak so that was a helluva tall order! Although, during the investigation into the WWII Medal of Honour recipient, Ernest Yost, a corporal in the USMC, Gibbs had certainly been behaving less like an out-of-control maverick than usual. So, all he needed to do to 'manage Jethro' safely and effectively was find a non-com Marine, preferably special forces, highly decorated, if at all possible, a Medal of Honour recipient who was also an experienced NCIS special agent as his minder. Should be a piece of cake, he thought ironically.

Although, realistically, he wasn't sure that they weren't jumping the gun here. He wasn't sanguine that Gibbs wanted to fix his anger issues. It was Tom's admittedly lay opinion (having only completed a handful of introductory psych units at college a damned long time ago) that without his anger to fuel him, Jethro would be unable to function. Not that it was an excuse, nor should his colleagues be forced to endure his toxic emotions because he refused to deal with his shit. Tom just didn't think that if he was boxed into a corner, that Jethro would choose to deal with his shit, he was more likely to tell them to go fuck themselves and become a bounty hunter.

He looked at the meticulous way that Dr Ryerson had documented examples of how Gibbs' anger had negatively impacted on cases, convictions and even staff over the last year. It was substantive, it was frankly damning and even he wasn't cognizant of how much of a negative effect it was having on the agency since the effects were cumulative. It was also something that SECNAV would find difficult to ignore.

He decided to show this report to Gibbs – well the list at any rate. Plus, the cases his temper had cost JAG convictions. Maybe it would be the wake-up call he needed. Morrow hoped so because things had to change.

Moving on, Dr Ryerson had provisionally cleared Agent Todd for field duties so long as she continued to complete additional sessions of mandatory counselling into the shooting. An additional recommendation was that she be sent for supplementary profiler training. Her sister (a psychologist) had expressed concern that Agent Todd was out of her depths since her profiler training had been restricted to risk assessment of crowds and identifying potential terrorists in her role on the protection detail for the POTUS. Her sister felt that such limited training was why she was making potentially fatal mistakes.

Tom was definitely on board with the idea. Agent Todd was supposedly hired by Gibbs because she was a profiler, but the director honestly had seen little evidence of any tangible profiling abilities. To learn that her training had been narrowly focused on protecting the President explained a lot about her litany of failures in the months since she'd been hired. They said that a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing, and in this situation, it would seem to be true.

The USS Kennedy was still docked at Norfolk pending the investigations into what role if any, navy personnel played in his suicide by failing to report Dornan's behaviour although IA had cleared Agent Cassidy to return to active duties. The Kennedy was due to ship out next month – he'd better have a replacement ready, just in case the JAGMAN findings ruled otherwise, although he doubted that. Still, it was best to be prepared.

Putting aside Dr Ryerson's psychological report, Tom moved on to Special Agent DeWayne's Internal Affairs report. It had examined Ensign Hayes death within the context of the whole investigation leading up to it the shooting and what happened following the ensign's death. While Gibbs and Todd had been cleared by IA re the actual shooting at the high school pool, Evan Hayes death had not occurred inside a vacuum. Internal Affairs and Human Resources were investigating and reviewing everything that contributed to the shootout at the swimming pool.

The IA report identified several major procedural lapses which lead up to Ensign Hayes shooting including Dr Mallard engaging in a non-professional relationship with Dr Janet Byers and the MCRT not being able to analyse the toxicology and stomach contents forensic results due to the ME not being contactable. Plus, Gibbs' anger and preoccupation with Special Agent Cassidy who'd drawn his ire over what Jethro considered her error in not investigating Ensign Hayes verbal threat against Commander Dornan which DeWayne had deemed a significant factor. Damn!

The major takeaway from the report was that if Dr Mallard (or a suitably qualified ME had sighted the forensic results that Dr Sciuto had analysed as soon as they'd become available, they would have known immediately that Dr Byers had lied, and that Commander Dornan had not been murdered. With no murder, the MCRT wouldn't have pursued Hayes as a potential killer. He would merely have been someone who was UA.

Agent DeWayne had made the point that although Hayes was visibly depressed and suicidal, he'd stated to Agents Todd and Gibbs that he'd been unable to pull the trigger and take his own life. It seemed a reasonable assumption that without the heavy-handed confrontation with the two agents believing he was a murder suspect, there was a real possibility that Hayes might have been talked down. He might have even reach out for help, for example to his swim coach or mother.

Agent DeWayne had outlined how Gibbs' anger may have directly and indirectly resulted in missteps contributing to the shooting. He'd categorised direct effects as Gibbs' failure to take on board Agent Cassidy's assessment of Hayes' state of mind (a correct evaluation as it turned out) of how psychologically vulnerable the ensign was following the concerted campaign of bullying. This was evidenced by his getting rid of items of value (his credit card), explicitly telling the high school students he wouldn't need it anymore which spoke to the suicidality of the victim. DeWayne also cited Gibbs' decision to go after Hayes himself rather than following through on his previous orders for Agents Cassidy and DiNozzo to find him and bring him into NCIS. In the internal affairs investigator's opinion, it had contributed to the untenable situation. Agent Gibbs had become obsessed with bringing him in – believing the ensign to be guilty.

Agent DeWayne also identified several indirect factors, including the possibility that team members tried to avoid invoking the team leader's anger fearing that it may lead to more humiliating dressing downs in public. He'd mentioned as an example that Agent Cassidy blamed herself for not trying harder to speak up for Hayes, who she didn't believe was responsible for Commander Dornan's death, despite his verbal threat when he'd been pushed too far. Another indirect factor was Gibbs' failure to check that Probationary Agent McGee had run a background check on Dr Byers as he'd been instructed to by Gibbs; the IA agent put the oversight down to the team lead's all-consuming anger at Agent Cassidy who he'd had issues with on a previous case.

DeWayne noted that McGee had screwed up because a background check carried out on Byers would have revealed that she'd previously been sued for a failed aortic valve repair surgery which would have given her a motive to cover up her second botched surgery. However, the IA investigator placed most of the blame on Gibbs shoulders for McGee's error. First, the SSA had openly endorsed Dr Mallard dating Dr Byers, which was a direct breach of procedure and that led to McGee's assumption (false as it turned out) that she'd already been vetted. McGee had also mentioned off the record that he was nervous that if he'd run a background check on Ducky's girlfriend which had already been done, Gibbs would haul him over the coals like he had Agent Cassidy.

Tom sighed. A little bit of fear of a supervisor wasn't such a bad thing, but fear that led to a nervous probationary agent second-guessing himself to the extent that he made such a key error during a case was dangerous. As this situation demonstrated so tragically for the Hayes family, it had tragic consequences. Along with several other pieces of information, a background check of Dr Byers conceivably would have helped exonerate Ensign Hayes long before the confrontation occurred at the swimming pool.

However, the director was inclined to agree with Agent DeWayne – McGee was a probie and probies made mistakes, which was why you had to watch them like a hawk. Plus, he was quite clearly intimidated by Gibbs. This added more weight to Dr Ryerson's assertions that Gibbs wasn't fit to lead others unless he dealt properly with his anger issues.

Returning to the report, he raised an eyebrow at the IA agent's next bullet point – Agent Todd. He raised the fact that she had complained on numerous occasions about being tired which led to DeWayne discovering that she had spent the night that they took the call having sex with her boyfriend. The IA agent speculated that sleep deprivation may have affected her performance as the team profiler during the course of the investigation. Specifically, the IA investigator argued that Todd had heard Agent Cassidy's concerns about Evan Hayes psychological state and as a profiler when doing a fairly superficial background check on him, she'd also spoken to his mother and should have followed up on that aspect. While a regular agent couldn't be expected to pick up nuances that there was a dysfunctional homelife or abusive relationship between father and son, DeWayne expressed the belief that a profiler should be held to a higher standard of analysis.

Plus, he pointed out, she would have learnt that Hayes was not at the hotel but he'd given his credit card to a bunch of kids so he could hole up in his former high school swimming pool. As a profiler, missing such an obvious pointer that he was suicidally depressed was concerning. The IA agent questioned if this was due to her lack of sleep.

Morrow rolled his eyes. Further evidence if it was required that Agent Todd was a piss-poor profiler – although he didn't think she should be claiming to be one. These observations gave greater credence to the psychologist's report and recommendations that Agent Todd attend profiler school to get proper training to be able to function as a real psychological profiler.

Still, Agent DeWayne had raised a valid point about fatigue. He'd gone on to outline that McGee was also not at home when called into Bethesda at roughly 0330 hours, although he hadn't actually complained out loud about being tired. And then there was Gibbs; when DiNozzo contacted him to let him know they had a case, he was up working on his boat and arrived on-scene escorted by his mysterious redhead in her silver BMW convertible.

The IA agent had concluded that most of the team (which had been on call) were failing to ensure they had sufficient sleep and that it was a requirement to be able to do their jobs effectively. Morrow knew that it was highly probable that the JAG investigation would explore this aspect too. Morrow was guessing that Gibbs was going to argue that as a Marine, he was trained to function on very little sleep but even if you accepted that line of reasoning, it certainly didn't apply to McGee or Agent Todd.

As Agent DeWayne pointed out, they were both rookie investigators who made mistakes even without being fatigued. Since he'd attached a plethora of empirical studies on sleep deprivation/ physical fatigue in the workplace, demonstrating its deleterious effects on performance, declaring it was equally as dangerous as being under the influence of drugs or alcohol in an appendix to the report, it was difficult to ignore the issue. Any civil actions taken by the Hayes family surely wouldn't.

Sighing, Tom continued reading the rest of the report, coming to the section that contained a list of the IA's recommendations in light of the exhaustive review of the investigation. Morrow knew that some people would label the probe as harsh, that investigators weren't robots, that they made mistakes. Yet, there were supposed to be fail-safes and protocols in place to prevent catastrophic failures from occurring.

And yet they did… which was why he ordered the review.

DeWayne had listed 5 major recommendations to prevent these failures from reoccurring:

Backup ME on call 24/7 to handle forensic results regarding open investigations if the relevant medical examiner wasn't contacted within a reasonable timeframe.

Mandatory Ethics and Professional Workplace Relationships retraining for all NCIS staff asap.

Stricter supervision of probationary agents by supervisors including sighting and reviewing of their work product during investigations.

i) Agents and NCIS staff directly involved in investigations need to be reminded that physical fatigue is the equivalent of working under the influence of drugs or alcohol and therefore will not be condoned. Impaired agents, regardless of it being due to sleep deprivation, drugs (OTC, prescribed, recreational or illicit) or alcohol, endanger lives. It jeopardises convictions due to risks of increased errors and contamination of evidence and testimony. Employees are expected to be fit for work and steps need to be in place to enforce these standards. Suggest random mental acuity and reaction testing analogous with drug/alcohol tests.

ii) Team supervisors and managers need to promote a safe workplace by ensuring that employees receive adequate rest and meal breaks. They also need to be allocated time off for sufficient periods of rest. If a case is deemed urgent enough for a team to work it around the clock, then agents should work in shifts, two on and two sleeping. For cases where it is deemed necessary to work the case 24/7 (a determination that a manager, not the team leader should be empowered to make) then agents should be permitted to sleep in a designated room equipped for sleeping, not resting under their desks. Except in extraordinary circumstances, agents should be sent home to sleep, e.g., it is unsafe for them to drive due to fatigue.

iii) Team leaders should be expected to model and encourage a healthy work/life balance that allows employees to have a proper family/social life away from work.

Inservice training on gender-neutral standards and behaviour in the workplace with a special emphasis on the more mature members of staff.

DeWayne had commented at the end of the list, "I'm frustrated that in 2005 I am having to make the above recommendations. I'd also caution that while education of employees is crucial, without sanctions to discipline staff who cannot or will not comply, any education program will not modify the attitudes and actions of the very people we need to target to effect meaningful changes we require. The carrot and the stick are what's needed!"

Tom empathised with the sentiments he'd expressed. It was unfathomable in the 21st century that they would need to hold in-service training of managers to remind them that their team members needed to have a life outside of work and required time off to eat and sleep. As he opened up and read the HR report, finding similar suggestions, including retraining for team leaders whose interpersonal skills ignored not just NCIS standards but Department of Defence requirements, he knew that they were alluding specifically to Gibbs and those damned head slaps.

Sure enough, there was a section dedicated to them. He winced when he read in black and white Gibbs' standard justification for his action, "A slap to the face is humiliating, a smack to the back of the head was a wakeup call."

Equally cringe-worthy were quotes from agent exposed to his abuse such as, "It's a sign of affection" or "He does it to help us focus." Most troubling though was Agent DiNozzo frequently responded to the head slaps by thanking Gibbs for hitting him. As the HR report noted, it was disturbingly reminiscent of victims of domestic violence who oftentimes felt their abuser was justified in punishing them or that they somehow deserved it.

As the report's author Delores Bromstead noted, investigative teams could and did become highly insular due to the amount of time they spent together. Their shared experiences (too often featuring traumatic and violent situations) plus having to work under a high level of pressure helped to solidify their perception of familial bonds that weren't strictly real or healthy. It also left the team vulnerable to toxic and abusive relationships, even more so if the team leader had an autocratic style of leadership.

Good Lord, this was such a mess! It was going to take a massive amount of attitude adjustment to set everything to rights. Morrow just hoped he was up to the challenge because if not that would mean that Ensign Hayes had died in vain and that must not happen.

One week later:

Tom Morrow had had numerous consultations with SECNAV and General Cresswell, the current Judge Advocate General over the last week. The JAG investigation was still ongoing as it encompassed Dr Byers conduct and the situation onboard the USS Kennedy, regarding Ensign Hayes and Commander Dornan. They'd decided not to wait until the JAG investigation concluded but to begin implementing the recommendations of the various NCIS departments asap.

It was agreed to support Dr Ryerson's decision to delay Special Agent Gibbs field clearance, pending his willingness to undergoing therapy for his pathological anger. Should he agree to do so, he would be barred from supervisory positions until he could demonstrate a willingness to follow and enforce agency rules and regulations, particularly chain of command.

Predicably Gibbs had hit the roof and refused to cooperate. He'd threatened to dig up some rotting corpses he had buried, but SECNAV had warned him that there was some of his own that he and former agent Mike Franks wouldn't want to be exhumed, if he decided to go down that path. Morrow was shocked when Gibbs backed down, having grown noticeably paler and the director wondered what would cause him to back down so swiftly. Not only back down but Gibbs agreed to take two weeks of leave time to go away and think about what he was going to do. If he wanted to continue at NCIS, Jethro was told he needed to toe the line and pull his head in. SECNAV warned him that he wasn't irreplaceable, and that Ensign Hayes father still had a lot of influence in the navy, and he blamed Gibbs and Dornan for his son's death.

Dornan was dead but Gibbs was very much alive and made an excellent scapegoat for a grieving family. SECNAV was at heart a politician who would through him under the bus if push came to shove!

Despite a huge portion of the blame resting on Captain Hayes shoulders for bullying his son unmercifully, there was plenty of brass and senior officers who'd clashed with Gibbs over the years, supporting his desire to rein the agent in. One of Cpt Hayes most vocal supporters on the matter was Admiral John McGee. Hayes had been McGee's XO before going on to receive his own command back in the nineties.

Admiral McGee was now agitating to have his son, Agent Tim McGee removed from the MCRT, claiming that Gibbs was a renegade and a cowboy who would destroy his son's career by association. SECNAV gave the director a heads up that the admiral wanted him to create an NCIS liaison position in Navy Cybercrimes or Naval Intelligence for his only son.

Tom remembered Gibbs had once likened himself to his relatives who he'd described as horse traders when trying to manipulate Judge Advocate, Cmdr. Bud Roberts. Jethro had succeeded in getting him to sign off on some dodgy search warrants by pretending to want access to the Armed Forces Registry, which was illegal since the DNA database was set up to identify bodies of armed service members, no other purpose.

Jethro told Agent Todd on her very first case, "You never work the system when you can work the people."

It seemed that Admiral McGee possessed a similar mindset, plus he had enough influence to pull it off his plan. Tom doubted very much that the Admiral was all that cut up over Ensign Hayes demise who he'd likely never met. Plus, he didn't strike Tom as the sort of man to have empathy for a troubled young man like Evan, but he wasn't above using him to get what he wanted. Morrow figured he should probably expect that the MCRT would be down a probationary agent in the not-too-distant future as a liaison to the navy. Either that or Timothy McGee would resign to escape his father's clutches.

Faced with the shifting of support and SECNAV's cryptic threat, Gibbs had meekly taken his two weeks leave to contemplate his future. Morrow resolved that should Gibbs come back under the conditions which had been set, he would have to do some digging and find out what Gibbs had buried that saw him back off so fast. It must be big, and it must have been withheld from his personnel record.

He'd inherited Gibbs when he took over as Director of the agency seven years ago. What he wouldn't have given to have the sort of intel on the former Marine that had effectively emasculated the mean old junkyard dog, turning him into SECNAV's neutered toy poodle during his time as director. It would have lowered his stress levels significantly.

One of Gibbs' rules was if you made a mess, you cleaned it up, but like many of his other infamous rules, the bastard rarely followed through on it when it applied to himself. Particularly when he ruffled feathers in the various LEOs and the other alphabet agencies. When it came down to face-to-face clean ups, DiNozzo was left to soothe pissed off cops and shitty agents, while Tom handled the disgruntled directors and peeved police chiefs.

Now after a lunch with his lovely wife, Lynnie and a pleasant stroll along the Anacostia River in the sunshine he'd felt fortified for round two of implementing the recommendations. He had a meeting with Agent Todd and Human Resources to discuss her return to active duties. She wasn't thrilled about having to continue to attend bi-weekly counselling sessions but seemed resigned. After all, she wasn't stupid; with her flouting of fraternization regs with the POTUS ball carrier which had been revealed embarrassingly during an attempt to assassinate him, NCIS was her last chance as a federal agent.

Knowing that her sister was a psychologist, she couldn't have been too surprised, but he suspected her ire had more to do with having to continue to see Dr Ryerson than the counselling per se. Of course, when he broached the last of the conditional requirements for her return to field status, like Gibbs, Todd had rather predictably hit the roof.

"SECNAV has approved recommendations for you to attend Baby Profiler School," he told her, choosing not to try to soft-soap it as Ms Bromstead handed her the course curriculum to study.

"This is outrageous. It's an insult. I'm already a highly trained profiler." she told him, her face turning dark red in anger.

"If this recommendation is coming from Dr Ryerson, a) she isn't a profiler, so she isn't qualified to judge me and b) she hates me because I don't agree with her life choices. While I would agree to attend advanced profile training, this is just an introductory level training course," she said having flicked through the brochure dismissively."

Morrow exchanged exasperated looks with the HR representative. "After Dr Ryerson expressed her concerns, I sought out experts to get their opinions. I talked to your former supervisor at USSS, William Baer who confirmed that your profiler training was limited to crowd threat assessment and profiling of terrorist threats against the president.

"He also stated that if you hadn't resigned after Air Force One, you would have been terminated. He said to tell you that it wasn't just that you shat in your own nest by ignoring fraternization rules, which was pure idiocy, by the way, Agent Todd. He said that you had failed to identify a terrorist who'd you'd vetted because he appeared to be a white journalist expressing conservative Christian views and values. He said your narrow-minded prejudicial belief system made you a liability that could have cost the life of President Bush except that Agent Gibbs bulldozed his way on board and saved the day."

She went to argue with him, but he indicated she stay silent with a stern shake of his head and his directorial glare.

"That jells with your massive screw up with Suzanne McNeil. She was a white female amnesiac, a victim who after mentioning that she remembered being in church was suddenly Mother Teresa. You let your guard down and she killed the CEO of a German contractor working with the US navy and killed herself because she had an affair with a married man. I could go on, but I don't have time," he said stonily.

"But getting back to a review of your skills and performance, I asked Aaron Hotchner, the unit chief on the FBI's behavioural analysis unit to look over your file. He recommended that we send you to Baby Profiler School, his term, not ours. He pointed out that a trained profiler should have caught a clue about Ensign Hayes suicidal state. Now maybe you were too sleep-deprived as Internal Affairs has speculated due to your dating habits. We know you weren't at home despite being on call, but I think most of the blame for you failing to profile his mental state is that you aren't a qualified profiler any more than a person with a few undergraduate units in psychology could be called a psychologist."

"How dare you investigate my private life. That's an invasion of privacy."

Morrow glared. "The whole damned team was under intense scrutiny, Agent Todd. IA investigated what you all had for dinner and how much alcohol you drank. An innocent young sailor was killed by NCIS and his family and SECNAV want answers. I don't give a damn about what you do after hours so long as it's legal and it doesn't impede your ability to do your job," he told her furiously.

"Just to be clear, not ensuring you have had adequate amounts of sleep before coming to work qualifies as being my business, especially when you carry a gun, Todd. Which is why HR is currently preparing in-service training to remind people about what should be blatantly obvious – tired agents are like working under the influence of drugs or alcohol."

Shortly afterwards, he'd sent her on her way and smiled grimly at Ms Bromstead.

"Go ahead. I can see you are dying to say something."

"Wasn't the baby profiler school a bit below the belt?"

Smirking a little, he said, "Yeah, but that was the point, I think. SSA Hotchner specifically suggested I use that phrase to break through what he called Agent Todd's bumptiousness after he profiled her. Said it was likely to be one of her chief stumbling blocks to trying to improve her profiling skills, which he described as kindergarten level. He said that it was much riskier for her and NCIS having her employed than having no skills at all."

She'd nodded, seemingly satisfied that there had been a rationale to the disrespect. "Very well, I bow to Agent Hotchner's sterling reputation."

Tom wasn't sure if she was referring to his status as the Unit Manager of the BAU or his former career as a state prosecutor. He did have an enviable reputation as a sober and professional individual. As he watched her departure a few minutes later, he sighed, hoping to get his paperwork completed since he was taking his wife to the opera tonight and he'd better not be late. He settled down to reading and signing various documents Cynthia had left on his desk at lunchtime.

At 1600 he was in the middle of reviewing files of agents who could replace Gibbs on the MCRT. Even if he did agree to work to overcome his pathological anger, that wasn't going to happen overnight, and Dr Ryerson refused to let him go back in the field before there was significant progress made. Plus, he was beginning to see that Jethro simply wasn't suited to be a team leader even IF he requalified which was far from a certainty right now. Which left him pondering on what to do with him – possibly place him on a new cold case unit – but that was putting the horse before the cart. He wasn't sure that Jethro would be back.

As the light on his office intercom buzzed and simultaneously flashed, he flicked a switch, asking his executive assistant what she wanted. When she told him that Dr Mallard was wishing to speak with him and he seemed rather insistent, Morrow groaned silently before telling Cynthia to send him in. He was still debating how to handle the situation with Dr Mallard when a perturbed looking medical examiner made his way into the office and withdrew an envelope from his pocket.

Placing it on the director's desk, he said, "I'm sorry to disturb you, but I wish to tender my resignation, Director. I'll stay on until you can organise to replace me of course."

Wow! Tom really did not see that coming.

Walking over to the bar to pour them both a shot of whiskey, he handed one to Ducky. "Have a seat, Donald. I must admit that you have caught me by surprise. Can I ask what prompted your resignation, out of the blue?"

Ducky looked uncomfortable. "Several things, Thomas. I must admit that initially, I found some of the questions that Special Agent DeWayne was asking regarding the unfortunate case concerning Commander Dorn's death to be quite rude and impertinent. It put me into rather a nasty mood, I fear.

"I found myself discussing the matter with my trusted colleague, Elmo Poke, berating the impertinence of a non-medical individual daring to second-guess my actions. Dr Poke decided I needed a swift kick in the pants, reminding me of the Hippocratic oath I swore to uphold when I became a practitioner of medicine, which is First Do No Harm. Rather like the Marine Corps Sempre Fidelis," he said broodingly.

Morrow nodded, pleased to finally see that Ducky had achieved a level of insight into his behaviour. Keeping his body language relaxed but attentive, he encouraged the ME to continue.

"I neglected that oath when I ignored standard operating procedures and asked Dr Byers to go on a date with me. Then I deliberately went off the grid while forensic results were still pending, knowingly ensuring that Abigail had no way of contacting me." He shook his head in disgust.

"I'm the Chief Medical Examiner; I should have remained contactable or found someone who could cover for me. I allowed my libido to override my ethics and responsibilities and the result was that Ensign Hayes was hounded for a crime he didn't commit – indeed there was no crime. He is dead and I was wining and dining the person who set him up for something she'd done because she wasn't prepared to take responsibility for her actions."

He took a swallow of scotch, looking bereft and suddenly every one of his sixty plus years, leaning forward in his chair. "I should be held responsible for the part I played in Evan Hayes death."

Morrow stared at the ME, rather shocked at his sudden turnaround. What was going on?

"I agree that you played a significant role in the mess, Ducky, but to be clear, there were others who also contributed to the disaster, too. Commander Dornan contributed, plus Ensign Hayes' shipmates who knew how hard of a time he was having, yet they didn't report it. He had a very troubled relationship with his father which apparently was not a secret and last but hardly least, Dr Byers seemed all too quick to forget her Hippocratic Oath too.

At the mention of Dr Byers, Ducky looked mortified, as so he should.

"Plus, Gibbs' team dropped the ball as well. So, I'd like to know, did the powers that be exert undue pressure on you to resign?" Morrow was curious, wondering if he'd make a convenient scapegoat.

"No, rest assured, Director, apart from Dr Poke, who did not suggest I should resign, I haven't discussed this with anyone. Elmo did tell me I was an old fool," he grimaced. "He was quite furious when I told him that I'd contemplated asking Caitlin to attend the opera with me after learning that Janice would not be attending."

'Because she was being detained for faking a murder scene,' Tom mentally filled in the vital omission with a grimace.

"Elmo scolded me severely, he said it was extremely callous and insensitive, considering that she had just shot and killed young Ensign Hayes. I must admit, that when Elmo got on my case, I was forced to concede that it was incredibly bad taste; I like to think that I'm rather an empathetic fellow," he said looking distressed.

Deciding to be honest with the ME, Tom told him, "Truthfully, I found it to be rather out of character, Ducky. I expect Gibbs to be tone-deaf when it comes down to dealing with what is emotional and social etiquette, but you are usually much more sensitive. You've seen off in the last few months – that little scene you and Gibbs staged for Roland Alan Moore in Autopsy was so far over the line, not to mention the dubious issue of chain-of-custody over Lieutenant Jane Doe was so atypical of the man I thought I knew."

Ducky looked ashamed. "Yes, you're right. Elmo called me on the Jane Doe case, although I didn't discuss the Commander Shields bomber. Too ashamed I guess."

"Why, Ducky?"

"I don't honestly know; except I find myself becoming angry quite a lot and I am having trouble sleeping. With Mother prowling around at all hours of the day and night I often get woken up, but I fear that I'm sleeping even more poorly than usual."

Tom wondered if Dr Mallard could be experiencing PTSD as a result of being held hostage in Autopsy when Haswari had shot his previous assistant, Gerald Jackson. Tom grimaced, even the most resilient of individuals would be deeply affected by that a being locked in an autopsy drawer.

"Donald, have you had a medical examination recently? Before accepting your resignation, I think you should undergo a full physical and psychological examination since I know you didn't have one after the hostage situation."

While Tom thought that Ducky retiring might be an excellent idea for NCIS and him – particularly if he was battling PTSD, it would no doubt benefit the agency if they could call him in as a consultant or an expert witness, given his wealth of experience. Making him the scapegoat would call into question other cases he'd handled and would be an extremely short-sighted solution. Taking a medical retirement was a far better option all around.

Tom knew that nothing stayed the same, change was inevitable. Still, it seemed that some pretty big changes were upon them. Ducky retiring and Gibbs might never make it back into the field. Agent Todd having to attend real profiler training would be a damned good thing and what of McGee? Would he end up as a liaison to the navy or not?

Only time would tell. The one thing that the director knew was that law enforcement personnel must be held to the highest ethically, morally, and legally standards even when the price for failing to live up to those standards was if individuals had to be sacrificed. The loss of such influential personnel as Ducky or Gibbs would surely serve as a cautionary tale to others entertaining thoughts of carrying out corrupt actions, underscoring the fact that not only were they not above the law but that individuals and organisations in positions of power had to be held to higher standards.

Finis

A/N:

I decided not to deconstruct the actual confrontation/ shootout between Gibbs, Todd, and Evan Hayes. I would be interested in hearing subject matter experts' opinions about Gibbs' action in holstering his gun when Hayes is still armed. If Gibbs hadn't done so, was it feasible for someone of his level of firearms expertise to have taken a non-lethal shot to disarm him? Of course, tangentially, how likely is it that Gibbs would have stopped to put on his bullet proof vest first?

Roland Alan Moore was the terrorist bomb maker in Terminal Leave (s02e06)

Elmo Poke was the coroner who appeared in Yankee White – the first episode of NCIS as one of Ducky's cronies.

APA American Psychological Association

The episode where Gibbs tells Todd he comes from a long line of horse traders takes place during Hung Out To Dry s01e02. In the scene he psychologically torments Bud so adeptly that he never even realises he's being played.

Character name trivia: Over the years I've noticed that the writers don't use a name generator when coming up with names for their characters. I know sometimes they use the names of members of the crew, but another favourite strategy seems to be recycling a few tried-and-true names over the years.

Melissa Dorn [My Two Left Feet]

Commander Dornan [Heartbreak]

Agent Ned Dornaget

Jackson Gibbs (Jack)

Jackie Vance

Jacqueline Sloan (Jack)

Gerald Jackson

Delilah Fielding

Jo Ann Fielding