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.

9. Chapter 9

A/N: This is a tag written in 2016. I've recently added significantly to some parts of it; therefore, the style may jump around a bit. I've tried to merge it but I'm not obsessing about it as much as I normally would as I'm working on a new multichapter story atm. Plus, I've also completed the first draft of the Chained tag. I've honestly been trying to resist starting a new story that has been plaguing me for months now, trying to focus on writing more TATM tags but finally, I caved and began plotting, working on a timeline, and researching what I hope will be my QB entry for 2022.

So, I'm just going to put this out there, even if it's far from perfect. Basically, I amped up the punishments section significantly since writing it. I've come to realise that I…erm that Tom has become much less forgiving and quite a bit more vindictive since I first started out writing season one back in 2015. I suspect that Tom handing out harsher consequences for bad behaviour has a lot to do with there being a deplorable lack of consequences in RL as people ignore the rule of law and the likely long-term effects that will have on justice. Also, a mea culpa - I wasn't able to stick strictly to the TATM formula that I created for this one. There is a partial fix-it before it got broke, in this tag where Tom steps in and prevents an injustice from occurring. I have always been incensed by Laura Rowens' ham-fisted treatment and interrogation - just because the rapist didn't get to carry out the assault, and not through want of trying, Laura was a victim of a violent crime. Anyhoo, rest assured there is a second elephant in the room; a procedural screwup that will be addressed post-investigation and a more minor one, so I've still stuck to the rules, mostly.

Thanks again to Aussiefan70 for all her assistance with this one. Thanks for everyone who left comments for the last tag, although I'm frequently remiss about responding, I do love to read them and have the best of intentions re replying. (To make it up to you, I'm finishing up something extra that I hope to post asap).

Series: There's Always Tom Morrow

Title: Check Your Prejudices at the Door

Episode Title: Forced Entry

Characters: Tom Morrow, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Anthony DiNozzo, Caitlin Todd, Timothy McGee, Abby Sciuto, Ric Balboa, Cynthia Sommers, Marla Sweeten (OC) Arthur Townsend (OC) David Rossi (mentions of)

Check Your Prejudices at the Door

Director Morrow couldn't believe his ears. Had Agent Todd really just snatched evidence out of DiNozzo's hands and told him he couldn't read it?

Where the hell did the junior agent get off ordering around her senior field agent? She had just finished serving her probationary year and she hadn't exactly covered herself in glory during that period either. There'd been more than a few screw-ups, not the least of which had been the Suzanne McNeill fiasco. Even now, she was still very much a neophyte in investigating crimes and yet she acted as if she was DiNozzo's superior.

Besides their current case, exactly how many rape cases had Agent Todd worked on for her to merit telling DiNozzo what evidence he could and couldn't have access to? As far as Tom knew – that would be none, zero, zilch. Gibbs certainly hadn't been exaggerating when he said she had balls, but it really wasn't enough to make for a good agent, especially one with genuine aspirations to become a competent investigator.

Not for the first time (and it wouldn't be the last) Tom had to question Gibbs' judgement when it came to him recruiting her. Her absolute conviction that she was right about things she knew naught about or were patently wrong boded ill for her career as a federal investigator.

An investigator started off with little or no information about who, what, where, why, when, and how a crime went down. They needed to approach the case with an open mind, be willing to follow leads that sometimes were fruitful and other times were not. They also needed to be able to recognise what was a legitimate lead, and what was a false trail but do so in a timely way and be willing to change direction if required. To acknowledge they were wrong and go back a few steps. Investigators even had to be prepared to go right back to the beginning, to start over again if that was what was necessary to solve the case. Unfortunately, Morrow wasn't convinced that Agent Todd possessed the mental dexterity to acknowledge her mistakes so she could take up a new investigative track.

And that there was a very large problem for the director. In fact, big balls actually made it far more likely that you'd end up tripping over your big…er feet. Plus, Gibbs already had massively sized…feet so they didn't need two agents with oversized egos…and feet on the MCRT. They needed people who could think fast on their feet, who could do a one hundred and eighty degree turn and come at an investigation from a completely different direction. An investigator like DiNozzo!

Tom scowled as Agent DiNozzo seemed to take the junior agent's insubordinate behaviour as a given. Damnit! Jethro had a lot to answer for, creating junior agents who blithely ignored the chain of command. Tom could help but wonder at times if the former Marine was deliberately trying to have cases thrown out of court?

Gibbs had lots of latitude – partly because he was a former Marine and pretty chummy with Secretary Davenport. Still, while there was some leeway, this mess with the team was ridiculous. Ever since handpicking Todd and McGee for his team he'd been effectively blocking his 2ICs attempts to enforce the chain of command with the two newbies. It was strange because when Blackadder and Dobbs were on Gibbs' team, he had no problem with Tony acting as their superior. He'd even left him in charge; handling the Harmon Rabb/ Lieutenant Wheeler murder case while Jethro went to Rota, Spain to interrogate a wanted terrorist.

The director wasn't sure what had changed the status quo, although he had a few ideas. Dobbs and Blackadder had been assigned to his team and Jethro had gotten rid of them both as he did sooner or later to everyone. All except his previous SFA, Stan Burley who'd requested a transfer. Well, he'd chased Stan away too, it just took five years to achieve that feat, which made Burley an exception to the rule.

Who would have expected the ex- congressman's aide to have so much grit and staying power? Maybe working with politicians who dissemble, grift and cheat was a good training ground for agents who worked for Gibbs. Finally, though, Jethro had succeeded in giving Agent Burley a stomach ulcer and he'd shipped out to become an agent afloat.

Now that Gibbs had his own handpicked team, he seemed to be getting off on playing cruel mind games with them. He was a genius at sussing out people's weaknesses and insecurities and exploiting them, which was fine when employed to chase down dirtbags, not so much when he used it against his own people. Oh, Gibbs claimed that engendering competitiveness between them made them better investigators, but Tom thought that was a crock of shit. He'd come to believe that Jethro simply enjoyed messing with the young agent's minds and calling the shots.

With DiNozzo, it wasn't that hard to figure out that his Achilles' heel included massive issues with abandonment and being ignored. His mother died when he was eight, his father ignored or forgot him, remarried, and effectively replaced his own flesh and blood with stepmothers. Women who wouldn't know what nurturing meant if it leapt up and bit them on the ass, but then they were young, rich, and frivolous, not looking to play happy families with a grieving boy. The final nail in the coffin was when his father disowned him and sent him to military school when he was twelve.[1]

So, Gibbs' dumb-ass actions: not allowing him to perform his duties as SFA, suddenly calling him by his last name where he used to call him Tony, mocking him and allowing the juniors to be openly insubordinate were going to contribute to making him feel like his job was under threat. Hell, it would make Tom feel redundant and unwanted and he didn't have deep-seated issues with abandonment to contend with.

Morrow wondered if his odd reaction to DiNozzo since being permitted to choose his other team members had anything to do with Gibbs feeling inept. As a classic alpha personality, he could hardly fail to recognise in Tony DiNozzo, a much younger and worthy successor to his place as leader as a gifted investigator. It could explain why Jethro had deliberately thwarted the SFA's attempts to exert authority over the newcomers while brazenly taking advantage of his skill set so different from his own.

If that was Gibbs' motivation, it was no surprise then that making him compete with two rookies (their combined investigative experience was a fraction of DiNozzo's) was bound to end in disaster. It was entirely predictable that it would make someone who second-guessed himself as DiNozzo was wont to do, despite his inherent and honed abilities. Nor was it surprising that he'd question his long-term viability on Gibbs' team. By sending the message to his two highly ambitious and arrogant junior team members that Gibbs didn't support him as their superior, Jethro got to take advantage of DiNozzo without feeling threatened by him. For Jethro, it was a win-win situation.

For the director, what made Gibbs' behaviour even more baffling was that Gibbs and Tony had worked alone for a year after Blackadder's departure and their relationship had been far more akin to that of partners. Tom knew that most police detectives investigated cases in pairs and while they had often had a senior partner, it was a much more collegial relationship, analogous to the one between Gibbs and his young protégé had back then. So, for DiNozzo to suddenly be ridiculed by his partner, effectively neutering him, and treating him the same as complete newbies, that would be pushing all the former detective's hot buttons. It was undoubtedly creating a fresh mass of insecurities.

Tom had also noted that since the 'hand-picked agents' had joined the MCRT, DiNozzo had dialled up the class clown act and dumb jock skirt chaser to the nth degree. He suspected that the young Anthony had tried the same technique (being out and out brash, outrageous, or even obnoxious) as a kid, trying to force his father to notice him amidst the abuse and neglect. Not to mention having to compete with all the jealous mistresses, and various indifferent stepmothers his father married for their assets, physical and financial.

According to Chris Pacci's research during their background check, none of these women had any real desire to play mother to a troubled boy. Tom was angry at them for the additional damage they'd inflicted in addition to his father, but he was also pissed at Gibbs because he knew about DiNozzo's childhood, thanks to the background check before he was hired. In Tom's opinion, Jethro used that knowledge against him, so he'd feel unsure and insecure about his place on their expanded MCRT. Maybe it was a conscious choice, maybe it was subconscious but either way, it was downright cruel, and he would have thought it beneath a gunnery sergeant in the USMC.

There were times when Jethro was more than the bastard who revelled in the well-deserved moniker; he could be a sadistic jerk who Morrow truly despised. Tom was not a violent man, preferring to find other ways to solve situations whenever possible, but in this matter, he found himself sorely tempted to shoot Gibbs.

Morrow had to hand it to the master of black ops, the cold-hearted bastard was brilliantly adept at psychological mind fucks. There were times when the director was convinced that the senior supervisory agent was probably a sociopath or had sociopathic tendencies.

Signing deeply in exasperation, he decided right then that while he usually didn't interfere in cases, not believing in micromanaging staff, he would make an exception this time. In his defence, if he didn't, he could see where this restricting of evidence was headed – straight to Disaster-Ville. He'd make damned sure that Agent Todd was not the only agent to analyse the data from the emails allegedly sent by Mrs Rowens from her home computer. They needed a much more experienced set of eyes to evaluate the content and not just examine them from the technological side.

He knew that despite being a profiler for the Secret Service, Caitlyn Todd had shown a distressing inability to maintain objectivity and a sense of perspective. Far too often she would over-identify with families, victims, even with dirtbags. It made it difficult if not impossible for her to remain impartial and evaluate people and data on its merits.

Tom felt impelled to see to it that her emotionalism of Jeremy Davidson didn't drag the team off course with this investigation. He could already anticipate how easy it would be for her to play the typical blame the rape victim game, although he was stunned. He hadn't expected a female agent would get suckered into this outdated bias of the 'poor guy' getting led on by some oversexed bitch. Director Morrow wanted to be very sure that the Marine wife really wasn't the victim before they jumped to conclusions or worse, rushed to accuse her.

Striding decisively into the forensic laboratory, he noted that Probationary Agent McGee was also in the lab with Dr Sciuto, Todd and DiNozzo. Gibbs was no doubt off on another of his damned coffee runs. No wonder spent hours working on a damned boat in his basement.

In no mood to beat around the bush, he fixed the agents with his directorial glare, cultivated over the years he'd been in the big chair.

"Agents, I believe that we need to get a few things straight since you seem confused. Special Agent Todd, you have absolutely no right to restrict Special Agent DiNozzo's access to the evidence in a case being investigated by the team. Your conduct towards your senior field agent is out of line."

He stared at the profiler who looked shocked. "You will give him copies of all the emails that you are currently analysing. Let me make it abundantly clear to you - he is your superior and when he tells you to jump, then you jump. The only comment that I expect to hear is if you need to ask how damn high that he wants you to jump. Do you understand?"

"But Sir, he just wants to drool over these disgusting pornographic emails." Cate protested indignantly.

"And you know this how?"

"Because he's a sexist pig who sleazes over women and treats them as sex objects. He thinks he's God's gift to women."

Exchanging a rueful look with DiNozzo he growled at her, "Naturally you're prepared to back up these statements and lodge a formal complaint to HR with specific examples instead of spewing vague insinuations. If not, then keep those opinions to yourself. I will remind you again that Agent DiNozzo is your superior and therefore he is entitled to give you orders which you will obey or face suspension…" Seeing Todd was looking like she was bursting to say something, he scowled at the brunette agent.

"You have something to say, Agent Todd?" he asked her sharply.

"Gibbs told me on the second case we worked on after I joined the team that Tony can't tell me what to do," she protested smugly.

"Well, I hate to break it to you, but Gibbs is wrong, and I'll be telling him what I told you. DiNozzo is Senior Field Agent, so he gets to give orders to you and McGee. Gibbs gets to give orders to you both and DiNozzo. I'm the director of the agency and I get to give orders to you, McGee, DiNozzo and Gibbs and you all have to jump. That's how the chain of command works, Special Agent Todd. After working your way up at the US Secret Service, I'd be shocked if you don't already know that."

Looking like she'd swallowed a lemon, Cate nodded reluctantly. McGee looked like a deer caught in the headlights and even DiNozzo looked a little stunned.

"Good, now that we've established the mechanics of how the chain of command works, which is critical to the pursuit of justice for our stakeholders, I am curious about something. Please enlighten me…exactly how many rape cases have you all investigated, Probationary Agent McGee?"

"Um…ah…n…none, Sir. But I did graduate t…top of my FLETC class and we studied sexual assaults and rapes, S…S…Sir," he stuttered nervously.

"Hmm, is that so," Tom drawled, glaring at the rookie agent before glancing over at Todd.

"And Agent Todd, what about your experience in working sexual-based crimes?"

"Well…this is the first one but…"

"What about you, Agent DiNozzo?" Tom interrupted her.

Tony appeared to be thinking before he began speaking. "Unfortunately, quite a few when I was working Vice. Plus, quite a few as an unie and at a rough guess, I'd say that at least 15 to 20 percent of cases I worked as a homicide detective had a sexual basis. Then there were the ones that weren't presented as rapes but as physical assaults because the victim was too scared or embarrassed to report it as a sexual assault. I'm not sure exactly how many, Director."

Tom regarded him appraising. "How 'bout we just go with a lot, then?"

DiNozzo shrugged. "Okay, that works."

"Why wouldn't a woman report rape if it happened?" McGee asked, his tone typically sceptical.

Morrow found himself irritated that a rookie could be so condescending to an agent clearly possessing so much additional experience. Was his hubris that massive and if so, was it generalised or only specific to DiNozzo?

Tony raised his eyebrows at Morrow quizzically. Tom nodded to indicate he should answer.

"Lots of reasons, Probie. A wife protecting her husband because she's afraid he'll kill her if she rats him out, a prostitute too scared of her pimp to report him. Women from certain cultures whose families would blame them or shame them even if they are the victim. Sometimes, they even end up dead, so it isn't all that surprising that they hide it rather than report the rape."

He folded his arms and stared at McGee and Todd. "Let's not forget it not just woman, men get raped too, contrary to common misconceptions. Guys are often too ashamed to admit they were raped – they believe it makes them less masculine, that they must be gay, or they think that people will assume they're gay if they report it. And if they are gay, they think people with think they were asking for it"

He scowled, "And they aren't always wrong, even some of the old-style cops are ignorant and bigoted; I could fill a book with all the different reasons why survivors don't report sexual assaults." Tony explained, thinking of all the rape cases he'd seen in the nine years he'd been in law enforcement.

"Quite so, DiNozzo and thank you for making my point so clearly, which just in case your colleagues missed it, is that you are the most experienced investigator on the team in terms of investigating sexual assault. Maybe in the agency with the exception of our Family Crimes Unit and maybe not even then.

"When it comes to male sexual assault, you've worked for Vice at Philly PD and seen more than your fair share of male sex workers who were raped. This is why I want you to analyse the emails that Agents Gibbs and Todd found on Laura Rowens computer."

"But I'm the psychological profiler, Director." Agent Todd sounded quite affronted.

He was forced to bite his tongue hard, to stop him retorting sarcastically that based on her results so far, that she wasn't very good at it.

"Yes, I'm aware of that Agent Todd, but I have noted in reviewing your work that you have an unfortunate tendency to identify too strongly with victims, their families and even suspects with kind eyes. Identification and projection are two factors that interfere with objectivity and drawing sound conclusions. Good profilers and investigators need to check their own prejudices at the door," he told her meaningfully as she looked affronted.

"Aside from which, profilers, profile. They don't investigate, they review the evidence and give objective inferences to investigators."

"The agents at the Behavioural Analysis Unit profile and investigate," she argued with more than a smidgeon of conceit. Morrow caught the tacit, like me and felt like snorting.

"They are highly trained and very experienced investigators in addition to being profilers; you're not a seasoned investigator," he pointed out mildly. "Plus, they have multiple profilers who can watch out for each other and ensure that a profiler doesn't lose their objectivity. So, I want DiNozzo to analyse the evidence too," he said with finality – the subject closed.

Turning to the still shellshocked senior field agent, determined to ram home the message that DiNozzo was a skilled experienced investigator he said, "Are you planning on analysing the evidence using SCAN?"

Tony nodded affirmatively. "Yes, I intended to do so asap, Director. I'll get some of her other emails for comparative purposes, too."

"Easy peasy, Agent Tony, Sir," Abby saluted facetiously, as she set about carrying out the request.

The director nodded at her approvingly. "Excellent, Doctor Sciuto. Hopefully, we can avoid making any impetuous mistakes. I'd hate for NCIS to unjustly accuse Major Rowens' wife of cheating on her husband to set up an innocent man to act out some perverse sexual fantasy based purely on something you found on her computer."

Looking hard at the three individuals he said, "We need to be one hundred and ten percent sure she is guilty before we do that, because if we're wrong, we risk further traumatising a young woman who is a victim," he said forebodingly as Cate sniffed in disapproval.

After a heavy silence, he smiled professionally, "Keep up the good work, DiNozzo, I'll be interested in reading your analysis." He told the senior field agent and Tony looked like he'd been Gibbs slapped yet shyly pleased at the same time.

"Um… what's SCAN?" McGee faltered, feeling overawed by the director's presence, and kind of bemused that he was praising Tony. DiNozzo was the village idiot and Gibbs had to head slap him to make him do his job, after all.

Abby who'd been standing there watching the whole situation play out like a ping pong match suddenly became highly animated. She started jumping up and down like a little kid on a pogo stick, her right hand straight up in the air like an overeager student.

"Me, me, me. I know, Sir, I know," she screeched enthusiastically.

Tom trying hard not to roll his eyes at the infantized behaviour of his world-renowned forensic specialist, nodded. "Fine Dr Sciuto. Go ahead and share with the class."

"It's really cool, Timmy...er Agent McGee. SCAN stands for scientific content analysis. It's a type of linguistic content evaluation developed by a former Lieutenant Avivoam Sapir from the Israeli Police while he was a polygraph examiner. See… he noticed correlations between lie detector tests and certain structures within written statements. From those correlations, he went on to develop a way to establish the probable veracity of someone's verbal or written statements."

Seeing blank looks at the end of her account, she said "See he figured out that even when people are being deceptive or attempting to lie, the language that they unconsciously use, exposes a lot more than they intend to reveal. Speech patterns, structures and the actual content are important because there are linguistic indicators that point to the communicator holding back information."

Abby paused very briefly for breath before continuing, "He identified tells, like how pronouns are used or are even absent and subtle use of linguistics when analysed, can all be used to determine levels of motivations and truthfulness." She prattled incoherently, and Cate and McGee looked confused.

Tony smirked at the director before deciding to step in to explain, going over to Abby's whiteboard to demonstrate. "Okay, folks, watch and learn. Why don't we take a common enough example like the sentence - I cannot apologise enough for any embarrassment which I may have caused the Board and shareholders, by my recent actions."

He picked up a whiteboard marker and wrote the sentence on the board before saying. "The subject apologises for 'any' embarrassment that I 'may'have caused, not for the embarrassment which I caused."

He emphasised certain words verbally as he circled the words 'any' and 'may' on the whiteboard. Seeing their blank looks, he said, "Okay, say I run over your foot with my car, and I tell you I'm sorry for any discomfort you may have suffered. The limited apology suggests getting run over isn't really that big a deal, that there are people who don't suffer discomfort."

Abby chimed in. "Yeah, and even if you do feel discomfort, you might feel like you are weak if others are able to handle it without needing an apology. No one wants to be seen as a whining cry baby, so you suck it up or you start thinking you're making a mountain out of a molehill."

"Correct, Dr Sciuto," Tony smiled at her before going back to his whiteboard.

"Next, you'll note that the person doesn't truly apologise for their actions, the apology is to do with any 'embarrassment.' This suggests that the person apologising isn't necessarily remorseful nor are they willing to accept that they were wrong. 'May have caused,' once again emphasises that only some individuals were upset, further downplaying the apology and the seriousness of the sin committed," Tony said, circling the phrase 'may have.'

As he looked at the two rookie investigators, he said, "And lastly, the use the very specific qualifier in the sentence, by my 'recent' actions' rather than 'by my actions' is also highly significant," he explained, circling the word recent.

"This suggests that the speaker may have other actions that they aren't apologising for which might be upsetting. It indicates that the speaker is being deceptive or is only apologising because they were caught out but isn't truly remorseful. Such guarded, qualifying, or contradictory linguistical usage based on SCAN methodology would be huge red flags. Not one indicator occurring in isolation but when it occurs in combinations, it would make you question the speaker's contrition and honesty. If it was in an eyewitness or suspect's statement it would give you cause to start to dig into anything else that they might be hiding."

"People don't really talk like that," McGee objected disbelievingly.

Tom frowned. "Oh contraire, Probationary Agent, when people are trying to be deceptive, they frequently use exactly these awkward and clumsy linguistic structures and content. Politicians have to apologise quite frequently, and they use exactly this type of apology – the sort that people intuitively feel isn't genuine," Tony rebutted firmly.

"Like it has been composed by a savvy lawyer, afraid his client might get sued or a politician about to face annihilation at the ballot box," the director agreed.

"A lawyer and a spin doctor," Abby added excitedly.

Morrow smiled and conceded with a wry nod. "The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin has many such examples since they use the technique too."

"Why would you know about it, Tony?" Cate asked curiously.

Tom sighed, hoping that she wasn't implying that he was too dumb to have knowledge about the technique, although that's the impression she gave with her patronising attitude.

"Because cops in some PDs use it as an investigative tool," he replied tartly. "We'd sometimes used it to weed out nuisance calls when we set up telephone hotlines and it's useful in analysing suspects' accounts and comparing witness statements," Tony explained. He was trying hard to be patient in the face of Cate's questionable respect but not entirely succeeding.

"Let me know how the analysis goes, DiNozzo," Tom ordered the senior field agent, knowing full well that Gibbs didn't like people interfering in his team but that was too bad. He was trying to prevent them from going off half-cocked because Agent Todd made assumptions based on her emotions. It was crystal clear that her prudish attitude about the subject matter had already biased her opinion of Mrs Rowens. Of course, she was basing it on the assumption that the young wife had written the messages, since they were found on Rowens' computer.

Dismissing the MCRT, Morrow looked at the dark-haired forensic scientist, he asked, "May I have a few minutes of your time, Dr Sciuto?"

Taking the hint, Abby led him to her tiny office and activated the door.

~o0O0o~

A few hours later, the director was signing off on a report from Cybercrimes Unit, feeling relieved and just a little bit smug that his meddling in the MCRT's case had prevented a massive disaster. Ordering DiNozzo to do a content analysis on the highly suggestive emails on Laura Rowens' had paid off. DiNozzo analysis of their validity using linguistic techniques had cast doubt over Dr Sciuto's initial findings that the emails had come from Laura Rowens' computer since he was highly doubtful Rowens had written the emails.

Thankfully, those doubts had prevented them hauling the poor woman in and interrogating her like a suspect rather than a victim to attempted rape. The extra time bought by DiNozzo's doubts allowed Dr Sciuto to find forensic evidence proving that the emails found on her computer were fake and had been planted by an as yet unknown suspect. One who was skilled enough to have almost gotten past both Sciuto and McGee's scrutiny, which was impressive and disturbing. It was hopefully a sobering lesson that even so-called experts could be fooled and not take anything for granted.

Gibbs' anger at the director 'sticking his nose into the investigation' had been a tedious if entirely predictable interlude of dealing with his epic temper tantrums. Tom wondered flippantly when Jethro would move to the breath-holding portion of the histrionics, but at the end of the day, it had definitely been worth the drama. The director was extremely happy that he wouldn't be required to abjectly apologise to Major and Mrs Rowens for NCIS wrongly accusing the young woman of attempted murder.

He didn't doubt that if DiNozzo had not been given access to the data that's exactly what he would have been facing. It was bad enough what happened to the wife of a serving Marine on what should be a secure Naval base. If NCIS had fallen for evidence intended to set her up, that would have been inexcusable.

It was important to remember that Mrs Rowens was still the victim of an attempted sexual assault, even if the man who broke in may also have been set up. Although, in spite of Agent Todd's sympathy, it still remained to be seen. And it wasn't just the attempted rape that was such a violation – it was obtaining private intimate photo's that had been intended for her Marine husband deployed. Plus, the remote infiltration of her computer to plant emails purported to be written by the young wife were very serious violations and creepy too. It was reprehensible but it would have been a helluva lot more traumatic if they'd accused her of writing those emails and deliberately shooting Jeremy Davidson.

Unfortunately, while Gibbs had a soft gooey spot for Marine wives, he also had a history of rushing off half-cocked when he caught the scent of his prey. When he got it wrong, he would leave an unholy mess in his wake that Tom was left to clean up. For a brilliant investigator and a trained sniper, the director had to wonder how Jethro could be so damned rash at times. He would have thought that Jethro's level of impetuousness was something no sniper could afford.

Signing and initially requisition forms from the janitorial department, he placed them in his outbox for his executive assistant to deal with when the office intercom buzzed.

"Yes, Ms Sommers?"

"Marla Sweeten is 'requesting' to see you, Director," His trusted executive assistant informed him in her typically professional telephone voice. Years of working together allowed him to hear the air quotes surrounding the word, 'requesting' that left him in no doubt that Cynthia was understating the situation quite markedly.

Sighing, since he knew that insisting was more Marla's style, he steeled himself for a tough encounter with the head of the HR department. The woman was a truly formidable force, and he wasn't looking forward to their encounter – it was likely to be bruising.

"Please send her in," he instructed, guessing Cynthia knew him well enough to know he wasn't exactly ecstatic about it.

Smiling at the African American woman who swept into his office like a force of nature and getting an outraged glare in return, he decided that a bruising outcome was probably highly optimistic. He was likely to be bloodied and battered by the time Marla finished with him. Marla reminded him of that singer/actress Grace Jones, cutting rather an imposing figure, standing at six foot two inches tall and although she wasn't fat, she was all rock-hard muscle.

Tom thought it was an unfortunate irony that her last name was Sweeten since there was nothing about the woman which was sweet or even remotely resembled confectionery. Of course, she met with a lot of ribbing about it but never to her face, since sane people usually possessed had a modicum of self-preservation. It was well known that a sense of humour wasn't one of her better qualities.

"So, Ms Sweeten, what can I do for you today?" Tom inquired cautiously as he noted her burnt orange shot silk shirt-waisted dress. On most people, it would make them look like an overripe pumpkin but on Grace, she resembled a regal Nubian queen.

Wasting no time on social niceties, she proceeded to rip right into him as she fixed him with an arresting glare, one eyebrow almost disappearing into her closely cropped hair. "With all due respect, Director Morrow, I want to know what were you thinking? If anything happens, we're going to be in so much trouble."

Morrow gave her a bemused look, unclear about what she was talking about. He only managed to get, "I have no…" before being interrupted by the incensed head of HR who'd built up a real head of steam.

"Our scientists and technicians are not field agents, as you well know. It is far too risky. They don't have the required training. Where will it end?"

Before he had a chance to reply she fired more rounds at him.

"Do you condone sending in administrative staff undercover too and if you do, it will be over my dead body, Director Morrow?"

Before Tom could inquire what specifically had her up in arms, she directed a laser-like glare of disapproval at him and told him, frostily, "If SHE had been injured, do you honestly believe that insurance would have paid for her medical treatment because I can assure you that they would have disallowed the claim, lickety-split.

"And don't get me started on what would have happened had she been permanently disabled or killed. We would have been subject to a civil suit with a massive payout because of our negligence, Sir. I cannot emphasise how truly stupid it was to send her in there like that."

Okay, Tom was starting to feel more than a little pissed off. He had no idea what had caused her to lose her shit like this. What technician, what field agent was she talking about?

Barely drawing breath Marla told him, "I'm sorry Sir, but you leave me no other choice," looking far from sorry. "I'm going to have to report this egregious breach of protocol to the HR departmental head at the Department of Defence, also to the Department of the Navy and refer the matter to the Inspector General at the Defence Criminal Investigative Service, of course," she added, almost as an afterthought.

At long last she ran out of steam, settling instead on glaring at him fiercely as Tom's stomach felt as if someone had tied a series of knots in it. What the fuck was she talking about?

Which meant Morrow could get a word in edgewise and find out what had happened.

Damnit, this woman was scary! He'd rather face Delores Bromstead with a massive hangover any day of the week. Him with a hangover, not Delores, although now that he thought about it, he'd even settle for facing a hungover Delores Bromstead over Marla Sweeten without question.

What was it about the NCIS Human Relations department that attracted such termagant individuals, he pondered, albeit briefly before returning to the topic at hand?

"Ms Sweeten, kindly explain what you are talking about? I need details– not accusations since I have no idea what it is you are referring to." He ordered her firmly, his gut telling him he was missing something very bad to have incurred the wrath of DOD, Dept of Navy and DCIS, not to mention Ms Sweeten.

"I'm talking about you sending Dr Sciuto undercover to a sex hotline to steal proprietary information instead of sending in one of the members of the MCRT. They are appropriately trained for such potentially dangerous and complex situations. Dr Sciuto is not an agent, no matter how smart or good she is at her job. How could you be so irresponsible, Director Morrow?" Marla shot him a glare that left him in no doubt had badly disappointed in him she was.

"I did not authorise it, Ms Sweeten," he told her, furious to learn what was going on from HR instead of Gibbs. "In fact, this is the first I've heard of it. Are you certain?

"Dr Sciuto requested a locum to replace her in the lab and told Sheena Wright in HR that she was going undercover at the Scarlett Secret, Director Morrow. Plus, she signed out camera glasses and various audio equipment consistent with what she claimed, so I have no reason to doubt Ms Wright or Dr Sciuto's word," she stated sternly.

"I see, well that is extremely disturbing and wholly inappropriate. I assure you that I'll be getting to the bottom of it asap. And believe me, I know how damned serious this could be. Leave it with me," he instructed grimly.

And he did know. If anything went wrong, aside from the outcomes Marla had already outlined, he'd lose his job, the agency would find itself up in front of a congressional oversight committee and like face disbandment or best-case scenario, the appropriation committee would slash their budget to a shadow of its former amount, leaving them pretty much impotent. Budgetary shortfalls would leave them having to lay off staff and close offices – it would be a nightmare.

Marla gave him an extremely dubious look, indicating she was not convinced of his innocence, nodding once. "Very well, Director. I expect an update on this situation with the next two hours or I will be obliged to take the matter further. This is intolerable," She vowed as she exited the office.

Groaning, he reached for the intercom. "Cynthia, could you please have Agent Gibbs report to my office, immediately?"

She came into his office several minutes later. "Ted from Security reports that Agent Gibbs had already left the building, Sir." Anticipating his next request, she responded. "He's not answering his phone, I'm afraid."

Of course, that stubborn jackass wasn't. Gibbs wouldn't hesitate to break one of his cardinal rules should it suit him but if it were one of his underlings, he'd cheerfully ripped their entrails out of them for daring to be unreachable. Okay perhaps cheerful wasn't the correct word for Jethro's fury but on the other hand, Tom genuinely believed that Gibbs wasn't happy unless he was blowing off emotional steam at some luckless sod. Give him a strong black coffee and the opportunity to disembowel someone and he was happy as Larry!

Tom wasn't a violent man…normally. BUT Jethro was truly testing his control by sending Abby Sciuto undercover. Of course, it hadn't escaped his notice that Gibbs was in a shitty mood because Tom had dared to 'interfere' over the email investigation and a damned good thing too. He had little desire to be reamed out by SECNAV for his agents wrongly accusing the traumatised wife of a serving Marine major.

Was this Jethro's passive aggressive way of taking out his revenge on his superior or simply that he was a nihilistic egotistical asshat who never bothered about consequences when employing personnel? Seriously, Agent Balboa often accused him of using them as tools, but he'd been to Gibbs' basemen on several occasions. He saw the care he took in looking after his woodworking tools; it was a helluva lot more concern than he expended on his team.

Sighing exasperatedly as he fought to maintain his temper, he said to Cynthia, "Okay, what about DiNozzo?"

"He and Agent Todd have gone to the Naval Hospital to interview Jeremy Davidson, the man who entered the Rowens home and was shot."

"Is McGee in the office?"

I'll find out, Sir."

Cynthia returned several minutes later. "He's currently in MTAC, working with Dr Sciuto on getting access to the Scarlet Letter servers, Director. He is unable to leave his post. Shall I tell him to report to you when he has finished?"

"Never mind, I'll go to him," Morrow told her, rising, and extricating himself from his desk hurriedly.

Looks like he was going to have a bird's eye view of Sciuto's foray into undercover work. Seriously, WTF was going on with Gibbs' head lately.

~o0O0o~

Cursing colourfully, despite his best efforts, Morrow felt his fury bleeding out all over his normally impassive directorial mien. He'd already averted one potential crisis on this damn case, but it seems like another one even more serious was looming and threatening to affect the whole damned agency due to one man's idiocy and arrogance. He was starting to believe that Gibbs needed a minder, preferably 24/7 or at least when he was at NCIS. He grinned viciously as he considered the possibilities. Seriously, that damned idiot jarhead shouldn't be leading a team of girl scouts selling cookies, let alone be responsible for himself and other law enforcement professionals. It was absolutely clear that he put the safety of his people a very poor second to closing a case.

After getting a sitrep from McGee in MTAC and confirming with his own eyes that Abby had gone undercover at The Scarlet Secret as a computer programmer, he was furious. Gibbs was lucky he was AWOL somewhere – probably another coffee run because Tom wasn't sure he'd have been able to keep from killing him. He was at the point of ordering the abandonment of the undercover operation when the probationary agent told him Abby had obtained the information; they had the identity of the website's client who'd sent the bogus emails.

He'd spent a great deal of effort in creating fake emails to set up Laura Rowens to make it appear she was communicating with Jeremy Davison. Thankfully, Dr Sciuto left Scarlett Secret and was on her way back to NCIS. Unless she crashed her car or broke her leg on her way back to the naval yard, they had dodged a bullet. He was just damned glad she was safe because the situation had the potential to turn FUBAR pretty quickly.

That didn't mean that Gibbs' ass was safe, though. Tom was going to tear him a new one for this outrage and then he was going to let Marla Sweeten have him to munch on.

After letting the head of Human Resources know what he'd discovered so far, he'd resolved to wait until the case was either solved or went cold before he took punitive action. He really, really wanted to hear how Gibbs would attempt to justify sending in Dr Sciuto, completely ignoring agency and Department of Defence rules and regulations. He particularly wanted to see what he came up with because he had an undercover specialist on the team and a computer expert. It should be very interesting, not that it mattered what his justification was, and he was also sure that Gibbs was not going to be happy with him when he learnt the consequences of his failure to play by the rules.

Tom really had no choice but to impose tough controls over Gibbs since putting his people in danger wasn't just a one-off situation with Abigail Sciuto – who didn't even belong on Gibbs' team. This was part of a truly worrying trend starting with Jethro being partly responsible, along with FBI agent Fornell for Agent DiNozzo being flung out of a moving morgue van onto the beltway in the dark. Said agent was inside a body bag at the time and therefore defenceless had a vehicle like a semi-trailer or a B double hit him. He wouldn't have seen it coming!

Regular agents might argue that it was the FBI agent who had acted negligently, however it was Gibbs' rule 3 – never be unreachable - which precipitated the potentially deadly stunt. The truth was that Jethro simply couldn't wait to rub the FBI's nose in the fact he'd gotten the better of their pissing match by snatching the ball carrier's body right out from under the noses of their agent, pulling a switch and putting DiNozzo in the body bag. If he'd been able to delay his gratification until the coroner's van was back at base, DiNozzo wouldn't have been in jeopardy.

However, it turned out that scoring brinksmanship against the FBI was far more important to Gibbs than the welfare of his agent. Cruel bastard!

Then a few weeks later, Gibbs allowed his 2IC to be pushed out of a plane at night when DiNozzo had no jump training. The odds of injury or death for a complete novice were astronomical and it had been an unforgivable risk. But it didn't stop there!

DiNozzo had also been drugged and abducted by a serial killer because Gibbs saw fit to send him off with no backup. He'd been chasing a deranged killer who locked her victims up and starved them to death.

More recently, obviously not having learnt from past mistakes, the team leader had let DiNozzo collect yet another concussion from a victim of a serial killer with a raging case of Stockholm Syndrome. She'd attacked him and taken his gun after he'd freed her because once again, he was working without any backup.

Plus, how could he forget the massive cockup when Gibbs, Todd and DiNozzo had been blown up by a killer after Jethro permitted Agent Todd to take an explosives expert slash killer into her home like a stray puppy. Lives had been lost in the subsequent bomb blast, along with some very serious property damage.

They were serious incidents that added up to a lot of negligence when it came to the physical safety of his agents. Tom couldn't let Gibbs worrying lack of judgement when it came to the safety of his agents (or not agents) continue – he had to act. Should have acted sooner.

If he didn't, it was only a matter of time before someone was killed in a preventable situation. If he was prepared to risk Abby who wasn't even on the team, who would be next? Jimmy Palmer or one of the mail room workers?

~o0O0o~

Now the case was closed, and Jeremy Davison was in custody, as was his freaky sister who surprisingly, or not, wasn't his sister; she was his lover and accomplice. The vile duo was charged with numerous counts of rape and murder, denied bail, and held over for trial after further investigations revealed that the pair were highly dangerous serial killers.

Unfortunately, they'd flown under the radar for far too long. Laura Rowens was extremely lucky her Marine husband had taught her how to defend herself or she would have been another victim of the pair of sicko monsters.

In the end, she'd been instrumental in their capture, saving who knows how many more lives in the process. Tom would do everything in his power to ensure that they were locked away for a very long time. He sighed at how close they'd come to getting away with it.

Seeing as the case was done and dusted, that meant it was time to deal with Gibbs and his outrageous conduct on this case. Having called him into his office Morrow was proceeding on eyeballing his recalcitrant agent sternly, having allowed Marla Sweeten to soften him up first since she was baying for blood.

Scuttlebutt said it had been a bruising encounter. Marla was threatening to blacklist him so he wouldn't be able to drive agency vehicles. He'd heard that she talking to have her contacts in the Metro PD about cancelling his driver's license and Tom was pretty sure she wasn't bluffing. Seeing how a driver's license was a condition of being a field agent, it was a fairly serious threat. Plus, according to reliably sources, she verbally flailed him for over an hour.

Now it was his turn to, in Gibbs' vernacular, tear his agent a new one. After several minutes of silence, he let him have it. "So, enlighten me, Gibbs; what the hell were you thinking? You sent a forensic scientist undercover to gain proprietary information by deception and theft instead of going through proper legal channels. In what god damned universe did such a boneheaded stunt seem like a good idea to you?" he inquired acidly.

Gibbs stared at him and said nothing, looking bored.

"Putting the legalities of getting evidence like that aside for the moment, you know very well that it is totally contrary to agency and Department of Defence regulations for an untrained civilian employee to be placed in an undercover role."

Jethro shrugged, unrepentantly, "Needed to get to the bottom of the bogus emails fast and The Scarlet Letter weren't going to cooperate. Take too long to get a court order."

"Yeah, I get it, but that isn't EVER an excuse to flaunt the law and ignoring the whole legal aspect for a minute, you have field agents to do go undercover if required. DiNozzo is an undercover specialist, some would argue the best in the whole damned agency and McGee is a computer expert." The director observed tightly, fist clenched and knuckles bone white.

"MuGeee!" Gibbs snorted disdainfully. "He's a green probie. Can't lie to save his life and doesn't handle stress well, starts stuttering when put under the slightest pressure. That's a dead giveaway. Besides, as DiNozzo pointed out – he screams cop."

Tom admitted that this was a solid assessment. McGee started stuttering when he was around him. Nor was he good at masking his emotions. Sending him into The Scarlet Letter – his face would probably be scarlet with embarrassment from all the sex talk.

"Okay, I'll buy that, but DiNozzo is probably the best undercover operative I've ever seen. There's no excuse not to use him."

"DiNozzo is no computer programmer. He can barely even use a computer." Gibbs retorted disparagingly.

"Really, Gibbs. That's the best ya got? Apart from the fact that he used to handle all the run of the mill tech stuff on the team before Agent McGee arrived. In fact, he's a hell of a lot more competent around a computer and technology than you or a lot of agents are. But, putting aside that minor factoid, for now, let's talk 1995 and Leyland Robert Spears. [1] That was your undercover identity which…wait for it… was a computer technician. A cover that you used for repeated missions for 12 months.

"Yep. You. Gibbs. Who are a technological Luddite of the first order, who can barely manage an email account. So, you seriously, want to tell me why you could go undercover as a computer tech, but you baulk at sending in a specialist in undercover work? DiNozzo's computer skills leave yours for dead."

Gibbs just glowered at Morrow.

"One of MTAC's analysts told me that McGee had to talk Ms Sciuto through getting the data from this end – that it was a collaborative effort. Therefore, McGee could have, he damn well should have been talking DiNozzo through retrieving it, not a fucking forensic technician. At a pinch, you could have even sent in Agent Todd." Morrow admonished the seething agent, absolutely refusing to accept Gibbs' dumbass rationale. She at the very least was a sworn federal agent.

Gibbs looked somewhat disconcerted by his Spears pushback and was also decidedly pissed off being called out for his shithouse excuse. If there was one thing Leroy Jethro Gibbs deplored, it was having his decisions questioned by his superiors or even worse, forced to defend them.

Eventually, he snarled grudgingly, "Fine! McGee and DiNozzo were bickering like a pair of bratty kids over who should go in undercover, so I picked Abby instead," he said, finding the floor suddenly intensely interesting.

"Oh well, that's okay then!" Morrow said in a highly sarcastic tone as Gibbs' head came up to make eye contact with his superior to be met with a look of absolute scepticism and fierce anger.

"Sorry, but that's a breathtakingly shithole of an excuse! It isn't about a bunch of siblings squabbling over who gets the front seat in the car on the way to the beach. It is a federal investigation into rape and murder, Special Agent Dumbass," he roared at the team leader to whom the solving of a case seemed to take precedence over everything else, even his team's safety.

First off, as your senior field agent, DiNozzo should absolutely speak up about the practicality of sending a junior agent on an undercover mission – it's his job to point out the potential problems with a course of action that you may not have considered. Plus, he's highly experienced in undercover operations, the best NCIS has and you're wasting good if you don't seek out his opinion and expertise. That is your Rule five, is it not?" Tom ploughed on knowing it wasn't realistic to expect an answer from his truculent agent.

"Reviewing the conversation, I believe his comments remained professional. He pointed out that Tim would immediately be made as a cop, and we've both already agreed that is a valid consideration. Meanwhile, McGee who has… what less than three months experience as a field agent felt it was perfectly acceptable for him to make disparaging remarks about the senior field agent of a premier MCRT?

"Would you accept McGee making disrespectful remarks about yourself, Jethro? You know damned well you wouldn't tolerate that shit, so explain to me, why is it okay for him to do it to DiNozzo. May I remind you since it seems to have slipped your mind, DiNozzo has over nine years of investigative experience to call on. McGee's disrespect should have had earned the probie agent a swift kick in the ass for insubordination from his team leader at a bare minimum.

"If you enforced the chain of command and supported your 2IC like a real leader, then the junior agents wouldn't think they had the right to ridicule and question him at every turn. Get your damned house in order, Gibbs or I will," Morrow threatened grimly. "You're skating on exceedingly thin ice."

"Abby's fine. Nothing happened. Got the intel. Got the dirtbags behind bars." Jethro shrugged, honestly not seeing what all the fuss was about.

Of course not, Morrow snarked mentally. Jethro had always been the results justify the means type of law enforcer.

"It's so beside the point that she didn't get hurt, Agent Gibb. First off, Ms Sciuto is NOT a member of your team. You have no authority to order her to go undercover and HR is foaming at the mouth because of the multiple breaches of regulations you and she ignored. Ms Sweeten is still threatening to take it to the Department of Defence. They will rip you a new asshole before dropping you in a deep dark hole and burying you and that will be before they get serious." He warned the ex-gunny grimly.

"If there were extenuating circumstances that made it imperative and note the use of the word extenuating to use our forensic scientist, which it wasn't, then it was a decision that I should have been consulted on. It was my place to sign off on it as Director of NCIS, not some pissant supervisory senior agent with delusions of grandeur about his self-importance. And even then, it is only a decision I would ever contemplate making after careful consideration and consultation with other departments and SECNAV. But I wasn't even given the courtesy of being informed about what was going on in MY AGENCY." Tom rebuked him harshly.

Gibbs growled, "Rule # 18 – it's better to seek forgiveness than ask permission."

"Damnit Gibbs, fuck forgiveness! I've had enough of you flaunting agency rules and regulations, especially when it puts my people in danger. You were lucky this time, but Ms Sciuto could have been in extreme danger for all you knew and there was no one there to back her up if she needed it. Seems to me you broke a host of your own rules, you are a pathetic hypocritical pile of dog shit," he yelled, doing a very credible impersonation of a drill instructor.

"This is not the first time I've warned you about sending people in to danger and not providing backup, so considering the seriousness of your offences I have no choice but to suspend you without pay for one month and issue you with a formal reprimand." He informed the SSA firmly, but he wasn't done yet.

"When you return to work, Christopher Smythe from HR will be assigned to the MCRT to oversee your management when you're in the office and ensure that you adhere to agency protocols and procedures."

Morrow was pleased to see the look of horror that rapidly metamorphosed to anger on Gibbs' face. Good!

"Obviously, he won't be accompanying you into the field, but you will be required to submit detailed after-action reports outlining everything that happened when you are out of the office. I shouldn't have to warn you that yours had better match up to your agents' accounts. I can't believe I have to say this but if your infamous rules are in direct contravention of agency rules and regulations, well then tough shit, Gunny. You will follow MY rules, or I'll kick your damned ass all the way out the door of MY agency, personally. My way or the highway. NOW GET OUT."

Tom gestured to the door with his finger, mightily tempted to flip him the bird but as director of a federal agency, he needed to be more professional than that.

As he reached the door, Tom yelled, "And for the record, you'd better hope that Marla Sweeten doesn't decide to yank your driver's license because I won't be pleading clemency. And even SECNAV wouldn't dare take her on! Your only hope is to grovel like you've never done before, to her and Chris!"

As Gibbs stomped off in a foul mood, probably in search of coffee, bourbon or a bazooka, Tom found the image of Chris Smythe as Jethro's minder, following Gibbs around and checking his every decision was definitely mood-elevating. He caught a reflection of himself on his computer monitor and yep, he was grinning like a loon.

Chris had to be the most pedantic, by the book pencil pusher that Tom had ever encountered and as director of a federal agency, he'd come across far too many. Smythe routinely drove Morrow to distraction without even trying. After dealing with the HR representative Tom often felt the overwhelming urge to slam his head into the wall, multiple times.

Many of the NCIS staff believed that he measured the centre parting in his hair so that it was always exactly even because of his well-known attention to detail no matter how petty. It was common knowledge that he'd go after anyone who clocked off early or claimed to have worked extra time, even if it was just a minute or two due to an incorrect timekeeper. His darling wife, Lynnie often said after listening to her husband's rant about his pedanticism, that Chris should have worked as a trade measurement inspector for the federal government, ensuring that scales and measures were properly calibrated and making snap inspections to verify that they were accurate. He couldn't help thinking that Smythe would excel in such a role with the added bonus that Tom wouldn't have to deal with the irritating man.

Since Tom was far more even-tempered than Gibbs would ever be, he figured that having Smythe supervising him and sign off on his decision making was going to be much harsher punishment for Jethro than the month-long suspension. Plus, since Chris was a bloodhound once he got his teeth into something, the rest of the office would benefit him dogging Gibbs' ass too as he would be too busy to annoy everyone else with his dogmatism. So, win-win for everyone but Gibbs!

Shortly afterwards, Tom's good mood was ruined when Ric Balboa and the head of the IT department, Art Townsend came to see him with tangible evidence that placed the MCRT in direct contravention of regulations yet again. This time it turned out to be using the agency's resources for non-work-related searches.

"Who is this 'person' and what does this have to do with Agent DiNozzo?" He asked Balboa, indicating a less than salubrious looking individual, heavily tattooed, and hardly a fitness fanatic.

"According to Probationary Agent McGee, this is Tony's online boyfriend, aka hotjugs24," Townsend told him.

Morrow's confusion was apparent. "Why was McGee using NCIS resources to track him down? Did DiNozzo ask him to?"

Townsend snorted. "Hardly, Director. This was not an authorised search, however, it was carried out on Probationary agent McGee's work computer during business hours."

"McGee was supposedly trying to one-up Agent DiNozzo. Apparently, he told my junior agent Ali Yeong that he was pissed off at DiNozzo for preventing McGee from going undercover at Scarlet Secrets because he looked too much like a cop. Yeong says McGee is desperate to go undercover and he was furious that Tony nixed the idea," Balboa told him sardonically.

Tom snorted. "McGee does look too much like a cop. They'd have made him the minute he stepped through the door." The truth was he's a goddamned rookie and around that lot of sharks at Scarlet Secrets he would have given the game away, blushing like Tom's maiden Great Aunt Maisie at a male strip club."

Frowning, he looked at the senior supervisory agent imploringly. "Please tell me that Gibbs gave McGee hell about using NCIS resources for his personal vendetta to embarrass a superior and ordered IT to investigate the unauthorised use of agency resources?"

Balboa snorted. "Hell, no! He was laughing and joking too. Looks like the gunny thinks it's funny for a probationary agent to humiliate a superior on NCIS' dime."

Unless it's him that's being embarrassed and then he'd likely as not rip McGee's arm off and insert it right up his ass, Morrow snorted mentally.

Art Townsend rolled his eyes cynically. "I wouldn't put it past Agent Gibbs not to have suggested it!"

The head of IT was no big fan of the former Marine, that was crystal clear. Tom didn't discount the possibility that it had something to do with the fact that Townsend was a former major in the USMC. Gibbs' yelling at people not to call him Sir, because he worked for a living didn't exactly endear him to Townsend or other former or current officers if it came to it, the tone-deaf arrogant git.

Morrow didn't disagree with the IT manager's assessment of Gibbs conduct but didn't say so in so many words.

Instead, he thought about it for several minutes before requesting, "Art, I'd appreciate it if you and the financial department can get together and work out a costing for me. Calculate exactly how much this little fishing foray of McGee's cost NCIS and then get the Financial Department to prepare an invoice."

Seeing the inquisitive look on Townsend's face, he explained. "Agent McGee will be reimbursing us for the unauthorised use of NCIS time and resources. Oh, and please be sure to factor in the price for his time when you are figuring out the costing."

Balboa and Townsend looked surprised at the outcome, but he sensed that they were pleased with his plan, nonetheless. Tom thanked them for bringing the matter to his attention. He also resolved to add a censure to McGee's jacket which would put a crimp in the ambitious young man's aspirations, re potential leadership roles in the future.

After both men had left the office, he made several phone calls before several hours later, wandering out to the gantry outside MTAC and looking down into the bullpen. He noted Agent DiNozzo was working away steadily at his computer; the team (minus Gibbs) had been taken out of rotation and ordered onto cold cases. He also observed that Agents Todd and McGee were exchanging malicious looks across the bullpen having noted his interest in DiNozzo.

Looking forward to the attitude adjustment they had coming, the director called out to the senior field agent. "Agent DiNozzo, a word please."

As he turned to make his way back to his office, he heard Agents Todd and McGee's less than subtle attempts at mocking the senior field agent, wanting to know what he'd done to get called up to the director's office. Stopping and whirling around, Tom walked back to the stairs and proceeded halfway down them, speaking loudly enough so that the whole bullpen, not just the MCRT could hear.

"Agent DiNozzo hasn't done anything wrong, but as the senior field agent and the acting senior supervisory agent, until I can organise a replacement due to Agent Gibbs' suspension for the next four weeks, I wish to discuss certain matters concerning the MCRT. I hope that meets with your approval, Agent Todd, Probationary Agent McGee?" he inquired unctuously.

Both agents looked suitably shocked at the news of Gibbs suspension. Amid their stammering assurances, he grinned predatorily and turned for a second time to walk back up the stairs with Tony following in his wake. The bullpen erupted in excited chatter as the two men turned into Morrow's outer office. Leading the way into his inner sanctum, the director indicated that DiNozzo should sit at the table as he grabbed a bunch of files off his desk and shut the door before joining his agent at the conference table.

As he sat down, he started out by saying, "Gibbs has been suspended for sending Dr Sciuto undercover at Scarlet Secrets for the Rowens' case. He did not have NCIS approval to send in an untrained scientist, and the Department of Defence went postal when they found out what he'd done."

Tony looked stricken "I should be suspended too."

"Did you know that I hadn't signed off on it, Agent DiNozzo?"

"To be honest, it never even occurred to me until this minute that you wouldn't have been consulted but it should have. I know Gibbs. His Rule 18 is a favourite in this type of situation," he said musingly before he raked his hand through his hair and groaned as something distressing occurred to him.

"I'll bet Abby didn't even have backup?" he asked the director, wincing as he read the confirmation of his question from Morrow expression.

"SHIT!" he exclaimed in horror at the thought of what might have gone wrong, and well he might. As an experienced undercover operative, he knew how quickly a mission could go nuclear.

"Gibbs and McGee were in MTAC. Well, Gibbs was briefly, I have no idea where the hell he went after he left," Tom told him.

"But there was no one physically onsite who could get her out if it blew up in her face?" Tony stated heatedly as the director shrugged.

"The boss sent Todd and me to interview Jeremy Davidson at the hospital. It could have easily waited so we could have been her backup," he thumped the table in anger. "What the hell ever happened to his precious rule one?"

"If you'd known she didn't have proper approval to go undercover, would you have come to me?" Morrow asked the visibly distraught agent gently.

Tony flashed him a brief look that was dripping with incredulity for a fraction of a second before quickly masking it to one of total blank neutrality. "Ah, I'm not sure, Director."

Morrow felt embarrassed before addressing what DiNozzo was really thinking.

"Understandable. I've let Gibbs ride roughshod over NCIS rules and procedures far too often to have earned your confidence, unfortunately."

He sighed guiltily and leaned back in his chair. "No, after that whole fiasco with Sergeant Atlas and the serial killer, where you didn't have any backup and Gibbs skated, I'm guessing you'd have more than likely disobeyed Gibbs and gone down to Scarlet's Secret to be her back up."

Tony shrugged, unable to deny the truth. It was exactly what he'd have done if he'd caught a clue that the undercover operation wasn't sanctioned, and she didn't have backup. He'd assumed since Abbs was Gibbs' favourite that he would have had her six.

Sounding extremely apologetic, Tom looked the young SFA in the eyes and said, "There is such a never-ending onslaught of rule violations that SSA Gibbs used up my give-a-fuck quotient, I'm sorry to say. I became immune to all the broken regs, and I apologise for dropping the ball. While Gibbs is suspended, I want to fix the things that went FUBAR, and I need your assistance."

"Of course, you'll have it, Sir," the senior agent said, respectful if a touch warily. Not that Morrow could fault him for that.

Morrow opened up a file. "Talk to me about this," he said putting in front of DiNozzo th glossies of a large, fleshy, and heavily tattooed individual with criminal thug practically stamped across his forehead. At least it did to anyone in law enforcement.

"That's Eddie Lubchenco."

"I thought it was hotjugs24?"

"Yes, that's one of his aliases."

"You are having an online relationship with this person, according to McGee?"

Tony snorted in genuine amusement. "Hardly. Eddie was a criminal informant. My CI when I worked Vice in Philly. I busted him when I first started there, and he proved to be a valuable source. When I started doing undercover work, Vice set up the internet identity hotjugs24 so I could stay in contact with him."

"Stay in contact?"

"Eddie kept me in the loop pretending to be my online girlfriend. If someone read my emails or private messages, they wouldn't be suspicious. Anyone who was super distrustful and knew their way around a computer and managed to find out his real identity…"

"Like McGee?"

"Well, someone like McGee… except a black hat hacker, would just think Lubchenco was playing me, just like Eddie fooled other online victims in the past," he explained.

Seeing Morrows slightly befuddled expression. "I busted him for online identity fraud – he'd been phishing one of my buddies who I played basketball with at the local YMCA. Eddie stole TJ's identity because he wasn't careful enough online. After he was charged with ID fraud, I recruited Lubchenco as a CI seeing he had fingers in a lot of pies as a useful source of info. When I went undercover, the cyber guys set him up as my girlfriend so I could still use him for intel."

"How did Agent McGee find out about …um him?"

Tony looked annoyed. "Cate set me up, making it look like she supported me going undercover at the Scarlet Secret, but she was trying to dis me. Like a chump, I fell for it even if her dissing me every chance she gets is not new. But I should never have taken the bait.

"Agent Todd told the boss it should be me going in undercover because I had experience in internet dating. Of course, Gibbs thought it was a huge joke and wanted to know what her name was."

Gritting his teeth, he continued, "So I felt kind of backed into a corner since I don't do online dating. And like a fool I blurted it out about hotjugs24 instead of keeping a dignified silence."

"You don't have experience with internet dating?" Tom asked, somewhat surprised as it seemed to be becoming a common enough phenomenon amongst younger people. Even his Uncle Warwick was doing it.

Shooting a brief incredulous look at Morrow he snorted, "As a cop, I worked cases where victims lost their life-savings through internet dating, Director. I worked on several task forces in Vice where underage victims were lured away from their homes and abducted by sex traffickers. There's no way that I'd trust anyone enough to date them online, if I didn't already know who they were," he said grimly.

"Rather than lose face with the team and say I don't date people online, I stupidly gave them that old ID of Eddie's to shut them up. And yeah, before you say it, I know it was dumb of me. But do you know what, sometimes the relentless let's make Tony look like he has the IQ of a house plant crap by the team, especially when Gibbs joins in is hard to ignore," he admitted bitterly.

The director considered what Tony had said, knowing that various psychologists conducting his psych. evals, since he started out in law enforcement, had noted his almost pathological distrust, if not downright paranoia. More than one psychologist stated he possessed major trust issues. He conceded that the idea of DiNozzo starting up random relationships with complete strangers on the internet was hardly very plausible.

The director also had good reason to know that his persona of serial dater was more smoke and mirrors than anything substantive. Agents who were constantly bed-hopping were not considered good security risks – too easy to corrupt or blackmail. He knew, on the rare occasions when he did pick up a random date, DiNozzo liked to do it face to face where he could utilize his undercover people-profiling skills to choose someone who wasn't a threat.

The NCIS director had to concede that DiNozzo's explanation was reassuring, as he really didn't want to think that one of his agents had been gullible enough to be fooled by Lubchenco. It would mean, given his high-security clearance, that DiNozzo was a genuine national security risk, laying him open to being compromised by criminals and or foreign operatives.

Of course, now that the information had been brought to Tom's attention, he'd need to have it verified. Security clearances were not to be taken lightly. It hadn't been wise for DiNozzo to let himself be goaded into revealing that information, but it was also symptomatic of exactly how hostile a workplace the MCRT was with Gibbs at the helm.

Damn Gibbs, his mind-fucks, and his flouting of rules, including the chain of command. Apart from the threat to conviction of cases, it resulted in a highly valuable and experienced federal agent who was so insecure about his place on the team because Gibbs was threatened by him. Practical jokes were one thing, in moderation it helped relief tension and stress but this deep dive was intended to humiliate and a real leader would have been on it like flies of a dog, not encouraging a rookie agent.

Time to start cleaning up the toxic mess Jethro had created. More than time!

Sighing at the enormity of the problem, Tom picked up a new file spoke. "Henry Lopez from the San Diego office will be filling in as team leader for the last two and a half weeks of Gibbs' suspension. He's a good man; old school type of agent. He was due to retire already but has agreed to delay his departure for a further 17 days before he heads off with his long-suffering wife, Priscilla on a long-awaited world cruise on the QE2 to celebrate his retirement.

"Henry is a real stickler for protocol and he's coming to DC specifically to beat the chain of command into Todd and McGee. He intends to educate them painfully about what two novice probies bring to the team versus a suitable qualified senior field agent with almost a decade of investigative and law enforcement experience," he warned Tony.

Tom was faintly amused to see DiNozzo looking simultaneously overjoyed and horror-struck at the prospect and decided to give him a heads up.

"Agent Lopez plans on delivering them an attitude adjustment the likes of which their future kids will have nightmares over," Tom told him ominously.

"After that, I want you to lead the team for the first two weeks following Gibbs' return from suspension since I've organised for him to attend FBI training courses on some basic team management skills that he seems to be lacking. It will give you a chance to further entrench your status as their superior, established by Agent Lopez before Gibbs resumes his role as leader."

Tony was too flabbergasted to comment. Sending the Boss to the FBI for training was really rubbing salt into the wounds.

He just gaped as Morrow continued matter-of-factly. "Agent Lopez is ready, willing, and capable of doing an intense detox of the MCRT. Plus, a heads up, Tony that he has absolutely zero sense of humour, so I would suggest dialling back on the jokes and banter."

Tony nodded. "Point taken, Director."

Tom stared at him consideringly, "Although, without Mount Gibbs threatening to erupt every time you don't find a lead, I'm guessing you won't feel compelled to protect the junior agents by deflecting his anger onto you by joking around," he commented, knowingly.

Inwardly, Tony beamed, happy that someone at least saw beyond his mask of silliness. There was method in his madness…most days.

"As to the week and a half before Agent Lopez arrives from San Diego to take over the team, I have some extra special training sessions in mind for Agents Todd and McGee to address some of their identified weakness from their quarterly performance evaluation."

Tony pricked up his ears metaphorically at Morrow's statement. Training…what kind of training sessions?

"Training sessions, Sir?"

Looking entirely too innocent, Morrow told him, "The former FBI profiler who was an original member of the BAU, David Rossi is just finishing a national book and speaking tour. As a personal favour to my wife who serves on several charitable foundations with him, he's agreed to present some seminars for NCIS agents, particularly our junior agents.

"The first one is on the FBI and their use of Content Analysis. In addition to attending his lectures, Agent Todd will be required to analyse the fake emails that Laura Rowens supposedly sent to Scarlett's Secret website using SCAN, submitting her analysis of them in writing for Mr Rossi to critique."

Tony pulled a face, imagining the almighty stink Cate would kick up. He remembered her wailing about how she was going to go to Hell for reading the hard-core emails. Yep, she was going to be one very pissy junior agent!

"And the second seminar topic will focus on Crime and Sexuality. I'm hoping that Rossi being a renowned author and profiler and also a practising Catholic will illustrate that she can't hide behind her religion, not if she wants to work as an investigator or a profiler."

Okay, that was a good idea, although Tony was not sure if Cate would see the value of it or more importantly, be willing to examine her rather hypocritical views on sexuality. That said, he supposed it couldn't hurt to try.

"While Agent Todd is working with Mr Rossi, I want you to work with Agent McGee on devising a fitness program for him with the end goal of him completing the Quantico obstacle course plus running in a half marathon."

Seeing DiNozzo's surprised look, he elaborated, "On the Commander Shields' protection detail, Probationary Agent McGee wouldn't have been able to accompany the Commander when she went off running since he couldn't have kept up for eight miles. I seriously doubt if he could have kept up with the Shield's boy at his soccer match or training either. He needs to be able to do more than sit behind a keyboard if he's serious about being an effective field agent. Agent McGee needs to be able to run down suspects."

Tony stared at him, deciding that the director could certainly play hardball when he needed to and he vowed not to get on Morrow's bad side if he could help it. "Oh, he's going to love that, Sir. McGee is no fitness freak."

"Perhaps not, but for someone so young, it is pathetic that Gibbs could outrun him on a foot pursuit and Agent Gibbs is old enough to be his father. If he is too pissy and refuses to cooperate, you can remind him That I said that if he'd prefer I can have him do a deep dive into Agent Gibbs' dating history to discover the identity of his mysterious redhead with the silver convertible, instead," he said with an innocent face that Tony suspected hid a big shit-eating grin on the inside.

Hell yes, Tom Morrow was a total badass!

"And then he gets to present the results to Special Agent Gibbs in the bullpen with an audience as he did with yourself and hotjugs24."

Tony tried not to gasp as he pictured Gibbs' reaction. "Ouch, Gibbs would kill him."

"Yep, highly likely. Anyway, I think that should do the trick if he causes you any trouble," Director Evil deadpanned before moving on.

"In the afternoons before Agent Lopez' arrival, I've organised for Agent Yates to join you and the two junior agents since Cassie is on stand-down between undercover gigs for six weeks. I want you both to alternate between taking them down to the red-light districts on even days to go undercover. Agent's Todd and McGee will pose as sex workers and get to know the locals sex workers and johns. On the odd days of the week, you and Yates will take them rappelling and ziplining."

Tony figured that Cate would eat up that testosterone shit for breakfast while McGee would have apoplexy, although Todd hadn't done repelling when they worked that case with the gay SEAL. Still, he was fairly sure she'd lap it up, although going undercover as a hooker – she was going to have a fit.

He realised that the director was deliberately targeting not only their weak areas in performance and professional skills but trying to tackle their biases and psychological soft underbellies too.

"Seeing as Probationary Agent McGee thinks undercover work is filled with excitement, I trust that you and Yates will see to it you have the training talk with them about what happens should if they should find themselves in trouble and being sexually assaulted before you go in," he told DiNozzo wryly. "Don't try to sugar coat it – maybe show them some graphic forensic photographs of assaults," he advised, although DiNozzo understood it to be more of an order than a suggestion.

While DiNozzo was a little shocked by Morrow's evilness, he did have to admit privately that he was rather looking forward to the two rookies having a come-to-Jesus' moment (or three) over the next few weeks. Equally, he hoped that Agent Lopez could administer an industrial-strength enema and cleanse all the crap out of the team which Gibbs allowed to fester over the last year. Honestly, he wasn't all that optimistic it would work, given the personalities of the individuals involved, along with their healthy-sized egos wrapped up in their posturing and insecurities.

Tony's thoughts turned to their victim, Laura Rowens, as they were wont to do after closing a case, possibly because he had a hard time switching off his brain. If Morrow hadn't ordered Cate into turning over the fake emails for him to analyse, Victor Grotinski may well have fooled them into believing they were the real deal, and that Mrs Rowens wrote them. It was deeply disturbing to think they could have gone haring off in the wrong direction, letting those monsters escape scot-free.

Having worked with Gibbs for more than three years he could envisage how it would have played out - the innocent traumatised victim dragged into NCIS and treated like a criminal. He could well imagine how brutal Gibbs would have been in interrogating the hapless Marine wife. The boss was not known to pussyfoot around when questioning a suspect – he'd have ripped her to shreds. He'd destroyed a lot tougher characters than Laura Rowens, terrorists and cold-blooded psychopaths and stone-cold killers.

DiNozzo tried to pinpoint where the investigation had begun slipping off the rails. He realised that it was probably the moment that Cate allowed herself to fall for Jeremy Davidson's sob story when she had taken his fingerprints. Criminals almost always tried to convince you that they were innocent – that it was someone else, not them. The only ones who never bothered were the sociopaths and psychopaths who knew they'd done the wrong thing, they just didn't care, and the malignant narcissists who were convinced that they were never in the wrong.

Jeremy Davidson was just so pathetic and predictable; he was a walking talking cliché. Rapists, in particular, craved power and tended to think they were smarter than cops. Too many sexual predators honestly believed that they wouldn't get caught… and like Tony had told the probies, rapists lie!

It really was a huge problem for this and future investigations if Todd was so quick to take pity on criminals when they turned their sad puppy dog eyes on her or spun some sad sob story as Jeremy Davidson had.

Once you decided that a perpetrator was innocent, even the most impartial and seasoned investigator was subject to confirmation bias. Todd was far from impartial or objective, way too quick to identify with the people she encountered. Present company excepted of course, because Anthony DiNozzo's character was obviously way worse than an assassin or a rapist in her estimation. And didn't that show what an inciteful profiler she was, since he was neither a murderer nor a rapist, unlike Davidson.

What Tony was having the most trouble wrapping his head around was the swift turnaround in her attitude to their suspect, the speed of which had been truly breathtaking. On the way to find out Davidson's room number from the nurses' desk, the profiler had expressed hope that he was already dead. Then, suddenly Cate had decided Davidson was a victim after he told Cate he was innocent, and he'd thought it was just a rape fantasy game.

Her 180 degrees change in attitude was confusing because Cate was a strident champion of women's rights, quick to label men as sexist pigs for the slightest infraction. Yet when a rapist declared he was the wronged party, she'd taken his word over a Marine wife. WTF was that about? He couldn't figure out where her head was at.

It was unfortunately true that all too often when investigating sexual assaults, male LEOs were quick to take a man's declaration of innocence over a female who came in to report she'd been raped. Yet Cate (a woman) was effectively treating Mrs Rowens as the cliched promiscuous wife trying to accuse some poor misunderstood guy of taking advantage of her.

Tony was well aware and frankly approved of the fact that special victims' units - in redressing the appalling treatment of rape victims by cops and judges - always operated on the premise that the accuser was telling the truth. Until and unless there was irrefutable proof to the contrary, which didn't happen all that often then the victim was always assumed to be telling the truth. There weren't a lot of people who'd willingly chose to put themselves at the mercy of a rape investigation unless they had really been violated because the justice system was pretty brutal on survivors. So much so, that many victims of sexual assault chose not to even bother reporting it.

The senior field agent expected that he'd have likely as not have to explain that truism to a male cop or agent, but not to a female. A female agent who was always touting women's rights and was supposed to be a psychological profiler who'd been suckered in by that dirtbag. And Cate had the gall to call him sexist. Perhaps he should suggest to Director Morrow that both Todd and McGee should spend time hanging out with Metro's sex crimes division to give them a harsh dose of reality.

When they'd returned to the bullpen after Cate had the I'm innocent, please believe me encounter with JeremyDavidson, he'd tried to tell Cate and Tim that you never believe a rapist because it was an immutable rule in sex crimes that rapists always lied. As an unie and a beat cop, another two years in Vice plus a homicide detective who'd seen his fair share of rape/murders, he knew that it was true – you took what they said with a grain of salt. HE KNEW THIS!

However, the problem remained that Todd's attitudes about cases as the team's so-called profiler influenced not only herself but others on the team. She could affect the direction the investigation moved in. This could be evidenced by her change of opinion about Davidson following his declaration of innocence and the readiness of McGee and Cate to flat out ignore Tony's years of experience.

The truth was that it was way too easy to fall into an investigator's worst nightmare - committing the fundamental sin of confirmation bias. In this case, by not questioning the veracity of the emails found on Rowens' home computer because they confirmed the belief that Jeremy Davidson was some poor dupe. As the director had told Todd and McGee, when you investigated a crime, you absolutely needed to check your prejudices at the door.

In a team where the chain of command was clear and the team leader trusted the experience of his most experienced investigator, confirmation bias derailing the case shouldn't be so huge of an elephant in the room. Yet on their team, due to its flat command structure and the rookie agents' combination of bumptiousness and inexperience, yeah it was a ticking time bomb waiting to go off.

To an experienced investigator like Tony, it was scary because had they fallen for the faked emails, the MCRT could easily have treated an innocent victim of attempted rape as some sexual deviant and adulterer. The very idea that could have happened was sickening to him; he'd become a cop and then a fed to help people, not harm them. His biggest nightmare was getting it wrong and putting an innocent person in prison and with this case, he saw how easily it could have gone down.

Mrs Rowens had already confided in Gibbs that she didn't fit in with most of the other wives on base because she didn't' have kids. Knowing how quickly scuttlebutt spread around a military base, she'd have ended up as a pariah through absolutely no fault of her own because mud tends to stick. And honestly, talk about your cliched chauvinistic stereotype that the childless wife was all too ready to cheat on 'her man' even as her husband was courageously serving overseas in a warzone in Iraq. She would have been the perfect scapegoat – a victim of Davidson and his equally depraved lover and then to add insult to injury, shafted by NCIS through no fault of her own.

So, he had to admit that despite their team narrowly averted disaster with the fake emails (thank you for that, Director Morrow) and sending a forensic scientist on an unsanctioned undercover mission, the MCRT hadn't exactly covered themselves in glory on this one. Tony could only hope that between Henry Lopez's promised attitude adjustment of the probies, Chris Smythe's supervision of post-suspension Gibbs and Morrow's evil training plans, it would be the much-needed collective wakeup call for the major case response team. If not, perhaps it should be a sign for him to move on.

The MCRT was led by Gibbs, who'd made it abundantly clear it was his team and Tony didn't get a say into how it was run. His way or the highway. Tony knew that his fucked up need to win approval from the boss or other authority figures (in lieu of receiving unconditional love as a kid) meant that sooner or later, he would face the decision of doing what he knew was right versus what his mentor told him to do.

Much as he wanted to believe he would stand up to Gibbs as he'd done in the past, often with accompanying screaming matches, Anthony DiNozzo Junior was nothing if not pragmatic when it came to his foibles. Sure, he'd stood up to the boss in the past before he'd hired a profiler and a computer expert last year. However, since the boss had started dicking around, making them compete for his approval and for plumb assignments during cases, Tony knew things had changed. He hated to admit it, but the way things were now, he was far more conflicted about speaking up when he felt like they were headed down the wrong path or weren't following procedures.

He didn't want to be asking himself one day how he'd sacrificed everything he believed in to earn a few scraps from Gibbs' table. If he'd wanted to prostitute himself, he could have joined his father in business and unlike his sperm donor, made a shit ton of money because he was way smarter than Senior when it came to business. He knew his brains would be sufficient. He wouldn't have needed to depend on marrying rich heiresses to fund his failed business ventures.

Tony realised it was time he sought professional help in dealing with his pathological need for attention and affirmation. He'd bide his time until an opening for an SFA arose on one of the other DC teams then apply for the position. Otherwise, he'd transfer over to the FBI because he didn't want to be still hanging out waiting for crumbs from Gibb's table for another decade after he joined the MCRT as Gibbs' second in charge in name only.

He wanted to lead his own team where he could do things his way to help people but still work within the rules. He didn't want to feel as if he'd violated everything that he believed in for a pathetic 'good job' followed by a caustic put down just to make sure he didn't get cocky.

Gibbs had taught him a lot in his first two years about being a federal agent, but now in the last 16 months, a lot of what he was learning was how not to lead a team. Tony wanted to learn how to be a good leader and it meant unless a miracle occurred, he needed to find a new mentor.

End Notes:

(1) At this point in the show, before a heap of retconning that took place after R.J. Wagner was cast as DiNozzo Sr., canon had Tony sent away to military school Rhode Island Military College when he was twelve and stayed until he graduated high school and went to OSU.

(2) Leyland Robert Spears was an undercover ID of Gibbs as a computer tech, revealed in S12 E16 Blast From The Past.

(2a) Since McGee coached DiNozzo through hacking into highly classified Pentagon network when he was Agent Afloat on the USS Sea Hawk, surely talking him through searching the Scarlet Secrets' servers should have been a cakewalk.