A/N: Thank you all for your reviews, faves and alerts; you're really the best.

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All the guest reviewers, Cokeheller, Pamsie 123, FRENCHIE, Ginger, earthdragon, Mar91, Hells Bells and as524, thanks a lot for your comments and your encouraging words. Since I couldn't respond to your reviews individually, I thought I could at least thank you all here.

(earthdragon, I totally agree with everything you said; you're so right.)

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Entering the Director's office, Gibbs frowned when he saw the pensive look on the man's face. It was early morning; too early for something to have already happened to put that look on Morrow's face and if something had happened; it must've been bad.

He'd just come back from his first coffee break and had found Kate at her desk, looking frustrated as she tried to go through some forms. Tony's desk was empty, but he hadn't paid much attention to it; the younger man could've gone to the head; or gone to get a coffee or even to see Abby in her lab. Before he had been able to sit down, his desk phone had rung and Morrow's secretary had informed him that the Director wanted to see him right away.

"What's wrong, Tom?"

Looking up, Morrow studied him for a few seconds before saying, "Why don't you tell me?"

"You wanted to see me." Gibbs pointed out.

"True." The other man nodded, "So, Gibbs; tell me, is everything alright with your team?"

"Yes."

"Has the new agent settled in OK yet?"

"She seems to be getting the new rules. Why? Something wrong with her performance review?"

"No. No. Not in your reviews, at least." He shook his head.

"Then in whose review?" Gibbs frowned; wondering if someone else was spying on his team.

The director ignored Gibbs' question. "In fact, your reviews seem to be portraying the situation a bit too perfectly."

"Dammit, Tom! What's this about?"

"It's about your whole team and how you seem to be way too unaware of what's happening with them."

"You have someone spying on me and my team?"

"Spying? I don't need to. I'm in charge here; don't forget that!" The other man replied calmly. "And all SFAs are supposed to give me their own reviews of their team's performance."

"DiNozzo been here nagging?" Gibbs growled.

"Nagging?" Morrow narrowed his eyes, showing his annoyance for the first time. "I see you have a lot of respect for your SFA." He shook his head. "This conversation is over; you can go back to your desk."

"What?"

"I've got what I was looking for. You can leave, now, Agent Gibbs. You're dismissed."

"Tom? What's this about?"

"Didn't you hear-"

"Dammit! I didn't mean that about DiNozzo! But whatever he's said, it's probably just him having a hard time dealing with a new teammate!"

"I just told you I ordered him to give me his own review and you say he's nagging!" Morrow retorted firmly. "And after two years, you seem to think he's partial and judgmental and unable to perform his job without being fair. And apparently he can't even deal with having a new agent around. So what's the point of this discussion? Maybe it's for the best to get rid of him now that you've found yourself a new agent."

"What the hell?" Gibbs jumped to his feet angrily. "DiNozzo is my SFA; the best agent I've worked with. He's an asset to this agency!"

"That why you think so highly of him?"

"He-"

"And for your information; his review and report were very professional and seemed accurate."

"He is a professional."

"Then why did you suggest he can't deal with having someone new on the team, which had apparently made him start nagging? He's never had a single problem with the previous agents assigned to your team, agents that you couldn't stand for stupid reasons; why would he choose now to give a negative review; why would he choose now to develop intolerance towards new agents assigned to the team when it'd generally mean his workload would be lightened?"

Gibbs remained silent; he hadn't meant to say those things and he knew he'd been wrong.

"So, maybe you do have a problem with your team. Maybe things are not as fine as you want me to think."

"What do you want me to say?"

"I want you to tell me why your new agent, a 'probationary agent', dares to show disrespect to his immediate superior and you as the Team Lead fail to remind her of her place? I want you to tell me why your SFA thinks you wouldn't back him up if he, himself, said something about it? I want you to tell me why DiNozzo, 'the best agent you've ever worked with', a valuable 'asset to the agency', as you put it; thinks it's time he moved on and comes to me with a transfer request, saying that if nothing is available or if I don't want to accept his request, he'd understand but he'd like me to accept his resignation?"

Gibbs had sunk back down into his chair at hearing those things. Tony thought he didn't have his back properly with the wrongness of what was going on! He couldn't believe it, but once he heard that the younger man had actually wanted out of his team, at any cost, even at the cost of leaving the whole agency, he felt like one of the biggest failure of all the time. How had he missed it? How had he not noticed that things were way worse than he'd imagined?

"I see it's come as a shock to you." Morrow commented, "So you really failed to notice the disrespect your newest agent shows your SFA." That was a statement, "And I'm not saying this just because I trust DiNozzo's judgment, since over the time, he's proved to be a fair person and has never put himself first. I say this because after I read his review, I kept a closer eye on things; watched your team and your new agent and saw how she didn't see anything wrong with telling DiNozzo off or acting like she's the one with experience and knowledge; the superior one! And I saw how she undermined him and his position and you always turned a blind eye to it. I wonder how DiNozzo didn't come to me sooner. Maybe he'd thought that either she'd get tired and after settling down, she'd tone it down or you'd put a stop to it. Doubt it's the latter; so he must've given up when she kept ignoring his orders and did what she wanted with no respect to him or his position; always reminding him that she's better than him; a profiler and not needing his advice or directives."

Gibbs had the good grace of looking guilty and reproached. Once their first case with Kate Todd as their newest agent was closed and Tony didn't go anywhere, he'd thought that everything was actually alright; so he'd dismissed everything that had bothered him during that first case. He'd never thought that Tony'd leave after the second week.

"Where's he now?" He asked, suddenly sounding unsure.

"Sent him home. Where do you think he is?" Morrow rolled his eyes. "He refuses to work in a toxic environment like the one down there and I can't blame him."

"You transferring him?"

"Well, I sure as hell don't wanna lose him!" Morrow stated. "He still hasn't realized it, but the moment the word gets out that he's no longer with us, FBI would jump at the opportunity to snatch him and I'd be damned if I let that happen."

"Give me another chance."

"To do what?" Morrow asked with no actual interest in his voice, "Agent Todd is a woman and everyone who knows you also knows you can't put a woman in her place unless she's your ex-wife or there's been something going on between the two of you anyway and you're fed up with her. And Todd doesn't belong to either of those categories."

"That's not true!" Gibbs snapped.

"No? That why you've let Todd say whatever she likes in your presence, not turning a hair? And Ms. Sciuto, is a great Lab. Tech., we're lucky to have her, but you think what she does in that lab is normal for a laboratory of a Federal Agency? And don't even tell me you wouldn't have said something if our Lab. Tech. had been a man with odd tendencies and let me tell you, it's just because of you that she has this much freedom."

"She's never done anything wrong." He was quick to defend her.

"Goddammit, Gibbs! It's not always about something wrong occurring! There's a code that should be followed; some rules! You should know what that means; shouldn't you? You've got all your rules and even though breaking most of them wouldn't mean something wrong has happened, you wouldn't stand for it. Someone breaks your rules and you act like it's the end of the world!"

"That still doesn't prove anything. I have no problem firing a female agent."

"No, you don't! But you like this one." The director pointed out. "And you feel guilty for having her pretty much fired from her previous post."

"It was her own wrongdoing that-"

"Don't give me the excuses you try to give yourself." Morrow cut him off. "That's not the point; the point is that Agent DiNozzo has had enough and since I don't wanna lose him, I can't accept his resignation."

"I can't either!" Gibbs growled.

"Well, then it's too bad you made it look like it was alright to ignore him and his position on the team."

"If you're so set out to remove him from my team, why did you call me here, Tom?" Gibbs asked warily.

"Because-" Morrow growled with frustration, wanting to actually throw something at his best agent, "I thought you'd regret it; that you might have an explanation. Hell, I wanted to see your reaction."

"I do regret it!" Gibbs hit the armrest of his chair with his open palm. "Didn't I just ask you to give me another chance?"

"You don't get it, do you?" Morrow shook his head, "I am not the one who's pulling him out of your team. He wants out. Which means, I am not the one who can give you a second chance."

"You said you gave him what he wanted."

"Never said such a thing." Morrow pointed out. "I said I didn't want to lose him so I refused to accept his resignation."

"Then what?"

"I sent him home. Told him to take a few days off. Paid vacation. Asked him to give me some time to find the best place for him."

"That would be on my team."

"It was until you screwed up. And it's a shame, because with his background, it'd be a waste of his skills anywhere else. Another year as the SFA of the MCRT and I'd offer him his own team; but it's too soon after just two years."

"He went home?"

"Yes."

"I'm gonna need a couple of days off."

"Go! Get out of here. I'll make sure Agent Todd is occupied; who knows; maybe we can still teach her how to be a good agent." Morrow smirked. "Not all of us are scared of putting a woman in her place."

"I'm not-"

"Just go, Gibbs!"

Growling, Gibbs turned to leave, but stopped when Morrow called him again.

"And, Gibbs, don't screw up again; because I actually have found him a place that he might like and I'll make sure that in a year, he'd get his own team."

That was enough of a threat, or incentive, for Gibbs to keep his temper in check. He quickly left the room; hoping against hope that he could actually fix his mistakes.

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TBC ...

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A/N: Let me know what you think?

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