Kate stood stock still for what seemed like an eternity to both herself and a growingly exasperated Gibbs. Her wide eyes flickered between the oddly daunting doorway and an equally daunting boss. She'd never admit it, not even under the most coercive of duress, but she was suddenly losing her bravado. It was one thing to be bawled out in a public area, safe in the bright lights. It was quite another to be secreted away with a snarling Gibbs in a disused and very private room. Hesitating, she cast one last look at his smouldering eyes and sighed with a resurgence of her irritation. She was being ridiculous; she was more than capable of looking after herself. She wasn't going to go weak at the knees because Gibbs had his knickers in a twist.

She wasn't Tony.

Rolling her eyes deliberately, she threw her hair over her shoulder. Spinning on her heel, she stormed into the room and stopped still in the middle of it, her arms folded firmly across her chest. Taking a brief moment to regain complete control of himself, Gibbs breathed deeply before entering. Closing the door behind him with a snap, he walked slowly to where his pouting agent stood. Leaning against the conference room table in front of her, he raised a very slow brow.

"I am at my very limit with you, Agent Todd."

His words were low, and infused with a lingering sense of fury. They seeped around the room, as Kate blinked in an attempt to digest them. She let out another put upon sigh as she shook her head. "Look…I know I disobeyed your orders. I know I left the look-out post, and I know it's against protocol to take down a suspect alone unless absolutely necessary." She held her hand up. "I admit it, alright? You happy? I, Caitlin Todd, had the absolute audacity to use my own brain without waiting to have my hand held whilst crossing the street." She shot him a burning look. "Next time I'll wait until you say it's ok for the female to act as a federal agent should. Ok?"

Gibbs instantly felt a hot sweat spread throughout his palms.

"Watch your mouth," he growled, "I'm not going to argue the point with you. You are my subordinate, not the other way around. I give an order, you follow it. I don't give a…" he checked himself. "I don't care whether you agree or not. Your agreement is not necessary, your compliance however, is. Now, like I said, I've had it with you. The way you talk back to me, the way you snipe at Tony, the way-"

Kate spluttered in indignant interruption.

"Excuse me?" she bristled, "Are you saying that not only do I have to kiss your ring, I have to bow to your precious Tony as well?" She stiffened noticeably. "In case you hadn't realised, Agent Gibbs, I was handpicked to protect the most important man on the planet. If you think I'm going to fall to the floor for your overgrown frat boy protégée, you are sadly mistaken."

The sweat that was coating Gibbs' palms was at boiling level.

"In case you hadn't realised, Agent Todd, you had no choice but to resign from that protection detail, before you were fired. And I, being the moron that I seem to be, gave your sorry ass another chance. Let me tell you one thing for nothing madam, I'm starting to seriously regret that decision." He glared at her unrepentant expression. "You seem to have neither understanding nor respect for the chain of command, so let me give you a crash course in both."

He stood up straighter.

Holding up a hand high, he arched a brow.

"There's me."

He dropped his hand a little lower.

"Then there's Tony."

He dropped his hand a lot lower.

"And then, and only then, is there you."

Before she could add words to the vicious scowl that was spreading fast, he continued. "Tony is me, when I am not here. You will follow his lead, and you will take a serious toning down on your smart remarks towards him. He is my second in command, and by the way, he was "handpicked" by me. I didn't pick him up from a rebounding airplane in the middle of the night, I asked him to join me."

He forced himself to be unaffected by the sudden wounded look that peeked through her façade.

"Are you understating me, Agent Todd? Because I won't explain again."

She looked at him long and hard for a moment, her eyes full of something he didn't even begin to understand. Looking away, she nodded jerkily in answer.

He swallowed a groan.

"I asked you a verbal question, means I want a verbal response."

She scowled once more, but it carried a hint of self doubt and wounded ego.

"I understand," she hissed, but without the same vehemence. "I have to follow the rules of the boys club you got running here." She threw her hands up. "Not like I'm unused to it, I'm sure I'll manage to show the teacher's pet his due deference."

Gibbs felt his much abused teeth gnash together.

Before he snapped to a decision.

"You will," he retorted calmly, ignoring her jibe which he knew was more effective than rising to it. "Otherwise, you can pack your desk and get the hell out of my sight. It's not just the disobedience on the stake-out. It's everything about your damned attitude, that's why we're here. I should have called you on it a lot sooner, and for the life of me, I don't know why I didn't. I like…people who know their own minds and don't need to be spoon fed. It's why I offered you this job in the first place. But…people who are too arrogant and with too much to prove, Kate?"

He shook his head slowly.

"Those people tend to get themselves, and others, in serious shit in the field."

Standing up slightly straighter, he scorched her with his gaze

"I will not have those kinds of people on my team."

She stiffened at his words, but her arms fell loosely from her chest. She looked at him silently for a moment, before raising a dark brow. "So you are firing me, then?" she challenged, "Just like I said in the bullpen? You do realise that we have a legal department, right? You do realise, that there is due process in termination cases?"

She regrouped and her arms flew to her chest once more.

"You can't just fire me like that. I'll fight you, I'll fight you every step of the damned way."

Gibbs smiled tightly.

"Oh I know there is due process, Kate," he agreed. "Warnings, written warnings, meetings…." He tilted his head in her direction. "That's your due process, isn't it?" He waited for her curt nod before continuing. "Well, I'll let you in on a little secret, Agent Todd. I have very little time or patience for paperwork bullshit in the guise of discipline. I agree with you though. I can't just fire you, and…if we're being honest, I don't really want to."

Her eyes flew to meet his.

"You don't?"

Gibbs remained silent for a moment, exhaling deeply. That one moment he had been striving for, had just happened. She'd dropped her act, her hard front, for just one second. Her words were coated in the self doubt he knew she'd been overcompensating for since the day she'd set foot on the Navy yard. And he wasn't lying to her. He didn't want to fire her. She had ions of potential, and she'd be a damned fine agent if she could be reined in.

And that what was he was determined to do.

Rein her in.

"So…am I suspended then?" came the voice, breaking his reverie. "Desk duty?"

He sighed as he took a calculated risk.

A calculated risk that concerned his own career and livelihood.

It was one he had taken before, many times, but this would be the biggest gamble of them all.

"I don't approve of those methods of punishment," he muttered, "They're the agency's ways, and they're a waste of time."

Her wide eyes grew wider.

"Then what way?"

He stood up slowly, unfurling his arms and locked her brown eyes with his still furious counterparts.

"My way."

…..

TBC

…..

A/N: Thank you all so much for the feedback on this story, I so appreciate every single one of you!

_Inks