Author's Notes: Thank to my reviewers, moolol, scottishcheeserollincabaiste and Dee! I liked that Gibbs smrik too as I could so imagine it on his face in that situation. Things seem to be getting better for her but she has so far to go and I can imagine it would be making anyone want to just give up...especially since she did not ask for this. Moolol, you can imagine Jimmy and Claire together? Cool, I couldn't very much atfirst so i changed that in future chapters, making sure that when they got together you would all see it coming :P. Abby is always sweet, but like I said..something else there, will find out later. I'm glad everything was well written.

Here's the next chapter. Oh and also, we're starting to come into one of the the subplots of the fic now...hope y'all like it.

Chapter 5: One week gone

It took another four days to solve their case but as Claire reached her eighth day at NCIS, she still hadn't made any more progress with the team since her second day.

She swiped her employee card that Wednesday morning before heading up to the elevator just as Gibbs was arriving for work also. She had finally got a grip on getting to work on time and often beat McGee but almost always beat Tony.

Claire and Gibbs stood in the elevator together as it took them to their floor and then headed into the office but Gibbs noticed something was different. Claire appeared to have a less than cheery and more quiet behavior. He watched her but decided not to dwell on it now and sat at his desk while she sat at her own.

--

As the hour drifted by, Claire gave a small smile of greeting to McGee as his desk was right beside her own but other than that she didn't say good morning to Ziva or Tony as she usually did, even if she had never really got much of a response. Gibbs knew she hadn't given up that easily as she would at least greet them every day without fail, but something was different about today.

'Gas the truck!' Gibbs threw the keys to McGee. 'Got a dead Lieutenant in Quantico' he announced and grabbed his gear.

Claire had kept up with them barely as she slid into the elevator just in time, but still hadn't uttered a word…a fact that by now everyone else in the team had noticed. But still, no one commented on it and just went about their usual business with nothing but curiosity.

They arrived at the crime scene and Gibbs had to stop Claire from going anywhere else as they set to work.

'Hey' he said as the others glanced at her in interest. 'You've been at NCIS for a week and you're still forgetting the gloves for a crime scene?' he frowned.

Claire then surprised everyone with her smartly answered reply. 'Well technically this is only my second crime scene Agent Gibbs' Claire told him. 'So time is insignificant' she stated and put her gloves on.

The group watched her as Gibbs took the camera off Tony and handed it to Claire, telling her to take photos. Ziva and McGee were expecting a smile to form on Claire's lips as she got her first proper job on the team but she just sighed and relaxed a little, but no smile.

'Are you okay?' McGee asked after a little while, being one of the few that had become concerned as well as curious to Claire's behavior.

'I'm fine' Claire replied. 'Why wouldn't I be?' she asked a little harsher than her usual tone.

'I…you're just quiet' he shrugged, feeling a bit pushed away.

'Got nothing to say' Claire shrugged a simple answer but Ziva watched her and the Mossad Officer did not believe that it was anything simple.

They got back to the office after a rather basic crime scene and set to work on their orders while Gibbs walked out for more coffee and then to brief Jenny.

Tony, McGee and Ziva all glanced up from their work as Claire's cell phone rang and she answered it, now looking clearly annoyed.

'What?' she asked, knowing the caller 'I already lend you several hundred dollars just last month!' she said in a frustrated tone, one that was loud enough to travel through the office. 'How much more do you want? I gotta eat, you know. I have bills of my own to pay'

'Wonder who that could be' Tony said quietly to the other two.

'Fine, how much?' Claire asked after about ten minutes of arguing. She then hung up and turned around quickly as she'd been pacing the room, only to bump right into Gibbs and her actions knocked the coffee cup right out of his hands.

'Uh oh' Tony said from his desk but a small smirk appeared soon after. He wasn't completely proud of it, but he just loved watching a Probie agent getting bullied by Gibbs. He couldn't help it.

'Oh, I'm sorry Agent Gibbs I just…I didn't see you and…' Claire rambled on and took a deep breath as she saw the glare he was giving her. 'I'll ah…I'll go replace it, what do you have with your coffee? Sugar, milk?' she wondered hastily.

'Coffee' Gibbs replied and she looked confused for a moment but then rushed out as if her life depended on it, but in some sense it sort of did.

'Tough day, boss?' Tony asked, receiving a pointed look. 'And…that would be none of my business. Shutting up, boss' he nodded and lowered his head back into his work quickly.

'You know, that wasn't her fault' McGee then defended Claire, making Tony glance up at him slightly in surprise.

Gibbs didn't answer McGee but he knew that Claire had made at least one budding friendship within the team.

'She's a Probie' Ziva said. 'Sometimes she needs to learnt the hard way, it's good for her'

'Did Ziva just say Probie?' Tony asked himself with a smile.

'You've spent too much time with DiNozzo' Gibbs commented on Ziva's words as he sat down, dumping the coffee cup into his bin.

Tony waited several minutes for Gibbs to calm down a bit before talking again. 'Think she'll make it as a field agent, boss?'

Gibbs looked over at his senior agent as the pondered on that thought. 'We'll see' was his only reply before he went back to examining the crime scene photos.

Later that afternoon as it was getting close to sunset; NCIS was a lot emptier than usual and the work was slow. Ziva glanced up from her paperwork when she noticed that Claire's desk was still empty as it had been for over an hour now. She stood up and looked around but couldn't see the junior agent anywhere. Not by the copier machine, the water cooler or in any of the nearby offices.

McGee was typing at record speed at his computer and Tony was making annoying phone calls to try and locate a friend. Ziva had finished most of her tasks so she left her desk and decided to find the newbie.

She hadn't left their floor level, but Claire was rather hidden quite a distance from the office when Ziva finally found her kicking the hell out of a new vending machine. Ziva's eyes narrowed in concern as Claire was kicking it with such force and anger. She stood mostly out of view as Claire had her back to Ziva and was abusing the machine vigorously.

Claire paused and rested her forehead against the machine and sighed, banging her fist against it with softer impact. She sniffed slightly and then calmed herself down before walking away; still not noticing that Ziva had been watching her.

--

Ziva frowned and approached the machine once Claire had walked away. She stared at a dent in the side and wondered if Claire had some sort of anger issues or if she was suffering deeper inside than she originally appeared. Maybe it had something to do with the phone call earlier but Ziva also wondered if it was because of how she had been doing within the team. She wasn't having a lot of luck and everyone was acting rather distant from her…Gibbs putting the most mood dampeners on Claire and then the incident with the coffee happened this morning. It was enough to make anyone want to kick the life out of something.

Ziva then changed her thread of thought and looked over to where Claire had walked away to and wondered that maybe…maybe they've been underestimating the new agent.

Author's Notes: Spilling Gibbs's cofffee: every newbie's mistake. Kate did it, McGee did and I have no recolection if Ziva did it...anyone know?Either way, Poor Claire.
Who was she talking to on the phone? Any theories? I'd love to hear them!!

Next time: Rule number 22 and will Claire reach breaking point??

Please Review!

-Mel