Chapter 3: Director's orders
Vance was on the phone when the doors of his office were abruptly opened and Gibbs entered marching in hard steps, holding the arm of his sullen looking agent.
Buchanan glanced at Vance briefly before Gibbs guided her to the middle of the room, and forced her to sit in one of the chairs before the Director's desk.
"Is this the kind of agent we're taking in now, Leon?" Gibbs growls, staring daggers at the recalcitrant agent who barely looks at him before sitting ramrod straight on the chair, looking fixedly to a point at the desk, mute.
"I'll talk to you later," Vance says to whoever is in the other side and disconnects.
He looks from Buchanan to Gibbs, who is now starting to make a worn path on the floor as he walks nervously in the office, staring daggers to the back of the head of the agent who is unmoving.
"What's the meaning of this?"
"Tell me, Leon. What type of agents are you recruiting? And what makes you think that I want someone who is unwilling to do her job when help is clearly needed? I can't have someone so unreliable like that in my team!"
Vance frowns at that, and glances at Buchanan, who just looks at him impassively but does not make any attempt to defend herself of the accusations.
"Explain to me, before I decide take the necessary disciplinary actions that I see fit to the case at hand."
Gibbs then started to explain the scene that has just happened in the bullpen, making Vance sigh internally as he had not expected that to happen so soon. He glances at Joy and he notices that, with the possible exception of the occasional flinch when Gibbs said something particularly hurtful, she doesn't move a muscle.
"So, basically, a detective from one of her old cases at the FBI came to ask her assistance, and -"
"She flat out refused! The man came all the way from God knows where and there's a serial killer on the loose, and she didn't even look at his reports. I expect my agents," Gibbs turns to stare down at the mute agent, who had not said a single word in her defense, "to be able to work as a team, which she obviously doesn't know how!"
Vance leans back on his chair, staring at the accused agent with impenetrable eyes for a moment, studying her as carefully as she was studying his desk.
"Do you have anything to add to Agent Gibbs' report?"
"No. It was quite accurate."
She answers in a monotone voice, not lifting her eyes from his polished desk.
"I would like to hear your report, then."
She lifts briefly her gaze from Vance's desk towards the man sitting behind it, and Vance briefly sees the boiling fury that she is trying to keep in check before she shoves it down and consciously closes all the shutters of her mind to him.
"Detective Cole was one of the people involved in a task force assembled eight years ago to solve the circumstances of the mysterious disappearances of six people in Louisiana. It was suspected foul play as their cars were found in different places along the Atchlafalaya Basin Spillway Levee, but no bodies were found. No ramson was requested. Forensics were not conclusive as the cars had been under water between ten days to ten months before they were finally found. Subsequent investigation lead to the arrest of Miss Elizabeth Christine Boyd, 37, who was the owner of a small bed and breakfast on Desonier Road. Apparently, all victims had stopped at her B&B at some point while they were travelling down US 90, either for rest or for lunch, and she decided to kill them. As her B&B was relatively isolated, she kept them under house arrest, tortured and killed them in cold blood in approximately forty eight hours from the moment they were in her power. All evidence of their existence or of their short stay in her establishment she would take to the Levee, which was barely one mile and a half from her hunting place."
"Why did Detective Cole come to request your assistance? Wasn't he aware that you had requested the transfer to NCIS?"
"He was aware, sir." Joy says, grinding her teeth. Vance notices that her tight hold on her emotions is slipping. "He actually has been told that I was dead, as that was the information in my FBI file. But he's bullheaded about seeking the truth of the matters, so he somehow was able to track me down here. He was desperate enough to leave his comfortable environment and come here seeking help."
Joy blinks rapidly as if trying to dispel some image from her mind, before she looks at Vance, "She's escaped. According to Cole, she has already taken some people hostage. It's just a matter of time before the bodies start piling up again."
"What makes you think you could help him track her down again?" Vance asks, testing the waters. He wanted to know how far she would be willing to risk for it, because it would be a difficult bargain to settle with the FBI if he were to let her go to the South.
"The first time, she was arrested thanks to my profile. I know her like no one else does."
Vance glances at Gibbs, who was staring at her with calculating eyes during her report. But Vance could notice that Gibbs was still confused, as he could read the eagerness in Buchanan's voice to help. But he had no idea the reason why she acted the way she had acted.
I hate politics.
"Agent Buchanan, thanks for your report, you are dismissed."
She stands up to go to the door, just to be stopped by Gibbs' glare as he complains to Vance.
"Just that? Are you just going to let her go with a slap on her wrist?"
"I'd like to talk to you first, Agent Gibbs," says Vance, his gaze going from the senior agent toward the profiler, who was looking at Gibbs with sad eyes.
"She disobeyed direct orders." Gibbs is not willing to let it go that easy, so Vance sighs and glances at Buchanan for a moment. She meets his gaze without flinching and nods walking towards the door.
"No Gibbs, she obeyed her orders. But not yours. Mine."
"What?" He glances at Joy, who is frozen by the door of the office, her hand resting on the handle but not making any move to open it. She stares sightlessly at her hand but doesn't participate in the conversation and also doesn't open the door
"You are under the impression that she follows your orders blindly, but you are mistaken. She won't obey you if you order her to do something that is directly against my standing orders."
"What are you talking about?" Gibbs turns to glare at her, who, once feeling his heated gaze on her back, releases the handle and folds her arms, leaning her back against the door and looking at Gibbs with empty eyes.
"As part of the deal of accepting her in NCIS, it was agreed that she would not participate, investigate or revisit any of her former cases, under any circumstance or in any instance."
"Agreed by whom?" Gibbs is starting to smell something rotten, and meeting Buchanan's gaze he starts to get a brief idea of what's going behind those dark eyes.
"It was a deal negotiated between me, SecNav and the Director of FBI. The Bureau's choice was to force her to stay out of the field, either by disability or by retirement, regardless of her mental or physical state. They kicked her out, and wanted to keep her down and out of their way for good.
"Once I decided to take her in, they still wanted to meddle in her professional life. In the terms of the deal, she's not allowed even to enter any of the FBI federal buildings, or contact any of her former FBI contacts, with the exception of her own family, without previous authorization by me, under penalty of administrative leave, dismissal and, if re-incident, criminal charges."
"That's cruel and unusual punishment." He takes a step towards Buchanan, who is now staring at her own hands silently. "Why do they hate you so?"
She says something so low that Gibbs doesn't hear.
"Excuse me, I haven't heard you the first time."
"I'm not dead." She says louder this time.
"I beg your pardon?" Now it's Gibbs' turn to check his hearing, as he doesn't believe what he has just heard.
She finally lifts her eyes and looks firmly at Gibbs, showing all her hurt and pain for the banishment imposed by the FBI.
"I'm alive. That's my sin. If I had died with my team, all my sins would have been forgotten. But I didn't. And they've needed a scapegoat. I've refused to be it, to clean the political and public opinion mess that their murders had created, so I became an embarrassment to my peers and the bothersome pebble in several shoes uphill. So they've banished me. Never to return again."
Gibbs' gaze returns to Vance, who silently nods in acceptance with her assessment of the situation. Vance himself couldn't have explained better the ridiculous terms of the agreement he had to accept to take her into NCIS. The FBI director had even had the audacity to suggest that he to keep her on a deskjob doing menial work until she, forced by boredom, decided to retire, but Vance, once he looked at her resume and her file, recognized a top agent right away and refused to play their game.
They wanted to ostracize her, fine, but within NCIS walls he was the voice of command. He chose her assignments and he would not bow to the whim of the Brass of the FBI. But unfortunately, it was inevitable that the past would catch up someday, and her past cases would rear their ugly heads up. And he, the director, could not allow her to offer assistance, despite the desperate need of it.
"So that's all about politics. And even if people are dying, you can't go back and help." Gibbs is astonished at the shortsightedness of the Brass at the Bureau, and finally he notices the sagging shoulders of his profiler, who looks at him with tortured eyes.
"No, under the terms of the agreement, I'm not allowed to initiate contact with any of those involved in the original investigation, nor offer any assistance."