Chapter 4: Politics
"Politics is the art of postponing decisions until they are no longer relevant."Henri Queuille
After their little conversation with Vance, both Buchanan and Gibbs leave the Director's office and walk in sedated steps towards the bullpen.
However, Gibbs's curiosity might have been appeased, his fury is still burning strong in his chest.
Instead of going to the bullpen, he grabs Buchanan's arm and guides her into the elevator, hitting buttons to ensure that the door closes before he starts bellowing to his wayward agent.
Once the doors are shut, he releases her arm roughly and stares down at her, burning her with his steely gaze.
"Don't ever play politics with me again," he finally says through clenched teeth, struggling not to shout at her.
She shakes her head, looking at him sadly.
"It's not your battle to fight, boss."
"LIKE HELL IT ISN'T!". Gibbs punches the elevator wall right beside him, making her jump with the noise, before turning around abruptly, incapable of looking at her without remembering the scene at the director's office
She simply looks at him sadly, "I couldn't tell you."
"How can I trust you if you're the director's lapdog?" He turns around again and glares at her, his cold blue eyes like laser tags on her face.
She shakes her head, answering in a shaking voice, "I'm not. I was just following orders. And it has never interfered with my working as your subordinate."
Gibbs approaches her and hovers over her face, speaking in a very low voice, "What if his orders change? If his next ones go directly against what I'm asking you to do during a case? Who will have your loyalty? Me or him?"
Buchanan looks at his face horrified at the thought of Gibbs, even if just for a moment, doubting her loyalty and her ethics.
"The only way out for me is... if I quit. But I'm not going to that. Because if I quit now, they win. And I'm not going to give them - either of them - the pleasure of seeing me doing what they've planned for me for a long while. Now regarding my loyalty, you are my boss. You've seen my work ethics. I don't have to answer that question."
She walks up to the control panel of the elevator, hitting the button to open the door, "You already have the answer."
The doors hiss open, and she walks out towards the bullpen where the other agents look at her worriedly as she takes her own seat, going back to work on the reports she had been reviewing before being abruptly interrupted by the visit of Detective Cole.
Gibbs arrives a few seconds after her in the bullpen, and glares at Tony, Ziva and McGee, who immediately start working back on their computers, without opening their mouths to ask anything thanks to Gibbs' stormy face.
The team leader sits on his desk, glares in the direction of the profiler typing away her report, before answering the phone which starts ringing on his desk. After a few words exchanged, he stands up, ready to roll.
"GEAR UP, DEAD MARINE."
There is no banter between the agents as they grab their backpacks and slowly and silently file towards the elevators, and the temperature is downright chilly once the doors close after they all board the car going down.