Jan 2
There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.
Richard Feynman
Jennifer Shepard was not entirely sure why she had decided to accept the job as Director of NCIS. Most of the time, she was able to recall clearly – she firmly believed she could make a difference. But at certain times, she wished she had chosen a different path.
Why did she have to be so involved in the budget? She wasn't an accountant. Why couldn't the accountants do their job and she schmooze the politicians into giving her agency more money?
Options, options. Perhaps a few early morning talk shows would raise the profile of her agency, making it fashionable to throw money her way. Maybe bribing Gibbs into playing nice with the media for a few weeks would help; there was no way she could blackmail him and he had a nasty habit of raising the profile of her agency in the worst possible ways. She was sure he was lying about tripping and therefore spilling his disturbingly warm coffee over the blonde reporter who had asked who his Director was dating…
Blackmail. Threatening to report Senator Thornton for sexual harassment might get him on her side. Sometimes it was helpful to have Officer David around.
She sighed in frustration, opening her desk and rooting around for an Advil. A visit to the firing range later would calm her down.