Monday mornings in Washington DC are a very busy time of the week. The city has been slumbering for the two days previous. A weekend in the Capitol is very different to the rest of the week. The Senate and the House of Representatives were closed for business, with the majority of the members of Congress returning to their states and districts, meeting with their constituents. The Federal agencies were staffed by less people than in the week, but these people worked just as hard as their weekday counterparts, if not harder. They took more calls individually, answered and sent more emails, as well as collated intelligence and criminal reports, both from national and international teams. Sunday afternoons were spent on administration, writing up the weekend activities, completing time sheets, checking over reports. One team was preparing their reports, wondering what one particular man would make of them.
"So, what do we know of our new boss?" Asked Tracy Sheridan, one of three senior analysts at NCIS this particular Sunday.
"Its McGee, remember him?" Liam Smith remembered him as a quiet man, overshadowed by his teammates. "The guy is a genius, in every sense of the word. Special Agent, qualified cyber crime tech, last I heard he was qualified at level nine."
"Not to mention, speaks five languages, worked in the CTOC, and his dads an admiral." Janice Mayweather was the shift leader this Sunday, preferring to work the weekend shifts as she avoided the hustle of the normal week when the building was full.
"Still, he's no Gloria Tainer, is he?" Sheridan had admired the woman, greatly. "He's never been a covert operative, has he?"
"Neither have you." Liam shot back. Neither of the two women had spoken to Tim much, but he had, the two of them both being graduates of MIT. Liam suffered from red-green colour blindness and was unfit for field work. Luckily for him, he could still work a computer, and joined NCIS after turning down the NSA. Here at NCIS, he was a level eight qualified cyber tech, alongside his posting as grade five analyst. He was hoping for a promotion soon to senior analyst, mainly so he would get the pay rise to afford the engagement ring for his girlfriend. "The guy has been with NCIS for eight and a half years, qualified cyber tech, analyst, and Senior Field Agent. He was with the CTOC for three years, and covered Special Ops in Cali. Think you could do the job, Sheridan?"
"Better than him, yeah." Tracy Sheridan was bitter about the recruitment of McGee. She knew was under qualified for the role of head of department, but there were seven head of sections who were more experienced than she was. Why the role hadn't gone to one of them, she didn't know, or why Derrick Young, the head of operations, hadn't been moved over. "He has no experience in Intelligence."
"Come on, Trace. We all know that's not true." Janice was happy to have Tim McGee step in. Maybe he didn't have a whole career spent in Intelligence, but he knew what to do with the reports after they had been written. Most of the analysts here couldn't plan a takedown with a step-by-step guide to help them. She knew McGee had planned and overseen takedowns, as well as been part of them during his time on the MCRT. "He has field experience, and three years at the CTOC. He is more than qualified for this job. Just because he didn't rise through the ranks of Intelligence is no bad thing."
"Yeah, well, I give him six months before he's gone." Tracy Sheridan liked the man from what she remembered about him, but she didn't trust that he could do this job. While she didn't want to see him fail, she wasn't getting her hopes up that he would be as successful as his predecessor.
"I give him six years." Liam had much higher hopes than his colleague.
Jennifer Shepard walked into the NCIS building feeling very happy. After six months of watching her teams become more and more unhappy, she had finally got the problems resolved. Promotions given and new jobs created had allowed her to create a second MCRT team here at the Navy Yard, along with assigning additional members to certain teams, mainly cyber technicians to each team, who were not rated field agents. This allowed for the field agents to do more field work, and always left someone in the office who could handle all computer and telephone assignments. Over the past three weeks, she had seen a definite boost to morale in this building alone, and reports from the MCRTs worldwide had shown her a similar picture. All she had to do for next year was to get the same budget again, and all MCRTs would have at least three agents, one computer technician, and a probationary agent. When she got out of the elevator, she found Special Agent Gregory Flickman and Officer Ziva David waiting.
"I would thank you for the welcome, but you're not here for me, are you?" Jen knew who they were waiting for.
"He should be here any minute, and we wanted to walk him to his office." Ziva David was very much looking forward to working with Tim again, the two of them having stayed in touch over the past three years.
"We know he's worked here before, but Tim met me at the door on my first day at the CTOC, thought I'd return the favor, Ma'am." Jen remembered the report about the young Special Agent, currently the acting fourth member of MCRT Burley, with Bryn Fillmore taking the SFA position on MCRT Hall. His psychological profiling had been an asset to both the MCRTs and intelligence, providing key insights into terrorists and criminals alike.
"Good to see, Flick. Tell him to try to not upset too many people today." With that, Jen headed for her office, knowing she would have complaints about Tim before the end of the day. His style was not abrasive, but not everyone handled change well, and Tim always changed things when he took over somewhere. Every change he had made at the CTOC and SpecOps had been for the better. God only knows what he had planned for Intelligence.
"What do you think he will do with the office?" Ziva knew Tim had a good eye for interior design, and the huge office for the Head of Intelligence needed some work.
"Knowing Tim it will become an office, conference room and MTAC all in one." Flick was there when the CTOC began its move across to its new home in Jacksonville, and had seen the nearly complete room before his transfer to Washington. "There is no way that room will just be an office." Ziva smiled at the younger man, having kept an eye on him at Tims request.
Like Timothy McGee, Gregory Flickman was highly intelligent and multi-skilled. He spoke four languages, five if you included Latin, had a Bachelors in Psychology and a Masters in Criminology, was a FLETC graduate and an NCIS Special Agent, and was a qualified criminal profiler. Unlike most profilers who worked in a team, Flick worked on his own for other NCIS teams. He provided MCRTs with profiles of murders and rapists, he consulted on cold cases, and more recently, had begun providing profiles on gathered intelligence through graphology and psycholinguistics, the study of handwriting and linguistics. He hoped Tim would keep him as a consultant to the Intelligence section.
"Here he comes." Ziva said this for the fourth time, noticing the change in the floor indicators on the elevator. Would this be fourth time the charm?