A/N Just a quick thanks to everyone for the support and interest that you've shown in this humble story. The amount of alerts, reviews and favs have been gratifying so I'm guessing that others were as irritated as me by that line that was simply left hanging - yet again. Anyhoo I'm admitting to a degree of trepidation about this one since it isn't a 'Gibbs is a warm and fuzzy papa bear 'type of chapter but then again, I don't actually see him in that way. Nor is it a 'Gibbs has a damned good reason for acting like an ass and he's trying to teach DiNozzo some valuable lesson which is obscure but well -intentioned' type of chapter, either because frankly I don't believe that. This is a 'Gibbs has a serious anger management issue along with a sense of entitlement, not to mention serious lack of insight' sort of chapter. After watching his less than admirable behaviour in a rerun of season eight episode Two Faced the other night when his double B behaviour was clearly apparent I decided that it is a no-brainer why Tim and Ziva don't respect the Chain of Command or their SFA. Seeing him encourage them to disobey Barrett, who technically was lead agent on the case, and seeing his own disrespect for her, made it more a question of why the heck wouldn't they? During the scene in interrogation when he intimidated her into relinquishing up her chair in the presence of the suspect, it had me praying that she'd win the confrontation even though I knew it was a lay-down misere. that he would emerge on top. Darn it!

This chapter hasn't been beta'ed although it s been proofed by my house guest up here for the Easter long weekend. Happy Easter for those people who observe the holiday and kiddies don't eat too many chocolate eggs, bunnies or chockie bilbies :) More fireworks next chapter.

Be Careful What You Wish For

Chapter 3

Gibbs sat in the soothing silence of his basement, interspersing the hush against the gently sibilant sigh of his rhythmic sanding which he'd learnt to match to his breathing for maximum effect. He liked to think the time spent sanding his boat was akin to a form of deep contemplation. And with the added benefit that he didn't have to get togged up in those fancy-ass pyjamas either.

He loved working the wood, shaping it to his will, creating something of beauty out of an insensate lump of lumber. Something which could, in theory when she was finished, could sail him across the oceans to the farthest reaches of the earth. Fanciful…quite possibly, since he was a workaholic, not to say a bad tempered, unimaginative bastard according to his ex-wives but a guy could dream, couldn't he?

The truth was that working on the boat was pretty much the only thing that helped him remain sane. The elegant, pleasing lines of his girl pacified his angry soul in a way that nothing else could and helped him to focus. It also helped him to forget all the ugliness that was such a big part of his job. Especially after this particular case, which pressed all his hot trigger buttons: a dead wife of a serving Marine, a shattered husband and a motherless little boy. So how could he not be reminded of his own losses and drive himself and the team to find the animal that destroyed that poor family? Now, he sanded the graceful curve of the ribs that he'd had worked upon so diligently, gazing at her lovingly. She was immeasurable strength coupled with classic style and he thanked his lucky stars daily for his beautiful lady.

He didn't know how he would have gotten through the last couple of days without her to come home to. Unlike any of his ex-wives or girlfriends, she didn't demand more from him than he was prepared to give. She didn't whine, pout that his job meant more to him than she did. Didn't insist that they talk about their relationship and his feelings for her, or ask dumb ass questions about why he couldn't hurry up and finish his girl so she could take them sailing on the weekend or suggest that it would be quicker if he used power tools. She never cheated on him with his best friend or attacked him with sporting equipment when she got pissed with him for being an insensitive jerk. Yeah, with the obvious exception of Shannon, of course, Jethro felt that his boat had been the most faithful companion he'd ever had a relationship with.

After several hours of communing with his special lady he finally felt calm enough to consider the issue of DiNozzo. He'd come so close on this last case to committing justifiable DiNozzicide. He was used to his SFA being the perpetual frat boy but this time he went too damned far with his joke. He had always been an attention whore, ever since he first met him back in Baltimore he'd sought out Jethro's approval and hated it when the junior team members earned Gibbs' praise or notice.

But damn it, during this case DiNozzo had truly outdone himself in a breathtaking example of narcissism when for some unfathomable reason he decided to stop being a team player, just about killing himself trying to solve the case all on his own. He'd pretended to act mature and ended up cutting off the normal parry and thrust of observations and information for them to all feed off which was the hallmark of the MCRT's success. Totally focused on trying to solve the whole damned case alone, no doubt so he got so he got all the kudos to the exclusion of everything and everyone else. He'd pissed him off big time and Ziva and McGee didn't appreciate the SFA trying to show them up either. The tension in the bull pen was unbearable as a result.

He also noted that DiNozzo didn't have his partner's sixes in the bull pen on this case, and Elf Lord especially, had fallen apart just because he'd understandably gotten a little hot under the collar. Screw it, DiNozzo was supposed to look after the juniors and shield them from his occasion excesses of anger but he'd been too busy showboating with his stupid psych profiles and compiling of multiple suspect lists. McGee had collapsed into a stuttering, stammering wreck, looking for all the world like a scared virgin in a brothel and froze up like he used to when he'd first joined the team. And no amount of head slaps would get him back on track and focused.

Gibbs didn't know what DiNozzo's problem was… well apart from the obvious! But things had been rocky for a while now on the team and he figured he was gonna have to take him into the ring and kick his butt to force him to get his head on straight. He relied on DiNozzo to have his back and he couldn't put up with the crap that he had pulled during this last case. DiNozzo needed to pull his head out of his ass or he'd make him sorry. Honestly, he wasn't sure what had crawled up his butt but it better stop. NOW!

He was probably still sulking, now he come to think of it because Gibbs hadn't seen fit to read him in on the Domino plan. The bastard had dared to get up in his face and lecture him about trust on the team when he'd been deceiving him for months on end over Jeanne Benoit and her arms dealer daddy. All the while his supposedly trustworthy 2IC was getting a little too friendly with his first protégé Jen Shepard, and conspiring together like a pair of children to keep him outta the loop. DiNozzo needed to get over himself and learn to suck it up.

Gibbs team – Gibbs rules! He was making sure his team stayed safe. Not his fault that they ended up injured just because Ziva and DiNozzo couldn't follow simple orders such as Do Not Engage!

Realising that it was almost New Year's Eve Jethro supposed DiNozzo might also have been bummed off because of Christmas. He asked Gibbs, like he did every damned year, to watch that dumb, sappy Christmas movie up in MTAC and like every other time he'd asked him before, Jethro blew him off. God the man was clueless, could he not get it through his thick skull that Gibbs had no intention of doing Christmas?

Well if that was what his problem was, it was about time he grew up or Gibbs would whoop his ass. He went to a Hell of a lot of trouble to get the clown back from the Sea Hawk but days like to day he couldn't think of a single reason why he'd bothered.

Be Careful What You Wish For

Gibbs walked into the bull pen fresh after a weekend spent with his ladylove. His muscles might be a little on the stiff and sore side, after a marathon stint sanding but it was good kinda sore and his mind felt calm and clear. Ready and able to sort out DiNozzo and whip him back into shape. Actually his palm was itching to deliver several well placed head slaps and sort him out so that the team got back on track. Stopping, he noticed that DiNozzo hadn't arrived yet despite the fact that both McGee and Ziva were sitting at their desks looking productive, even if in truth, they were just checking out their emails.

Looking over at his desk, his saw a curious sight on the previously empty surface he'd cleared off before he left for the weekend. There was a rather large and expensive bottle of A. H. Hirsch Reserve bourbon replete with a huge red bow and a card attached. Wondering who it was from, he thought it would probably be an attempt by DiNozzo to apologise for his outrageous behaviour last week. Did he really think Gibbs could be bought off so easily?

Peering at the card without his glasses, because there wasn't anything wrong with his eyesight, he realised belatedly, it was from his old boss.

Dear Jethro,

I guess this is part commiseration, part consolation. Your loss is definitely our gain. I can't believe he finally accepted my offer. Don't drink it all at once,

Your friend

Tom Morrow.

Trying to decipher the rather cryptic nature of the message, he groaned as his phone rang and Leon's assistant pertly informed him that his presence was required in the director's office ASAP. Just peachy, as DiNozzo would say. God he missed Tom Morrow!

When he entered the office, Vance shoved a letter and two files into his hands and chewed on his damned dumb ass toothpick while Gibbs struggled to read the letter., although he didn't need glasses since there was nothing wrong with his eyesight.

Glaring ferociously, he barked. "What the Hell do you call this, a joke? If so it's a piss poor one, Leon."

Scowling back the Director responded, "Absolutely not. It's exactly what it appears. DiNozzo's resignation, effective immediately and one of those two files is your new agent. McGee will be promoted to SFA. He did exceptionally well in cyber-crimes and more than deserves his promotion. Choose a probie."

"You've got to be outta your tree, Vance. 1. I'd eat the Elf Lord for breakfast on a good day just like I did last week. He might be ready to be a SFA but he's not ready to be my SFA because I'll chew him up and spit him out within a couple of minutes. Look at my record before DiNozzo took the job. And 2. I don't need a new SFA or even a probie cuz I'm not accepting his resignation, effective anytime! I can't believe anyone would be moronic enough to even entertain the thought."

"Careful Gibbs, you're skating perilously close to insubordination right about now." Vance warned. "And it doesn't matter if you accept his resignation or not. I'm the Director of this agency, not you. You made such a damn fuss about how the team couldn't function without him, so I allowed you to bring him back against my better judgement, but it was clearly a mistake. He failed to follow orders during Domino and he almost blew the Op and then last week, you can't say that the team functioned well with all the screaming and yelling and tension that was going on in the bullpen. It was an unbearable atmosphere for anyone to work, a toxic workplace not just for your team but for everyone else who works down there too."

Gibbs couldn't believe what a fool their new director was. He'd had a real set against DiNozzo from the get-go and he was just itching to get rid of him. By not keeping a tight enough rein on his team, he'd played into Vance's hands and he was going to make it damned difficult to fix this FUBAR. What the Hell was DiNozzo thinking? Was he outta his mind or was it an attention seeking ploy. Damn him, he was way too high maintenance. He reminded him of his ex-wives, Diane and Stephanie who always wanted him to pay attention to them, clingy, needy, driving him to drink.

If DiNozzo wasn't such an outstanding agent, not to mention the only one that he trusted to be his senior field agent, to watch his six in the field and in the bull pen too, he'd call his damned bluff to teach him a lesson. But he couldn't afford to lose him so he needed to track him down and drag him back where he belonged. And more importantly, he needed to do it before Abby got wind or his ass was toast.

Flying down the stairs to give the team instructions to get their paper work in order so he could find DiNozzo, he looked at the extremely expensive bottle of bourbon and he froze, finally connecting the dots.

God Damn It! Morrow had poached his senior field agent and if he thought he was going to get away with it he had another thing coming. Roaring out of the Navy Yard he drove like a lunatic down to the Homeland Security Building, demanding to see AD Thomas Morrow right now!