Meeting Vance
It has been said, 'time heals all wounds.' I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, (protecting its sanity), covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But, it is never gone. - Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy
Director Leon Vance is used to let agents, even senior agents, sweat. He had a reputation of being a strict boss, who took over a Federal Agency after the tragic death of the previous director and after all these years on this post, he was feared and respected on all Federal circles. He was a worthy adversary, but a fair judge of character.
Even Special Agent Gibbs, who had as much leeway as none other agent in the Agency, knew that the Director was a figure to be respected and feared upon occasion.
But Vance could not detect a single twitch on the agent sitting before him. He browsed the file on his hands one more time, just to make a show that he was reading it but he actually had it memorized since the first time he read it one week ago.
The Special Agent before him was a transfer from the FBI, ten years veteran on the Behavioral Analysis Unit located allocated to the West Coast, more specifically in LA.
Apparently, after the success of the BAU in DC, the Brass in the FBI decided to create a second BAU to cover specifically the crimes on the West Coast. This way they could work more efficiently and the Learjet of the Bureau would not burn so much fuel. It worked well for a couple of years, and the main BAU was still called upon some of the most gruesome cases, both teams worked alongside solving a staggering amount of horrific cases, some more gruesome than the worst imagined horror humanity can create. Things were going well until six months ago.
Six months ago everything went straight to hell.
During one terrible case, multiple murders on each scene, the unsub escalating on his aggressiveness on each attack; the team was so concerned on finding the monster that they failed to watch out for the monsters lurking within.
One of their own snapped under pressure. The whole team was murdered. By one of their own. After he killed everyone, he killed himself.
All the team was dead. With the exception of the Agent sitting before Vance. After an exhaustive investigation, the agent was exonerated of any wrongdoing. They could find no fault on her, as she was on leave due to family problems when the massacre happened. However the Agent was given a checkmate: either retire or quit.
The Agent chose neither and applied for a transfer to NCIS. After only one month in the LA office, her resume was forwarded to headquarters and Vance invited her over to DC.
And that is why Special Agent Joy Buchanan was sitting on Director Vance's room that morning.
Vance closed the file and put it on his table.
"You have a very impressive file"
"Thank you sir"
"However I wish better circumstances were what brought you to my agency." Vance detected a little tension on her shoulders at those words.
"I understand your reserve, sir. But what happened affect neither my efficiency nor my abilities as an Agent and especially as profiler."
Vance pauses to look at Buchanan. Her hair falls on soft waves framing her face, her deep almond eyes watching him carefully, analyzing his moves and his words. She is impeccably dressed on a professional looking suit. There is no signal of impatience. She has a background both in Psychology and Psychiatry, but her range of interests makes her a legend on the Profiling world as her mentor Gideon or her colleague on the currently only living BAU Stephen Reed.
"You will be temporarily assigned to the Major Crime Response Team, under Special Agent Gibbs's lead. He is a strict but a fair leader. His trust is earned, not given. I know you worked one month with NCIS LA but here you will be trained on NCIS approach to the cases, which I guarantee are quite different than the ones you handled on the FBI."
"I'm looking forward to it, sir"
"Our bulk of cases might not be as many as in the FBI, but they are equally important. You will be trained by the best, in order to become one of the best.
"Once we see you are ready, we will organize that you have your own team, so you may train them to be profilers like you are. But first of all, they must be aware that they are NCIS agents first, profilers second. Am I understood?" He wanted to make clear that what happened in LA would not be tolerated nor accepted in DC.
"Crystal clear, sir."
"Good"
Vance touches his intercom and talks to his secretary.
"Get me Agent Gibbs"
Author's Chapter Notes:
A new team member is forced onto Gibb's team and she manages to rock the dynamics in place. And she also catches the eye of a certain geek. What secrets is she hiding? Second in series. Follows A Geek walks into a bar.