… and McGee
"So, You are a profiler"
"Specialized in Psychology and Psychophatic Behavior."
"Uhm"
"I don't usually disclose that information on first time meetings."
"Why?"
"People tend to act strangely when they realize they are talking to a glorified shrink." - Buchanan to McGee.
The awkward silence that befell the squad room slowly faded to the sound of fingers taping on keyboards. Gibbs' original team was pretending to work; meanwhile, they were glancing at each other trying to figure out what was going on in their boss' head. Gibbs, after some seconds staring at the new agent, stood up and with a low "going for a coffee" left the bullpen.
Tony immediately stood up and started to interrogate his colleague.
"Ok, probie. Spill."
"Not now Tony
"How do you know Mrs Steel balls there?"
"Anything you are hiding from us, McGee" asked Ziva.
"Guys, I…"
"You guys are aware that I can hear you, right."
The three agents shut up and walked over the table divisor to look at the newcomer.
"Do you have any questions?"
"Yes, how do you know McGee?" Ziva beat Tony to the punch.
"We had a drink together"
"McGee doesn't drink… much." Tony retorts. Buchanan smiles.
"I've never said I got drunk with him. I said I had a drink."
"Is it true, probie?"
"Yes" he answers, but the blush burning up his face is revealing.
"oh probie, this is going to be good..."
"I was under the impression his name is McGee" Interrupts Buchanan.
"Yes it is." Says McGee "But Tony here calls me probie…"
"Or McGoo, McGeek, McGenious, McSleepy, or…" Ziva continues.
"From hereafter, you will call him McGee."
"Why would I do that? He doesn't mind, right McGoo?"
"I do mind." Retorts McGee.
"Come on McGeek, you know I do it as a friend, as a brother"
"McGee" says Buchanan firmly.
"Yes" "I wasn't calling you."she says to McGee "His name is McGee" She says to Tony.
"Listen, Probie, you can't…"
"I said" there is steel on her voice "his name is McGee"
"Why should I do that, Probie Buchanan?"
"Let's make it clear" she stands and walks up to Tony, and stares fiercely at him. "You butcher his name, I will butcher yours, DiNutzo" She mispronounces his name on purpose.
"Hey, the name is DiNozzo."
"Or we can call you DiDi, Big Di, or my favorite" She pauses and give him a sultry look, full of leer as the one he gave her before, measures him up and down, taking her sweet time on his intimate parts "Little D".
"Hey, I'd have you know that there is nothing little about…"
"DiNozzo" Interrupts Ziva "Too much information"
"Ok, you made your point" Tony returns to his desk mumbling under his breath about new probies full of themselves.
Ziva looks at McGee and sees he is staring with astonished eyes to the new agent, and realizes that it is the first time that anyone had stood up to DiNozzo defending McGee in a long time. Or maybe ever.
Before, he was looking at her as a man looks at an old lover. Now he is looking at her as if she offered him a glass of water after a long time in the desert.
That is certainly going to be interesting.
"So, welcome to the team. I'm Ziva David."
"Shalom, Ziva"
"Shalom" Ziva is surprised. She experiments simple salutations in Hebrew and Buchanan replies without a hitch. Her pronunciation is impeccable, and Ziva tells her so.
"You speak Hebrew very well."
"Father was adamant we learn the language of the Bible." A sincere smile graces her face. "And I spent a summer in a Kibbutz in Israel during Uni."
"I thought you told Gibbs your father was in the Air Force. A colonel, if I'm not mistaken." Says McGee.
"He was. He retired after a while. After that he became the chaplain of the Air Force Base in Glasglow, Montana. Once the Air Force decided to close down the Base late in the seventies, they left; he stayed. He is the pastor of a medium sized Baptist Church there now."
"Well, hope you enjoy working with us."
"Thanks, Ziva"
Ziva goes back to her desk, not without exchanging a grin with Tony, who looks at the two standing Probies with speculative eyes.
"So…" starts McGee with the documents in hands, looking at her.
"Take a seat, McGee."
"Buchanan seats on her desk and brings up some graphs and programs on her laptop. McGee brings his chair over and sits by her side. He has the printout pictures of the crime scene and he gives them to her before sitting down.
"So…"
"So…"
We really must stop having these awkward pauses, thinks McGee.
"So, you're a profiler"
"Specialized in Psychology and Psychopathic Behavior."
"Uhm"
"I don't usually disclose that information on first time meetings."
"Why?"
"People tend to act strangely when they realize they are talking to a glorified shrink."
McGee smiles.
"That explains a lot."
"What?"
"The trick with the drink."
They look at each other and they are clearly not thinking about drinks for a moment. He smiles shyly and she reciprocates for a second, then it is gone. His smile fades.
"Have you ever worked with a profiler before?"
"Briefly." She looks at him, questioning him. "When I joined the team, we had a profiler. She had been from the Secret Service. But she died from a sniper shot on my first year here" McGee's voice still carries the pain from losing Kate, even after all those years.
Ziva and Tony stop what they are doing and wait for Buchanan's reaction. Kate's death was still painful, and they wanted to hear what would be the reaction of their new teammate.
"I'm sorry. But it was expected."
"I beg your pardon?" There is incredulity in his voice. Buchanan proceeds with her explanation. "Statistically profilers tend to die 39% more than any other activity in law enforcement. That is, when you compare the numbers of us to the number of non natural deaths in the force demographically."
There is horror in McGee's face "Why?"
"McGee" she pauses and looks at him. Really looks at him, and for a moment he sees in her eyes the same lost air that she had three days before when they met in the bar. "You can't do bungee jumping in the abyss without a safe line. The type of work we do, they type of analysis we make, is mind consuming. Few can withstand the pressure. And majority of us have their lives taken away by the very monsters we are trying to catch."
"That's awful."
"Indeed it is."
She starts looking at the pictures.
"If you need help with anything, I will..."
"Do you guys have a murder board?"
"Murder board?"
"Yeah, in NCIS LA, they had these really cool tech stuff, one of them was an intelligent board we could use to log information and to search things in the matrix as well."
"Oh yeah…" McGee's voice gets a dreamy quality. "LA's tech is one of the best, I made the request for one of those but until now …"
"Nothing."
"Nothing. They said it wouldn't fit our budget. Maybe next year."
Uhm… she looks at the printouts at her hand. "Is there anywhere I could spread these out. I will need more space to start working."
"I think we can arrange that."
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