TIMING IS EVERYTHING

 

By

 

Ashleigh Anpilova

 

A sequel to One Of Them.

Vance has made his decision, all he has to do now is tell Gibbs.

A Vance & Gibbs centric gen story.

Written: March 2011. Word count: 500.

 

 

 

The decision was made. Vance stuck with his gut instinct. All that remained was to tell Gibbs and then the agent. As the team was in the middle of a very nasty case, Vance held off speaking to anyone until it was resolved.

 

The day after it was all wrapped up, Vance ordered Gibbs up to his office. However, before he arrived Vance received a phone call that made him realize timing was everything. He put the phone down, opened the file on his desk, glanced at it again and made a second decision.

 

At the sound of the perfunctory knock on his door, Vance stood up. "Gibbs."

 

"Leon."

 

For a moment Vance stared at his senior field agent and fleeting wondered how much easier his life would be without Gibbs in the agency. However, without Gibbs, the agency would be far weaker. "I said I'd tell you when something affected your team."

 

"And?" Gibbs gave nothing away.

 

"And, I'm cutting one of your field agents. The decision has been made, Gibbs. The team ran perfectly successfully and efficiently with three rather than four field agents." He paused, waiting for Gibbs to argue, to threaten, to do anything, but Gibbs just stared impassively at him. "I have the entire agency to consider, Gibbs. I have to do what's best for the agency, not just for your team."

 

"Who?"

 

Vance hesitated for a fraction of a second before speaking. "DiNozzo." Again he waited for the explosion.

 

Instead to his surprise, Gibbs gave a half nod. "Makes sense," he said. "For the agency," he added before falling silent.

 

Vance found the silence slightly unnerving and came close to starting an explanation about addition skills, the twenty-first century agency, but he managed to stop himself.

 

When Gibbs did speak, again it wasn't what Vance had been expecting to hear. "When are you going to tell him?"

 

"Now." Gibbs nodded. "However, there's been a last minute development. An unexpected position has become available with immediate effect." He looked at Gibbs, but all Gibbs did was to raise eyebrow. "Agent Afloat on the Kitty Hawk."

 

"You want to offer it to DiNozzo?"

 

"Do you think he'll take it?"

 

Gibbs shrugged. "He might."

 

"He hated it last time. He couldn't wait to get off."

 

"Yeah, well, that might have had something to do with the fact you let him think it was a punishment." Gibbs glared at Vance.

 

Vance met Gibbs's stare. "I don't remember you telling him it wasn't." Gibbs said nothing. Vance waited for a moment or two, before picking his phone up and hitting the button that would connect him with his assistant. "Please ask Agent DiNozzo to come up to my office immediately," he said, replacing the receiver once his assistant had acknowledged this instruction. "I assume you want to be here when I tell DiNozzo."

 

Gibbs nodded once, before turning and moving away from Vance's desk to lean against the table.

 

In silence they waited for the knock on the door.

 

 

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