Trepidation

Trepidation filled the entire Navy Yard. Fear, dread, it hung over the entire building. Ever since Tony had left, Gibbs had been on a rampage. He’d gone through 6 probies in record time. None of them lasting longer than a day. A few lasted two days at most and usually only because they caught a case and had to work overnight so couldn’t go to HR until the following day.

The only people that spent any time in the bullpen were the unfortunate probies assigned to bring the team up to 4 and McGee and Bishop. McGee struggled in the role of SFA and that only seemed to anger Gibbs more. It was quite normal for McGee to end up getting head slapped at least twice a day. On one memorable occasion, Gibbs head slapped him 4 times in one day.

McGee did manage to spare Bishop head slaps most of the time redirecting Gibbs anger to him instead like Tony used to, but Tim was ill equipped to handle Gibbs bastardism and anger. He didn’t have the ability to let Gibbs anger roll off his back like Tony did. He didn’t have the ability to defuse the situation the way Tony did.

The whole navy yard was falling apart and all because one Tony DiNozzo left. Gibbs refused to talk to anyone or anything communicating solely in grunts and brisk commands when the grunts were not correctly interpreted. Any mention of Tony only poked the bear more resulting in a sound that belonged more to a wounded animal than a healthy adult male.