Simply awesomely fantastic. I shall now seek out the sequel. Good to see minor characters - and especially Faith Coleman - fleshed out beyond the single-dimensional persona of late JAG and early NCIS. Thank you for writing.

Found this in 2020. Chapter 11 is one of the best-ever Tony-Gibbs confrontations I have read. I look forward to reading the remaining nine chapters in this epic.

Good use of the Faith Coleman character, giving her another dimension.

Excellent!

Ziva, Gibbs and McGee are good NPD cases. McGee really has the part discribed in this chapter.

While I myself don’t have any issues with Gibbs, I do find your story to be very interesting and well written so far. Great job and keep writing. You’re very good at it! :)

Great fic! I commented mostly everything on the sequel as I just had to jump into the rest of the story.

I thank you for your writing style. I've had to look up four words thus far and I appreciate it because I noticed recently that my vocabulary has included a lot more complex words. (I've been reading a lot of Severus Snape fics and that man indutably has a capacious lexicon). so I'm pleased to have my definition knowledge challenged in your fic and I hope that it rubs off on me.
I'm enjoying the story (enough to for go sleep it's just after 4:00am) and I hope Tony finds somewhere good to be after this. I am so happy ye has some support. Thank you for writing.

The last fic I read made me so mad on Tony's behalf but with this one I am sad for him. Poor thing. I want to wrap him up and give him a squeeze.

Great story

Really great story!

I do adore how not only do you know the psychology and use it correctly, you fix the "common man" 'colloquial' meaning inaccuracies. I especially love how you threw in the correct usage (though you didn't call it by it's name, just the longer psychological definition) of positive and negative reinforcement and correctly used Gibbs' scant praise as an example of positive reinforcement.

That said, you were - slightly - wrong.

Yes, irregularly scheduled reinforcements can be, and often are, the most effective method of teaching behavior and also of reinforcing that behavior (which is why it is called 'reinforcement') however, NEGATIVE reinforcement is considered the most effective, not positive.

And, Gibbs and Tony are classic examples of that in their behavior... negative reinforcement is often colloquially taken to refer to punishments, however that is inaccurate. The true meaning has to do with irregular reinforcements via positive attention being interspaced sporadically between negative. Such as, (using Gibbs and Tony for example) often giving head-slaps for 'annoying' movie quotes and chatter regularly (negative attention) but irregularly smiling, laughing, or even saying 'good job' (positive attention) for the same behavior.

So... yes, slightly (and admittedly, nit-picking here) wrong: Gibbs uses both methods, not just positive, to manipulate Tony (and I've no doubts it is intentional, as well as extraordinarily effective.)

You were quite successful in meeting all three of your challenges. Never saw the attack on Gibbs coming.

Brilliantly doner

Just read for first time. Have read What a Difference a Year Makes, twice. I loved this and now going to read What a Difference a third should now write that Tony made more movies and then also went to TV, uh you know BULL. If you don't want to, I would try it, but not on this site, but on a FB page. Thanks

I couldn't stop my headlong dash through this story long enough to comment on individual chapters so I hope I can remember all of the things that I wanted to say.

Loved your treatment of Dr. Star and his patron. It is so nifty that your story predates "Bull" by quite a few years. Way to go! Maybe you could claim royalties for the idea? hm...

Brilliantly written and filled with details that enriched the story so much. I have a background in counseling so I was literally seeing the pages of the DSM in my head. The various tests that Tony was given were spot-on and the Myers-Briggs was a real treat. I didn't want to skip a word but I was so interested in Tony's description. I can remember the time when all of my colleagues would talk about their designations at great length.

You gave us a Michelle Lee and a Faith Coleman who were so wonderfully different than their one-dimensional characters on the show. I really enjoyed reading about their friendship and it is nice to know that in at least one world Lee had a very good friend and Faith giggled. I am so glad that you had Faith acknowledge that her conversation with Michelle was ill-advised. While there was no promise of confidentiality one must always be discreet when having a discussion like that. In all reality, they were gossiping about Lee's co-worker and as lawyers, they should have known better. As the starting premise of your story - brilliant!

I was stunned by the machinations of that oily lawyer. You depicted him as a bit of a blow-hard so when he turned out to be so conniving, I was gob-smacked. He backed Gibbs up into such a tight corner that a saint would have had a hard time staying calm and collected.

I could go on for longer but I will end by saying that I totally and completely got wrapped up in this story and I am looking forward to the sequel.

thank you

Oo