"Probie!"

The tell tale growl of Mike Franks spread throughout the squad room allowing Tim and Tony to breathe a momentary sigh of relief. They were standing in the middle of the bullpen being thoroughly chewed out by an exasperated Gibbs for goofing off during a practice round for their arms requalification test. Gibbs saw the looks of hope and growled deeply in his throat. He also saw the opportunistic shuffling away and growled even deeper.

"Don't move a single inch. I am nowhere near done with you two."

He caught the despairing glances the two exchanged as he pivoted to face a now snarling Franks. Raising a brow and wondering what the hell had gotten into the old timer this time, Gibbs stifled a sigh. Letting his old mentor and friend crash with him while he got reacquainted with life in the US was a no brainer, but the man was hard work. Gibbs also privately loathed how Franks could still reduce him a stuttering, stammering Probie with just one side of his sharp tongue... even after all the years that had passed since his rookie NIS days.

"Mike, what can I do for ya? Kinda in the middle of something here."

He gestured irritably to the two morose looking Agents and Mike's eyes duly flickered sideways.

"You chewing these two out for somethin'?"

Gibbs nodded curtly.

"Uh huh and I'd really like to get back to it, if you don't mind. Can whatever this is wait?"

Tim and Tony both winced at the dark tone underlying their bosses words and dropped their respective gazes to the floor. Mike, however, drew himself up to his full height and leveled a glare that would boil water at his protégé. Letting an uncomfortable silence fester, he slowly reached into his suit pocket and fished out a crumpled sheet of paper and waved it accusingly in Gibbs' face.

"Do you know what this is, Probie?"

Gibbs raised a brow.

"Well, gee, Mike... I guess it looks like a Unicorn with his hooves all polished. No I don't know what the hell it is. Could you quit playing twenty questions and get to the point... some of us have come out of retirement and have things to do today!"

It was Franks' turn to raise a brow.

"It's an official letter of reprimand, addressed to your sorry ass and signed by the Director himself." His voice was glacial as he watched the realization dawn in Gibbs' eyes. "This letter says that there's been two before it, all for the same thing, and that if there's another one... you're going to be spending some time back at the cantina in Mexico. Ringing any bells?"

Gibbs rolled his eyes and felt a wave of irritation swell over him as Tony and Tim's heads snapped up and their ears practically twitched with anticipation. Cursing himself silently, he resolved not to leave official looking mail hanging around the house. Clearly, Mike could no longer be trusted to mind his own damn business.

"Uh huh... thanks for the cliff notes, Mike. You can go ahead and leave my mail back where you got it and I'll see you later on tonight. You-"

"Shut your damned mouth, Probie and get your head out of your ass. You want to explain to me how a man with over twenty years on the job remains so damned ignorant so as to go out into the field not once, not twice but three times without a vest? What the hell is the matter with you? Is that kind of example you're setting for these kids? That you're some kind of God?"

Gibbs stifled a groan as he recognized the onset of a full on meltdown.

"Mike, not now, ok? Not here. We can discuss-"

"Don't you dare interrupt me you knucklehead. When I'm talking, you're not. You know that much so don't even act like you don't. We're going to talk about this right here, right now whether you like it or not. You got no problem tearing strips off your two boys in the middle of the bullpen... are you really going to stand there and tell me that you're too good for your own brand of medicine?"

Tony and Tim exchanged mixed looks of glee and horror as they watched Gibbs swallow hard.

"No, but-"

"I don't want to hear nothing bout no buts! I see from this letter that your piss poor excuse each of the three times you went into the field without a vest was that there just wasn't time. Is that the line you want to trot out right now? Hmm? That there wasn't enough time in each of these three scenarios for you to take the ten seconds to put on your potentially life saving vest?"

Gibbs groaned and like countless times before, unconsciously regressed from team lead to rookie.

"Boss... give me a break, will ya? It's not as simple as it seems and-"

"Give you a break?" Mike growled, "Is that what you want? A little break? Boy, you better watch your mouth before I break my foot off in your ass. That's about the only break you're about to get from me right now. You got some nerve, Probie. One hell of a nerve, in fact. You have the ultimate responsibility of leading young Agents into battle each and every damned day and you choose to honor that responsibility by arrogantly throwing caution to the wind. You ought to be damned ashamed of yourself cos' I know I sure as hell am."

Tony and Tim's eyes began to bulge in their sockets and their mouths fell open in tandem.

Gibbs, for his part, felt a dull flush creep up the back of his neck as he realized there would be no stopping Mike now that he'd gotten going. Tony and Tim could not be allowed to see what was coming... his ego would never recover. Clearing his throat, he adopting his best Boss tone and turned to glare at his boys.

"You two, we'll continue this conversation later. Go down to Abby's lab and-"

"The hell they will! They're going to stand right there and hear what I got to say and you're going to do the damned same, Probie."

Gibbs gritted his teeth and failed to stop the snarling rebuke that spilled from his lips.

"Boss, they're my people. They do as I say, not what you say. Don't forget your place here."

He realized his mistake the minute the last syllable was out of his mouth. He felt Tony and Tim at stiffen with awkwardness and awe at his side as Mike snarled to his front. Scrubbing his eyes, he braced himself for the onslaught of hell that he knew was about to be unleashed.

Mike's tone sent shivers down the spines of Gibbs & Co as he tilted his head slowly to the side.

"Leroy Jethro Gibbs... the hell did you just say to me?"

...

To be continued.