When Balboa heard the angry dog barking coming from Special Agent Timothy McGees computer, he felt his anger mounting. This was not a new feeling for the Intermediate Case Response Team Leader.

"Finding inspiration?" asked Mossad Liaison Office Ziva David.

When she was first assigned to the agency, Special Agent Ricardo Balboa was extremely interested in the Israeli woman. He hoped that she would be assigned to each Case Response Team in order to gain a deep understanding of how an American Federal/Intelligence Agency would work.

However, the Director decided to assign her to the MCRT straight away, denying many qualified NCIS agents the opportunity of applying for the opening that resulted from Kate Todds assassination. Balboa refused to call it murder, or how the NCIS therapist described it, Kates "unfortunate passing".

Since watching Davids interaction with DiNozzo, Balboa was very glad he had little interaction with the woman who was desperately trying to gain the favour of the MCRT Team Leader and SFA.

"Wherever I can," said Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo, "he's my personal McMuse", while pressing the plasma screen control so the whole of the floor knew he had once again successfully pranked the recently mauled agent.

Anthony DiNozzo, in his eyes, was an overgrown frat boy who felt threatened by the intelligence of the green eyed younger agent. DiNozzo, Balboa knew, had attended Ohio State University, scraped and partied through his four years there, and graduated with a Bachelors in Physical Education at the age of 22. Compared to McGee, Dinozzo was already failing.

Timothy McGee graduated from John Hopkins with a Bachelors in Biomedical Engineering at the age of 19, completing a 4 year degree in just three years, and graduated Summa Cum Laude. Following this, McGee went to the Massachussetts Institute of Technology, where again he completely baffled every professor and lecturer he came into contact with. At the age of 22, Timothy McGee completed a Masters of Science degree in Computer Forensics, and once again graduating Summa Cum Laude. At both colleges, McGee had had an active social life, being part of the debating society, chess club, web-gaming society and wrestling club. While he didn't join a fraternity like DiNozzo, he graduated with 4.0 GPA from both colleges.

After reading his file, Balboa knew McGee had the computer world at his feet. Balboa had read that McGee had been offered roles in every federal agency for his computer skills, and the corporate world of information technology had started a bidding war for the talented college graduate. Balboa remembered a conversation he had once had with younger agent, who had casually mentioned that one of his job offers after graduating had included a $750,000 starting salary, car, an apartment for this first three years, and a travel allowance for all flights within the mainland United States so he could continue to see his family. When Balboa expressed his surprise that McGee had turned this amazing offer down, McGee looked at him and said, "I had much better offers than that". Balboa was left flabbergasted with that announcement.

It was at this point, when all his lecturers and professors thought they knew Timothy McGee and believed he had no more surprises to offer, several were left baffled when the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centre contacted them for personal letters of recommendation for Timothy McGee.

Balboa watched McGee as the overgrown toddler otherwise known as DiNozzo turned the plasma screen off and decided enough was enough. Opening his emails, Balboa sent an email to McGee. With this done, Ricardo Balboa had no idea how much this one email would change the life of NCIS and all its special agents.