Title: Rule Number Five

Setting: Immediately after JAG episode 8.21, "Meltdown."

Disclaimer: I do not own JAG, NCIS, or any of the characters therein.

The frosty silence pervaded the car during the short trip back to the hotel. Gibbs was uncharacteristically driving below the speed limit, his eyes fixed on the road ahead. He hadn't said a word to her since the end of the mission. Tony's gaze was anywhere but at her, and he looked just as uncomfortable as she felt.

Viv Blackadder could not for the life of her understand why they were both so cold. Yes, the operation went a little south, but everyone made it out in one piece. In her mind, they should be grateful things turned out as well as they did. It was successful, after all - they had eliminated the targets.

The elevator ride to their rooms was even more frigid than the car. When she got inside, she shut the door far more forcefully than she needed to, but she was frustrated with their hostility.

She grabbed a fresh change of clothes and went into the bathroom. Unfortunately, the hot shower did nothing to alleviate her tenseness. Righteous anger bubbled through her. Why did she get all the blame for the way things went, anyway? They completed the mission; what else mattered?

Gibbs just didn't get it. How could he possibly understand, anyway? She was certain now, more than ever, that the second "b" in his name stood for "bastard." Not really thinking about it, she left her room and was about to knock on Gibbs's door when Tony's drawl abruptly cut through the haze of her anger.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." He leaned languidly in the doorway to his own room, seemingly relaxed. Though he, too, had changed clothes, he still had the green cap pulled down low over his face.

"I just wanted to talk!" Viv protested. "Why-"

Tony laughed, but he wasn't amused. Not one bit. "Talk? What, about what happened today, Agent Blackadder?" he asked in a mocking tone as he shoved the cap back on his forehead. "Yes, why don't we talk about how you nearly got us all killed because you got so caught up in yourself that you blew three rules in under five minutes!" He stood up to his full height, a not-insignificant 6'2", dropping the relaxed pose entirely.

"Come on, Tony!" she snapped. "It could have happened to anyone."

"But it didn't. It happened to us. You broke Rule 1, Viv. You screwed us over," Tony asserted forcefully. "It was bad enough that you let yourself get personally involved, but Gibbs would have been willing to forgive that. But then you let your vendetta mess with your head. Hell, any one of us could have taken a bad bullet in that mayhem, or Gibbs could have been just a little bit slower when that grenade dropped. There was no need for it to go down the way it did."

The tall agent shook his head, regaining his composure. "And the worst part is-" he smiled that fake used-car-salesman grin again, "-you don't even get it. He can't let that go, Viv. And until you figure that out, you're breaking Rule Number 5, too."

Tony slid out of the threshold and shut the door firmly, leaving Vivian Blackadder alone in the hallway.

As she went back into her room again, she tried in vain to remember which rule Number Five was.