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***

"Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence."

-Sheryl Sandberg

***

Maya was going through paperwork in her office. It had been building up over the last four days and it needed to get done. Her phone rang, but she didn't bother answering it because she knew who it was; Director Vance trying to pile more assignments, paperwork, and meetings on her. She respected the hell out of Vance, but sometimes he drove her insane. She was honored to have a job created for her, but sometimes she wondered if it was to pass along the stuff he didn't want to do. She loved adapting into the position over the last three years, but recently she's been drowning, burnt out everyday. She missed active duty, being out in the field. She caught odd jobs with Gibbs, her godfather, but as a leader she couldn't always be doing that. Right about now, she was craving it though. She knew why things were so bad, too. Losing Special Agent Anthony Dinozzo because he decided he needed to take a step back from the action and take care of his daughter with Ziva gone. She respected his choices and understood them completely, but she missed him. He was more than an agent, he was family. They had relations on and off over the last decade, but he was family before anything else. She knew she could call on him if need be, but now he was gone. Off in Paris last time she received an email from him which was about three months prior.

Her phone went off again and she saw that it was her assistant, she pressed the call button and spoke, "what is it, Allison?"

"Director Vance keeps calling you," Allison said, her voice tight, "said it was important and to report to his office immediately."

Maya groaned internally, "okay. Thank you, Allison. Do you mind getting me another coffee? I'm exhausted, get yourself one too if you want, on me."

"Thank you, ma'am," she replied.

"Allison?" Maya said in a frustrated tone.

"Sorry, Maya. Thank you," She corrected herself, her tone lighter now.

"Muffin, too," Maya added.

"What, ma'am--Maya?" Allison asked, sounding distracted for a moment.

"A chocolate muffin along with my coffee," Maya said, signing the last  signature of a report and tossed it in her done pile.

"Oh, of course," she said.

Maya hung up and walked out, "hurry back if you would." She smiled and went to Director Vance's office. She didn't even address his assistant and knocked on his door.

"Enter," was the response on the other end of the phone.

Maya did and closed the door behind her, "Director."

"Agent Torres is alive," he said, expecting for her to know who he was.

"Agent Torres?" Maya inquired, barely recalling the name.

He flashed an image on the screen and she barely recognized him from a briefing of all the deep cover agents several months back, "Agent Torres," he said again.

"Refresh my memory of him, sir. If you would," Maya asked, her mind combing through her memories but coming up with nothing.

"Agent Torres is one of the best undercover ops we got. He's deep for a reason. 2014, the State Department needed an agent to surveil the Global Enforcement Agency. Are you familiar with that?" He asked, wondering if he had to explain further.

"Yeah, training center."

"Right. Taught by U.S. agents abroad to educate local law enforcement in everything from counter terrorism to human trafficking. We discovered that a handful of these trained officers were being scouted as mercenaries."

"So...Torres went under," Maya concluded.

"Yep," Vance said, morning for Maya to come around his desk to show her another picture of Torres, "as a student at the G.E.A. in Argentine, where he took the persona of federal officer Captain Miguel Lorenza. Until last March, he was still sending updates. Then he went off the grid." Vance sent the background information of the persona to the flat screen and continued, "backup found his apartment scrubbed. We searched, we waited, nothing. State Department told us to assume the worst. If Torres is still alive, why didn't he reach out?"

"Well, he might have had to go so deep that he could have gone rogue," Maya suggests.

"Or worse," Vance paused, "he switched sides." He pulled up a picture of a marine, "His sister went to Argentina recently, to look for him. Few days later, somebody plants a bomb in her car. That's one hell of a coincidence."

Maya looked at Director Vance and opened her mouth to speak, but closed it. She wanted in on this case, as a field agent. She didn't know why, perhaps to distress or maybe something else. He looked at her and waited, "sir."

"Yes, Maya?" He said, his face interested to see what she had to say.

"Can I work with Gibbs on this?" Maya asks, sure she was the boss, but she was still under Vance and it seemed appropriate for her ask this time around.

"I was going to ask if you wanted to step in, Gibbs just fired another agent. However, Agent Quinn is here as well. But you will be my eyes and ears."

"Yes, sir."

"Get down there then and send Gibbs up."

"Do you want me to come back up, sir?"

"No, I'll just be repeating the same things I've already told you."

***

McGee found out that Torres had flown back to the states so her and Gibbs went out to go pick him up. When they got to him he had already made enemies. He was fighting in an ally with two men, one armed. They pulled their guns, "NCIS! Drop it!" The man raised it still and Maya put two in his heart.

Torres turned and walked toward them. Her gun came up to his head. The other guy groaned and Torres knocked him up with a jerk of his elbow. His face seemed angry. "Special Agent Torres," Maya muttered.

"Relax," he paused, "we're on the same side."