Disclaimer - I do not own NCIS.

A/N - After months of working on various projects, we finally got all our work signed off by our Team Leader (hard man to please, as backed up by his personality profile!) Anyway, he rewarded all our hard work with a personal "well done" and gave us a box of chocolates for the team to share. We were all near to tears at this unexpected outcome to our recommendations. It got me thinking about how much an "Atta Team" really does work wonders for motivation levels. So this story is dedicated to my team leader....THANK YOU BOSS!

Tony DiNozzo groaned, "Well, all we have to do now is wait for the inevitable Probie."

Tim sighed and slid further down his chair in despair.

"Perhaps it won't be as bad as we expect Tony, let's face it, you do have a tendency to look on the negative side of things."

"It's called realism and experience, Probie Wan Kenobi! That's why I'm the Senior Field Agent! I've seen it all before."

Tony swivelled in his chair and turned his eyes upward in the direction of Jenny's office. Gibbs had gone in half an hour before with their collective case reports. They had been working solidly for weeks on a high profile case, which had tested each of them to their mental and physical limits at times.

"You work your butt off in a case which you never thought would end. You put your heart and soul, your blood sweat and tears into your report. And when you finally finish it and wrap it all up, it goes up there, to be mangled and chewed and ripped apart. And then the real interrogation starts and you've got to justify every capital letter, every punctuation mark, every action, every scenario, just about everything from every conceivable angle, before they throw it back in your face, without even so much as an explanation, just a 'it's not what we're looking for, fix it' kinda thing!"

Ziva rolled her eyes, "It cannot be as bad as that Tony! Your report was good, and we have worked exceptionally hard on closing the case."

"It's one of the wonders of senior management Officer David. In Mossad, they may do things differently, but here I think they send them on a training course when they reach a certain pay level and teach them how to piss junior staff off, over one tiny teensy little loophole in their reports."

As he continued to stare at the top of the stairwell, he jumped with fright as Gibbs appeared bounding down the stairs, his face sterner than usual.

"Oh shit! Here we go," Tony whispered as he quickly began tapping at his keyboard in an attempt to look busy.

Surprisingly, Gibbs headed straight for the elevator, leaving the three younger agents bemused at his departure.

"He's probably gone to Human Resources, to find our replacements." Tony said dejectedly.

"I've never worked this hard on a case before, if we've screwed up, I hope he explains how!" Tim added, his face paling by the moment.

Ziva faced her computer screen and began tapping away on her keyboard, which caused Tony to gasp in horror.

"How can you work at a time like this?" he squealed.

She looked at him with soulful eyes, and pouted, "I'm checking the flights for Tel Aviv," she said with quiet concern, "just in case."

Ten minutes later, Gibbs strolled into the bullpen and set down a coffee and a muffin on the desk of each of his agents. He then stood at his own desk and before he sat down he looked at them all in turn and smiled.

"You uh....bought us coffee boss?" Tony asked nervously as he eyed the coffee cup and muffin on his desk suspiciously.

"And a muffin," Tim added, with the same suspicious tone.

Ziva frowned, "What does this mean Gibbs?"

Jethro Gibbs continued to smile and he raised his coffee cup in salute to the team.

"Good job, all of you! Well done!"

Three broad smiles grew quickly and sighs of relief gave way to sighs of contentment as they basked in the glory of their team leader's positive feedback.

"Atta Team," Gibbs added as he sat down and began closing the perfect case reports.

THE END