Leon Vance quotes from NCIS

Vance

Gibbs, the interrogation is over...

Vance

Right. Should have seen that one coming.

Vance

If it were up to Admiral Kendall, he'd authorize SEAL Team Six to exfil his daughter.

Jenny

Long way from San Diego, Leon.

Vance

SecNav felt this warranted a plane ticket.

Jenny

Are you interrogating my agents? I assume you have a suspect. [Vance smirks.] And you've been brought in to oversee. Well, Assistant Director Vance, you gonna ask for them?

Vance

Under the authority of the Secretary of the Navy, as acting director of NCIS, I hearby relieve you of your duties. I'm sorry, Jenny, you're suspended.

Vance

Did you know Mike Franks was involved in this?

No./Yes.

Vance

Want to take a moment to get your stories straight?

Yes./No.

Vance

Whose side are you on?

[together] Gibbs.

Vance

Well, you finally got your story straight.

Vance

Do you know Mike Franks was involved in this?

No./Yes.

Vance

You want to take a moment and get your stories straight?

Yes./No.

Vance

That explains how Director Shepard got out to the diner. Franks was the fifth shooter.

Tony

On Jenny's side.

Vance

Whose side are you on?

[together] Gibbs.

Vance

Well, you finally got your story straight.

You know, Leon, sometimes, those who know me ask me directly -- the brave among them -- but most of the time the others, I can feel them looking at me and silently wondering, how can a father possibly raise his daughter to be a professional killer?

Vance

A question that I've never asked you because I know the answer.

Every day is a fight to survive. It is my dream that my daughter will not have to make that decision with her sons and her daughters; I would like my grandchildren to be doctors and architects, to live a happy life, to grow fat and old. [pause] You want her back, don't you.

Vance

Yes, Eli, I want her back.

Tell me, Leon, are we winning?

Vance

I don't know, Eli.

I like to think we are... and then there's something else: a bombing, a kidnapping, an atrocity. Use her well, Leon. Ziva is the sharp end of the spear.

Vance

Thank you, Eli.

Vance

Whaddaya say David? Wanna go a few rounds?

Ziva

I think that would violate my primary assignment.

Vance

Only if you manage to lay a glove on me.

Excuse me, darling, but this gym ain't co-ed.

Ziva

Another time.

Vance

Just say when.

Tara

Teek? Is that you?

Vance

You have a decision to make Tara. Do we walk out of here, or do I carry you?

Gibbs

You would have done things differently?

Vance

I would. I do. But in the last two minutes, you've gotta let your quarterback call the plays. Nice win.

Gibbs

[about Tony] I am going to see him again, right, Leon?

Ziva

He will not be harmed. Only two people have the authority to do that.

Vance

Your father's one. The other?

Ziva

Me.

Vance

How many times did I tell DiNozzo to leave his smart ass attitude back in DC!

Gibbs

You shoulda checked his bags.

Vance

I thought you said your boy was up to this.

Gibbs

You're the one who threw him to the wolves, Leon. Let him find his own way.

Vance

You call this a fight, he better start showing me something.

Gibbs

Take him off the team, he already has.

Leon Vance

Kai, stop this, please!

I can't.

Leon Vance

I can help you.

Just being there, all these years, you already have.

[he and Gibbs walk into Director Vance's office without knocking and turn on the tv] You have a surveillance camera in the conference room now. Hope you don't have on in the elevator.

Vance

[is crouching behind desk going through files] We don't, not yet at least, Agent Fornell. [sits up] How can I help you?

Gibbs

To borrow your tv.

Vance

And my copy of Emily Post. Door was closed.

Gibbs

I thought you were in MTAC.

Vance

Well, we all make mistakes. That's why God invented knocking. McGee's int he conference room interviewing Susan Grady.

You sure you don't have a camera in the elevator?

Vance

When I do, you'll be the first to know, Agent Fornell.

Vance

You know, there's a story about Humphrey Bogart on that tour. Might be apocryphal, but I hope it's true. So he finishes early, walks across the street to the bar, still wearing his costume and his make-up. Couple hours later, the director realizes he needs Bogie for one more shot, so he sends a production assistant, sends a kid to drag Bogie back onto the cafe set. The director somehow gets him to the top of the stairs and says, "all I need you to do, is look over here and nod."

Gibbs

That's it?

Vance

That's it. Bogie nods, one take, he's done. It's in the movie. When Victor Lazlo wants the band leader to play "La Marseillaise", he looks to Rick for the okay. It's only the turning point for the entire character. Where he actually makes a commitment, and joins the cause.

Gibbs

All he had to do was nod.

Vance

And that started everything.

Vance

Eli's here already, isn't he?

Gibbs

You knew he'd come.

Vance

You dangle the right bait you can catch any game. The Palestinians are following the same logic.

Gibbs

Chasing Eli.

Vance

That was unexpected. We've got to find him first, then we need to get on Eli's protection detail. I know he's going to make it miserable for us.

Gibbs

Got McGee babysitting him at a safehouse. We're running drills to secure the hotel.

Vance

Good. How's our own David handling it?

Gibbs

Her father left her to die in a desert.

Vance

So it's a problem.

Gibbs

Would be for me. Won't be for Ziva.