Disclaimers: I do not own NCIS or its characters.

Warnings: Tony/Leah (OC), Tim/Delilah, angst, mild violence

A/N: This is the revamp of "Hanging From Words". I've changed a lot in this one from the original, hence the new title. Hope you enjoy and thank you for taking the time to read and leave feedback :)


Blurred Lines

Throughout the neighborhood the constant hum of lawn mowers could be heard, as well as the drum of compressors as air conditioners worked over time.

Fiery red rays from the setting sun shot through the trees and around the historical homes on the quiet street and on the front lawn of one of these homes two children, in neon colored bathing suits, laughed and screeched as they ran in and out of the spray from their father's garden hose.

Anthony DiNozzo had gone out to water his wife's flower beds, but somehow that turned into Tali and Jack dashing through the cold water spray. Even though the two kids had spent most of their day in the pool with their nanny, they were not tired of the water. He may have given the flowers a little more than they needed in order to soak the kids just to hear their giggles.

"Time to go in, munchkins," Tony said, shutting the water off. He chuckled at the disappointed looks on their faces. "We should go check on Mama, make sure she's taken care of."

"Mama didn't swim was us," Tali said, taking her brother by the hand and following her father to the back deck. "She laid on the couch all day."

"Dada, is Mama sick?" Jack asked, his blue eyes concerned.

Tony found their towels hanging in the sun off the back deck and began to dry them off. "No, Mama isn't sick—the baby is going to be arriving any day now and the doctor just wants Mama to rest as much as she can."

Tali smiled, proudly, at Tony. "I made her lunch today. Peanut butter and fluff sandwiches with a big glass of milk. She said it helped her finish her work today, Abba."

He was constantly amazed by the amount of love his little girl had. She was smart and full of energy. Tony kissed her cheeks. He still hated the circumstances of how she came into his life, but he was grateful that she did. "Let's go in and see if we can make Mama some dinner, okay?"

"Okay," Tali replied, opening the French doors that led off the back deck and into the living room.

"Are my water babies calling it a day?" Leah said from the sofa with a grin.

Jack dashed to his mother and hugged her belly, his little arms barely able to fit around it. He kissed Leah's stomach. "Hi baby, Dada says you come out soon!"

Leah chuckled and ran her fingers through her son's hair. "Hopefully soon."

Tony closed the doors, shutting out the hot, humid air. "At least you listened to the doctor. I was waiting for Amelia to call me and tell me that you weren't taking it easy in this heat."

"I promise, I have been sitting in this nice, air conditioned room all day," Leah said, smiling sweetly at her husband. "Stop being so overprotective."

"I'm being overprotective because I want both you and the baby to stay healthy," Tony replied, seriously. I don't want to lose either one of you, he thought, anxiously. "And because I love you, both."

"Abba, you told us that Mama wasn't sick," Tali gasped, her green eyes fearfully shifting between her father and stepmother. "Is she sick? Is the baby sick? Do they need to go to the hospital?"

Leah glared at Tony. "See what you started," she snapped at him. She then gestured for Tali to come to her and hugged the little girl. "I am not sick, and the baby is not sick. Abba just wants to make sure it stays that way, okay?"

Tali nodded her head, damp curls falling in her eyes. She buried her face against Leah's shoulder. Her latest fear was the death of Tony or Leah now that she was older and understood what happened to her mother. "I love you, Mama," she whispered, clinging tightly to her stepmother.

She smiled and kissed the little girl's curls. "I love you too," Leah said.

Tony managed to unlatch the two kids from their mother and direct them towards the tub. He gave his wife a sweet kiss and followed the children up the stairs. "When we get back, we're making you dinner."

"I called for pizza," Leah said, waving her cell phone. "It's too hot to cook; should be here in about an hour."

"Have I told you lately how much I love you?" Tony asked, rhetorically, as he grinned from ear to ear.

"Not since this morning," she teased back.

"In that case—I love you so much," he said, before dashing up the stairs after the kids.

Tali had taken the bath toys out of the closet and thrown every single one of them in the empty tub. Jack had already striped off his swim trunks and pull-up, and stood buck-naked in the middle of the bathroom, pleased as punch.

Tony shook his head, laughing silently and started the water up, setting it to the perfect temperature for the kids. "How are you and your brother going to fit in here with all the toys?"

She looked into the tub at the water filling it and the toys floating around. "There's lots of room, Abba."

He wasn't going to argue with her and shut the water off. Gently he picked up Jack and put the little boy into the tub, between all the toys. Tali wiggled her way in next. There wasn't a lot of room, but the two kids still fit despite the massive amounts of boats and mermaids and rubber duckies.

While the two kids played, conjuring up some story about how the rubber duckies had to use the boats to save the mermaids from a sea witch—Tony washed them with Baby Magic. By the time he was done the mermaids were safe and the rubber duckies had been turned into super heroes because Jack refused to turn his rubber duckies into princes.

"Okay, munchkins," Tony said, happily. "Bath time is over."

"Aw, we want to play more, Abba."

"Mama ordered pizza for dinner. Should be here soon."

This got the two kids moving out of the bath tub. Tony dried them with their favorite towels and then dressed them in their favorite pajamas. By the time they made it back downstairs the pizza had arrived and Leah was setting the kitchen table.

Tali climbed onto the bench and slid around to the back. She had just grown tall enough that she could sit at the breakfast nook in a booster seat. Jack still hadn't quite reached the height of the table, but he was closing in on his sister day by day. He sat at the end of the table in his high chair, next to Leah's side of the table.

Leah made sure that the kids' pizza was cut up into bite sized pieces and Tony gave them each a sippy cup with milk. It was the first time in days that the entire family had been able to sit down and have dinner together. Tony had been working late hours and Leah had been spending more and more time at the University preparing the professor teaching her summer courses. Now that the semester was over and Leah had passed in her final grades, the young mother had been primarily on the sofa, nesting, as Delilah McGee liked to joke.

Tony smiled and watched as his kids happily ate their pizza. Sometimes Jack would close his eyes in delight and coo, mmmmm. There was a bit of a debate between father and son on who loved pizza more…

A shrill cell phone interrupted the family's dinner. Tony groaned, knowing that it was NCIS. He stood up, planted kisses on both children's heads and then kissed Leah. "Well," he said as he grabbed his gear before answering the phone, "at least I was home long enough to give them a bath."


Thunder was rolling in the distance when Tony and Tim pulled up to the crime scene. After Tony had picked Tim up at home, they had headed out of the city to an abandoned barn, where two boys playing had unearthed dog tags, and a skull.

"So much for a quiet dinner and evening at home with the family," Tony muttered under his breath as the pair walked.

"You have a three-year-old daughter, twenty-one-month old son that can be a holy terror… and a very pregnant wife—is it ever quiet at your house?" Tim asked, honestly.

Tony chuckled and pulled his ball cap down over his brown hair. "No. Not really. But since the doctor pretty much put Leah on bed rest, Amelia has been keeping the kids busy—especially Jack. However, I'm convinced that Jack is better behaved for the nanny than he is for me or Leah."

Tim had to laugh. Jack was very much like his father, a charmer, a trouble-maker… and no one loved that little boy more than Tony. "Of course he is… he saves his best stuff for you."

"Hey, Ellie," Tony greeted the newest member of their team. "What have we got?"

"Dog tags and a skull," Ellie Bishop said with a slight shrug. "That's all I can tell you because that's all we've got."

"So the skull might not even be from a military person?"

"No way of knowing until we run the service number on the dog tags and try to identify the skull."

Tony ran his hands over his face, feeling the sweat from the unbearable humidity forming. "Great… just what I want to be doing in this weather… running around looking for more body parts."

Ellie frowned. "You don't really think Gibbs will make us start digging do you? We were out in this heat all day looking for that Petty Officer."

"He will," Gibbs announced, appearing behind Tony's right shoulder, and dropping some shovels at their feet. "Start digging."

Tony inwardly groaned, and picked up a shovel. It was going to be a long night, he could already tell even before they started working. As they began to work, spreading out around the site, Tony felt like this was eerily familiar. He just couldn't put a finger on it. Until across the yard, Tim mentioned something about his book. "Wait… that's right! Weren't bones with dog tags found in a barn in your book?"

Ellie shifted through some silt. "No. It was an old gas station, hadn't been in use since the 1960s." She stood up when she didn't find anything and began to move onto another spot. "And those bones were pretty old. Ducky thinks our skull is less than a year."

Still, Tony couldn't shake the similarities. "Still… come on… you have to admit that's… weird."

"Sure. I can admit that."

"Hey, McGee…since you seem to have written this… can you tell us how it ends?"

"Tibbs and the team find the killer and arrest him."

"So you can't tell us who the killer is?"

"This isn't like my book, Tony."

Tony scoffed and shook his head while he kept digging. "Yeah… like I haven't heard that before." He had a bad feeling about this case—a very bad feeling.


Hours after the team had left the barn she made it back to check her cameras.

Everyone had a role to play and they played it well. Nothing was left unturned and the team looked a little flustered before they packed up their things to go but no other bones were found. She hadn't left any for them to find. She didn't want it easy for them because she liked to watch them work. It was a beautiful sight. And by watching them work… when she finally got to talk to them… she could impress them with how much she knew.

He would certainly like that. He liked smart women. It was why he had been attracted to the woman he'd eventually ended up marrying. He just didn't know yet that they were meant to be together.