Disclaimer: If you recognize it, I don't own it.
This is my first NCIS fanfic. I'm not sure how it will turn out, but am eager to find out.
Andi grinned as she sat down on the couch with her bag of chips and a glass of her mother's wine. She had just turned sixteen a month earlier. Her mother, Lauren, had just left for work. She was a nurse at White Plains Hospital and was working the night shift. She usually tried to get out of them so that I would not have to spend the night home alone. I assured her that I would be fine though. I didn't see my father very often. He and my mother had spent a week together nearly seventeen years ago. By the time she had gotten back in touch with him she was six months pregnant with me and he was engaged to another woman. He agreed to be a part of my life but was unable to make any type of formal visitation agreement. He would contact my mother and make arrangements to pick me up or take me to dinner whenever he had some free time and was in the area.
I grabbed the remote and flipped through HBO until I settled on watching Terminator. It had been on for no more than thirty minutes when my doorbell rang. I got up and made my way towards the front door. I paused in front of the hallway mirror to tousle my long, dark, brown hair. The doorbell rang again. I jogged on over to the door and looked through the peephole to see two police officers on the other side of the door.
I opened the door and smiled. "Hello, officers! How can I help you tonight?"
"Is this the residence of Lauren Silvers?" Officer Peters, or so said his nametag, asked.
"It is." My curiosity piqued.
"Is her husband home?"
"It's just me and her. Is she okay?" I started to worry.
"I'm sorry, miss, she was in a head-on collision with a drunk driver a little over an hour ago. She was pronounced dead on the scene. I am so sorry for your loss. Do you have any family nearby you could stay with?"
"No." I told him slowly as I took in his news. My mother was dead. She was just here two hours ago.
"How old are you?" The other officer, Jacobs according to his tag, asked.
"I just turned sixteen last month."
Officer Jacobs looked to Officer Peters, "we'll need to call family services and get someone out here tonight." Officer Peters nodded, stepped away and pulled out his cell phone.
"Will you be okay here by yourself until a social worker arrives?"
I nodded and shut the door.
It was eight thirty when the social worker arrived. She was exactly how I would have pictured a social worker, had I been in the mind to actually picture a social worker. I had spent the previous two hours since the officers left trying to find my dad's phone number. I had never been able to get mom to give me his number. Any time I wanted to talk to him, I would have to wait for her to call him for me. Or wait until he called me. Which did happen about once a week, sometimes twice. He wasn't the most attentive father, but he seemed to be the best he could be.
"My name is Felicia Lance from family services. First of all, I would like to tell you how sorry I am for your loss. Not to be insensitive, but I do need to find you someplace to go immediately."
"Can't I stay here? I'm trying to find my dad's phone number. I just don't know it or where he lives exactly."
"Unfortunately, I can't allow a sixteen year old to stay in a house by herself. Do you have any other family?"
"No, my mom was an only child and her parents have both passed away."
"Okay, I can try to find your father for you. I just need whatever information you have about him. In the meantime, I will have to place you in a foster home. Why don't you go grab whatever you need to take with you and I will go ahead and call one of the officers I work with to find people. What can you tell me about your father?"
"Last time I saw him, he was headed back to Washington D.C., his name is Anthony Dinozzo."
Three Days Later
Traffic had been murder on the 295 that morning. Tony walked into the bullpen and sat at his desk. He had no sooner sat down when Gibbs walked through. "Grab your gear. Dead marine in Manassas."
Tony groaned and grabbed his bag. "I'll gas up the truck." He headed back down the elevator to the motor pool.
Three hours later, he was busy taking crime scene photos when his cell phone rang. He didn't recognize the number offhand, but answered it anyway. "DiNozzo."
"Mr. Anthony DiNozzo?" A woman's voice came across the phone.
"Yes." Gibbs gave Tony a look.
"My name is Felicia Lance. I work in the White Plains, New York social services office. I have a sixteen year old girl here who claims that you are her father. Her mother passed away a few days ago and you are the only remaining family member she has."
Tony dropped the camera. "I'm her what?!"
"Her father. She said you and her mother were together seventeen years ago for a few days."
Tony thought about it for a moment. Who knew how many women he was with seventeen years ago. "What do I need to do?"
"Well, I would need you to come here and either pick her up or sign over your parental rights so that I can place her in permanent housing."
"Okay. I'll be there as soon as I can. I just need to get some time off from work." He shut his phone and turned around to find Gibbs standing behind him.
"Is the crime scene interrupting your personal life, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked as he smacked Tony across the back of the head.
"Sorry, Gibbs. I just found out that I have a daughter. Her mother just died and they need me to either take her in or give her up." Tony explained in a bit of a daze. "Can I take some leave? I apparently need to go to White Plains, New York."
"Get out of here, DiNozzo."
Later that afternoon, Tony was with Felicia Lance outside of a split-level house in White Plains, New York. Felicia knocked on the door while Tony took a deep breath. How could he have a sixteen year old daughter? How could the mother never let him know? His thoughts were cut short by the door opening to reveal a teenage girl with dark, brown hair. Just looking at her, he could see some resemblances between the two of them.
"Hi, Andi. Mind if we come in?" Felicia asked the teenager standing at the door.
"Umm, the foster parents aren't here." Her blue eyes scanned the area as if watching for someone. "But, you're my social worker so surely that wouldn't be a problem. Come in." She opened the door wider so we could walk in.
I followed Felicia into a living room and sat with her on the couch. The girl, Andi, walked in behind us and sat down in a recliner across from the couch. "So, not to be rude, but who is he?" She gestured towards me.
"This is Anthony DiNozzo. I managed to track him down, fairly quickly actually." She smiled as if she was proud of herself.
"He's not my father." She said slowly as she shook her head.
I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding. "Sorry." I held my hands up in apology.
"Are you sure?" Felicia started going through her papers.
"I've met my father. I see him a handful of times a year. I talk to him usually once a week. This is not my father. I'm sorry, I'm sure you're a great guy; but you are not my father. Although, I think you're a little relieved by that."
Felicia looked between the two of us. "But you have similar features, the same jaw line." She started stammering.
I sighed. "You've met your father?" I asked the girl as I scrolled through the pictures on my phone. I finally found one of DiNozzo Sr. and myself together from his last visit. I handed it to the girl. "Is this your father?"
She looked at it for a moment before nodding. "Yes, this is my dad."
"Ms. Lance, Andi is not my daughter. It would seem she is my sister. Give me a few minutes. I will call SR. and see when he can get here." I took my phone back from Andi and stepped through a doorway and into a hallway for a little privacy. I scrolled through the contacts and pressed call once I landed on his name.
The phone rang four times before he picked up the line and answered. "Jr. It's good to hear from you. What's new?"
"Well, tell me what you know about a sixteen year old girl in White Plains by the name of Andi?" I jumped straight to it.
"Your sister? What about her?"
Tony rolled his eyes. "First of all, how did I not know about her? Secondly, her mother passed away a couple days ago and family services found me to come claim her thinking that I was her father. When can you come get her?"
"Sorry Jr., I'm in Mexico at the moment and can't get back for a couple weeks."
"You have got to be kidding me. What would you like me to tell your daughter and her social worker?"
"Why don't you take her home with you? Let's face it; living with me isn't ideal for a teenage girl. I'm always traveling."
"What? Dad-" the line went dead as his father hung up. Tony glared at the phone for a moment before heading back into the living room. I couldn't take in a teenage girl. I was always working cases. I traveled to Paraguay, Iraq, Israel, Paris, etc.
"Did you get in touch with Dad?" Andi asked me hopeful.
"I did. Bad news, he's in Mexico and won't be back for a few weeks." Her face fell. I couldn't take her in. I'm her brother, not her father. I'm supposed to threaten the boys who take her out and sneak her beer, not raise her. Maybe she could just stay here until Sr. got back.
The door opened then and a man's voice rang through the house. "You had better not have friends over when we're not home. What did we tell you about company when we're not home?" This stranger yelled as he came into view. The man looked to be mid-forties with a beer belly gut and a couple days' worth of scruff on his face. What I noticed most was the way Andi jumped at his voice and the look of absolute fear on her face. This didn't seem to go unnoticed by Felicia either.
"It's Ms. Lance from family services. I thought she would be okay." Andi spit out quickly. The man came around the corner and saw Felicia and quickly changed his attitude.
"Of course she is okay." He looked at me. "And who are you?"
Andi started to open her mouth to answer when I cut her off. "I'm Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo. I'm her brother and I'm here to take her home with me." I glanced over at Felicia. "That is, if that's okay with you. It was our dad's idea since he travels a lot, he thinks that my home would be more stable."
If you like it, please let me know. If it stinks, please let me know. I do know I changed perspectives a little during the course of the chapter, but that's really only because I was over thinking it. Most of the time, I just let the words flow. Hopefully it doesn't affect the story for anyone.