Full Summary:

After Tony is released from the hospital after his car crash, he does a little soul searching and finds out that his sister lives in New York and teaches at a special school up there. He places a call and waits for a return answer. Will his sister come see him? And what makes her so special? What school does she teach at?

Homecoming:

Tony's Apartment:

Tony was sitting at the bar of his apartment when Ziva, McGee, Abby, Ducky and Gibbs walked in. They had pizza and soda with them knowing that Tony needed to keep a calm and civil head if he was thinking about doing what he was thinking about. He had his phone in front of him and the number to the school that his sister taught at, but had yet to make the call. He didn't want to be rejected by her like the last time he had tried to call, back before he was shot. Maybe she had heard about what had happened down here. Maybe she would show up unannounced and say that the fight they had had was nothing and that she wanted to be a part of his life again. There were always maybe's until someone actually picked up the phone and called the other person.

"Just call her already Tony. She's probably looking at the phone the same as you are." Ziva said.

"Yeah, just don't know what to say."

"If she's as special to you as you keep saying, then you shouldn't have a problem." Gibbs said.

"It's just hard, the last time I talked to her was the week before I was shot and so much has happened between then."

"We know Tony, we were all there, she wasn't. You didn't want her to be." McGee said.

"Anthony, if you can't call her, then let one of us call her for you, explain what has happened. We could always fudge the truth and say that you are still in the hospital and that you want her to be there when you get out." Ducky said.

"Thanks Ducky, but she'll know you are lying. You're calling from my house phone; she'll know I'm right next to you."

"So what if we call her from one of our cells? She might believe us then." Abby said.

"Good point, but it's still better if I make the call. I think she still thinks I'm a Baltimore Cop."

"Why would she think that?" Ducky asked.

"Because I haven't told her that I started to working for NCIS yet."

"Tony, you've been working for NCIS for years now, you should have told her by now." Gibbs said.

"I know, I know, it just never came up in our conversations. I always asked about the school and her job and by the end of the conversation there wasn't much time to talk about what I did as a cop and all."

"Just make the call already!" Abby, Ziva and McGee said together.

"Okay, okay, I'm calling, jeez."

Making The Call:

Tony dialed Karen's number and waited as it rang. And waited and waited. He was about to hang up when someone picked up the phone.

"Hello, Karen DiNozzo speaking, how can I help you?"

"Karen, it's me Tony."

"Tony! I thought I told you not to call me again? After what was said last time, well you took dad's side over mine, I mean how could you?"

"Karen, please let me talk…"

"No, I told you that I didn't want you to call me again and I meant that. Goodbye Tony…"

"Ms. DiNozzo? This is Agent Gibbs with NCIS; I'm your brother's boss. He's a federal agent now and he's calling you because he was thinking about you while he was in the hospital."

"What do you mean hospital? What happened?"

"Well, first he was shot then he was in a car accident. It's a long story, one we'll be happy to tell you over, say dinner in New York this Saturday. Tony has to head up your way anyways with us for a case, so we might as well all get together and explain what has conspired."

"Alright, dinner in the city; I'll make sure I can get the time off. And I'm sorry he was hurt."

"Apology accepted. We'll see you this weekend then. Goodbye."

"Goodbye Agent Gibbs, let Tony know I'll call him later."

"Will do."

Gibbs hung up the phone and looked at Tony who was looking at him with his mouth hanging open. Actually the whole team was looking at him with their mouths hanging open.

"What case in New York Boss?" Tony asked.

"Yeah, I don't remember hearing about a case in New York." McGee said.

"There isn't one, Director Sheppard gave us some time off so we are all headed up to New York to meet Tony's sister and explain why he was in the hospital."

"So we're getting time off to go to New York to meet my sister who might or might not even show up? What do you know that we don't Gibbs?"

"That school of hers is looking for someone to help with some security problems that they are having. We're headed up there since we know one of the teachers to see if we can help out in any way that we can and they've been nice enough to let us stay at the school. You'll have plenty of time to talk with your sister Tony, explain what's been going on."

"This doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun to me."

"Just don't injure yourself any more than you already are and we should be good. Now, we will let you get some rest and your sister said she'd call you later. Good luck with that call Tony, we'll be back tomorrow afternoon to pick you up and head for the airport."

"See you guys later then."

Gibbs and the team left to go to their perspective homes and Tony settled onto the couch with his phone near him so that he could answer it when Karen called back.

Call Returned:

Tony woke slowly the next morning; he could hear something ringing next to his head but couldn't quite understand what it was. When he realized that it was his phone, he picked it up and answered immediately.

"Hello?"

"Tony, its Karen."

"Hi Karen, how are you doing?"

"I'm doing fine. And I'm sorry I snapped at you yesterday. It turns out I won't be able to make it out of the school for dinner after all but I hear your team will be staying with us at the school so we can just have dinner here."

"That should be fine. It'll give us time to talk."

"Yes, it will. Look about what I said about dad."

"It's nothing Karen, I've just had to *work with him while at NCIS a couple times and it was easy for me, well sorta."

"Okay, well that is understandable. Look, it's almost time for classes, so I guess I will see you when you and your team get here. It was nice hearing from you Tony and finding out why you backed dad. Thank you for explaining it to me."

"You're welcome Karen. And Karen, I'm your big brother, please remember that."

"You may be my big brother, but I can beat you at a game of checkers any ol' day."

"That is true. See you soon, goodbye."

"Bye Tony, see you soon."

They hung up and Tony got up on his crutches and hobbled to his room to pack for however long they were going to be in New York. When he was done packing, he heard a knock at the door and then a key turning in his lock and then Ziva coming in and asking if he was ready to go. Ziva grabbed his suitcase as he grabbed his backpack and they headed out the door to the waiting car. They were taking one car to the air strip and then the gulfstream would take them to New York. This was definitely going to be a trip to remember.

*Doesn't happen till later seasons but I wanted it to look like he had worked with his father so his sister would understand him better.*

More to come in next chapter…

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