Silent Guardian
The Truth of Anthony DiNozzo
~A NCIS Story~
By Teri

Summary: Tony disappears. What does the team learn about their elusive "Very Special Agent"?

Disclaimer: The author is not associated with the owners or creators of NCIS. This story was written for the pleasure of the author and hopefully the enjoyment of others.

Monday morning, Gibbs came into the bullpen and looked around. He noticed that Ziva and McGee were trying to look busy; he also noticed that DiNozzo was nowhere to be seen. "Where's DiNozzo?" He glared at McGee before turning to Ziva.

"He is not here yet, Gibbs," she said as she looked him in they eye.

"Did either of you call him yet?"

"No answer Boss," McGee answered as he pulled his phone away from his ear.

An hour later, still no messages, no e-mails, and still no Tony. McGee tried the phone again, but this time he reached a recording: "the number you have dialed is no longer in service. Please check your number and dial again. Thank you." McGee quickly redialed to make sure he hadn't misdialed and got the same message. "Umm, Boss?"

Ten minutes later, Gibbs and his team arrived at Tony's apartment (which is typically a 20 minute drive). They hurried to his door and found it open. There was a crew inside painting the walls.

"Agent Gibbs?"

Gibbs turned around to see Tony's neighbor Mrs. Sklaney.

"Where's Tony?" they both asked at the same time.

Mrs. Sklaney realized that Gibbs may know even less then she did. "He brought me over his old record collection along with some of the movies he knew I liked and said he wanted to me to keep them for him – that he was going away. I asked him when he would be back, but he just smiled and kissed me on the forehead and told me to not do anything he wouldn't do. He just left after that. I heard later that he gave Gladys his TV, Ethel his washing machine, and he gave Edna his gameboy for her grandson." Sheila Sklaney looked up at Gibbs. "Tony isn't planning on coming back is he?"

Gibbs glanced in at the painters, "I don't know, Ma'am, I just don't know."

Meanwhile, Ziva had gone to talk apartment manager and McGee to some of the other neighbors. Ziva learned that Tony told the manager he was leaving, paid-off the lease, and told him to keep the security deposit. McGee learned that Tony had given away all of his things to the people in his building and that most of his vast movie collection was now housed in a common area lounge. McGee also learned that most of the people in the building were retired Grandmother types who all saw Tony as someone to be mothered and in turn Tony spent most of his off-time playing handyman and running errands for the ladies. McGee could hardly imagine.

Gibbs wondered if perhaps Vance had sent Tony on a mission without his knowledge. Would Tony agree to that type of mission again? Gibbs knew that Tony would if it meant protecting the team. Gibbs was pulled from his thoughts as his phone began to ring.

"Gibbs, what the h . . is the meaning of this?"

Gibbs immediately recognized the angry sound of Leon Vance.

"I don't know, Leon. What this is this?'

"DiNozzo's resignation. Effective immediately."

* Where is Tony? *

Even after two months, McGee's computer skills had turned up no trace of Anthony DiNozzo – Junior or Senior. He found records that Tony had existed, but could find no record that his father ever had. None of Ziva's contacts had any information on his whereabouts. Ducky called in old favors from some cousins of his that no one had heard of before that work for his UNCLE, but had no more luck than Ziva. Abby would light many candles at Church and had the Sisters praying for his save return night and day. All the while, Gibbs wanted to hit something as his Gut told him they would not be finding Tony this time.

Gibbs was sitting at his desk, he thought about Tony often. After some long talks with Ducky, he had realized how much Tony had helped him over the years. He had become less and less of the man Shannon had loved and had turned more into someone she would have hated, but Tony brought back laughter and fun and even some rebellion into his life. Shannon would have loved him. He thought he would have been in trouble if the two of them had ever teamed up against him, although he would have welcomed that kind of trouble. He silently asked Shannon to look after Tony if he were there with her.

Gibbs' phone began to ring. "Gibbs".

"Agent Gibbs, this is Bill Donohue in security, we have a young woman down at the desk. She says she is here to see DiNozzo."

Gibbs must have paled slightly because in a moment Ziva and McGee were standing next to his desk. "Bring her up."

"Boss?" "Gibbs?"

"Someone is here looking for DiNozzo."

Within a few minutes, a young woman in her thirties came in to the bullpen escorted by Captain Donohue head of security.

"Agent Gibbs, this is the girl," the guard stated.

"I don't understand. Agent Gibbs? I asked to see Special Agent DiNozzo," the young woman was obviously confused.

"Why do you want to see him?"

"I wanted to Thank him in person."

Gibbs gave her a look that said "about what?"

"I would really prefer to talk to Special Agent DiNozzo."

"And we would prefer it if you spoke to us, yes?" Ziva spoke-up.

The young woman looked around and realized something odd was going on and it wasn't as if her story was private or needed to be a secret.

"I'm Erin Dominick. I wanted to thank him for finding my Father's killer. My Dad had been a commander in the Navy and his murder had been unsolved for almost 20 years, until I received a phone call. He sounded so shy like he was scared to talk to me."

Ziva and McGee shared a glance. Their Tony, sound shy talking to this pretty young lady?

"He introduced himself and told me he had been working on my Father's case and that he had found something. He said he was positive now who had killed my Father and the man had been arrested. He kept in touch with me during the whole trial and sentencing. I was living on the West Coast and couldn't come out for the trial so it was appreciated. See, I am an actress. My Pappa got me hooked on movies and at the time of the trial I was a struggling actress: read waitress, but not I have had some success and since I was in D.C. I wanted a chance to meet the man who brought Daddy's killer to justice."

"Who was your Father?" McGee asked moving to his computer.

"Commander Alburn, Ned rather Edward Alburn."

"Boss?" McGee asked.

Gibbs shrugged, "I don't recognize the name."

"I do," Captain Donohue, the head of security who brought up the girl, said. "I don't know the details of the case, but I remember an old man coming in on the first Monday of every month to check in with Franks or Morrow himself, about the status of the case. I remember the first time he didn't come in, Morrow was sure he wouldn't stop the pilgrimage as long as he was alive. He made a few calls and found out the guy had died."

"Yeah, that would have been Pappa; he was my Dad's Grandfather. He raised Dad after his parent's were killed in a car accident. He took my Mom and me into his home when Dad died and helped raise me until he died when I was a teenager. I figured when your Agent DiNozzo found Daddy's killer Pappa could finally rest in peace. He always said he wouldn't be able to rest until the killer was caught and he could spare another Father from going through what he had. He said losing Grandma had been crushing, but losing a child is something no man, no person, should ever have to endure, especially not alone," Erin straightened her back. "Now that I have told you my story, can I see Agent DiNozzo now?"

No one seemed to want to say anything. Ziva grew tired of the silence. "He resigned two months ago and disappeared, we have been unable to locate him."

"Oh," Erin was certainly disappointed. She turned towards the guard to ask if she could leave now when she saw something that got her attention. An empty desk with just a few pictures on it. One picture in particular caught her attention.

"Was this his desk?"

"Yeah," McGee said confused at the change in subject.

"Did he always keep pictures of the family members of his cases?"

"Tony did not. Why did you ask?" Ziva now on alert, perhaps this woman was not as she seemed.

"Then why does he have a picture of my Grandfather?"

"Where?" Gibbs asked, his Gut churning.

She walked over and picked up a big picture of Tony that Abby had put on the desk, similar to the ones that decorated her lab. "This is my Pappa, when he was a young man."

"Um, Miss Dominick, that is a picture of Agent Tony DiNozzo," McGee told her as he took the picture from her hands. No one she be holding Tony's picture besides the team.

"But that is Pappa Tony. Antonio Dominick. He was billed as Little Tony and when he got older as Tony Dominick it is why I took his name as my screen name."

"Billed?" Ziva asked.

"Yes, he was a silent film star."

"Perhaps they were related?" McGee asked. He turned to look at Gibbs. "Boss?"

Gibbs had been silent. He didn't believe in coincidences. The woman said her Grandfather said he wouldn't be able to rest in peace until the killer was found, a sentiment he understood. She said know one should have to live through the loss of their child, again something he agreed with. She said "especially alone."

Gibbs thought back to the last time he saw Tony. He was sitting there watching as Gibbs and Ziva talked about plans to join Ducky for dinner next week, before Gibbs was going to show McGee how to do something with wood that Abby had asked him to show McGee in anticipation of one of the Habitat for Humanity Projects. Gibbs had noticed Tony sitting quietly. He looked peaceful, still, happy, yet sad.

"What's going through your head DiNozzo?"

"I just realized you aren't alone anymore, Boss."

"Haven't been for a long time," Gibbs said as he cuffed the agent on the back of the head.

"Yeah, but you have more than just me now. You've built a family."

Gibbs glared at him.

"Okay, we've built a family."

"especially alone" "you aren't alone anymore, Boss," Gibbs just waved off McGee, hoping he had been listening to Abby to much lately. It just couldn't be. Could it?

"Maybe they are related." Ziva answered McGee's earlier question.

"No. I don't' thinks so."

"Why are you so sure?' McGee asked.

"Pappa's father was a widower who brought his only son to America, New York, as a baby to start a new life. He married and when Pappa was still very young his Father died. His step-mother had no money and turned to Vaudeville to earn a living for her and Pappa. A man from California took a shine to Pappa and took him to California to be in movies. He was a pretty well known star. He was an adult when in 1927 they released the first "talkie" the "Jazz Singer". Pappa loved it, but said he saw the writing on the wall and decided it was time to find a new life and so he moved back to New York and became a police officer. He met Grandma there she was part of a dance troupe at the Roxy theatre the troupe was later known as the Rockettes. Having gotten married a little later in life, they only had one daughter and she and her husband were killed in a car accident, luckily Dad, their only child, was spending the day with Pappa and Grandma. So you see no siblings for multiple generations. This has to be Pappa."

"Miss, this can't be your Grandfather. Look, at the clothes."

"I . . . They do look to modern for Pappa to be wearing when he was that young." Erin took a deep breath. She was overcome with the need to get out of this building, because she was sure that was a picture of her Pappa and this was getting to be too much. "I am sorry for taking up your time. I hope you find him, he is a good man. I need to get to an audition now. Thank you for your time." She turned to security guard. "May I leave now?"

The guard glanced at Gibbs who nodded. "Right this way Miss."

McGee jumped back to his computer looking up Anthony Dominick the silent film star.

Gibbs just thought Anthony Dominick DiNozzo, Jr. film buff and law enforcement agent. Anthony Dominick silent film star and New York City Cop. "Ziva, what would DiNozzo mean in Italian?"

"'Di' means 'of' or 'belongs to.' There is no word 'Nozzo' that I am aware of."

"Anything close?"

"The Italian word 'Nuzzo', pronounced much the way Tony pronounces his name means Umbrella."

Dead End Gibbs thought to himself. Wondering in he should head slap himself for thinking it meant Guardian, Angel, Time-Travel, or even I've got a secret. Definitely too much time in Abbyland.

"Umbrella?" McGee asked with a choking sound.

"Yes,"

"Anthony Dominick's was a popular actor, but he only had one standout role for which he is closely identified. It was a movie about a Guardian Angel"

"What is the movie McGee" Gibbs was inpatient.

"The Umbrella Man."

Well, a little unusual, but have not been able to get this story out of my head. I hope someone enjoyed it.

Thanks,

Teri