I've had this idea for a while, but I'm only able to start it now.
Although the start of this chapter takes place at the end of the Season 1 Episode: The truth is out there and some events in here will match up with the TV storyline, this fic is mainly AU.
I know there have been loads of fanfics about Tony having kids(not that I've read all of them =P) , but I hope that some of this story will be unique-and if not , I hope you enjoy it anyway!
DISCLAIMER: I do not own NCIS.I only own this plot and my OCs.
"Do you have any plans for tonight?" Tony asked casually.
Kate shrugged, looking at the time. "Not anymore." It had been a long day, and she was completely and utterly beat.
Tony grinned in that annoying yet endearing way he had.
"Well, in that case, want to grab some Chinese with me? There's a new take-out place at the end of the road."
"Yeah, why not? Should we invite Gibbs?" Both agents looked at their boss, still watching his computer screen as the facial recognition software ran endlessly, and decided against it. The way Gibbs looked, it would be near impossible to get him away from his desk.
…
"What exactly was so good about this place? It's the same as any other Chinese take-out store, right? "
"Erm…It's bigger, so you don't need to stand around like sardines in a tin while waiting for your food."
Kate rolled her eyes. Tony noticed this and protested.
"Plus, it's easy to just go get food quickly when we are on a case."
Kate had to give him that. It was a valid point. She dropped the topic and they walked towards Tony's car.
"So, what you going to do now-go home and watch a late-night movie?"
"Perhaps. First I have to get Milo and Lynnie from Mrs Bradley. Maybe once they're in bed. "
Kate nodded absently and watched as Tony opened his car door and got in. Then:
"Wait, what?"
"What are you talking about?"
"You said you need to put Milo and Lynnie to bed? Who are they?"
Tony rolled his eyes. "C'mon, you've been with our team for what, 5 to 6 months now? How do you not know about Milo and Lynnie?" When he saw that Kate still looked blank, he elaborated. "My children. They are twins."
Kate looked sceptical. She didn't remember ever being told anything like this.
"You-a father?"
"Yes, I am. Why not come with me, and then you can see for yourself? "
Kate briefly wondered about the wiseness of being in the same car as Tony outside of work, but her curiosity won out.
"Let's go then. " She went around to the passenger side, opened the door, got in and closed it. Tony closed his door and they drove. All through the drive, He talked about the twins .They were 2 years old, their birthday was on 6th November-almost a month after Tony had first started to work at NCIS, Milo was the older one by 15 minutes, and his full name was Milo Clayton DiNozzo, and Lynnie's was Lindsay Tia was more of a talker than his sister, and like a typical boy, was into dinosaurs and cars. Lynnie already had a large collection of teddy bears, but also enjoyed being with Gibbs in his basement, or hanging around Abby. She did however babble a lot in her sleep. Both of them liked being with Ducky. Both twins had an aversion to broccoli, but were crazy for crisps in a cheese-and ham toasted sandwich. As Kate listened, she got a sense of a different side to Tony, one that wasn't all about pizza, girls, movies and cars. She got the feeling that he was actually a good father-but how he ended up like that, she didn't know. But for all his talk about his twins, he didn't actually mention how he had become their father, and this was what she was more curious about.
Kate was just about to ask when Tony announced that they were there, and parked the car.
"Hold my food for me." Tony said, handing her the box.
"Sure." Kate muttered and pulled a face as she held her own bag, 2 boxes of food and a bag of prawn crackers and went to follow Tony. As he knocked at the door of the apartment block, Kate glanced to the right. The garden of the apartment appeared to be combined with that of the garden of the next-door bungalow. Perhaps it was owned by the landlord.
A couple of childish voices drew Kate's attention back to the door. Tony had just said goodbye to Mrs Bradley and closed the door.
They set off. The twins were beautiful children. Both had almost olive complexions, dark and shiny hair (Lynnie's done in what appeared to be two bunches) and identical facial features. Milo's eyes were dark brown, whereas Lynnie's were hazel. They both had an exotic look about them, and although Milo was dressed reasonably in a dinosaur patterned fleece over a white t-shirt and some grey trousers, Lynnie's outfit looked more randomly assembled.
Clearly, for all he talked about girls, Tony didn't have a clue.
"We're here." Tony pulled out his keys from his pocket, and opened the door. Kate was surprised to see that they were at the bungalow she had noticed earlier.
"This is your house?" She couldn't keep the surprise out of her voice.
"Yeah. When I got the kids, Mrs Bradley let …." Tony was cut off by Milo whining.
"Daddy, I'm hungy…"
Tony knelt down to his son's height.
"Hungry? Didn't you eat at Mrs Bradley's?"
Milo pulled a face. Tony sighed and got up.
"Let's get inside then. "
It was only 20 minutes later, when the kids had taken off their coats, washed their hands and were sitting at the dining table, and Kate had cracked a joke about thinking that Tony only ever ate in front of the TV that the twins noticed that she was there.
"Who are you?" Lynnie asked. Kate laughed.
"My name's Kate. " She said. Lynnie narrowed her eyes suspiciously at her, then slipped off the chair and went over to the kitchen area of the room so she was standing next to Tony, and tugged on his trouser leg, the whole time turning and giving Kate the type of suspicious look only a little kid can.
"My name's Milo." Milo piped up, Kate turned to look at him.
"I know."
"But that's jus my short name. My longer name is Milo Clayton DiNozzo." Milo stretched the I sound in his surname out a bit, making it sound like DiiiiNozzo.
"That's good, that you know your full name. "
"What's your name? "He asked suddenly.
"Kate."
"ohh…you have a full name? "
"Yes, I do. It's Caitlin Todd."
"Thas good, you know your full name. "
Kate chuckled, and Tony joined them, with warmed up Chinese takeaways and a couple of sandwiches for the twins. Lynnie was still clinging on to his trouser leg and glaring.
"Go sit and eat your food, Lynnie. " Tony told her. The little girl continued to glare at Kate. Tony looked from Lynnie to Kate and back again. Then he lifted Lynnie on to his lap and said.
"Lynnie, that's Kate. She works with me. "When her expression didn't change, he elaborated "She works with me and Uncle Gibbs and Ducky and Abby."
Lynnie's eyes went wide.
"You from NCIS like Daddy. " Kate nodded uncertainly. Lynnie's face lit up, and she slipped off Tony's lap and went to sit at her seat .Grabbing her sandwich with small hands, and taking huge bites, she grinned.
With food in her mouth, she said "You friends with BeeBee? BeeBee's my friend!"
Kate looked at Tony. BeeBee?
Abby, Tony mouthed.
"Yeah, Abby's my friend. I work with her too."
"I'm gonna work with her, when I'm gone up." Lynnie announced, showing the mouthful of masticated sandwich.
"Grown up, Lynnie. Not gone. "
They all laughed.
…
After dinner, while Tony put the kids to bed, Kate wandered around the bungalow. The décor was nothing spectacular, Infact; it went into the category of terrible that she had seen in houses owned by single men. However, there were floral curtains in the living room and kitchen, suggesting that Tony hadn't completely finished re-decorating when he got the bungalow from Mrs Bradley. In the living room, there were various pictures hanging from the walls .Some were random wall hangings, pictures of city skylines and other such things. There were a few framed movie posters, and the rest of the pictures were of Milo and Lynnie. There were only a few of these , but Kate felt sure that as they grew up, the living room pictures would be added to and would then provide visitors with an accurate picture of their progression through life.
She ignored the bathroom, and went straight to Tony's bedroom. This wasn't an investigation; after all, she was just curious about this aspect of her co-worker's life she didn't really know about.
The bedroom was as expected. Wardrobe full of work clothes and other typical items of clothing. There were large collections of DVDs in here-most of these films were the more gory or adult ones. There were a lot in the living room, in the small cupboard the TV stood on, so Kate assumed that he kept these ones in the bedroom to keep them away from Milo and Lynnie.
She also found a lot of parenting books. They had folded pages, sticky notes marking pages…and was that a juice stain on the cover of one of them? This was the discovery that surprised her the most. From her witnessing Tony's more-or-less calm manner, she had assumed that he knew exactly what he was doing.
Apparently he didn't.
Kate shrugged , and left the room. Just as she did , Tony left the twins' room.
"Find anything interesting?"
"Huh?"
Tony smirked. "You were looking around."
Kate's mouth dropped open "How did you…"
"Because , You clearly can't believe that I , Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo , could possibly be living this kind of life. "
Kate rolled her eyes , and walked past him to the living room.
Tony followed , and they sat on the sofa.
"First I want to know –how did you wind up taking care of them? Where's there mother? What nationality is she-I mean, they really don't look anything like-"
"Whoa, this isn't an interrogation, is this?" Tony held his hands up in mock surrender.
"Sorry." Tony pulled a face, his hands still up. After a moment Kate shook her head.
"Ok put your hands down, it's too strange."
Tony did. Then he momentarily closed his eyes, opened them and said.
"They aren't mine. Not biologically. "
Kate did a double take. "What?"
"You heard."
"Then…if they aren't really yours, why do you have them?"
Tony's face went hard "They were abandoned on my doorstep, when I was still living in the ground floor apartment. I brought them up from day 1. I think that makes them my kids, biological or otherwise."
Kate blinked, realising that she had somehow overstepped a line. "Sorry."
"It's 're not the first person to ask me that. "
"I still can't picture it though…how did you cope-I can't imagine you actually having any prior knowledge of kids , or even wanting to have any kids , before they arrived."
"You're right…I wasn't even considering settling down or anything like that ,"Tony's face took on a faraway look "I was running late to work that day , and I opened the door and they were there , just sleeping. "
"For the whole night?!" Kate was shocked.
"Probably. I remember hearing some crying noises the night before, but I had thought it was just cats. They were so cold…There was a note with them; all it stated was that they were twins, and that the boy was the older. It was a scrap paper, and the other side was just a random mixture of languages. They were actually born 3 days before they were abandoned at mine. "
Kate absorbed the information quietly, and was about to ask Tony what happened next when he continued.
"I took them in, found a blanket and wrapped them both up .Then, because they were still sleeping , I called Gibbs , told him that I would be late for work-and told him why. "
Kate couldn't imagine what Gibbs would have said to Tony telling him he'd be late for work because babies had been abandoned on his doorstep. "What did Gibbs say?"
"He said to stay where I was, then about an hour later he came around and helped me out. He knew exactly what to do…even brought some stuff over. You know nappies and such like. Then Abby and Ducky found out , they came to help too , and they all helped me to get Social Services to allow me to keep them…the rest is history."
"You've done a good job, from what I can see. I actually have to hand it to you; you seem to know what you are doing." Kate didn't mention the parenting books she had seen.
"I don't, not really .Sometimes, I wonder: what the hell am I doing?, then I look at them and realise it. " The faraway look turned to one that loved –with a little guilt in there. Kate wanted to find out what that guilty look was about, but didn't want to overstep any more boundaries.
"How does Gibbs know about kids? The way you relayed the story, it seems like he's a bit of an expert. "
Tony paused. Then, "You know the Boss-man. Full of surprises."
Kate rolled her eyes. "No, seriously." Tony knew more than he was giving away, she could tell.
"You'll have to ask Gibbs." They both knew there was no way that would happen, so Kate dropped the subject.
For a small while longer, they talked about other stuff –work, food, even movies, before Kate got up and said.
"Well, I better be going then. It was nice meeting the twins. "
"I think they enjoyed meeting you too. Especially once Lynnie found out you work with me at NCIS. "Tony grinned, and Kate grinned back.
"I'll see you at work then. I'll let myself out. "
"Yeah.G'night."
…
A few weeks later, the Gibb's team were working on another murder case, and they were working late, Mrs Bradley had gone to visit her sister, and Tony couldn't get any last-minute babysitters-so Milo and Lynnie ended up coming to work with him.
Soon as they got there, Gibbs nodded in acknowledgement.
"Ducky's got the dead marine out, Abby is busy. "He said. Tony made a gesture to say that he had got it, and sat back down at his desk. Then, he opened his desk drawer and got out some small, pocket sized picture books, as well as a couple of stuffed toys.
"I'm going to be very busy now, so please don't disturb me, Ok?" Milo laughed, grabbed a book, and scrambled under the desk and sat, looking like he was actually reading the book. Kate stifled a laugh. Lynnie looked around, wide eyed, her hair down and falling in waves to her shoulder. Then, she took off her little pink coat, discarded it before picking up the stuffed bee and wandering to Gibbs desk.
"Uncle Gibbs." She said, attempting to climb onto his lap.
"Gibbs is working as well, Lyns." Tony said. Gibbs rolled his eyes and helped Lynnie sit on his lap.
"How about you worry about your work, DiNozzo?"
"Got it, boss." For a while , the only noises in the room were that of typing , Kate making constant phone calls and being put on hold , Milo 'reading' and Gibbs doing whatever it was he was doing while quietly explaining to Lynnie everything-albeit the condensed version of the story , as it was suitable for a toddler.
"Boss, I think we need to get McGee over here." Tony said suddenly. Gibbs gave him a look. Tony opened and shut his mouth a few times in succession, like a goldfish.
"What exactly are you waiting for? Get him over here!" Tony jumped and soon made the phone call. Then he got up.
"I'm going to the bathroom. I'm bursting." Then he rushed off before Gibbs could pin him to the chair with another of his looks. Kate wanted to yell something about not needing to know every little detail about his life, but restrained herself, and continued waiting for the latest person she was calling to take her off hold.
"Oh, yes, I'm here….Not at all? Are you sure? Ok, thank you." Kate put down the phone. She turned slightly.
"He hasn't turned up for work, and the …dozen relatives living around the area haven't seen him either. Who else could he be with? He can't be that close to all his relatives, and some of them live as far out as Toronto."
"They're one of those close knit clans. Try the rest of them."
"Gibbs!"
"Katie, where's daddy?" Milo had come out from under the desk, and was standing in front of it , looking slightly confused.
"He's gone to the toilet, Milo. What's wrong?"
"I'm hungry," Kate's mind went blank momentarily, and then she reached for her handbag. "I think I have a….apple!" She held it out. Milo took it.
"Thank you." He said in between chews.
"Katie, The apple is green ." Lynnie stated. Kate smiled at the little girl.
"Yes , It is. "
The elevator dinged and McGee rushed in.
"Where should I sit, Sir…uh, I mean Boss?" Gibbs indicated the desk opposite his and McGee went to sit when he noticed Milo and Lynnie. He blinked.
"Who…?"
"Milo, Lynnie. This is McGee. Timothy McGee. "
Milo grinned. McGee grinned back uncertainly. Lynnie asked
"Do you work with daddy?" McGee stuttered, wondering what to say.
"He does." Kate said. When McGee looked at her questioningly, she mouthed Tony.
McGee was clearly surprised, but just nodded and turned to Lynnie and nodded "I do work with your daddy." Then, after dumping his bags at the desk, he went over to Milo.
"Hey, kid, want to sit with me? Milo complied, still eating the apple , and soon the two looked to be fast friends. When Tony came back, he looked around.
"Well."
McGee looked up "Oh, hi Tony. "
"Hey. "Then, after sitting down and wiggling his computer mouse to get rid of the screensaver, he said jokingly.
"Looks like you've all met the family, then. "
McGee smiled.
"Yep, and I learnt something new about a guy who I thought was completely predictable. "
Tony narrowed his eyes, trying to formulate a witty response, and everyone ,even Gibbs , laughed.
This was just an introductory chapter really-and it took ages! Anyway, although it may look like most of the truth about the twins has been revealed, it actually has not.
I hope you enjoyed this first chapter , and again , I can't guarantee regular updates , but I will try
Please leave feedback ^^
