Title: Ten
Fandom: NCIS
Author: Alidiabin
Words: 407
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Warnings/Spoilers/Rating: none | up to 9x10 | PG
Parings: none.
Summary: number 10 on the bucket list, "Tell Dad it's okay," Happy b-day Proseac.

Ten

Of all the things he had imagined his father doing, washing dishes in Gibbs sink was not one of them. They were cleaning up after the Thanksgiving dinner which had gone from Turkey to steaks and beer, not that any of them were complaining. Tony was enjoying the normalcy of the moment. He had spent his childhood wanting this normalcy, wanting to go home for the holidays, and just wanting Senior to be around.

"Dad," Tony whispered looking at his father with his shirt sleeves rolled up, in the sink. He found himself thinking about his bucket list, and one particular item. Number ten Tell Dad it's okay.

"Junior," Senior replied as he placed the plate in the drying rack.

"I wrote a bucket list," he admitted like a proud child. "It was during this case where all these Marines died in a plane crash. It made me think about things I haven't done yet."

"Is this from one your movies?" Senior asked, "The one with that Freeman guy."

"No," Tony replied, smiling at his Dad's movie reference as his Dad was never good with movies.

"Did you get some abnormal test results, or something?" Senior asked, "Because men in our family need to be careful once we hit the big four-o,"

"No it's not that," Tony replied.

"What is it son?" he asked. Tony gulped wondering if he should really be talking about the bucket list with his Dad, as he clearly did not understand, but the damage was done. He had planted the seed in Seniors head.

"One of them," Tony paused and took a deep breath, it was now or never. "Number ten on the list was,"

"You've got a lot of build up going on here son," Senior interrupted as he turned to face his son discarding the dishes for a while.

"It was tell Dad it was okay," Tony admitted. "I mean I get it. Mom died and all of sudden you were left with this cocky, upset kid."

"It's not okay," Senior replied, "It shouldn't have been like that."

"But it was," Tony replied as he looked up at his Dad. He saw the guy he had admired as a kid, not the sad old man he had become.

"Son," Senior whispered, "cross number ten off your bucket list and tell me about the rest of this list. Does it involve any exotic places? We always did take good trips together."