A/N: So this kinda explains some stuff about Tony and Declan and how they met and it goes with a fic that Declan's creator wrote that will be posted eventually so yeah enjoy.
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Relax
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Sammy stifled a cough as she moved to answer the door. She wasn't sure who to expect at Gibbs' door at 8pm on a Saturday but somehow when she opened the door and came face to face with Tony she wasn't all that surprised.
"Hey Tony," Sammy greeted him with a smile.
"Hey," Tony replied, though not in his usual tone, "Is Gibbs here?"
"You actually just missed him," Sammy said apologetically.
"Oh ok well I'll see you on Monday then," Tony rattled off before turning to leave.
"Hey," Sammy said, getting his attention, "Maybe I can help."
"That's ok," Tony said with a smile in her direction, "I don't wanna ruin your night."
Sammy sighed and slid a pair of shoes on before following him out and grabbing his arm as he reached for his car keys.
"Tony," She said in a firm tone that demanded his attention, "I'm not doing anything so there's nothing for you to screw up. Come on."
Tony turned to look at her and insist it was fine but as soon as he saw her face he couldn't say no. The look of concern on her face was one he hadn't had directed at him in years and never thought he would again.
"You're sure?" He asked, hoping she'd give him an out.
"Yeah I'm sure," Sammy insisted.
"Alright," Tony said, letting her lead him up to the house.
Sammy slid her shoes off at the door and closed it behind Tony. Once Tony had his shoes off she lead the way to the living room. Tony spotted the blanket that was crumpled on the floor and the tissues piling up on the end table then looked at Sammy a little closer, noticing her red nose, slightly flushed cheeks and pj's.
"Are you sick?" He asked slowly as everything fell into place.
"Yeah," Sammy said, stifling another cough, "I caught myself a cold at some point."
"I'm disturbing your rest," Tony said, quickly, "I should go."
"Relax," Sammy said with a sigh, pulling him to the couch and pushing him down to sit, "It's not a big deal. I was just about to put a movie on and some company would be nice."
"You're sure?" Tony asked, waiting for her to tell him she didn't want him there and that he had to leave.
"Yes I'm sure," Sammy said with finality, "Now you want some popcorn."
"Sure but I can do it, you should be..." Tony started but Sammy cut him off.
"Geez Tony, relax," Sammy said sighed again, "I'm fine and I like your company so you don't have to be so on edge."
"Alright," Tony said, seeming to relax a little.
"I'll go pop the popcorn; you wanna pick out a movie?" Sammy said motioning to the shelf beside the TV, "There isn't much there but there should be something you'll like."
As Sammy headed for the kitchen Tony wandered over to the small shelf that held the sole DVD collection of the house.
After thoroughly looking over the small shelf of DVDs and trying to find one that he's like to watch that he thought Sammy would be ok with he settled on Pirates of the Caribbean. As he turned around to search for the remote, so he could set up the DVD, he came face to face with Sammy. He hadn't been paying attention and didn't hear the popcorn stop.
"Did you choose a movie?" Sammy asked as she set the bowl of popcorn on the table.
"Yeah," Tony said, slightly caught off guard and held up the movie, "This ok?"
"Sure," Sammy said with a smile, "I haven't watched that in ages."
She set the popcorn on the coffee table and handed Tony the remote.
"Do you want something to drink?" Sammy asked, turning for the kitchen, "I think there's still a couple beers in the fridge."
"Sure," Tony threw over his shoulder, deciding that it would probably help him relax a little.
"Ok," Sammy said, disappearing into the kitchen.
When she emerged a couple minutes later, with a bottle of beer in one hand and a mug of peppermint tea in the other, Tony had the DVD menu on the screen and he was sitting on the couch. She sat beside him and handed over the beer before leaning to pull the popcorn up and set it between them on the couch. Once she seemed settled Tony hit play.
An hour into the movie Sammy glanced at Tony out of the corner of her eye and for the 3rd time in the last hour saw him still fidgeting and holding his beer which was still only half finished.
"You wanna talk about it?" Sammy asked softly, seeming to snap Tony out of his own thoughts.
"Hmm?" Tony asked, inhaling rather sharply and turning to look at her.
"Do you wanna talk about what's bothering you?" Sammy tried again.
"Uh..." Tony started, thinking at first of a way out but when he looked at Sammy again and she was giving him a look that said she genuinely cared and she wanted to help he decided he might as well take her up on her offer.
"I don't know what started me thinking about it but I realized I haven't been in a solid relationship for 3 maybe 4 years and it got me thinking what if I never find someone I can settle down with and I'm just alone forever?" Tony explained, getting quiet towards the end, "I pushed it out of my mind for a while but when I saw those legs, the ones that belonged to the woman who picked you up and I knew I'd been with her but couldn't even remember what her name was it made me think how many women have I been with that I can't even remember one?"
"You know Declan?" Sammy asked, hoping that telling him who had picked her up might help.
"Declan?" Tony said in surprise, "As in Declan Jacobs?"
"Yeah," Sammy said, smiling as she watched his look of surprise melt into a look of excitement, "I'm taking college classes with her, well I was, that's how we met. How do you know her?"
"Uh... we were together 4 or so years ago when she graduated and we split because she had to move for school and I was still working in Baltimore so I couldn't leave," Tony explained, starting out mumbling and getting a little clearer towards the end.
"Ah," Sammy said as it all sank in, "does she know you live here now?"
"I honestly don't know," Tony said with a slight sigh, "We both decided a clean break would be best so I haven't talked to her since."
"She talks about you a lot, never by name, just about the man that was her first love," Sammy said as she thought back to some of the conversations they had had late at night, "I think she mentioned you being her first time too."
"Oh God," Tony muttered as he closed his eyes, "I forgot about that."
"What's the big deal?"Sammy asked, actually curious as to why he was freaking out.
"Uh she was like 18 or 19 and I was a lot older," He mumbled, not looking at her.
"What do you mean by a lot older?" Sammy wondered.
"Uh well..." Tony said fading out, "Like I was around 28 ish... maybe older."
"So," Sammy said with a shrug, "Love is love."
"What?" Tony asked, astonished that that's all she said.
"It doesn't matter how old you are love is love and if you both love each other then there's no problem with the age gap," Sammy said with finality.
With that they fell silent and continued watching the movie that was still playing on the TV, forgotten a moment ago.
"She's probably moved on by now," Tony said with a sigh a couple minutes later.
"It doesn't sound like she has," Sammy replied, even though she didn't think he was expecting an answer.
"What?" Tony asked, not expecting an answer at all.
"I don't think she has," Sammy repeated, "She was with a guy but it didn't last long and she's with this guy now but I'm not sure about him... he has a weird vibe to him but I think she's just trying to fill an empty place. She talks about you too much to have actually moved on."
"Really?" Tony asked hopefully.
"Yeah really," Sammy said with a reassuring smile, "now if you relax a little I promise when I see her tomorrow we'll talk unless you want to talk to her yourself."
"You're positive she hasn't moved on?" Tony asked, still running everything over in his head, wanting to be sure before he had to confront the possibility of rejection.
"Yes," Sammy insisted, "Now stop already; I'll talk to her tomorrow so just relax already."
She leaned over and poked his side to make her point, starting to giggle at the surprised look on his face until she was thrown into a coughing fit. Tony, not knowing how to really help, awkwardly rubbed her back until she caught her breath.
"No more making me laugh," Sammy play whined, taking a sip of her tea.
"Sorry," Tony mumbled, the same playful tone to his voice, taking a swig from his beer.
The rest of the movie was watched in silence but Sammy could tell Tony was finally relaxing.
When the credits scrolled across the screen she turned to talk to Tony and found him asleep, beer bottle still in hand with a sip or two left in it. She smiled and gently pulled it from his hand, setting it on the table before waking him up with a gently shake of his shoulder.
"Hmm wha," He mumbled sleepily, sitting up completely straight, obviously startled.
"Come on," Sammy said getting up and holding a hand towards him, "Bed time."
Tony rubbed his eyes before taking her hand and letting her pull him to his feet and led him to the guest room. Tony didn't protest, having slept in the room many times before, just pulled off his shirt and made to undo his belt.
"Night," Sammy said softly before heading back downstairs, giving Tony a little privacy.
She headed back down to the living room and curled up on the couch. She changed the TV back to cable and started flipping through the channels aimlessly, settling on some random medical show but not really paying attention. Now that Tony had gone to bed she was starting to focus on how she felt again and she wanted to go to sleep but she knew as soon as she laid down she'd start coughing. She picked up her mug and worked on finishing the last of her now cold peppermint tea.
oOoOoOo
When Gibbs finally walked in the door at 11pm Sammy was almost dosing on the couch still sitting up, the TV playing quietly. She woke up when she heard him walk in.
"Hey," Sammy mumbled around a yawn that turned into a cough, "What took you so long?"
"Sorry," Gibbs said with a sigh as he sat beside her and kissed her forehead, "Jenny wanted some input and before I could get out of it she was explaining the details. I did remember your medicine though."
"Good," Sammy said with a small smile, taking the bag he offered and opening the cough syrup in it, "I'm gonna take some of this then I'm going to bed, you're coming with me right?"
"Of course," Gibbs assured her.
"K I'll be back," Sammy said before heading for the kitchen, cough syrup in tow.
As Sammy left Gibbs took a moment to look around and spotted the beer bottle on the table.
"Have you started drinking beer?" Gibbs threw over his shoulder.
"Oh that," Sammy said as she walked back into the living room, "That's Tony's, he showed up looking for you around 8pm and after quite a bit of pushing I managed to get him to come in and talk about it. He's sleeping in the guest room."
"What was he worrying about?" Gibbs asked curiously.
"Being alone," Sammy said simply, sitting beside him and leaning into his chest, "You should probably talk to him about it in the morning."
"Alright," Gibbs said with a nod, looking down at her as she leaned into him, "I think now though we should get you to bed before you fall asleep right here."
"Mkay," Sammy mumbled, hauling herself up.
Gibbs stood as well and they headed up to the bedroom. As soon as they walked in Sammy crawled right into bed and started to get comfortable. Gibbs changed into a pair of boxers and an old NIS shirt then hit the lights and crawled up beside her. Sammy settled on her stomach, arms around her pillow and Gibbs started gently rubbing her back in large circles as he buried his nose in her hair. As the cough syrup kicked in Sammy drifted into a quiet restful sleep. Gibbs watched her for a while to make sure she was ok before slowly drifting off himself.
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Gibbs was up automatically at 6am, regardless o f the fact that it was Sunday. He carefully got out of bed, making sure to not wake Sammy up and headed down to the kitchen grab a cup of coffee from the pot that was set to be ready at 6am.
He was sitting at the kitchen table reading the paper for no more than 10 or so minutes before he heard footsteps on the stairs. He looked up just as Tony walked into the kitchen, rubbing his eyes and clad in nothing but a pair of boxers. He jumped when he spotted Gibbs sitting at the table.
"Oh hey boss," He spouted, trying to cover his surprise.
"Morning," Gibbs threw over his shoulder, waiting for Tony to get himself settled before bringing up the conversation he knew they needed to have.
Tony slowly fumbled around the kitchen locating a mug then pouring himself a cup of coffee before he shuffled over to the table and sat across from Gibbs.
Gibbs gave him 5 minutes to relax and give him the option to start the conversation himself before he folded the paper and set it down on the table.
"So you wanna talk about last night?" Gibbs asked casually.
"Well uh..." Tony started, fumbling over his shoulder.
"Oh come on Tony, it's not like this is the first personal conversation we've had," Gibbs said gruffly.
Tony tensed then relaxed a little.
"Ok where do you want me to start?" Tony asked with a slight sigh.
"At the beginning," Gibbs said before taking a sip of his coffee.
"Ok well a couple weeks ago there was this woman that picked Sammy up from work and I recognized her but I couldn't remember who she was and it got me thinking about the fact that I've been so many women but I haven't been in a committed relationship in almost 4 years. That got me thinking that maybe I'll be alone forever," Tony finished, cringing slightly at how childish it started to sound.
"Did you find out who she was?" Gibbs asked nonchalantly.
"Yeah," Tony said, a small smile breaking on his lips at the thought, "Her name is Declan, I was dating her back in Baltimore. Her and Sammy are taking college classes together."
"How old is she?" Gibbs asked curiously.
"Um she's about 21 now," Tony said, feeling his cheeks warm up as he realized how young she really was.
"How old was she when you started dating?" Gibbs asked in mock surprise.
"Uhm...17," Tony mumbled sheepishly.
"A little young wasn't she?" Gibbs said teasingly.
"Because the redhead in your bed right now isn't?" Tony countered.
"Alright DiNozzo shut up and drink your coffee before it gets cold," Gibbs said in his usual tone.
Tony just smiled as he brought his mug to his lips, knowing he was right and Gibbs was just trying to cover it up.
After a couple minutes of silence Tony pulled the funnies out of the paper and started reading intently while he finished his coffee. Gibbs rearranged the paper then started in on the Sunday crossword.
When Sammy finally wondered into the kitchen around 8am Gibbs and Tony were sitting quietly reading different parts of the paper. Gibbs was reading about some incident in downtown DC and Tony had the sports section.
Sammy poured herself a bowl of cinnamon toast crunch then joined them at the table. She sat quietly eating, not awake enough to talk.
When she finished her cereal she took her bowl to the sink then filled Gibbs coffee cup and topped off Tony's, that's when both men realized she was there.
"Good morning," Gibbs said with a smile, "How are you feeling?"
"Better than last night," Sammy said with a sniffle, "Not 100% yet."
"Morning," Tony mumbled, coming out of his zone.
"Morning," Sammy said smiling, "How did you sleep?"
"Really well actually," Tony said cheerily, "It was easily the best sleep I've had in weeks."
"Good," Sammy said smiling again.
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An hour and a half later Tony had left, claiming he had errands to run and thanking both of them before making his exit. Sammy disappeared upstairs to shower and get ready for her day with Declan and Gibbs headed down to work on his boat.
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Sammy sat across from Declan at the 50's style diner and dropped her shopping bags beside her.
When the waitress came over they ordered drinks then started flipping through the menus. It wasn't until they had both decided on their meals and that had their drinks that a actual conversation started up.
"So anything interesting happen last night?" Sammy asked out of nowhere.
"Not really," Declan said with a shrug, taking a sip of her milkshake, "Just sat at home watching TV and doing a little online shopping. You?"
"Yeah my night was definitely on the odd side," Sammy said, thinking about how she was going to work into talking about Tony, "I stayed at Gibbs' last night and while he was out buying some cough syrup so I could sleep Tony showed up, he works with us and Gibbs has kinda adopted him as his son. Anyway he wanted to talk to Gibbs but I managed to get him to come in and talk with me about what was bothering him. Turns out he saw you pick me up and he knows you but he couldn't remember your name."
"Tony," Declan said thoughtfully, "What did he do before NCIS?"
"I think he was a cop in Baltimore," Sammy said, watching as all the pieces clicked in Declan's head.
"Is his last name DiNozzo?" Declan asked quickly.
"Yup," Sammy said simply, "He says you haven't talked since you broke up and parted ways."
"Yeah it's been about 4 years now," Declan said, seemingly reminiscing, "I didn't even know he was in DC."
"From what I've heard it sounds like Gibbs scooped him not too long after you left Baltimore," Sammy said.
"Oh," Declan replied.
Just as their conversation died out the waitress showed up with their food and they started up a lighter conversation as they started eating.
oOoOoOo
A couple hours later Sammy pulled her echo into the parking lot of Declan's apartment complex.
"Well I'll see you after work tomorrow," Sammy said as Declan unbuckled her seatbelt.
"Alright," Declan said with a smile as she opened the car door.
"Love you," Sammy said as Declan slid out of the car and leaned back in to grab her things.
"Love you too," Declan said with a smile before closing the car door.
She waved as she got to the front of the car before heading into the building and up to her apartment.
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The End