It wasn't often that Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo thought that the universe was punishing him for something that he didn't deserve but today was one of those rare days. Tony's day had started off rather well, he had gotten in a good work out before he came to work, harmlessly teased McProbie for a few minutes until he got the phone call that ruined his day. Angrily slamming his phone back down on the receiver, Tony quickly went about straightening up his desk in a hurried manner, shoving case files into his desk drawers, discarding candy papers into his waste bin and throwing the paper balls that cluttered his desk over to McGee. This was the last thing Tony needed in his life right now and he couldn't help but grumble in annoyance as he continued to clean up his desk, making sure that everything looked pristine and not even a millimetre out of his place. Tony would much rather to have the plague again and come close to dying again instead of having to deal with this problem.
"Problem Tony?" McGee asked and Tony looked up briefly to see that McGee and Ziva were looking at him in bemusement over this entire thing as it was rare for, a fine calibre such of himself to be worked up to the point he was actively cleaning his desk because of a female coming up to the bullpen see him. Not that any of this was funny in the slightest given who was coming to see him.
"Not that it's any of your business Probie, but I just got a call from security telling me that my sister is here and now on her way up to see me for god knows what reason." Tony stated in an annoyed tone of manner with a frown on his face as he stood up and straightened out his suit and tie before sitting back down. It had been years since Tony had seen his sister and he couldn't help but wonder why on earth she was suddenly here of all places. Whatever the reason, it couldn't be good. It never was when it came to the Little DiNozzo as Tony used to call his sister when she was a small child and still tolerable.
"Sister? You have a sister? You told us that you were an only child!" Ziva demanded in shock and Tony pulled a sheepishly embarrassed expression. So he had lied about being an only child but in Tony's defence, he had done it for a good reason as him and his sister were pretty much estranged and both of them were content in living separate lives away from each other. The DiNozzo siblings had a difficult relationship and so to save explaining all the childhood issues, Tony found it easier to just say that he was an only child. Technically in a round about way, he was an only child. He was the only child born to his mother and father.
"Amelia is my half-sister on my dad's side from his second marriage and when I told you all that I was an only child, it was wishful thinking on my part and when you think about it in an abstract kind of way it is more or less true considering that we hardly ever speak or see each other." Tony attempted to explain and from where he sat he could see McGee roll his eyes unsurprised that he would lie about such a thing whilst Ziva on the other hand? Seemed to be more annoyed at this little white lie, well she was more liked pissed off about it.
"Unbelievable Tony… Pretending that your sister doesn't even exist, I actually feel sorry for the girl for having you as a brother. Why on earth would you let everyone believe that you were an only child? I can't believe that you've been lying to us about this for years!" Ziva admonished and Tony for some reason allowed himself to chuckle at this lecture, he wouldn't have expected anything less from the mossad officer.
"Trust me I had reasons, my sister is no angel and she's not exactly forthcoming with the fact that she has an older brother..." Tony replied stopping short when the doors to the elevator pinged open and out walked a familiar tall woman with dark hair and blue eyes dressed in very expensive clothing. Amelia. Tony would recognize his sister anywhere and he watched as his sister looked around the bullpen until her eyes met his. Tony ignored Ziva and McGee's questions about why he was acting so weird as his sister made her way over and stopped right in front of his desk. Tony looked at his baby sister, Amelia looked a lot older than he remembered but that was a given since it had been a while since they had seen each other. But it wasn't just that, Amelia looked more older and tired than Tony had ever known her to be. It made him even more suspicious as to why Amelia had turned up here out of the blue with no warning in the slightest. "Amelia."
"Anthony."
"I see you're still alive."
"Right back at you." Amelia replied using the same amount of enthusiasm or rather lack if it that he was giving her. The frosty reception was nothing new for Tony as him and Amelia had been acting like that towards each other for the past fourteen years and he doubted that either of them were going to change that now. The two of them were two stubborn old mules stuck in their ways as their father used to say. Ever aware of his colleagues staring at the encountered unfolding right in front of their eyes, Tony knew he was going to have to make introductions before Ziva or McGee did it for him.
"Ziva David, Timothy McGee this is my sister Amelia DiNozzo." Tony began gritting his teeth together as he began making introductions, the sooner he got this over the sonner he could see what Amelia wanted and then have her back on her way. "Mia, there are my co-workers."
"It's a pleasure to meet the two of you, I'm afraid to say that Tony hasn't mentioned you but my brother does speak very highly of NCIS and how much he enjoys working here." Amelia warmly greeted with a small smile and Tony couldn't help but scoff as he rolled his eyes, Mia could be greeting him with contempt one second and then the next, make niceties with his co-workers and be so charming that butter wouldn't melt.
"What are you doing here Mia?" Tony asked moving things along before McGee would inevitably ask to talk a walk down the DiNozzo family lane and then get Ziva on the bandwagon. Tony was fine with them knowing a few titbits of his personal life and childhood but he didn't want them to know his entire life story. There were things about his life that Tony liked to keep private and he noted the irony of that given that he had no understanding of the word boundaries when it come to other people's private lives.
"We need to talk Tony." Amelia responded after a moment.
"And you couldn't call or email? You just had to fly in all the way from New York and come down to where I work in order to speak to me, why?" Tony asked as this was out of the character for his sister, the last time they had seen each other Tony could vividly remember Mia saying that she never wanted to see him again. Well that was a bit of a lie as Mia actually screamed at him that she never wanted to see him again, chucking a vase at him in the process. Just thinking about that encounter made Tony wince as that vase had come very close to hitting him.
"I've tried calling you Tony, several times but not once did you call me back or answer any of my emails and I couldn't show up at your apartment as neither of us know where the other lives. The only place I knew that I could find you other than a strip joint was here and unlike you I wouldn't lower my standards to enter that kind of establishment so I had to come here." Amelia replied with a flicker of annoyance before pausing to take a deep breath. "This is the last place that I want to be but I need your help."
"The great Amelia DiNozzo needs my help? I thought you said that you never needed or wanted anything from me ever again? So why come to me of all people Mia? I'm pretty sure that we both made ourselves pretty clear the last time we saw each other " Tony questioned in a rather irritated manner, it was typical for his sister to come waltzing back into his life and messing it up when he was onto a good thing. Amelia had this habit of doing something that required Tony to drop whatever it was he was doing to come and deal with her and then once he had fixed the problem, she would go on to do something else. The last time Tony had seen his sister, he had put his foot down and told Mia that she needed to grow up and finally take responsibility of herself and her problems. It was pretty harsh but back them Mia needed some tough love. Mia hadn't responded in the most positive way hence her chucking a vase at him.
"I came here because you're my brother Tony and I didn't know where else to go, no matter what has gone on between us and all the stuff I've done. I could always count on you to be there when I needed you the most. But clearly not so much anymore as you don't want to see me Tony. Not that I blame you after what happened in Long Beach. Coming here was a mistake and I'm sorry for barging into your life yet again so I'll leave now. I guess we'll see each other in another six years. Goodbye Tony." Amelia said with a weak smile as she pulled out an envelope and placed it on Tony's desk before walking away. Tony didn't bother to watch his sister leave, instead he pulled out one of the case files from inside he desk and tried to get back to work. It was a harsh thing to do and Tony did feel kind of bad but his sister need this and Tony couldn't parent her any longer, Amelia need to live her life on her own two feet.
"Has it really been six years since you last seen your sister?" Ziva began, breaking the silence and Tony sighed, of course Ziva wasn't going to let this go anytime soon. Not that Tony could blame her.
"It's not as bad as you're making it sound, there's the annual DiNozzo sibling phone call to check in and make sure we're both alive." Tony replied with a small shrug of his shoulders, that probably wasn't normal in most families but in the DiNozzo family that was the norm. Next to nothing when it came to contact except for that one phone call. It suited them all just fine.
"When was the last time you saw her?" McGee questioned.
"Seven years ago, it was just after her grandfather on her mother's side had passed away. I came down for the funeral and stayed for a couple of days to help Mia out. We got into an argument and we both went our separate ways after and that's suited the two of us just fine. The DiNozzo's like their space and we don't get involved with each other's lives." Tony wearily replied.
"Are you going to open the envelope?" McGee asked motioning to the envelope that Amelia had left in front of Tony. "It might tell you why your sister came asking for your help.
"No." Tony gruffly replied as he moved the envelope out of his direct line of sight but his inner investigator really wanted to know what was in the envelope. But he would suppress that; it was better for both parties if he didn't get involved with his sister. Amelia wasn't a child anymore, she was grown woman and she had made it clear several times that she didn't need his help. Tony had to let her live on her own life, Amelia couldn't rely on him to always be there to fix her messes when she screwed up her life again.
"What does Amelia do for a living?"
"Publishing. She works for some company in New York and spends most of her time reading manuscripts which is kind of perfect for her. As a kid Amelia used to have her head inside a book most of the time and it was damn near impossible to get her to put a book down to do something other than reading. I used to have to bribe her to put a book down for twenty minutes so we could get an ice-cream, Mia was a real funny kid like that." Tony admitted allowing himself to chuckle as he remembered his sister when she was a small child, Mia had been a very shy and quiet child, occasionally a bit weird but always funny. Most of the time Tony had been laughing more at her than with her but it was in a nice way as she had been his goofy baby sister. The woman who had been standing in front of him a few minutes ago, was a far cry from the little sister that Tony used to know. The one who he'd be willing to drop everything for at a drop of a hat if she had so much as got a cold.
"Were you two close?" McGee asked.
"A long time ago."
"So are you really not going to help her Tony? Amelia did come all this way…" Ziva began and Tony couldn't help bit grit his jaw, it wasn't that simple as they all thought it was. Tony had tried helping Amelia over the years, several times but when he fixed one mess she somehow got herself it another. It was tiring and as much as Tony had loved his sister, it was getting too much for him. He spent more time making sure Amelia didn't get into trouble then he did living his own life and Tony didn't want to get sucked back in that. Sure it was a bit selfish but Tony had been dealing with his sister's problems for the last fifteen years.
"You don't get it, Mia is difficult, messy and getting involved with her problems is always so damned complicated."
"Isn't family always complicated?" Ziva questioned and Tony just sighed, of course the mossad officer was right and was talking from personal expericance given who her father and brother was.
Tony eyes darted back over to the mystery envelope that his sister had left on his desk and after a few minutes of staring at it, the curiosity finally got too much for him as Amelia wouldn't have come all this way for no reason. She didn't look like she had some kind of relapse although Tony would hold his breath on that one. But whatever had happened it had worked Amelia up enough that she had come all this way to personally ask for his help. Knowing he would probably regret this later on, Tony opened the envelope. Inside Tony found a diamond ring and an silver sing. Tony was pretty sure he knew what that meant but he was also quick to dismiss it as his sister would have told him if she had gotten married. So they didn't talk much but Amelia would have mentioned something like that during one of their yearly conversations. Those two items were enough for Tony to worry but it was the final item in the envelope that really made Tony's blood run cold.
It was a picture. Well actually it was a sonogram of a baby and there was a name in the corner of the sonogram read Amelia Dalgaard. Which couldn't be right as his sister's name was Amelia DiNozzo. But then Tony looked at the rings and it all fit together and there was this horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach as he realized what it all meant. Seconds later Tony picked up his desk phone and angrily started punching in his sister's phone number but it went straight to her message service.
"You complain when I don't answer your calls and now you won't answer mine? Nice going Mia! Call me back the second you get this Amelia!" Tony all but yelled down the phone before slamming it back into the receiver.
"Problem Tony?" Ziva asked.
"Yes there is a probably ZEE-VAH since I've just found out that my baby sister is pregnant!"