First off, NCIS is not my creation in any way and I own none of it

Yay, a new chapter a new chapter ;). I'm sorry its been almost a week I hope to be a little bit faster than that from now on . Just so you guys know I have a ton written but I am trying to write a chappie a week so that I always have a lot of space if I get stuck one week so you aren't ever left hanging. This chapter is as equally long as the last one so I hope you guys are happy. Soo I got a whole ton of ppl. add my story to the update thingy (whatever it is actually called) hehehe and it made me super super happy. You guys are the best thanks for liking my story. I also very much appreciated the comments they made me happy too. I hope you guys continue to like.

Also, I am still looking for a Beta… But The amazing amazing SASundance offered to read over my first chapter and do some reviews while I am looking for someone to officially and permanently look things over. And wow did she ever do a great job finding tons of grammar and helping make my story better. Any mistakes are totally my own. Also, you guys should check out her stuff she just recently posted her own work "I'm Better Than That" and I totally loved it.

Love, Kalvinanne

Chapter two

Few months earlier…

They had been looking into the murder of a Lieutenant John Grames. He had been killed and his wife Helen had gone missing; she was a teacher at a local high school. Gibbs had ordered Tim and Tony to go and interview her students. One girl in particular had stood out. She was painfully shy, barely spoke a word to Tim when he attempted to interview her. The two agents had split up, but Tim finally came over to Tony at a break and explained he couldn't get a thing out of the girl. Tony had decided to step in and takeover, telling Tim to interview the next kid in his lineup.

Tony looked in on the girl through the door window. People were shy for one or two reasons in his experience. They were shy naturally, some people really were more introverted then others, or they became shy due to their environment. For instance, his co-workers never would have guessed that for most of his younger years up until high school he was extremely shy and didn't speak to anyone. He had the outgoing loud personality beaten right out of him by the age of seven. He had no idea which one she was, but either type should be approached in the same way in his opinion. They should be treated with respect, made to feel comfortable and confident, and given some semblance of control. He knocked on the door before entering, letting her know that he was going to come in. Then he sat down at the table in front of her.

He took in her clothing; hmm the kid had some style going on, a bit of a punk look, but not emo. She was kinda cool, but he bet her shyness kept her from making friends. Her blouse had short sleeves so probably no abuse. Probably was the key word, but it was a good guess, though there was always the possibility she had experienced abuse in the past and simply hadn't moved on from it. Thoughts to file away he concluded.

"Hey Kiddo, my name is Tony. So basically you managed to stonewall my partner. Which is kinda impressive seeing as it is his job to interview people." He saw a slight smirk come out of that comment. "But, I really hope that I don't fail, see I am supposed to be the senior officer, if I can't get anything out of you, my boss, well he's a Marine. I don't know what you know about them…" He paused looking to see her reaction. She only shrugged. He continued, " Well he's a bit of a hard ass-rehghj." He stumbled over the possible swear word. Was *ss a swear word? He wasn't really sure. She grinned cheekily at his cover up. "Anyways, I will definitely expect a head smack from him." He had purposefully included that last bit, waiting to see if he could get a flicker of fear, or even a laugh from the girl. Either would be of benefit in his attempt to get the girl to open up. At this point she chose to speak, hmm the Protector Type.

"He hits you?" She said this with a glare. Score one, she had spoken.

"Yup, pretty much. Fortunately he doesn't treat me like a punching bag, I definitely don't have a chance against a Marine. It's more like a smack to the back of the head." He paused to demonstrate. "It's like a wake-up call. See he has kinda adopted me as his kid. Just a little bit." Or he had, not so much recently he thought to himself woefully. "And, well my dad didn't do so good of a job teaching me. Shipped me off to boarding school at twelve, and I haven't really grown up yet. So sometimes my boss gives me a bit of a smack to the head to get me back on track when I get distracted or if I prank my team mates."

He had opened up to her and he had provided her with several topics. She could question about the boarding school, his dad, or go for the less personal and question the pranking. Her eyes reflected doubt as he explained at the beginning the fact that his boss hit him. She was having none of that, clearly she saw physical abuse as wrong and not deserving. He watched her eyes soften with sadness when she heard he was shipped out at twelve. Yup, a protective and motherly type for sure. Then the same eyes widened with his pranking question. Would she pry into his personal life, he was willing to go there if it was necessary, none of his co-workers were around to overhear.

She clasped her hands together, leaning her head forward to rest on her hands and stared at him. "You prank your co-workers? How old are you?"

"Whoa now, don't you know asking someone their age is kinda rude?" He stated, making it very clear that he was joking with an overly raised eyebrow and a hurt look on his face.

"That only applies to women." She stated in defence.

"Fine, I'm twenty-five."

"That's not possible, you are definitely older than that." Her eyebrow's stood up.

"Okay, seriously, harsh words, kid, harsh. You can't call me old, I'm a federal agent, I'm like an authority figure."

"Who pulls pranks? Doesn't sound very authoritative to me."

His face split into a grin at that comment. "I am going to ignore that last statement. And yes I prank my co-workers, it lightens them up, plus I gotta keep my pranking skills top notch, you never know when they might become necessary."

"Necessary, really? When would pranks ever be necessary?"

He had a quick response handy: pranks had been very necessary when he was in school. He had been so shy all through boarding school and he had no friends. But one guy, Andrew Walters, had taken him under his wing in his last year of high school. He had begged Tony to help him with pranks and the two had eventually become close and he had helped Tony open right up. However, he felt this would hit too close to home with the girl. She clearly felt left out at school. So he opted for a slow stutter and adamant reply lacking any real rationale.

"Well, umm, they just would be. You never know. Besides it reveals my cunning. Like when I put sticky glue on Tim's keyboard and his hands get stuck, well he better be impressed with my skills."

She gave him a look of utter disbelief. "You are ridiculous. I don't even know what to say."

"It's okay to be in awe of my skills. Just bow at my feet, no need for words."

"Oh pu-lease. How do your co-workers deal with you?" Before he could stop it a slight wince crossed his face. He noticed as Tawnie zeroed in on it, for she quickly changed topics. "Soo, I think you won this round with…Tim?" Tony was thrilled to see the girl initiate conversation.

He hadn't decided whether she was in the first or second category, she was a bit of a mystery. If she was in an abusive home, well she clearly had escaped it and probably hadn't figured out how to reverse her relationship with her classmates. They had possibly reached out earlier and she had rejected them and now that she wanted to open up didn't know how to initiate it. If she was shy it hadn't taken too much effort to encourage her to converse, although she obviously had a soft heart and that could be a partial reason for his success. She had opened up when she got worried about him. He recalled that McGee failed to get her to talk, maybe he had just gotten lucky… ahh well. All he had were guesses, for now it would remain a mystery.

"Huh, right I did…" From that point he had gone on to ask her a couple of simple questions about her teacher, similar to those he had asked of her classmates.

The case had been pretty confusing, but they had managed to figure things out. They had found the teacher, she was innocent of her husband's murder, it turned out that the Marine had a gambling problem and had been accidentally killed by the men beating him as a warning. Mrs. Grames had gone into hiding, terrified that they would seek her out to pay his debts.

But, when the case was finally closed Tawnie resurfaced in his thoughts. He had a soft spot for kids, especially those that were left out. It brought back memories of the majority of his childhood. Tony took the time to look her up in the system and discovered to his dismay that yes, Matthew Grey had been locked away for spousal and child abuse about a year ago, and had actually been killed in prison during a brawl. Tawnie was probably relieved to know her father was dead, somehow that just brought a new level of freedom.

She was lucky; Tony hadn't felt free from his Dad until he was legally untied upon reaching age eighteen. Even now, knowing DiNozzo Sr. was alive…it had taken years for him to feel safe. All throughout boarding school if Tony went home for a holiday his father's authority reasserted itself and the "necessary discipline" didn't stop. The rule that a child should be seen and not heard was ingrained and a big reason for Tony's quiet manners even when he was at boarding school miles away from the DiNozzo house.

But enough of that…what he wanted to do was figure out something to help the young girl, Tawnie Grey. And that's when he had an idea. A great one if he said so himself. He quickly put the deed into action and called up Mrs. Grames. After spending some time talking to her about Tawnie and explaining his ideas the plan was set into motion.

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Several weeks later

Tony was busy at work, okay not really, but he was busy appearing to be hard at work. He looked up to see Ziva and Tim come out of the elevator with a young woman. She was around his age; with tan skin and black hair, clearly Middle Eastern descent. They were talking and she was not looking very impressed.

"So why did you want to know about Tony? As Ziva said he is most definitely a womanizer. He works little, usually goofs off, but he is an agent here. The Senior Field agent actually, but whatever he told you, if you are looking for stability then he is not the guy to go with." The young agent bobbed his head from side to side emphatically.

At this point Ziva piped up, "Yes, why is it that you want to speak to Tony? You are clearly a mother," she stated looking at Nala's well-worn shoes and the bag with snacks peeking out of it. "He is not the type to settle down with someone. And he is not a good influence, always getting into trouble, joking around, not taking things seriously. Although, he is charming and kind. We aren't trying to bash our co-worker, but again, not the commitment type."

"Thank you two for giving me so much information on, your co-worker did you say?" Well, it certainly sounded like bashing she thought to herself.

"Yep, we 'work' with him daily." Stated Ziva with an eye roll. The two agents exchanged looks and appeared to be laughing about some inside joke.

"But I think I will keep my business with him to myself. Have a nice day." She paused for a moment looking over at Tony, who had gone back to his work in all appearances. She took in his expensive clothing-clothing she recognized as she had once worn similar articles and same brand- and perfectly spiked hair. She noticed his chair tilted back and his legs on the desk, the little toys and figurines on the table; she spotted a mouse stapler and smirked a little bit. Well, her daughter wanted to say thank you, and she had promised her that she would get a hold of his contact information. On a positive note she had verified that he was in fact a real federal agent, for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service team. Never heard of them she smirked.

She watched as he put on a smarmy, charming smile and stood up from his desk putting out a hand for introduction. "Special Agent Tony DiNozzo at your service."

"Nala Grey," She watched as his smarm went down a notch.

"Nice to meet you. So how can NCIS help you?"

"Actually I'm looking for you in particular Mr. DiNozzo"

"Please, call me Tony."

"That's alright I'd prefer to keep this formal."

"Okay then, soo what can I do for you?"

"You met my daughter several weeks ago while looking into the disappearance of her teacher. Apparently you did some kind of favour for her. She wants to say thanks, and I told her I would get ahold of you and verify that you aren't some creep." She said this as if it was still a question. "Thus, I have come to deliver her cell number. Your colleagues there confirmed you work here, so I'm guessing you are pretty safe. If you lay a hand on my daughter I will kill you painfully and slowly." She said this with a grin and handed him a piece of paper and walked back to the elevator.

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A moment later…

That wasn't weird at all he thought to himself. But then he smiled, Tawnie must have caught on to the prank, and the thank you makes me think it was successful! He smiled throughout the day. He told Probie and Ziva that he had not gotten her number and chose not to explain what their conversation was about. Making them mad perked him up a little, despite their numerous questions as they tried to get the information out of him. And when he got out an hour after his official ending time he didn't care. He left the building and drove off in his car, pulling over at a diner that was far enough away from his work that he wouldn't be noticed, but close nevertheless. He pulled the car into a parking spot and phoned her. It was six pm, so she should be out of school.

"Hello?"

"Hi, it's Tony DiNozzo calling, you know, the special agent guy you hunted down." He said with a little laugh.

"Huh, my mom actually gave you my number."

"Yes she did, she didn't seem too impressed with me though. I felt like I was ten again."

"She has that affect, I think its partially her personality but also a mom thing."

"Definitely a little bit of both. Am I interrupting your dinner?" He asked hearing the sounds of cutlery in the background.

The only response was a non-committal groan.

"Oh man, is she gonna kill me?"

"There is a possibility."

"Please tell me you would attend my funeral. Maybe you could sing or something, hey you could tell jokes. My dad would be forced to listen to you, if he showed up. Haha, unlike an adult he couldn't pay you off to stop."

"I might take the money."

"What? Those are cruel words Tawnie, mean ones, especially to the guy who's near death. You could at least pretend you wouldn't." Her response was short, almost hesitant, she was cautiously wading into the whole idea of joking.

"I prefer truth, and speaking of honesty how bout I explain why I gave you my number and asked you to call." And stepping away from joking, she brought them right back to the point of the message. He would have to work on loosening her up. The whole lighthearted atmosphere was good, a little awkward though. He had experience with kids, despite his co-workers beliefs. He taught kickboxing to a mess of youth in different ages. However, one on one calls and serious conversations were a little bit out of his normal territory.

He responded out loud, "I have to admit I've been pretty curious. As proof of this, I should let you know that I didn't wait until I got home to call you. I left work and pulled over at the first diner I spotted so that I could park and phone you.

"Really?" He could hear the happiness in her voice and it gave him a soft feeling of fulfillment; he had done some good.

"Yup cross my heart, I am at Mario's. So you gonna tell me why I received your contact info?"

"Well I wanted to say thank you. Don't interrupt." She stated as he went to speak up. "I was totally surprised when Mrs. Grames called me up to help her prank the whole class on her first day back to school. And yes I know you totally proved your point that pranks have a role." She admitted laughingly with defeat in her voice.

"Hahaha, best idea ever right? Did all the kids fall for it, how'd you do it?"

"Well we bought the big sponges like you said and then she came over to my house and we coated them with icing and sparkles, they looked really nice. Mrs Grames told the class that I had suggested we have cake to celebrate her return. She then passed the butter knife to one of the kids. He tried and tried to cut through the sponge but totally flopped. After the fourth kid, Mrs. Grames and I looked at each other and burst into laughter. The kids all looked at me and they were like, 'What happened, what's going on?' So finally I explained to them, scooping the icing off the sponge. It was a total success."

"Man I wish I was there, I bet their expressions of frustration were priceless."

"They were, oh my gosh, Bobby was the first guy. When he tried and couldn't cut it he looked so indignant when another guy took over and told him he was weak. And then the next guy couldn't, Sarah looked over at him incredulously-she's this really bossy girl at our school. Oh my goodness so funny. You would have laughed really hard."

"I'm jealous, I really gotta try this prank at my office, federal agents always think they know it all, I'm sure there are a lot of Sara's here."

"And Tony, it worked. Thank you."

She didn't need to say a word, he knew she understood and wasn't upset or offended. And he…well he was thrilled. "You're welcome. It really was nothing, you did the work. Are you sure you wanted to give me your number? What if I decide to add you to my prank phone list hmm?"

"Well actually I umm…I wanted to take you out to dinner, to say thanks."

"Whoa now, there is no need for that, none at all, I didn't do anything, you can't take me out to dinner!" He protested vehemently and was quickly cut off by her.

"Oh yes there is, and you can't say no to a sweet innocent sixteen year old girl, you'd be crushing my dreams!" That obnoxious little girl he thought to himself, where did that backbone come from?

"Alright, you got me. So when and where hmm?"

They had made plans for a week from then and he had really enjoyed the night, so had she. It turned into something more by complete accident. He had noticed a bad scar on her wrist and he had questioned it, knowing the possible door he was opening. She had quietly said that she fell into a glass door. He had just as quietly but firmly pulled up his short sleeve shirt near his shoulder and revealed several old scars, and said "me too". She softly asked him how to get over the fear. Tony had told her that it helped to feel strong, to be ready to defend oneself. And that's when DiNozzo got the brilliant idea to invite her to his self-defence kick boxing class. It was held on Monday nights at eight and brought in quite the variety of kids since it was free.

And from that point on he picked her up on Monday nights for his class and dropped her off again. Her younger sister had adopted him as a big brother upon their first meeting, and the chats he and Tawnie had, to and from kickboxing were good, for both of them.

He had never shared anything with anybody, not even Gibbs although he knew Gibbs guessed at his past; though he lacked concrete evidence. Ducky knew, he had seen the old breaks in his x-rays and had seen the scars, but they had an unspoken agreement not to speak about it. Once in a while Ducky would purse his lips, and from time to time he reminded Tony that he was always around to talk and Tony would just as calmly inform Ducky that he had sworn an oath. This was usually followed up with an apology on both parts, Ducky for prying and Tony for being so harsh.

He didn't share much personal information with Tawnie, she didn't need to know any details. What he did was offer her advice about moving on, becoming stronger, having confidence. She was becoming more confident every week. She gained some more snark and sometimes dominated their conversations. He hadn't expected to be invited into her home, but he had really been hoping to fix whatever issues her mother had with him. He had a lot of respect for Nala; she had spoken up about the abuse and gotten herself and her children out; that took guts.

To be honest, his need for stitching had been a last ditch effort and he hadn't been thinking about trying to get on her good side. Ducky would force him to take the day off of work and would want to know what brought on the injury and then Anthony would have to explain that his co-workers, who knew that their SFA was hurt enough to be hospitalized, thought it was funny to prank him like that. His more forgiving side said that it might have been some kind of welcoming gesture, but it was childish and stupid and something he would never do. Agent DiNozzo never pranked anyone in a way that could physically cause harm. Anyways, Tony would never go to a hospital by choice, he despised those places.

The stress of figuring out a solution to the physical ailment was totally worth it. He was looking forward to hanging out with Tawnie's family and knew that connecting with Nala had been a great step in that direction. He hadn't found a group of friends since college. His time at the police academy hadn't been the greatest, it had taken a while to find friends. Somehow they had found out about his upbringing and they decided that he was a stuck up snot with everything handed to him on a silver platter. Eventually he found some good people but they had all gone their separate ways to get jobs and the foundation of their friendship just wasn't strong enough to last long distance.

For some reason he just rubbed people the wrong way, he just wasn't the typical cop, not uptight or visibly efficient. His current coworkers just weren't looking for an outside of work relationship and his job effectively sucked up his time. He was leading a solitary lonely life and well it was depressing. Although, Jimmy, he was an unexpected and really great friend, probably the one good thing that came out of Gibb's leaving. And it was time for a subject change, any thoughts of Gibb's leaving and the time surrounding his departure were permanently ejected from his mind, and locked up in a box that he would never open unless it was required to fuel rage in an undercover op. And with that his jaunt into the past abruptly came to a stop.

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Nala went to answer the door after hearing the quiet bing of their doorbell. The pilate class she had signed up for a few months back started at the same time as kickboxing so it was easier for him to drive her.

"Hey Tony, come on in, she is running a bit late."

"No worries." He stepped in closing the door and placing his feet on the mat. "I must say I am looking forward to this Friday." He said with a wide grin that reached his eyes.

"Me too, I can't believe you never watched any Disney, did you guys not have a TV when you were growing up?" She doubted that was the case, again, clearly the guy came from money. As one previously wealthy person to another it was clear in his standing and in certain mannerisms. He made attempts to conceal it, but it was still apparent, for example his overly polite speech.

"We had cable, my parents just didn't buy any children movies." His answer was short and she was surprised at the lack of detail.

"Well, I will do my best to rectify that small issue, you've really been missing out…big time."

"I'm coming, I'm coming. Mom don't kill Tony before I get there, he's my ride."

"And instructor…and friend, or at least I thought I was."

"At least I was defending you." She said with a smirk.

"Poorly and without affection." He said pouting.

"You big baby, come on lets go already." She said staunchly leading the way out the door.

He turned to Nala, begging for support, but she had her hands over her mouth holding back a chuckle.

"Where's Keira, she loves me."

"She's at a Birthday party."

He shrugged his shoulders in defeat at this response and plodded out the door singing "All by Myself". At this Nala broke down in laughter and Tony looked back at her with hurt in his eyes.

Tawnie laughed as she stood by the car door. "Come on Tony, move your butt."

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The next day saw Tony once more wishing away his time. They had a new case, an apparent suicide of Lance Corporal James Corby.

Side note… one reviewer said she thought that Ziva and Mcgee's trick was really mean, and I think she thought it sounded a little out of character. (But her respond button is disabled so I thought I would reply here). The thing is that the two agents are unaware of how badly injured he was and had no idea that he was tortured. Pulling the screws out someone's chair is an old easy prank, and I think that they rarely prank Tony, on the show. Thus, I don't think they are that creative when it comes to pranking. They were thinking utter humiliation, not a prank just for laughs like most of Tony's. I think it is pretty believable, Ziva is kinda scary and Tim is kinda clueless so they would do something dumb like that. Hopefully that is justifiable enough… :s?