A/N: Its. Over. Two years to the day I posted the first chapter of this series, I give you the epilogue and the notes. Go and read. And thank you for everything.

Epilogue

Soon, Tony would walk through the doors of before with the help of his dog and think of his family, of running, and of the coin in his pocket and of the knife that had been in his belt buckle. He would think of Pete, the man who had found him, Brooke, the woman who had saved him, and of his children, Nate, Max, Jake and baby Lizzy, and how each of them had, in there own way redeemed him and made him the man he was today. And with his family in his heart he would hope, because hope was all he had left, hope to hope.

And if Tony were to press the button to the elevators now, this would be what happened next, though he wouldn't know it at the time, for he had yet to take that first step of pressing the small elevator button with an arrow on it…

Tony played with Jack's soft black ears, knowing that the movement was calming not only Jack, who could feel his partner's distress, but also himself.

From the moment he had started looking, Tony had played thousands of scenes in his head of how this would go.

But even if some of the scenes had been movie worthy, none could hold a candle to this.

Tim was still looking at him, and while the staring might annoy most people, Tony wasn't the least offended by it.

When you walked with a limp and used a service dog, people tended to stare.

Tony took a deep breath, hoping that whoever would walk through that door would walk through soon.

His memory of this place was still scattered across his brain, important pieces missing but still, Tony remembered parts.

Like how Tim had been Probie, how he hadn't always been the most self-confident guy and how for some reason, Tony had wanted to call him ElfLord the moment they sat down in the conference room.

Then there was another. He was older and had more gray hair that Pete. The man was gruff too, and Tony touched the back of his head, the nerves back there tingling in memory.

Tony watched and waited and as he did, more scenes from his dream came back.

A girl, who was actually a women, who bounded everywhere it seemed, and wore black even though every time Tony dreamed her, she had been smiling.

Another woman, who shifted and changed into two women and Tony could never keep them straight but both had been friends and Tony had tried to keep both safe.

But nightmares filled with blood and gunshots always reminded him that he had failed at least one of them.

Tony was brought back to the present when Jack shifted positions.

Tony glanced up and stood slowly. Someone was opening the door.

Gibbs could strangle McGee.

He had just spent the last hour and a half convincing Leon to allow them to be taken off of active rotation so that they could actually look into Tony's case again when in the middle of making his point, he had received a phone call from McGee, telling him to come to Conference Room 1B.

Vance lifted an eyebrow in curiosity but didn't comment as Gibbs excused himself and quickly walked towards the conference rooms.

He grabbed the handle of the door roughly, his anger at the whole situation, not just McGee, coming through in the one movement and without knocking on the door, Gibbs twisted the knob and practically threw open the door.

Intent on slamming it shut to prove his point, Gibbs turned to face McGee, only to let the door close softly behind him.

"Tony."

Isanybodyouttherealonealone

A man walked through the door, like a hurricane sweeping through a beach front or a tornado roaring over a countryside.

And just like that, Tony remembered.

"Boss."

"Tony," Gibbs took a step closer, still not believing that this man was standing in front of him, tall and proud and looking every bit the man Gibbs knew he could be.

"Boss," Tony said again, his Adam's apple rising and falling as he worked to contain the emotions that swelled in his chest. This was the man that had taught him how to fight, the man who had showed him what taking care of someone really meant, who slapped him in the back of the head when he got off track and who had always been willing to listen about the important stuff.

The man, Gibbs- Boss, shook his head as he closed the distance between them. His eyes were wet but no tears fell from his eyes. He kept shaking his head, like he couldn't believe what he was seeing, and when he got closer, he lifted a slightly shaking hand to Tony's dark blue button up flannel shirt, his fingers ghosting over the buttons.

His eyes were the icy blue Tony remembered from his dreams and they met his own green ones, holding his gaze before traveling all over his face, their knowing stare taking in every change on Tony's face, from his pepper-salt hair to the scars and new laugh lines on it.

It was only then that his eyes returned to look at Tony's. Tony could see the moisture waiting to be released but something inside Tony knew that Gibbs, Boss, was fighting every emotion to keep the tears from falling.

"Ah Tony," Gibbs lifted his hand in an all too familiar gesture.

Thousands of memories of head slaps flashed through his mind but Tony didn't move.

But instead of striking out and hitting him, Gibbs reached out and cradled the back of his head, neither man moving.

"Boss?" Tony said again, as if his mouth was getting reacquainted with a long missed word.

"Yeah Tony," Gibbs said and Tony saw the wetness on Boss' face and felt the wet on his own.

"I think…I think I missed you Boss," Tony swallowed and his voice cracked, "A lot."

"I missed you too Tony," Gibbs smiled before pulling Tony close. He had waited too long to hug his friend-his family. Gibbs didn't think he could wait a second more.

And when Tony stepped in and buried his face in his shoulder and grabbed fistfuls of his jacket, Gibbs was glad he didn't have too.

Abby was a women on a mission. McGee had summoned the rest of the team somewhere but she would not go.

Tony was too close for them to start going off on some other tangent.

Abby would use her computer to find the man who had been like a brother to her before he had disappeared.

So when Wilson and Ziva and Ducky and Jimmy had all gone to see what McGee wanted, Abby stayed focused because she was determined. She would stay and find him, because he was too close and to let him slip through her fingers again would kill her.

"Abby."

She wouldn't let them deter her. She was determined. She was focused.

"Abby."

And then McGee was on her, his hands lifting her fingers off the keyboard gently, as if she might break. He grabbed her and lifted her away, and he kept trying to tell her something but she shook her head, she had just pulled up phone records when-

"Abby?"

She stopped dead in her tracks. It had been years, but she would never forget that voice.

Like the Red Seas parted for Moses, her friends moved away, McGee to her left and Gibbs to her right and there, right in the middle by Ziva and Wilson and Jimmy and Ducky was…was-

"Hey Abbs," Tony said softly, smiling a coy smile that Abby only remembered showing on his face when-when-

"Two thousand and two, Tony DiNozzo," Abby said, tears falling from her eyes, "Only you would come back on such a number."

And then she was running and jumping and falling but he was holding her and he was breathing and saying something but none of it mattered.

He was home and that missing piece of her heart was back where it belonged: right in her arms...

But Tony didn't know any of that was going to happen, not at the moment. He was still waiting, looking at the elevator button and hoping for answers. He knew he had questions, and he was almost certain they would have their own. But like always, Tony did not know for sure. He had come to accept the fact that five years later, after that night in the woods, that he would never know. There would be no grand revelation nor would there be some magical moment like in the movies where everything was revealed.

Life was hard. It didn't make sense. It jumped around like a rhapsody sometimes, and flowed like a melody other times. It saved you with an interlude when you needed it the most and attacked you with a rhythm or a symphony of sound when you least expected it. But sometimes, sometimes the songs would come together for just a moment, and the rhymes would actually make sense and just for a moment, you held your breath, not wanting the moment to be gone.

And Tony accepted all that. He could not change it, just like he could not change his scars or his limp, or his green eyes or the gray and white in his brown hair.

But he could hope, a kinda hope that came from his family, and with that hope, he could keep going, he could finish this all.

And it was with those thoughts in mind that Tony took a deep breath and pressed the elevator button, wanting to know, no matter what, how this part of the story - of his story- was going to end.

Fin.