Warnings: None for this chapter.

A/N: Hello, everyone! Hope you are still enjoying the story. Got a ways to go yet :)


"Ah, Junior, there you are!" Senior called out, happily through the din of the guests and raised is Scotch glass towards his son. "We were just talking about you!"

Tony clutched tightly to Leah's hand as they made their way towards his father. It didn't' surprise him that Linda had decided to throw an impromptu cocktail party in lieu of tomorrow night's black tie affair. Any excuse for the rich to party and drink. "Hope you were only telling them good things, Dad."

Senior grinned. "Of course I was! I had to tell these old boys that my son is a federal agent!" He caught sight of the young woman at his son's side and put his glass down. "You must be, Leah. Well…Junior told us all about you, of course, but you are exquisite, dear! Has anyone ever told you that you have the prettiest shade of blue eyes?"

"Your son, actually, when we first met," Leah said, smiling at him.

"He learned from the best," Senior replied, giving her hand a quick kiss. He latched onto her hand and looked at Tony. "You don't mind if I go show her off, do you Junior?" Before Tony could protest, Senior was gone, making his way through the crowd, introducing Leah as his "beautiful soon-to-be daughter-in-law."

Tony took this opportunity to go to the bar and get a drink. He had the young kid tending pour him a vodka martini and with the cocktail in his hand he turned to find out where his father had taken Leah. She had her arm laced through Senior's and she was being the perfectly, polite, little socialite. Of course, it was no surprise, she had grown up in a world very much like he had. She had just fared better and come out with less scars. Every time she looked up at him and smiled at him across the room he felt tightness in his chest, a fear cold and griping.

You know what your problem is? You don't talk, a voice accused him. Just…talk to her! Tell her what she needs to hear!

And what was that exactly? Why his mother wasn't around to wear that engagement ring? Why his father married and married trying to replace her? Why he was always forgotten? Did she need to hear all that? The tightness in his chest grew. No—he concluded—she didn't need to hear it. She wanted to hear it…and that made all the difference in the world. He was hiding from her and he didn't need to hide. Perhaps that's what Gibbs was trying to get at when he told him that she was a great listener. You have a great girl there, DiNozzo. "Yeah," he whispered, "I know."

He sipped his drink as he walked towards his father, showing Leah off to one of Hamilton's old business partners. He slipped a hand around her waist and kissed her cheek, affectionately. "Gentlemen, hope you don't mind I'm going to steal her away for a few."

"She's a delight, Anthony," Senior remarked, giving Leah a hug. "Your mother would have approved."

"Yeah. I think she would have too," Tony whispered as he led Leah away towards the back patio. It was quieter out here and the sun had begun to set, but it was enough light to show the fantastic view of the Atlantic ocean that was going to be the back drop for their wedding. "Just wanted to show you where our ceremony is going to happen."

Leah was confused. "But I've already seen photos. You sent them to me."

Tony shook his head as he stepped up to the rail and let her get a better view of the ocean. "Yes, but…nothing compares to the live view. So…what do you think?"

"It's…it's perfect," Leah said, with a big smile. She turned towards him, her black skirt fluttering in the breeze. "I can't thank your stepmother enough for doing this, for letting us use her home."

"For her, it's cathartic—something to she can do for my mom," Tony countered. "I think a part of her…always wished she could have done more for my mother before she died."

Leah could see the sadness in his eyes. She had tried to talk about it earlier that day, but Tony had put his walls up fast. "Well, whatever her reasons were, we got lucky because finding a venue at such a short notice would have been a nightmare."

Tony kissed her gently. "I would have married you at the Navy Yard as long as my family is there."

"Yeah…not too sure my parents would have gone for the Navy Yard," Leah teased. "It would have been hard to get three hundred guests onto the Navy Yard."

"Well…there really are only a handful of those that I truly care about," Tony said, pulling her closer to him. He put his empty glass down on the rail and kissed her. He wrapped her into his arms to deepen the kiss, reality hitting him that in just four weeks they would be sharing their first kiss as husband and wife against this very backdrop.

Leah pulled back and slid her hands down the length of his arms. She grasped his hands in her own and smiled at him. "We don't want to be late for dinner."

Tony sighed, wishing they didn't have to go to dinner. "Yeah. My dad will just drag us in there." That's what he used to do to me when I was a kid, anyways. He gave her one more quick, tender kiss and then, grasping her hand, headed back inside the house to the massive dinning room that was set up with the fine china and candles.

For tonight the table was only set for a dozen or so people, but Tony knew that the following night, when Senior and Linda made the official announcement that Tony was engaged—it was going to be packed to the brim with old world money.

He felt like he was being judged the moment he stepped into the room. His father may have finally come to accept him as a federal agent but the men in that room certainly couldn't understand why he had walked away from the money his mother's family would have offered him to be a cop. Elizabeth had always told him to follow his heart, to be free and forge his own path like the ground-breaking stars of Hollywood. Tony often times found himself wondering what his mother would think of his becoming a cop. Would she be proud of him?

While his father's approval had always been important to him, never knowing what his mother's thoughts would have been wore him down as much as thinking about the manner of her death. Perhaps it was one reason why he needed people to approve of him so desperately.

Leah's smile broke his depressing thoughts and suddenly he felt that need for approval disappear in her eyes. She approved of him. She loved him. And he was not going to fail her, he was determined this time for things to be different. He felt the cold fear gripping his heart dissipate, the urge to run slowly start to leave. He had finally found someone to give him that affection, that love he never got as a child. Someone that didn't mind his flaws or spent her time trying to correct them. He couldn't spend the rest of his life wondering what his mother would have thought, or begging his father to just approve of his life decisions.

On some level, Tony knew that Senior was never truly going to change. Their relationship was the best it had been—ever—but the elder DiNozzo was who he was. He had said so when he visited for Christmas. After that awful visit Tony had just decided not to try so much to change his father. It wasn't worth the effort. Strangely when both men accepted that they were who they were, their relationship had improved, significantly. So far tonight his father had been surprisingly pleasant while drinking. Tony was anxiously waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"You know, Junior could be leading his own team," Senior stated, between drinks. "Don't know why he's stayed in D.C so long."

And there it is, the other shoe. A heavy, steal-toed boot, Tony thought, angrily as he resisted the urge to shout and roll his eyes. "Dad. I'm quite happy where I am."

Senior frowned. "But you're good enough—aren't you?"

"Not up for me to decide."

"Oh come on, Junior! You can say it here!"

"Say what, exactly?" Tony challenged, although he pretty much knew where his father was going with this conversation. Senior wanted him to admit he was better than the rest of his team, but that wasn't the truth. His team worked as just that, a team. Their weaknesses and strengths complimented one another and he wasn't about to speak ill of them. Not here. Not ever.

Linda must have seen the dark, threatening look in his eyes. "No one came here to talk about work, Tony," she gently reminded Senior, " Let's just enjoy our company!"

Tony was relieved to see that his father took her suggestion and went about talking to his guests, leaving his son alone. The younger DiNozzo could sense though that this conversation wasn't over, no matter how much Tony wanted it to be.

He plotted his escape after dinner, citing a headache, and just as he made it to the stairs, his father snapped out, "Were you purposefully trying to make me look like an idiot in there?"

"No, Dad," Tony sighed, dropping his head. "I wasn't."

"Well, what the hell was that?" Senior questioned.

Slowly, Tony turned on the stairs and looked at his father. He had that same look in his eyes, the one that a scared little boy always got if Senior's drink wasn't prepared just the right way after a long day. "I'm perfectly happy where I am, Dad. I'm surrounded by good people on the job and I don't think I'm better than any of them."

Senior scoffed. "Gibbs said…"

"I know what Gibbs said," Tony cut him off. "You've thrown it in my face before." He ended the conversation this time by turning and proceeding up the stairs.

"Junior! Don't turn your back on me! I haven't dismissed you yet!"

"Dismissed me?" Tony countered, spinning about. "I'm not eight! I can dismiss myself."

Senior's face clouded over with fury and Tony knew he'd crossed the line. How many times had he seen that look as a teen? Or when he was in college pursuing a career in sports? Thankfully he was spared a tongue lashing because Leah appeared behind his father and smiled at her fiancé. "Oh! There you are! I was going to change and go for a walk on the beach. Maybe it will help your headache?"

Tony let his glare leave Senior and soften as it traveled towards Leah. "Sure. Sounds great." He held his hand out to her and she took the steps quickly to grasp it between slender fingers. Leading her back up the stairs and out of sight, he brought her hand to his lips, gently kissing it. He didn't need to say thank you, because she knew. And it was just one of the many reasons that he had fallen in love with her.


Gibbs stared at the report that Meredith had managed to dig up for him. His already tired and aching bones just ached even more after reading it. He rubbed a hand over his face and let out a small sigh.

"Jethro," Ducky's voice caught him off guard. "Is everything alright? You seem to be stuck under the same rain cloud as Anthony these last couple of days."

"Tony has plenty of reasons to be stuck under that cloud," Gibbs mumbled, closing the file. "Did you know his mother died in a crash?"

Ducky blinked, surprised. Tony never spoke about his mother and when he did mention his past they were vague references that one really had to dissect to get to the bottom of. "I was not aware that was how Mrs. DiNozzo passed. Oh my. It would explain Anthony's state of mind with his wedding so close."

Gibbs thought about Leah, standing in that wedding shop looking radiant. It was too bad Tony couldn't have seen her because it would have washed all his worries away. "She drove home from a friend's house and wrapped her car around a tree. Didn't die on impact, that was a few days later, but with the massive head trauma, she probably would have been brain dead. She was drunk and…she was on Valium for depression. None in her system the night she died, but she still had them at her disposal."

"Good heavens," Ducky whispered, "that is a lot for an eight year old boy to deal with and with a father like Senior…"

"Senior was the one to order his wife to be taken off life support," Gibbs said, standing. He rubbed his face again. "There wasn't much hope of survival."

Ducky nodded his head, not sure what he would have done in a similar situation. And then a thought popped into his brain, something that Tony had said to him a long time ago, "Anthony mentioned being at the hospital when his mother died."

Gibbs looked the medical examiner in the eye. "Yes. Senior asked that she be kept on life support long enough to say good-bye. Both Tony and his father were present when she passed."

"Jethro…he can't keep this bottled inside…not with this case," Ducky pointed out.

"I'm hoping that he talks to Leah this weekend. He seems comfortable talking to her," Gibbs replied, gently.

"And if he doesn't?"

Gibbs sighed. "Then I'm scared for him, Duck. I'm scared he'll run…and disappear. Because we both know he has the knowledge and the means to do just that."