Aria turned her key in the lock and then they were in.
She had lived her whole 15 years within the walls of this house- the only home she had ever known. She had no relatives other than her mum and only a couple of friends at school, so she'd never spent time away from home.
"Nice place!" Tony complimented. Unlike his rundown apartment, Kate and Aria lived in a house. A proper house- with two floors, a back garden and a real entrance rather than a long hallway with twenty other doors hiding twenty other nosy neighbours. It was slightly messy though- there were pieces of a broken mug scattered all over the rug amongst other smashed stuff. The furniture had been moved and even flipped in places. There was a small amount of blood splattered on the mahogany floor, which made his heart flip- maybe it was Kate's…
Aria chuckled- the place was a mess: her mum had obviously gone down with a fight. "Well I did tell the dog to keep the place tidy but she must've forgotten!" She joked.
Tony grinned- it was obvious that he and his daughter had an extremely similar sense of humour. "Dogs aren't very good at housekeeping- that's why I don't have one!" Aria flashed a grin at him before stepping into the lounge of the house.
Immediately, they were greeted by a loud barking as a small white and chestnut animal rounded a corner, jumping up at Aria excitedly. She laughed joyfully as the dog licked her hands and arms.
"Hello girl!" She cooed, looking up at Tony joyfully. "This is…"
"…Toni!" He backed away slowly- Kate's dog had never been a fan of him, or him of it. "We've met before." Toni growled at him, baring her teeth ferociously.
After Aria had shut Toni in the kitchen, she wiped her brow and turned back to the special agent. "Right," She said. "What are we looking for?"
Tony thought about this for a second before answering. "Your mum's cell phone, something that contains all of her memories from her past and whatever you want to take back to DC with you- we won't be coming back here for a while."
Aria nodded and headed down a corridor to her bedroom. As she stepped inside the turquoise painted room, she grabbed her tribal print bag off the inside of her door and began packing right away. She swiftly picked up a picture of her and her mum from her dresser, a ragged rabbit toy that she'd been given when she was born and her purse in which she kept all of her savings. Then she opened up her closet, putting a few clothing essentials such as underwear, a clean sweater and pyjamas into her backpack.
It was when she closed the closet door that she noticed something hiding underneath it, disguised by the dusty grey carpet.
Aria's hands trembled slightly as she picked Kate's cell out of the dust and blew on the screen slightly to clean it off. She pressed the on button to see if it would work and was thrilled when she saw it light up with a photo booth picture of them from a previous summer.
After grabbing her bag and the phone, she ran back down the hallway to the lounge, where she spotted Tony mooching around by the fireplace, a large red book tucked under his left arm. She watched curiously as he examined the photos that stood framed on the mantelpiece before snatching one and tucking it into his back pocket. Being as observant as she was, she knew that it was the one taken of her and Kate at her schools summer fete. It was one of her favourite pictures, so she would've normally snapped at anyone who touched it, but the way he was looking at it made her think otherwise.
Suddenly, Tony whirled around to see her standing in the doorway and flashed a grin. "I found something!" he said.
"Me too," she smiled back, holding Kate's phone up in the air. Tony's face lit up as he saw it.
"Good job!" He grinned, taking it from her and sticking it in his other pocket.
"Grazie!" She replied, "What've you got there?"
"I found this photo album," he showed it to her happily, "inside that old radio over there." He gestured to a vintage radio over in the corner of the room. It made Tony smile- when he was a kid, he'd used to hide stuff inside his radio. "It has everything in it, from early childhood photos to NCIS days, to the date of your birth, to your most recent day out!" He opened the album to a random page.
Aria stared. The album had opened to a picture of her as a toddler, grinning up at the camera, multicoloured paint smeared all over her face. She was slightly bamboozled when she saw what her mum had written below the photo- Clearly a DiNozzo, and looked up at Tony for answers. Noticing her expression, he slammed the book shut.
"Shall we get going then?" He asked, looking slightly flustered.
Aria sighed, tears welling up in her eyes. "Yeah I suppose," she choked, "it's just really sad not knowing when I'll be back- this place is my home, you know?"
It broke Tony's heart to see his newly discovered daughter cry, so he wrapped his arms around her tightly to comfort her. Aria cried quietly into his shoulder. Normally, she didn't cry in front of anyone except her mum, but there was something about Tony that made her feel ok about letting her walls fall down.
Their embracing was quickly interrupted by the landline phone ringing extremely loudly, its ringtone echoing off the walls.
"Let me answer it."Tony stated, picking the phone up off its station and holding it up to his ear.
"Hello?"
"Hello, Very Special Agent DiNozzo." A clearly computer generated voice answered.
Tony's eyes widened. It was the kidnapper.
"I've heard a lot about you," the voice continued.
"Oh, who from?"
The voice chuckled. "So many people, but especially Caitlin here."
Tony froze. "Kate?"
"Yes. She's not the most willing of guests, I'm afraid I had to restrain her. Taking the girl would've been so much easier."
"What do you want with her?"
"Well, that is a reason that goes deep into both my past and yours."
Tony's face darkened with anger and frustration. "Let me talk to her."
"I'm extremely sorry Mr DiNozzo, no can do."
"It wasn't a request." He snarled.
The voice cackled. "Persistence, I like that. Caitlin is very persistent too. Very well DiNozzo, 1 minute- no more, no less."
There was a crackle in the line as the phone was moved, then… "Tony?"
"KATE oh my god, are you ok?"
"Yeah I'm fine DiNozzo- just got kidnapped, I have no idea where my daughter is and I'm in this tiny dark room with a psychopath, but other than that, I'm just brilliant!"
Despite the situation, Tony laughed. "You haven't changed a bit, you know that?"
"Doesn't really sound like you have either."
"Why didn't you tell me that I had a daughter Kate?" He lowered his voice so that Aria wouldn't be able to hear him.
"I didn't know I was pregnant until about a week after I'd been put into witness protection. By then it was too late. I'm sorry Tony." She whispered, sounding as if she was about to break down.
Tony sighed, knowing that the minute would surely be up in any moment. "Katie, I…"
"OK- that's enough!" There was a lot of struggling down the other end of the line before the voice returned, loud and terrifying once again. "You'll see Caitlin again soon, I promise you that."
"Yeah, just tell me that it won't be in the morgue." Tony snapped, his voice still lowered.
The voice laughed. "You may want to check the oven before you leave DiNozzo- something has been cooking for far too long."
"What?"
"Speak soon Anthony!" The voice greeted merrily before hanging up.
"Tony?" Aria immediately asked.
"The oven…" He muttered, striding off into the kitchen, Aria hot on his heels.
The instant that he opened the door, he knew that something was wrong: the room was baking hot, and Toni was barking ferociously in a guard-dog-like fashion. He grabbed the oven door and wrenched it open viciously, clouds of black smoke and desert-like heat flooding into his face. What he saw made him feel sick to his stomach.
There was a large brown paper box, surrounded by wires with a temperature gage poking out of the top. The number on the gage increased rapidly, the device beeping wildly. Suddenly it began flashing, the beeping becoming louder like a siren.
"GET OUT!" Tony yelled, dashing out of the kitchen and grabbing the photo album and Aria's hand. They were almost at the door when…
BOOM.
The bomb exploded, firing debris everywhere, the scorching heat unbearable. The last thing Aria saw was Tony launching himself on top of her, attempting to shelter her from the blast before a flying piece of shrapnel landed on top of them and plunged them head first into complete darkness.
A/N: Hey people! Here is the long overdue chapter 9 of Aria, and it's drama-filled! I really hope that you liked this chapter; it's a lot longer than usual (for me), and contains quite a lot of things that will appear important later on!
Thanks for sticking around (sorry for the mini hiatus!), hope you'll continue reading!
Louise :)
