Chapter 10,

Having arrived back in the US the first thing Tony did with Hetty was to take Amelia to Bethesda.

He stood outside her room as a team went over his childs injuries, He had called Gibbs and he was on his way to bring Adam to the hospital to reunite him with his sister.

A doctor in blue scrubs and looking confused walked out to see Tony and Hetty sitting on chairs outside the room, "Excuse me? Are you Amelia DiNozzo's father?" she asked.

Tony looked up exhausted and nodded.

"You reported that she had possibly been raped?" she asked.

Sadly, again Tony nodded, the doctor smiled, "I think I may have news for you."

"Oh God, she…she isn't pregnant is she?" he asked.

The doctor smiled wider, "She isn't, she has her hymen intact, she hasn't…er been violated, in that way at all, I gather from her accent she is not from here? Maybe a few things got mixed up in translation?"

Tony could help but let out a sob of relief.

Gibbs walked in and saw Tony crying.

"Is she ok?" Gibbs asked worried.

"She's ok…" he smiled, "I thought, Gibbs, I thought that she had been…." He sighed and leaned into Gibbs' hug.

"She's home and she's ok….Tony, both your children are alive and are home."

"Ana….Ana is here?" Adam said in his broken English, Tony nodded and got up as Adam walked through the doors and stopped dead.

"Ana! You are well and here!" Adam said in Hebrew.

Ana's face brightened up, "Tore!" She launched herself off of the bed and into his arms, "You are alive." She smiled.

"I am and my name is Adam now, yours is Amelia, the man who brought you here…he is our father, the man from the picture," He said to her in Hebrew.

Tony stood at the door watching his two children chat to each other, their faces animated and happy. Adam said something to Amelia and she stopped and looked at Tony.

"Abba?" she asked and Adam nodded.

She slowly stood, her back still giving her pain, although the painkillers were helping. She looked up at him and asked, "I...Stay with you and Tore…Adam...Brother?" she asked.

Tony walked over and sat on the bed gently next to her, "You stay with me and Adam. I'm your Abba, I love you." He said earnestly.

She looked at him and said something to Adam.

Tony held his breath and watched her, she turned to her father and hugged him, "Thank you for saving me from…." she broke down sobbing. He wrapped his arms around her, shushing her and Adam came up to hug her as well.

Gibbs leant against the door and watched as the family held each other crying. He knew this wasn't grief, this was relief they were finally together as a family.

Feeling out of place he turned to go.

"Dad?" Tony's voice made him stop in his tracks. "Don't go." His voice was quiet as he held is children, but his eyes were fixed on Gibbs. "Please, I…I can't do this without you."

Gibbs walked over and smiled, "You have only been at this a few days, in Amelia's case a few hours and you are already a better parent than…." he trailed off not wanting to say her name in front of the children.

Tony turned to his children, "Adam, sto andando con Gibbs per un momento, vuoi stare con tua sorella?" he asked as Gibbs looked on.

Adam clutched his sister tighter, "Sì papà io, si sarà tornato?" he asked a tremor of fear in his voice.

"Sempre. Vado a prendere del caffè e di trovare il medico di Amelia per vedere quando possiamo tornare a casa assieme." Tony said holding his son's shoulders and looking him right in the eye so that Adam knew his words were true.

Adam relaxed and smiled. "OK." He turned and translated the conversation into Hebrew so that Amelia understood.

Tony walked out and Gibbs looked at him questioningly.

Tony sighed, "We are going to have to do something about this language barrier thing." He said.

Gibbs laughed, "You don't speak Hebrew, both your children speak broken English and your son and you only speak Italian….ya think!"

Tony grinned, "Conversations are going to be interesting."

"Not for long, Hetty has arranged a private tutor for the children to teach them English, this woman speaks Hebrew and Italian and she has been checked by Hetty so she is safe."

"I can't afford a private tutor. I have to get…" Tony sank into a chair, "Even with what I have saved I'm not earning enough to completely kit out two…Boss! They are going to be teenagers in a few days! I have to get them fully kitted out, sort out two rooms, and schools and college and…" Tony started hyperventilating.

Gibbs bent Tony's head between his knees and rubbed his back as the man he had always thought of as his son had his first, full on panic attack. "Welcome to parenthood." He said with a small grin.

Tony sat back, "How am I going to do this? I mess up and they will be taken from me, I don't know how to be a parent…"

"You've done pretty well so far." Gibbs said.

"I…I suppose." Tony said,

Gibbs looked up at him, "Did you call your father?"

Tony nodded, but continued to look at the floor.

"Tony…What happened?"

"He said he didn't want anything to do with…street kids, that I was no son of his for going to get them and that it would be best if I never contacted him again…oh and he's getting married again." Tony finished with a laugh, "It's a nice woman with two son's who are both in business and successful," Tony gulped, "He's even adopting them so they can have his name…he…he asked me to change mine."

Gibbs sat in shock, "Really!"

Tony sighed, "His lawyer is drafting up a letter requesting me to 'drop' the DiNozzo from mine and my children's names, and he has suggested that I use Paddington."

Gibbs resisted the urge to smash his fist into the wall.

"It'll be ok." He said and put his hand on Tony's shoulder.

"He….He said I may not be his…son, I'll admit right now I don't want to be, but how can I get my children to find their identities and settle in if I don't know who I am."

"We will sort it, I promise." Gibbs said.

Tony looked at Gibbs and saw the man's absolute faith in him. He nodded; he knew he would do it, he just wasn't sure how.

After meeting with the doctor, Tony, his children and Gibbs finally returned home.

Tony tucked both Kids in bed, Adam in his own room and Amelia in Tony's room, having had Adam explain that it was only Amelia sleeping in there and that Tony himself would sleep downstairs.

Tony sat at the table knowing both children were safe and grabbed a box from his desk in the living room.

Pulling out his accounts he started trying to figure out how he was going to afford to raise two teenagers on his salary and afford to give them both a decent birthday.

Amelia needed everything, Clothes, shoes, a whole bedroom and bedding, books, pens', a cell phone (although he wasn't sure how rule 3 works if she can't speak English, but soon it would be needed) stuff for school, soon she would have interests and friends and would want make up….Oh and feminine hygiene products….he made a note to call Abby. But no matter how he tried it he couldn't make the numbers up to start parenthood from scratch with teenage twins. He opened a file, full of different offers he had received from different agencies over the years, and then closed it, after all the help that SecNav and Gibbs had given him, he was never leaving NCIS. His only other option was a part-time job.

He finally fell asleep face first on top of all his calculations after coming to the conclusion, he couldn't afford to do this, he had had a chance while he had access to his trust fund, but his father had cut that money off, he was alone, the father of twins with issues that needed medical and psychiatric care. These were his kids and his bills, having made a few phone calls he had an idea of how he was going to cope.

Gibbs had given Tony a few weeks to settle in with his kids and get the hang of being a single parent; he had been nearby if needed, but Tony had asked for the time to settle into his new role and to be given space.

Today was his first day back at work. The children had a private tutor for now, to help them get up to speed before they started school. Hetty had offered to pay for the tutor, but Tony had turned her down offering to pay the woman himself.

Gibbs had arrived at work early looking forward to seeing Tony turn up.

He walked in and dropped his bag behind his desk looking tired. Gibbs smiled at him as he looked up ready to hear all about his new kids. Tony walked upstairs, "Hey boss." He said.

"So how are they?" Gibbs asked.

"They are fine, Miss Atkins said that they are picking up English really well, Amelia is sleeping through the night now as is Adam, and I think they have settled in well." Tony said.

Gibbs smiled, "I'll have to pop over and see them soon."

Tony started, "er…Ok Boss, yeah of course you can come and see them…"

"DiNozzo?" Gibbs said.

Tony's phone rang and he listened to the call, "gotta go boss."

"Gear up!" He called to his team over the railings.

They headed out to the crime scene, Gibbs looked at his SIC of the MCRT and his gut churned.

They came back and started working on the case, Tim was gathering evidence as Dorneget and Baker ran down leads. All three of them were looking into the death of Petty Officer Martinez as Tony walked into the bullpen.

"Pack up, go home and I'll see you all first thing tomorrow." Tony said the whole team looked at him amazed.

"Boss?" Baker said, "It's only 17.30"

"Yeah, well Martinez ain't gonna get any more dead and some of us have places to be." Tony snapped grabbing his own bag and walking out.

Tim looked up and, noticing Gibbs on the mezzanine signed, 'Is he ok boss?'

Gibbs signed back 'Dunno, I'm going to follow him,' as he jogged to the elevator to catch up to DiNozzo.

He got to his car just as Tony got to his and followed him out of the lot, His gut was going crazy, maybe one of the kids were sick, but Tony wasn't headed towards his home.

He pulled over to a side street as Tony got out of his car and walked into a seedy dive bar in downtown Washington. Gibbs' cell rang and he picked it up.

"Gibbs." He said and listened. "He's at a bar McGee, send the others home and head to his place, make sure the kids are ok, something is going on with him and I need to know they are ok." He shut the phone and walked into the dark bar.

Sitting at the bar he couldn't see Tony anywhere. "Bourbon." He said without looking at the bartender.

"On it boss." Tony replied without thinking.

Translations.

1 Adam, I am going with Gibbs for a moment, will you stay with your sister.

2 Yes dad, I will. Will you come back?

3 Always. I am going to get some coffee and to find Amelia's doctor to see when we can go home.