AUTHORS NOTE I KNOW IT'S BEEN A WHILE SINCE I UPDATED BUT REAL LIFE GOT IN THE WAY. BUT HERE YOU GO. HOPE YOU ENJOY.
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NCIS JUST THE STORY.
CHAPTER 11
I couldn't believe it. In less than 24 hours I was getting married. How did I get here? It seems like only yesterday I was the frat boy of NCIS and now I'm getting married. All I can think about now is putting that ring on her finger.
McGee, Gibbs, Palmer and Ducky were staying with me since they were all in the wedding party. My best man is my best friend: Tim. Sure we have had our differences but he is a great friend and I cannot imagine having anyone else stand with me. Gibbs: what can I say about boss man? I'm so grateful to have him involved he is truly like the father I actually should've had. Palmer and Ducky: well the autopsy gremlin and Duck are more like my grandfather and little brother. I'm so grateful for them all they are my family and tomorrow they will all stand with Ziva and me.
But right now, I need to make it through the next 12 hours…good thing Gibbs is still awake, I need someone to talk to.
"Boss," Gibbs looked up at me with his glasses half way off his nose. "I need to talk to you."
He looked at me with concern in his eyes. I wanted to talk to him because I was scared he looked at me like he did when I messed up like he wanted to kill me. I quickly sat down and told him everything I was feeling.
"I'm terrified boss. I'm terrified about tomorrow. What if I don't make a good husband? What if she walks out on me?" I had never shown weakness unless you count the time I had the plague: I was ordered not to die, so needless to say, weakness kind of was forced on the back burner.
"What are you afraid of Tony? What brought all of this out now?"
I told him everything. How I was afraid of being like my own father and letting Ziva down of being a lousy father when the time came. I had always been afraid of failing as a husband ad father. Before I knew it Gibbs was holding me while I cried into his shoulder. It took everything I had to regain my composure.
"Tony, listen. You could never be a lousy husband or father. You want to be a good and honest man more than anything. You have grown so much in the time any of us have known you. I see you like my son. You are getting married tomorrow because you know deep down you are not your father. You are marrying Ziva, a great woman with a great heart, she loves you DiNozzo. Now just trust me and take it one day at a time. Start with your vows. What do you want to tell her."
I grinned. I knew exactly what I wanted to say to her tomorrow up at the altar. I went to my desk and wrote for hours while Gibbs sat at the kitchen table reading. God, tomorrow was going to be amazing.
This is what I wrote:
Ziva, here we are. It's our wedding day. I have had so much trouble writing these vows because I feel like nothing I write could come close to truly showing you what you have given me and more importantly what you mean to me. You have made me want to be a better man. You give me a reason to wake up every morning with a smile on my face. You are the reason I stopped being the jerk I was when we first met. I wanted to make you proud everyday Ziva. I want to show you that I am going to be everything you could ever want in a husband. I want to be the man you are proud of, the man who you see everyday at the bus stop making sure that I am on time to pick up our children. Ziva you are my everything, I love you more than these words could say.
Gibbs looked at what I wrote and I could see his eyes start watering. He smiled at me.
"Tony this is why you won't be your father. It's in these words in the heart you let show on the paper. This is why you will make her happy. The genuine Tony DiNozzo heart, the reason why she agreed to marry you in the first place. It is all on this piece of paper."
I smiled. "Good Night Gibbs." I walked upstairs but on my way looked at each sleeping member of my family. The family that meant so much to me, the reason I am finally going to be the man I always dreamed I could be.