Section 29
"He asleep?"
"Pretending." Upon arriving home, Tony had decided to lay down pleading tiredness. Gibbs had followed him up on the pretext of changing clothes. At his urging, Tony shed his suit for a pair of sweats with an old Ohio State T-shirt. If anyone asked, he would deny watching his senior field agent lean over in his blue silk boxers to pick up his socks off the floor. Tony laid down on their bed facing the window while Gibbs finished changing. Uninterested in talking, he feigned sleep.
"A lot to take in. Even if he is evil as the devil himself, he's still the boy's father." Gibbs looked away. "Leroy?" Jackson asked inquisitively.
"I'm going to put on a pot of coffee."
"Leroy?"
Gibbs braced himself, both hands gripping the sink edge.
"I saw that Abby stopped you when we were leaving."
"Dammit, dad, let it go."
Jackson put his hand on his arm. "I care about that boy. Today was rough on him, if there's more to come…"
Gibbs let out a sigh. "You know I told you about Senior hitting Tony? During the altercation, Senior said Tony was not his son and that he shouldn't have allowed his mother to bring him home from Italy. Something about the way he said it…"
"Your gut?"
Gibbs nodded. "I told McGee to have Abby run the DNA."
"And…" Jackson prodded.
"Senior isn't Tony's father." Gibbs hit the edge of the sink with his fist. "How do I tell him? After all he's been through this week, what's he going to say?"
"Thank you?" The Gibbs men turned to see Tony standing in the doorway. "I…uh…couldn't sleep."
"Tony, I…" Gibbs hated Tony finding out the news this way.
"No." Tony padded forward in his stocking feet. "I may get upset later that you went behind my back but… I've been laying upstairs and every time I shut my eyes, I see that little girl and what he did to her. I couldn't… I just kept thinking about carrying his blood in my veins and what kind of a monster I could turn in to…"
"You're aren't going to turn in to a monster, son. You're a good man; there's no evil in your heart. Even if there were, you think Leroy would let you go bad?" Jackson soothed.
"I know I should be upset over being lied to all this years. But, all I can think is 'Thank God, I'm not his son.' Gibbs gut to the rescue again." Tony smiled sadly. "Am I related to him at all?"
"No. Abby checked when the test came back that he wasn't your father. You're not related in any way."
Jackson put a hand on Tony's elbow and guided him to the table where he sat obediently. "Was that why he hated me? Because my mother had an affair?"
Gibbs sat next to Tony and took ahold of one of his hands. "I don't know, Tony. Men have held grudges over less reasons. It doesn't matter, Tony, he's out of your life now. No more bailing him out, no more rants, no more put downs. You are free of him."
"How did you know?" Tony asked.
"How much did you hear?"
"Just that your gut asked Abby to do testing."
"Do you remember what your father said after he found out we married?"
"I was a little preoccupied with the pain and blood."
Gibbs sighed and then reach into his shirt pocket. "McGee happened to have a recording app on during the altercation."
"Just happened to?" Tony said dryly.
Gibbs smirked. "Afterwards Vance had him transcribe it. This is the copy." He opened the paper and laid it on the table in front of Tony.
Tony couldn't prevent a snicker. The conversation had been printed in a large font. "I see McGee printed it so you wouldn't need your glasses."
Gibbs swatted his head. "Here," He pointed to a section. "Right after he punched you he says he shouldn't 'have allowed your mother to bring you here from Italy.' Then while they were dragging him out he says you 'were never his son.'
"He's said I wasn't his son hundreds of times."
Jackson looked at Gibbs, both men agreeing with their eyes that given one chance they would take all of Tony's pain out on Senior's hide. The government could have what was left. Jackson rubbed Tony's shoulder in support.
"It was letting your mother bring you from Italy. That's why I asked Abby to run the test. You deserved the truth."
"Some things make sense now, but so much more doesn't." Tony focused on that line. Now that Gibbs had pointed it out the phrasing was strange. He knew he had been born in Italy. Had Senior wanted his mother to give him away? Had she refused? Why had Senior allowed him to passed off as a DiNozzo?
"Why were you born in Italy?" Jackson asked.
"Plane crash." Tony replied. "There was a big plane crash in Italy. It killed my father…Senior's cousin and his family. I think my grand…Senior's dad made them come to Italy for the services."
"Were you early?"
"I don't think so." Tony tried to remember Senior or his mother ever saying anything about it.
"If you were on time, your mother would have been nine months pregnant. Why was she allowed to fly?" Gibbs was puzzled. It didn't make sense for a woman about to give birth to get on a plane. Why didn't Senior just leave her home?
"Something tells me Senior isn't going to be in the mood to answer questions for me." Tony said sadly. "I guess my mother took that to her grave."
"Not necessarily, Tony. We have the other envelopes." When Tony looked a bit confused, Gibbs reminded him gently. "In addition to the envelopes for Senior and Benoit, there were two other envelopes. One was labelled Cristian Antonio Fabbri. The other one you never opened."
"I don't know what I did with them." Tony panicked.
"It's okay, Tony. We gave the Fabbri envelope to McGee to see if he could make sense of it, remember." Gibbs realized Tony had been pretty much in shock during the meeting with Vance and Fornell. "The other envelope was labelled personal. In the commotion, we forgot it in Vance's office. McGee gave it to me this morning. Do you want to open it?"
"Want to?" Tony shook his head. "But I guess I need to. I need to know who sent it." Gibbs got up and went to the drawer he used to store mail and bills. He pulled the envelope out and walked to the table. Sitting back down he held the envelope out to Tony who reach out, his inner turmoil given away by the shaking of his hand. Dropping his hand back to the table, he shook his head. "Would you?" He pleaded with Gibbs.
"You want me to wait in the other room?" Jackson made to get up.
Tony shyly took the older man's hand shaking his head. "No. We're family, right?"
"We're family," Jackson confirmed. "Well, hurry it up, boy. Don't keep Tony waiting."
Gibbs pulled his glasses from his shirt pocket and put them on; giving his father a glare. He turned the envelope over undoing the clasps. Like the other envelopes it was a stack of papers with a large paperclip. On top, on a full-size sheet of stationary written in beautiful script, was a short note.
When Gibbs went to pass the note to Tony, he refused motioning for Gibbs to read it out loud. "Dearest Antonio, congratulations on your marriage. I hope that you and Agent Gibbs will have a long and happy life. I am aware that your past has not been what it should have been. I'm sure that you are wondering about the dossiers on Senior DiNozzo, Sr. and Mrs. DiNozzo. Let's just say a close eye has been kept on those around you. I could not risk leaving you alone before, but now that you have a new family in Agent Gibbs and his father, it was time to provide you the truth. It is in your hands whether or not you use the information, but I feel I know the man you are and have become with Agent Gibbs by your side. May God have mercy on their souls. You are free, Antonio. Do not look back. May you and Agent Gibbs finally have the happiness you so richly deseve." Gibbs paused, "There's no signature."
Tony took the paper in his shaking hands. His fingertips lightly touched the writing. "I don't understand. Why? Who?"
"I don't know, Tony."
Jackson squeezed his arm. "Seems like you've had a guardian angel watching over you." Tony placed his hand over the older man's hand in gratitude. "What's that, Leroy?" While he comforted Tony, he saw Gibbs thumbing through the other papers looking shocked.
"Tony," Gibbs laid the papers down and took a deep breath. "When you inherited the cabin, do you remember who left it to you?"
Tony thought for a minute. "No, just that it was a relative from Italy."
"Do you know the law firm that handled it?"
"No. The papers were just sent to my attorney's office. What's wrong?" Tony tensed.
"This is a deed and information on a home in St. Thomas." Gibbs handed the paperwork to Tony. It was a lovely villa with access to a private beach.
"There's also a cabin in Montana and a small villa in Italy."
A shocked Tony took the next papers hardly able to read the print. "They're ours," Tony said to Gibbs.
"They're yours, Tony."
He shook his head vehemently. "The deeds are in both our names, Gibbs. They are ours." Tony insisted.
Gibbs took a look at the last deed which was also in both their names. The deed was for a ten acre piece of land on the outskirts but still close to NCIS. Behind the deed was a blueprint and artist's rendering of a beautiful new house built with craftsman details. Gibbs swallowed hard; it was perfect. It was a sturdy looking home with a big porch. The standard rendering had the additional details added to the gables. On the first floor there was a guest suite and across the hall was a den that could be used as a separate sitting room for his dad.
There was a big front porch and out back a large covered patio. The wall between the kitchen and dining room had been removed, opening the whole area up to the back patio and the huge great room. Upstairs was a large master suite. Two of the upstairs bedrooms, marked two and five had been converted to offices for Tony and himself. They were at the same side of the house as the utility room and shared a Jack and Jill bath. A large bonus room was marked for a home media room. Even a section of the four car garage had even been turned into a wood-working shop.
It was the perfect home; plenty to appeal to him and to Tony. Room for them to be together but also room to have some time apart. He knew Tony would love it. The attached paperwork indicated that construction was already prepaid and could begin at once. All he and Tony had to do was to meet with the team and pick materials and colors. Touching the artist rendering again, Gibbs handed Tony the paperwork. He knew by the intake of Tony's breath that he loved it, too.
"What do you have there, son?"
Tony held the papers where Jackson could see. He proudly pointed out the suite marked for Jackson. "You could live with Jethro and me. There's plenty of room so we could each have our space. See, look at the wood-working area." Tony frowned. "If we took this entire space, we could really spread out there. I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to put up a detached garage for the cars."
"Then you would have to go out in the cold to get in your car. The attached garage stays. We could move the workshop to another building."
Tony pouted, "Then I can't pop in and out to talk to you while I'm making dinner. Think of the boat we could make in there. I say we expand the workshop."
Jackson smirked watching the two. "Well, if it were me. I'd talk to these people." He pointed to the name on the blueprint. "It says that modifications can be made. If you extended the garage out to the side of the existing wall; you could move the driveway to enter the garage from the side. It wouldn't take that much and you could have a four bay garage closed off from the workshop. It'd probably work better than it being tandem anyway."
"Oh, and we could put a nice bench along the wall were the garage door is now with a big bay window that you could look out while working. And we could add a door from your suite into the workshop." Tony said excitedly.
Gibbs hated to bring the pair down but he picked up the last set of papers. "Tony," he waited until Tony focused on him. "These are papers indicate a transfer of funds into an account in your and my name."
"Transfer of funds?" Jackson questioned.
"How much?" Tony asked.
Gibbs handed him the paper and his eyes went wide. "There is also an annuity account set up for each of us upon retirement."
Tony automatically took that paper. "Five thousand dollars a month, each?" He said incredulously.
"Whether or not we are still married. There is a paper here indicating that in the event of divorce, how the main account is to be divided."
"Main account?" Jackson queried. Tony simply handed him the first paper and waited. "Eight million? Is that dollars?"
Tony scanned the paperwork. "It seems that it's just under six million pounds so that makes it, eight million, six hundred forty seven thousand three hundred forty three dollars and sixteen cents."
"Tony, which of Senior's family has this type of money to leave you?"
Tony shook his head. "No one. The inheritances were handed out years ago. This can't be from the DiNozzos."
"Were any of your mother's family in Italy?"
"The Paddingtons? None that I know of. Besides the money went down the male line of the family. They cut mother off after giving her a settlement upon marrying Senior. Why?"
"Tony, these papers are transfers from other accounts. If this was an inheritance, why weren't you present for the reading of the will? Why did it not come through probate lawyers?"
"What are you trying to say, Leroy?"
Gibbs looked at Tony while he answered Jackson. "I think whoever sent you this, is still alive. After all, everything's in both of our names and we were married only a few days ago." He grabbed Tony's arm when he swayed. "Easy there. Come on, Tony, take a deep breath."
"I'll get him some water." Jackson headed for the sink quickly.
"Jethro…" Tony grabbed the hands that held him. "Don't let go."
"I'm right here, Tony. I'm not going anywhere." Gibbs took the water from his father and urged Tony to drink.