Chapter 12
Tony walked into the bullpen and dropped his bag behind his desk, "Long night Boss?" Baker asked sitting at her desk.
"Something like that." He snapped. He stopped as Gibbs came down the stairs with coffee and two boxes, "What's that boss?" he asked.
"Breakfast; and I have your new credentials, Macaluso." Tony took the coffee gratefully, "Hey boss you added all my crap." He said savoring the taste of the sugar and hazelnut creamer.
"Yeah, don't forget to eat lunch and Dinner is at my house with the kids later." He said.
"Yeah boss,"
"You lot as well, Dinner, my house 6pm." Gibbs said as he turned to go upstairs.
"Yes Boss," The three of them chorused.
Tim watched as Gibbs went back upstairs and Tony started eating the breakfast burrito Gibbs brought him.
"That'll make you fat boss," Tim kidded.
Tony looked stricken and went to stop eating.
Gibbs' voice bellowed across the bullpen, "Leave him alone McGee! Tony, Eat!"
"Yes boss." His boys chorused, the other agents giving a knowing smile.
Tim leaned on Tony's desk… "Do we have a case boss?" he asked concerned. "I thought I heard him mention Macaluso…are you in danger?"
Tony leaned back, "Campfire." He said and moved to the center of the bullpen.
"Ok so you are hearing this from me first," Tony said and then turned to Tim "and you, are telling Abby."
"I've had some family issues, it turns out that I am not the son of Anthony DiNozzo senior."
"Congratulations." Tim said knowing how much Senior had ruined Tony's life.
"OK Probie, here comes the kicker, it turns out that my biological father is Mike Macaluso."
"NO!" Tim stood back shocked.
"Yeah, so DiNozzo insisted I stop using the family name and as I know who my father is, I have to use his last name." Tony said with a grin.
"So?" Tim said looking at his watch
Tony nodded at his SFA as the two other team members looked on confused.
"Five, Four, Three, Two, one….." Tony and Tim said and pointed to the elevator, which dinged and a red faced and furious Fornell came stomping into the bullpen.
"DiNutso!" He growled.
"DiNotso." Tony grinned, of all the bad things that had happened recently he'd been looking forward to correcting Fornell on the pronunciation of his old name.
"What? Never mind," Fornell waved him away,
"So what can I do you for Tobias?"
"Off to meet Gibbs for lunch…." Fornell said. "But I heard a rumor, maybe you can help me, one in which Mike Macaluso had a kid and he's working for NCIS."
Tony grinned "So I heard?"
"You not worried he will spin the secrets to his old man?" Fornell said, he may have been retired but he still kept tabs on that case.
"I can honestly say 100% that I have no worries in that regard whatsoever." Tony said.
Fornell looked at him strangely as Gibbs came down from his office, "McGee, Macaluso, if you wanna finish up in time for Abby's party I need some finished reports." He said with a small smirk as Fornell stood there his jaw hanging down.
"You?" Fornell whispered.
Tony smiled. "Yep, me."
"Thank God." Fornell said under his breath.
"You're welcome," Gibbs said, "Now come on Tobias, you owe me coffee."
Abby came up to the bullpen at five minutes to six, "Hey guys." She said smiling and wrapping her arms around Tim's neck as he continued typing.
"Hey Abbs." Tony said.
"It's not my fault." Tim said instinctively.
Abby took a step back and looked at Tim, "Timothy Sciuto McGee…What have you done." She asked; using the name Tim had adopted when he had married her.
"Tony only told me this morning, I have been busy I haven't had time to tell you." He said turning and looking at his wife.
Clara and Ned sniggered.
Abby put her hands on her hips and walked over to Tony, "Anthony DiNozzo, if you don't tell me what Tim hasn't told me you'll be in big trouble mister."
"I'm not."
"Why won't you tell me?" Abby stormed and then stepped back at Tony's smirk, "You're not what?" she asked
"Tony DiNozzo."
"OH MY GOD….Did Gibbs finally adopt you!" She jumped and clapped her hands.
"No, Abbs, Senior isn't my dad…." He sat her in his swivel chair. "Mike Macaluso is."
Abby's hands flew to her mouth…. "O.M.G! You always said you were Italian mafia. Now you really are…How are the kids taking this?" she asked.
"They don't care, the name Macaluso has no more meaning to them than the name DiNozzo did, all they care about is that I am their father and we are a family."
"Ok, so are you keeping it?" Abby asked.
"What?" Tony asked, "The name?"
Abby nodded. "Yeah…I mean; think about it, Fornell will go nuts. He hates the Macaluso's."
"He did, it was really funny, if you hurry to Stan in security, and he may still have the tapes." Tony prompted.
Abby leapt up, "Don't leave without me!" she called to her two favorite men and ran off down to the back elevator.
Finally six came around the team packed their stuff. "Team, if you want, you're with me," Tony said, "Gonna give my kids there first birthday parties and I'd love you all to be a part of that."
Clara and Ned nodded, they were thrilled Tony had invited them to be a part of this and had already been assigned jobs by Abby weeks ago.
All of them arrived at Gibbs' house one after the other, Gibbs and Fornell were already there as was Emily, who had dropped her bag off from her police academy course and she waved at the others taking the bag full of laundry out to the utility room to get her laundry done before she went home.
"Ok uncle J, that's on, what do you need." Emily asked.
"You to call me uncle Jethro for once," He said with a grin, she kissed his cheek, "Now, uncle J if I did that how would I ever get a reaction out of you." She said and picked up a packet of Balloons Jethro tossed her way.
"Hey Em," Tim said following Tony into the living room, "How's police academy?" He asked.
"Hard work, long hours, lousy pay." She groused sounding just like her father. Tim laughed and went to help the others.
Tony looked around still touched by the offer of help from the others.
"You gonna get your kids Di…Macaluso." Gibbs said tripping over the name.
Tony smiled, "Sure boss," he said and headed out the door, finding Gibbs following him.
"Boss?"
"I meant what I said yesterday, I wanna be there for your kids and you Tony Don't care, what your last name is, just want you to feel like you have family around you, you don't have to do this alone."
Tony sat on the porch and looked towards his house, just next door, as if it were a hundred miles away.
"So much has changed dad, I've gone from being a frat boy to a father, a DiNozzo to a Macaluso and I still really don't know who I am."
"You were never that frat boy, not really, You were just using that as a mask to hide your demons, I got you an appointment, you don't have to go son, but Natalie Morales is the department shrink, SECNAV thinks you should go see her…something about you needing therapy as much as Agent Callen, but probably more likely to go."
"Well, who am I to say no to SECNAV." He said looking around, he didn't know how, but he knew she just heard him.
Gibbs laughed, "I'm sure you need to work stuff out and she's the best."
Tony sighed and wiped his hands on the legs of his pants, "Ok, Grandpa, let's go get those kids of mine."
Tony opened the door to his house to find his two children screaming at each other in a mixture of Hebrew, Italian and English.
The tutor had left ten minutes ago and from what Tony could gather from the argument, the kids were screaming at each other about whether or not to go to a state school. Adam wanted to go, and Amelia wanted to have more time at home.
"But Aim, it's not fair on Papa." Adam yelled down the stairs.
Amelia screamed an obscenity in Hebrew at her brother and stormed down the stairs.
Tony recognized that one, Ziva had used it on him often enough. He put both fingers in his mouth stood at the doorway and whistled.
The noise stopped and two pairs of feet ran to the front door and hugged their father.
"Papa! We missed you." The twins said in unison.
Tony hugged them and moved away an eyebrow raised looking at both of them.
"We weren't….." Adam started, "Aim, Started it, she wants to stay homeschooled, I wanna go to school papa, it'll save you money and you won't have to work all the time."
Aimee huffed and sat on the sofa, "It's not that I don't….דְאָגָה, I mean….Papa si capisce che A me importa di te, ma io non sono pronto per un sacco di altre persone"
"I understand that you both care," Tony said sitting both children on either side of him, "But you also have to understand that you will both be going to school as soon as you are able. You…" Tony said pointing to his son's nose. "Will be starting school on Monday, Your sister will start in a month." He told them.
Both children smiled happy with the outcome.
"Now did you both pick a nice outfit, we are going to Grandpa's." Tony said.
Both children stopped dead. "Che cosa?" they both said.
Tony nodded in the direction of Gibbs, "You," he said pointing to his twins, "Are going to His." He pointed at Gibbs.
"Nonno?" they asked, picking the 'universal' household language just to make sure.
Tony nodded and both twins launched themselves at Gibbs, who if he hadn't of had years of Abby ambushes would have ended up on the floor.
"Macaluso Twins, Move it!" Tony yelled after a minute or two.
"Si Papa!" They said and ran upstairs to get changed.
He laughed at the sight of his twins and turned to Gibbs, "I'm gonna hit the shower, they are all yours, Nonno Gibbs."
"Nonno?" he asked.
"Grandpa." Tony affirmed laughing at Gibbs' smile on his face.
Maybe letting the team in and becoming a larger family was a good idea. He thought as he walked up the stairs to change.