Chapter Fourteenth: Tony

AN: this is it, everyone! The last chapter of A Valentine Mystery. Hope you all enjoyed it just as much as I did. Hope everyone had a wonderful V-Day and I sort of wanted to make sure that I gave you the last valentine of the year.

Enjoy and thank you all so much for the overwhelming support. See you next time!

Abby bounced in place as her party hit its peak. She grinned as she watched valentines be given all around her.

Her team and friends gave each other valentines, Vin and Tony both over by the punch table.

As both teams converged on their Italian friend, Abby nodded to JD, who had Tony's valentine in hand.

"Hey," JD hid the box behind his back. "Tony? Here. We just wanted to say thank you for everything."

"What do you mean?" Tony frowned, taking the box. "I didn't really do anything…"

"Well, thirteen presents say you did," Buck wrapped a friendly arm around McGee.

"Thirteen? Not me. I'm just responsible for the seven," Tony smiled slightly.

"Ah ha!" Abby pounced. "Now, we'll finally get some answers! Alright, Tony. Who's your accomplice? And where do they work? Do you have a secondary accomplice?"

"Abby, wait a minute," Tony frowned. "What do you mean by 'accomplice'? I didn't have any accomplices, secondary or otherwise."

"What? Wait," Buck frowned. "You had to have an accomplice because there just ain't no way you could have given presents in two different states unless you did!"

"Now, Brother," Josiah grinned. "Perhaps we're looking at this the wrong way. There actually is a way for Tony to give presents without having an accomplice."

"Oh, yeah?" Buck countered. "And how's that?"

Palmer grinned as Ezra started thinking. "Mr. DiNozzo didn't have an accomplice… because he was the accomplice!"

"Now, wait, Ez," Nathan frowned. "If you're right and Tony wasn't actually the one behind all of this, then who is and how did Tony get wrapped up into it?"

"Think about it," Palmer prompted. "All the presents given actually have something in common. What is it?"

Chris frowned as he ran through everyone's presents. Sure enough, he started smiling. "I don't believe this…"

"You mean it wasn't Tony who was our Serial Valentine?" Abby pouted. "And he was the mysterious accomplice?"

"Right, Abs," Gibbs started getting it, too. "DiNozzo was in on it, but it didn't occur to any one of us that he wasn't the actual person behind all of it."

"What do you mean? I really thought Tony was behind all of it," JD scratched his head.

"Here," Palmer held out a pad of paper with writing on the first page. "Maybe this will help jog your memory."

JD and Abby put their heads together and stared. "Oh my gosh… How did we miss that?" Abby covered her eyes.

Everyone passed the paper around and shared incredulous looks with each other.

"What?" Ziva frowned, not getting it at all. "I do not understand. What do the gifts have to do with who the real Serial Valentine is?"

"Everything," Vance stepped up to them. Grabbing the paper from a chuckling Nathan, he handed it over to Ziva, who scanned the paper. The clues were written as follows:

Apple

Stuffed Rottweiler

Rosary Case

Navy Ship model kit

Tie clip

Earl Grey case/certificate

Dime Novel case

Star of David Necklace

Tickets to a concert in Nashville

Antique Smoking Pipe

Ebony Horse statuette

Certificate for Tequila

"I still do not see it," she sighed.

"Take the first letter from each of the selected words," Vance coached, smile growing as he looked at the Serial Valentine and his accomplice, Tony. "List them."

"A, R, R, N, T, E, N, N, N, A, E, T." Ziva frowned. There was something about…

"Take away the doubles," Josiah offered.

"Now all that is left is… A, R, N, T, E, N."

"Who here, in this room has those exact letters in their name?"

"Vin!" Ziva got it. Vin's last name was T-A-N-N-E-R. "The presents were spelling out Vin's name, because he is our Serial Valentine!"

"Exactly!" Tony crowed. "It was his idea, after all."

"But how did you get involved?" McGee turned to his friend. "And when did you get the time to prepare? You said only seven presents. Which ones?"

"Well, Vin had the idea around last summer," Tony mused. "We got to talking about how our first Christmas, as a group, was quickly coming up. Vin wanted to do something to help us feel more a part of his… well, family. So, he wanted to give my team presents, but he didn't really want to give anything away by showing up, so he asked me to help. Believe me, had I known that he was spelling his last name with the presents, I would have figured something else out."

"But when Christmas came around," Vin continued, "Tony was stuck elsewhere at that conference, so I couldn't do anything like I wanted to and that case came up around that time."

The Seven nodded as they remembered the case that had them making alternate plans around Christmas week.

"Then, when we finally met up, we tried to figure something out about what to do with these presents," Tony shrugged. "I already had some stuff ready for the Seven's birthdays, but Vin, prankster that he is, told me that he had a new idea."

"Didn't want something too easy," Vin shrugged. "So, I made Tony, here, a challenge. To find presents for the boys and see how well he really knew them. But, Ez," the Southerner looked up from where he was studying his tie clip. "I made the condition that I would pick yours out. Tony said that, in return, Ziva's present was his to choose."

Ziva ran light fingers over her Star, trading relieved looks with Ezra. It would have meant something entirely different had it been from the other's teammate.

"And you guys deliberately kept running us in circles," JD shook his head. "We didn't even think Vin would be in on it, never mind our Serial Valentine. Tony was the only explanation. Him and an accomplice."

Chris smiled as he remembered all the questions to others if they had seen anything out of the ordinary. Vin appearing with some kind of box and going into the office was an everyday occurrence. No-one would have thought differently. And it explained how Vin had managed to sneak in presents around Chris, Ezra, and the others.

"Nathan's present," JD ticked off on his fingers. "Josiah's, mine, Buck, Chris, Ziva… Who was the seventh one?"

"Well, I didn't give Vin a present for Christmas and I felt guilty about it," Tony smiled at his friend sheepishly. "I was going to wait for your birthday, but I guess I was caught up in the excitement of it all and decided to mess with everyone."

Abby cooed. "That's sweet! You made a dream catcher for him."

"But Nathan asked him if he knew who got him the present," McGee remembered the conversation that JD recalled to him. "He was talking about Tony." Now they knew the 'gift exchange', it was all coming together.

"What about Palmer?" Buck suddenly remembered. "Did Junior know about it?"

"Ah, actually," Ducky suddenly piped up. "I'm afraid that was my fault. I suddenly remembered just now, Mr. Palmer had a model building leaflet lying around and Vin was looking through it." He cleaned his glasses. "Had I remembered earlier, I'm afraid Tony and Vin's fun would have been ruined."

"You knew about this, didn't you, Leon?" Gibbs quirked a smile at the Director.

"Only the morning of Dr. Mallard's present," he tilted his head as he handed the paper back over to Palmer. "Agent Tanner had called me, because he was starting to get worried that the others were getting concerned about the presents."

Gibbs, naturally, knew something had been up with the other man. Especially this odd interest in the Serial Valentine 'case'. Vance, however, had seemed more amused than anything else, so Gibbs didn't call him on it. Truthfully, he himself was caught up in the mystery and didn't want to all revealed too soon.

"Well, I guess you boys'll have to figure out something else to get us for Christmas," Buck laughed. It was very rarely did the team get a case wrong, but Buck didn't mind in this particular case. It had actually been sort of fun trying to figure out the mystery with everyone in a non-violent way that didn't involve paperwork of any kind.

"It's a whole year away," Abby grinned. "You two better get thinking!"

"Who says it'll be us getting anyone Christmas presents?" Tony laughed. "For all you know, we got someone else already on it!"

As the others chatted to each other about how sneaky Vin and Tony were, and how clever Vin was to have come up with this entire plot, Tony blinked. "Hey, Vin," hazel met blue. "We don't, do we?"

"Don't, what?" Vin asked. A little too innocently.

"Have someone doing Christmas presents," Tony eyed him suspiciously.

"Guess you'll never know, will you?"

Tony sighed. "I'm setting you up as a scapegoat come Christmas."

"Lookin' forward to it."

"Tony!" Abby broke Tony's glare at an innocent looking Texan. "I almost forgot! Open the valen…tine…" Her eyes widened as she grinned. "Our Serial Valentine struck again!"

"Mr. Tanner did pick it out," Ezra suddenly matched the Goth's grin. "I suppose this would count as a gift from our esteemed Valentine."

"Ah, you all didn't have to," Tony ducked his head.

"Yeah, we did," Vin bumped his shoulder against the other's. "I have to admit, I sorta ran out of ideas when it came to you. Then, I remembered, yesterday, how you would always move jobs when you were still a cop."

Chris nodded. "It isn't just from Vin, Rookie. It's from all of us. Happy Valentine's Day."

Tony looked around at the faces eagerly watching him. 'Well,' he thought. 'I could do worse.'

Opening the box, his eyes widened. "Guys…"

"Take it out," Ziva smiled at her friend warmly. "Read what is on the back."

It was a necklace like Ziva's. Only, instead of a Star of David, the pendant was that of an infinity symbol in Ohio State colors. Turning it over, he felt a warmth that had him wondering if he had ever felt so…well, loved before. Perfect for Valentine's Day.

Reading the quote inscribed there, he couldn't help the emotions that he knew was in his eyes.

'Ours. For infinity and beyond.'