A/N: Wow, can you believe it, guys? It was four months yesterday this story was first published. Happy four month anniversary! Oh, and also, I have decided to stop writing Symbol For Infinity, I just wasn't feeling the inspiration anymore. However, I may do something similar towards the end of the season.
April 1st, 2011
NCIS
Another April Fool's Day had come and gone, and the MCRT had escaped virtually unscathed.
Virtually.
Tony had put superglue on McGee's chair.
It had taken both Ziva and Abby to free him, although not before Gibbs returned from his morning coffee run to see them both with scissors, cutting through the fabric of his (very expensive) pants, leaving him in tattered shorts, his pale legs on display.
"You're not really a shorts kinda guy, McGee," Tony said, not trying very hard to contain his amusement and sense of self-satisfaction.
"Shut it, DiNozzo," McGee snapped, very grumpy that his favourite pants were now ripped to shreds.
"Hey! Don't talk to me like that, I'm the boss!"
"You are not the boss, Tony," Ziva said, although she clearly thought the situation was hilarious.
"Do you see Gibbs around here?" he asked, pig-headedly.
She smirked. "No."
"Then that makes me he boss. Furthermore…" He trailed off and froze when a very clear scent drifted up his nostrils.
Coffee.
"It was Abby, Boss, I swear I didn't do anything!" he yelled, not daring to move in fear of a Gibbs-slap.
"You really should be careful who you blame for these things, DiNozzo," said the voice behind him.
It wasn't Gibbs. It was Vance.
"Director," Tony said, turning around. His face was an expression of both confusion and surprise. "See—uh, I was just…um…"
The two women laughed. "April Fools!" they said in unison.
Tony sneered. "At least I'm wearing pants."
"What did I tell you about the superglue, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked, walking into the bullpen, smacking his head firmly.
"Sorry, Boss."
Tony had a sore head and was annoyed he had been beaten at his own game, but he knew this was one of his greatest pranks ever.
"You try to pull a prank on me and I will hurt you," Ziva warned.
"Got it. Ninja skills plus pregnancy hormones equals Scary Ziva," Tony replied.
…
April 4th 2011
NCIS
"If that phone rings one more time I'm going to shoot it," Ziva snapped, looking across the bullpen at Tony's phone.
"Why isn't Tony here anyway?" McGee asked, equally annoyed.
"The moving guys were late," she replied. "He had to wait for them to unload everything."
He smiled. "I can't believe you two bought a house."
"Well, every child needs a home, and an apartment just wasn't big enough," she said logically. "It should be interesting living with him."
"When are you due, anyway?" he asked curiously.
"Eight weeks," she said proudly. "And I have convinced Vance to let me work for another six. I am perfectly safe here if something happens."
"How much leave are you taking after you have the baby?"
"Nine weeks, if all goes to plan." He knew she meant 'as long as there is not something wrong with the baby', but she was its mother. She couldn't possibly try to talk of such things.
Tony's phone was still ringing.
"Look, why don't you just answer it, Ziva?" asked McGee exasperatedly. "You're his fiancé!"
"Fine," she sighed, getting up. "Special Agent DiNozzo's desk."
"Ziva, is that you? How are you? Where's Junior?"
She grinned. It was none other than Anthony DiNozzo Sr.
"I'm fine, and, um, Tony's…not here. Would you like me to tell him to give you a call?"
"Tell him I'm in town and wouldn't mind catching up. It's been months since we've spoken."
"I thought you two were going to keep in touch?"
"We were, but…we're both so stubborn. Like father, like son, I guess. Tell you what, why don't you tag along too? I wouldn't mind hearing what you've been up to lately, and Junior's always a lot more sociable when he's around you."
She was just about to speak when Junior himself walked out of the elevator.
"What are you doing on my phone?" he asked.
"You know what," she said into the speaker. "He's just arrived."
Ziva removed the phone from her ear and covered the receiver. "It's your father," she whispered.
Tony groaned and held his hand out for the phone. She saw him write down an address and proceeded to talk to McGee.
"What was that all about?" he asked.
"Tony's father is in town," she answered. "He wants to go out to dinner, with Tony and me."
"Well, he is gonna be a grandfather…sort of."
"Yes, but he doesn't know that," she confessed. "He and Tony have not spoken since last he was here. I did not even know I was pregnant then. I found out a few days after he left."
Tony hung up the phone. "Well, Ziva," he said, standing by her side. "Looks like we've got dinner reservations tonight.
…
April 4th, 2011
7:30pm
David-DiNozzo Residence
"I don't wanna do it, I don't wanna go," Tony murmured, pacing their new living room.
"Tony, this is ridiculous, he's your father," Ziva said, trying to help.
"Yeah, well he hasn't been very father-like, has he?"
"He is trying to be one now! He's a lovely person, just spend a little time with him, you'll see."
"He's nice to you because you're an attractive woman. That's how he is with all attractive women," he said.
"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree," she commented.
"Do you think he was that nice to my mother?"
Ziva was silent. He had never spoken about his childhood like this.
"Do you think I didn't stand there, every night, outside the closed doors of my father's study, listening to my father's drunken rants, her screaming, and the sound of glass smashing? Do you think it was nice having to put the pillow over my head and hide under the covers and cry myself to sleep to drown out the sounds? Do you think it was nice having to pretend not to despise him every day? Do you think it was nice watching my father leave my mother's funeral a half hour in, with some hussy by his side, leaving me by myself to watch her body be lowered into the ground?"
She didn't dare move. She was terrified at how upset he was. She had never seen him like this.
"When he sent me away to boarding school, I didn't want to leave home, but I was glad to be away from him. I tried to just focus on my school. I didn't make many friends. After my mom died I was kinda antisocial. By the time I was fourteen or fifteen they were talking non-stop about girls and I never really said anything. One night they finally asked me and I looked at them. Most of them were bigger than me and I knew it would be easier to just go with it, so I made something up. Remember the story about fifteen-year-old Tony losing his virginity?"
She nodded feebly.
"Lie. I was twenty when I lost my virginity, at a frat party, and I was so drunk I don't even remember it. And you know why I could never hold down a woman? When my mom died I felt so guilty, so horrible. I didn't wanna feel like that again. It was easier if it was just one night. Besides, I never knew what kind of woman I wanted, and I never learned how to treat one just right. And now I'm…this."
He looked down at himself in disgust. "I don't know what I did to deserve you, but without you I don't think I would have ever felt this way about someone."
Ziva's eyes were shiny with tears. She had never heard Tony's story told that way, and now that she had, she realised she had seen a whole new side of him. This heartbroken, torn, hurt little boy who only really wanted someone to love him, to acknowledge him. She had always suspected there was more to him than what his frat boy personality let on, but she never expected it to be this intense. It was like she had just seen the dark side of the moon. You have to see it for yourself to believe what's there.
"I don't think we earn our pleasures in life," she said softly. "If we did, then we wouldn't be together. But I don't think it was all luck, either. The best things come as a light in the world, when our world is dark. The best things come from a place of pain. If you are anything like your father then we know he must want to be sorry. Sometimes it's hard to find the right words. We should go, we should see him. Let him see how happy you make me, Tony. Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same."
With one hand, she took his, and with the other, she stroked his cheek, kissing his lips softly.
"I love you," he whispered.
…
They ended up going, and allowed Senior to speak first, who talked about friends, colleagues, Tony's current stepmother and whatnot.
"But enough about me," he finally said. "What about you?"
Tony and Ziva shared a grin.
"Gee, Dad," Tony said, smiling widely. "Where do I start?"
A/N: Slightly depressing, but it was great to explore Tony's character. I will update soon. Reviews?