Today was another major first day that Emily would miss. Today was Carly's first day of second grade. He couldn't believe that his little girl was smart enough to skip the first grade. She was such an amazing child. It broke Tony's heart that Emily was missing so much of her daughter's life. She had already missed two major mile-stones and it was unknown how many more she would miss. Much like with Carly's first day of dance two weeks prior. He was going to document the occasion for his fiancee. He grabbed his phone, digital camera, and video camera. For breakfast he had made Carly's favorite breakfast: smiley face pancakes, hash-browns, and bacon and cheese eggs. He looked behind him at baby Jack. His son had transformed over the summer. His head was now full of black hair that looked just like Ziva's right down to the widow's peak but it was curly just like his. His eyes had changed from blue to green and his Italian/English features were really shining through. Tony liked the idea of having a mini me but he wished that his son looked more like Ziva. His son had grabbed a piece of bacon and was knawling on it with his three teeth. He could not believe that Jack had three teeth already. Tony couldn't help but smile at the fact that over the summer Jack had grown the same number of teeth Carly had lost. His kids really were growing up and it killed him that Emily was missing it.

"Carly! Get up! It's time to get ready for school!" Tony called.

Ten minutes later Carly ran down her long light brown hair covered her face. She was wearing a light purple t-shirt with small pink daisies on it and a pair of black jeans. With the light pink light up shoes she had gotten for school.

"Come here" Tony called.

"OK" Carly replied.


Carly ran over to him and wrapped him in a tight hug. Tony grabbed the black scrunchie and hair-brush off the counter and fixed her hair. When Emily first went away he was miserable at doing Carly's hair. He had to either take her to Gibbs's apartment everyday or have him come over to do it for him. It amazed Tony that his dad could still remember how to do a little girls hair over two decades after his own little girl had died. Now however he had finally managed to learn how to do a little girl's hair appropriately. Of course Gibbs had kind of forced him to learn. He pulled Carly's hair into a medium pony-tail.

"What do you think?" Tony asked lifting Carly up to see her face in the toaster.

"It looks really good but mommy and Grandpa Gibbs are still better at it." Carly replied.

"Are you ready for school now?" Tony asked.

"No! I haven't had breakfast yet!" Carly cried.

"Alright well. Come on let's get something to eat before Jack eats it all." Tony replied.

"Jack can't eat big people food yet!" Carly cried.

"He seems to think otherwise." Tony commented.

"He's just like you!" Carly cried.

"What's wrong with that?" Tony asked.

"Nothing" Carly replied.

"Good now eat your breakfast." Tony replied.


Carly ate her breakfast and then ran upstairs to brush her teeth and grab her backpack and other school supplies. While she was upstairs Tony got Jack cleaned up and changed. He put Jack in his carrier and then grabbed his camera. He photographed Carly as she came downstairs and took another picture of her walking out the door. Stillwater was a small town but still had school bus service and the DiNozzo's lived far enough away that she qualified to ride the bus but Tony wanted to drive Carly on her first day. So he could get more pictures to send to Emily. Once everybody was in the car. Tony took another picture of Carly and then drove to Stillwater Elementary. Tony took pictures of Carly getting out of the car and then walking to the school. This year Carly was in Mrs. Mason's class. Which was right next to her first grade classroom. He got a picture of Carly standing outside the door and then she ran in and found her desk. Tony was getting ready to take a picture of her at her desk. When Mrs. Mason walked up to him.

"You must be Carly's father." Mrs. Mason greeted.

"Step-father" Tony corrected.

"Oh yeah, anyway I am really looking forward to having Carly in my class." Mrs. Mason replied.

"She is looking forward to being in your class." Tony replied.

"Now are there any special adjustments I will need to make for her due to her situation?" Mrs. Mason asked.

"Well I am keeping everything as normal for her as possible but if she needs to get away or seems upset. Just let her go to the library or have her call me." Tony explained.

"That seems reasonable I have had parents demand adjustments for their children in far less difficult situations." Mrs. Mason replied.

"I think normalcy is best for her right now." Tony replied.

"My sister had Dylan in her third grade class last year and we were both devastated to learn that he had died." Mrs. Mason explained.

"Thank you but should we be discussing this here?" Tony asked.

"Stillwater is a small-town Tony, everybody knows everything even the kids." Mrs. Mason explained.

"Right" Tony replied.

"How is Emily doing by the way?" Mrs. Mason asked.

"Better" Tony replied.

"That's good to hear. I hope she gets home soon. Now get your last picture before the first bell. Oh and my husband will be in to pick up some groceries later on." Mrs. Mason replied.

"Great" Tony replied.


Tony flipped the open sign to closed and set the little clock on it to say he would be back at three-thirty. Since there was nobody to get Carly from school. Jack was napping when he left but widow Jones was in the store picking up the lactaid milk Tony ordered for her and had offered to take care of him for a few minutes and open the store if anybody needed in. He was about a block from the school. When a car came speeding down the road out of no-where. He tried to jump out of the way but it was too late. The car crashed into him and sent him to the ground then just turned and sped off.


A/N: Will Tony be OK? New chapter will be up soon. Please review and thanks for reading.