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Quick update that's needed!
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Chapter XXIX - Truth and Love
"DiNozzo, you look like hell", Gibbs stood stoically in the doorway with Anthony by his side laughing.
Tony grunted as he sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. "Yeah, I know boss. And III, you think its funny that your old man is all beat up?"
The youngest DiNozzo stopped laughing but kept his smile as he strolled over to his father. He sighed and placed his hand on Tony's uninjured shoulder, "dad, I don't think grandpa was talking about you being beat up. I think he meant that it's obvious that either ima or Tal went nuclear on you." The twevle year old shook his head while trying to stifle a new wave of laughter. He had always been keen on knowing when his father had had a less than pleasant encounter with one of the two important ladies in their life.
Gibbs chuckled as Tony looked passed the boy and settled his focus on him with a puzzled look. "The young marine is right", Gibbs clarified, "so which one of them was it?"
"Both technically", Tony admitted in a sigh. "But Tali was worse."
"Uh huh", Gibbs grunted. "So what happened", he asked as he sat down.
"Nothing, just said somethings Tali didn't like and Ziva added her two cents after her junior broke down."
"Whoa! Dad, you made Tal cry?" The boy shook his head and started singing teasingly, "you're in trouble!"
"Hey, it was a mistake, alright? The girl is too much like Ziva. So damn passionate and wanting to be independent. I was a little too real with her and she couldn't handle it." Both Gibbs and Anthony raised their eyebrows at him to continue explaining. Tony, however, didn't want to replay the event so he opted for changing the subject. "That's why she's not here now. Ziva took her to the cafeteria for ice cream and to go ...", he paused to try to figure our whether or not to add the last past. He decided not to, "and go talk."
Gibbs knew him too well though. He cleared his throat then asked, "and where is she taking her after the ice cream and talk?"
Tony's eyes shifted as he clenched his jaw. His hand closed into a tight fist and his nose started to flare.
Anothy picked up in the familiar protective look and chuckled. "Mom took her to see her boyyyy frieenndddd."
The older DiNozzo's eyes shot to his son, "Tali does NOT have a boyfriend ... and how the hell do you know she's there?"
"Your jaw locks and your nose flares whenever something makes you mad about Tal and someone you don't want her around. Since the only place she can go is inside the hospital and the only other person she'd want to see is Hunter, I just put two and two together", he stated plainly then shrugged.
Tony rubbed his head then looked at Gibbs, "why is he so smart?"
"Must get it from Ziver", Gibbs joked and chuckled. His surrogate son glared at him and he sighed, "Look DiNozzo, I don't know what you said but you better get your act together. The worse thing to do is to get one of those DiNozzo women all emotional, you know they stick together and they'll ware you down."
"I know boss, but that spy boy just ..", he stopped and looked at Anthony as something clicked in his head. "Hey III, why did you assume that your sister would WANT to see Officer Amadi? Did she say something to you about liking him ... you know ... like, as in, she wants him to be her boyfriend?"
Anthony rolled his eyes, "technically she didn't say anything to me."
"Then she said it to your mom and you overheard?" Tony tried to make sense of his son's knowledge of Tali's desire. Ugh, desire? The thought of his little girl desiring anyone made him cringe. Still, he wanted an answer. He gave Anthony an intense look to let him know that he needed to start talking.
"She didn't tell mom either", the 12 year old sighed. "You and Ima were knocked out. I went to the bathroom and when I came back, Tali was calling for Hunter and kinda crying. I woke her up but I only told her that she was crying and having a bad dream. She doesn't know she was talking in her sleep."
"Did she say anything else besides his name?"
"No", he answered too quickly.
Tony looked at Gibbs then back at Anthony, "buddy, you need to tell me so we can help your sister heal. Those nightmares will get worse if we don't help her address them."
"So, you're saying I should have told her that she was talking too?"
"Yeah, and you should have told us. Buddy, please, what else did she say?"
Anthony looked worried and troubled. Part of him felt it was his duty to keep Tali's secret a secret. The other part of him knew that his father was probably right. Ultimately, he just wanted to help his big sister, his 'protector' as he called her, heal completely from what she'd gone through. After giving it a few more moments of thought he conceded, "Tal kept asking Lucifer to stop and she said he was hurting him."
She's reliving it in her sleep. Watching his torture. Tony let out an exasperated sigh as he rubbed his forehead.
Gibbs cleared his throat and signalled for Anthony to come to him. When the young boy did, Gibbs whispered in his ear and then titled his head towards the door. Anthony nodded then exited the room to give his grandpa and father privacy.
When Gibbs was sure the door was closed, he stood from his seat and towered over Tony. The younger man should have saw it coming but he was lost in thought. Before he even knew what happened, the familiar sting at the back of his head almost made his ears ring. The proper slap that Gibbs inflicted suddenly put everything in perspective for his protege.
Tony rubbed the back of his and locked eyes on Gibbs. "Thank you boss", he said in a whisper.
"Mmhmm", he smirked for a second then his face went back to being serious. "Now, tell me what you said to my granddaughter?"
"I uh, I kind of told her that spy boy was groomed by a terrorist so he was going to be a terrorist too. And that, for all we know, he may have had a hand in this mess too."
Gibbs squeezed the bridge of nose while shaking his head, "you gotta he kidding me DiNozzo." When Tony just lowered his head in embarrassment, he continued, "even if it is true, which I don't think is, why the hell would you say that her? She's seventeen and just escaped the most horrific thing in her life!"
Tony sighed, "Boss, I know .. I mean I panicked."
"Ya panicked!? Panicked how? What reason would you have to ..." Seeing Tony's defeated eyes, the older man immediately understood. He sighed deeply, "Look son, I know you feel bad because at the end of it you weren't there but that's not something you could have controlled. And you can't make yourself feel worse because you saved the boy but never got a chance to save Tali, not your fault. Trust me, trying to scare her about a boy that your not ready for her to be close to isn't going to make Tali any easier to deal with during the rest of this. You need to understand what her needs are and trust that you raised her right. Plus, you know Hunter isn't a bad kid or else you would have never saved him."
There was nothing else Tony could do but nod his head in agreement. The gesture was all Gibbs's needed to feel like he got through to his protege. He walked to the door and opened it to exit but stopped momentarily, "I'm gonna go grab some coffee and send a nurse in to help you change. Keep your head together when those girls of yours get back. My guess is they'll be here soon."
Gibbs had called it, just twenty minutes later, right after Tony emerged from the bathroom fully dressed, Ziva and Tali returned to the family's private room. He moved quietly to a chair while readjusting the annoying strap of the new sling that was placed on his arm. The silence was unbearable but he did nothing to break it.
Ziva, however, had other plans. "Where is Anthony and Gibbs", she asked.
"Um", he cleared his throat, "coffee."
"Right, okay then, I am going to find them." She looked between her husband and her daughter, "You two need to talk, alone ... try not to verbally kill eachother."
Tony watched in dispair as his wife left. Secretly, he wanted her to stay to play referee. His nerves were on overload because he knew the fiery yet delicate teen before him could completely shut him down and he didn't want to make another mistake in pushing her to it. As it would seem now, Tali had no intentions on speaking to him at all. He understood why, but that only made it worse.
Not knowing where to start, he just sighed, "I'm sorry about upsetting you Tali." The teen looked at him indignantly and rolled her eyes. Tony shook his head, "Look, I know tempers are high right now, and maybe I shouldn't have said what I said without ..."
"Gee dad, you think", she interrupted. Finally voicing her opinion sarcastically.
The DiNozzo sarcasm not being what Tony wanted to hear, he raised his voice slightly, "Hey, watch your tone, okay? I'm still your father! I may have made a mistake, but you don't get to talk to me any kind of way. I let it slide earlier, but I'm not having it now!"
Tali's jaw clenched as she tried to bite her tongue. She hated being reprimanded, and hated even more that she couldn't figure out how to express her current feelings. The room fell silent again. A few seconds felt like long minutes which had turned into hours that brought even more tension. The atmosphere was cold and thick. It was becoming too much again.
Tony sighed, "did you see him again?"
"'Him' who?"
"You know exactly who Tali. Did you go to Officer Amadi's room again?"
"It's okay to call him 'Hunter' dad", she sighed. "And yes, I did. Ima went with me."
"So, what did you talk about for almost three hours?"
"Actually, we were only there for an hour and half after Ima and I had lunch. We just talked about general stuff."
"What is 'general stuff'?"
Tali rolled her eyes, "like you care."
"I'm trying here Tali, give me a break!"
"Why!?" Suddenly she was yelling in frustration, "why are you even acting like you're okay all of a sudden? It's not like you like him! It's not like you care about what happens to him! You STILL think he's like his father and you're STILL judging him!"
"Did I not apologize", Tony's volume not matched his daughter's. "I could have sworn that was the first thing I did when we started this conversation."
"It wasn't sincere ..."
"How? How do you know that when you came in here ready to keep ripping me a new one with your little attitude and sarcastic remarks!? This is NOT easy for me Tali! Can't you understand that? Terrorists came into OUR home and took you from me! Then, they almost killed me leaving your mother to search for you without my help! And then we get you back but everything is different!" He paused as his voice cracked. He fought to level his breathing and bring his voice back down to an even tone. "You came back different babygirl. And I know that that is normal, hell I've seen it first hand with your mother. I guess .. I don't know .. in my head, I wished that you'd come back the same. That you'd still need your old man to protect you. But, you came back and you didn't need your old man anymore. You needed the spy boy with the accent and the big beard and the man bun." He scoffed as he ran Hunter's other features through his head, knowing that daughter could probably easily have a crush on him if they'd just passed by on the street. Soon, he shook his thoughts and continued, "What you went through, he was there and I wasn't so I get that, now, you want him there for you all the time."
Tony sighed after Tali stayed quiet. He continued on in honesty, "I know he's not like his father and I know he's not a terrorist. I'm sure, in my gut, that he had no parts of this and was just a victim of circumstance too. I had no right to say anything otherwise before. Guess I just felt like my little girl grew up super fast in a matter of two weeks and, just when I get her back, someone else is taking her away."
"Abba", she whispered as she rubbed her temples to try to force the words that were swirling around in her head to come together. After a few moments, the words finally formed the sentences she wanted to say, "no one is taking me away. I mean sure, I really like Hunter but we are just friends. The last thing on either of our minds is to start dating and run off to some exotic place to elope." The thought made them both chuckle. "And yes, I want to be around him but that's because I know it's good for both us to heal. I'm really trying hard not to shutdown and to work through everything one moment at a time. And so is Hunter. But, in order to do that, we both need to be around someone who understands how we feel. Who can help us process the shock as it comes ... that's who we've been to each other from the moment we met. Now that we've survived hell together, we want to remain each other's support. That doesn't mean I don't still need you though daddy."
She stood and walked over to where Tony was sitting. Taking the chair next to him, she sat down and leaned her head on his good shoulder. Tony smiled and reached his hand to stroke her cheek. "You still need me", he asked in a hushed tone.
"I will ALWAYS need you", she nodded. "You're my abba, no one can ever take your place in my life."
Tony chuckled, "maybe I got a little jealous. I shouldn't have tried to scare you to keep you away from Offi .. from Hunter. I understand everything now and I really am sorry."
"For giving you attitude and being kind of bratty, I'm sorry too", she let out a small laugh then sat up to kiss his cheek. This time, when the silence fell, they were both content and the tension ceased to exist. Just father and daughter, reveling in the peace of being in each other's presence. It's what they needed— truth and love.
Next chapter up tomorrow!
Just wanted to clean up Tony and Tali's relationship.
— she will FOREVER be a daddy's girl! LoL
Review Review Review!
Later Peeps!
- Chide
