There's some serious feels at one point in this one. Not gonna lie, I got sappy and cried a little. Lots of love though… lots of it. I hope you love it!

Chapter 49

Tony woke up with Amira between him and Jethro. He didn't remember her coming to bed with them the night before, but he wasn't surprised to find her there. She was curled up against Jethro, and he figured she had come in during the night and Jethro had handled it. Tony watched his family sleep for a minute or two, then got up to get ready for work. His alarm hadn't gone off yet, but it was due to any minute. He grabbed his phone and took it with him to the bathroom. He turned the alarms off while standing in front of the can relieving the morning pressure, and then flushed. He washed his hands, splashed water on his face, and brushed his teeth. He preferred to shave after his shower, so he put that on hold while he snuck out into the bedroom to get some clothes from the closet. With his outfit picked out, he grabbed some boxers and headed back for the bathroom.

Showered, shaved and dressed, he emerged to find some socks. Sitting on the bed to pull them on stirred Jethro just enough to wake him.

"Hey," he whispered. Tony turned to him with a bright smile.

"Hey," he whispered back as he stood up. "Go back to sleep."

"Don't want to go back to sleep. Want to kiss you."

Tony came around to Jethro's side of the bed and bent over, kissing his lover, fiancé, partner in crime. Jethro's hand came up behind Tony's head and held him to him, kissing him thoroughly. When Tony finally pulled back, he was a little stunned.

"Well good morning to you, too," he said, the smile reaching his eyes.

"I love you," Jethro said, caressing the side of Tony's face.

Tony laid his hand over Jethro's heart. "I love you, too."

"Have a good day," Jethro said.

"Call me?" Tony asked.

"I'll check in, and I know Amira will want to talk to you."

"Not a problem. Any time."

They smiled at each other and Tony stood up, staring down at the two in the bed for a moment longer before turning to head downstairs. He got his gun and badge out of his lockbox on the shelf in the living room, and then he debated on whether or not he wanted a breakfast bar or if he just wanted to pick something up when he grabbed coffee at Starbucks. The idea of meat and cheese won, and he headed for the door. He saw it was still raining and donned his jacket, then picked up his keys from the table and headed out.

Once he'd made his way through the drive thru and was sitting at his desk at work enjoying his breakfast sandwich, he brought up Sully's number. He took a bite and then dialed it, hoping that it wasn't too early. He got the voicemail at the cake shop and smiled to himself as he thought about what he was doing.

"Hi Sully. This is Tony DiNozzo. Jethro and I were talking about moving the wedding up. We've had some major life changes over the past week or two, and we've decided we don't want to wait any longer to tie the knot. We were thinking about changing the ceremony to the next couple of weeks. I know you're busy, and that's probably way too short of a notice, but if it's possible to still do our cake, we'd love it. Please return my call. Thank you."

Halfway through leaving his message, Greg came in and heard it. Once Tony hung up the phone, he pounced.

"You're moving the wedding up?" he asked.

"We're going to try to. We want to have it as soon as possible. Life is changing quickly for us, and we want to make it official. Not only are we anxious, but it will be easier for the adoption to go through if we're married, and it would make things easier on getting our wills settled."

"So this has nothing to do with the funeral yesterday?" Greg asked, putting his psychologist hat on.

Tony looked up into his wise young eyes, and smiled. "It has everything to do with the funeral yesterday."

"Thought so. Nothing like a funeral to remind you that you're alive."

"Very true," he said. "Elly has you working on a case with McTim and Ziva?" he asked.

"We wrapped it up. It was pretty simple. They just needed the extra set of hands with Gibbs gone and you not being there anymore. Any word on when Gibbs is going to replace you? They really need it."

Tony nodded. "He told me last night that he's requested files from HR for candidates. They'll probably have them to me by the end of the day, and he's going to look over them while he's out."

"Good! They kind of thought it was never going to happen."

"Nah. He's fine with it. It's just that everything with Amira happened, and he hasn't had time."

Greg nodded. "So I guess I'm helping with the database now that the Qureshi have been taken down?"

Tony nodded. "Have you talked to Dorney about it yet? He did a great job."

"No, but word travels fast. Evelyn pulled a Gibbs though. You should've seen it! She and the new guy up there were in the breakroom, and he turned and started telling me what happened. She turned around and slapped him upside the head and reprimanded him for talking about what happened in MTAC with anyone. It was great!"

"The first rule of MTAC is you don't talk about MTAC," Tony said with a chuckle.

"On a positive note though, it looks like Ned is finally getting the recognition he deserves. He's going from being the floundering agent to the tactical specialist. It's great to watch."

Tony took a drink of his coffee and thought about that. "Tactical specialist indeed. He's having one problem though, and I think I could use your help with it."

"Oh?" Greg said, moving to stand closer to Tony.

"He's having a hard time with the deaths. He can't move past the idea that people die on these operations. He's all about preserving life, and I can understand that to an extent. These are missions though to take out terrorist cells and factions. He needs to understand that sometimes people have to die."

Greg shook his head. "Tony, he's never going to be okay with that. It's what's going to make him one of the great ones."

"I'm not worried about the missions. I'm worried about the aftermath. I'm worried about the toll it takes on him. He's going to burn out really quickly at this rate. He's trying so hard to ensure that as many people survive as possible, and I could see it in his eyes yesterday that the bodies that stacked up got to him. He did an incredible job. We probably took anywhere between 50 and 75 percent of the faction into custody. That's much better numbers than we would've gotten if we would've bombed the hell out of the place, which was option number one for most of us, but annihilation didn't even make Ned's list. And not a single US troop was injured."

"Those are some impressive figures."

"Can you talk to him?" Tony asked.

"Officially or unofficially?"

"Officially."

"Yeah, I can do that."

"Thanks." On cue, the elevators opened and Ned and Elly came out. They exchanged looks and Tony said quietly, "The sooner the better."

"Hey, Boss," Elly greeted, sitting behind his desk.

"Hey, Elly. Hey, Dorney. Did you guys work things out last night?" he asked.

"Huh?" The two looked at each other in confusion, then at Tony. Elly suddenly realized that Tony thought he was mad at Ned last night for some reason. "I wasn't mad at Ned. I was mad at my father."

"What happened?" Parke said, knowing that if Elly was mad at his dad, then they'd probably talked, and he knew that they hadn't done that in a long time. He came around to lean on the front of his desk and give Elly his full attention.

When Elly realized all eyes were on him he sighed and started the story.

"My brother hit shore yesterday morning. They docked here at the Navy Yard, and he called me to ask if we could get together before he headed back to Minnesota in the morning. I said sure, and we went to go get coffee. We were talking, and I told him about Ned and I getting engaged, and he was really excited for us. It didn't faze him at all that Ned was another guy, or that I was basically coming out to him. He was just… happy for me. I was stoked. I mean, that meant so much to me, and I didn't think it would, but it did. He suggested that we call and tell Dad. I was riding this coming out high, and I agreed. We called him. It wasn't good."

"Oh, that sucks," Greg said.

"Yeah, I'm sorry man," Tony agreed.

"He called me every name in the book, told me he didn't ever want to meet Ned, and then threw in there that he never wanted to see me again."

"Wow. That's… that's rough." Greg shook his head. "Are you okay?"

Elly looked over at Ned and smiled sadly. "I will be."

Ned smiled sadly back. "Eventually."

They were all silent for a long moment and then Tony sighed. "Well, that kills the buzz."

"What buzz?" Elly asked.

"Jethro and I decided to move the wedding up last night."

"Really?!" Ned asked, suddenly super excited.

"Yeah. The funeral got to us, and it makes sense. If we get married before the adoption goes through it makes everything a lot easier on all of us."

"This is true," Elly said, looking from Tony to Ned, smiling genuinely when he saw how excited his fiancé got at Tony's wedding plans.

"We decided we're going to pick out our rings tonight," Ned said, smiling back at Elly.

"You're really moving forward with this," Greg said, looking back and forth between the two of them and catching Tony's eye in between.

"Yeah, we really are," Elly said. "Now that my family knows, and seeing their reactions, I simply don't care what everyone else's reactions will be. There will be good ones, and there will be bad ones, but it doesn't matter. The only people whose reactions I care about know, and they're happy for me, so we're moving forward."

"Ditto," Ned said. He moved to turn on his computer and wondered if he shouldn't email his own brother and go ahead and get it out of the way. He knew that they had to check in with Russel in a couple of hours to see what the team was able to extract from their prisoners so far and what they were able to find in the compound. He had a little time though.

While everyone else went back to their desks and started getting situated for the day, Ned brought up his personal email account and opened the last email he got from his brother. It was a reply to the one he had sent a couple of weeks before about how great he was doing and how excited he was to be on a team finally. He reread the response, and then hit reply.

Sorry it's taken me so long to reply to your email, but life has been pretty crazy. Between taking down a terrorist faction in Afghanistan, killing a suspect, and getting engaged to the most incredible man to ever walk the planet, I simply haven't had time to deal with your pettiness. This is where our paths diverge. I wish you nothing but the best, but my life is complete without an asshole like you in it. You and Mom can both go to hell.

Sincerely,

Ned

He sent the message and then forwarded it to Elly, who opened it and read it immediately.

"Whoa!" he said, looking across the room at Ned, causing Tony and Greg to look back and forth between them. "That was a little emotional."

"What's going on?" Tony asked.

"I just replied to an email from my brother and told him that he and my mom could go to hell."

Tony looked at Greg and the two of them shrugged. They knew that Ned's relationship with his family was just as bad, if not worse than Elly's. At least Elly's brother was supportive of him, even if his dad was a nuclear dick.

"Is this cause for celebration?" Greg asked.

"I think it just might be," Ned said with a smile.

"Well then congratulations! We should all go out this weekend and celebrate your engagement and your independence from your family's drama." Greg looked back and forth between the three of them. "And if all goes well and the baby is facing the right direction on Friday we may have an idea about the sex of it, and we can celebrate that, too."

"Awesome! Sounds good," Elly said with a smile.

"I'm in," Ned said.

"We might be in," Tony said. "We might also be struggling to put a wedding together."

"Do you still want me to DJ it?" Elly asked.

"That would be great! Think you could get the sound equipment you were talking about?"

"With a phone call," Elly said. "Just tell me when."

"Great! And I promise no one will drug you at my wedding." Tony gave Elly a smirk.

"I plan on having enough to drink that you won't have to!" Elly said with a laugh. Tony looked at Ned who was rolling his eyes.

"Why do I get the feeling you won't have to be drunk to go home with someone?" he asked playfully.

"Anyway!" Greg said from his desk with an exasperated sigh. "Before this turns into something HR inappropriate. Dorney, what time do you have to be back in MTAC?"

"1100. Why?"

"We need to talk. Finish what you're doing and let's head to the conference room."

Ned looked back and forth between Greg and Tony, who nodded at him with a reassuring smile. Elly was looking back and forth between all of them, curious as to what was going on. As the two men left, he got up and went over to Tony.

"What's happening there?" he asked.

"How's Ned doing with the aftermath of the op?" Tony asked. Elly nodded once, understanding.

"He's not doing so well. He's not sure he's going to be able to do this. He has a problem with the people dying. He dreams of the bodies, and it wakes him up, and that wakes me up… it's not good."

"That's what they're going to go talk about. I don't want it going to Ducky yet. I want to try to handle this amongst us first. If Greg can't talk it through with him then I'll send him to Ducky. If Ducky can't help we may have to accept the fact that this isn't the best thing for Ned to be doing for his own wellbeing, no matter how much he kicks ass at it."

Elly sighed. "That would suck."

"Yeah. I think if we give him some time, talk this one through with him, keep his head screwed on straight, we may be okay. We just need to attack the problem early. Last time, it was his first time, and I thought it would be better this time. It was! He wasn't a numb zombie afterwards. It's just going to take a little something more I think to help him over it. If we can establish Greg as his go-to person for talking these through then we can keep it off the record and he can keep doing it. He's too good at it. Rule five- you don't waste good."

"You don't waste good," Elly said slowly, leaning back on Tony's desk to contemplate the words. "I like that one."

"It's my favorite," Tony confessed. "Jethro told me that the day he recruited me for NCIS."

Elly smiled down at him. "That's sweet."

"He meant it professionally at the time, but I'd like to think it applies across the board now."

Elly laughed.

"So are you really okay?" Tony asked. Elly crossed his arms and looked down at his feet.

"No, but I will be. My dad isn't really a part of my life anyway. It just sucks. Bad. It sucks really bad. I'm excited that my brother is being all supportive though. That was really cool. I totally imagined him being the one to be the dick. I didn't think my dad would be happy, but I didn't think it would turn out like this."

"Sounds like you and Dorney have something else in common now."

"Yeah. You know, when I first met Ned I thought he was weird as hell." Tony laughed and Elly smiled before continuing. "Never in a thousand years did I ever think we'd be engaged. He snuck his way under my skin that first week after the raid that Greg was shot in. He was so self-conscious and he needed me. I felt good about that. Someone needed me, of all people. It didn't take long for me to find out that I needed him just as much. I needed his laughter, and his quirkiness, and his sense of life. He proved to be so much more, and I never would have given him a chance if he wasn't a part of the team. I have you to thank for that."

"He's a great guy. A little… quirky's a good word for it. Yeah, he's' weird, but all the brilliant ones are."

"Brilliant indeed."

"Well, you and Ned are always welcome with Jethro and I. You know, if you want to just come over for dinner and hang out, or if you want to spend the holidays with us. Whatever. Just come on over. You're always welcome."

Elly smiled at Tony. "Thanks. That means a lot."

They went back to doing their work, and Elly sighed deeply. This was good. This was right. He pulled up the database and started looking through the data. There was a process to the chaos in front of him. He was looking for missed hits and for hits that had nothing to do with what they were searching for, trying to discover any flaws or errors in the system. He'd been through the files with a 41-60% relationship to Melinda Stafford, and he was just starting on the 40% when something caught his eye.

The name "Mindy" came up on the file, and he opened it. He was intrigued. It was an attempted murder. The file said that a man named Roger Hamilton was stabbed on a sidewalk by a girl he had hooked up with at a party a few months before. He didn't know her last name, but her first name was Mindy. They were both using, and it was a one night stand. He left the following morning before Mindy could wake up, and he didn't see her again until she was wielding a knife on the sidewalk outside of the crackhouse he scored at.

The detectives that looked into it had assumed the woman was high, though they heard rumors that she'd just had a miscarriage and that she had snapped. No one knew her last name though. She was a loner. She came to the vacant building to score sometimes, but she didn't stay long, and she didn't have any friends, just vague acquaintances. There, on the last page of the file was a sketch of the woman, and Elly pushed his chair back from his desk.

"Holy shit, Boss!"

"What?" Tony asked, startled as he looked up from his desk.

"I think I found the one that set it all off!"

"What do you mean?" Tony asked, getting up to come over to Elly's desk and look at his computer. Elly looked up to watch Tony's expression as he saw the sketch. His eyes widened and then he looked back at Elly. "Put it up! Let's see what we've got."

Elly put it up, and Tony went to stand in front of the screen.

"So there was a guy in Schenectady in '84 that hooked up with a chick named Mindy at some party. Three months later, said chick comes at him with a knife on the sidewalk in front of the abandoned building he went to score at. She stabs him multiple times, but he lives. He's able to tell the detectives that it was just a one night stand, and he didn't know the girl's full name. He did this sketch with them.

"Here's the creepy part though. The few people who knew anything about this Mindy chick said she'd just miscarried. They weren't reliable sources though, so they didn't pursue that option any further. They never found her."

Tony nodded. "And that sketch is definitely Stafford. So she ends up pregnant by this guy, loses the baby, and goes off the deep end. Why was she blaming this guy for losing the baby though?"

"I don't know. We'd have to ask Stafford."

"I don't think I care that much to be completely honest," Tony said, looking over at Elly.

"Should I tell Albany that we've got another?" Elly asked.

"Yeah. Go ahead. That's good work, Elly!"

Elly beamed as he picked up the phone to make the call. He felt the world turn right-side up for him again. This served to remind him that he was in the right place, with the right people, doing the right thing, and he sighed contently.

NCIS**AIS**NCIS**AIS**NCIS

Ned sat down in a chair across from Parke and folded his hands on the tabletop, twirling his thumbs around each other over and over again. "Sooo… what's up?" he asked.

"Tony asked for me to check in on you."

"Tony asked you to shrink me?" Ned asked, unsure of how he felt about it.

"More or less," Parke said with a smile. "He needs to know how you're doing, and if he's having you talk to me instead of Ducky, then he must think the answer isn't going to be positive."

Ned sighed. He looked around the room, then down at his hands, knowing all the while that Parke was taking in every motion and interpreting it as he was trained, but he didn't really mind. A part of him was grateful that Tony had picked Parke instead of Ducky or one of the other shrinks. He saw the tactic there. If he got this off his mind with Parke, by time he could be questioned professionally he might have a chance at having his head on straight again.

"Where do you want me to start?" Ned asked.

"How about we start with the first op?" Parke suggested. He flipped his pen over and over slowly against his notebook while he waited for Ned to begin.

Ned finally sighed and leaned back. "I was excited. I was finally doing something that felt natural to me. I understood it. I could calculate every move, and I did. There were only so many options, and I knew which ones would be best, which would keep our men and women the safest, and which ones would cause the least amount of deaths. The option that had the least amount of deaths put all of those tallys on the US side though. Doing a walkthrough of the building would've caused us to lose our own troops, no matter how many of the Yellow Triangle lived. So I suggested the second option."

"Which was?" Parke asked gently.

"I had them attempt to get the group to surrender peacefully, and when they didn't, burn the building down, making them run for their lives. At that point we captured as many as we could, but we couldn't capture them all. Some tried to escape, and those were put down immediately. See, we had reason to believe there were infected people in the building. We couldn't let them escape. If someone looked to be ill, they were put down. If someone took off running, they were stopped forcefully, if not permanently."

"How many people died?"

"Too many."

"How many lived?"

"Twelve."

"You can remember how many lived but not how many died?" Parke asked.

"I apparently kept saying twelve over and over in the car on the way home. Tony said something to me about it."

"So these people died. The troops killed them. Why do you feel responsible?"

"I gave the orders. I specifically told them to kill those running off, and the man who tried to come out infected. I told them to. It was my decision, and I directed them that night."

Parke took some notes and nodded. "What happened that night after the op was over?"

"I went home, went to bed, had a nightmare, woke up and called Elly. He came over, and we slept until morning."

"What was your nightmare like?" Parke was worried that Ned was having flashbacks versus nightmares, and that was a big red flag.

"It was very vivid. I was going through everything with the drugging at the time, too, so it made things ultra-realistic. The dream I had last night was nothing like it, even though it was a nightmare, too."

Parke processed that. He knew that the drugging had caused flashbacks for a while, and he realized that had to suck when dealing with something like the op.

"We'll get to last night's dream in a minute. Tell me more about this first dream."

"I don't remember much now. I just remember that all of you were burning, and that Elly wouldn't let me save him."

"All of us as in the team?"

"And Gibbs' team I think. You're all my big happy family, and it was everyone that's a part of that group that showed up in this warehouse like building, and I think you were all telling me how ashamed you were of me? Or maybe that was just Tony."

"Why were we ashamed?"

"Because I let them die. Because I made them die. There's a lot of people dead now, and it's my fault."

"But they were bad people, Ned. Very bad people, and they were going to kill other people if you didn't stop them."

"But they were human beings! Just like me! It doesn't matter who they pledged their allegiance to. They were living, breathing, human beings, and now they're very dead human beings because of me!"

"How are you handling taking your first life?" Parke asked. He could see a physical change come over Ned. The passionate, desperate, sadness was replaced by a cold anger.

"He had Elly. I don't regret it."

"So it's okay for you to kill someone else if they're about to kill the man you love, but it's not okay to send troops that are trained to take lives to kill terrorists that are planning on killing hundreds, if not thousands."

Ned sighed. "I know it doesn't make any sense."

"No, I think it does. You've said before that you're not comfortable giving orders in MTAC because you've never been in the shoes of the agents, Marines, and soldiers that you're asking to follow your lead. It must be really hard to ask someone to do something that you wouldn't do yourself. The thing is, you have done it yourself now. You've taken a life. And in that situation, someone you loved needed you to. You may have detached and cleared your head to take the shot, but there was emotion behind it. There still is. It's written clear as day across your face this very minute. You were angry at the bastard for thinking he could mess with Elly. For thinking he could take him from you. You were protecting him.

"You haven't made the emotional connection with what you're doing in MTAC. You're protecting people in that room. You're protecting all of those people you send into that situation because you're coming up with the best strategies for them, the safest tactics, and you're helping them implement them. You're protecting troops all over the Middle East that would have been susceptible to the diseases that The Yellow Triangle and the Qureshi have been trying to release. And that's just the US side of this thing. Think about all of the innocent civilians that would have succumbed to the illness. Their immune systems wouldn't have been able to fight that off."

"I kept thinking about Rod and Ed yesterday," Ned said. "Throughout the op, their faces kept popping into my head. I think it made it easier than it was the last time. I was on autopilot again this time, but I didn't feel as numb as last time."

"And that may be what you have to do every time. You may have to think of the people you're protecting."

"My dream last night was disturbing. See, we weren't sure if there was going to be a biohazardous contaminant in the compound the strike teams were infiltrating or not, so the teams that responded were wearing gas masks. I've always thought those things looked demonic, but to have everyone wearing them last night made it worse. I arranged it so that two men stayed to the sides shooting anyone who was coming out of the entrance with weapons. I wasn't going to give them a chance to fight back and take out our guys. I knew going into this that there would be some death, that I couldn't prevent it. In my dream, I was a creature, not a human being, and I had these tentacles that were conducting everything happening around me. The bodies kept falling in front of me, and I laughed manically, happy that they were dying. Everyone had those masks on too. Made it extra creepy."

"I think you're afraid of becoming the monster. You're afraid of becoming one of the bad guys."

"That's just it- to them, I am the bad guy."

Parke thought for a moment. That was true. To the Qureshi, Ned would always be a villain now. He would be the one that came along and brought them down.

"That's the war that rages on in the hearts of kings everywhere," Parke said softly. "The human trafficking ring that Nick worked for thinks you're the enemy now, too. You're going to have to believe from somewhere deep inside of you that you're the good guy. And you're going to have to decide if doing this kind of work is healthy for you."

Ned shook his head as much as he could with the brace on. "I have never been so confident in my life as I was standing in that room, going over tactical options for the troops with Colonel Russel and Sergeant Davidson. I know I have a gift at doing this. I thought for a moment last night that I could just create the options and send someone else into the room to deliver them, but then I realized that I couldn't. If these were going to be my plans, if those plans were going to ask someone to take a life, I had to suck it up and go in there and deliver them myself. I had to accept that what I'm doing is going to cost lives, cause human suffering. I think it's going to take some time, but I'm afraid that one day, I'm going to get used to this. I just hope that when I do, I don't stop caring."

"You just have to learn to be okay with being the monster to someone, and focus on all the people you're saving and protecting."

Ned nodded. "Yeah. It's going to take some time for me to get there, but I imagine that one day I will."

"I want you to talk to me when you're having a hard time with this. I need for you to be honest. You need a sounding board. It's not my goal to take you out of that room or away from MTAC. It's my goal to support you as you decide to what extent you do your job. I don't care one way or the other. If you decide you don't want to do this anymore, I'll support that. If you want to suffer through this until it becomes something normal for you, I'll support that. But if things start getting out of hand, I want your permission to talk to Tony about it."

Ned thought about that for a minute. He trusted Parke. He'd been there for him since coming on board, and he knew that he wouldn't lead him astray. He finally nodded. "Okay."

Parke smiled at him. "Great. I'd like to observe you in MTAC today when you go. I think it would help me get an idea of what you're like in there. Everyone keeps saying there's a grand transformation that happens, and I want to make sure there's no tentacles or fins or something."

He got to his feet and Ned did too, both men laughing. "No fins. No tentacles. Just me being me."

"Horns?" Parke asked. "Antlers?"

Ned laughed and opened the door to the hallway, leading them out.

"Glowing red nose?" Parke continued, smiling as Ned chuckled.

They made their way back to the bullpen, accompanied by a train of suggested possible animal body parts. As they came around the bend Parke shot out one more. "Glowing eyes?"

"That one might be kind of cool," Ned said as they sat at their desks.

"Whose eyes are glowing?" Elly asked.

"Ned's. He's radioactive in MTAC apparently."

"Not radioactive. I never said radioactive!" Ned said, holding his hands up in defense.

"That's why your eyes shine? I thought that was me. Well, now I'm disappointed!" Elly said, crossing his arms as he pretended to pout.

"Guess what Elly did while you guys were gone!" Tony exclaimed.

"What?" Ned asked, smiling at Elly.

"He solved another murder."

"What?" Parke said, shaking his head in shock as he smiled at Elly.

"Found another Melinda Stafford murder amongst the results of the database. It was buried way down at the 40% likelihood mark, but there's a sketch in the case file, and it's definitely her." Elly shrugged, trying not to make a big deal out of it, but his smile gave away how proud he was.

"Woohoo!" Ned said. "Way to kick some ass, honey!"

Parke got up and high fived him. He was sitting back down when security started escorting an older woman off the elevator. She was about Gibbs' age, wearing jeans, a basic tshirt, a knee long khaki raincoat, and she was heading right for their part of the bullpen.

"Eli?" she said as the security guard pointed her in the right direction.

Elly's head jerked up from his desk in shock. There were only two people who called him Eli- his dad and his stepmom. He got to his feet and came around his desk as the woman approached him frantically.

"Oh, Eli! Honey! I'm so sorry!" she said, throwing her arms around him. He gingerly put his arms around her, looking over her shoulder at Tony for help.

"Carolyn?" he asked. "What are you doing here?"

"Eric called me last night and told me about your jackass of a father saying those things to you. I had to come see you and make sure you're okay. I can't believe him!" Tony watched Elly's face soften as the realization hit him that his stepmom didn't agree with his dad and that she was trying to be supportive. "He never did understand you. It doesn't matter. Eric and I still love you, and I'm so proud of you sweetie! And I'm so happy for you! Why didn't you call me? Why didn't you tell me?"

All of the men in the bullpen, including Ziva and Tim were paying close attention to the situation unfolding. They could hear the pain in the woman's voice when she asked why she hadn't been told, and Tony knew that this was the woman who had fought her entire life for the love and affection of the child she raised.

Elly's eyes closed, and he suddenly hugged the woman back tightly. "I didn't think you'd care," he said softly.

"Oh, honey! There is no one on this planet I care about more than you and Eric! No one and nothing! You mean everything to me. I wish you'd understand that."

Tears slipped out of Elly's eyes and down his cheeks as he hugged Carolyn back tightly. He wanted so much to believe those words. She's been saying them to him for his entire life, but he always balked when he heard them, brushing them off. He'd been a terror to her, and all she had ever tried to do was love him and be there for him.

His world was going gray around the edges. Nothing seemed real suddenly. The man he always knew as his father had proved to be anything but, and the woman that he had always believed was trying to fake her way through loving him had flown all the way to D.C. to give him a hug and tell him it was all going to be okay. He didn't understand anything at all suddenly. His world was topsy turvy.

He felt an extra hand on his back and stood up halfway out of the embrace to see Ned behind him. He smiled brightly at him through his tears and reached out a hand for him that he quickly took, the other wrapping around one of Carolyn's.

"Mom, I want you to meet my fiancé, Ned." Carolyn looked at Elly in shock. She had never heard him call her Mom before. Her eyes started burning and the tears slipped over as she reached for Ned's free hand and took it.

"It's very nice to meet you, Ned!" she said, the tears causing tracks down her cheeks. "Eric passed on great things about you when we talked last night. I can't wait to get to know you!"

"It's nice to meet you, too," Ned replied. "This is a big surprise. Did you come all the way out here from Minnesota?"

"Yes. Flew out of Duluth to Cincinnati to D.C." Carolyn looked at Elly. "Had to get to Eli and make sure he was okay. Your father's an idiot! This is the last straw!"

Elly looked at her with sad eyes and shook his head.

"No, Mom…"

"No. That's it. I'm done. He's been pushing me away for years. I haven't seen him in god only knows how long. Haven't heard from him, he doesn't call or write like he used to. You guys are grown now. I held on for too long as is. I deserve my happiness, and that includes you and Eric, and if he thinks he's going to keep me from my kids for any reason he's got another thing coming!"

Ned leaned in and got close to Elly's ear. "I like her!"

Elly let go of Ned's hand to wipe his eyes as he chuckled.

"I never thought I'd be grateful my father forced me to get a prenup," Carolyn said as she shook her head. "Don't worry about it all. We're going to make sure you have an incredible wedding!"

Carolyn let go of Ned's hand and wrapped her arms around Elly again. Elly hugged her back, trying to understand what was happening to him. Ned's phone rang behind them, startling everyone who was watching the situation unfolding with interest.

"The Bat Phone," Parke said, raising an eyebrow at Ned.

"What's that mean, honey?" Carolyn asked as Ned answered his phone, his eyes on Tony.

"On our way." Ned hung up the phone and nodded at Tony, who stood up.

"Oh, Mom, these are my other coworkers. My boss, Tony DiNozzo, Greg Parke, and over the wall here is Tim McGee and Ziva David." Elly introduced Carolyn to the people standing around watching them. "This is my stepmom, Carolyn."

Tony stepped forward and reached for her hand. Carolyn took it in a brief shake. "It was nice to meet you. We gotta run, but why don't the two of you go get coffee or something. I'm sure Elly has a lot to catch you up on."

"Nice to meet you, as well." Tony moved past her towards the steps and Ned moved to do the same, then stopped next to Carolyn.

"Are you going to be in town long?" he asked.

"A couple of days, I suspect," she said.

"Good! Then I'll see you soon," Ned said, moving to head towards the steps. Greg came over and shook her hand.

"I need to go with them for the time being, but I'm glad you're here. I'm sure we'll see each other again soon," he said, letting go of her hand and taking off to follow the two to MTAC.

"They're a nice bunch," she said. "Elly?" She raised an eyebrow at her stepson, who smiled and rolled his eyes.

"I told Greg that Mom used to call me Elly, and he started calling me it. He's the team psychologist. He knew it meant something to me, and soon everyone was calling me it. It's what everyone around here knows me as now."

"You good, Elly?" Tim asked over the wall.

"Yeah. Thanks, Tim."

"Nice to meet you ma'am," Tim said with a wave and a nod.

"Likewise," she said. Tim turned and went back to his desk, motioning for Ziva to do the same and give the two some privacy.

"You want to go get some coffee? There's a great little coffee shop down the road we all like."

"Sure, honey. Coffee sounds great. Been a long day so far, and I lost an hour in there somewhere."

"The time zones. Yeah. Got to me, too. Let me grab my coat and we'll go."

Elly went around his desk and locked everything down, then pulled his gun and badge from the drawer and slipped his coat on. When he turned around Carolyn was staring at his waist where his weapon had disappeared into its holster.

"Never liked the idea of you having to carry a weapon. I like to pretend that you're safe behind a desk somewhere," she admitted.

"I wouldn't be happy like that," he answered with a small smile.

"Are you staying safe?" she asked.

"Well…" Elly chewed on his lip. "Let's talk about that along the way, shall we?"

"I'm not going to like this, am I?" she asked, turning towards the elevator.

"Probably not."

NCIS**AIS**NCIS**AIS**NCIS

Ned, Tony and Greg all stood in MTAC while Russel briefed them on what they were able to salvage from the compound. They found traces of something in some lab equipment in the third building they'd hit with the rocket launcher, confirming Ned's suspicions about it being where they were making the weapon. The residues they found were all being tested as they talked. The troops were questioning those captured the night before, and they determined that they did have al Zafir in custody. Ned nodded his head and sighed in relief with a small smile when he heard that.

"I think it's safe to say that we've successfully completed our mission of taking down this faction. We did good work," Russel said.

"I agree," Ned said with a nod.

"Gentleman, may I talk to Agent Dorneget alone for a moment?" Russel asked.

Ned turned to look at Tony and Greg, and seeing that they were both looking at him for permission, he swallowed hard and nodded. They headed out, and Ned saw out of the corner of his eye that even Evelyn had gotten up to leave him truly alone.

"I wanted to talk to you about the tactics you're using."

"Yes, Colonel?" he asked, the blood rushing from his face.

"I have noticed that you're trying hard to save as many people as you can." When Ned didn't deny it, he kept going. "I'm trying to figure out why."

Ned took a deep breath. "I don't believe in taking a human life unless absolutely necessary."

Russel nodded. "Working in bioterrorism, everyone sees the Colonel part of my name, but no one ever sees the Doctor part. They don't remember that as a doctor I took an oath to try to save people. It's a hard position to be in. I'm an Army colonel, working against some of the most despised people on the planet, and I'm surrounded by troops that would rather shoot first and ask questions later. These are good men, Agent Dorneget, but they don't see the value of a human life like you and I do.

"I'm also a doctor. And as a doctor it is my sworn duty to protect people from harm. It's how I got into bioterrorism. I saw it as my best way to protect people. Even if I have to take lives now and then, I know the long run, I'm saving them.

"I wanted to tell you that I know what you were trying to do with these missions, and it was an honor to work with someone who shares the same values I do. We're fighting a war that could kill the entire population of the planet with one stupid move, and it's hard to remember that these are people. Some are evil people, I won't deny that, but others are desperate and misguided. In the end though, we're all people. And as people, you and I will always be stuck in the middle of these decisions, between what is wrong and what is a little less wrong.

"You made a good balanced decision on how to proceed with both missions. You kept the troops out of the line of danger as much as possible, and you provided opportunity for as many of the enemy to survive as possible. Not only that, but you've made the hard calls when you've had to, like taking the lives of those infected in the Yellow Triangle, and having the sharp shooters take down those with weapons at the compound last night. You've got a good head on your shoulders, and I'm glad we got a chance to work together."

"Sir, I don't know what to say. I've been battling with this for a couple of weeks now, not sure if this is the right path for me, not sure if I can keep doing this. So much of me says that this is where I need to be, but the strain it's taking on me is making everyone around me second guess me, which makes me second guess me."

"You're doing just fine, kid. Hang in there. I'm going to tell you something it took me a long time to learn. It's okay to be proud of this work you're doing. It's important, it's powerful, and it's saving lives."

"Thank you, Colonel." Ned gave him a genuine smile.

"Until next time, Dorney!"

"Next time," Ned said, and Russel turned off his cam. Ned shook his head and ran up the ramp to tell Evelyn to come back in.

"So?" Tony asked. "What did he say?"

"That he understands what I'm going through. Did you know he's a doctor?" Ned asked, heading for the stairs to try to hide the pink he could feel in his cheeks.

"Huh. No, didn't know that." Tony and Parke followed him down the stairs.

"Yeah. He said most people don't know because it gets lost under his Colonel title, but it makes sense that a doctor would lead the decon team. You'd have to know an awful lot about biology and bioweapons, and it would take someone with medical or research background." They went back to their desks and found their seats.

"It does make sense. No one calls me Doctor Parke. They call me Special Agent Parke. Once you're branded everyone forgets the Doctor part."

Tony's cell rang and he reached for it, smiling when he saw it was Jethro.

"Very Special Agent Tony DiNozzo at your service," he said with a smile.

"Hi, Daddy," Amira said.

"Oh! Hi Munchkin! Does Gibbsy know you have his phone?" Tony heard his team snicker.

"Yeah. He's right here. I wanted to talk to you."

"You did?"

"Yeah. I missed you!"

"I miss you, too sweetheart. What are you doing?"

"I was watching cartoons, but then I got bored."

"Was Daddy Gibbsy watching cartoons with you?"

"No. He was playing with his wood stuff."

"Is he hanging out in the basement?"

"He- he was in the basement, but he said he missed me, and he brought a bunch of stuff upstairs, and now- now he's in the table room."

"The table room? You mean the dining room?" Tony asked with a chuckle.

"Yeah! That one!"

"What's he making?" Tony asked.

"I can't tell."

"Is it big or small?"

"Kinda small? Like the size of… well not as big as my head, but it's not as little as my hands." Tony smiled when he realized Jethro was working on their cake topper.

"Can I talk to him?"

"Sure! Hold on. Daddy wants to talk to you!" she yelled it without moving the phone away from her mouth, and Tony had to pull the phone away from his ear. "Here he is."

"Hey," Jethro said.

"Hey, handsome. Whatcha workin' on?" Tony asked with a smirk as quietly as possible knowing the rest of his team was eavesdropping.

"The cake thing."

"I heard you were in the basement and then moved upstairs."

"Yeah, well I didn't like her being alone up here. I got a phone call this morning though, and I needed some time with the wood."

"What happened?" Tony asked.

"Keith called me. I haven't told him what's been going on, and I missed our meeting yesterday."

"Oh, no." Tony leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling. "What happened?"

"He went to the meeting, and he told me that he understood once I told him why I wasn't there, but he was pretty let down yesterday. I'm not going to lie, I felt pretty bad."

"You couldn't have gone anyway, Jethro. Amira needed you."

"I know, but I should've called him and let him know I wasn't going to make the meeting."

"Did he go by himself?"

"Yeah."

"Good! Then he knows he doesn't need his security blanket to go, and next time you can't be there he'll have the courage to walk into the room without you."

Jethro sighed. "True enough."

"Did you call the park today?"

"Not yet. Had to get my head clear."

"I called and left Sully a voicemail, but I haven't called Marcella yet. I told my team, but I didn't tell yours, Abby or Ducky. I thought I'd leave that to you."

"Maybe I'll call Abby. She helped me book the place, maybe she can help me rebook it."

"Have her get a few dates that it's available, and we'll cross reference with Marcella and see which ones work."

"Will do."

"Hey."

"Yeah?"

"You okay?" Tony asked, not liking the tone of Jethro's voice.

"Yeah. Just tired."

"You need me to come home?" Tony asked.

"Nah," Jethro said, a smile appearing on his lips. "I got this. Just gotta get out of my head a little bit."

"Okay. Well, when I get home tonight I'll take over Amira duties and you can hide in the basement with your wood."

"When have you ever known me to hide my wood from you?" Jethro said quietly.

"You know it's so unfair to say that to me while I'm at work and my team is eavesdropping on me, right?" Tony watched as all three of his guys started shuffling around and doing random things at their desks. He chuckled to himself. "I love you and I'll see you when I get home."

"Love you, too, Tony."