Hi everyone, I just wanted to mention the fact that I've had a very mixed reaction to the Abby's pregnant thing. This isn't going to be a main plot in the story, it's really just something to mark the start and end of the story but there will be moments of McAbby in there, however they won't be major story focuses as this is a Tiva story.

Chapter Eight: Where We Goin' Boss?

It had only taken Penny an hour to disappear. One minute she had been sitting at McGee's desk, drawing away on all his expensive and highly cherished stationary, and the next time Tony looked up the three year old had vanished from the chair; expensive stationary still intact. Naturally, considering all the unfortunate places a child could end up in this particular building, he had bolted from his seat and rushed around trying to find her, a thousand possibilities rushing through his mind, all of which might have Alicia murdering him the next time they went to visit her. What if she ended up in Abby's lab and she had some particularly gruesome evidence? What if she overheard some rather choice language? What if she ended up in autopsy?

Luckily, he found her on the other side of the bullpen, badgering one of the other agents and asking him if he liked her drawing of Uncle Gibbs Drinking Coffee. He jogged over, sighing heavily. "Penny! Sorry, Marson," he shook his head. "You take your eyes off them for a second..."

Special Agent Marson, who had a ten year old daughter of his own, nodded almost sympathetically. "I know, man, don't sweat it."

Tony turned, looking down at Penny who gave him the puppy dog eyes almost instantly when she realised she was going to get a 'talking to'. "Penny, what did I tell you about when we're here at my work?" he asked her.

She cocked her head to one side, sending half of her hair sweeping over the top of her arm. "No running?"

"The other thing I told you," he prompted.

"Not to talk to strangers?"

"That's right," he nodded, folding his arms over his chest. "And that man, who was he?"

She looked up at Marson. "Secret Agent Man," she whispered guiltily.

"Who was he, Penny?" Tony asked her again.

She bowed her head. "Stranger."

"Yes, he was a stranger," Tony confirmed, pointing back to their area of the bullpen. "Come on, back to your desk, young lady."

"Daddy-"

"March," he instructed, and she walked past him with a heavy groan that would impress a teenager.

Despite being scolded, however, Penny skipped over to Gibbs' desk when she saw him take a seat and started bouncing on her heels beside him, peering over the top of his desk. Tony, on the other hand, collapsed helplessly into his chair and ran his hands over his face. "Hi, Uncle Gibbs," Penny chirped.

"And where did we run off to?" he asked her, raising a curious eyebrow.

"I was talking to a stranger."

He frowned. "That's not good, Penny, you shouldn't talk to strangers."

"He's not a stranger anymore," she pointed out to him. "He's a Secret Agent Man and Daddy called him Marson."

"He was a stranger to begin with though, wasn't he?" Gibbs told her.

She nodded, groaning again as she had done with Tony. "I know, but Daddy's working and I'm bored."

Gibbs gave her a smirk, and pulled his chair out a little. "Come and sit here with me and we'll find something for you to do while Daddy actually does his work and goes to see your Auntie Abby down in the garage."

Tony raised his head. "Boss-"

"Go, DiNozzo, she's okay up here."

"Yes, boss," he said, getting to his feet and heading to the elevator. On a second thought, he went and leant over Gibbs' desk, locking eyes with Penny as he ruffled her hair. "Be good," he told her. "Please."

--

"Do you know how to fight?" Penny asked Gibbs, sometime after Tony had gone down to the garage.

Gibbs looked up from the email he had been frowning at. "Yes."

"Did you ever punch someone in the head?" she pried further, spinning on McGee's chair, which she had brought over to sit on.

"Yes."

"Did you ever punch someone so hard that their head came off?" she asked him.

He frowned at her. He was happy to answer her questions, but there was some questions that a three year old shouldn't be able to form coherantly. Asking if he had punched someone's head clean off their neck was one of them. Just what movie had Tony let her watch? "No," he told her, giving her a strange look.

"Oh," she said, almost dejectedly. "Can you kill a guy with your bare hands?"

He sighed, drinking the remainder of his coffee before answering. "Yes."

Penny's eyes widened, looking at him with awe. "You're so hardcore, Uncle Gibbs," she told him in a loud whisper.

Gibbs was saved from any futher interrogation by the little girl when Tony came back from the garage. Both of them looked up as he came back, a look of varying expectation on both of their faces; Gibbs wanting answers, but Penny wanting praise for behaving. "We found two sets of prints hidden on the top side of the trunk, Abby's running them through AFIS now and said she'd call when she gets a hit," he said, sitting himself down at his desk and tapping away at his keyboard and then writing something down from the screen onto a nearby piece of paper.

Gibbs looked at Penny, and then back to Tony. "DiNozzo, did you sit her in front of a James Bond film by any chance?" he asked.

Tony looked at him as if he were crazy. "Abby?"

"Penny."

He nodded. "From Russia With Love." Gibbs stared at him and as usual, he caved under the glare. "I don't have many kids films, boss. Any, actually."

"I suggest you get some," Gibbs told him, before realising that the look of distraction covering Tony's face now probably meant that he wasn't really listening to a word he was saying. He turned to Penny and spoke quietly to her. "Penny, can you finish up this important work for me while I talk to your dad?"

"What have I gotta do?" she asked him.

He turned out a draft print of a service record and turned it over. "It needs a picture of a bunny on it."

She looked at him, screwing up her nose in concentration. "A bunny with little pointy ears or big floppy ears?"

"Whichever one you think is prettiest," he told her, before standing up and going over to Tony's desk. He leaned his hands on it and spoke quietly so that Penny didn't hear what he was saying. "How's her mother?" he asked.

Tony shook his head slowly. "She looked beter, but...but she's not getting better. She won't. It's nearly the end."

"Does Penny know that?"

"No, I don't think so," he said, realising that they hadn't actually talked about it. "I just don't know what to do," he admitted, leaning forwards and resting his fists against his forehead.

"What is your gut telling you to do?" Gibbs asked him.

Tony was silent for a moment, as if he were actually trying to ask his gut, but then he shook his head again. "I'm not sure it's telling me anything."

"Your gut will always be telling you something," he told him.

He looked up. "What's yours telling you, boss?"

Gibbs looked over at Penny, who was happily drawing her bunny without a care in the world. Occassionally she would stop, put the pen down, and put her loose hair behind her ears and over her shoulders so that it stopped getting in her way. "You have a daughter now, DiNozzo, and you have to realise that she's not going anywhere," he said, looking back to Tony who was also watching Penny. "When her mother's gone, she's going to be scared and she's going to miss her, so you need to fight to help her get through this."

He nodded, almost obediently. "Fight for her, right."

"She might fight against you and everything you try and do for her, or she might not, but you've got to be gentle and patient. You need to take things slowly - at her pace."

"At her pace," he nodded again. "Got it."

"DiNozzo?"

"Yes, boss?"

"Is there a reason why you're writing your case notes onto a drawing of a cat?"

Tony looked down at what he had been writing on, finding that his previously blank notepad had been covered with a half-torn piece of paper. Sure enough, there was a picture of a cat, and even though it wasn't named it was clear that Penny had drawn it. He looked at it sadly, remembering a time from his childhood; a time when he'd draw pictures of 'daddy and me', slip them onto his father's desk in the study, and wait and see if he ever appreciated them. Pictures that he poured all of his little artistic skill into. Pictures that he would screw up if they weren't perfect enough to show his father. Pictures that were never looked at. Pictures that were covered by more important pieces of paper on his desk. Pictures that were ignored and left to be brushed into the trash.

"What if I turn out like my father?" he asked softly, not taking his eyes off of the wobbly lined picture.

Gibbs looked at him. "That's what you're worried about?"

"Yeah, I kinda thought it was a big deal."

Gibbs pointed at Pennny. "Look at her, DiNozzo. You got her out of a place where she was being mistreated. You're nothing like your father."

"But what if I fail her, boss?"

"Penny loves you, Tony," he said, a little less stern than he had been before. "She thinks the world of you and she's only known you for a day. You're not going to fail her unless you don't fight for her."

He shook his head. "It isn't that simple."

"Maybe not," he acknowledged, "but it doesn't change anything. She loves you."

He looked up, frowning slightly. "She tell you that?"

"She tell you?" he challenged back. Tony was silent for a moment, remebing how he had put her into bed last night and she had mumbled those words. Love you daddy. "That's what I thought," Gibbs said, as his cellphone rang in his pocket. He listened for a moment and then hung up. "That was Abby."

"We got a hit from AFIS?"

"Our missing marine isn't as missing as we thought. Gear up."

Tony grabbed his back and threw on his jacket. "Where we going, boss?"

"Norfolk," Gibbs said.

"What about Penny?"

Gibbs stopped in his tracks, looking back at the girl who was sitting innocently at his desk. She watched them with their bags and then slid off the chair, going over to Tony's desk. She picked up her own bag, holding it in one hand, copying Tony's stance. Spotting Tony's baseball cap on the corner of his desk she put it on her head, despite the fact it was miles too big for her, and then looked up at Gibbs.

"Where we goin', boss?" she asked, in a true mimic of her father.

Tony watched her, a tiny smile crossing his face as if his heart was swelling with pride. In his lack of reaction, Gibbs knealt down to Penny's level, turning the hat on her head so that it wasn't so crooked. "You, Penny, are going to do some very important forensics work," he told her.

She cocked her head to one side. "What's 'rensics?"

--

Leaving for Norfolk would usually take less than three minutes, accounting for any of Gibbs' pep talks or scolding in the elevator. However, at the moment they had still been in the building for a further ten minutes and this time wasn't looking to end as Tony tried to leave the lab. Of course, this wasn't easy considering Penny had sat on the floor and wound all her limbs around Tony's lower leg. Ziva stood waiting in the doorway, and Abby was leaning against one of her lab worktops, both women not wanting to get involved but also curious as to how Tony, who had much experience with leaving behind clingy women, was going to get Penny to let go of him.

"Let go, Penny, I have to go," he told her.

"Don't go away, Daddy!" she cried out.

"I'm not going away, I'm just going out for a bit," he corrected.

She looked up at him, frowning and scrutinising his face. "Just a bit?"

"I won't be long," he assured her.

"So you're coming back?"

"Yes, I'm coming back," he nodded.

"Do you promise?"

This question stopped him. He even stopped struggling to release her arms from around his knee. He couldn't promise that, not really. There were dangers with their job; so many dangers. Kate struck his memory. She had said one morning that with their job they could die any time they walk out the door, and on that same mission she had been shot by a sniper.

In his silence, Ziva approached them. She crouched down to the ground and touched Penny's shoulder to alert her attention. "Penny, your father is coming right back, but right now he needs to go and do his work," she explained.

"But I don't want him to go," she whined.

"He has to, Penny."

"But, Ziva-"

"I have an idea," Ziva said, giving her a smile. "If you promise to be a good girl and play with Abby, then I promise I will look after your father for you. Does that sound like a good idea?" she compromised.

Penny turned her scrutinising gaze to Ziva now. "You promise to bring him home?"

She nodded. "I promise."

She thought about this for a moment, and then nodded, releasing Tony's leg from her grasp. "'Kay" she surrendered. Tony ruffled her hair, which Penny immediately smoothed out again. "Be good, okay?" he told her. "If I remember I'll get us some ice cream for dinner tonight." This brought a smile to her lips, and he had to follow suit. "That's better, a smile."

"Bye, Daddy," she said, hugging his legs again but this time letting go with no intention to imprison him in her arms. "I love you."

"Bye, Pen," he replied, not adding on the decleration at the end, but Penny seemed not to notice this nor be bothered by it. Ziva, on the other hand raised a curious eyebrow, locking eyes with Abby but neither woman wanted to be the one who raised the conversation while Penny was still in the room.

As Tony and Ziva left the lab, Penny turned on the spot and looked at her newest aunt for a long time, taking in the pigtails, the tattoos, and the dark make up. "You're my Auntie Abby?" she asked.

Abby grinned. "Sure are."

"I don't have any other aunties," Penny said, pleased with this. "I got an Uncle Gibbs and an Uncle Probie now, but not any aunties."

"What about Auntie Ziva?" Abby asked, as she lifted Penny onto the stool beside her and passed her a smaller decaffeinated caff-pow.

"She's not an auntie," Penny revealed.

"She's not?"

"No, she's just my Ziva."

Abby smirked. "Your Ziva?"

She nodded. "Yeah, she's Daddy's partner."

"Well," Abby said, as they both took a long sip of their drinks, slurping on the straws. "I'm like your daddy's sister."

Penny looked at her strangely. "Daddy hasn't got a sister."

"I know," she replied. "That's why he's got me."

"Oh!" Penny said, as she understood. "I like your hair," she sidetracked.

Abby twirled her hair. "Thanks, Penny. You know, your hair would look great in pigtails," she said, making the shape of a photo frame with her thumbs and forefingers to place before Penny's face.

Penny scrunched up her nose. "I never had pigtails before."

At this, Abby was completely shocked. "Never?" Penny shook her head. "Well, I think we have our first mission, Pen-Pen."

--

When Tony arrrived back much later that afternoon, it was starting to get dark already. He went down to the lab rather than to his desk and found Penny fast asleep in Abby's chair. Abby saw him enter and grinned at him. "Hey, you're back! Got anything for me?"

He shook his head. "Someone got to him before we did. Took two in the chest before we got there." He looked over at Penny, taking in her peaceful face. "She okay?"

"She's fine. She missed you, though," Abby told him, as she stood behind in the second doorway, watching her sleep.

"She has pigtails," he noticed.

"I know, poor kid never had pigatils before. Had to fix that."

"You gave her pigtails," Tony repeated as if she didn't quite understand the importance of this.

"Yeah, she loves them," she grinned. "Doesn't she look the cutest?"

He turned to her. "Abby, you've made her fall in love with a hairstyle that I can't do," he said to her.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "I didn't know you could do any hairstyles," she probed.

"That's not the point, Abs."

"Relax, Tony. This is what Auntie Abby is for," she reminded him.

He sighed, relaxing. "Thanks for this, Abby."

"No problem," she waved off. "I was nice to have company other than McGee down here for a change."

"How long has she been asleep for?"

"About an hour now," Abby said, checking her watch. "She tried to stay awake until you came back, but eventually caved in."

"Okay," he nodded. "Well, Gibbs is letting us off early as we don't have to deal with the paperwork, so I'm taking her home."

"You two gonna be okay?" Abby asked him, as he went over to the chair and lifted her into his arms, managing not to wake her.

"Yeah, Ziva's coming with us," he said offhandedly.

"Oh?"

He gave her a look, stopping whatever was running through her mind. "It's nothing, Abs. She really helped us out last night, so I'm cooking her dinner to say thanks."

"You're cooking?" Abby asked, feigning terror.

"It's a special occassion," he said. She didn't believe him, and folded her arms over her chest to prove that. "Okay, not that special...we're getting take out, but I'm paying."

"Wow, good to see chivalry isn't dead," she said sarcastically as she turned back to her computers.

"See you tomorrow, Abs," he called back as they left the lab.