This is just a random fic idea that popped into my head. It fits the shows canon post season 11, which I've rarely done before. Hope you enjoy

It was just as he was about to call it a night that he heard them. The lid was back on the bourbon bottle, the scalpel was wiped down and the floor had been swept. He was about to add just a dab of polish to the topside of the frame when a light set of footsteps caught his attention. They were slow—hesitant, if he had to guess—like a gentle flutter on the draft coming into the basement. He almost kicked himself for not noticing them earlier, even this many years after retirement. He'd only ever known one person who could come this close to sneaking up on him, so when he looked up to the top of the stairs he found himself shocked to see it wasn't her.

It was someone who looked an awful lot like her, though.

''Tali?''

The teenager managed to give him a wave, but she seemed visibly upset about something. He could see it in the way she chewed on her bottom lip like her mother always did when something was bothering her. The very small smile she offered in greeting—the one replaced by an unsure frown a moment later—that was all DiNozzo.

''Who brought you?'' he asked, despite his gut telling him the answer already.

Tali's feet dropped down a step or two as she winced. ''I, uh, yeah…'' she reached up and scratched the back of head nervously. ''About that…''

Gibbs gave her a stern look. ''Kid—''

''I may have come here on my own.''

He nodded, eyes narrowing. ''Right. Your parents know where you are?''

She at least had the grace to look guilty, and her non-answer was all he needed.

''You really think running off on them like that is a good idea?''

An all too familiar fight lit up her eyes. ''I took a cab. I didn't do anything stupid.''

God, he was too old for this crap. He didn't realise his open-door policy would be inadvertently extended to his former colleagues' offspring. With a heavy sigh, he tried to decide how to approach this situation. He could either completely stay out of it and call Tony or Ziva, or he could try and help the kid resolve whatever issue she was clearly having. Something about the way her eyes suddenly started darting around the room reminded him so much of her mom that he couldn't bring himself to be mad at her. Maybe he was getting soft.

Her eyes snapped back to him, and for a few seconds they just looked at each other expectantly. He guessed that she was still too young to fully understand how he operated, because most people knew that he mostly didn't do the talking. But if she needed to speak, he'd let her speak. And then he would definitely make the call because Tony and Ziva were probably about to go on a rampage looking for her.

''Ok.''

''Is that a question?'' she asked.

Gibbs lifted his eyebrows. ''Are you going to tell me what's going on?''

''Oh, right.''

Once it was clear that she'd caught on, she completed her descent and sat down on the final step. He could see her eyes grow a little watery now, and if he wasn't mistaken a flash of anger marred her features, if only for a few seconds. He suspected he knew where this was directed. She wiped at the corner of her eyes and rolled them to herself just as he pulled a stool over and parked himself on it.

''Fourteen-year-old girl running away from home,'' Tali shook her head. ''How cliché. It's like something out of one of those daytime movies Dad hates.'' She let loose a self-aware smile. ''I used to think the girls in those movies were such idiots.''

Gibbs couldn't help but smirk. ''You're nothing like them.''

''Well, apparently I am.''

He shook his head. ''You're not an idiot.''

''Then why am I here?'' she asked, shoulders sagging.

''You tell me.''

She started playing with her own fingers—a nervous tick her dad must have given her—and maybe ten seconds passed before she spoke again or maybe a whole minute did. Gibbs wasn't sure because one thing he'd learned in his old age was patience, so it didn't matter too much to him. He could wait as long as necessary.

''Ima finally told me.''

Again, Gibbs was confident he knew what she was talking about, but he thought it was probably important that he fed her the right sequential questions in order for her to get everything straight in her head. ''Told you what, exactly?''

There was that fleeting look of anger again. ''About what happened when I was younger.''

Gibbs gave her a slow nod. ''She was always worried how this day would go.''

Tali scoffed. ''Well, what did she expect exactly? It's crazy. All of it.''

''Do you blame her for it?''

Her gaze drifted off into some far away land as she thought about that, and again it took a fair few seconds before she responded vocally. ''All the stuff that happened when me and Dad were in Paris. You know, all that ex-spy, Jason Bourne style, life threatening stuff? I don't blame her for that. She was keeping us safe. At least, that's how they both explained it.'' Her eyes went heavenward, and her voice fell a few octaves. ''God, I always remembered Dad being weird back then. Like he hated sitting still.''

Gibbs smiled fondly. ''He was never great at that.''

''I was so young,'' she sighed to herself as tears visibly started forming again. ''But I remember him being sad sometimes. He would sit there—when he thought I wasn't looking or had fallen asleep—'' This time she cut herself off with an audible sob. ''He would just sit there and look really sad. I didn't get it back then. But now I do.''

''He had to stay strong.''

She nodded. ''I know. I just can't believe he would go months without knowing where she was, or if she was even alive,'' There was a mixture of fondness and awe on her face. ''I don't know how he did it. How either of them did it.''

Gibbs shrugged, because to him the answer was simple, even if the situation had been far from it. ''For you.''

Tali took a few quiet moments to gather her thoughts and take a few breaths. ''I'm not mad about that part,'' she insisted a little more calmly. ''My mother has a past that I'll probably only ever learn a tiny fraction of, and that's ok. I know she isn't proud of some of it, but I know she is a good person. That's all that matters.''

This kid was wise beyond her years, and Gibbs couldn't help but feel pride warm his insides at hearing how compassionate she was. Tony and Ziva had done ok as far as he was concerned. ''Ziva's always been a good person,'' he promised her. ''You can trust me on that.''

Not for the first time since she'd turned up, her whole body seemed to deflate. ''Then why did she not tell Dad about me?'' The way the words left her mouth almost made them sound like pleas. Like she was begging to get to the bottom of this mystery that she just couldn't wrap her head around. ''Two years of my life where he didn't even know I existed?''

Gibbs would be lying if he told her he understood why Ziva had made that decision. At first he thought that maybe she simply hadn't wanted to disrupt Tony's life, and that maybe a part of her expected him to reject her and the child outright. But surely she knew DiNozzo better than that? Honestly, looking back, it seemed ridiculous to imagine him reacting any way but the way he did when he eventually met his daughter for the first time. Determined, committed and loyal.

Loving.

But this was all in the past, and that means nothing could change any of it.

''So, that's why you're...'' he trailed off as the best way to describe her current mood escaped him. He never got as far as the teens with Kelly, so he was in somewhat uncharted waters.

''Pissed off? Yeah.''

Gibbs simply nodded again. ''Did your mom tell you why she did it?''

Tali wiped at her eye again and scrunched her nose. ''Just something about how she was going through a really bad, self-punishing phase where she wouldn't let herself try and feel happy,'' she waved a dismissive hand and raised the other one to rub her forehead. ''Not sure I fully buy it.''

''She'd been through a lot. Even back then.''

Confusion appeared again in the form of a frown. ''But she still had Dad. She still had you guys.''

''Not when you were born,'' he argued as gently as possible.

Tali got to her feet with an exasperated gasp. ''And who's fault is that?'' And then she was pacing. It was easy to forget that this wasn't Ziva at times. ''I mean, it just makes me so mad, you know?'' The air took a decent throttling from her hands. ''How could she do that to him? After everything they'd been through.''

Gibbs watched Tali run her fingers over the wooden frame on his floor. ''She was scared'' he offered.

That earned him a dismissive scoff. ''Scared of what?''

''Maybe you should ask her.''

She span back to face him again, hands on hips. ''I'm not sure I can handle any more of her answers.''

Gibbs twisted in his stool to face her more easily. ''Well, I'm not sure you'll find my answers any more useful.''

''But you know stuff.''

He narrowed his eyes. ''I know stuff?''

She finished her lap of the basement and seemed to have found herself a small piece of sandpaper to fiddle with. ''Yeah. Ima always tells me that you're the best person to talk to when your thoughts are all scattered and messy. You know in Bruce Almighty when Jim Carrey first starts hearing everyone's prayers? And it, like, overloads his mind? Well, that's what my brain is like right now.''

Tali must have known that most movie references were lost on Gibbs, but that never seemed to deter a DiNozzo.

''And all these thoughts are pop-pop-popping in my head. Some make me sad. Some make me really angry and some terrify me.'' She stopped her pacing abruptly again when she was about five feet away. ''My parents are going to kill me aren't they?''

It took Gibbs a few moments to catch up. ''They'll be worried.''

''But two years, Gibbs,'' she re-emphasised. ''Am I not allowed to be a little bit pissed off?''

''Maybe you are,'' he nodded. ''But I don't think either of them deserve what you're probably putting them through right now.''

That look of guilt he spotted earlier re-appeared on her face, this time for longer. ''I just had to…'' she trailed off after her fist clenched.

''I get it,'' he assured her.

''I just keep thinking,'' she continued thickly. ''That if it wasn't for Ima being forced to go on the run, I might never have met my own father.'' This time a single tear escaped and rolled down her cheek. ''And it makes me sick.''

Gibbs understood. He really did. But, again, nothing could change any of it. ''But you do know him.''

''He must have been angry too. Back then, I mean.''

He tried to remember the details about how DiNozzo reacted to all of this on that fateful day. The poor guy had barely had a second to process the fact that woman he loved was supposedly dead before he was introduced to his daughter. The one he wasn't even aware existed. Yes, Gibbs remembered him being angry at times. But you could see that he had a new-found purpose to help him through the grief, and being a father was something he threw himself head-first into.

''At first,'' Gibbs confirmed with a nod. ''But then he realised that he was all you had.''

Tali smiled slightly. ''I'm not sure I've ever seen him angry before.''

''That might change tonight.''

She raised her eyebrows in acknowledgement. ''Probably.''

''Tali,'' he sighed. ''None of what happened can be changed.''

The workbench seemed to be her place of interest now, and she dropped the sandpaper in favour of a random dry paintbrush. ''I'm aware of that,'' she drawled, running the brush through her fingers.

''Just like you can't change the fact that everything worked out in the end.''

She looked back over to him with a small frown. It seemed as though she hadn't put that into consideration.

''You all ended up together,'' he elaborated. ''You all love each other. Your mom made some choices back then that she still beats herself up over, but she would do anything for her family.''

Tali took a deep breath and leaned forward, resting both hands on the surface of the workbench. ''It sounds like she's already been through hell for us.'' Her eyes were distant again. Contemplating. ''I know how strong she is. I just…'' She cleared her throat, possibly fighting back more tears. ''I just can't imagine my life without Dad in it. And all this time, I never knew how close that was to being the reality. It's just crazy.''

Gibbs got to his feet with a quiet groan, hobbling slightly as he approached her. When he was a few feet away, he turned around and leaned against the bench, facing the opposite wall to Tali. ''There was a time back in...'' He paused to try and remember exactly what year it was. ''I want to say '04 when your Dad got the plague.''

''Wait, what!?''

''He never told you about that?''

The obvious shock on her face was telling. ''No! I mean, I remember Ima telling me he was really sick once and that it scarred his lungs, but the plague? Seriously?!''

Gibbs nodded, remembering how surprised he was at the time. ''Oh, yeah.''

''How does that even happen?''

''Someone sent him a letter in the mail at NCIS that was full of powder. Turned out it gave him the plague.''

Tali's eyes widened. ''That's unbelievable.''

Gibbs definitely agreed. ''You should ask him about it some time.''

''Oh, I'm going to,'' she confirmed with a quick raise of her eyebrows. ''You know, most of my friends have parents who came straight out of college and got a nice quiet office job and never had to go on the run from killers or survive the plague or fight terrorists or do any of the other crazy things mine have done.''

He smirked. ''Your parents aren't normal.''

''I noticed. I'm just wondering how far down this rabbit hole goes.''

That was probably another reference he should've got. ''You're right, though.''

''Hmm?'' She looked over to him.

''DiNozzo survived the plague,'' he recalled, still feeling a twinge of relief, even to this day. ''Very nearly didn't.''

She ran a hand through her curly hair. ''I feel like that's something he should be bragging about constantly.''

''He got it all out of his system back then.''

Tali chuckled. ''I can believe that. But why are you telling me this?''

''Because if he died that week, he would never have met your mom, and you would never have existed.''

A grin slowly formed on her face after a few seconds of what looked like deep confusion. ''But that doesn't matter because that's not how it happened. Right?''

This kid was too smart for her own good, and he couldn't help but smile. ''Exactly,'' he affirmed, holding out his fingers with a tiny gap between them. ''We were this close to facing a reality where you didn't exist—a reality none of us ever want to imagine—but that doesn't matter because we never had to face it.''

Tali nodded. ''It all worked out,'' she repeated his words from earlier.

''It all worked out.''

''Just like it did with our family.''

''Yup.''

She frowned back at him. ''I'm guessing that wasn't the only time he nearly got killed in some ridiculous way?''

Gibbs let out an honest to God, genuine laugh. ''Nope. Him and Ziva were always getting into trouble.''

''Together?''

''More often than not.''

Tali turned quiet again for a few moments as she completely freed her hand of all things paintbrush or sandpaper related. Gibbs could hear the gears turning in her head. It seemed as though she had Tony's knack for thinking out loud when it benefitted her, but when it came to the important things she preferred Ziva's method of quietly thinking it through. Maybe her thoughts were finally arranging themselves into a less scattered and messy ensemble.

''I was so happy the day Ima came home,'' she told him after a while. ''In Paris, when she came through the door, I literally felt like I could fly.'' Gibbs smiled along with her. ''I just couldn't believe that I suddenly had both my parents. They were both crying. I didn't understand why at the time, but I never asked. I was too busy losing my mind.''

Gibbs felt his own heart warm somewhat at the image in his head. Those two had more than earned a shot at happiness at that point.

''I never thought I could be happier than that,'' she continued, her tone now barely a murmur. ''But now I realise that both of them have made me feel that way a thousand times since then.''

''You're everything to them,'' Gibbs shrugged. ''Which is why you need to call them now and let them know where you are.''

Tali's hand suddenly slapped against her forehead as she gasped. ''Oh, God, I'm such an idiot.''

He shook his head. ''No, you're not. But you're definitely their daughter.''

''How's that?'' she frowned.

''You're a pain in the ass.''

This time she snorted, before bursting out into a small fit of laughter that was as familiar as it was infectious. Gibbs found himself chuckling, too, and was pretty sure in that moment that, whatever this kid went on to do with her life, it was going to be something special. He would never tell her parents this, but he was pretty certain she'd picked up the best traits from both of them.

Gibbs' heard someone upstairs, and, sure enough, Tali stopped laughing abruptly when something caught her eye at the entrance to the basement. Her smile fell and her eyes dropped to the floor. It was like seeing a puppy who'd been caught misbehaving and couldn't bare to face their owner. Gibbs looked over and saw his former senior field agent making his way down towards them. His hair had pretty much turned full grey now, though DiNozzos always seemed to age without compromising too much on their style.

No words were spoken, even when Tony stopped on the hard floor and stared at Tali with a look that was hard to read. At least, his expression was, anyway, because his eyes were full of history and worry and love. Eventually, his daughter looked up to bravely face the wrath she was surely expecting, but it never came. Tony simply took another few steps forward and let out a heavy sigh. It could have been from exhaustion or relief.

''You know,'' Tony calmly stated after a while. ''If you were trying to give your old man a heart attack then I have to give credit for the effort.''

Tali deflated again, much like she'd done a few times when she'd first arrived, and her face crumbled as she burst into tears. And suddenly they were embracing. Her arms flung around Tony, and he returned the hug with equal enthusiasm. Gibbs smiled to himself. In this reality, they were family. That was all that mattered.

''I'm sorry,'' Tali sobbed against her father.

Tony nodded over her shoulder. ''I know.''

''Is Ima mad?''

''She'll just be glad you're safe.''

She sniffed. ''Are you mad?''

Tony pulled back from the hug and frowned in consideration. ''A little bit. Is that fair?''

Tali smiled, in spite of everything and wiped away at her eyes. ''Yeah.''

As if on cue, Tony's cell started ringing. He gave Tali a small wince as he pulled it from his pocket. ''That'll be your mother. She's probably assembled the Avengers by now.'' He smiled at Tali's returning laugh, before sliding on the phone screen to answer. ''Hey. Yeah, I got her. You were right. We'll be home before you can say 'basement'. We'll all talk then, ok?'' He looked down at Tali again with a fond smile. ''You can tell her yourself in about 20 minutes.''

Tali frowned just as Tony hung up the phone. ''What did she want to tell me?''

He shook his head. ''Oh, I don't know. Something about loving you and that she's not mad at you.''

''Dad…''

Tony's face shifted into a more serious expression. ''She's been beating herself up for years over this, Tals. She was terrified this is how you'd react.''

She took another deep breath. ''Well,'' she began, before glancing at Gibbs for a second. ''It's all in the past. And I've decided it doesn't matter what happened or didn't happen back when I was a baby, because it all worked out OK in the end. Right?''

Tony took a few moments to process that before he turned a knowing smile at Gibbs. ''Has Gandalf the Grey been giving you life advice, by any chance?''

''You looked in the mirror lately, DiNozzo?''

Tali laughed at the exchange. ''He's more like Gandalf the White, Dad.''

Tony's smile grew for split second, before he dropped it. ''Thanks, Gibbs.''

Gibbs simply waved a dismissive hand. ''Hey, my door's always open.''

''Hope she wasn't too much trouble.''

He shrugged. ''She's a DiNozzo. I'm used to it.''

Tony winked at him, before wrapping his arm around Tali's shoulders. ''Come on then, kiddo, let's get you home.''

''I really am sorry, you know,'' Tali told him as they headed towards the stairs.

''Have I ever told you about Gibbs' rules?''

Tali scoffed. ''Only, like, a million times.''

''Oh, right.''

''You never told me about the time you got the plague, though.''

Tony stopped in his tracks and turned to look back at Gibbs. ''How much does she know?''

Gibbs just tilted his head. ''I left plenty of blanks for you to fill in.''

''Great,'' Tony gave him a wince and a thumbs up, before turning around again and following Tali up the steps. ''I can tell you about it in the car.''

Tali turned back when she reached the doorway and sent Gibbs a smile that rivalled the man behind her. ''Thank you, Gibbs.''

He simply gave them a salute as they disappeared into the night. With a puff of his cheeks, he wondered if these people would ever stop arriving at his place unannounced. Hell, even the next generation seem to be following in the footsteps of his former agents. The part of himself he kept well-hidden reminded him that he didn't mind it all that much, however. You do what you have to for family.

Maybe it was time to re-open that whiskey.