Disclaimer: See chapter 1

Chapter 9

That evening, Tony had driven to collect Emily from her babysitter. Even though he knew he had to work the following morning, and she would either stay with someone else for the day, or go in with him, he didn't care. He was just happy to see his daughter again, for the first time in over 3 months. He knocked on the door and waited for an answer. After a couple of minutes, the door opened to reveal a short woman in her mid-forties. "Hello?" She asked.

"Hello, you must be Mrs Davies. I'm Tony DiNozzo, Emily's dad." He extended his hand for her to shake, and he could see the recognition appear on her face.

"Well, don't just stand there, come in." She practically dragged him inside before shutting the door behind him. "Emily?" She called up the stairs. Soon the sound of tiny feet plodding down the stairs. As soon as the young girl realised who it was, she sped up and jumped into her fathers open arms.

"Daddy!"

"Hey Sweetheart. Have you been a good girl today?" She nodded, but he looked over at Mrs Davies for confirmation. When she smiled he grinned back and enveloped Emily in a big hug. "I've missed you so much." He could feel the tears forming in his eyes. He kissed her on the head before picking her up properly and walking over the Mrs Davies. "Is it ok if we leave soon? I want to get back before she needs to go to bed."

"That's fine. I packed her a bag for when you arrived. Do you know how long she's likely to be with you?" He shook his head. "Don't worry, I'm sure Kate will tell me when she gets back." They exchanged goodbyes, and Tony and Emily left to head back to Washington.

Back at Tony's apartment, Emily settled in fine and they watched a few of the Disney DVDs he owned before he noticed her eyes slowly drooping. He picked her up and took her into his spare room. "Read me a story?"

"Ok. What would you like?"

"How you and Mommy met." She giggled.

"Well, I'm sure Mommy is a much better story teller then me, but I'll have a go. Hmmm let me see.

"It was a cold winter's night and Tony was stuck on Patrol duty in the local park. Nothing normally happened on the patrols, but whenever they're not there, something seemed to happen. Unfortunately, that night was an unusual night when more then just a few people hanging around in the bushes needed to be told to move on. As he walked around the main path, he noticed a woman walking the other way passed the thick tree line. He smiled at her when she looked up, and she smiled back. Some youths nearby, however, seemed to have either not noticed him standing there or chose to ignore him, as they decided to take the woman's bag. What they didn't realise was that she was a Secret agent who could tackle a grown man twice her size to the ground with just a flick of her wrist…"

"Daddy!" Emily giggled again.

"Sorry, got a little carried away there, perhaps that's not quite true." He smiled before continuing his story. "Well,

"She was a Secret Service agent, who could stick tackle men to the ground, so a bunch of youths was nothing. Tony was about to go over and help her when she started to attack the youths, and he soon realised that she didn't need his help, but he stood and watched as the youths walked away ashamed and painful. The woman noticed him still looking at her and walked over to him. "What you're not going to help a damsel in distress?"

"You seemed to have it all under control." He smiled at her. "I'm Tony by the way."

"Kate." They shook hands.

"Those were some moves back there. Think you could show me? With perhaps dinner, a bottle of wine, some music…" She laughed. She didn't normally say yes to strangers who asked her out, but there was something about him that was different. She nodded and he grabbed her, and jumped in the air dancing."

"What happened in the dinner?" Emily asked sleepily.

"That is something you can hear another time, when you're a little older perhaps."

"I'm nearly 5." She mumbled before yawning and falling asleep. He kissed her on the forehead and left the room.

On Air Force One, the President again boarded, and greeted Agent Baer and Kate, congratulating them on a job well done. Kate was surprised that Agent Baer didn't kick up much of a fuss over Gibbs travelling aboard. Agent Baer stepped into the nearby office. "He's here because his gut's still churning isn't he?"

She nodded, "Yes sir. I suppose you could put it that way."

He turned to look at her, "Well so is mine."

Back at NCIS, Abby was complaining that she couldn't find anything to indicate foul play. "Ducky I have tested everything. Mineral acids, organic acids, alkaloids, bacterial poisons."

"You know Abby, nature always proves to be a far more illusive and powerful killer than man." He left her with that thought.

"Expect him to drop?" Kate asked Gibbs the following day who was staring at a major eating their lunch aboard Air Force One. He sipped his coffee, and turned to her, before sitting down beside her.

"I see you're over the flu."

"24-hour bug. Tim got over it yesterday. Tim is Major Kerry."

"Yeah I kinda figured that." He replied with a sort of 'duh' look on his face.

"I met him for a drink yesterday. I told him we had to stop seeing each other. Partly because of the job, and partly because of Tony. We hadn't been dating long. I mean, we knew each other on the detail for a couple months before we started...dating. You know, when you're on the job 24/7, how else do you get to know someone?"

He flashed her a smile, "Church."

Back in Abby's lab, she was still testing for the poison. Unfortunately, each test she did came up 'negative.' When the next one gave the same result, she sighed and took another test tube to try again.

Tony walked into the lab carrying Emily. "Hey Abbs." He called the lab rat over the loud music. Emily was covering her ears to mute some of the noise.

"Hey Tony." She turned around and noticed Emily. "Is this Emily?" She nearly screamed. "She looks so much like you!" The 5 year old giggled shyly and buried her head into her father's neck.

"Say hello to Abby." Tony instructed his daughter. Slowly she unpoked her head and gave Abby a little wave. "Is it ok if she stays with you for a while? I've got a case come up."

"Sure no problem. She can sleep on the futon is she wants or she can watch me." Abby suddenly got really excited, "Can I do her hair in pigtails?" Tony was shaking his head venomously, but Emily seemed excited, and stretched her arms for Abby to catch her.

"You sure it's fine?" Tony asked again. She nodded, and so he sighed, kissed Emily on the forehead and left the lab.

"It's just us girls now Emily, and we're gonna rule the world. Ha ha ha." Abby told the little girl as she spun her round, who just giggled.

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