So Veronica Van Derlickt is the name I made up for Tony's ex-girlfriend who married Detective Kemp back in 'Silent Night' because we never do learn her name. Okay so I'm a bit late in this holiday/Christmas story but it's only like two weeks late. Also, Angie's Doll Boutique is a real place in Alexandria, VA.

Spoilers: 7x10 'Faith'

"Want to do something this Saturday?" asked Jimmy as they walked back from the small café where they had lunch.

"Sorry, can't, going to find a tree this Saturday."

"Huh."

"You know that I do this every year, Jimmy," Tony reminded him.

"And every year I can't help but be surprised."

"Why?"

"Because you've never struck me as a real tree type, Tony."

"Tradition," Tony replied with a shrug.

--

Five-year-old Tony DiNozzo raced excitedly through the rows of trees at the Danielson tree farm, he loved this tradition, his mother told him last year that before he was born his father would sometimes come but after he was born she decided that picking out the tree would be a Tony and Mommy tradition the then four-year-old didn't have any protests over that fact. He had been afraid that this year they would not go because his mommy was sad all the time now but then December arrived on Monday and his mommy started to not be sad all the time. She had surprised him at breakfast by telling him that today they were going to Mr. Danielson's farm right after breakfast, Tony didn't need any more encouragement to finish his omelet and in no time flat he was racing down the main staircase, almost vibrating with excitement. He skidded to a stop in the main hall where his mother was explaining to James, the household driver, that no, he did not have to drive them to the Danielson farm because 'she did not get an American driver's license for the heck of it, thank you very much'.

For his part, James just looked amused but handed over the keys good-naturedly. "Angie," he said referring to his mother with the nickname the entire staff did, "you've still got that spunk."

"We'll be back by dinner," Angela DiNozzo replied with a smile before she started the engine of the car.

The ride to the Danielson farm was spent singing along with the radio and by the time, Angela had parked the car Tony practically shot out of the car like a cannon ball. Angela just laughed and raced to catch up with her bundle of energy on two small legs, leave it to her son to resemble the pinball in a pinball machine.

"Mummy! Mummy! What about this tree?" asked the little boy excitedly pointing to a stout Balsam Fir tree with full branches.

Angela stopped and walked slowly around the tree as she thought about how this tree would look in their home. Finally, she turned around and saw the eager face of her son. "I think this tree is perfect, Anthony," she said and Tony's face broke out into a big grin.

--

So, Jimmy, what are your plans this Christmas?" asked Tony a couple of days later.

"Staying in DC."

"Really?"

"Yeah, Lauren and the kids and my parents are coming to DC this time around."

"So you're going to have Christmas at your place?"

"Yeah, what are your plans?"

"Dunno, bumming around DC, I guess."

"You're not spending any time with the Bradshaws?" asked Jimmy referring to the elderly couple who lived in the house across the street. Their children were grown up, Margaret and Charles Bradshaw had taken a liking to Tony almost immediately and had more or less unofficially adopted him saying that a young man as nice him should have people to look after him since he did such a dangerous job.

"They're going to Seattle, spending the holiday with Natalie and her family there, Andrew and Sasha are bringing their families there too," Tony replied as he searched the phone records of Midshipman Randalls who had unfortunately been murdered that morning.

"Oh," Jimmy said as he silently observed his currently distracted friend. Tony had moved to that neighborhood about four years ago and almost immediately had become well acquainted with the Bradshaws that he was regularly invited over for dinner when he was free or Margaret Bradshaw was always coming over with some hot food. She had made it her mission to make sure that Tony was well fed after seeing how much take-out and pizza he ordered. Ever since the Bradshaws had unofficially adopted him they always made sure that he had a place to go for the holidays and checked in on him when he was hurt, Jimmy knew how much Tony appreciated it. Therefore, even though Tony tried to play it off Jimmy knew how disappointed Tony was to not even get to spend Christmas Eve with the couple.

"Hey, Jimmy, Ducky's looking for you," McGee said as he passed Tony's desk.

'Oh!" exclaimed Jimmy sheepishly, he had lost track of the time. "Thanks, McGee, see you two later."

"Bye, Jimmy," replied the two men distractedly.

At the end of the day, Jimmy reappeared in the squad room and waited patiently for Tony to finish his phone call with one of the leads for the Randalls murder.

"So what's up, Jimmy?"

""Uh, I've been thinking, Tony, since you know the Bradshaws are going to be out of town, do you want to spend Christmas with us? You know you're always welcome."

"Wow, Jimmy, that's really nice of you," replied Tony appreciatively.

Jimmy grinned. "Don't mention it, Tony."

"Hey, Jimmy."

"Yeah?"

"Your apartment is barely big enough for you how are you going to host seven people?"

"Um…"

"You know, if you want, you guys can come over to my place, there's more than enough room," Tony said shyly unsure if suggesting his place was the right idea, after all, he was just an invited guest; it was not his party.

"Really, Tony?" asked Jimmy taken aback by his friend's generosity, it was one thing to offer Jimmy a place to crash for the night and he's done so several times before, it was another thing entirely to open his home up to Jimmy and his entire family, well, almost his entire family. Despite outward appearances and all his talk Tony rarely hosted parties of any sort, preferring instead to have everyone meet up at a local restaurant or park the few occasions that he actually threw a party, Jimmy suspected that Tony's aversion to hosting parties came from a childhood spent watching his parents throw parties and then being forced to attend them, at least for a couple of hours.

"It's just a suggestion, you don't have to if you don't want it," Tony responded uncertainly.

"No, no," said Jimmy quickly. "That's really nice of you, Tony. Thank you," he said with a genuine smile.

"At least now there'll be someone to appreciate the tree," Tony returned with a smile just as genuine.

--

"Tony, what are you doing?" asked Jimmy as he leaned against the partition next to Tony's desk. It was late but they had caught another case, this one involving the murder of a Marine First Lieutenant who had become a recent convert to Islam, and the team was burning the midnight oil in attempt to give the family the only things they could offer them this painfully depressing Christmas, the killer and a motive.

"Taking a five minute break from the case," he replied not looking up from the personnel file on his desk.

"And you're using your break to look through Delores Bromstead's personnel file?" he asked dumfounded.

"Yes."

"Tony! You could get fired!" he hissed.

"I have the clearance!"

"That's beside the point, DiNozzo! Why are you doing this?"

"The Grinch of the HR department is my Secret Santa," he explained.

"Tony, you don't even like Delores."

"I know that."

"Then why are you doing this?"

"Because Ziva keeps insisting that she might not be all that bad," he said as he shifted his focus from Delores' file to his computer screen.

Jimmy arched his eyebrow but did not say anything. Despite everything that those two had been through in the past year there were some things that never completely changed, the sort of complicated fondness that they had for each other but was usually buried deep or not consciously shown was one of those things.

"Well…good luck with that," Jimmy said before disappearing but not before seeing Tony wave good-bye.

The next day during the lunch break Jimmy found Tony typing away at his computer.

"Got a lead on a case?"

"Well, maybe but right now I need to get to Alexandria."

"What's in Alexandria?"

"Angie's Doll Boutique."

"I don't follow…"

"Last night I got a hold of Delores' mom, sweet old woman, by the way, who told me about how when Delores was eight her father got laid off from his job at the factory and that Christmas all the little girls on her street got a Knee-High Cherry Pie and she didn't."

"What's a Knee-High Cherry Pie?"

"It is a doll," said Ziva striding into their area of the squad room. She grabbed her coat from the back her chair and turned to Tony. "We only have an hour, I am driving," she said her tone indicating that there would be no arguing over that fact.

"Great, a ten car pile up on the highway, just what I needed," mumbled Tony under his breath as he grudgingly grabbed his coat. Jimmy just smiled at him. "What?" demanded Tony when Jimmy wouldn't stop smiling.

"You're just a big softy," Jimmy replied still grinning.

"Am not," Tony, grumbled.

"Deny it all you want, Tony, but you know it's true."

--

"Tony DiNozzo, you are such a big softy," said Veronica Van Derlickt as she took in the sight before her. Her boyfriend just grinned stupidly at her. "And I wouldn't have it any other way," she said before giving him a quick kiss.

Soon the only sound that could be heard was the laughter of the couple as they threw snowballs at each other.

--

Christmas Day

"Thanks again, Tony," said Lauren as she walked into the kitchen where Tony was preparing the caramel popcorn and the hot mulled cider for the movie viewing that was scheduled to happen in about half an hour.

"Don't mention it, Lauren, it wasn't any trouble," he replied. "So, did you get a chance to talk to Tyler yet?"

"Yesterday," she said with a hint of sadness.

"It doesn't get any easier, does it?"

"You think it would be but it doesn't matter if it's the first deployment of the third, it's just as hard."

"How are Lizzy and Kevin taking it?'

"Lizzy misses Tyler so much, asks practically every night when he'll be home, and Kevin, Kevin's trying to so hard to be the man of the house while Tyler's gone," she replied quietly. "I'm sorry, it's Christmas, you don't need to hear about it," she said as she tried to brighten up.

"Hey, it's okay," he said before placing a comforting hand over hers. "Go find a seat, I'll be done in ten minutes." Lauren nodded and walked out of the kitchen.

True to his word, Tony appeared with the promised caramel popcorn and hot mulled cider ten minutes later, after explaining that the food and the movie where a DiNozzo family tradition he settled down on the floor next to Kevin.

"These are pretty Tony, where did you get them?" asked Lizzy as she examined the delicate ornaments on the tree.

With his finger, hovering over the play button Tony looked over to where Lizzy was currently engrossed with the ornaments adorning the tree.

"They used to belong to my mom," he said softly before pressing play and a storybook appeared on the screen.

"Lizzy, don't touch those, you might break them," Lauren reprimanded her daughter.

--

Charlotte whistled her appreciation.

"You weren't kidding when you said your house was huge, DiNozzo," as she took in the high ceiling of the living room.

"You live in a house just as big, Charlie," he reminded her.

"Yeah, but this is different."

"How?"

"Your house is in the Hamptons," she replied before going over to inspect the tree standing in the center.

"Mister Tony," said a timid female voice and the two undergrads looked towards the doorway to find a mousey maid standing nervously in the doorway.

"Um, yes?" asked Tony, "You just call me Tony," he told the maid once she reached them. He had never been comfortable with being addressed as 'Mister Tony'; it was just weird.

"A message from your father," she replied handing him a note before disappearing from the room. Charlie watched the happy smile slip away from Tony's face and before she could stop her friend, he stormed out of the room.

Hours later, after he had calmed down, he once again found Charlotte in the main living room but this time surrounded by a bunch of boxes that, upon closer inspection, contained tinsel, ornaments and various other Christmas decorations.

"Where'd all this come from?" he asked joining her by the tree.

"Vivian and James brought it down from the attic," Charlotte replied as she dusted yet another ornament before placing it on a branch. "I think it's a bribe to get you to stay when I mentioned that my father said that you were welcome to join us down in Virginia."

"These are my mom's, I haven't seen them in years," he replied in awe as he picked up a particularly delicate ornament.

Charlotte was quiet for a long time. "It's a shame to just have them gathering dust up there year after year."

--

Some time later after the movie was over and the children had fallen asleep in Tony's spare room Tony was left alone in the living room. The two Palmer siblings and their parents had insisted that they do the clean up, after all, Tony had graciously let them use his house for the festivities. Glancing over at his tree decorated with the ornaments of his childhood Tony's eyes landed on a picture of his mother in a simple mahogany frame. The face of a smiling and exuberant Angela DiNozzo smiled back her son, it was his favorite picture of his mother because she just looked so happy, you could easily see it from how she practically glowed and the light evident in her eyes.

"Happy Christmas, Mum," he whispered.