So in my last story a reviewer had said that s/he wanted to see Tony get his degree and for the team to come to the ceremony so this is Tony's graduation. American University's commencement was actually Mother's Day weekend, George Washington University's is this weekend. So having never gone to or been in a grad school ceremony I'm not sure how it goes, though I doubt that it would have been very different from my undergrad ceremony and I'm also pretty sure that the only time you get your diploma right then and there is if you're graduating from a doctorate program, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Last but not least, American has to film Master programs: Film and electronic media, which give you an MFA and Film and video, which gives you an MA, I haven't decided which one Tony gets, so you can decide for yourselves which one he'd get. Also, I'm sorry if the Spanish is a bit off, I was using Google translator since I haven't had to use Spanish since high school and hence have forgotten a good chunk of it.

Congratulations to all the graduates who graduated last weekend!

Spoilers: slight ones to 3x02 'Kill Ari, Part 2', 6x21 'Toxic'

"Okay spill, Tony," Abby demanded once she arrived at the front of the restaurant. "Hi, Jimmy," she said waving to where Jimmy was leaning back against the ledge.

"Hi, Abby," he replied waving.

"Impatient, aren't we?" Tony asked amused.

"Well, can you blame her?" piped up Jimmy. "I mean, you tell us yesterday that you wanted to go out to eat to celebrate something but you won't tell us what," he reminded his friend.

"I'll tell you what's up, I promise. Let's just get inside, our reservation is for eight," he told them leading them into the upscale restaurant. Once they had been seated Abby once again began pestering Tony for an answer.

"Well?" she asked expectantly.

"Okay, okay," Tony replied smiling broadly. "So I found out yesterday that after some modifications I passed my defense," he told his friends proudly.

"Tony, that is awesome!" Abby said getting up from her seat to give him one of her hugs.

"That's good news," Jimmy said brightly echoing Abby's excitement.

May 8

Tony couldn't help.

If his mother or Marisol could see him now he was sure that both of them would have reprimanded him for fidgeting but he couldn't help it, he was bored. What was taking so long? The line started moving soon afterwards and Tony let out a small sigh of relief. Finally. Once the line started moving they quickly filed into arena and took their seats. If it was up to Tony he would have probably skipped the ceremony all together but Marisol insisted on coming and he knew how important this was to her. After all, she practically raised him after his mother died and sitting through graduation was the least he could do to repay the woman who was more like a mother than the hired help. Besides, Angela had heard about the ceremony (probably from Jimmy) and she pretty much told him flat out that she, Will and kids were coming and then there was Abby and Jimmy. When they both found out that Tony would get a certain number of tickets for the graduation ceremony they didn't leave him alone until he gave in and promised to give them two tickets to come watch him graduate. So here he was sitting with the rest of the graduating class of the School of Communications. Secretly Tony was beyond pleased that people wanted to come to the ceremony. He had called his father's office to invite him, even said that there would be a ticket waiting, but he doubted that the man would show up, he didn't show up to his last graduate school graduation so Tony wasn't holding out much hope that the man would come to this one; to this day Tony thought that the only reason that his father had come to his undergrad graduation was because Vicky, the current stepmother of the month, had insisted on going.

Tony had to admit that as far as graduation ceremonies went the American University one was pretty nice. The speaker was interesting, the speeches, while a bit cookie cutter at times, were pretty entertaining and the undercurrent of excitement was infectious. After the speeches came the procession where they were given diploma holders, shook the hands of many people before they once again took their seats and finally were allowed to move the tassels on their mortarboards.

"Congratulations to the class of 2010!"

Everyone cheered and some classmates threw their mortarboards, happy to have finally reached the end after all their hard work. After the end of the ceremony Tony was pulled into various groups shots with some of his fellow graduates and after multiple photos he started to make his way towards the entrance but before he got to there he was nearly bowled over Abby.

"Tony! Congratulations!" she said squeezing him tightly.

"Thanks, Abby, can't breathe!" he managed to gasp out.

"Oops, sorry," she said quickly releasing him. "Come on," she said grabbing his hand, "everyone's waiting for you!"

"Everyone?" he inquired.

"Yes! Come on!"

Once outside Tony easily spotted the group of people, Abby wasn't kidding when she said everyone was there waiting. What were Gibbs, Ducky, McGee and Ziva doing here? Before he could ponder the reason for the whole team to be at American University on a Saturday he was grabbed by Marisol.

"¡Tony! ¡Estoy tan orgullosa de ti!" Marisol said before pulling him into a hug as well.

"Me alegro de que estés aquí, Marisol," he murmured.

"Por supoesto que estoy aquí. ¿Por qué no iba a estarlo? Ahora vaya, hable con sus amigos, voy a estar aquí," she reassured him.

"Congratulations, Tony," Angela said warmly as she too engulfed him into a hug.

"Thanks for coming, Angie, you didn't have to."

"I know that, I, we, wanted to," she replied.

Next up, Will gave him a handshake before letting the two small kids climb all over Tony in their eagerness to congratulate him.

"Now go," Angela said pushing towards the team. "I know that you want to talk to them."

"You sure?"

"Yes," she told him, "besides, this will be the perfect time to hear some stories from when you were a kid," she told him with a mischievous smile.

Jimmy was the first one to approach him.

"This was all your doing, wasn't it?" asked Tony after Jimmy had given his congratulations.

"Hey! Abby helped too. Are you mad?" asked Jimmy anxiously. Before Tony could answer the rest of the gang stepped forward.

"Congratulations, Tony," Ziva said with a smile, "this is quite the accomplishment, yes?"

"Yeah, Ziva, it is," Tony said grinning as it started to sink in that he was really done, no more midnight paper writing marathons, squeezing in some required reading during a really boring stakeout, trying to arrange time to talk to a professor or his advisor in the middle of a hot case, or doing an online test during a slow day at work.

"Congratulations, my dear boy," Ducky told him congenially. "You must be so proud of yourself; I know that we all are proud of you for accomplishing this feat."

"Thanks, Ducky," he replied still grinning.

"Weren't satisfied with just one graduate degree, DiNozzo?" teased Gibbs, Tony ducked his head smiling. It was subtle but Tony had been working with Gibbs for so long that he could easily detect the hint of pride in Gibbs' voice as he gave him grief.

"Well, you know how it is, Boss…" Tony replied.

"Yeah, DiNozzo, I do." Tony's smile got bigger when he detected the pride in Gibbs' voice again, this time a bit more blatant than before.

"Wait, you have two graduate degrees?" asked McGee surprised.

"Yeah."

"Then what's the other one in?" asked McGee genuinely curious, the thought that Tony had a Master's degree, let alone two, had never crossed his mind before.

"Criminal justice," piped up Abby as she joined them. "That's why I said next time listen to Tony," she said reminding McGee of how he made a mess of her lab while she was gone last year.

"Did you know about this?" McGee asked turning to his two team members.

"Of course," Ziva replied. "It is part of his dossier that I compiled," she told him simply.

"Already had that one when I hired him," Gibbs said mildly before letting Abby steer in the direction of a nearby restaurant.

Tony just smiled at McGee before falling back to where Ducky was telling Marisol the interesting origins of the commencement ceremony traditions.

"Hey Jimmy," he said catching his friend's attention, "in answer to your question, no, I'm not mad. Thank you, both of you," he told Jimmy as he simultaneously signed thank you to Abby who had turned back to see where they were.

'You're welcome' she signed back.