AN Again: You know that there is a 50/50 chance that there is the last chapter. I can neither confirm nor deny…

Abs: Hear that Tony

(silence)

Ducky: Where is Gibbs?

Gibbs: Here

(Ducky and Gibbs talk intently for awhile and they both jump on Tony's foot and he yelps in pain)

Abs: This is the last chapter… Maybe

Tony: I'm not going to hold my breath. Why can't the author pick on someone else for a change?

Night With Gibbs

Abby wasn't sure whether to attempt to snap Tony out of it or wait for Gibbs or maybe even call Ducky. So many thoughts ran through her mind. Few options were currently available. Something had made Tony crack. It had to be something she had said. "Tony," she tried to reach him again.

There was a sigh. "Uh, sorry, I think I must have fallen asleep," Tony said unconvincingly. Abby sighed impatiently. "Hey, it's been a long night. What were you saying?" He asked.

Abby wasn't going down that road again. She didn't buy it that Tony had fallen asleep. It was more like he was hiding within himself. "After all this time, why can't you just open up to me Tony?" She asked him. "Don't you trust me?" It was a deliberate attack to get him to talk. Of course he trusted her.

"It's not that," Tony leaned back and studied the ceiling.

"What did I say that caused you to go all hinky?" Abby asked to try and press the issue without mentioning anything specific. The last thing she needed was to send Tony back to the place he was before.

"My mind's been on my mother's death," Tony replied in a defeated tone. "You know she died of an overdose," he tried to keep his emotions at bay while telling the story. Tony knew Abby could see right past it and that was unnerving. How the hell did she get so close to him? How did he let it happen? Why did he let it happen? "It's just what you said… You know you asked me to stay," he'd just managed to get those words out. It was impossible to stop the flow now. "I asked my mother to stay but she didn't… She couldn't. Of all the years I've been around nobody has ever asked me to stay like that," Tony shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know what to do," he said simply.

Abby thought for a moment. Tiptoeing around wasn't the way to go since Tony had entered the talkative stage. "You know your mother didn't have a choice right?" She asked softly in a caring tone.

"I know," Tony laid his hands on the table. "I didn't know it back then. But I remember at the hospital calling for her to stay," he shook his head. "Ridiculous isn't it. A ten year old trying to bargain everything for his mother to stay," he added with sadness. Looking back at it, it was madness.

"You were a child losing your mother," Abby shook her head. "You did what you could to save her," she continued in the soothing tone. "But you do have the choice. You can choose whether to stay or not," Abby looked past Tony for a split second and nodded before giving him her full attention once again.

"I know," Tony sighed.

"But you have people here who really want to stay. Me, Gibbs, Kate and I'm sure there are a few girls in the agency that'd really miss you," Abby said to him. She shook her head at his scoff. "Yeah, even Kate," she added with a smile.

Tony lowered his head. "It's just I don't know what to do or how I'm suppose to react," he admitted. It was hard to show his vulnerability like this.

"Well Tony, if your mother had the choice… What would you have wanted her to do?" Abby asked carefully. Perhaps that question was overstepping the bounds of the volatile conversation. She waited in anticipation.

"I really wanted her to stay… Is that just what you lot want? I don't have much else to offer," Tony showed his empty hands.

"You do have lots to offer people Tony," Abby said. "Say you'll stay with us. I think Gibbs will hate being surrounded by girls. He needs men around," she assured him that Gibbs needed Tony as much as Tony needed Gibbs even if they had a hard time seeing that fact.

"He has Tom and Ducky," Tony threw out there. He'd never be the friend to Gibbs that Ducky was. There was no way he could be like them.

"That's not the same thing and you know it," Abby snapped lightly. "You know that we're all family. Lose one member and it ripples through everyone," she explained. "All you have to do is stay and you'll make everybody happy," she added.

"Alright," Tony still felt a little skeptical. In all his history, nothing was as simple as that sounded. It never was. "I won't go," he said with a half-smile.

"Good," she said before leaving the area. "I'll be back," she said.

Tony shrugged his shoulders. That was something he mulled over though. Even though in Baltimore his partner understood him leaving there but nobody had tried to talk him into staying anywhere. This was so damn foreign to him. It felt so good even if Abby was the only one who wanted him there. He sat there for about fifteen minutes he guessed until Gibbs entered.

"DiNozzo," he snapped Tony out of his current thinking.

"Yes, Boss," Tony answered.

"Outside… Now!" Gibbs ordered in his usual ordering tone.

"On your six Boss," Tony replied automatically. It was something that just came natural. The man he admired most in the world had summoned him. There was no other choice but to respond.

Tony was unsure why he was standing on the front lawn of the house. "Stand over there DiNozzo," Gibbs pointed to the other side of the lawn. "Go on," he said. Gibbs saw that Tony was reluctant to do so. Christ! What does he think I'm going to do to him? "Go long," Gibbs brought a football with him and pointed for Tony to go further back.

Tony's legs began twitching with anticipation. He couldn't believe that his Boss had summoned him so he could throw the ball to him. Or maybe it was to throw at him. Target practice? Tony's legs twitched again as Gibbs prepared to throw it again.

Gibbs smiled at Tony trying to anticipate whereabouts he was going to throw the ball. Every time he was about to, Tony's legs moved one way or the other. Finally he threw it high and watched Tony snap into action and run to catch it with all the enthusiasm of a teenager. He'd heard part of what Abby had said to Tony but left them to it. Afterwards Abby told him that Tony needed someone to look up to and admire that wasn't going to hurt him. She'd suggested some Father/Son bonding time. Even though Gibbs thought it was ridiculous, he went to a cupboard and fished out the old ball. The way Tony was throwing the ball back to him and beaming… Damn, Abs was right, Gibbs thought. The ball hit Gibbs' chest with a forceful thud! Gibbs grimaced for a second.

"Good throw, Son," Gibbs said. "You've got a good arm," Tony almost dropped the ball at the sound of the praise. Hell had nobody ever just played catch with the kid?

"Thanks," Tony responded. "You know I was going to turn professional. But some bastard broke my leg and my hopes just fizzled out with that," he told the story.

"That's too bad," Gibbs said. "You would've made it," he added the level of encouragement. This did feel somewhat strange… Throwing the ball to his senior field agent and him throwing it back. Tony was like the son he never had. His mind drifted for a moment. He'd always wanted a son but never had the chance. Treating Tony like a son wasn't insulting the memory of Kelly. The ball from Tony hit Gibbs in the chest again and it fell to the ground.

"Your reflexes are getting slow in your old age," Tony joked as Gibbs picked up the ball and tossed it back.

"Real funny," Gibbs shouted back.

Abby watched the action going on for the porch and wondered how long it'd take for them to realize that they were indeed family. She smiled at the banter going back and forth and how Gibbs was throwing a compliment here and there. It seemed that Tony easily descended into his world of darkness but it didn't take too much to drag him out. She watched them stand side by side and walk back to the house.

"You got a great arm there," Gibbs tapped Tony on the back.

"You're not so bad yourself Dad," Tony stopped. Abby waited eagerly for Gibbs' reaction to the slip up that Tony had made.

Gibbs heard it but chose to act as if nothing was out of the ordinary. "Thanks, Son," Gibbs responded. He knew that Tony had subconsciously made a slip. Hell, Tony was probably turning red with embarrassment since it seemed to take only ten minutes of playing catch for Tony to call him Dad.

Tony breathed a sigh of relief that nobody made any sort of deal about it. It was obvious now that Gibbs was the only real father he ever had. Abby and Tony smiled at each other as they all went back inside to have something to eat.

THE END

A/N: There you have it… Don't you love those small family moments? I hope you enjoyed this story. Not bad that it went for as long as it did.

Tony dances around happily: "Yay!"

Abby: "See the Author always makes it alright in the end."

Tony continues to dance around until he feels the headslap: "Boss!"

Gibbs is on the other side of the room: "I didn't do it,"

Tony: " Then who did?"

Kate: "Maybe it was the author."