Chapter Nine

Tony followed Ziva inside Gibbs' house, glad to be able to stretch his legs after the long, four hour drive to D.C. He looked around the parts of the house he could see from his vantage point in the hallway and found that nothing had changed. Though he hadn't really expected it to seeing as Gibbs hadn't lived there in a while.

"Tali, Gibbs?" Ziva called after looking in the living room and kitchen for them.

Tony heard footsteps coming up from the basement and a few seconds later Tali and Gibbs walked into the hallway. Ziva instantly engulfed Tali in a hug and the two began talking quietly; Tali glanced at him every so often. He looked around to see where Gibbs had gone, but he got his answer as there was a swift, hard tap to the back of his head.

"Gibbs." Tony greeted with a grimace.

The older man came to stand beside him. "DiNozzo."

"You gonna tell me what I did to deserve that within the first two minutes of being here?" He asked rubbing the back of his head.

"Rule twelve DiNozzo." Gibbs stated simply.

"How do you even know we broke rule twelve? It simply could have been one night and…."

"If it was anything but rule twelve you would have gotten a lot worse than a slap." He replied, staring Tony down.

"Rule twelve, got it." He said, looking over to Ziva and Tali noticing that the conversation had turned into an argument.

"Why don't you get it?" Tali questioned her voice raised.

"Get what Tali? That you couldn't handle this situation in any other way then by running away from it?" Ziva retorted angrily. "I would love to understand that Tali, believe me, I would."

"Are you kidding me?" she yelled. "This isn't just a 'situation', it's my whole life! You have been lying to me for my whole life and you expect me to just take it in stride. You expect me to act like this is nothing new?"

Tali began to leave, but Ziva caught her arm. "Tali, don't act like this. Please, I'm just asking…"

"Ask whatever you want, but I won't answer." She spat, jerking her arm out of her mother's grasp then running upstairs out of sight.

Ziva turned around to face them, anger slowly disappeared from her face to be replaced by guilt and tears filled her eyes. "Gibbs, I'm sorry. I didn't want to make a scene, I just…"

Gibbs silenced her, taking her in his arms and Ziva let her tears fall. "It's okay Ziver, I understand."

Tony stood motionless, unsure of what to do, until Gibbs turned to look at him and jerked his head in the direction of the stairs. It took a moment for Tony to understand, but then he realized what Gibbs meant. He nodded at him and then walked up the steps, stopping once he entered the upstairs hall. Tony looked around and found that light and quiet voice, were floating out of a cracked door on his right. He quietly crept up to the door and listened to Tali's voice.

"Izzy, calm down I'm fine." Confused, Tony peaked through the door and Tali was sitting on the floor, a cell phone in her hand.

"How was I supposed to know that?" The phone was on speaker; he stepped back from the door and leaned against the wall to listen. "You didn't meet me in front of your house this morning and then you didn't show up to school either."

"I know Iz, I'm sorry I should have texted you or something, but things-things have been a little crazy since yesterday afternoon." She sighed.

Tony wanted to hear more but realized that it wasn't right for him to eavesdrop, so he knocked on the door. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah, hold on a sec." Tali called back. "I've got to go Iz, but I promise I'll text you later."

"Alright, I've got to go to anyways before Mr. Rice gets suspicious of my trip to the bathroom."

Tali laughed. "Bye Izzy."

"Bye."

"Okay." She called, and Tony slowly entered the room.

"Hey." He greeted.

"Hi Mr.-I mean Tony-I mean ugh! I don't know what I mean." She tried to greet back.

Tony tried to suppress a laugh as he sat down beside her, resting his hands on his knees. "How about outside of school I'm Tony?" he suggested.

"Alright." She agreed. "So…what did you want?"

"Tali, I know that this whole 'mess' has been confusing and made you angry, but I understand how you're feeling right now." He said, praying that she wouldn't blow this statement off.

She didn't, but looked confused. "Okay…"

"I just mean that both of us are in the same place right now." He began, turning his head to look at her. "We don't know each other, we really didn't know that either of us existed, or in your case knew that I even cared. The only thing we really have in common is your mom."

"You mean the fact that my mom lied to both of us." She muttered angrily looking away from him.

"Tali, if it is anyone's fault that you didn't know about my or about your mom's past it is mine." Tony whispered.

She whipped her head back around. "Your fault, how could it be your fault?"

"There was a situation, a horrible instance before you were alive where we lost two people that were very close to us." He explained, leaning his head back against the mattress. "I couldn't handle staying in the same town, working in the same place where we had lost them, anymore. I wanted to leave, but your mom couldn't. That place had become her first real home since she left Israel the first time and she couldn't just up and leave it." Tony paused and looked over at Tali. "I loved your mother Tali, but I couldn't stay there. I left because I was hurt, but if I would've been smart enough to see it I would have realized that your mom felt the exact same way I did. If I hadn't been an idiot I would've stayed with her, we would have found out about you together, we would have been a family. But I didn't, I left and in doing so I hurt her so much that she couldn't even tell you about me, her past, or anything." He drew in a shaky breath, this was the first time he had talked about this and it was hitting him hard. "What I'm trying to say, is that I'm sorry this happened. I wish you didn't have had to be put in this situation, but your mom did what she thought was best and the both of us need to accept that."

Tony felt pressure on his right shoulder; he looked down to find Tali had rested her head against him. "Okay." She whispered.

"Okay?" he repeated confused.

"I'll try to understand her." Tali explained looking up at him.

Without thinking Tony put his arm around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head. Once he had realized what he had done he tensed up, he had stepped into an unknown territory and he didn't know how she would react. After a second though he found he didn't have anything to worry about because she put an arm around his middle and hugged him. Tony let out a sigh of relief and rested his cheek on her head.

Maybe this whole Dad thing is going to be easier than I thought. If only he had known then what would happen later that night.

A/N: Huh, wonder what that means? ;) Shoot me a review and I might have the next chapter up tomorrow :D