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A/N: Hey everyone heres the next chapter I hope you all like it. Enjoy :))

Chapter 7

Movie Night

Tony ended up sleeping for several hours. When he awoke it was with a groan as he realized that all of his muscles had stiffened up on him. His shoulder and ribs hurt the worst. He blinked slowly, allowing the darkened room to come into focus. Looking around his eyes finally settled on the shadowy figure in the door. He could smell the coffee and cologne coming off his boss. He smiled when his boss silently came forward and held out a bottle of water and a couple of Tylenol.

He stiffly sat up saying, "You're the best Boss."

Gibbs just grunted and said, "Don't thank me yet Ducky said he'd be down in a minute to check you out."

Tony scrunched up his nose to show his displeasure and was about to say something to Gibbs about it when Ducky came bustling through the door saying, "Ah, ah Anthony none of that. This is none negotiable per our agreement earlier."

Tony just sighed and rolling his eyes said, "Alright Ducky I'm all yours. Poke at will."

"Now, now Anthony no need to be so mellow dramatic about it." Replied the ME with a put upon sigh.

Tony just shrugged and said, "Well Duck you know how I feel about it."

The doctor shook his head saying, "Yes, yes. You and Jethro are cut from the same cloth on this issue. Always so resistive when it comes to your own health."

Tony smiled a small sad smile and said, "Yah it used to drive Shay crazy too. She would get so mad at me and tell me I had a double standard, because when she was sick I would go all out to pamper her, but if I was sick or hurt I didn't want her bothering and fussing over me."

The men were all quiet for a little bit after that. Ducky performed his assessment silently, while Tony complied seemingly lost in his memories. Gibbs just stood back and watched Tony. Reading the emotions that crossed his face. Ready to jump in if needed.

Soon Ducky was standing back and pronouncing happily, "All seems to be well!" He faced Tony and wagging his finger said, "You young man can count your self lucky for coming out of that little stunt unscathed."

"I know it was stupid." Replied Tony heavily. "I just . . . I don't know I just wanted . . . Aww hell! I'm not sure what I wanted."

Ducky gently patted Tony on the shoulder saying, "I know lad. I know. And as I said before, normally I wouldn't begrudge a man in your position a coping mechanism. But you have a varying amount of drugs in your system. And I know I don't need to explain to you just exactly what that means for you now do I."

Tony sighed again saying, "I know Ducky. I honestly wasn't thinking."

Ducky 'tskd' under his breath then said, "Well I for one suggest that you start thinking. You are far too valuable to too many people to be pulling such stunts. Now if you are feeling up to it we have planned a little team get together up in MTAC."

Both older men felt relief when Tony smiled in agreement. Gibbs knew that it would take time but Tony was going to come through this ok. Because he had his family around watching his six and to make sure he was ok.

NCIS—NCIS—NCIS—NCIS

Later That Evening in MTAC:

McGee, Jimmy and Ziva stood back watching Abby run around the room trying to make every thing as perfect as possible. She had, had the boys setup a table along the empty wall and had organized all of the drinks and food there. Now she was standing in front of large screen going through the selection of movies that they had brought from Tony's apartment trying to decide which one they were going to watch first.

She finally gave up and turning to them with a hint of despair cried, "It's no use! All the movies we brought have some something in them that would remind Tony of everything and that is so not what we need. We need to distract him not throw it in his face."

They all quietly agreed with her. They all jumped when she suddenly yelled, "Well! What are we going to do?"

All three of them looked back and forth at each other and after a minute of that Abby threw her hands up in the air exclaiming, "You are all hopeless!"

McGee sighed again and suggested, "Why don't we let Tony pick? This is after all, all for him."

Palmer and Ziva nodded in agreement and after a second Abby agreed as well. She knew that she was being a bit overbearing, but she really, really wanted to make this a good evening for Tony. She had seen a sadness in her friends eyes the last couple of days that shouldn't have been there. All she wanted was to lessen that sadness for a little while. She wasn't naïve enough to think that she could make it go away completely, but she hoped that she could help lessen the burden of it a little.

They all turned to face the door as it opened and Tony, with his crutches slowly worked his way into the room, followed by Gibbs and Ducky. Tony smiled as he saw the rest of the team waiting for him and his smile grew even larger when he saw the assortment of his favorite foods and movies set out for him. He didn't realize just how hungry he was until he caught a whiff of his favorite type of pizza from his favorite pizza shop. Instantly his mouth began to water and his stomach began to rumble.

He stopped in front of Abby and gently kissed her on the cheek saying, "Thanks Abs' this is amazing."

Abby smiled and said, "Well it wasn't just me. It was Ducky's idea and we all just kinda did his bidding for him."

Tony averted his eyes for a minute trying to clear them of the sudden moisture that was building up behind them. He was glad that no one tried to say anything or do anything just then. He had a tenuous hold on his emotions and he wasn't sure that he could keep that hold if they all went soft on him.

Abby being the person that she was saw this and grabbed his hand and gently led him over to the movie collection saying, "Come on we left the choice of movie to you. Now Ziva and I weren't sure what exactly what you would want so we pretty much just grabbed everything."

Tony smiled and nodded silently. He carefully began to pick through the movies but stopped suddenly when he picked up a case that was clear and plain. He looked at it for a minute trying to remember just what exactly was in this case. He carefully opened it and saw that it was a homemade movie. It was dated about a month before his family was killed. His wife had made it a habit of making a recording once a week when he went on long-term missions. She would give him the rundown of their lives that week and then would get the girls to also say stuff for him. He distinctly remembered having thrown all of the ones he had found away after they had died. He had never seen this one.

The memories had been too hard to handle and he had—in a drunken rage—gone through his whole house and thrown everything that had reminded him of them away. Later when he had wanted to hear her voice again he had regretted throwing the home videos away. He regretted a lot of things from that time. He swallowed convulsively for a minute while his brain was doing mad dashes. He was tempted to just put the video back like nothing had ever happened. But on the other hand he really wanted to see her and hear her voice again, and he wanted his team to see her and understand what she was like. Because he knew that he just couldn't do her justice.

A sudden wave of emotions washed over him and he had to really struggle to keep himself together. He took a couple of shaky deep breaths and then looked up to see that every one was watching him closely. They were all on edge waiting to jump into action if needed. He looked at them all and then silently placed the movie in Abby's hands and said, "I want to watch this."

Abby looked hesitantly and was about to open her mouth, but Tony cut her off saying, "I'm sure Abs'. If I can't handle it I'll let you know."

Abby looked hesitantly to Gibbs who nodded silently from his position behind Tony. Tony was the first to break the heavy silence by taking a seat in the front row and saying, "Hey Jimmy, do you mind bringing me a piece of Pizza?"

Palmer instantly jumped into action saying, "Sure Tony!"

Tony thanked his lucky stars that he and Palmer had become friends. He was the kind of guy that he could count on to act halfway normal when every one else didn't know what to do. After a second the others followed his lead and soon they were all seated in their chosen spots with their food and drinks, and were waiting anxiously for the movie to begin.

Tony forced himself to eat his pizza and to keep it down. His roiling emotions were making it hard for him to stomach much of anything at the moment but he used his 'mile wide' stubborn streak and forced it to stay down.

He was seriously beginning to question his decision when the room went dark and the screen suddenly jumped to life. He felt his throat close off when he saw the date flash on the screen. He sat enraptured as the screen suddenly showed his wife. He inhaled sharply as she smiled, the same smile he dreamt about every night.

The movie started out as short movie clips from throughout their life together. It started with when they first started dating and then slowly moved on through their short engagement and then onto their wedding. They all watched a very young Tony and the woman who had captured his heart moved through life. They watched as they moved into their first house and as they worked together to make repairs to it. They all watched as scenes from holidays and birthdays flew by. And then came a particularly touching scene where Shay and Tony stood together with his arms wrapped around her holding out an ultra sound picture.

The movie progressed with scenes from throughout the pregnancy and then they all laughed a little as they watched a particularly frantic Tony rush around trying to get his very pregnant wife and all their luggage into the car. A few minutes later there were scenes from the hospital that morphed into them bringing the babies home.

From then on it manly consisted of scenes of the girls occasionally capturing a haggard looking parent. There was another scene that had the group laughing when they saw an exhausted Tony sleeping in an easy chair with a baby in each arm. Tony looked very different from the one they knew. His hair was all over the place and he was unshaven. He had on a ratty old pair of sweat pants and his shirt was clearly stained with what appeared to be fresh patches of baby spit up. But the funniest thing was that Tony had his head thrown back to the side and was clearly drooling.

The scenes once again began to move through holidays and birthdays. Only now there were a handful of firsts included like first steps and first words. The whole team was completely enraptured with being able to get this glimpse into their friends past and into the kind of man he was.

The movie soon finished and the screen went blank only to pop back to life after a second and Shay appeared on the screen. He found himself smiling as she began, "Well hello there handsome. It has been a long time since I made one of these videos for you and I'm sorry. Things have just been going at their usual break neck pace around here."

He found himselfentranced by her voice and just by her in general. He soaked up every little detail he could of her and committed it to memory glad to see it matched his mental picture that he carried around with him. He quickly allowed himself to be drawn back to what she was saying taking her voice and recommitting it to memory. He noticed that she looked tired and her face looked a little chubbier. But what stood out the most were the dark circles under her eyes. "So anyways it is officially Christmas Eve and the girls and I wanted to talk to you. So here we go; Islah! Maggie! Come say hi to daddy!"

After a few seconds they could hear the sound of little feet running towards them. His smile got even bigger when he saw the two little heads come in front of the camera and then as they crawled up in their mothers lap. The little girls stole his breath away as he saw how much they had changed and how they looked even more like him. They still weren't very tall confirming Tony's original assumption that they would have been on the short side like their mother. But their appearance was totally Tony. They had his skin coloring, the same large green eyes with long dark lashes, the color of their hair was still a few shades lighter than his, but Tony knew that if they had lived it would had turned darker like his. Even the way they smiled was like him. He found himself leaning forward as they began to talk.

"Hey Daddy." they said in unison.

"We miss you daddy." Said Islah as she leaned forward into the camera.

"Yeah," interrupted Maggie as she pushed her sister out of the way so that she could lean into the screen. "Islah and I have been helping mommy just like you's told as to. Guess what daddy!? Islah and I . . . um . . . gots to leads the dance the other night and . . . um it was SO much fun! Miss Tammy our . . . um . . . dance teacher said that we . . . um . . . dids a . . .um . . . good job and gave us each a piece of candy! It was SO yummy. I—"

She was cut off mid sentence as Islah pulled her back saying, "Maggie it's my turn now!" They all smiled when Maggie sat back slightly pouting as Islah leaned forward smiling and said, "It WAS really fun daddy! But I missed you daddy. Mommy says that you're busy working on a . . .um . . . tops secret projects, so we's got to be brave girls so you's wont wor—"

She was cut off by Shay when she leaned forward and said, "Ok girls say good by to daddy now." Both girls nodded sadly but did as they were told. They both leaned in together and in unison said, "By daddy we love you! Hurry home daddy." With that they both blew him a kiss and then jumped down and ran off. The camera caught the sound of their laughter as they began to play again.

Tony watched as Shay shook her head in amusement and smiling she sat back a little farther from the screen and played with her hair the way she did when she was nervous. He lost all sense of time and his surroundings when she started talking.

"Hey babe." She started hesitantly, "I know you're busy right now but I'm really really missing you." She paused and began to play with her hair again. After a second she looked at the camera and with watery eyes and shakily laughed, "I feel like I'm being such a baby." She wiped at her eyes and smiled a small smile while saying, "Um yah anyways what I want to tell you is that . . . well remember the last time you were home, about four months ago and we . . . ah . . . managed to ah . . . get some private time? Yeah well I guess that private time came at the right time of the month . . . or the right time of the month came during that private time. Either way it happened." He watched as she took another deep shaky breath and then smiling said, "So um yah I . . . I wasn't feeling to good and I went to my doctor and I . . . He . . . He told me that I'm . . . pregnant and . . . that it's definitely twins again. He said that he's pretty sure that they are going to be identical."

Tony watched on in shock, his eyes slowly bulging further and further as what she was saying sunk in. He was mentally cursing himself as she smiled again and wiped away stray tears. He had to force himself to focus on what she was starting to say. He didn't want to miss a word of it.

"It's not that I'm not happy, cause I am. I'm over the moon about it, but I'm starting to feel like I did with the girls and . . . I'm scared to go through that again without you. Like I said I'm just being a big baby about it. I know that you would be here if you could. And I've told Rich to only tell you that I'm fine so don't blame him.

Tony knew that if Rich hadn't already been dead he would have killed him. He was distracted from his thoughts as Shay stood up and stood back a little further allowing the camera to capture her already very swollen belly. She then sat back down saying, "I know that you wont see this until your done with the mission and we wont get to talk in person until you're done with your debriefing so depending on how much longer this mission takes I might very well be delivering these two without you. But I'm trying really hard to not think about that just yet. We still have five months and who knows what can happen in that amount of time. So I want you to do me a favor. Are you listening? Cause I need you to listen really well. I need for you to be safe and to come home from this mission. I don't . . . I don't think I can be a single parent all on my own. Not with two sets of twins. So you focus on the job and get it done so you can come home to me. I love you Anthony DiNozzo. Please be safe,"

With that the screen went blank and the lights in the room slowly turned back on. The whole group was silently watching Tony. Towards the end he had leaned forward and was holding his head in his hands. That tenuous hold on his emotions was long gone and he now had tears freely streaming down his face. He chanced a glance at the group of people surrounding him and let out a shaky breath. He swiped at the tears on his face and looking up at Gibbs, opened his mouth to apologize but was cut off by a firm slap to the back of his head and was then unexpectedly wrapped in a hug.

Tony wasn't sure just what he was supposed to do. He had never really been hugged by anyone but Abby since his wife died. He wasn't big on physical contact like that. But he found that this time he didn't mind it. This time he was glad to have some one there to lean on. When Gibbs pulled back from the hug he gently cupped his cheek and said, "Never ever apologize for something like that."

Tony nodded and took a deep breath. He felt shattered. He was totally and completely drained. The whole last month had been one roller-coaster ride after another and he was ready for the ride to stop. But there was a difference now. Now he had his team, his adopted family there to help him.