Chapter 11

Gibbs looked up in surprise as Tony stopped dead, he had known that DiNozzo was in there, but he had assumed that he was in the back, drinking.

Tony shot Gibbs a look and poured his drink. "Tony?" Gibbs asked.

Tony turned and walked up to another customer and poured him a beer.

"If you ain't ordering I ain't talking, not paid to chat, Boss." Tony snapped.

A large man holding a crate of beer looked over at the pair, "DiNardo, you need to flush those taps. Don't pay ya to chat up customers."

"You wanna talk boss, my shift ends in six hours." Tony said.

"DINARDO!" The large man's voice yelled.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming!" Tony yelled back and went off to do as ordered.

Gibbs leaned against the bar as he watched Tony work, "He been working here long?" Gibbs asked the large guy.

Mike Moretti looked at the older man who hadn't taken his eyes of the bartender all night.

"Just a few weeks, why?" Mike asked suspicious.

"Always the same shifts?" Gibbs asked.

"Does the seven till three am shift, he's only working till midnight tonight though, should tell ya, I don't think he's into guys if that's why you're asking." Mike admitted.

Gibbs choked a little on his drink, smiling Mike refilled it.

Gibbs sat there thinking, DiNozzo was in at 05.30-06.00 every weekday morning, which meant he was getting on average two hours sleep a night, maybe less. What the hell was he playing at?

Tony came up his t-shirt grubby from the cellar and a grease mark across his forehead.

"You still here?" he groused at Gibbs, he was tired and the damn pipes had got stuck on him again, he'd had to physically wrestle with one of them to get it back on the tap.

Mike glared at his bartender, Tony shrugged, "I get worse glares from him, so you two been swapping stories?" he asked.

"You know this guy then?" Mike asked.

"Yeah?"

"Didn't know you swung that way kid!" Mike said surprised.

Tony, who had been swigging a bottle of water spat it out and burst into laughter, "My God MIKE!" he exclaimed, "That's just…..EW…..NO!"

Gibbs just smirked.

Mike held his hands up, "Hey I'm an open minded guy!"

"MIKE…NO! Really No...He's like my dad!" Tony started coughing and in an instant Mike saw what Tony meant, Gibbs was at his side rubbing his back.

"You got your inhaler?" Gibbs asked fishing in his own pocket for the spare he kept on him at all times.

Tony used it gratefully, "Thanks Boss."

"Boss?!" Mike asked.

"I'm his boss, he works for me."

Mike demeanor instantly changed. "You moonlighting on me DiNardo?"

"Not anymore, I take it I'm fired," Tony sighed, remembering the spiel that Mike had given him when he had taken on the job.

"Sorry, I can't take on moonlighters, IRS would have my ass." Mike said genuinely sorry, "But you ever quit working for him, you look me up."

Tony grabbed his jacket, "I may be back sooner than you think." He said and walked out of the door with Gibbs following behind.


The second they hit the parking lot, Tony whirled on Gibbs. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a second job in this town?" he yelled.

"You don't need a second job; you need to be looking after your kids." Gibbs said back.

Tony stopped and looked at Gibbs like he had grown a second head, "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK I'M DOING!" he yelled.

"Your kids need you at home, with them, not working all day." Gibbs said.

"You don't know….you have no idea….I I can't…." Tony sat on the hood of his car.

"You've been a parent a month and you can't cope?" Gibbs said, he would never have thought Tony would disown his own kids, not after all he'd done.

"Fuck off." Tony spat and looked for his keys. "I'll am doing the best for my kids." He got the door open.

"How is this, 'the best for them', have you seen them in the last month?"

"Of course I've seen them!" Tony snapped back

"Awake?" Gibbs asked.

Tony stopped, he had left notes for them, but he hadn't actually seen them awake. He'd even just left them Cake and a card on this morning, with matching notebooks as journals, like the therapist had suggested they had to write about their own experiences and feelings. It hadn't been what he wanted but it was what he could afford.

"No…" he said quietly, he knew in this way he was failing his children, but he was trying. Therapists, private tutors, kitting out two thirteen year olds from scratch, all of that had used up his savings, he was glad he had paid the mortgage off on his house, but food and bills ate up the rest of his money. Since the access to his trust fund had stopped he had already gone $13000 into the red. "You don't understand." He sighed.


Gibbs looked at Tony, he was hurting that much was certain, "When did you last eat?" he asked.

Tony looked at confused, "What?"

"Food DiNozzo."

Tony shrugged, he ate from vending machines, but the house food was for the kids. "Lunchtime," he said.

"Nutterbutter, I saw," Gibbs replied, "I meant a meal…proper food."

Tony grabbed his keys, "I eat."

"Tony talk to me what the hell is going on?" Gibbs pushed.

"I'm broke and I am trying to pay for the things the kids need, The DNA test with 'my father' came back, I'm not his son, I have no access to him or the family anymore, my kids are traumatized and need private tutors and therapy that cost money, I am not Senior, I won't fail them…I had a letter through, I am to disassociate myself from the DiNozzo name, so I'm using an old alias, but who I am, to try to give an identity to two children when I don't know who I am!" Tony collapsed back against the car door.

Gibbs took the keys out of his hand and locked up his car, half carrying Tony he got him into his truck and drove him to the diner he got his coffee from every morning.

Tony sat in a booth in the back looking totally broken.

Gibbs ordered him food and coffee.

Eileen place a bowl of soup in front of the man and looked at Gibbs with a slight smile, Tony attacked the soup like he hadn't eaten in a month, which in truth he really hadn't, not properly.

"There's free refills on the soup, so you can have as much as you like." She smiled and left them to their talk.

Gibbs nodded at her and took a sip of his coffee. He knew she was lying about the soup refill but appreciated the gesture towards his boy…his agent.


After Tony had eaten three bowls Gibbs turned to him, "Do you have any idea who your father is?"

Tony laughed, "I know exactly who my father is…Senior made a point of telling me….I'm a bloody Macaluso!"

Gibbs nearly dropped his cup, "Mike Macaluso…the mob boss you took down?"

"My father, I knew he knew my mother way back when…no wonder I got accepted into the family so easily."

"I…I went to see him, I don't know why…"

Gibbs held tighter to his cup.

"Dear old Dad, he tried to get me to break him out and join the family," Tony said. "Wants to meet the kids,"

Gibbs' knuckles went white.

"Not gonna happen." Tony clarified and Gibbs let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "Had to change our surnames though, DiNozzo's court order, been using DiNardo for a week, got my birth certificate through this morning, getting Macaluso I.D. tomorrow, was gonna bring you the paperwork."

"You need to sleep Di…Tony." Gibbs said,

"I need to find another job." Tony insisted, "Don't have time to sleep." He said his eyes already drooping.

Gibbs helped him into his truck and drove home, thinking about all he had learned.

He looked over to see his boy asleep in the passenger seat looking a lot younger than he was.

"Don't care who your father is, you're my boy." Gibbs said to himself.

"Love you too dad." Tony murmured in his sleep.

Pulling up in front of Tony's house he looked at him. No matter what he was going to be there for him, and his family.


Adam and Amelia looked up as Tony walked into the house with Gibbs, surprised to see their father they hugged him and sat down on the sofa with him. "We missed you Papa." Adam said.

"I missed you both too, I will try to be home more, I promise." Tony said.

"Thank you for our birth day presents…they were love er ly." Amelia said in her broken English, Tony looked at her; he was amazed how much her English had improved.

Adam showed Gibbs the Cards they had gotten and the paperbacked journals the twins had with matching pens, which Tony had obviously liberated from the supply cupboard. Tony gave Gibbs a feeble smile and Gibbs nodded.

"Happy Birthday kids." Tony kissed both of his children on the head and Adam got the cake out, "Miss Atkins said this was for us and we were to eat it as a family." Adam said.

Tony shared the cake giving Gibbs and the twin's bigger slices than he had.

Gibbs looked at the front of Adam's note book. Adam David Macaluso. Was written in big letters.

"So they know?"

"I won't lie to my kids. They don't know who their grandfather is, or what he does. They know I just found out and that it is our name now, I won't hide from them." Tony insisted. "And I am proud not to be a DiNozzo."

Gibbs turned to the kids, "So your birthday huh…you wait till your party."

Tony choked on his piece of cake. "Er…Boss…" he started.

"You think you can stop Abby throwing them a party."

"I…I can't afford it." Tony panicked.

"Macaluso, If you can put up with me, you gonna let this grandparent pay for your twins first birthday party."

"Boss?"

"Macaluso, is 'away' and will be for a while, I have a trust fund I started for Kelly, I'd like to put it towards the kid's college education, and I have some savings and let's face it, you've been like my son for years, I just wanna help son."

"Thanks? Dad?" Tony said and grinned as Gibbs hugged him.