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Chapter 17

Mr. Gilbert left the garage to greet Mr. Cooper. Tony and Amelia followed him with some distance back to the hall. The two men stood before the front door and shook hands.

Mr. Cooper was an older man and if Tony had to estimate, he would guess him around 70 years. He had grey hair about one head smaller than Tony. In spite of his high age he looked rather sporty. He wore a red checked shirt and jeans. Tony saw traces of laughter lines in his face what meant that Mr. Cooper was a joyful person.

Mr. Cooper noticed Tony and Jo and smiled at them as he approached, Mr. Gilbert followed him and introduced them to each other. "Mr. Cooper that are Mr. DiNozzo and his daughter Amelia."

"Pleased to meet you." said Mr. Cooper as he shook their hands.

"Pleased to meet you too, Mr. Cooper."

"You've already looked at the house?"

"Yes, Mr. Gilbert has already shown us everything and I have to say, it's a beautiful house. It's a pity that you and your wife hadn't had a chance to spend some time together in this house."

The grief over his wife's death was visible in his eyes. It'll probably always be visible. Tony knew the feeling. Though he had gotten over the grief and depression over Joan's death, there were still a few moments in life he wished she'd be there and there'll be always few moments were he'd have that wish. It had begun with Jo's first toothless smile, the first time she had walked, her first word, every birthday, first day of kindergarten and later school, her many courses and continuing with graduation and the other things Tony didn't want yet to think about.

But there were still moments he was thinking about the future. If Jo actually would bring her first boyfriend home, what Tony hoped wouldn't be any time soon, Joan wouldn't be there to hold him back, to assure him that it was okay and that Jo would still be his little girl no matter how much she grows up. And she'd never see her daughter on her wedding day and will never meet her grandchild.

But Jo had settled with the fact that she was motherless. Sure, the fact that she had never gotten the chance to know her mother helped her a lot to put that fact to rest and she knew that she could always come to him if she had problems, but still sometimes a female contact person would be better for womanly things. He was just glad that they had Lu and that she was a female constant in Jo's live, although a mother figure would still be better. At the beginning she had mourned the fact that she was motherless. There was a gap in her life she didn't know how to fill, but all she knew was a life without a mother.

Tony hoped that one day, there'll be somebody that could fill that gap. That there'll be someone she could come to besides him, someone she trusted wholeheartedly. It'd be never the same, but still she'd at least have someone. Besides he too, wanted someone he could share things with, not waking up alone in a cold bed, to split the housekeeping, to cuddle on the couch while watching movies.

Jo lost a mother who could have given her advice in so many thing and he lost the person who would've enjoyed life by his side. They never had a real family. It was always just them, father and daughter.

"Yes, my Anna was taken from me way too early. But that's life. You can plan everything as much as you want, in the end it only takes one second to destroy those plans again."

"There you're right. In one second your life can completely change."

Mr. Cooper nodded. "Couldn't your wife make it today?" asked Mr. Cooper when he noticed that Tony and Jo were alone here.

"Oh no, I'm not married. Amelia's mother died giving birth. Since then, my daughter and I are on our own."

"Then you know how it feels like to lose a beloved person."

"Unfortunately. The pain will fade away, but it'll never pass."

"That's right. Nobody can ever really fill the gap resulted by the death of a loved one, but people still try to find someone who can. Sometimes it works and sometimes not. Love is a mysterious thing." For a moment, nobody said anything. Mr. Gilbert had kept quiet while Tony and Mr. Cooper talked. Jo too, just listened and looked anywhere but to them. This conversation made her uneasy. She knew that her dad missed her mom in situations like this, it was only too obvious.

While she missed a mother role, she sadly didn't miss her. She didn't know the woman and only saw pictures of her. There was no special bond, just the knowing feeling that this would have been her mother. But every time she looked at those photos, she just saw a stranger and that made her feel guilty, because that woman should mean a lot to her, but she didn't. She would've loved to meet her, but that will never happen.

"I don't want to pry, but why do you want to move?" asked Mr. Cooper curiously.

"We have lived for over ten years in one and same apartment. Even when we felt the need for something bigger, there was never the right time." explained Tony.

"And now is the right time?" concluded Mr. Cooper.

"It has to be. Someone broke into our apartment and destroyed everything. We have to buy new furniture, clothes and other things. The renovation wouldn't be cheap. However, we'll always know that someone destroyed our home, the feeling of safety was destroyed too. That's the reason we decided to search for something new, but we haven't found the right one yet."

"But you like my house?"

"Very much. You really have built a house someone would immediately feel welcome. The neighborhood is quiet and peaceful, it'd only take fifteen minutes for me to get to work and I saw at the end of the street a bus stop for Amelia." Moreover, it was just ten minutes from Gibbs' house. He'll be certainly glad about this fact, because that gave him the chance to see Jo more often.

"Don't you think that this house is a little bit too big for just you and your daughter?" questioned Mr. Cooper.

"It is too big for just two people, but we don't plan to move that much in the future, Mr. Cooper. Furthermore, I don't think that it'll be just the two of us forever. Though there isn't anything going into this direction at the moment, but maybe our family will grow sometime."

"Besides it's big enough for a dog! Until know my dad always told me the same excuse of our apartment being too small for a dog. Now he'd have to find a new one." added Jo to her dad's enumeration and Mr. Cooper laughed soundly while Tony just rolled his eyes.

When Mr. Cooper had recovered from his laughter fit, he spoke again. "There you are right, my little one. It's enough space for a dog and when the two of you are away, he could watch the house for you."

"Alright, alright, but we firstly need to find a new home ourselves before we can think of things like that. And don't forget the furniture we need to buy too, and I'd like to settle down first, come down from the whole stress that's going on at the moment. When this is all over and settled, we can talk about the dog thing again, deal?" told Tony his daughter and Mr. Cooper watched the conversation between father and daughter curiously.

"Deal."

"Mr. DiNozzo, could I talk to you for a second?" asked Mr. Cooper.

"Of course." Tony looked to Jo. "Wait here with Mr. Gilbert, okay?"

"Sure, no problem."

Tony followed Mr. Cooper through the living room to the garden. Mr. Cooper looked around with a warm smile. "This was always Anna's domain. She was here the whole day."

"Your wife was very hard-working. The garden is amazing. She put a lot of love into this part of the property."

"That she did." He turned to Tony and looked straight into his eyes. "Like me, you lost a beloved person and lived through dark and hard times in my opinion. In contrast to your and your daughter's life, I lived a long and happy life with my wife. Even when we hadn't had as much time in this house together as we would've liked to, we had beautiful moments while building it. I'd like you to have as much beautiful and happy moments in this house as we had had building it. It'd calm me if I'd now the house was in safe hands. I have the feeling that you'll love it as much as I do. Your daughter is something special. She's strong enough to grow up without a mother, but at the same time she's an unconcerned, young teenager and I hope that she'll have happy childhood memories in this house. So, if you're still interested in this house, you can have it."

This surprised Tony. He thought that Mr. Cooper had taken him aside to tell him as gently and calmly as possible, that he couldn't have the house. After all, the house was huge for just two people. But Tony noticed quickly that his daughter really liked it and Tony wouldn't hesitate buying it. "I'd still be interested, but I don't know whether I can afford it. At least not if we have to buy new furniture too. This isn't going to be cheap."

"I'm sure that we can settle on something, Mr. DiNozzo."

"I've bought a house." said Tony now for the fourth time.

"Dad, you already said that the last three times and it's the only thing you've said so far since we left the house. Do you have a panic attack?" teased Jo. She found it entertaining, that her father hadn't come to terms with the fact that he bought a house yet.

"Of course not. I just hadn't thought this morning that I'd buy a house today and not at all a house as big as this one." Mr. Cooper had gone down with the price far enough that Tony should have no problems to afford it and buy new furniture. Because the house was already empty of everything, they could move in as soon as they wanted, so Tony decided that they'll look tomorrow for new beds and everything else they didn't need urgently on the weekend.

Tony stopped the car in front of Gibbs' house. After they bid their farewell to Mr. Gilbert and Mr. Cooper, they drove over to their old apartment complex to visit Lu, however they sadly discovered that she wasn't home. So they drove disappointedly back to their temporary home at Gibbs'.

Tony got out of the car, got his bag from the trunk and followed his daughter to the front door. As they opened the door, they heard different voices. Did Gibbs have visitors? They followed the voices to the living room and discovered that the team, Ducky, Abby, Palmer and Breena were there. But not only were their friends from NCIS there, but also the very woman who played a huge part in the lives of the two DiNozzo's.

"Lu!" yelled Jo and ran over to Luisa, swinging her arms around her. Tony smiled happily and approached the both.

"Well, I think we'd have waited a long time at your apartment until you'd finally come home." After Jo released Lu, Tony embraced her just briefly but lovingly. Everyone watched the reunion with a little smile.

"You were at my apartment?"

"Yes, we wanted to visit you, but you weren't there."

"I've invited the team over for dinner and thought you two would be happy if you have the chance to see her again." explained Gibbs.

"There you are right, we're very, very happy. Thanks, uncle Gibbs!" Now it was Gibbs turn to get a tight embrace from Jo, which he accepted joyfully.

"No problem." Gibbs looked over Jo's shoulder to his agent. "And? What's with the house?"

Jo released herself from the embrace and rolled her eyes. She has a feeling she knew what her dad was going to say any second.

"I've bought a house." Bingo.

Gibbs lifted an eyebrow. "Well, that was quick."

"Everything was just right and it's just ten minutes from you away."

"Well then I'm content for the time being." grinned Gibbs.

"How was the house?" asked McGee curiously.

"It's huge!" answered Jo McGee's question.

"It has four bedrooms." added Tony.

"What are you doing with four bedrooms?" asked Ziva.

"Well, of course each of us will take one of those bedrooms. Another one will be a guest bedroom, so that my dad doesn't have to sleep on the couch anymore when he's visiting us and Jo told me already a solution for the last one." Tony looked at Lu. "Would you like to move in with us?"

"Me?" asked a clearly surprised Lu. She certainly hadn't expected that.

"Yes, we would be very happy if you would. After more than ten years of having you in our lives, we can't really imagine not having you around us every day."

"I cannot accept the offer."

"Come on, Lu. We're asking you to move in with us. You're family! You have to accept the offer."

"There's a big garden! You've always told me how much you miss gardening since you moved out of your old house." tried Jo to bait Lu. "Besides, I need somebody who helps me to raise my dad!"

"Ouch! You really don't let out any possibility to annoy your father, do you?" Tony grinned at his daughter. The teasing was normal and he'd let her annoy him as much as she want to if it meant that Lu would soften to the idea of moving in with them.

Lu laughed at their bickering. "Alright, alright. I'll move in with the two of you."

"Yay!" screamed a clearly joyful Jo and Tony smiled happily at his little family.

"Now I think there's a cause for a celebration, don't you think?" said Ducky.

The other agreed immediately and celebrated the news of the DiNozzo's and Lu's new home.

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