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Chapter 19

Tony stretched as he entered tiredly Gibbs' kitchen. It had been late when they returned from bed shopping yesterday. Jo and Ziva had run enthusiastically through the whole furniture store, looking at every bed while Tony just followed after them. Who would've thought that the department for beds was that huge?! It had taken a while for Jo to decide and as the decision had been made they had looked at each other with a wide grin and had turned to him. Because he had had no desire to run through the store again, he had told them rather quick that he had already picked one for himself and he had stayed with his decision even when they had tried to get him to look again, but all he had wanted was to go home and rest his sore feet. It was easier to run a marathon than to go shopping with two women.

When he had bought the beds he had arranged for them to be delivered to the new house and build up today. Jo and Lu would supervise it while he was at work and tonight would be the first night in the new house for Tony and Jo. They'll look for everything else on the weekend and they'd be moving Lu's furniture to the house too.

"Slept bad, DiNozzo?" asked Gibbs with a smirk on his face as he got himself a cup of coffee.

"On the contrary. I've slept like a stone and could've slept perfectly for another few hours. Who would've thought that it's that strenuous to go furniture shopping with two women?" muttered Tony tiredly.

"That's the reason why I'm building my furniture myself."

"Wise idea. Maybe I should consider it too."

"What should you consider?" asked his daughter as she stepped into the kitchen. None of men have noticed how Jo had descended the stairs. Tony normally heard immediately if his daughter approached the room, but it seemed that she could be really sneaky if she wanted.

"That your old man should do a little more for his fitness if he wants to keep up with his daughter while furniture shopping. "

Jo briefly laughed as she thought at back how her dad had hurried after her and Ziva. She had to admit that she had a lot of fun yesterday. She hadn't been sure what to think of her dad's idea to invite Ziva for their shopping trip and she too had been sure that this was his first try to get their friendship on the right track again, but it had been still strange to have an unfamiliar woman with them, even when her dad had told her a lot of Ziva, she didn't really know her. However, after a few minutes it had just clicked and they had a lot of fun together. They had went through the whole area and took every bed into consideration so that they could find the perfect one, but that hadn't been the main reason.

She had decided rather fast which bed she'd take, but she had so much fun at the time that she had asked Ziva if she was feeling up to annoying her dad a little. They had dragged him through the whole store and after some time they had some mercy with him as they had seen how tired he was. Jo had thought that it had been a good punishment for giving Ziva such a hard time. He had always told her that if she had problems with someone, it was better to sit down together and talk about it than waiting for the whole thing to blow over. Why should she listen to him if he won't do it himself?

With a lingering grin on her lips, she gave her dad a kiss on his cheek and made herself a hot cocoa. "Come on, dad. We weren't that fast."

"You run through the whole level! And at the end you wanted the second bed that you saw there. We could've saved an amount of time and energy."

Gibbs drank the rest of his coffee when he saw how Jo turned slightly away from her dad so that he couldn't see her grinning. Somehow he got the feeling that it had been on purpose and laughed quietly to himself. If only Tony knew that Jo and Ziva tricked him. Gibbs was relieved when his cell rung, because he wasn't sure if he could cover his amused grin any longer.

When Gibbs left the room to talk over his phone, Jo turned around and stared silently at her father. After a while he had enough and turned to his daughter with a questioning look. "What?"

"We should do something with Ziva again. Yesterday had been fun."

"Well, I have to say that I'm surprised at how much fun she seemed to have at furniture shopping. But I think she has better things to do than sitting on the couch, watching movies. Even when I got her to watch movies with me in the past, she rather reads than watch TV."

"I don't think that she'd mind much. I got the feeling that she really enjoyed to just spend time with her partner."

"At this point I have to remark that she had spent more time with you than with her partner. I had been more like the third wheel." stated Tony feigned sulking.

"Don't sulk. I've seen your grin often enough." replied Jo while raising an eyebrow. She took a gulp of her cocoa and considered how she should approach the next subject. She knew that, even if he had never told her directly, he liked Ziva very much. More than a friend and yesterday she had the feeling that Ziva had liked her father also. She couldn't understand why people could be so stubborn. After all, time was the most precious thing and it shouldn't be wasted.

She knew that their partnership and friendship hadn't been always easy in the past and that they had had to work through a lot. They were both scared of getting hurt, but there will be a time they look back on their lives and may regret wasting time. Jo didn't feel threatened that her dad suddenly won't have time for her anymore. She knew that she could always count on him and that she'll always be his first priority, but in some years she'll go to college and leave him in a huge house. Life had no break button.

"Dad?"

Tony looked at his daughter and when he saw her serious expression, his look became gentler. "Yes, Jo?"

"Why don't you just tell Ziva how you feel about her?"

Tony felt how his walls got up. Even though she was his daughter and they talked about everything, this subject crossed a line he was not comfortable with. "Which feelings? We're friends."

Now Jo rolled her eyes as she realized how exactly this conversation will go. "Oh come, dad. I know you like her and she likes you too."

"And you'd know all this because of a joint shopping trip in a furniture store?" asked Tony doubtfully.

"Yes. And of course by the fact that you have told me a lot about her in the past."

Tony exhaled irritated. He liked not at all the direction in which this conversation was heading. "Oh, please! There must be something in your cocoa."

"I don't understand why you're so afraid to admit it?"

"There is nothing to admit. Ziva and I are a partners, nothing more."

"Then why were you so hurt when you've found out that she slept with another man?"

He looked horrified at his daughter. He had never mentioned this to her. Not even once, so where did she hear from Ziva and Adam? "Who had told you about Ziva and Adam? I've never mentioned anything."

"I didn't know it, but you've just confirmed it." Tony closed his eyes. Had he been really just tricked by his own daughter? She apparently had more DiNozzo blood in her than he realized. As he opened his eyes again, he was met by her smug grin. It appeared that she liked the fact that she could get information out of him no matter whether he wanted to or not. "Don't worry, I wouldn't have known it if Abby hadn't told me that she saw Ziva with a good-looking man and that they rather looked quite cozy together. It had been just a theory. A theory you did just confirm."

"Okay. From now on you will not spend that much time with Abby anymore." joked Tony, but still knew that he lost this round to his own flesh and blood.

"Why are you so afraid of this?"

Tony just stared at Jo. He didn't know how to explain everything to her so that she'd understand. After all, he himself didn't really understand it all since it was all just complicated. He started to feel like one of their suspects in interrogation. "You know very well that I have not good experiences with relationships."

"That's the reason why you're afraid of being hurt." stated Jo.

"Seems like it."

Jo waited whether her father would continue, but he remained silent. He drifted into his own little world of thoughts, so that she had to be the one getting the ball rolling. "Do you want to be single for the rest of your life then?" She had successfully gotten him out of his head again, because now he looked questioningly at her. Before he could ask, she continued on. "I know, you have loved mom and would she had not died then, everything would be different now. Since then, you've experienced a lot of setbacks concerning love over and over again, but dad you deserve someone you could count on in your life. Someone who backs you up. And I'm not talking about work, but real life. I just want you to be happy as much as you want me to be happy."

Now he smiled softly at her. His little angel. "You make me happier than you think."

"But I won't be right next to you the rest of life. As much as it hurts to think and speak about it, I don't know where I'll be in ten years or so, do you?" As she saw his sad look she stepped closer to him and put her arms around his waist." One day I'll go to college and then have my own home. I just want to know that you'll be not alone then. Of course that doesn't mean we won't see each other anymore and you'll always be my dad and I love you very much. I'd be visiting so much that you'll be happy to have a day for yourself."

Now both DiNozzo's had to smile. Tony drifted with his hand gently through Jo's hair. "I'd never get tired of you, Jo."

When they let go of each other, he looked rather amused to his daughter. "Collage? I think you got there way over yourself. There'll be still some time until you'll be at that point of your life."

Jo shrugged. "Couldn't think of anything else that quick." She smirked. "I just wanted to deliver my point of few. You should tell her. Time is something precious. It's one of the biggest presents you could give someone. Love hurts sometimes dad, but without love, life would be pointless."

"I love you." answered Tony.

"I know and I love you too, but we're talking about different kind of love. A kind you won't get from a daughter, brother, father, mother or any other family member."

Tony laughed gently. "Look at you. All grown up."

Tony and Jo heard how Gibbs returned again to the kitchen. Obviously he had changed into something else after his phone call and seemed to be already in work mode. "That was McGee. Alexander Thorne was found."

Jo grabbed her cup of cocoa, gave her dad another kiss on the cheek and left the kitchen. She knew that they'll talk case-related things and it wasn't any of her business. Besides, she should get ready for the day herself.

"Where was he found?"

"In a motel room outside the city."

"Looks like he wanted to disappear. Quite suspicious when he couldn't get away fast enough after his best friend had been killed."

"Does it now, DiNozzo?"

"I'm curious about what he has to say to us."

"You could ask him." Gibbs reached for his jacket and car keys. Tony waved his daughter goodbye, reached for his jacket and hurried after Gibbs. "But only if you've learnt to get in touch with dead."

Tony looked surprised at Gibbs. "He's dead?"

"Yeah. The others are already on their way to the motel. Fasten your seatbelt, DiNozzo. We'll be on the road for a while."

"Cause of death, Duck?" Gibbs and Tony entered the motel room that was filled with people searching for any trace they could get, even if it was hard to get something useful in a shabby motel room. Ducky and Palmer were looking at the body, while McGee took photos of the room and body and Ziva questioned the owner of the motel. The owner, Ronald Diggs, had found Alexander Thorne dead in his room as he wanted to see if everything was alright.

"Ah, Jethro. Hardly a minute at the crime scene and already asking questions. Do you see this?" asked Ducky and turned the arm of Thorne on which a little injection wound could be seen.

"Overdose?" Gibbs asked.

"Looks like it. I can say more when I have the body in my pathology."

Gibbs looked around in the room. No signs for a forced entry. Had he killed himself because he had been crushed with guilt after killing his best friend? Had it been an accident? Whatever it was, his gut told him that there was more than they were seeing at the moment.

"DiNozzo, take Ziva with you and go back to NCIS. I want to know more about Thorne. Find out if there was anyone he had regular contact with. He had been an addict, so I want to know where he got his money for drugs from and from whom he had bought them. Contact the Fallon's again too and ask them whether they knew about Throne's addiction."

"Got it, boss." replied Tony and left the motel room.

"McGee, do you have enough pictures?" Gibbs asked his agent who nodded. "Alright, Ducky. Load the body into the truck and get him to NCIS. It's time we get some answers from Thorne, even if these aren't the kind of answers I had expected to get."

I hope you liked it. Till next time :)