Hi guy, I know it's been a while. Sorry for the long wait. This chapter just took a little longer.

Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS.

Chapter 22

Tony took the last of the dirty dishes to the kitchen. Everyone had been happy with the dinner and he was surprised that they had actually eaten all of it. He'd been sure that there would be leftovers. Sometimes they could all eat like they were starved or something. Currently the guests were on an expedition through the house, with Jo and Lu being their leaders. Meanwhile Tony took it upon himself to tidy up a bit. If he heard correctly they were currently downstairs.

He got a new bottle of water and put it on the dining table when he saw a person out on the patio. It was already getting dark, dusk had long since began to set and the view got worse but he was still able to tell exactly who was out there.

"Hey, why aren't you with the others on discovery tour?" asked Tony as he got out.

Ziva smiled at him. "I started with them but got stuck out here. It's a beautiful garden."

"Yeah, that's true. I'm not saying that I've got suddenly a green thumb or something, but Lu is more than happy to have such a green paradise to work on. I'm more the one to finance it and enjoys the results." smirked Tony.

"It's private. No one has a good view into it. The hedges are protecting you from curious glances, but still you don't feel crushed by it."she said as she looked around the garden. "You found a beautiful new home."

While she spoke she glanced at the marvellous green of the garden, however he had just eyes for setting sun shined on her face and made her eyes seem to glow more brownish than usual. It made her look more feminine. Not that Tony thought that she wasn't usually a feminine woman, it was just that he saw a side on her at the moment, which stood in full contrast to her character. She was strong, self-confident and could easily protect herself from any danger. Seeing her right now she looked vulnerable, almost comfortable with showing it to the world. Well, it was not the world, just him. Only him. It was like she had thousand facets and he hadn't even seen half of them yet.

Tony closed the glass door a little so that no one could listen to them. This conversation was no one's business but them. "Hey err, Lu is at her weekly meeting with her bingo friends tomorrow and Jo goes to her friends to study for a test, so if you'd be interested in a movie night your welcome to come over. I'd even make something for dinner." Tony looked hopeful to her and waited for her answer. Was tomorrow too early? Should he have waited longer? "Of course provided we doesn't have work to do. And only if you feel like it. I could totally understand if you're not in the mood for it after a long day at work and you just want to go-"

"I would be happy to watch some movies with you." Ziva cut him off and Tony exhaled relieved, glad that she had accepted his invitation. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw the group making their way from the basement to the second floor. "You seem to miss a very exciting tour."

"I do not know. I'm rather happy of where I am right now." smiled Ziva."Maybe I get a new appointment for another guidance."

"Of course. I'd lead you even personally through the house."

"But what if I would rather like a guidance of Jo and Luisa? It seems like everyone has a great time with those two." She innocently glanced at him, a teasing twinkle in her eyes.

"Well, I might feel a little hurt but you'd have my full understanding." joked Tony.

Ziva looked thoughtfully into the distance for a few seconds. "How is it to be a single parent?"

Tony took a deep breath before he answered her question. "I would lie if I'd tell you that it isn't hard sometimes, but in the end it's always worth the hassle. However, I think that I should be happy that my daughter doesn't cause a lot of problems. That she's an angel. That she understands that there are hard times. For both, her and me."

"And Jo's mother? How was she like? Tell me about her."

"Joan was-" Tony didn't know what to say. How did one describe a person who was responsible for the biggest and best change in his life? It would take him too long to find the right words. "Surely you know these flare guns? The ones you're shooting up to the sky when you want to make your location known? Well, Joan was my signal fire. At that time I had that damn knee injury and had to say goodbye to my dreams of doing sports as a I've worked for was just gone. I didn't know what to do anymore and just started to not think about my future anymore. Then Joan entered my life. We met at a party of a friend of mine and things got heated up quickly and led us to a one night stand. It was not an unusual thing for me then. We slept together, bid our farewells the next morning and I was pretty sure that I'd never see her again."

Tony made a short break before he continued. "Around three weeks after our night, she called me. Joan had gotten the phone number from a friend of mine. She had told me she was pregnant then. I thought that this would be it. The last punch and everything would be over. My planned future was gone, my careless lifestyle had blown over, but it really was my signal fire. I suddenly had this direction I could go to, a future and I started to make plans again. It's amazing how an unplanned child could change my life so positively."

"What about Senior? Had he been glad that he was going to be a grandfather?"

"We weren't really on speaking terms then. He was travelling all over the world and I stayed at home alone. He didn't care about the things I did. His personality had been more distinctive then nowadays. A grandchild would have made him so much older. I wouldn't even be surprised if he'd even denied my existence. When Jo was about three or four years old, he suddenly seemed to be interested in us."

"Senior will always be Senior."

"He'll never change. At least not completely. I know that he cares a lot about Jo and me now, but he has a hard time showing it. As I stood in that damn hospital corridor, all alone and a baby in my arms, I've sworn that I'll never be like him. I will always be there for my daughter. She's the most important person in my life and that will never change."

"You're a good dad, Tony."

"I hope so. There are moments where I think that all I'm doing is wrong. But Jo is patient with me. I can't believe that she'll turn fifteen soon. When I look at her I can't help but still see my little girl in a princess dress, jumping up and down through the apartment and singing children songs." told her Tony as he thought back at the good old times.

Meanwhile the others had returned to the dining room again and opened another bottle of wine. If they had noticed the absence of the two of them, they seemed not to care. The sun was almost behind the horizon and the temperature became chilly.

"You know, the fact that you are a dad makes you a little more attractive." smiled Ziva and gave him a little peck on his cheek, before returning inside. When he was sure that she was out of sight, he smiled and touched the spot where just seconds ago Ziva's lips had been, before following her inside.

"You won't believe it, Gibbs. I have spoken with the owner of the motel. He looked through the recordings and discovered a man going inside Thorne's room. He apparently stayed for a quarter of an hour before he left again. It is exactly in our time frame that Ducky determined. This man was there when Thorne died."informed Ziva.

"Or he just supplied Thorne with the drugs." replied Tony who didn't think that Thorne was murdered. The whole thing just screamed suicide. But still, he knew that they had to check all possibilities. He looked back to Ziva as a thought occurred to him. "I thought the motel hasn't any real cameras? He told us that they're all dummies?"

"He lied. Obviously."

"I want this footage." ordered Gibbs. "And bring the owner here too! He hindered an ongoing investigation."

Ziva reached for her coat. "I was just on my way." Without any other word, she left the bullpen.

"Do you really think that Thorne was killed?" asked Tony.

"If so, there has to be a third party and this man could know something. Or he did kill Thorne himself." interfered McGee.

"We'll see." replied Gibbs.

"Killing Thorne and making it look like a suicide. Shouldn't be that hard. That guy was completely run down. Everyone would have believed it to be suicide. Fallon though, was a good man, a Petty Officer and absolutely not an easy target." mumbled Tony to himself.

McGee continued Tony's line of thought. "And which of them was the real target? Maybe Thorne was just killed to get us off the killers trail? Maybe one of them was just collateral damage? Or maybe both of them were targeted."

"Hopefully the footage will lead us to the answers." growled Gibbs.

Tony returned three hours later from his lunch break. He had picked up his daughter from school, so that they could have lunch together. Since she won't be home tonight, this had been his only chance to spend some time with her.

He entered the elevator and pressed the button for his floor, but when the doors were just about to close, a hand darted through the gap and they opened up again. Tony looked up and when he saw who was about to enter, his mood sank quickly and a chill went through him.

"Hello, Tony." grinned Cole.

Tony counted to three while trying to control his impulses. It wouldn't do any good if he'd attack his superior in the elevator. But man was it hard not to! "Team Director." He greeted him politely, but kept staring straight ahead.

"I've heard that you moved into your new house this weekend. It's certainly a beautiful house. I know this area really well and the most of these houses are a dream to live in."

"Wouldn't have picked you for somebody who spends his time at quiet family areas."

Cole looked intensively at Tony. In his eyes was a dark sparkle; a sign that this situation amused him to no end. "And where do you think I'm spending my time at?"

"Hopefully soon in prison." whispered Tony fiercely.

"It's sad that you can't let go of the past, old friend. But I'd like to remind you once more that you have so much more to lose than I do."

This open threat got to him hard and it brought the barrel to boil over. Tony stood, as big as he could, before Cole and glared coldly at him. Cole was pressed against the elevator wall and grinned evilly at him, observing every move of Tony. A Déjà-vu overcame them.

"What do you want to do, Tony?Do you want to hit me?Search for evidence until we both die of age?" he provoked Tony. Tony clenched his hands and suppressed his fury as well as he could. Cole's provoking grin became bigger when he saw that he had Tony right where he wanted him to be. Just a little bit more and he'd lose his temper. "Come on, Tony. We both know how much you want to hit me. How much you hate me. You just have to do the last step. Believe me, it isn't so difficult."

Before Cole could continue to provoke him, Tony forgot everything he stood for and raised his right fist, ready to swing it towards Cole. However, Tony's fist never made contact with Cole's face or any other body part. Instead it landed right next to his head into the wall. The impact left a small impression on the wall.

Cole grinned. "Missed".

Tony bent a little, so that his face was directly in front of Cole's and stared straight into his eyes. None of them even dared to blink. "I am nothing like you. I don't just kill people. Not for power and not for money. And I want you to know one thing: when I'm done with you, you will rot behind bars until you die."

"If you're not able to kill me, than I'm afraid there'll be only one of us surviving until the end. Unfortunately it won't be you, my friend. Until now I held back. I've hoped to beat some sense into that thick skull of yours. A favour on my part, but only because we were partners once. But you don't seem to want anything else than the hard and brutal fight. Now, I want you to see how your world will slowly collapses. Bit by bit and this will be all your fault, partner."Cole pronounced the last word as if it was a deadly disease.

"I have you know that as soon as somebody I care about gets hurt, all bets are off. I will not surrender to you."

"Tony!"

Tony and Cole were so involved in their little dispute that neither of them noticed that they had arrived on their floor and that the doors had opened. Tony turned around and saw that three NCIS agents staring shocked to them. Ziva stood in front of them, glancing horrified at the scene in front of her.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she asked.

"Agent DiNozzo just wanted to submit his point of view on something. No reason for you to worry, Agent David." Cole answered in a calculated and cool voice, as if nothing had happened. He straightened his suit again and left the elevator without sparing another glance towards Tony.

Tony waited a moment to collect himself again, before he too, left the elevator. Ziva looked questioningly at him, but waited for the other agents to leave before she'd ask her questions. However, Tony wasn't in the mood to excuse his little chat with their Team Director and beat her to it. "I thought you're on your way to collect the footage?"

"I was. But you know my driving style. I have already given the footage to Abby and she has a hit. I was just searching for you. Are you okay?"

"Everything's fine." Tony wanted to leave towards the bullpen, but Ziva held him back by his arm.

"I can see that you are not okay, Tony. I can see right through you, you know that. Your behaviour is always strange when the Team Director is around. I thought that we are more open to each other? You can tell me what is bothering you."

Tony stared at her, but she didn't shy away. Should he really tell her? On the one hand, Cole unmistakably told him that everyone in his life was in immediate danger. Ziva certainly could protect herself better when she knew that she had to be on alert. She would react better to strange things she could encounter. Tony signed. It was obvious that he stood no chance against Cole without help. However, he knew that he wasn't alone and that maybe it was time to tell the rest of the team.

"Not here, okay?" She looked up to him with her piercing brown eyes, before she nodded and let go of his arm.

"You wanted to tell me something?"asked Tony to reach a safe terrain again. He'd tell her he had to think of a good opportunity to tell the others too.

"Abby put the picture of our suspect into facial recognition. We have a hit. He was arrested once for drug possession. But that is not even the most interesting part. You will never guess the name of our suspect."

Tony just looked blankly at her, waiting for her to continue. Normally he'd guess. Told her some names that would be completely ridiculous, but so much Tony. However, after that scene in the elevator she knew that he wasn't okay right now. But she'll wait for him to tell her. Until then, they had work to do. "Ephraim Kelley."

Now he just looked confused at her. Should the name ring any bells? He thought for a moment and tried to remember hearing that name before, but he couldn't place it. Ziva seemed to notice his confusion and gave him a tip. "Meredith Kelley?"

"Meredith Kelley, Thorne's highschool sweetheart?"The Fallon's had mentioned her once, but just briefly so that Tony didn't jump immediately to this connection. His exotic partner was so much better at remembering tiny details.

"The one and only."

"So Meredith has something to do with the murder?"

"Yes and dug deeper into their connection and found something interesting. Meredith Kelley is dead. She died in her last high school year."

He looked in utter surprise at her. He didn't see that one coming.

I hope you liked it.