The big date was scheduled for Saturday evening. Team Gibbs had to work that weekend but as long as no cases came up. Tony had talked Gibbs into letting him leave a little early. Emily's mother had agreed to babysit for a couple of hours. She even offered to keep the kids overnight but Carly's Sunday School class was singing in church the next morning. Naturally Carly wanted to be there for that. Actually all the classes were going to sing but Dylan had terrible stage fright. So his teacher had made him a stage hand. Basically he made sure everybody was where they were supposed to be and set up the chairs before and took them down before. Friday afternoon Emily sat on the couch and listened to Carly rehearse while Dylan worked on his homework beside her.

"Mommy?" Carly asked after finishing her rendition of "This Little Light Of Mine".

"What is it sweetie?" Emily asked.

"Are you going to ask Mr. Tony to marry you?" Carly asked.

"Honey we have only been on one date." Emily replied.

"Yeah but you are going out again tomorrow and that's more than you usually go out." Carly replied.

"While that is true. It is still a little soon to tell." Emily replied.

"Do you really want to replace dad?" Dylan asked.

"Dylan, sweetie I am not replacing your dad. I will always love him but before he died he made me promise that I would be happy and that I would find a good man to be in you and Carly's lives." Emily explained.

"I thought I was the man of the house." Dylan said.

"You are and you take excellent care of your sister and me but you need a good male role model and even if I don't continue to see Tony. I think he will step up to that role as you get older." Emily explained.

"If I get older." Dylan commented.

"Dylan you will grow up and have a happy life." Emily assured.

"But what if I don't?" Dylan asked.

"Try not to think like that." Emily replied.

After she was sure that Dylan and Carly were asleep. Emily put on her bathrobe and stepped out into the backyard. Ever since their talk that afternoon. Dylan's words had weighed on her mind. It was hard having a child. Who had to worry if he was going to grow-up. She had tried her hardest to keep Dylan from knowing about the severity of his problems but after last year she had to tell him the truth. The first year of his life was the worst. his first six months were spent in the NICU. He came home when he was around three months and had aged to what should have been the time of his birth. She and Caleb (her first husband) brought him home on a Friday. Only to have to rush him back early Sunday morning with his first case of pneumonia. He recovered from that in two weeks but the next two and a half months he fought off secondary infections and regained the weight he lost. After that it was pretty much one health crisis after another until he was three. Luckily from then until last year he was pretty much stable. The worst part about last year was that it was his first major crisis and hospitalization without Caleb. He had been gone nearly three years since Carly was two. That was the other thing that Dylan had brought up. He had been five when his father died and had memories of him and formed a strong bond with him. Carly loved him as well but she was only two and so far her memories of him were through photos and stories. She leaned against the wall and stared up at the sky.

"Caleb I met this great guy. My friend Breena introduced us. You remember her? Well he works with her husband Jimmy. Anyway I was wondering is it okay if I move on?" Emily asked.

Tony let out a groan as he rested his head on his desk. He had started puking his guts out Thursday night. He felt so bad that he ended up calling in sick Friday. He was only in today because he didn't want to skip his date with Emily and he knew that if he called in sick. Only to go ahead and go on his date. Gibbs would kill him and Leroy Jethro Gibbs would find out. He knew that he shouldn't be around Emily when he was sick but he hadn't had a fever so he decided it wasn't the flu and chalked it up to the week old Chinese take-out he had eaten earlier in the week. He decided that he would take anti nausea medicine, just order water and broth, and hope for the best. When Emily asked why he wasn't eating he would say he had the flu earlier in the week and his stomach was still iffy. That way it wasn't a total lie.

"You alright DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked.

"Oh yeah I'm fine. Just jitters." Tony replied. Forcing himself to sit up.

"You look like shit." Gibbs observed.

"I was pretty sick yesterday." Tony replied.

"Well we don't have any cases so how about you go lie down in Abby's lab for a while?" Gibbs offered.

"I think I'll take you up on that." Tony replied.

Emily felt much better after her talk with Caleb. In her heart she now saw that it was alright to move on. She knew that's all he wanted was for her and the kids to be happy. Still she needed the confirmation that everything would be alright. If she did decide to continue things with Tony. She parked her car outside of Maria's. Caleb had brought her here a few times. The last time was when Carly was three months old. It was their first time going out alone since the new baby was born and it was lovely. She hoped that her night with Tony her first real date in a year. Her last date was just before Dylan got sick and that night had ended in her crying herself to sleep. She really hoped that Tony would be different. She entered the restaurant and gave her name to the hostess and said that she the reservations were likely under DiNozzo. The hostess confirmed that but informed her that Tony had not arrived yet. Emily assured herself that he was probably just running late. She ordered some coffee for herself, munched on the complementary bread sticks and waited. Until a waitress approached her. She smiled and waved thinking that Tony had arrived.

"Excuse me mam?" The waitress said.

"Oh is my date here?" Emily asked.

"No I am sorry. Um this is awkward but we need this table for somebody else." The waitress replied.

"Can't you just give it a few more minutes?" Emily asked.

"I am sorry but it has already been three hours. You are lucky we are fairly slow tonight. The only reason I am asking you to move now is a couple is coming in with their autistic son and he has to sit in this particular booth. I hope you understand" The waitress explained.

"No it's fine I understand." Emily replied.

Emily paid for her drink and exited the restaurant as fast as she could. She couldn't believe she had been hurt again. Especially by a guy Breena set her up with. She thought that she could trust her. Was she really the repulsive that even her best friend couldn't set her up with a decent guy. Tears pured down her eyes as she ran to the car.

"I knew it was too good to be true." Emily whimpered.

"Emily?" Somebody asked.

"You have a lot of nerve showing up here Jimmy! Tony stood me up! " Emily cried.

"Emily you need to listen to me." Jimmy replied grabbing her arm.

"No Jimmy. You need to listen to me. Why did you and Breena set me up with another jerk? You both know what I've been through! What do you and Breena just want to be the happy new couple so badly that you find a jerk for me! She has a lot of nerve screwing me over since I am the one who suggested she go on that dating site and met you! Does she think that only one of us can be happy since Caleb died right after you two met? Do you just hate me?! What is it?! Because I can;t take the games I have a family! I have a sick child that could die at any time! I can't do this! Maybe I should just become a nun or something!" Emily yelled.

"WILL YOU JUST LISTEN TO ME!?" Jimmy demanded.

"What?" Emily asked taken aback. She had never seen him get angry before.

"Tony didn't stand you up. He... he's in the hospital." Jimmy replied nervously

A/N: Cliffhanger! What trouble has Tony gotten into now? I admit I stole the scene with Emily talking to Caleb from How I Met Your Mother. New chapter should be up Wednesday. Please review and thanks for reading.