Thank you to everyone who has stuck by this story for the past 2 years! Writers block is terrible, especially for a story like this where I know where I want to be with it, just don't know how to get there in the best way. Hope you keep with me xoxo

-x-

"What do you guys think we should surprise Mommy with for dinner?" Tony questioned, glancing in the rearview mirror at the kids in the back seat of the car. It was his first day home, returning from New York City and he wanted to make it special. He had been away from Ziva and the kids for two months now, working with his own team of Special Agents in Long Island. The money was astonishing, but nothing could heal the emptiness he had felt from being away from his family for months at a time. Sure, New York wasn't that far away from DC, but the work hours and long nights opposite of that of the kids and Ziva's made it difficult to keep in touch. Weekly if not daily, he would have FaceTime with the kids and at night, the two adults would have intimate FaceTime "dates" as Tony called it, in the discomfort of the separate beds they now resided in. Ziva didn't want to pack up and leave their life they had worked so hard to build in DC and their families so, they would make this long distant relationship work. Though, Tony admitted to himself that it was straining on their marriage every time he saw a tear drop slowly down the side of his wife's cheek as she lay in bed over FaceTime. He just prayed it would never stray too hard on the home and the life they'd built together.

"Pizza!" Ty shrieked, knocking Tony out of his thoughts while Isabella sucked intently on the nook in her mouth.

"We can't have pizza every day, big guy." Tony laughed, turning the car into the parking lot for the grocery store. After parking the car and turning the ignition off, the diligent father got out and unstrapped both of his children from their car seats. Lifting Isabella out of her car seat and setting her growing body on his hip, he shut the door, locking the car and grabbing Ty's hand. The family walked across the parking lot and into the store where Tony grabbed a cart to place Isabella inside of.

"Alright, mon familia –" Tony announced before the little boy interrupted him.

"Mo what?!" The little boy stared up at his father, questionably.

"It's Italian, son." Tony corrected, working his way with the kids into aisle three of the store.

"Sketti?" Ty asked, mirroring his father looking at the boxes in front of them.

"Yup, we're going to have Daddy's famous spaghetti tonight!" Tony said, picking a few boxes of penne and angel hair from the aisle, continuing walking down towards the sauce jars.

"Should we make vodka penne for Mommy?" Tony asked, gradually looking over the selection of sauces.

"Yes," Ty answered, poking his sister in the leg and she groaned causing her father to turn around and see what was wrong.

"And the three of us will have Grandma Dinozzo's specialty!" Tony smirked, taking two jars of sauce, setting them in the cart and continuing on.

Stopping in the bakery, Tony handed Ty a loaf of Italian bread in which he pretended to act as if it were a light saber right of a Star Wars movie . Isabella giggled at her brother in the cart, clapping at her father who snuck her a cookie from the free kids club box that the grocery store had to offer.

Groaning at how much noise the kids were making when walking through aisles, Tony wondered at how Ziva got through this task every week. Ty hopped on one foot down the cereal aisle, knocking a few boxes over with his sneakers.

"See, Ty. That's why we don't do that," Tony said, annoyed and bent over to gather the boxes.

"Can we go to the toy store?" Ty asked.

"No, not today. We've got to get home and make dinner for when Mommy gets out of work," Tony said, impatiently.

"But Mommy always takes us there after we shop," The little boy pouted, holding onto the cart with one hand as Tony walked along.

"Since when does your mother like to shop?" Tony pondered, wondering when the hell Ziva changed her mind on how awful shopping was.

"We always go shopping…" Ty stated as a matter of fact, shrugging his shoulders at the weird look on Tony's face.

Maybe he was missing out on a lot while he was working in New York…

"Let's get out of here, kiddos. Daddy hates grocery shopping." Tony remarked before grabbing some soda, a few bags of chips and heading to the checkout.

Piling everything in to the car, Tony pulled Isabella out of the cart and placed her into her car seat. He strapped her in, helping Ty clasp his seatbelt into his own car seat. Stressed out from the adventures of grocery shopping with two toddlers, Tony quickly shoved the cart into the parking spot next to their car and got inside.

Once the family was home, Tony unloaded the groceries, putting the necessities away and leaving the materials for dinner out. Ty was lounging on the couch in the living room, laughing away at the cartoons on TV while Isabella lay on the carpet, playing with her stuffed dog and cat.

He started boiling the water for the noodles and prepping the garlic bread before putting it in the oven. The giggles coming from the living room warmed his heart causing him to be swept away in a land of thoughts as he began to cook a special dinner for his wife. He had missed his little ones and her so much. It was beginning to feel like he was missing out on their life and the adventures of them growing up, the adventures of being a family. However, his job and the money he was making in New York was exceptional. They didn't have to worry about looking price tags anymore or worried if they would have enough money for renovations with his job and he enjoyed that. But, the price was family and spending months away from the three people he adored the most.

Sure, he liked his team and much to his dismay being the next Gibbs in Long Island. Perhaps he could look at getting more time off to come back home to DC or the second option…convince Ziva and the kids to move to New York.

Whatever thought he had next was cut off when she walked through the door.