The Immortal and the Baker 15: The Private Investigator

This is my first story with Tony DiNozzo. Please be kind and review often. Absolutely no flames!

Tony DiNozzo, entered the gym with a duffle bag slung over his shoulder, all ready to get into his normal exercise routine. He was tired and stressed, he admitted, as he headed for the locker room in order to change into his workout clothes. He was hoping a good workout would help him relieve the stress or he was going to end up with an ulcer.
He had broken up with his girlfriend of over six months recently as she had gotten tired of him, always working late and thought he had been doing so in order to avoid her. She had refused to understand that being a private investigator required a lot of overtime when you were involved in a big case.
Tony came out of the locker room shortly, dressed in his exercise clothes of a simple T-shirt, jogging shorts and tennis shoes, and begin his routine by using the treadmill.
Tony became so lost in his thoughts that it was a surprise when the machine beeped to tell him his time was up.
"You really racked up the miles there," said voice and Tony looked and saw a beautiful woman. "You seem to be lost in your own little world and you didn't let anything distract you so it looks like you did about 10 miles in less then in an hour."
The woman pointed at the screen on the treadmill, which was a very advanced version from the ones that had been around in the 20th century. It was slimmer and more slick, the conveyor belt, more shiny with better traction. There was less chance of accidents with these new versions of the ones that had been around since the 20th century not that an accident wasn't still possible.
"Yeah, I guess I did," Tony said, looking at the screen on the treadmill to see that he had indeed done a little bit less than 10 miles in less than an hour. "Looks like I beat my own time, as it usually takes me a little bit over an hour to do 10 miles at least an hour and 15 minutes or so."
"Impressive," the woman said. "So can I have your name, sir?"
"I'm Anthony DiNozzo Jr. and what's your name?"
"I'm Delfina Hotchner, but you can call me, Del," though the woman answered.
"That's the rather unique name," Tony said.
Delfina Hotchner was dressed in workout gear just like he was, but had a lanyard around her neck with the name of the gym and the words personal trainer.
"I suppose it is in this day and age," Delfina agreed. "It's from greek mythology and was the name of one of the oracles of Delphi."
"Well, I see your parents have a habit of naming their children with unusual and unique names," Tony said.
"At least you didn't call it weird," Delfina laughed. "If you knew how many comments I'd had about my unique name, most of them negative. It's the main reason I go by Del as that's a bit more common, as it could be short for names like Delaney "
"If there's anything I know, people can be idiots," Tony offered smiling a little feeling his spirits restored from talking to this lovely lady in front of him. Tony was known as something of a ladies man and so had no problem with flirting with any beautiful woman that crossed his path. "It's not like you can help what your parents named you."
"That is so true," Delfina laughed delightedly.
Tony admitted to himself silently that he was unbearably attracted to her more than to his girlfriend that he had just broken up with within the last few weeks. Delfina was beautiful, absolutely gorgeous with black hair, slightly curly, a refined nose and prominent cheekbones and brown eyes that could melt a man's heart as they were the color of chocolate. She was also nearly 6 feet tall and that was unusual for a woman, even if this century, though not as much as it used to be.
"So if you don't have a husband or a boyfriend, what about a date, Miss Delfina?" Tony asked.
"Sounds good to me," Delfina said. She wasn't about to turn down a date from her mate, even though Tony wasn't aware of it yet. Tony had been too lost in his thoughts when Delfina had spotted him and her eyes had automatically widened so he hadn't noticed.
"So you're a personal trainer," Tony asked pointing at the lanyard with the badge that was around her neck.
"Yeah, I am," Delfina agreed. "I've always been into staying in shape and exercising, so I thought I would go into it as my career."
"Well, it's good to go into a career that you'll really enjoy," Tony said.
"So what do you do for a living Mr. DiNozzo?" Delfina asked.
"Private investigator," Tony explained. "Sorry, I really can't say anything else, as my clients are confidential."
"So your job is top-secret," Delfina said smiling. "That's fine Mr. DiNozzo."
"It's just Tony," Tony said. "Mr. DiNozzo reminds me of my father."
"And I take it you don't want to be reminded of him," Delfina said
"We don't get along," Tony confirmed.
"Then I'm sorry I reminded you of your father," Delfina apologized sincerely.
She figured that the senior DiNozzo had probably been a lousy father. Maybe he had cheated on Tony's mother, for example. Of course she didn't know what had really happened, but it was clear that Tony and his father were estranged.
"So how about tonight for that date?" Tony asked. "If you're free that is."
"That sounds fine Tony," Delfina agreed smiling, really looking forward to it. She couldn't wait to tell her parents she had met her mate and she knew they would be very happy for her. "We should exchange link numbers so we can keep in contact."
"That's a really good idea," Tony said. "Here's mine," Tony added reeling off a string of numbers."
"And here is mine," Delfina said doing the same thing.
"I'll call you later after I've made some arrangements," Tony told her smiling feeling his bad mood dissipating.
"If we're going anywhere, that requires me to dress up please give me a few days warning," Delfina requested. "I'll have to do some shopping."
"That won't be necessary. I'll never get us in any anywhere really fancy in just a few hours, but that won't be true at a later date," Tony said. "It'll be nice, but casual, promise. So what kind of food do you like to eat Del?" Tony asked.
"Oh, I'll eat about anything Thai, Chinese, Middle Eastern, Spanish, Italian," Delfina assured him.
"Seafood?" Tony asked and Delfina nodded.
"I like all kinds of seafood, except oysters," Delfina answered.
"So are you allergic to oysters?" Tony asked curiously. "I know that some people are."
"No, they don't make me sick. I just never liked the sliminess of them," Delfina answered.
"That gives me something to work with," Tony said, as he wrote everything down on his link so he wouldn't forget it. "I'll see you for dinner, Del. I'm really looking forward to it."
"Believe me, so am I," Delfina said smiling, even as she and Tony bid each other goodbye.

~~~Tony and Delfina~~~

"What was that all about?" questioned a voice as soon as Tony was out of sight.
"I would think it would be obvious Caspian," Delfina said.
The cousins walked briskly towards Caspian's office so that they could talk in private, as right now they were out on the floor, which was quite busy with people using the equipment. They didn't need to be overheard, and Caspian kept his silence until they were in his office. Hers was next-door. Once the door was shut the sound was immediately cut off like a switch had been flipped. Soundproofing was a wonderful invention and neither Delfina or Caspian heard a sound once the door was shut. It was blissful, the silence.
"If it was obvious, I wouldn't have asked you what that was all about," Caspian shot back continuing their previous conversation without pause once they were settled on the couch that was in the office.
"Sometimes I wonder where my aunt and uncle went wrong with you," Delfina said, shaking her head and disappointment at her cousin.
"Hey! Hey! There's no need to be insulting Delly," Caspian been told her.
"Then don't act like an idiot and I won't be," Delfina shot back. "I would think it would be as obvious as the nose on your face what that was about."
"So explain what I witnessed was about," Caspian instructed his cousin.
Delfina rolled her eyes in exasperation and then spelled it out in four simple, one syllable words. "He is my mate. Do you understand now?" Delfina demanded.
Caspian stared at her his expression shocked. "Are you kidding me? Trying to pay me back for something?"
"And why would I do that Cas?" Delfina asked using Caspian nickname.
"I don't know just that you've always had rather odd sense of humor," Caspian replied.
"I think I have a fine sense of humor thank you and no, it's not a joke," Delfina told him. "Didn't you see how my eyes widened the minute I set eyes on him. You know what that means."
"No, I wasn't really paying attention until I heard him ask you out," Caspian replied. "You accepted instantly without even having to think about it and sounded eager, which clued me in that you were really looking forward to it. I guess I now know why you sounded so eager.
"I'm surprised you can hear anything over all the noise in here the sound of the machines, the background music and so forth," Delfina said. " We were out of the main gym floor when Tony and I were having our conversation."
"People chattering the beeps of the exercise equipment," Caspian added. "Yes, I'm well aware that we were out on the main floor where there is no soundproofing, but we were standing close enough together that I heard your conversation, even if I was only paying minimal attention until the last minute or two.
"Exactly," Delfina agreed.
"I can't believe you met your mate at a place we own," Caspian shook his head in amazement. "I mean, we haven't been in business together all that long just a few years."
"It is pretty amazing, as I never expected to meet my mate at all, even though it's been happening in our family often. So many of both our families have met their mates, but I still never expected it to happen to me," Delfina said.
The gym and juice bar called simply Caspian's and Del's gym was quite the popular place. It was a relatively new venture for both Cas and Del, but so far it was going well. They were of the same generation of Hotchner and Rossi children and had been best friends all their lives. There had never been any romantic interest in each other, as they had been basically brought up as siblings on purpose.
Both of them were immortal as were their families and if they had actually been mates, it would've been a totally different story and they would've been happy to have become romantically linked, but since the bond had never popped up between a Hotchner and a Rossi, they knew better than to get involved with each other that way. That didn't mean that they didn't date at all as they had to practice their flirting skills just like anyone else, so they were ready when they did meet their mate, and Delfina was all prepared to flirt with Tony when they went to dinner that night.
"I don't blame you for not expecting it. I doubt any of the family that has met they mate has expected too," Caspian said.
"Maybe you aren't as dense as I thought you were," Delfina told him in a teasing tone.
"So forgive me for not realizing what was going on," Caspian shot back. "Can I help it if I never expected you to meet your mate right here? Or that I would be there when it happened?"
"I guess that's valid," Delfina said after a moment. "It was a bit of a shock I'll admit. You still should've realized what was going on though, but I suppose I'm not surprised you didn't."
The two continued to chatting each each other for sometime before they headed home. Delfina for one, had a date to prepare for, as Tony had sent her the name of the restaurant they were dining at while she was talking to her cousin.

~~~Tony and Delfina~~~