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"I know you're not close to your father, but I would like you to meet my parents and my godparents," Delfina told Tony. "I should've introduced you to them long since, but you've been so busy over the last few months that I've just never had the opportunity."
"I knew I would have to eventually I'm just surprised you haven't introduced me before now, though," Tony said.
"I would have a long time ago, except they live in South Carolina," Delfina explained. "If they had, actually lived here, in Baltimore, I would've introduced you a long time ago.
"And here I thought it was because you didn't want to introduce me to them," Tony said, and there was a tone of insecurity in his voice that wasn't like the Anthony DiNozzo Delfina knew. That insecurity likely went back to his childhood where his father hadn't fulfilled his responsibilities to his son, and after the mother had died, had stuck Anthony Junior in boarding schools and sent him to summer camps instead of spending time with him.
Delfina cursed the Senior DiNozzo in her head in multiple languages in order to relieve her feelings about Tony's father abandonment of his son. Tony's father might've paid to send his son to boarding school and to some camp, but he'd done that instead of actually spending time with him.
The Senior DiNozzo probably had no idea of the kind of scars that he had left on his son's psyche, and she wasn't sure if he would care even if he did know.
Still, it wasn't her place to confront Tony's father about his lack of parenting skills, so she would let it be as she didn't want to upset her mate. She was sure Tony wouldn't appreciate her in interference anyway, as no man would unless they were a child.
She supposed she was lucky that Tony's father had at least cared enough to put his son in boarding school and pay the considerable fee required, as otherwise Tony would've ended up in foster care or possibly on the street.
Still, the way, the Senior DiNozzo had been so callous about his son's feelings showed the distinct lack of regard for his son's happiness and welfare made Delfina's blood boil.
"Don't be ridiculous, of course, I want to introduce you to them, as you're the love of my life. If they didn't live so far away, I would've been more than happy to introduce you to them long since," Delfina told Tony firmly giving him a scorching hot kiss in order to punctuate her words. The kiss broke, and Tony looked rather stunned at the force of it, but then very happy and he radiated satisfaction.
"I hope that convinces you that I do love you and I very much want to introduce you to my parents and my godparents. I know your childhood was rough and if I had my way, I'd kick your father in his nether regions for what he did to you by basically abandoning you, but since I can't do that, I'll just have to find another way to convince you that I mean what I say," Delfina said.
"My father would be shocked if you did kick him in the balls," Tony chuckled immediately cheering up.
"He deserves to be, but let's change the subject, as that particular one makes me mad enough to go find out where he is and poor acid on said balls, so that he can never use them again for anything," said Delfina.
"That would be a sight to see," Tony said laughing outright at that. "As for going up to see your parents, I'll be glad to visit them with you. You've talked about them so much that I've been wanting to meet them and thank them for raising such an amazing daughter anyway and this could be the perfect opportunity."
"Good, I'll tell them we're coming and you can take a day or two off work. We could go and come back on the same day though, if you like, instead of staying for a day or two to see some of the sites of South Carolina. Either is fine with me. You just tell me what you want, because I'll have to tell my clients that I'll be gone for how long we decide to be."
"Well, I haven't had a vacation in a long time so I would say take a few days. I haven't even been to the beach that is close to here. There's one not to far from Baltimore, which ought to tell you that I'm a workaholic."
"You have bills to pay I understand that. I know you're still trying to pay off those college loans too," Delfina said.
"Yeah, I am because my dad might've paid for those boarding schools and those summer camps I attended but college, no," Tony said. "So when are we heading up to South Carolina to meet your parents?"
"Anytime you like what about on the weekend?" Delfina suggested.
"Sounds fine," Tony agreed.
"Right I'll inform my parents that we'll be there this weekend. Be prepared to eat a terrific meal and make sure you leave room for dessert," Delfina said.
"Well, it's not like I get many home-cooked meals," Tony said smiling. "I eat out a lot. I don't think I've had a home-cooked meal since my mother died."
"Be prepared to be wowed then, as my mother is a terrific cook and so is my Aunt Jazz and my Uncle Dave, though it'll be mom that does the cooking this time, because I'm her daughter," Delfina said. "Still, Aunt Jazz will bring a terrific dessert for everybody to consume and if there's any left by the time the evening is over it won't be much."
"Well, I've already had plenty of desserts from your cousin's bakery, and I'm assuming that your cousin inherited his mother's talent when it comes to desert items," Tony said.
"That's true Ewan did," Delfina agreed.
"Now there is a name that's hard to pronounce," Tony said.
"Yeah, it kind of is," Delfina agreed laughingly. "It's a Scottish name that means born of the yew tree. It's just another version of Eoghan."
"You have an unusual name, your cousin has an unusual name. Why couldn't your parents and godparents just choose nice ordinary names like Tony or Lee or Claire?"
Delfina didn't bother to tell Tony the reason her name or her cousin's were so unusual was because her parents and godparents had run out of the more normal ones long since, but that was an old problem and there was no point of thinking about it right now.
"I think they just like unusual names," Delfina told Tony instead of telling him the truth, though he'd soon learn why hers and her cousins names were so uncommon. "My cousins names and my name are not the only unusual names in our family I promise you. For example, my mother is Shonda and there's no nickname for it."
"I would say so," Tony agreed.
"I'll contact my parents as soon as I get back to my apartment and let them know we're coming up on the weekend," Delfina said.
"I'm looking forward to meeting your family," Tony said, sounding very sincere.
"Believe me, they're looking forward to meeting you, as I can't stop talking about you whenever I talk to them, which is usually every three or four days," Delfina assured him.
"So you've been talking me up," Tony said.
"Not talking you up, but they are aware I'm crazy about you," Delfina corrected.
Of course, there was a very good reason, she was crazy about one Anthony DiNozzo, and Tony was about to discover why that was. By the end of the weekend, Tony would be in on the whole supernatural secret and hopefully he would accept it and she wouldn't send him running in the opposite direction.
It will work out, Delfina kept telling herself. It's worked out every time her parents or godparents had had to tell a perspective mate that immortality and magic weren't fantasy but real.
"OK," Tony said, changing the subject.
The two continued to discuss it and finally, they decided that they would leave right after breakfast for South Carolina so they could see some of the city that Delfina's parents had settled down in before dinner that night.
~~~Tony and Delfina~~~
"Come in," Aaron said as soon as he opened the door to his daughter and her mate. "Shonda and I have been wanting to meet you for sometime Detective DiNozzo. Delfina can't stop talking about you whenever we talk to her."
"Tony, this is my father Aaron Hotchner," Delfina introduced.
"It's just Tony. There's no reason to be so formal," Tony offered shaking Aaron's hand. Tony and Delfina entered the Hotchner house the front door closing automatically with no human intervention, as soon as everybody was out of range of the doors sensors.
"It's good to see you, dad," Delfina said already having warned her parents, not to mention that she had come to see them and explained her reasons.
Delfina's father was a handsome man, Tony noted with silver in his hair, but very few wrinkles that he could see. The visible parts of Aaron's body were that of a much younger man, but the hair indicated some age. For all Tony knew, Aaron had had some work done in order to reduce the winkles as much as possible, which could be the reason why Delfina's father looked like a male version of his daughter, same hair and eye color. Aaron was just a bit taller than his daughter, but not by more than a couple of inches.
"So what's for dinner dad? It sure does smell good," Delfina said, smelling all the delicious sense of one of her mother's home-cooked meals.
"It's your mother's pot roast, and if I remember correctly, it was always been one of your favorites," Aaron answered his daughter, as he led the way to the dining room where everybody was already seated.
"You're in for treat Tony my mother's pot roast is out of this world," Delfina said just as they entered the dining room.
"Thank you for the compliment, sweetie," A redheaded woman with green eyes answered, and Tony assumed that this was Delfina's mother Shonda Hotchner.
"You're welcome, but I also spoke the truth. It is one of my favorites for a reason," Delfina said, as she led Tony to the side of the table where there were two empty chairs. "Everyone this is Tony DiNozzo. Tony, the woman who spoke is my mother Shonda. The other two people are my aunt and uncle David and Jazzlyn Rossi, who just preferred to go by Dave and Jazz."
"It's nice to meet you young man," Shonda spoke. "Believe me, Aaron and I have heard all about you from Del whenever we talk."
"It's nice to meet everyone," Tony said, even as he and Delfina sat down in the two empty chairs. "Del, has told me a lot of good things about her family. Now I can put faces to the names."
"Let's eat before the food gets cold," Shonda gently suggested. "We can talk afterwards. It would be a shame for all the hard work I put into preparing dinner go to waste and unlike Dave, Aaron can't cook to save his life, so I had no assistance."
"I would've been glad to come over and help you prepare dinner," Jazz told Shonda speaking for the first time. "All you had to do was ask."
"It's fine. I'm used to preparing dinner for large numbers," Shonda assured Jazz. "I did have four children after all and you and Dave often came over for dinner, which only increased the amount of dinner preparations, but I didn't mind it. You had enough to do with fixing the dessert for tonight."
Tony watched the interactions between everyone and thought that this was a rather unusual family as it was clear how close they were. They had to have known each other for over 30 years, as Delfina looked around 30 years of age, which meant the older adults had been friends for all that time.
"Just fill your plate from the dishes on the table," Delfina instructed Tony.
"Make sure you say room for the dessert as I baked old-fashioned chocolate crème brûlée," Jazz told Tony, as Tony started to serve himself from the dishes that were in the middle of the table.
"Why do you call it old-fashioned chocolate crème brûlée?" Tony asked Jazz curiosity, as he took a bite of the pot roast.
"Because it's one of the oldest desserts there is and has been around since medieval times," Jazz answered Tony's question. "It was first published in a French cookbook in 1691 though."
"That's a really long time," Tony whistled appreciatively. "I can see why you called it old-fashioned now, since it's been around for so long. I'm surprised you know such an old piece of trivia though."
Everyone laughed that and then Dave explained what they were laughing about in an amused tone. Dave hadn't said much or really anything until now so Tony listened raptly. "Jazz knows a lot of old-fashioned trivia where it concerns food since she's a baker," Dave explained.
"You just pick up stuff like food based trivia when you're in my type of profession," Jazz said. "If I ever went on a game show and they had a category about food, I could probably answer every single one of them and get them right. I have a lot of that type of trivia stored in my head."
"I'm sure you know a lot of trivia about football, because that's your favorite sport," Delfina suggested to Tony who nodded.
"And I know a lot of odd facts about antiques, because I own an antique store that's been in my family for generations," Shonda added even as she enjoyed her dinner. "For instance, I could tell you about the first toy, a doll that was made thousands of years ago. Egyptian children played with them and they had wigs and movable limbs, which were made from stone, pottery, and wood. See, we all know different types of trivia. I could go on, but I'm sure you see the point I'm trying to make. I could give you 1000 different facts about different toys and what they were made of when they were first manufactured if I wanted, but I'm sure you're not interested in my knowledge when it comes to really old objects not necessarily just toys."
"Actually, I find it rather interesting, but we can talk about it later if you want to expound on that subject," Tony said.
"I might just take you up on that, but remember, you asked for it when I bore you to tears with 1,000,001 facts about different types of antiques," Shonda told him with a smile.
"It's great as usual, mom," Delfina told Shonda, as she ran a piece of her bread roll through the gravy from the roast, and then popped the piece into her mouth chewed and swallowed.
"She's right, it's really good Shonda, but I would expect nothing less, because I know what a good cook you are, since I've eaten numerous meals here over the years," Dave told Shonda even as he ate some peas.
"All thanks are appreciated," Shonda said smiling, even as she popped a piece of roast into her mouth.
"Yes, both her mother and my mother taught both of us everything they knew when it came to cooking a good meal," Jazz agreed taking a bite of her own dinner.
"So I take it you two have known each other for a long time," Tony spoke of having observed the interaction and the conversation between the two women.
"Yes, we definitely have," Shonda agreed, smiling. "Jazz and I have been best friends all our lives and grew up in the same town."
"It is really a small town known as Moonlight Gorge, which is in Louisiana," Jazz added.
"We've been best friends ever since kindergarten," Shonda said as she finished her dinner.
"That's a very long time," Tony said.
Tony really had no idea how long her mother and aunt had been friends, which was centuries, not just a few decades, Delfina thought, as she listened to the conversation
"You have no idea," Jazz said, looking at Shonda, who was looking back at her, and Tony noticed that Shonda sent her friend a wink. There was a message that he didn't understand underneath the surface of the two women's shared look.
"If everybody isn't to full, we'll have dessert in the den," Shonda said, as she finished her food.
"That sounds good to me," Delfina said. "I've been looking forward to one of Aunt Jazz's desserts since I knew we were coming."
"The bakery in Baltimore has the same type of dessert items," Jazz told Delfina.
"It's not the same," Delfina shot back. "Yes, Ewan is a very good baker, I would never claim otherwise, that doesn't mean I can't look forward to having one of yours."
"Del does have a point," Aaron noted with a little smile playing on his lips.
Jazz simply smiled and shook her head.
"There's no reason to be so modest, sweetie," Dave, who had been mostly silent, spoke up. "You should be proud of your ability to bake just about anything when it comes to sweets."
"So I'm rather anxious to try your chocolate crème brûlée," Delfina said changing the subject.
"So am I," Tony agreed.
Jazz and Shonda started gathering everybody's dishes in order to take them and put them in the dishwashing unit. "It's not the type of dessert that is sold in any of the bakeries owned by my family, but still, it's not that complicated to make."
"What isn't complicated to you might be complicated to someone else," Dave said and Jazz acknowledged that with a nod.
"While that's true so long as you can cook, you can make this with little trouble," Jazz said.
"Why doesn't everyone head into the living room and Jazz and I will join you as soon as we finish putting the dishes in the dishwashing unit," Shonda suggested. "We'll only be a few minutes."
"This way," Aaron suggested to Tony, who followed Delfina's father towards the living room, along with everybody else other than Jazz and Shonda.
~~~Tony and Delfina~~~