AN: It's been a pleasure to write and even more so to read all of your wonderful comments. Thank you all so much. I hope to get my next story out soon, so keep your eyes posted for that. Please do review and let me know what you liked about the story and what you would like to see more of. Thank you all again.

(Ducky)

Today has been quite interesting. I would have never imagined Anthony to come from such… colorful people. The party at this point has dissipated, with most of the senior citizens tired and returning to the hotel. Most of our work associates have left quite content with their decision to attend the party. At first I was embarrassed for Anthony but it turns out that everyone has a fantasy life and the general consensus is that the party was a hit and that everyone was very well entertained.

The majority of his family has also left either to go to the hospital with that poor girl Francine, who reportedly is doing fine but being treated for alcohol poisoning. As of now it our close intimate work group, and a few select relatives including, Anthony's father, Mr. and Mrs. Leone and Dominic, although he has resigned himself to the bathroom as he purges his body.

Now it is present time. Anthony just looks like he wants the day to end, but alas, there is tradition to consider.

Ziva gives Anthony a beautiful book about early Hollywood and the silent screen stars. Clearly he loved it and after that he seemed to remember that getting gifts were fun.

Abigail gives him an expensive pair of sunglasses, and Mr. and Mrs. Leone give him a beautiful golden cross.

McGee's present quite startled me seeing as how it was a DVD set of Maury. Anthony seemed quite enamored with the gift, so perhaps it was a private joke.

My gift was a bit of a risk, but he seemed to enjoy it; it was Dante's Inferno in the original Italian with an English translation. I understand that Anthony's fluent but the Italian that the work was written is very old and of a dialect and so I am sure he will need the English for aid. He promised me to a date after he finishes it so we can discuss it.

Finally it came down Jethro who looked…off.

"Hey kid" he said gently, looking somewhat upset, "Mine didn't come in yet. Raincheck okay?"

Well now that is decidedly unlike my friend. I find it very hard to believe that Gibbs wouldn't have a present ready in time to give to young Anthony, who I know Gibbs considers to be like a son, and by the way Anthony is looking at Gibbs, I don't think he believes it either.

"Yeah sure Gibbs" Tony says, his eyes quite not in agreement with what he's saying, "No problem."

"Well" Peter says, "Here's my gift."

He passes an envelope to his son.

"Thanks Dad" Anthony says pocketing it.

"Aren't you going to open it" Peter says.

Tony looks at his father.

"It's not money?"

"No no, open it!"

Tony intrigued now opens the envelope, and pulls out a brochure and a note. He reads it and looks…well…shocked.

"Dance lessons" Tony says quietly, "Wow, this is…this is great…dad."

"Do you like it" Peter asks.

"I love it" Anthony responds with complete honesty and tears in his eyes, "This is…just…wow. I really love it."

He looks at his father and then at Gibbs. Tony gets up to give his father a hug. As he hugs his father he looks straight at Gibbs and mouths, "Thank you."

Gibbs gives him a wink but then resumes his stoic face.

Well, how about that?

(Gibbs)

It's not eavesdropping…it's not. It's just staying within Tony and Peter's proximity so that I can hear everything they are saying. Everyone is gone except the two of them…well that not entirely true, I keep forgetting that I have that buffoon in my bathroom puking his brains out. Anyhow, Tony and Peter are now having biscotti's and coffee, and they're speaking to one another. I have every reason to eaves-stay within their proximity.

"I am proud of you" Peter says with a tone.

"Yeah okay Dad" Tony replies back annoyed, "You keep saying that."

"I mean it!"

Tony looks at his father, "Alright, I believe you."

"You think I did you wrong" Peter says…it's not a question.

I glace over to Tony who is considerably taut. This man is poking at every one of his buttons after a very long day.

"Dad" Tony says tiredly, "The past is in the past, you always made sure there was a roof over my head and food. You gave me an education and a love for my culture and heritage. You grew up with nothing and made something of yourself. I'm proud to be your son."

Peter looks at his son and claps.

"Beautiful speech Antonio, how many times did you have to recite that before you committed it to memory?"

"Dad" Tony says hitting the table with his fist, "What do you want from me?"

"Ah" Peter says, "Now there's that anger."

Tony breathes in deeply, "I think it's time to go."

"Wait" Peter says desperately, "Look, you don't understand."

"I was there Dad" Tony cries, "How can I not understand? Come on, let's not do this, I don't want to do this with you."

"You don't know what it was like back then."

Tony is grabbing at his hair and I can see how hard he is trying to keep his mouth shut.

"Do you know what it's like to be cold?"

Tony is glaring.

"Real cold" he continues.

With an icy tone, Tony responds, "Don't minimize my experiences Dad."

"I'm not trying to" Peter replies, "I'm just trying to make you understand."

"I need a drink" Tony says getting up and heads over to the kitchen. I meet him there.

He pours himself a generous glass and immediately begins drinking on it.

"Hey" I say coming into his view, "Easy with that, I don't have another bathroom currently available at the moment."

"He's doing it" Tony tells me, "He's getting to me and I'm going to say something, I'm going to blow it and then I'm going to be the heel that tells his father go fuck himself right before he dies. He's enjoying this, I'm telling you the man is a sadist."

The glass rises to his lips but I stop it, and then gently take it from him.

"I won't let you."

"Gibbs" he tells me angrily, "I think I've been very good all day long, but now I'm tired and I want to go to bed. I can't keep suppressing today's abuse."

"I won't let you blow it" I tell him. I push him towards the room, "Now go."

I continue cleaning around the house with an ear keenly attached to this conversation, and it's getting ugly. I'm giving it a minute before I step in.

"You have a very nice little job" Peter says, "You've made a nice little life yourself down here. I'm proud of you."

"Why" Tony demands.

"Why what?"

"Why are you proud of my nice little job?"

Peter is silent.

"Why are you proud Dad" Tony screams.

"I don't know why" Peter screams back, "But that's what you're supposed to say!"

And there's a glass being hurled across the room. Now it's time.

"Why are you doing this to me" Tony screams from the other room, "What are you trying to do?"

"I'm not doing anything to you" Peter screams back, "I'm trying to do what fathers do!"

"Ahh-haahh" Tony screams, "What does that mean, what the hell does that mean? You've never tried to do that before!"

I enter in the room, "Hey" I say, "How's it going in here, anyone need refills?"

Both Peter and Tony's chairs are knocked over and both are standing looming over their area space straight across from each other.

"I'm trying to talk to him" Peter screams while pointing at his son.

"Okay" I say while picking up Tony's chair and shoving him into it, "He's trying to talk to you Tony." I rest my hands on Tony's shoulders. "So let the man speak, he's trying to tell you he's proud of you."

"Boss" Tony growls.

"Trust me" I whisper back to him.

"Mr. DiNozzo" I say, "Please continue."

"I could never speak to him" Peter says angrily, "You never once listened, you were always impossible!"

I can feel Tony's muscles tightening underneath my hands. In response, I start to massaging it with my thumb to calm him down a little. It seems to work somewhat.

"You never tried to talk to me" Tony says quietly.

"Well I couldn't" Peter says back, "I never knew you, how was I supposed to talk to you? The only damn thing you ever talked about as a kid was movies. You would just go and on for hours. Look I tried Anthony, I did, but you don't know what it was like for me. I never wanted kids. Rosie wanted them. I didn't see what the point was. She had me, what more could she need? But I understood it, I worked all day and she had no one, so I gave it my blessing and she had you."

Peter takes his seat again.

"I worked like a dog" he continues, "I would wake up at four thirty in the morning and come home at nine. They were grueling days and no one ever gave me any kind of break. You don't know what it was like. Growing up we had nothing, Rosemarie had nothing, we all came from nothing. We felt like nothing and all anyone ever told us is that we were nothing. Our parents didn't speak English and no one wanted anything to do with us. There was never enough food or heat. Poverty like that drives you, and it makes into this animal that can never go back to those circumstances and so all I did was work. It was fine in the beginning but then when you were born her attention was divided between me and you. You were never my child, you were always hers."

"What does that mean" Tony asks.

"It means that if I would even go to hold you she would yell at me for not doing it right. I tried to buy you a model car once and she almost bit my head off because there were little pieces that babies could eat. You were like two, I didn't know you were still putting things in your mouth. In the beginning I tried, I did, but she just, I don't know, she was obsessive with you."

"She was a good mom" Tony responds giving his father something. That in return earns him a smile.

"You don't understand Anthony" he replies, "because she died so early, but the women have a very special role in the house with the children and the cooking, they make it alive."

He looks at me.

"You are not Italian", Peter tells me.

"No" I respond, "That I am not."

"Then you don't understand either. The women are supposed to handle the children, it was always their place. When Rosie died, all of sudden I had this small person in my house and I had no idea what the hell to do with him, with you Anthony. "

Since I am now included in the conversation I decide to take a seat.

When she died it was as if I was meeting you for the first time in my life. I remember coming home from the hospital and not knowing where the hell you even were. I remember just standing in my kitchen trying to think where you could be, and I didn't even know when your school let out, so I went to call, but I didn't have a number I just didn't have a clue as to what to do. What I did have though was a bottle of Jack, so I took to drinking and figured wherever you were was better than being with me. I am sorry for that Anthony."

"Where was I" Tony asks, squinting as if trying to remember that day.

"Some sports event" Peter says, "I didn't even know you played sports. You and Dominic were on some team together, so Louisa picked you up, and all of sudden you were my problem. I had no idea what to do with you. You were hungry and I didn't know how to cook anything, and you missed your mother and I didn't know how to handle it."

Tony seems to be absorbing this well and isn't about to offer anything so I throw my two cents in.

"It must have been difficult raising him by yourself."

"It was hell" he says back brokenly, "And every time I would look at him, eh you Anthony, I would see Rosie and I would hear Rosie crying telling me how bad I was screwing up the one thing that she really truly loved and I had no idea how fix it."

I nod my head, "I used to hate children that looked my daughter too. I would see little girls playing and I used to become so angry that they weren't playing with my dead daughter. Like you said it's irrational, but it's what happens."

Tony glances my way and relaxes; if I'm going to offer up stories about Kelly then he sure as hell can sit in his seat and behave.

"I always loved him, you Anthony" he continues, "I just didn't always, you know like you."

Tony chuckles quietly to himself.

"Yeah well I kind of have some experience with that."

Peter grins at his son, and ladies and gentlemen, mission accomplished. We hear a large thud coming from the bathroom and then a very distraught Dominic Leone coming out.

"Oh my God" he says, "I'm dying, I'm fucking dying."

"How you feeling" Tony asks while laughing.

"It's not funny you jackass" Dominic responds while plopping down onto my couch.

"You're right" Tony concedes, "You know when it was particularly not funny? When you and Fanny decided to kill yourselves in front of my coworkers! You fucking dick!"

"Oh please" Dominic moans, "They were board as hell, you should be thanking me."

DiNozzo picks up his napkin, dips into his drink and throws it across the room to hit his cousin.

"I love you too buddy" Dominic responds.

Epilogue…

"Gibbs, Gibbs" I hear from my doorway. I turn the light on and meet DiNozzo.

"What's wrong" I ask.

"It's time" he tells me, "I have to go. You have the girls?"

"Yes" I respond, "Where's Ziva?"

"Already on the way to the hospital, I'm going to meet her."

"What do you mean she's already on the way to the hospital?"

"She said she wanted to drive."

"She's in labor!"

"Which is why she wanted to drive! You know how she is with driving, she figured she can do it better herself. Who am I to take that away from her?

"Tony-"

"Look, she's fine, if anyone is ever fine, it's her. I'm going to go meet her, you have the girls?"

"Yes yes, keep me updated, good luck!"

He taps my cheek and runs off. I make myself go back to bed because tomorrow is going to be a huge day.

NCISNCISNCIS

You ever have the feeling that someone is staring at you? I'm experiencing that right now. I roll over and decide that someone needs me to be awake. I open my eyes and I am greeted with two sets of green eyes…make that two someones.

"Are you awake" one of the sets asks me.

I smile, "No, I'm sleeping."

"No you're not" the other set tells me, "I can see your eyes are open."

I chuckle to myself and grab the two of them and throw them onto my bed.

"Well I guess that means we need to eat breakfast."

"That is exactly what it means" one little girl tells me, "I'm starving."

I roll my eyes. Sometimes they are so much like Tony it's scary…well I guess they are DiNozzos after all.

Twelve years later and life has gotten easier-mind you that's not to say that it hasn't had it's downs because it had. Angela, Tony's wife dying and leaving him with two one years old was not easy on anyone, but five years after that I think we have worked all the kinks out. He married Ziva a year ago and are about to begin a new chapter in their life.

"I want chocolate chips pancakes"

"No! I want waffles!"

"Pancakes!"

"Waffles!"

The two go to strike each other but I hold them back.

"I thought girls were supposed to be easier."

I get two mischievous smiles that I seem to already know so well.

In response I get, "Pancakes" and "Waffles" yelled at me.

"Ladies" I tell them, "It just so happens that I can make both."

Peter DiNozzo died peacefully in his sleep a week after visiting Tony down in Virginia. Down in Virginia, see how I talk now? We now live on Long Island…yes we. I had retired, and Tony had been given a job offer in New York through that NCIS branch and under my advice, he took it. His family just meant too much to him. He met a really nice girl Angela, married her, and then had his twin girls Rosemary and Marigold, Rosemary after his mother, and Marigold after hers. We call them Rosie and Goldie for short. He kept in touch with all of us, but it was still a surprise when I he greeted me that night on my doorstep with his twin girls. He told me that Angela had died and that he couldn't raise his girls because he was too afraid he'd screw it up like his father did him. He wanted me to raise them instead. I talked him down, and somehow the only solution he would accept is me going to up to New York and helping out for a while. Somehow I just ended up staying for six years. Well…of course it had something to do with the fact that his family also offered to help out and I didn't want the girls to end up insane or anything like their more promiscuous female relatives.

Ziva ended up coming here on a work related assignment and it apparently was too difficult for them to walk away from each other again.

"What's wrong Goldie" I ask as I see plump tears rolling down her face, an act no doubt that she learned from her father.

"It's not fair, she got what she wanted last time!"

"That's not true" Rosie shrieks at the top of her lungs, another wonderful trait that she inherited from her father, "She's lying!"

Well it looks like it's going to be another wonderful day with the six year olds and I couldn't be happier.

"Don't you guys want to know where your daddy is" I ask.

Two shocked faces greet me.

"Are they at the hospital" Goldie asks, "Is it time?"

"Yup" I respond, "You guys ready to go meet them?"

I get two delighted faces.

"Finally" Rosie says, "I've been waiting a really long time."

It's funny because when I look at them I see a feminized version of Tony; his eyes, his smile, his charisma; just Tony. The only trace of their mom is their fluffy strawberry blonde hair that is currently fashioned down to their shoulders with bangs. I only point out that they have bangs because it was quite an ordeal between the two of them as to whether or not to get them. Rosemary I would say is more like Tony in terms of intelligence where as Marigold seems to have taken after her mother who was a marine biologist. Rosie is so smart at arguing and constructing her point that it's scary. Marigold reminds me so much of Abigail with her constant thirst of scientific knowledge. In my head Rosie will grow up to be a litigator, and Marigold a research scientist; in their heads Rosie will grow up to be a ballet dancer and Marigold a princess.

"Alright ladies" I say and the two jump of the bed following me, "We have to wait for Tony and Ziva to call and then we go to the hospital. What else do you want to do before we head over there?"

I hold each of their hands and walk down Tony's house which is filled with pictures of his girls, him and Ziva, and much to my dismay, myself.

"You said we could do the science experiment" Goldie reminds me…well it's actually more like an accusation.

"No" Rosie screams back, "I don't like that! I don't want to do that!"

"Well what do you want to do" I ask Rosie.

"Not that!"

I roll my eyes.

"I want to read a book" Rosie then offers after consideration, "I want to go to the library please. I said please Gramps."

She is such a little manipulator it isn't funny.

"Well we were supposed to pick up your dresses for the wedding"

Tim is finally marrying Abby. Really, it took the two of them long enough.

"I'm going to be a better flower girl than you Rosemary" Goldie offers.

"No" Rosie says back, "I'm going to steal all your flowers and throw more than you. I'm going to throw them on you and then you'll trip and fall and die."

"Rosemary" I say, "What did we say about threatening to kill each other?"

She glares at me in return.

"Rosemary" I say a bit more sternly.

"Not to."

"Thank you."

"I want to wear my red spring dress today."

"No" the other one shrieks, "I was wearing that today!"

I know better than to offer that they both wear it at the same time. I personally, along with Tony, find it adorable when they dress alike, but the two of them don't seem to enjoy to being confused with the other…unless of course it's when they are switching on purpose. They actually are little monsters. We receive calls about once every two weeks with a problem from school. Rosemary gets into fistfights, Marigold makes other people cry, both of them play pranks on teachers and unsuspecting lunch aids, it never ends. My personal favorite has been however their black market business of doing homework and then selling it in the girl's bathroom. Of course hearing how teachers suspect that they switch for tests is always fun to entertain; Marigold takes the science tests and Rosemary the literature ones. And mind you…they are only six. I'm hoping I'm dead by the time they become teenagers. Well at least life isn't boring.

I hear Tony enter the house, "It's a boy" he screams at the top his lungs.

"I have a brother" Marigold screams.

"We have a brother" Rosie corrects her.

"I want to meet my brother in the red dress" Marigold screams.

"No" Rosie shrieks.

Tony meets us in the hallway, dressed and ready to go.

"Aren't one of you supposed to be good" Tony asks picking up a laughing Marigold, "How can both of you be bad? I'm supposed to have a good one."

"Daddy" Rosemary shrieks and stomps her foot, "I called the red dress first!"

"You're killing me slowly" he tells her.

"So then you have time to tell Goldielocks that she can't have it!"

"Don't call me that!" Marigold screams and lunges for her sister only being prevented by Tony holding her.

"Okay new plan" I say, "Tony, you take that one, I'll take this one and we'll meet up at the hospital."

"Good plan" Tony shouts back over the screaming, "I don't know what I would do without you pops."

I glare at him and the two of us take our respective snarling creatures.

I hear Ziva's father screaming from downstairs and then Tony laughing manically.

Usually Tony can't stand his father-in-law, and I share those sentiments, but he can't complain seeing what hell his family has put Ziva, (who I should remind you is Jewish) through.

"Goldie" he says swooping her down, "I will buy whatever you want if you go and take the blame for this."

"Daddy" Goldie says seriously, "Ziva won't stay if you keep annoying her dad. The school psychologist says I need a positive female influence or else I'm going to end up in jail."

"Don't worry, I'll bust you out."

"What about Rosie, will you bust her out? You can leave her there Daddy. It's okay."

I pick up my monster, ignore the indignant, "Hey" shouted at her sister and walk away.

"Gramps" she tells me with a serious face, "It's my turn for the red dress."

Yup, life is good

We meet Ziva at the hospital. She looks put together and as in control as ever, but with a pleased expression that only a child can bring.

"We picked the name Matthias" Tony says.

"It is a good compromise" Ziva says as the twins sit on either side of her, (both in their red dresses much to the other's dismay) "A good blending of our cultures. It is an Israeli name, but the English version of the name, Matthew, is a very strong saint within the Catholic religion."

Tony takes the baby from Ziva and hands him over to me.

"Meet Matthias Jethro DiNozzo."

My head shoots up looking at the two of them.

"Come again" I ask as I feel tears welling in my eyes.

Tony hugs me hard and whispers in my ear.

"That's for making me bawl in Saint Pat's church all those years ago."

Ah that stupid ass. I can't help it, I laugh as tears roll down my face. Yes, life is very good.