I think Tony gets played for a clown too often, both in fanfiction and on the show. As I've said before, one of my goals with this story was to show Tony being a competent father to his son, and I'm glad that it happens again in this chapter. Happy Father's Day to all the great dads out there!

June 2014, Tony & Levi

Tony and Levi are sitting on the couch with the entertainment section of the newspaper on the coffee table in front of them. Levi loves doing this with his father, picking out which movie they're going to see next together, especially in June, the height of summer blockbuster season.

"I think that's one a little too gory for you, Kid," Tony says, when Levi asks about the latest X-Men movie. "Hey, what about How to Train Your Dragon 2? You liked the first one, didn't you?"

The last movie that the two of them had seen together in a theater was The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and Levi had been especially excited because he'd gone wearing a Spider-Man mask that he'd bought himself at a garage sale in their neighborhood. Tony still got a bitter taste in his mouth remembering the look of disappointment on his face when the girl in the ticket booth gently broke it to him that the theater didn't allow anybody wearing masks. It wasn't her fault, of course, and she didn't say that the policy had been put in place after the theater shooting in Colorado a few years ago, but Tony knew that was the reason.

He sighed, thinking of some of the headlines that they'd just flipped past to get to the movie section of the newspaper. His son's elementary school still hadn't done any active shooter training drills, but how much longer could that possibly last? When Levi had asked why he couldn't wear his Spider-Man mask that day, Tony had grimaced and replied, before he could think better of it, "Because some people would rather freak out over gay marriage."

Tony looks around for something to distract him from his thoughts, and he notices an ad on the opposite page for a Father's Day sale at the mall in Silver Springs. "Hey, that reminds me," Tony says teasingly, tapping the ad with one finger. "Pretty important holiday coming up, Kid. Why don't you run your gift ideas by me now?"

He doesn't really expect an answer, and he already knows that he's going to love whatever Levi gives him for Father's Day, if only because it's from him, but this has been their routine for the past week or so. "You know Father's Day is coming up soon, Levi. I expect to see one impressive gift on the table come Sunday morning." The only thing that Tony knows for sure about his Father's Day gift is that Ziva and Gibbs have both been helping Levi with it in some way.

And now, Levi just smirks, used to his father's teasing. "Nice try, but I'm not telling, Tramp. It's a secret." Kid and Tramp have been their nicknames for each other since they saw The Kid at the vintage movie theater a few weeks ago. In the theater lobby, Tony had done a shuffling, Charlie Chaplin-style walk that made Levi almost fall over laughing. Tony had tried to memorize the sound of that laughter, to pull up one day years ago when Levi was a moody teenager embarrassed to be seen with him.

"And you know what?" Levi goes on. "Grandpa told me I'm good at keeping secrets. Like he is. That's why he told me one."

This gets Tony's attention, and he looks his son over with the careful, scrutinizing stare that he usually saves for witnesses who might be lying to him. Gibbs isn't a man who spills his secrets easily, especially not to a kid who loves to talk as much as Levi does. After all, Tony had been working with Gibbs for years before he knew about Shannon and Kelly, and for even longer before he found out that Gibbs's father was still living.

"Oh, yeah?" he asks Levi in a casually interested voice, pretending to peruse the paper again. "And what secret did your grandpa tell you?"

Levi's voice is casual too, and he even shrugs a little as he answers, as if he knows that this will be an even bigger bombshell if he delivers it nonchalantly. "How he gets the boats of his basement."

"What do you mean he wouldn't tell you?" McGee asks for the second time from the speaker of Tony's phone, almost yelling. "Did you even try getting it out of him?"

"Of course we did, McGee," Ziva says shortly. "Tony and I both asked him about it. Tony kept it up all through dinner and bedtime, in fact." She and Tony are on a group call with McGee and Abby, whom they called almost as soon as Levi had gone to bed. They didn't like it any better that Levi knew the secret about the boats that Gibbs built in his basement, while they were still in the dark.

"I don't get this. You two are trained federal agents," Abby says accusingly, "and you're his parents. I've seen you get murder confessions out of hardened criminals in interrogation, but now you're telling me you couldn't get one secret out of your own son?"

"Abby," Tony begins, but in typical Abby fashion, she barrels on, interrupting him.

"I mean, even I don't know how Gibbs gets the boats out of his basement, and I'm his favorite. Tony, Ziva, you need to bring your kid in right now!"

"Abby-"

"Bring him in, put him in interrogation, and keep him there until he breaks!"

"Abby, nobody is putting my son in interrogation," Ziva says, with a warning in her voice that makes Abby drop it.

"I don't think Levi really knows," Tony says quietly, almost to himself. "I think he's bluffing."

"Bluffing?" McGee repeats. "How can you be sure?"

Tony bites the inside of his lip, like he always does when he's thinking hard. "Because I know that kid. He's not great at lying, especially not to me. I don't think he knows how Gibbs gets those boats out of his basement anymore than we do."

Ziva tilts her head, her dark eyes thoughtful. "Perhaps Gibbs told him to say that because he knew it would... ah, what is the phrase? Wind us up?"

"Hmm, Gibbs is one crafty silver-haired fox," Abby says, her voice now almost admiring. "I bet he knew we'd be having this exact conversation."

The four of them talk for a while longer before hanging up, and they decide not to mention the subject again to Gibbs or Levi. Tony is almost convinced that the two of them planned this, the last time they were alone together; Gibbs coached Levi on what to say, and now he's sitting back waiting for them to angrily confront him about him and demand to know the secret, too. It would've one nice big joke between Levi and his Grandpa Gibbs, but the team won't give them the satisfaction.

A few days later, on Father's Day morning, Tony does indeed find an impressive present waiting for him on the kitchen table. Ziva and Levi sit on either side of him - Levi giddy with excitement, still in his policeman pajamas, Ziva sipping her coffee with a knowing smile on her face - and watch as he unwraps it.

Tony knows as soon as he opens the wide, flat package that Levi, Ziva, and Gibbs have all been working on this gift for some time. The hand-carved wooden picture frame is Gibbs's contribution; it's simple but tasteful, like everything that comes out of the woodworking shop in Gibbs's basement, and it has matching spaces for two photos, side by side.

Tony recognizes the photo on the left immediately, of course. He knows it like the back of his own hand. It's his favorite photo of himself and his mother, taken outside the old movie theater on 42nd Street right before they saw The Little Prince - neither one of them knowing, then, that it would be the last movie they ever saw together in a theater. God, his mother had been young. Her youth strikes Tony every time he looks at photos of her, and for a moment, a heavy sadness settles over him, just like on the morning of his birthday a few years ago, when he woke up older than his own mother had ever been.

But the photo next to it is one that Tony's never seen before, and he can't imagine the planning and secrecy that must've gone into it. He doesn't know when Ziva and Levi managed to make a trip to New York City to take it. He can't imagine how they did it without him, a trained investigator, being any the wiser. He can tell from Levi's height and haircut that it was relatively recent.

In the photo, the once-rundown movie theater on 42nd Street is now renovated and gentrified, like virtually everything else in Manhattan. But it's retro marquee sign looks similar to the one from Tony's childhood. And there, on the same spot on the sidewalk in front of it, with the same landscape of New York City buildings behind them, stand another little boy and his mother in the same pose - Ziva with her arm around Levi. Looking at the two photos side by side, Tony's eyes fill with tears, and he has to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from bursting into sobs like a baby.

"Well, this is..." he says, fumbling for words and still trying not to cry. "I... wow, I... you..."

He wants to tell them how much this means to him, but he doesn't have his son's gift for words. But Levi seems to understand. He sidles closer to Tony and puts one small hand on his father's arm. "You like it, huh, Dad?" he asks softly, smiling.

Tony nods, grateful, blinking back his tears. "Yeah, Kid," he says, ruffling Levi's hair with one hand. "Yeah, I definitely do."