What Do You Got?

Another sequel! I'm not sure what to tell you- this universe owns my soul! This story will be posted slowly, though more quickly than the second half of As It Seems. Life is very different now, and I have a lot more time. On that note, if you haven't read the first two stories in the series, you won't get this one at all.

Warning: Y'all know I go for the feels. Not in this chapter, but in future chapters, there will be some tough subjects touched upon. Expect a rollercoaster!

Much love, and I'm glad you're thinking about taking this adventure with me!

Chapter 1

Tony leaned back against the credenza in the conference room while Ziva, Parke, Ned and Sommers made their way out. That left Jethro, Tim, and Elly sitting at the conference table. Tony's arms were crossed against his chest and his feet at his ankles as he ground his teeth. Sommers had been grating on his nerves since his first day last week, but what he'd just witnessed was ridiculous. By the look on Jethro's face he knew that if they weren't about to leave for their honeymoon the young probie would already be packing up his desk.

The tension in the room was slowly bleeding off as they sat in silence until they were all sure that the rest of their teammates, especially Sommers, were safely away from the door. Elly was the first to speak, though only after a deep sigh.

"Well, that was lovely."

Tony shook his head and sat next to his agent, slapping McGee in the back of the head as he did so. "Get your probie under control, McGeek!"

Tim shook his head, and the look on his face showed more anger than Tony was used to seeing from him. "If I try to control him at this point I'm going to be doing it with my gun. I'm done with him, Boss," he added as he looked at Jethro.

"You'll only have to put up with him for the next nine days. I promised Vance he'd last through the honeymoon. Try not to kill him. If one of us gets that pleasure, I'd prefer it be me."

"I'm not making any promises, Boss."

"That's your fifth reject! You might as well just start pulling names from a hat." Tony sighed and bent his head to run his hands through his hair, elbows on the table. He looked up and shook his head as his eyes met Jethro's. "Sorry. It's just… that was uncalled for. I'm not expecting everyone to buy first class tickets to the Gibbs family train, but his smart ass comments are going to get me fired."

"We can't both get fired. We have a daughter to raise," Jethro said calmly, but the way his pencil snapped in his hands told a different story was brewing underneath the unusually coolheaded exterior.

"Just say the word, Boss," Elly said as he looked from the undeservingly mutilated pencil to Tony's face. "We can make his life a living hell while you're gone so that he leaves on his own accord."

Tim raised an eyebrow at him. "I inherited Tony's bottle of superglue."

"I've got his foghorn."

"Hey!" Tony exclaimed. "I was wondering where that went!"

"Childish pranks aren't going to earn anyone any points," Jethro said with a glance for each man across the table.

"Well, Boss, if you would look the other way, I'm sure we could… take care of things… in a more adult manner." Tim looked at the door in thought.

"Don't worry, McGee. He's going to fall on his own face soon enough."

"He's right," Tony agreed, though secretly he wanted to find out just how devious Tim had become after his years of tutelage. "Let's just talk through the plan one more time to make sure everything is covered."

The four opened their notebooks and folders and started running through the list. Elly and Tim were going to run their teams separately for smalltime cases, but if a bigger issue came about, they were going to team up. Tim was in charge at that point. If anything were to happen to require assistance, Elly would direct his questions to Tim. Meanwhile there were cold cases for Ziva, Parke, and Dorney to work up the psych profiles on. Those profiles would be plugged into the cold case database that Elly and Tim were going to work on. Sommers had the task of going through cold cases and transcribing their case notes into the database.

It was that task that had him making lewd comments to his teammates about how he's "going to be stuck typing behind a desk for a week so their bosses could go fuck". He already didn't have any friends at the table, but that statement had earned him the teams' total and utter disrespect, not to mention the verbal beat down he got from Parke who finally snapped under his current overwhelming mound of stress.

Tony had (barely) kept his mouth shut because he was too angry to say anything that wouldn't get him canned or worse. Besides, Parke had done a damn good job of summing up what every one of them had been thinking at that moment. Tony's favorite part was the phrase "inflated egotistical narcissistic homophobic idiot". The natural flow and bitter flourish with which it rolled off of Parke's educated palette sent a streak of pride and appreciation through him for the younger man. The ice cold glare that Jethro was giving Sommers long after the room went silent only amplified how deep in shit the probie was, and Ziva's sudden interest in how sharp her knife was didn't go unnoticed either.

"I think that covers it. We just have to drop off the confirmed plan on Vance's desk." Tony reached for his phone as it rang. "Special Agent Gibbs," he answered.

Elly noticed the slight smirk that crossed Jethro's lips at Tony answering the phone with his new last name. He hid his grin as he pulled his own phone from his pocket to check the time. He saw a series of texts in a group chat that he, Ned, Greg, Tim, Ziva, Abby and Jimmy were in. He was anxious to leave and read them. He looked up to try to figure out if they were dismissed, and he saw a strange look on Tony's face. It was a mix of stunned disgust with a nice helping of confusion.

"What do you mean he- yeah?" Tony looked at Jethro who was looking back at him on high alert after that. "Thanks for letting me know, Tom. And I know it's your job, but thanks for not telling him about things. Yeah… okay. I will deal with this when I get back from my honeymoon. Yeah. Thanks."

"What's going on?" Tim asked after unabashedly listening in on the conversation.

"Was that your lawyer?" Jethro asked, eyes narrowed in concern.

"Yeah. And he was Senior's lawyer, but not after the fight they just had because he wouldn't talk to Senior about me. Apparently Dad went to the old apartment and found out I don't live there anymore. He then came here and asked to see Agent DiNozzo. The new guy down there must not know my… uh, I guess maiden name? Huh. Sounds weird. Former name? Anyway, he told him there's no Agent DiNozzo here, and Dad threw a fit demanding to see you, and they escorted him off the property because he was belligerent with them. That's when he called Tom."

Jethro grabbed his phone and grimaced at the little blinking light that meant he had a voicemail waiting. "I hate this damned phone," he growled quietly. "I keep putting it on silent when I mean to put it on vibrate."

Tony gave him an endearing smile and a shake of his head. "Yeah, but you love getting videos and pictures of Amira on it. Fair trade."

Jethro fixed the settings, and then tossed it on the table. "He called me too, but didn't leave a voicemail. Did Tom say what he wanted?" he asked quietly.

Elly tried not to look at Tim, and Tim tried not to look at Elly. They just casually sat in and listened, both of them knowing they should really be backing out and giving the two men privacy, but neither being strong enough to do so in the face of good gossip. Not to mention they both had heard stories about the true Anthony DiNozzo No-Longer-Senior that made Tony's life hell by now, and they both wanted to be aware of any danger.

"He didn't tell Tom. He just said he seemed angry and desperate."

"Dangerous combination," Elly said cautiously. Tony nodded.

"Why don't I do a quick run of his financials," Tim suggested. "We'll see if there are any red flags there."

Jethro raised an approving eyebrow at Tim before looking to Tony to get his take on the idea. Tony sighed and stood up.

"Sure. Why not?"

"Tony, you should call Sierra and tell her to get Amira out of the house before he comes looking for me at home."

The way Tony blanched and started frantically working his phone earned a concerned glance between Tim and Elly.

"Have her bring her here," Tim said. "Abby and I were going to have her tonight anyway."

Tony nodded. "Sierra?" he said, trying not to sound panicked and failing.

"Hey Tony!"

Tony could hear Amira shout "Daddy!" in the background.

"Hey, I need for you to get Amira's things for tonight and leave the house."

Sierra felt her heart race. She had been trained by Tony and Jethro of all the possibly urgent situations they could find themselves in as the family of federal agents, and this was the first time that they'd pulled the trigger. She nodded as she swallowed, and then realized Tony couldn't see her.

"Of course," she said. "Where are we going?"

"NCIS. We'll be waiting for you."

"We'll be there soon!" She put on her practiced happy voice and announced to Amira that they were leaving right now to go see her daddies. Amira was overjoyed, but Sierra thought she was going to crawl out of her skin. She grabbed the pre-packed backpack by the couch that was ready for Amira to take to Tim and Abby's, and ran to the fridge for a blue Gatorade. She knew it would motivate Amira who was sliding on her sandals by the front door, her dark bear under one arm.

"Are you ready?" she asked, trying to sound excited rather than terrified.

"Yeah! Let's go!" Amira jumped a couple of times while she waited for Sierra to grab her jacket off the coatrack and then turned to go out the front door. She turned to lock the door behind her, her hands barely able to get the key in the deadbolt, but finally hearing it thunk.

They got buckled into the car in record time, and backed out of the driveway. She was driving down the street when a taxi started coming the opposite direction. She waited at the stop sign to see the car pull into the driveway she had just vacated. She ignored Amira's plea for the Gatorade as she pealed out of the street, and took off for the Beltway.

Meanwhile the four men had rushed down to the bullpen. Jethro moved to lean over Tim as they whispered very softly about the semi-legal search they were conducting on Senior's financials. Tony went to stand behind Elly as he started pulling up property records and anything else he could get his hands on that pertained to the older man. Elly pointed to a couple of things and Tony shrugged with a grim frown. There was a house being foreclosed on in Newport News, and there was a boat that the bank was repossessing.

Tim and Jethro both looked up at the same time meeting Tony's eyes from across the room. Tony made a motion to send it to Elly's desk. Tim nodded, and the two men got up to come over and stand with Tony. The rest of the bullpen was watching them with keen interest, including Sommers. Tony looked across the room to see him staring back. He gave him his own flourishing Gibbs glare, and the kid gave him a smart ass look in return. Tony mouthed "Mind your own business!" to him, and looked down to see what Elly was pulling up.

There were a number of somewhat large withdrawals from Senior's main account over the past month, essentially draining him of close to $35,000. It probably wouldn't have been enough to save him from the foreclosure or the repossession, but he knew his dad always kept a decent balance in his savings to have some flaunt cash for when he needed to seal a deal.

"Where did those charges originate?" he asked Elly quietly who was already tracing the numbers back. He shook his head as the locations began plotting on a map.

"They're all over. Probably dummy corporations set up for someone to launder money. Looks like someone hacked his account, and whoever it was has been bleeding him out for the past three weeks. Do you want me to follow the trail?"

"No," Tony said, earning a look from him. "If my father thinks I did this, and he presses the issue, I can't have my team investigating it. It looks suspicious. I don't want you anywhere close to this. Back out."

Elly backed out, covering his tracks. Tim watched in pride as Elly employed techniques he had taught him as well as a couple of tricks of his own.

"Your lead, Tony. How do we play this?" Jethro asked.

"We don't right now. You and I are going to go on our honeymoon like nothing has happened. Our daughter is going to spend the week with our family, and we'll handle it when we get back if he's still in town. I meant what I said about not letting him into our lives. I won't have him ruining something so special for us."

Jethro put his hand on Tony's shoulder, an innocent sign of affection that had come to mean more to them. He understood what Tony was trying to do, but he was worried about letting the issue fester.

"I'm going to head downstairs. Sierra and Amira should be here soon." Jethro let go of Tony's shoulder, and turned to move from behind Elly's desk.

"I'll go with you. Alex is probably down there already fawning over Amira." He smiled at Jethro as he came out from around the desk.

"Do you want me to drop off the plan with Vance, Boss?" McGee asked.

"It's on my desk, McGee" Jethro said over his shoulder as he and Tony took to the stairwell together.

They came around the blind bend, and stopped for a quick kiss. It was short, but it was a custom that brought them comfort, and Tony desperately needed that right now. They looked deep into each other's eyes, and Tony saw all he needed to see there. Jethro's eyes told him that they would get through this together, and that's all that Tony needed to know.

"I love you," Tony whispered.

"I love you, too," Jethro said with a soft smile.

They continued down the steps and pushed through the door into the main foyer. Sierra and Amira were waiting at the front desk for them. As predicted, Alex was gleefully attending to Amira. Both men looked past them at the young woman standing stiffly at the counter. She was tugging on the end of her ponytail that hung over her shoulder, and chewed her bottom lip.

Squeals of "Daddies!" came from Amira as she ran across the marble floors to Tony and Jethro. They both smiled broadly, and squatted down to catch the wide-armed hug from their little girl. She rested her head on both of their arms at the same time while they simultaneously kissed the top of her head. They chuckled at the unison and then stood up, Tony scooping up Amira while nodding at Jethro to attend to the stressed-out Sierra.

Jethro headed for her and stood closely so that they could talk without Amira hearing. He could hear Tony talking to Amira behind them so that she was distracted from the conversation.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah… yeah. I am now that we're here. I may have broken about twenty traffic laws on the way here though. I had just pulled out of the driveway, and was down at the corner when someone showed up at the house in a taxi. Once I saw them pull up, I took off. What's going on?" The adrenaline was wearing off and she started shaking. Jethro looked over his shoulder and motioned to take Amira upstairs. Tony got the point easily and turned to head for the elevator. Jethro turned back to Sierra.

"Why don't we go see Ducky?" he said, reaching to take Amira's pack and bear. "We'll let him make you some tea, and we'll have a talk." She nodded, and he put his arm around her shoulder as he led her to the stairwell just as the elevator doors closed on Tony and Amira.

A couple of minutes later they were entering autopsy, and Ducky greeted them. "Ah! Jethro! Sierra!" Once he took a good look at Sierra's frazzled demeanor, his enthusiasm changed. "Oh, my dear, please sit. What has you so shaken?" Jethro pulled up a stool to sit with the two at Ducky's desk. Ducky began pouring a cup of tea for the young lady, and sat waiting for an explanation.

Sierra took a sip, and looked at Jethro for answers.

"Tony received a call from his lawyer about half an hour ago stating that his father, we know him as Senior," he added for Sierra's benefit, "had called his office looking for information on Tony's whereabouts. He'd been to Tony's old apartment to find it was no longer his. He then came here, but that new guy at the front gate didn't know Tony's last name used to be DiNozzo, so he couldn't find him on the list, and when he didn't, Senior blew and demanded to see me. Based on his outburst, the guards escorted him off the premises. We knew that the next place he'd come looking was at the house. We're not sure what has him so damn up in arms, but we sure as hell weren't going to leave you and Amira to find out the hard way."

Sierra took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a minute. "Oh, thank God. I thought it was some murderer after us."

Jethro and Ducky exchanged a look, and then Jethro reached out to lay a comforting hand on Sierra's arm. He wasn't sure how to explain Senior. That was more of Tony's story to tell, but he knew he had to convey how much they didn't want Senior to be in their lives.

"Tony's dad isn't a very good guy," he started. He sighed as he thought about all of the things Tony had told him, and then shook his head, taking his hand back from Sierra's shoulder. "He was very emotionally abusive to Tony growing up, and though we're not positive, we think he may have been physically abusive to Tony's mom. She killed herself when Tony was young, and her marriage is believed to be a big part of that."

Sierra chewed her lower lip and nodded at Jethro with sad eyes.

"He's also a con man, and has stolen large amounts of money from Tony by presenting himself as Tony DiNozzo, conveniently leaving off whether or not that's Senior or Junior. He's been linked to more than one NCIS investigation. He kicked Tony out of his life when he caught him making out with a guy in high school. And with all that, he's a charmer with the women, has been married about half a dozen times, and tries to sweet talk himself out of anything possible. It's a game to him; a very sadistic, lucrative game."

"I take it this means his dad doesn't know the two of you are married," Sierra said slowly, the situation dawning on her.

"No, and he doesn't know, and will never know, anything about Amira if we have our way."

Sierra got a chill down her back at the tone in Jethro's voice, and her arm hairs stood on end. "I just imagined him walking into the living room and seeing the photos on the mantel."

Jethro thought about the extra-large print hanging above the fire place of the photo of him and Tony pouring their cylinders of colored water into the bowl at their wedding, with Amira standing between them looking like an angel overseeing the transformation of blue and green water to teal. To the left of it was a somewhat smaller picture of the three of them in front of the minister as they vowed to take care of each other and Amira. To the right was a photo from behind of Tony and Jethro sitting on a bench at sunset as they looked out at the water. Tony's head was leaning on Jethro, and Jethro's arm was around the back of the bench and Tony's shoulder. Jethro had leaned in to kiss the top of Tony's head briefly, and the photographer had snapped the shot.

Everything sacred about his life was exposed on the mantel. The thought of Senior laying eyes on any of it made him sick to his stomach. It left a vile taste in his mouth, and made him feel violated.

"Do I have to worry about him coming back?" Sierra asked. For all of her attention to the family's emotional wellbeing, she was very pragmatic when she had to be.

Jethro nodded his head reluctantly. "I doubt he's going to let this rest. Tony said that he'll handle it when we get back from Italy, but that depends on whether or not Senior is still around. If he can't find him, he can't address the issue, and Senior isn't known for sticking around long."

"He is, unfortunately, known for coming around at the most unexpected, and often most inconvenient, of times," Ducky said sadly.

"Do you think he would hurt Amira or me if he had the opportunity?" Sierra asked.

"No," Jethro said, but with a sigh had to admit the unknown. "But if he is as desperate and angry as Tom told Tony he'd been acting, I don't know for sure."

"Then Tony needs to address this before I can stay at the house with Amira alone again," Sierra said matter-of-factly.

"Understood," Jethro said. As Sierra had been inserted into their lives, he found it comforting to find that she had a backbone to go along with all of her compassion. She wasn't the type to accept anyone putting her in an uncomfortable situation, especially not one that could be addressed.

The first day she sat down with Jethro and Tony at the house, before they signed the contract with her, they talked extensively about the possible dangers of taking care of the daughter of two federal agents. They talked about how important it was for her to follow their directions when they called and told her to get out, to run.

Her questions showed that she truly understood the dangers of the situation, and the scenarios she presented were on point. There was a negotiation though- if she were going to accept the contract, she needed to learn some form of defense. They both agreed that was fair. She started taking karate at the same school Amira had started lessons at. She also had started spending some time with Jethro at the range, and they had left a small pistol in a secret drawer of the new credenza Jethro had spent the last month building. It would have to be pulled from the wall to be discovered. He knew that was only a temporary solution until Amira was old enough to pull it away from the wall on her own, but for now, they all felt better for it.

"Is there somewhere else you would be comfortable watching Amira this week?"

"She's welcome at my place," she said. "If you're comfortable with that. My complex has a pool."

"I'm fine with that. I'm sure Tony would be too. You know Amira will love to spend time in the pool."

"If someone can grab her bathing suits from the house this weekend so that she has them when I pick her up Monday morning from NCIS, that would be great."

"We can make that happen. We'll gather some groceries, too. Are you feeling better?" he asked her.

She nodded and took a deep breath. "Much. I feel like this was a dry run for anything bigger that might come our way. I know what to expect now about how I will feel and what I will do. There was like, this initial panic when Tony told me we had to go, and my heart stopped for a moment as it registered, but then it was like I was on autopilot. It didn't really sink in until we were safe and sound in the lobby with Alex. That's when I really felt it all hit me."

"That's a perfectly natural response," Ducky said encouragingly. "You have a wonderful protective instinct. Jethro and Tony have chosen an ideal complement to entrust Amira to."

That made Sierra smile and bow her head a little to look at her hands for a moment. She raised it quickly though, and murmured her thanks to Ducky, her cheeks turning rosy.

"Are you good to drive?" Jethro asked her as he got to his feet and moved his stool back to where he pulled it from. He picked up Amira's things, but watched Sierra's body language.

"Oh, yeah. I'm fine."

"Okay. I've got to get back upstairs. We'll get McGee to grab her swimsuits and food this weekend."

"Thanks," Sierra said as she got to her feet.

"Why don't you finish your tea? You don't have to be anywhere yet, do you?" Jethro said, seeing Ducky raise an eyebrow behind her. He knew that Sierra and Ducky had struck up quite a few deep discussions on child psychology since they'd met. He hoped that Ducky would ask her about how she was really feeling being in this position, and his friend, thankfully, read his mind.

The two watched Jethro leave and board the elevator, and Ducky wasted no time getting down to the questions.

"Sierra, I feel I must ask you how you're feeling about continuing to care for Amira now that you've had a taste of what the job is going to really entail."

Sierra smirked, and picked up her tea cup. "Jethro left me here so you could get to the heart of the matter, didn't he?" She sipped as she watched Ducky smile.

"Of course he did," Ducky said, picking up his own tea cup. "I must say, his tenderness with you, and his confidence in you, says volumes that you may not yet comprehend. You are very important to him to be treated with such care."

"You know," Sierra started, sitting her cup back down and rearranging herself so she was sitting cross-legged in the chair she'd chosen. "I don't think I could ever find another family like them to work with. They are professional when they have to be, but they are… well they're so warm, Dr. Mallard. I mean, they treat me like I'm a part of the family. Since my mom died… well, I've got no one. I'd grown to be close to the family I worked with before the Gibbses, but it wasn't familial. It was how you treat work-related friends. You know that you're just one major life change away from losing contact. And that's what happened. When they had Joey, and he was going to need so much care, I was suddenly expendable. Regretfully so, I'd like to think for all of us, but in a matter of days… I was gone."

Ducky thought for a long moment about how to proceed. "Anthony and Jethro have always had a way of building their family from the makeshift pieces around them. It's been the biggest gift for all of them. Jethro's Marine history instilled in him the need for loyalty to a strong team. He was alone for a long time after his partner and mentor retired. Then Anthony came along, and… somehow he gave him that back. He gave him the opportunity to have that strong, close team to work with again. And for Jethro, that was all he could accept. He couldn't deal with another family. Not yet. But he could deal with another team that he could work with, become loyal to and to have them become loyal to him. That was even more powerful in some ways back then than a family. Tony gave him that again.

"Jethro started letting people into that team, critically identifying people who were worthy, and grooming them to fit. I was so worried when we lost poor Caitlyn- oh, forgive me dear. You don't need to hear about that."

"No! Please! Go ahead. I find their past fascinating! It helps me understand who they are now." Sierra was captivated by Ducky's storytelling on a typical day. Hearing him disclose so much of her employers' pasts was incredibly intriguing.

"Well, Caitlyn was formerly with the Secret Service. When things went awry for her there, Jethro hired her to be a part of his team. He saw something in her. She and Anthony bickered like brother and sister, and I believe that's when the family-feel of the team really began. They could be vicious with one another, throwing barbs that would truly hurt, but somehow they still cared very much for one another.

"Then Timothy started helping on cases from Norfolk, and eventually was asked to help in person on a few. He and Abigail bonded immediately. It wasn't long until he had proven he could hold his own against Tony, Caitlyn, and even Jethro despite being very different from all of them. He moved here to become a permanent fixture on the team. He and Anthony had what could only be described as a case of sibling rivalry, but eventually, Timothy realized that underneath Anthony's playful exterior was a loyal brother. It was only then that he really looked up to Anthony's skills as an investigator."

"What about Ziva?" Sierra asked as Ducky poured her another cup of tea.

"Ah, yes. Our Ziva. After Caitlyn passed, the seat went cold for quite some time. The family had been complete. Though not for very long, it had been whole. The idea of replacing a member of your family is incomprehensible. It was so much harder than replacing a member of a team. She'd meant too much. But Ziva joined us when her demons crossed paths with our demons. You see, it was her half-brother, Ari, that killed Caitlyn. He too was a member of the Israeli Mossad, but had gone rogue, and their father, the head of the organization, sent Ziva to take care of her brother."

"Take… care of?" Sierra asked, her jaw dropping.

"Yes, my dear. She killed him before he could kill Jethro." He intentionally left out the part about it happening in the basement of the house in which Sierra was working.

"Poor Ziva! I'd have never gone back to Israel again either!"

"But she did! And soon she was sent back to NCIS by Mossad as an attaché of sorts. Her loyalty had been tentatively won by her protection of Jethro, at least to him. She had to earn it from everyone else. But she did. She developed a love for this team in the time she was with us. And we had developed a love for her as well. The time came when she had to choose between her loyalty to this family or her biological one though, and she chose her father. She stayed in Israel."

Sierra looked confused. "Then how is she on the team still?"

"It is rather sad, I'm afraid. Her father sent her on a mission that was almost certain death. She was infiltrating a Somalian terrorist compound, and she was captured."

"Damn," Sierra muttered, and sipped at her tea.

"Indeed." Ducky sighed at the memory. "Anthony had become especially close to Ziva while she was here. There were even rumors that they were romantically involved, and though they let that rumor flourish, sometimes even encouraging it, they were something so much more. Anthony was one of the first people that Ziva had let in in a long time.

"When he killed her former best friend and lover in order to protect her, she felt deeply betrayed. It was, I believe, why she chose to stay in Israel with her father when the time came. Anthony though had never stopped caring about her, and worried deeply when he didn't hear anything from her. Jethro and Timothy had also started to worry about her, and together they tracked her down. The three of them travelled to Somalia and saved her, taking the life of the terrorist cell's leader in the process."

"Wow," Sierra said, sitting back and crossing her arms. "What total badasses!"

Ducky chuckled, but turned somber. "Yes, well. Ziva had been prisoner for weeks. Tony and McGee suffered a taste of that themselves, though not nearly as much. And Ziva was rather protectively brought back to this team. It took a long time to heal the wounds and rebuild the trust.

"The entire dynamic of the team changed after that. They became a family again, this time forged on mutual respect. There was still a playfulness about them, but they all respected one another's abilities, took the time to learn each other's skillsets. They had all learned though that there was much more depth to all of them than any of them had given each other credit for."

They were both silent for a long minute.

"That's a lot to absorb."

"And there's so much more. Knowing how Anthony and Jethro pined for each other for years in secret, how much Anthony gave up to remain on Jethro's team. Jethro's attempt to retire. And then there's Anthony's team and how they came to be, and their own story of how they became as close and included in the family. It's fairly tragic as well."

"Why are you trusting me with all of this information?"

"I tell you these things for a couple of reasons, my dear. First, because if you are thinking about letting yourself get emotionally attached to this family, you need to understand how they came to be. It was through great hardship and intense experiences that enhanced the bonds and embedded each of them in one another's lives.

"Second, if you want this life, you will most likely experience difficult times. I can promise you though, you won't experience them alone. These are some of the examples of the kinds of lengths these amazing people will go through for each other. They have earned their happiness. They have struggled together, and they have held one another protectively close. And they are coming to invite you into that inner circle. They will do the same for you.

"The last reason I tell you this is to warn you. My dear, please don't take this as a threat, but a warning. If you allow yourself to be pulled into this family, to be given that much trust and respect and even love, you dare not abuse it or do anything to lose it. Know that the expectation is that you will stand with them against all things. They will demand as much loyalty from you as they will give you. If you bail on them when they need you, you will not be given a second chance. They are out of second chances to give."

Sierra nodded slowly. She thought for a long minute while Ducky sipped his cuppa. "That's… that's a lot to think about."

"Yes, it is."

"So… I'm either all in, or I'm not in at all."

"You can still be a successful childcare giver to Amira without getting too close to the family. You have to make your decision though so that you can set the expectations of the relationships you're building. It's not going to be long before you're absorbed at a pace you won't be able to stop. You're becoming more essential daily, and your care today with Amira in the face of a rather nasty experience has won you Jethro's respect and appreciation. I wager it has won Anthony's as well."

Sierra looked around the room, and sat her cup down. She got to her feet with a deep breath. "I really appreciate you telling me all of this, Dr. Mallard. I need to think for a while. I'm glad I have the week to wrap my head around this."

Ducky nodded sagely. "Consider wisely. Only you know what's right for you and your life." He got to his feet and offered to show her to the exit.

Once she was in her car, Sierra put her head back against the seat and stared out the sunroof for a long time, the words Ducky saying going through her head as she considered her relationship to the Gibbs family.

************WDYG?***************

Elly waited until Tony and Jethro had made their way through the stairwell door and pulled out his phone. He looked to Ned and Parke to get the message across that he was going to text them what that was all about. He'd forgotten though that there was a stream of texts that had blown up his phone while he was in the conference room earlier. He scrolled up to the beginning of the conversation and started scanning it.

Ned: Whoa! How did they not just kill Sommers?

Abby: What?! What did I miss?!

Ned: Way to go Greg for putting him in his place. That was awesome!

Abby: ! WHAT HAPPENED?!

Jimmy: Man! I miss all the good stuff!

Greg: I'm not putting up with that little shit's cocky ass attitude anymore.

Ned: Sommers got pissed because he's on data entry duty while the Gibbses are on their honeymoon. He said, and I quote, "You mean I'm stuck behind a damn desk for a week so these two can go fuck?"

Abby: NO HE DIDN'T!

Ned: And then Greg tore him a new one. What's the line you used on him Greg? What did you call him?

Greg: Something about an egotistical homophobic idiot.

Abby: GO GREG!

Jimmy: I've been dying to call him that for the past week.

Ziva: There was something about narcissism in there…

Greg: Yeah, something.

Ziva: I was ready to castrate him, but I did not think that would go over well.

Greg: Yeah it would've.

Ned: Mmhmmm. I agree with Greg. We would've had your back on that one.

Greg: Still would. Or worse.

Jimmy: Somehow, I don't think Dr. Mallard would mind getting that call.

Abby: So, did Gibbs #1 get all glarey? What did Gibbs #2 do?

Ned: We all just kind of stared at him like he was an idiot. I think it was more of what we didn't do, which is stand up to Greg for him.

Ziva: You would think he understood the mistake he made, but I do not believe he will ever learn.

Greg: People like Sommers don't care. They think of only themselves first. They think they can do no wrong.

Abby: So what are we going to do? Why is he still on the team?

Ziva: I do not believe he will be on the team once our bosses return from Italy.

Ned: Yeah. He's a goner for sure. But that doesn't mean we can't have a little fun with him until then… just sayin'.

Abby: Oh! You're evil! I like it. What do you have planned?

Ned: Not sure yet. Let's think on it.

Greg: Uh? What's going on?

Abby: What?

Ziva: Tony, Gibbs, Elly and McGee have all hurried into the bullpen and to McGee and Elly's computers.

Ned: Did you just hear him say something about a boat?

Greg: I don't know. Tony looks… concerned.

Abby: Guys? What's happening?

Abby: Hello?

Abby: DON'T MAKE ME COME UP THERE!

Ned: Stand by.

Ned: Tony just gave an uber glare to Sommers.

Ziva: Sommers has a death wish.

Greg: Now all four of them are at Elly's desk.

Ned: There's some hushed talking about money laundering.

Greg: Did Tony just say, "If he thinks I did it"?

Ned: Mmhmmmm…

Abby: Now what?

Greg: Tony and Gibbs are leaving the bullpen. Something about Amira.

Abby: Holy shit! Is everything okay?!

Ned: Yeah. It looks like it. They looked… concerned… but not angry or panicked or anything

Abby: Oh wow! Gave me a heart attack.

Elly jumped in to update them on the situation.

Elly: Okay- so here's the dealio. Tony's dad is in town trying to hunt Tony down. It looks like his dad had a whole bunch of money stolen, and he's tryna find Tony. He went to Tony's old place, then here. He got crazy with the guards and they threw him off the grounds.

Abby: Whoa.

Ned: Yeah, what she said.

Elly: They figured Tony's dad was going to go to their house to look for Tony so they told Sierra to abandon ship.

Tim: She's going to bring Amira to us.

Ziva: I think now would be a great time for me to take Sommers to the gym for some sparring.

Elly: Ohhhhh… I wanna see that!

Ziva: You are welcome to join us.

Tim: Don't kill him Ziva. You kill him, the honeymoon will be cancelled.

Abby: Just maim him.

Ned: Yeah, what she said.

Greg: I say we wait until next week when the bosses aren't here for him to whine to.

Ziva: I reluctantly see the value in that.

Tim: But then he's going to whine to me.

Elly: Eh. You're a big boy. You can handle it.

Abby: Yeah, what he said.

Ned: I think Elly should do it. Maybe it will help put his homophobic ass in check.

Ziva: I would be content with that.

Elly: I would be as well! That would have to coincide with some team on team sparring in order to make sense.

Ned: I call dibbs on Tim!

Greg: Damn it! Ziva, go easy on me. I can't afford any broken bones right now.

Tim: Just checked. The gym is free Monday at 2. I've signed us all up for it, and I'm sending you all a calendar invite. Going to run the honeymoon plan up to the director. Be back soon.

Abby: Add me to that list!

Ziva: I can think of a few others that would like to watch him be obliterated as well.

Ned: Like who?

Ziva: He was dating Cara in accounting last year. Cheated on her with Seline from HR. Seline did not know he was still dating Cara. He had told her that he had broken it off. They both dumped him. He sent naked pictures of Tanya to Tanya's new boyfriend after she broke it off with him. Then he started harassing Heather in physical therapy when she wouldn't go out with him. The list goes on and on.

Greg: Wow. I knew he was a jackass, but that's downright sad.

Ned: AMIRA ALERT!

Abby: I'll be right up!

Tony came into the bullpen with Amira in his arms. She was telling him all about how she and Sierra had done mazes and colored pictures that morning. Ned got to his feet and greeted them halfway to their section of the bullpen.

"Boyfriend!" she announced, reaching for him. Tony chuckled and handed her off to Ned's outstretched arms.

"There's the beautiful princess!" She wrapped her arms around Ned as he hugged her with giddy glee.

"Yeah!" she answered. She turned and looked towards Elly and Parke. "Other boyfriend!" Parke chuckled at his desk as Elly got up and went to give her a hug. She wrapped her arms around him, but stayed secure in Ned's arms.

"Are you ready to spend some time with me and Dorney this week?" Elly said.

"Uh-huh!"

"We should probably talk about that," Tony said thoughtfully. He was worried his dad would come to the house again during the week while they were there. Elly and Ned were going to spend the night with Amira at the house beginning on Sunday, through the week and into the following weekend, except for Friday night when they had plans to meet with DJ Rise. She'd spend that night with Tim and Abby again.

Ned held Amira a little tighter, and gave Tony an apprehensive look.

"In light of today's situation, I don't know if you should stay at the house this week."

Ned shrugged, and waved a hand at Tony. "We can handle it."

"Yeah, Boss," Elly added. "If he were to try to come by one of the evenings we're there, we can just act like Gibbs is on assignment somewhere and we're housesitting."

"And if he sees Amira?" Ned looked at Elly and grimaced.

"Okay, maybe we're subletting or something, and we'll just pretend she's our daughter," Elly said.

Tony shook his head and ran his hand through his hair. "No. I can't ask you guys to get in the middle of our mess. I'll just call him and get him off the trail of our house."

Abby joined them, and Amira squealed with delight, reaching to be hugged. Ned reluctantly handed her over.

"Hey Abs," Tony said. "Can you take her to hang out in the lab for a while?"

"Sure thing! Ready to hang out, Ms. Shakarji-Gibbs?"

Amira giggled and nodded. "I don't got my new name yet!" she said with a sideways glance at Tony.

"But you will very soon! Just a few more weeks!" Tony chimed in.

"Yay!" Amira shouted, and hugged Abby's neck extra hard.

Tony smiled as he thought about that conversation with Amira. They wanted her to keep Leyla's name in some fashion, but they also wanted to provide her with the opportunity to have the normalcy of sharing a name with her fathers. They let her decide, and she gave it more thought than they expected from someone so young. It was also really hard though because they talked about Leyla more than they had for a while, and Amira had come to sleep with them that night like she had when Leyla had first died. Tony sighed to himself as he felt what he had come to know as the feeling of fatherhood wash over him as he looked at the brave little girl in Abby's arms as they headed for the elevator.

He looked at Elly. "Can you pull Jethro's incoming calls for today, and give me the number that my father was calling from?" he asked quietly.

Elly nodded and started tapping on his keyboard. Less than two minutes later he looked back up at Tony. "In your inbox."

"Thanks," Tony said and opened his email, then picked up his desk phone. The rest of his team got deathly silent, not even pretending that they weren't eavesdropping.

Two and a half rings in the older man's voice came through the line in an angry greeting. "Who is this?!"

"It's me!" Tony growled back. "I don't know what you want, but you need to stay the hell away from me, away from my coworkers, away from my job, my home, and out of my life!"

Ned started giving a play-by-play of what was happening through the text chat, trying to be inconspicuous even though he knew it was obvious.

Ned: Tony's dad has answered the phone and Tony got straight to the point. His tone is cold in that way that he only gets when someone messes with someone he loves. Has me feeling on edge just to hear it.

Elly: I *literally* just got chills.

Greg: Very glad I'm not Tony's dad right now.

Abby: Yes! Go Tony!

Jimmy: I once watched Tony in interrogation and had a nightmare that night that he was talking to me in that voice. I couldn't look at him for days.

Ned: This is worse than his interrogation voice.

"I don't care! I don't care about you, your life, your wife of the hour, and I certainly don't give a damn about your money problems."

Elly and Greg raised an eyebrow at each other.

"Then call the police dad! I am not your personal law enforcement agency! And neither is NCIS! This is police and FBI jurisdiction. I don't have any power to take on this case, and even if I did, I wouldn't! You know why?! Because I don't care!"

The other three agents around him shared concerned glances, and their phones all blinked with a text.

Ziva: I have never heard Tony speak that way to his father. Having a family does something for him.

Greg: Yeah, but it sounds like something may have happened to his dad's current wife? Maybe?

Elly: And the way he's talking about money- ransom? Kidnapping maybe?

Abby: Whoa

The elevator dinged, and Jethro headed towards Tony's desk, Amira's backpack over one arm and Dirt tucked under it. He slowed down as he saw all of Tony's team staring at Tony and heard the way Tony was speaking to whoever was on the other end of the line. He leaned against the filing cabinet next to Tony's desk and Tony looked up to meet his eyes.

Ned: Damn, if looks could kill…

Elly: Gibbs#1 has joined us in the bullpen

Abby: Wait? And Tony just glared at him?

Greg: Not at him. More like *to* him as a way to communicate his feelings about the conversation he was having.

Abby: Gotcha

"No, Anthony, you listen to me," Tony's tone as he called his father by his full first name was even more malicious. "We're done. For good. I don't ever want to hear from you again. I never want to see you again. I don't want postcards from random vacation spots. I don't want calls on holidays or birthdays. I don't want to hear your name again for any reason. I don't even want to come to your funeral. I just want you out of my damn life! Any further attempts to contact me will be considered harassment, and my lawyer will slap you with a restraining order. Now, I have to go. I have an overseas assignment. When I get back, I had better not hear that you've been to my house, my coworkers' homes, my office, or any place else that has to do with me. Have I made myself clear?"

Tony waited for a reply. "You're really going to leave me to figure this out all by myself? Where's your compassion?"

Tony laughed in a cold, detached way that made everyone who heard it feel ill. "Compassion?! For you?! I've given you all of the compassion I can muster. Leave me out of your messes. Call the police, Anthony. They'll figure this out for you. If they can. Sounds like you finally fucked up someone else's life worse than you fucked up mine. Congratulations! Get lost."

The phone slammed down, and Tony took a deep breath. A grin broke out on his face as he looked back up at Jethro. "I feel better now."

"I bet. What's going on?" Jethro asked.

"I don't know the full story, but Dad has gotten himself into some kind of serious financial trouble, and his current wife has gone missing. He got an email saying that she'd been kidnapped, but he thinks she might be trying to get ransom money out of him. Fake kidnapping. They want a million dollars."

"Which he doesn't have," Elly said with a sigh.

"Not our problem. He should've gone to the police three days ago when she went missing." Tony shrugged and went to check his email. He felt Jethro's hand land on his shoulder, and looked up. Jethro smiled at him sadly. He knew what it was like to cut strings with someone important in your life. This wasn't just cutting a string though- it was burning a bridge. He saw the tell-tale signs that the bridge was ablaze in Tony's eyes. Tony smiled sadly back, trying to hold on to the relief and let go of the equally devastating sadness.

As Jethro turned to walk away, Tony burst out laughing.

"What?" Jethro asked.

"You with Amira's Minnie Mouse backpack and Dirt in the bullpen is a sight to behold," Tony said through his chuckle. The rest of the team joined in as Jethro rolled his eyes. Greg snapped a picture of the retreating older man and sent it to the group chat. There were virtual laughs sent from around the building, but only Tony and Jethro's team were brave enough to laugh out loud.

***************WDYG?*****************

Tim knocked lightly on the open door to Vance's office with the folder in hand of their plan for the next week. The director looked up from where he was on the phone and nodded, reaching a hand to motion Tim to join him. He said his goodbye to the caller as Tim approached his desk, then looked up to reach for the file with a grin.

"I bet the Gibbses are ready to get the hell out of dodge."

Tim chuckled. "Yes, sir. They're pretty determined that they aren't going to let anything interfere with their departure tomorrow morning."

"I don't blame them. If Jackie and I were going to escape to Italy for a week I would have back up plans upon back up plans for every possible thing that could go wrong."

Tim raised his eyebrows momentarily as he looked away and then back. "I bet you wouldn't have had one for what they just got hit with."

"What's that?" Vance asked, his expression turning concerned.

"Tony's father was thrown off the property earlier."

"DiNozzo Senior was here?"

Tim nodded. "Came looking for Tony. Wasn't just here though. Went to his old apartment, called their lawyer's office… he's trying hard to reach him."

"Didn't say what for?"

Tim shook his head. "No, but I have a feeling we'll find out soon. I just hope it's after they leave."

Vance nodded, his elbows on his desk as his fingers steepled in front of his chin. "How's Sommers doing?"

The cheerful expression fell immediately from Tim's face, and he took a deep breath as he looked to the floor and then back at Vance.

"What's this one done?" Vance asked.

Tim tried to smile, but it was full of sarcasm. "Made comments in this morning's briefing about how he's going to be doing data entry while the Gibbses are on their honeymoon. Only he got explicit with it."

Vance sighed and rubbed his temples. "At least they haven't killed him yet."

"We considered it, sir. Instead we planned some team on team sparring practice in the gym on Monday afternoon."

The evil smirk on Vance's lips earned a genuine smile from Tim. "Putting him with Ziva?"

"Better. Critten. Going to let him kick the homophobia out of him."

"I approve. I expect, however, that when they get back we'll have an empty spot on the team again."

"Ohhhh yeah," Tim said with a shake of his head. "We'd better."

Vance raised an eyebrow, and Tim caught himself. "I mean, I expect so, sir." Vance chuckled.

"What, in your opinion, has been the problem with everyone we've tried in that role so far, Agent McGee?"

Tim backed up and sat in one of the armchairs in front of the desk. He thought for a moment, and then started from the beginning.

"James was good, but wasn't great. And he really wanted to work on the west coast so that he was closer to family. So the transfer to the team out there was inevitable. We just didn't think it would happen so quickly. He didn't get close because he knew that he was going to leave, and we had the same issues in return. Lowe was unable to deal with the team's family dynamic. The Gibbs factor, the familial relationships we all have with one another… he didn't want those kinds of connections, and he didn't approve of us having them. Baker was just incompetent. Computer smarts, but clueless in the field and especially with witnesses. Horrible with witnesses. No compassion, couldn't pick up on context clues, and he stuck his foot in his mouth every single time he spoke to Gibbs. Brossart… well you know what happened there as well as I do. He was an arrogant jerk with a huge homophobia problem. I didn't think I'd ever enjoy firing someone, but that was a wonderful experience."

"And now Sommers," Vance said with a sigh.

"And now Sommers. Also arrogant, also fairly homophobic, also unwilling to be a team player. In all honesty, I'm getting tired of inviting the wolves into the herd. They give all of us such a horrible feeling. We try to be friendly. We have to ask ourselves though if we could see this person being a member of our family, not just our team. Maybe… If we could see them working with people before we invite them in, I have a feeling we'll have a better stick. Then we'd know what to expect."

"I'll give that some thought. There's a couple of agents looking to transfer out of a couple of positions right now. One in the Gulf, one in Maine. I'm not sure if any of them would be a good fit for your team, but we'll run it by Gibbs when he gets back."

Tim nodded, and got to his feet.

"And McGee, if DiNozzo Senior comes around while they're gone, I want you to refer him to me. Spread the word. If he contacts anyone, they are not to tell the Gibbses until they get back. I'll handle him."

Tim tried to hide the surprise he felt, and nodded. "Yes, Director."

Vance nodded, and Tim left the room. He went out onto the catwalk to look over the railing at where Gibbs and Gibbs were talking, the full attention of Tony's team on them. He pulled out his phone and saw the texts that had been sent, and smirked at the photo. He made his way down to his desk and glanced at Ziva. She smiled back as they shared an inside moment of pride for Tony.

Tim: Vance says that if Senior contacts any of us or tries to come onto the campus while the Gibbses are away, we are to contact him directly. He'll deal with it personally. And he's also given Elly the go ahead to kick Sommers' ass on Monday.

Elly looked past the Gibbses, and smirked and nodded at Tim. Ziva gave Tim a look of approval, and sat her phone down as she got back to the cold case in front of her.

Ned: It's nice to know the Director will have our backs when the shit hits the fan.

Abby: And let us hand egotistic, narcissistic, homophobic idiots their asses when we need to.

Tony looked around to see the bright grins on everyone's faces around him. "What's going on?" he asked.

"Nothing!" came a chorus of voices from both sides of the bullpen.