14Disclaimer: In the first chapter along with summary, genre, verse, pairings and ratings.
"What!" Cried Abigail 'Abby' Sciuto; being heard all through the basement corridor of the NCIS building. Team Gibbs' forensic science and nicest Goth they knew along with Jimmy Palmer, their second in command medical examiner were just told by McGee about Tony's cousin. "He has a cousin! I mean I know he has cousins, but he never mentioned a girl cousin. I mean you'd think Tony'd tell us about his family, especially her. I mean look at her!" She said trusting the photo of Eleni inches away from the young medical examiner's face. "She's beautiful. Not that I like her – I mean not that I don't not like her – I mean I don't even know her, but then again neither do any of us. So we can't really discriminate against a complete stranger because that's just be emora–"
"Abby." McGee laughed, even with her rambling Abby never ceased to amaze him. She had gone from completely shocked to confused to admirable to, finally, apologetic, trying to fix her wording and instead ending up in a monologue of defenses. "Believe me, I know she's beautiful." Only realizing what he'd said when not only Abby, but Palmer as well gave him an inquiring look he tried to explain, "I mean–"
"Oh we know what you meant Mr.. Don't try taking it back now." Abby said sternly before playfully adding, "you better be glad Tony's not here and that I don't tell him. God knows what he'd do if he knew you were thinking about his cousin in a less then professional manner. Tsk-tsk."
"You wouldn't!" asked the slightly paled agent.
"Relax Timmy." Said the forensic scientist before taking the photo out of the examining eyes of Jimmy Palmer. "Why do you think he never told us about her?"
"Eh?" Shrugged McGee. "You know Tony. He doesn't really share his personal life."
"Yeah, but he does brag about money, women, beauty and himself. She's half and probably all of those things if she's rich. She's beautiful, a woman and she's related to him and if she's like his other family member's she's most probably rich. It doesn't make sense that she was never brought up. To any of us."
"Yeah, you do have a point. I mean even Gibbs looked a little shocked. If anyone knew about her it'd be boss becau–" McGee froze at the snort he heard, coming from the only other man in the forensics lab. Along with Abby, the two turned to look at Jimmy Palmer who had taken to looking at everything in the room except for the eyes of his companions. "You think there's someone who knows more about Tony than Gibbs?"
"That– That's not what I… I wasn't implying anything…" Palmer stuttered.
"You snorted, that usually implies something. So? What did you mean by it?" Questioned Abby, with an undertone of suspicion.
"Nu– Nothing. Con– Continue your speculation about Eleni." Said Palmer, adding an accent to her name.
"Why did you pronounce her name like that?" McGee questioned, him too growing suspicious of the man in front of him.
"I didn't pronounce…" Palmer looked at their accusing faces nervously. "I have to get goi–"
"No, Tim's right. You did say her name funnily… Do you know something Palmer?" She asked taking a threatening step into his personal space. Swallowing audibly Palmer shook his head no. "You sure? Because, and I'll say it again, I know how to kill you and not leave a single ounce of forensic evidence." She said snidely.
"I know her!" He practically yelled. He couldn't take Abby's glares. Lying to her when she stared you down was like lying to the pope at a confession stand: impossible, unthinkable.
"What!" Abby exclaimed while McGee gapped at Palmer. "Does Tony know you know her? I mean, yeah considering he's her cousin and all, he probably does. But then again he is distanced with a lot of his family so maybe her too… How do you know her?"
Jimmy Palmer didn't know what to say. I know her because I'm Tony's friend? No, too cruel. He hadn't prepared himself for this; never had he thought he'd be telling people personal information about Tony. The man he trusts most in his dysfunctional work family. The man he considered more like a brother and the man who was there for him, jokes and teasing aside, Tony had always helped him out. He didn't want to– couldn't –betray him by revealing his most sacred secrets. But he did have to give the prying eyes of Abby and McGee an answer. "He told me." Simple. No need for a large explanation.
This time it was both Abby and McGee who were stunned into silence. He told… Palmer? Thought Tim. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. The autopsy gremlin had been trusted to know guarded information, most probably willingly, by Tony. It hurt, knowing that Tony trusted Palmer more then Tim. But the anger over powered the hurt – for the time being. "Why would he tell you?" he said harshly.
"Yeah, no offense Jimmy, but you and Tony just don't seem to be that close. Or at least as close as me and him are… were… are?" Jimmy's disclosure about Tony revealing secrets to him rather then her cut Abby deeply. She and Tony were– are best friends. If he wanted to talk about some family matter he knew she was there for him and yet he had gone to Jimmy… why? "Why would he tell you?" She repeated McGee's question gently when Palmer hadn't answered
Palmer shrugged, "because I was there when no one else was." With that said, Palmer nodded his head once towards the confused pair and headed out of Abby's lab. Trying to get away from their wounded stares before he could fold and tell them everything.
When driving, Agent Gibbs usually liked the silence offered by his passengers. It offered time to himself, even in the company of others, where the only thing he had to listen to was his own mind. Now, however, it was unbearable. He wished, hoped, prayed his senior field agent, Tony, would crack a joke, quote a famous Sean Connery film, even criticize his reckless driving, but instead silence and the continuous turning of his minds wheels greeted him as he tried to understand the man sitting in his passenger seat.
When Tony first announced that their new suspect was his cousin he was, without a doubt, shocked. He hadn't believed him at first. Thought maybe he was playing a joke on them, going to say something dumb like: We're both sexy so we're obviously related. But no such remark came, only a quick, 'I'll gas up the truck boss. McGee put the route on the GPS' before heading towards the stairs.
Once the initial shock wore off Gibbs grabbed his gear and headed towards the elevator, barking orders at his other Agents before slipping into the closing metal doors. He was seething by the time the elevator doors closed and quickly pushed the emergency button on. At the time, he knew he had to calm himself; he couldn't show DiNozzo how angry not knowing about her made him. After a few deep, calming breaths he hit the emergency switch again and went to meet Tony. Now five minutes into their silent ride he could feel the anger boiling up again.
Why didn't he tell me! He thought while gripping the steering wheel a little tighter at his next consideration, he doesn't trust you as much as you thought? Gibbs knew that Tony trusted his boss with his life, but Gibbs was starting to doubt if he trusted Gibbs with his personal life. Many times Tony had come to Gibbs seeking advice, venting his frustrations or asking for a quick 'remind me again why' slap behind the head, so why had he never told Gibbs about this one woman? Nevertheless, his anger towards his senior field Agent wasn't nearly as high as it was towards himself. It made Gibbs even more enraged knowing that he hadn't figured it out for himself. He was a man who prided himself in knowing practically everything about the Agent's on his team, yet he hadn't realized that Tony had a female cousin that his Agent tried even harder not to see then Anthony DiNozzo Sr., his father.
Putting his self-hatred in the back corner of his mind, Gibbs put a on his best no-nonsense mask conveying to Tony that he was dead serious. "Explain."
Tony sighed. He knew his boss was going to ask for an explanation, he just hadn't known when. He'd hoped it would be when they were closer to the location that way he could disclose as little as possible, but his boss demanded an answer now and that was what Tony was going to give him… With not as much personal information… Hopefully.
"She's my cousin." He stated the obvious.
"Got that DiNozzo."
Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes briefly, hoping he'll sound emotionless about the person of subject. "She's my cousin from my mother's side of the family. You remember I told you about my Uncle Clive who died?" Gibbs nodded "Yeah, well, she's his daughter."
"Thought you said he had a son, not a daughter?"
"Yeah, well… She's kind of a sour spot in the Paddington family history. Clive was married, had a son, my cousin Crispian, and then knocked up his mistress. Family divorced and his mistress died in child birth."
"How old where you?"
"Me? Oh I was eig–" He stopped himself before remembering the Paddington families second bad decision by fate; his mother's death. "Eight. I was eight."
Gibbs knew why Tony froze at his cousin's year of birth; surely it brought back unwanted memories and feelings. So Gibbs left the Italian sitting to his right time to compose himself with a few extra moments of silence before he continued Gibbs' enlightenment.
"She, uh, she was raised by her mother's parents, which is why she took on their family name; LoGreco, also Italian. But she spent ever summer with her father, my Uncle. It was, uh, during the summers where I usually saw her. I'd try to come down to see her, or invite her to stay a couple days at my father's house, because… Well, I never got along with her half brother and she, aside from my Uncle Clive whom I saw just as rarely, was the only connection I had to… to my mother… Eleni was really something though." Tony smiled at the remembrance of a time when he had picked her up for a piggy-back ride and when she was done she had patted her back in a 'your turn' gesture, debating tooth and nail that she was more then capable to carry him… at the age of six. "Me and her… We just connected. Even with the eight-year difference we were able to communicate with one another and never bore. And at the time, we related… quite a bit actually." He said only now realizing how similar the two had been.
"Oh yeah? How?" Asked Gibbs, intrigued that there was someone out there who Tony believe to be alike.
"We, uh, we both loved movies, but I think I sort of coaxed her into that. Our mother's… Well… Yeah…" He said uncomfortably. "We both joked, loved sports; especially basketball. And, even though I still don't know why, we both disliked our father's."
Gibbs smirked, so the kid knew about Tony's father… He was interested at the notion of a younger Tony being more open with a toddler then the older Tony was with his new/real NCIS family.
"Man, there was this one time when I spent the summer at my Uncle's country home in Long Island with her, her step-brother and the maid services. It was before I left for University and she begged to go to a bar with me–"
"You were underage." Gibbs stated, a little confused at how Eleni had known Tony had gone to bars and how Tony had gotten into them.
"Yeah, well with a fake ID and a twenty-one year olds feature's it was impossible for me to stay away from them." Tony smiled, recalling the memory. "Either way, I'd never take my baby cousin to a bar, so instead I took her to a country club. God did she ever hate it. She complained about the small food proportions, the annoying kids who continuously nagged her to play with them and the consistent way women kept 'falling at my feet' as she said. For an eight year old, she was the smartest person I knew. Even ended up picking me up a girl whom I actually dated for awhile." Tony laughed at the reminder of how she'd managed that.
God, did he miss her. To tell the honest, horrible, truth, Tony hadn't thought much about his baby cousin in over eight years; the day he went to his uncle's reading of the Will. He had been dreading the reunion, afraid at how she was going to react to him being there, but to his luck, and chagrin, she wasn't there. In fact no one aside from Crispian knew where she was and he was as closed lipped about her whereabouts as Gibbs is about his method of getting his boats out of the basement. After the reading of the Will Tony had felt empty, less about not getting the twenty-four million dollar estate, but about Eleni. He thought about her for practically two years nonstop; how was she doing, where was she, was she happy, did she think about him? It was only a little before a year after Kate had joined the team that he considered finding her, but whenever he got up the courage something always came up; being chained to a murderer, Kate's encounter with Ari, Abby's stalker, the plague. Then after Kate's death Tony had completely forgot about his dilemma of finding his lost cousin, because, well, he had other, more pressing problems to take care off. And then time had just… passed.
Thinking about seeing her again… now… with his team members made Tony queasy. Not only was she seeing the cousin who alienated her for twenty-two years, but she was also a suspect in a murder investigation. Tony cringed at what he thought her reaction would be, defiance.
"Why didn't anyone know about her?" Gibbs questioned snapping Tony out of his reverie.
Tony was no fool, he knew what Gibbs' question actually meant: Why didn't you tell me about her? However, Tony didn't know how he should answer why he never told Gibbs. In his mind, it was to keep her safe, but that was a lame excuse because he knew Gibbs wouldn't jeopardize someone, let alone someone he hadn't known's safety. So he explained the verbal question instead of the unspoken one.
"When I was eight-teen, she, uh, she was eight years old, and, uhm, there was, uh, this incident with my father. I didn't want to put her in harms way again so, uh, I lost contact with her. Completely went off the grid, in her case. She tried finding me a few times, but, uh, you know, she was eight, so aside from trying to call me there wasn't much she could do. After about a year or so she gave up. I guess she just got bored and found a new best friend, you know kids, their minds never stay on one thing for very long."
"A year or so, sounds pretty long for an eight-year-old to me." Gibbs said, a hint of sympathy in his voice. He knew it was hard on Tony to have to cut contact with probably the most important person in his life at the time, so when she stopped calling he probably felt rejected… again… Ah hell!
"Yeah, well, it was for the better. Anyways I didn't tell you because that part of my life was over. There was no need to bring it back up." Murmured the senior field Agent.
"What was the incident with Sr.?" Demanded Gibbs. He knew that if he asked Tony would say he didn't need to know, but Tony rarely ever defied an unspoken order and Gibbs needed to know what had happened for Tony to push away someone he loved that much. But Tony being the master unexpectedness and deflection announced, "were on her block."
Shit.
A/N:
Hey, so here's the next chapter. Hope you enjoy it. Probably less anticlimactic, but worry not! Next chapter there shall ensue a chase, quick Tony whump, unknown feelings, and possibly (not to sure yet for the next chapter) an interrogation.
Thank you too all who have commented, are following, or added to favourite's! I'll try my darn hardest to get the next chapter up sooner rather then later.
Leave a comment, a critique, and constructive criticism is ALWAYS welcomed (Ex: If you believe a character is written oddly let me know what I'm doing wrong).