I'm a DiNozzo

How am I Supposed to Take Care of Her? (10 days)

[The numbers in parenthesis is how old Ellie is in the chapter]
24 years earlier:

Tony's P.O.V.

I was holding Ellie in my arms as I closed the door behind me. What was I supposed to do?

We had just gotten home from, my wife, Hopes funeral.

I leaned against my front door looking at Ellie fast asleep in my arms. She had no idea what was going on. Ohhh, ignorance is bliss. If she knew...

Another tear slid down my face, starting at my left tear duct, and landing at the corner of my mouth. I licked the salty off of my lip and swallowed hard.

"What am I gonna do Ellie?" I whispered, my voice breaking on the word do. I inhaled sharply and shakily before slupming down to the floor. All during the funeral I had veinly attempted to avoid crying. I hated showing people tears. According to my parents it was a sign of weakness. But now? Now I just cried.

The sound make the little figure in my arms start, so I pulled her close to my chest, tucking my knees up to meet her back.

"Ellie, I'm gonna take care of you." I murmured into her hair. "I'll never let you go. I don't know how I'll do it, but I will take care of you. I won't leave you. Not even for a moment. I'll find a way to do it, promise."

And I did find a way.

NCIS -Naval Criminal Investigate Service, that's right I solve crimes- was able to modify my job in a way that allowed me to work from home so I could take care of Ellie.

Hope and I had set things up for our daughter Elioriana- Ellie as we call her- when she came, so I already had most everything I needed. But it wasn't exactly... set up.

"How do you build this thing!" I asked in exasperation, holding the end pieces of a crib in either of my hands, staring at the instructions provided in the box.

Ellie -who was asleep when I started- stirred now, and started softly crying. For some reason, Ellie was not a very loud crier. I set the pieces down again, and leaned back against the wall in exasperation, flipping off the crib parts.

I crawled over to where Ellie was, and picked her up again. "Hey there squirt," I whispered, holding her close to my chest. "You're okay," I insisted. "You're okay, I'm right here. I'm here for you."

"Ellie I'm sorry." I whispered as I put her in her car seat. "You shouldn't have to be dragged around like this." I locked her seat in the car, and drove to the NCIS building.

When we got there, Abby was waiting for me in the parking lot. I had been working at NCIS for 3 months, only 2 weeks with Ellie. Abby and I had gotten hired at the same time, she being a forensic scientist, and me doing research wanting to eventually be doing field work.

I got out of the car, leaving my window open, and stood in front of Ellies window as to somewhat hide her from Abby. I hadn't decided whether to tell my co-workers about her seeing as I worked from home, thus we'll simply keep the secret for now.

"So what is it Abby?" I asked, trying to sound nonchalant. Abby hadn't previously told me why she called me, she just asked me to come.

About 14 minutes into Abby's rant about something related to science that I was in no way following, Ellie started sniffing, the sound traveling clearly through the window.

Abby stopped mid sentence, and looked around. "Who's sniffing?" She asked.

"I don't hear sniffing," I contradicted, even though the sniffing was quite clear to hear. Ellie's sniffing turned to soft crying, and Abby looked around again.