I'm a DiNozzo

WE'RE GOIN' TO CUBA! (2)

"Ellie missed you." She replied.

"Put her on." I insisted. There was some kind of noise behind the phone before I heard Ellie's voice.

"Papà?"

"Hey there squirt," I replied, leaning against the wall of the house.

"Dofe, see?" ('where are you' in baby-fied Italian) She asked, taking an unnecessary breath between words.

"I'm working still squirt." I replied. Oh... I wished that wasn't what I had to tell her. "I'm so sorry." I heard her sniff on the other end. "I'll be back soon though. I promise."

"Okey. Me, manchi." ('I miss you' in baby-fied Italian)There was that unnecessary breath again.

"Mi manchi anche tu."

"When you come, ing back?"

"Soon squirt, soon. I promise."

"Okey," Ellie said again. "Be safe."

"I will. I love you."

"I wuv ooh free." Elli decided.

I chuckled. "Okay, can you give the phone back to Abby please?" She did so. "Abby, how is she?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like... I dunno." I rubbed my eyes, and sighed. "Just... tell me that she's okay. That she's happy, and eating, and... you know... not crying."

Abby scoffed sarcastically, pretending to be hurt. "Do you doubt my abilities at child care?"

"I more doubt my ability in raising a sane, responsible, happy kid."

"You did, and are doing, great Tony." She insisted.

"If you say so." I replied in disagreement.

"Ellie, come on! It's okay! It's okay." I insisted again and again, rubbing a hand up and down her back, bouncing her up and down on my hip. "Ellie, please stop crying. I don't even know why you're crying." Ellie had been crying for the past 7 minutes.

"Hush little Ellie, please stop crying." I said, half singing. "La la la la la la la. Oh, come on Ellie."

"Hey Abby!" A voice behind me called. I turned to see McGee walking up to me, a piece of paper in his hand. "Who's this?"

"This is my half-sister, Taylor." I replied. "She's been crying for 7 minutes. How do I get her to stop?"

"Would you like me to try?" He offered, holding his arms out. "Trade you," He held the piece of paper he was holding out to me.

"Sure," I agreed, taking the paper from McGee, and handing him Taylor.

"Hey, Taylor." He said, bouncing her up and down.

"Papa?" She said automatically, looking up at McGee's face. When she saw that McGee wasn't Tony, she started crying again. She buried her face in McGee's shoulder, and kept crying. McGee frowned, and rubbed her back.

"It's okay Taylor." He insisted. It must have been something about McGee holding her, or McGee feeling like Tony to Ellie in some way. But it only took about 2 minutes for Ellie to stop crying after McGee took her.

"How did you do that?" I asked incredulously.

"I dunno," McGee replied.

"You little-" I started, but was cut off by my mass spectrometer beeping.

When Tony, Kate, and Gibbs came back, it was the middle of the night. I had gotten a text from Tony saying that they would be back at NCIS in about an hour. Ellie was asleep on my lap. We were sitting on the couch in Tony's living room.

About a half hour I got the text, the front door started to unlock. I looked up to see Tony walking in through the front door. "Tony! You're back!" I said happily, throwing my arms open to hug him. Tony set his bag down, took his coat off, and hugged me. "How are you?" I asked. "How was Cuba?"

"There were a lot of lizards." He replied. He sunk down on hte couch next to me, and sighed. "I got no sleep. How's Ellie?"

"She's alright."

"Can I take her?" He asked.

"She is yours after all," I agreed. Tony picked her up from off of my lap, and held Ellie close to him.

Hearing a new heartbeat rythum, Ellie stirred, and opened her eyes after they fluttered a few times. "Dada?" She asked tiredly, slurring the letters so much I could hardly make out the words.

"Yeah, yeah it's me squirt," Tony replied, "it's me."Sì tesoro, sono tornato, non preoccuparti

"You, are back?" She asked, with that unnecessary breath again.

"Si tesoro, sono tornato." He sighed, "Non preoccuparti." (Yes baby I'm back, don't worry) Ellie tried wrapped her arms around Tony protectively, but her arms were too short.

"I wuv ooh." She said happily.

"I love you too squirt. I missed you."

"I miss ooh free." She replied, and I chuckled again.

-Eliza
(2323 words)