emeraldsnakes

Summary: A dead woman bring back Tony DiNozzo's past, front and center, reunite's brothers and forms bonds of love.
Disclaimer: I own none of this.

Title: Mother

Friday April 15 2005; The Navy Yard; DC; 10:00am

Gibbs walked into NCIS’ morgue, finishing his coffee in one gulp then throwing it into the garbage can at the door. A body had been sent to NCIS from a scene no NCIS agent had processed and he didn’t even know why. The director had put his team on the case since they hadn’t had a case in a while. Gibbs didn’t like being left out of the loop, instead preferring to be the one leaving others out.

Ducky was standing over the body, examining it with narrowed eyes. He’d already cut her open but it didn’t faze Gibbs as he walked towards them. “Why was she transferred to us Ducky?”

“Yes, it’s good to see you too Jethro,” Ducky responded, sarcasm tinting his voice but remaining friendly.

“LEOs gave her to us because apparently she was shot with an NCIS issued gun, Abby will have more on that. Whomever killed her was a terrible shot; the bullet entered through here, just above her ribcage on a downward angle and went through her thoracic diaphragm stopping in her liver. She bled out.”

“And you’re doing an autopsy because?” The LEOs would have needed the bullet to identify the gun it had been shot from and to do that their ME would have already done an autopsy.

“Her first one was incomplete,” Ducky said clearly not happy about that. “I’m running a tox-screen and her x-rays are still developing.”

Gibbs nodded and left Ducky to his work heading up to Abby’s lab. The Goth was sitting at her computer, studying it intently, allowing Gibbs to walk up right behind her without being detected.

“Hey,” he said casually.

Abby jumped, “Jeez Gibbs don’t do that. I’m jumpy,” she added indignantly.

“Would that have anything to do with those?” he looked pointedly at the large pile of empty Caff-Pow cups and a few finished cans of Red Bull beside the monitor. “Tell me about our murder weapon. I heard it was NCIS issued.”

“And I heard you were buzzing around Ducky just before,” she said with good natured rivalry. “Don’t stress out over this, it can’t be good for you.”

“And those are?” he asked nodding at the cups and cans. Abby just raised an eyebrow obviously thinking about his need for coffee.

“Ok here’s the deal,” Abby spun around to face the monitor. “The gun was registered using NCIS paperwork. It’s a Glock 21 pistol, .45 calibur and barely standard issue but it’s in the acceptable range. Registered to...Antonio Wilson.” She looked up at Gibbs, grinning.

They faced off for a moment in a staring contest. “And.” he added, knowing the answer and knowing he’d have to prompt her to continue.

“I’m glad you asked!”

“Wasn’t asking.”

“NCIS has no record of an Antonio Wilson, nor does the Navy and the Marines. The documents he used were valid, so - apparently - were the fingerprints he used. Thing is, there’s no picture ID so I can’t give you much more until you give me more.”

“He registered a fake name,” Gibbs said nodding. “Good work Abbs.” They both stayed still for a while,

Abby more uncomfortable than Gibbs.

“Is there something else you wanted Gibbs?”

Gibbs couldn’t help but pick up on the territorial tone of her voice. “I’ve got nothing else to do until the crime scene photos are sent over. The blood comparison is almost done.” Right on cue the computer began beeping a match. “See.”

Procedure had Abby running their victim’s DNA through the NCIS database and although there was no match, a special program that Abby created ran a comparison to see if their victim had any relatives in the Navy. Their victim did, its result surprising Abby and puzzling Gibbs.

The screen showed that the woman was Anthony DiNozzo’s mother. This puzzled Gibbs because according to DiNozzo’s documents, and DiNozzo himself, his mother had died a decade ago.

“I need coffee,” he muttered to himself, spinning on his heals and marching to the elevator. He needed answers and at the moment only Tony had them. He was pissed, too because Tony had lied to him. Such dishonesty only led to a crippled team.

“DiNozzo!” he yelled as the elevator opened on the third floor. He heard the crashing of a chair and couldn’t help but smirk. He stepped half way out of the elevator so he could see Tony’s curious and embarrassed face over the booth walls. “With me now!”

Tony scrambled to join him. Gibbs stepped back into the elevator so that Tony had to crush his hand in the door to keep it from closing. He barely refrained from glaring at Gibbs, clutching his hand to his chest and breathing harsher because of the pain.

“Where to boss?” Tony asked.

“The morgue,” Gibbs answered hitting the right button.

He stayed silent for the rest of their descent, and so did Tony even though he kept sending Gibbs questioning looks. Walking into the morgue for the second time in half an hour Gibbs led Tony to the victim. Ducky, it seemed, had stepped out.

He watched as his protegee stared at the woman with a pale expressionless face. Tony deserved some sympathy but the questions running through his mind were winning.

“DNA testing tells us she’s your mother, but your files say your mother is already dead.”

Tony gaged, turning green and running from the morgue. Gibbs followed assuming he was headed to the bathroom until he turned the wrong way and stepped onto the elevator. Gibbs followed him in, stopping it half way up.

In the negative light Tony’s eyes hollowed out and became more prominent, and there was a smug smile on his face. “You going to interrogate me Boss?” he asked light-heartedly.

“Exactly.” Tony’s smile wavered for a moment then he smirked. “Who is she?” Gibbs asked in a softer tone then that which he normally used to interrogate.

“My mother.” As Tony continued, he bowed his head and stared at his feet, voice breaking slightly on every fourth of fifth word. “In my early teens my biological father threw me out, cutting me off from everything I once had. I was a minor living in the streets of Jersey until I found the man I consider to be my real father, Christopher DiNozzo. The woman in my file was his wife, Bethany.”

Seeing how much this was upsetting Tony made Gibbs' rarely seen compassionate side beat back his bastard investigator instincts, so he turned away from Tony to give him some space and flipped the emergency switch to get the elevator going again.

The need to learn their victim’s name surfaced at the elevator slowed and before the door opened he asked, “What’s your biological mother’s name?”

A very rare but true smile graced Tony’s lips as he remembered, “Helen Mary-Anne Wilson.”