Rule 39: There Is No Such Thing As Coincidence (Tony DiNozzo Love Story)

Money Talks

"Thank you for breakfast," I say as I place my napkin down next to my plate. Tony looks over as he wipes his mouth and nods.

    "You're welcome," he says and pauses. "What do you want to do today?"

    I look down at my hands in my lap and start playing with them.

    "Erin?" He asks softly. I look up and offer a small smile. He sees through it and reaches over to pull my hands apart. He grips my left hand and squeezes it gently.

    "We don't have to do anything if you don't want to. We can just...sit on the couch and watch TV or something," he says. I nod.

    "Is that what you want to do?" He asks. I stare at my plate and then up to him and shake my head.

    "What is it?"

    Lifting my other hand onto the table, I start to play with the edges of my napkin.

    "I want to talk about my dream, I know I need to and...I'm sure Gibbs asked you to try and get me to talk about it," I say softly. I lift my eyes up to his and he's looking at me with gentle eyes.

    He nods slowly, "If that's what you want to do, then I'm all ears.""

    I nod. He nods and squeezes my hand grabbing it gently and we make our way to the living room and the couch.

    After I finish talking I stare at my hands and wait for Tony to say something, anything.

    "Erin," he urges lightly and lifts my chin. I stare up at him and he's looking at me with soft eyes.

    "We're going to find them. They aren't going to hurt you," he says. I offer a half hearted smile.

    "You can't promise that, if they want me dead they'll kill me."

    "Well, there has to be someone still in that doesn't want you dead, Claxton helped you before. Who else was there?"

    "Nile Watson, he's the one that took the shot. Joe would have taken it but because of the wind speed and direction Joe said Nile preferred to do it," I say.

    "Nile Watson, that's good. He had the chance to kill you and he didn't, anyone else?" Tony asks.

    "Michael Daniels, I promised them both that I wouldn't drag them into this mess," I say.

    "If we don't need to speak to them we won't reach out," Tony replies.

    "Were there any Ghosts that did try and kill you?" He asks and I nod slowly.

    "His call sign was Milo, I don't know his real name."

    "When was the last time you saw him?"

    "Before last night at the ice cream shop? Three years ago, when I put four bullets in his chest," I say and Tony perks up.

    "I saw him shortly after I made a trip to Afghanistan, he tried gutting me with his Ka-Bar, I put four to his chest and as far as I knew he was dead. I recognized him because before I shot him, I cut the back of this neck and shoulder with his own Ka-Bar. The man last night had one that looked just like his. The woman I don't know, her eyes looked familiar but I don't know. She didn't speak English when she spoke to him so I couldn't make out what she said. Either way, I'm not wrong if it means there are Ghosts that are after me. If I am a contract, it must be a lot for two of them," I say.

    "Erin, you don't know that," he says and I shake my head.

    "No, it's true. Contracts are what we lived by, nothing else. There wasn't remorse, no matter who they were. I knew people were out there looking to kill me and I had a feeling it might be one of the Thirteen, but I wasn't sure. You know I didn't think Joe would do that to me, not after all I'd done for him. What he'd done for me, but I guess I was wrong. I figured out it had to be him when I was in Moscow, he was the only one I made check in's with. He said it at the docks, I needed out. Nile, we met when I was in Afghanistan. We worked together, he had my back when shit hit the fan and I had his, but we both knew money talked otherwise we wouldn't be doing what we were doing. Same with Michael, thankfully they're both out. Michael does private work but nothing like what we did, not anymore as far as I know. Nile is married and lives in Anacostia with his kids. But there wasn't much that could keep us from taking a job at least for some of the Ghosts. I'm telling you money talked."