Protecting Gibbs

Chapter 66

The next few months passed by. Tony had recovered and returned to work. When Tony arrived back at NCIS, he was told to go to Abby's lab. He hopped on the elevator and headed to his welcome back from Abby.

As soon as he walked in the door, Abby ran to him and wrapped her arms around him. "Yay! I'm so glad you're back, Tony!" She exclaimed.

Tony chuckled and hugged Abby back. "I missed you, too, Abby." Tony replied.

Abby let go and grinned at Tony. "Yeah, but I bet you liked being home."

Tony smiled. "Yeah, it was kinda nice. Especially when I first got out of the hospital. She wouldn't let me do a thing. She even cut my steak for me."

Abby laughed. "She loves taking care of other people. Did you know she used to actually get mad at Gibbs because he didn't get sick and she couldn't take care of him?"

"No." Tony replied.

"He used to have to pretend to be sick and let her take care of him to make her happy."

Tony laughed as he pictured Charity as a little girl, her face becoming angry with her father because he wasn't sick. Then he imagined her running around, getting a toy doctors' kit and listening to Gibbs' heart and taking his temperature.

Before anything else could be said, Tony's cell rang. It was Gibbs giving him orders to gear up. They had another case to work on. Abby gave him one more hug before he left. "Glad you're back, Tony."

"Thanks, Abs." He said and then headed to work on the case.

Later that night, Tony was making a phone call to Charity.

"Hi honey, when are you coming home? I made your favorite for dinner." She answered.

"Your dad and I are going to be late." Tony answered. "I'm not sure how late."

"Hot case." She replied, a statement, not a question.

"Yeah." Tony answered, anyway. "Give AJ a kiss for me."

"If I can catch him." Charity replied with a giggle. "He's been crawling all over the place."

Tony laughed. While he had been home recovering, he got to see his son crawl for the first time. "Just wait, soon he'll be running. He is a DiNozzo after all."

Charity let out a mock gasp. "Oh no. I'm not ready for that."

"I have to go." Tony said. "I'll be home as soon as I can. I love you, Mrs. DiNozzo."

"I love you, too, Mr. DiNozzo."

Then they hung up their phones. Tony got back to work. Charity turned to the playpin she had set up in the kitchen. AJ was chewing on his feet. Charity walked over to the playpin. "Daddy and Grandpa aren't going to be home for a little while. So, it's just us."

AJ popped his toes from his mouth and looked up at his mom. He grinned and cooed at her. He laughed and then went back to playing with his feet.

Charity smiled down at her baby boy. He had a little peach fuzz starting to grow on the top of his head. It was the color of Tony's hair. She noticed that as he was growing more, he was looking more like Tony, except his eyes were just like hers.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Charity jumped, startled. She stood up and headed to the front door. "Whose there?" She asked.

"Just some old guy." Answered a familiar voice.

Charity's face lit up and she opened the door. She threw her arms around her grandfather as he entered. "Papaw!"

Jackson Gibbs smiled and wrapped Charity up in a hug. "How's my cookie?" He asked.