He cracked an eye and instantly knew he was alone in bed. Squinting over at the clock he groaned when he saw that it was four-thirty in the morning. Where was Laura?
He got up and stretched then padded out of the bedroom. He found her in the office hunched over her laptop. "Hey. You're up early." He stood behind her and put his hands on her shoulders.
"Yeah. Something was bugging me from yesterday. I needed to do some research."
"It's four-thirty, Laur."
"Sorry I woke you."
He leaned down to look over her shoulder to see what she was looking up and when it registered in his half-asleep brain, he frowned. Pre-nuptial Agreements.
"You're not serious Laura."
She spun the desk chair around to face him. "Tony, you have trust funds and god knows whatever other inheritance we don't know about. Isn't a pre-nup the smart, responsible thing to do?"
"You've really been hanging out with Gibbs too much if you're planning our divorce before we even get married." He said grumpily.
"Tony."
"Oh come on, Laura."
"You don't think this is important?"
"I didn't say that."
"Why haven't we talked about this?"
Tony just shrugged.
"I would have thought you…" she caught herself and stopped. She suspected that this conversation was about to turn into an argument and that wasn't what she wanted.
"Thought what? That I would know all about pre-nup's because of who my family is? Or because half my buddies have been married and divorced three times?" Tony was annoyed now, and he really couldn't put all the blame on Laura. Marcus had lit the fuse yesterday.
"No. Yes. I don't know. I just don't know why we haven't thought about this."
"I did think about it." He said flatly.
"What?"
"I did think about it, weeks ago actually. Even broke down and called my dad for advice."
"Why didn't you say anything?" her voice creeping up an octave.
"Because it's not an issue."
"So you get to decide what's an issue and what's not?"
Tony rubbed his face roughly, "That's not what I meant."
Laura took a deep breath and tried to not get angry. They had never had a serious argument before, and this was shaping up to be one.
"So what did you mean, Tony?"
"Laura, it's four-thirty in the morning. Can we talk about this later?"
"Why? What's the point? You've already decided it's not an issue." She said angrily and left the room.
Tony sat down wearily in the chair that she just vacated and tried to figure out how to sort this all out. She was right; he should have talked to her about it. And he could see how she thought it was high-handed of him to make that decision without her, but that wasn't his thinking and he just needed to show her that.
He found her a short while later in the kitchen, mug of coffee in hand, just staring out into the dawn breaking over the backyard. He stood beside her and handed her a piece of paper.
She eyed him warily and looked down to read the single typed sentence,
In the event of a divorce, I, Anthony DiNozzo, Junior, want my wife, Laura DiNozzo, to have everything.
He had signed it with a flourish. She looked over at him and went to say something, but before she could he placed a gentle finger on her lips, "Laura, I meant that the pre-nup wasn't an issue because if I don't have you, I don't have anything anyway. I'm sorry. I should have talked to you about it."
Why was it so hard to stay mad at him when he was sincere? Laura tried to glare at him and be mad, but it wasn't working. "I just wish you had talked to me about it, Tony. I'm sorry for how I reacted."
He took the paper and the mug out of her hands, putting them on the table, and pulled her into a hug. "I promise I won't do something like that again. We're supposed to be a team, you and me. And I won't forget it again. Deal?"
She looked up at him and grinned, "Deal."
"Now since it only a little after five can we go back to bed?"
"You go ahead, I've already had coffee. I'm awake now and won't be able to go back to sleep."
He leaned down and nuzzled her neck working his way up to say huskily in her ear, "Who said anything about sleep? I'm going for makeup sex."
----------
Friday night arrived and the rehearsal for the wedding went off well. There was a lot of humor and teasing and friendship. After taking a poll of all those involved with the rehearsal weeks ago, they held the dinner itself at a favorite pizza place, opting for fun and simple rather than fancy and extravagant.
On the way home Tony took a detour and drove them to their favorite beach spot. It was a beautiful night and a gentle breeze blew across the lapping waves. Tony replied to Laura's questioning eyebrow, "I just figured we're not going to have five minutes alone tomorrow and I just want you all to myself for a while." He put his arm around her shoulder as they walked, her arm circling his waist.
"Are you nervous?"
"About marrying you? No. About the circus tomorrow? Yeah." He replied with a chuckle.
"Me too. We could still go to Vegas."
They shared a warm laugh and kept walking. "So are you finally going to tell me what your dress looks like?"
"Nope. But I will tell you it's not white. Think ivory."
"That's not much of a clue, Laur."
"It's the only clue you're getting. So are you finally going to tell me what our wedding song is?"
"Nope. But I will tell you that it's from a movie, and came out in our lifetime."
"That's helpful."
"I do my best."
They spent a little time walking and talking quietly, nothing serious, it was more of an emotional check-in with each other. It had been an emotional and stressful week for both of them.
"You realize that this time tomorrow you'll be Mrs. DiNozzo?"
"We'll be an old married couple."
"Yep. And once this whole wedding thing is done we can start working on something else that‘s important."
Laura looked at him suspiciously, "Such as?"
Tony rubbed his hands together gleefully, "Making little DiNozzos of course."
----------
Chapter End Notes:
Title: He Knew
Author: CJ aka WritinginCT
Fandom: NCIS
Pairing: DiNozzo/OFC
Rating: PG-13 -Teen
Warnings: Angst
Disclaimer: I don't own the recognizable characters I'm just inspired by them. Hopefully they've had fun playing in my sandbox.
Comments: What if Tony fell in love with just an average person? My AU, season twoish.
Feedback: Love it? Hate it? Want to offer me a book deal to write original fiction? Email me at writinginct@yahoo.com
Author: CJ aka WritinginCT
Fandom: NCIS
Pairing: DiNozzo/OFC
Rating: PG-13 -Teen
Warnings: Angst
Disclaimer: I don't own the recognizable characters I'm just inspired by them. Hopefully they've had fun playing in my sandbox.
Comments: What if Tony fell in love with just an average person? My AU, season twoish.
Feedback: Love it? Hate it? Want to offer me a book deal to write original fiction? Email me at writinginct@yahoo.com