Tony and Zoe woke slowly the next morning. It was unusual quiet.
When Tony went to look after the kids they weren't in their beds but there was movement in the kitchen.
"What are you doing here?"
Gibbs, Abby and McGee were doing the dishes Zoe had left the night before.
"Cleaning up."
Gibbs snapped a bit angry.
"Hope you did the same!?"
Abby asked with concern. Tony nodded.
"What was it about?"
She asked.
"Never mind."
Tony said and grabbed two coffee and went to the bedroom.
"Hey."
Zoe said when he entered. Not in her usual cheery way but not angry or anything either.
"Here!"
He handed one of the cups to her.
"Thanks. What about the kids?"
"Gibbs, Abby and McGee are there cleaning up. They took care of them."
Zoe buried her face into her free hand.
"Do they know what it was about?"
Tony shook his head sipping on his coffee.
‚Gibbs coffee' he thought and grimaced.
"It surely had looked great."
Zoe said ironically.
"Don't worry about that, hon. Every couple fights sometimes."
He watched her intensely.
"You're through with it, right?"
Zoe nodded.
"You trust me, then?"
She looked up at him.
"I'm sorry, Tony. I shouldn't have believed her in the first place. You know, I remember now why she was odd in high school. She was always obsessed with some boy. She always took the best looking and most popular. Once she was that crazy, that she thought he actually loves her but they "kept it secret"! I guess this time it happened to be you."
He nodded slowly.
"You can forgive me that I freaked out?"
"There is nothing I have to forgive you! You had all reason to freak out. Don't know how I would react. At least you listened to me and didn't throw me out at once."
He smiled to encourage her but she still looked guilty up at him.
"It's ok, babe. Really. As long as you're fine, I'm fine, too."
He kissed her and recieved a pretty happy smile.
"I'll go and help the others."
"Say thanks for me."
Zoe called after him before getting a shower.
She answered the ringing phone before anybody got out of the kitchen.
"DiNozzo?"
She already answered the phone with DiNozzo since she didn't want to use Jetson anymore.
"I think I got the wrong number. Isn't there Zoe Jetson?"
"Yeah, I'm Zoe. Who's there?"
"Ah, Zoe, sweety, here is Susan Jones."
Zoe remained silent. Who the hell is Susan Jones.
"We went to high school together, remember?"
"Ahh Susan, how are you?"
Zoe had still no idea who that was but for now the woman had started to talk.
"Who is it?"
Tony asked.
"Susan Jones I went to high school with her."
She answered with a shrug.
"So, honey, me and some of the old girls asked ouselves what you do upcoming weekend?!"
"Nothing. I'm free."
Suddenly Tony started to wave his hands and mouth "NO!"
She looked confused at him when the cheery voice of Susan came to her ear.
"Great, so you will come to the reunion?"
"Reunion?"
Tony fell onto the couch. Abby, Gibbs and McGee stood in the door and watched the scene. Unable to tell what the hell was going on in there.
"The high school reunion, honey! It's saturday, rooms are already booked so you don't have to drive late."
She told Zoe the adress and the time.
"Ok! Be there or you'll regrett it."
Susan joked.
"Yeah, sure, see you there."
She hung up still a bit in shock.
"What could I have done more than this to stop you?"
Tony asked doing again the waving and mouthing thing.
"How the hell should I know what you mean?"
"It's easy Zoe. If family members or old friends you don't remember call and ask if you're free on a particular date never make clear statements before you know why they're asking."
"I agree with Tony."
Abby said and McGee and even Gibbs nodded.
"Now we are in it. It can't be that bad."
Everybody stared at her.
"You never had a high school reunion, had you?"
Tony asked and Zoe shook afraid her head.
The next day Tony had forced her into a shopping trip with Abby and her new credit card.
They were walking through the mall for more than four hours now. Luckily the team had two days off and Abby had all time they would need.
"What about this?"
She asked Zoe.
"Yeah, maybe if my breasts wouldn't have grew after the birth."
"C'mon, you weren't a a-cup before, either."
"Yeah, but it's D now! D!"
"They'll get smaller again."
"I hope so."
"I guess Tony doesn't mind. You two doesn't seem as if you could let the hands off eachother."
Abby grinned.
Zoe returned the smile but Abby got serious.
"You wanna talk about what happened the other night?"
"Nah, it's fine. We cleared everything. It was a misunderstanding."
"A misunderstanding which makes you lock yourself in the bathroom and yell at him in Italian."
Zoe sighed.
"One of my friends said she had slept with him."
"Recently or longer ago?"
"Both."
"You believed her?"
"At first. But I trust Tony. He said there never was something. He said he doesn't even know her. And I believe him."
End of conversation was ringing through the last words and Abby respected that.
"Oh, my! Abby!"
Zoe stopped at a doll. It was a extremely beautiful dress.
"This is perfect!"
She tried it on.
It really was perfect. It was sage colored and ended just above the knee. It was back free, deep enough to be sexy but it didn't exposed her tattoo. The neckline lay in soft curves and let her breasts didn't seem that big. The color matched perfectly to her hair and emphasized her blue eyes.
"This is gorgeous!"
Abby said smiling brightly.
"Yeah, but something else isn't!"
Zoe answered and showed her the price-tag.
"Why do you care? You can effort it!"
"No, it's Tony's..."
"Tony told me to tell you that you don't have any limit!"
"I know he say that, but..."
"No but! He told me that if you don't buy the dress you like most, he will ask me and buy it for you!"
Zoe handed the credit card unwillingly to the cashier.
"Hey baby."
Tony kissed his fiancée. She looked annoyed at him.
He looked over to Abby.
"She found the perfect dress, it was expensive and you forced her to buy it?"
"Yep. I'll go now! I'll be here with McGee at ten tomorror. See ya!"
She left the apartment.
"You show me?"
She still looked annoyed. But she grabbed the bag and went to the bathroom.
‚Wow, she really is pissed! She doesn't dress in front of me.'
She returned and his mouth fell open.
He had a really good taste for clothings and it would have been this dress if he were ask for the perfect one for her.
He couldn't help it. He had to wrap his arms around this woman. She was the absolute beauty and she was his girl.
"You'll be the most beautiful woman in that hotel!"
He kissed her passionately.
"Everybody there will be jealous on you or me. You have two adorable children, you look great, you have a great job, once the kids are big enough. And your fiancé isn't all bad, too."
She smiled and pulled him into another kiss.
His charme was overwhelming and he hadn't showed it to her that much for quite a while.
Tony got out of the shower to answer the door.
Abby got into the apartment followed by McGee.
"I know we are a bit early, but I was all awake and couldn't wait to see your little ones!"
The words just fell out of her mouth in excitement.
"Baby, do you plan to come back to the shower soo..."
Zoe stopped in the middle of the sentence.
She had just left the shower and only a towel around her.
Abby and McGee changed a look.
"We'll get dressed now."
Tony said and pushed Zoe into the bedroom.
After two hours they sat in Tony's Mustang. Zoe was driving. Her driving style reminded him slightly on Gibbs but not as neckbreaking.
"What is it? You're so quiet?!"
Tony looked at her piercingly. She hated when he did that.
"They will all tell me how great their career is going and show me their manager husbands."
"So? You had..."
She gave him a look.
"*Have* a great career, too. And my job isn't bad either."
"Yeah, fed agent."
"So?"
"For an agency nobody knows!"
"That's not true! Many people know NCIS."
"Yeah, people from the Navy and Marine."
"Well, em, ok you got a point."
They entered the hotel. Sure it wasn't the Four Sessons but it was pretty good.
Susan welcomed Zoe as if they were best friends.
"Zoe, darling! You look so good! Where is that man of yours who I heard so much of?"
"You heard of Tony?"
"Oh, yeah!"
"From who?"
"Isabel. She arrived only a few minutes before you."
Tony reached the women. He felt like a packing mule carrying all suitcases.
Normally Zoe wouldn't need more than a bag (all those undercover work seemed to effect her packing style) but since she wanted to impress everybody she needed a good dress for the reunion, the breakfast and the drive home.
Then she needed two pairs of shoes and a lot of make up.
And he had a big suitcase himself.
"Susan, that's my fiancé Tony, Tony this is a former class mate Susan."
"Thanks for not saying old!"
Susan let them alone in the elevator.
"I still have no idea who that is!"
Zoe shrugged.
"Hey, Baby?"
She said.
"Mhm?"
She got close to him.
"What are you up to?"
He grinned knowing.
"Isabel is here."
He looked down to her.
"That kinda ruin the atmosphere!"
He said stepping a bit away to see her face.
"You're ok with it?"
She thought about what to answer.
"At the moment. Ask me again when I see her. Wouldn't be so sure that I won't kill her."
"Well, that I don't mind but wait until after the party, too many wittnesses."
Zoe grinned and pulled him close. Their noses touched when the doors opened with a ping.
"Zoe."
She looked right into Isabel's face.
"You're still with that?"
Zoe swallowed hard grabbed Tony's hand and walked past Isabel.
"Zoe, wait!"
She heard Isabel. She stopped and turned. She let go off Tony's hand before he could do something and stept up to Isabel.
The other woman was a good deal taller but Zoe had no problem with size. She was small but earned respect from everybody at the job and everywhere else.
She stepped forward and Isabel backed away until she was against the wall.
"Listen to me very closely."
Zoe looked up at her former friend.
"I don't know what you made up in your mind, but if you ever say something like that with Tony again you will never be able to imagine anything again! So, stay away from me, Tony, my kids and my house! I don't wanna see you anywhere near us! You got that?"
Isabel nodded shyly.
Zoe gave her a last warning look before getting back to Tony.
"You know, the next time I'll stop you before you nearly rip her head off!"
Tony said turning to see Isabel again.
He really have never seen her before.
They entered their room. It was quite nice and Zoe started to unpack.
"You don't unpack for one night, do you?"
"I need to get my dress out! What suit did you bring by the way?"
Normally she would have ask before he pack but since this was Tony and he had known what she would wear she was pretty sure he had something matching.
"Dark grey pin stripe of D&C. Light green shirt of Armani and the dark green tie of Senya. Fine with that?"
"Si, Amenità!"
They started to kiss again.
"We really aren't good at quickies!"
Zoe smirked when they got into the elevator.
She had to hurry with her make up and hair styling after the quicky turned out to be full sex.
"Well, does that mean we need to practise?"
He asked innocently but couldn't surpress a grin.
When they entered the room they immidiatly got glares from every side.
They looked incredible but together it was even better.
When Zoe looked around the room her belly filled with comfort. She surely was the best looking woman in the room. Many of her class mates, she recognized only a few, had grew old a lot faster than she had. She also noticed that Tony was the most attractive man in here. She looked up at him smiling brightly before they got to their table.
"Thank God for name plates! I wouldn't recognize more than ten people in here!"
She whispered.
Tony smiled at her when one of her class mates came to her.
"Zoe! You look great!"
Zoe looked at the plate discreetly.
"Lucy, you look great, too!"
‚You're a good liar'she thought.
"That's my fiancé Tony DiNozzo."
"Oh, I once met a Daniel DiNozzo."
"Yeah he's my cousin."
"World is small, eh?"
After a little small talk she excused herself.
Zoe looked at him.
"You don't have a cousin named Daniel!"
"So? It wouldn't have took longer to convince her that I haven't anything to do with him."
Pretty soon other women and men came up to them so they had no time to sit down. Tony's hand rested the whole time on the small of her back just as if it doesn't belong somewhere else and gave Zoe the feel of confort and support until he had to go to the bathroom.
It took maybe ten seconds when he was gone before about six women started to Zoe.
"God, Zoe this man is incredible."
"Thanks."
"You're engaged?"
"Yeah, we also have twins."
She showed the pictures of her kids. Soon Zoe was filled with a malicious pleasure. She was not only the most beautiful woman in this room. She also had the best life and she knew that all women were tattering behind her back because she was so damned lucky.
When Tony got back he picked up a drink for Zoe and one for himself. He scanned the room for her and saw her talking to a tall, pretty handsome man. She was chating and smiling at him. Jealousy rose in Tony and he couldn't do anything about it.
"Here."
He said and handed Zoe the drink with a kiss on the cheek.
"Hi, I'm Tony. Zoe's fiancé."
He held out his hand.
"Brad!"
The man answered and took the hand.
Tony didn't put his hand into its usual spot but wraped his arms around her waist.
Pretty soon Brad got away.
"Was that necessary?"
Zoe asked and turned to him.
"What?"
"You were marking me like a dog its territory."
"I didn't!"
She raised her eyebrows.
"Ok, maybe I did. But your mine. I can't change it."
He kissed her gentle.
After a good dinner and stupid small talk on the table Tony had found a frat brother. Zoe silently asked herself how he always managed to find one. So Tony and a few men were talking about college football and other sports and Zoe stood with their wives, fiancées and girlfriends.
Sure the reunion hadn't turned out that bad she had thought of but she suddenly knew why she never calls one of those women. She wouldn't do it even if they had been best friends in high school.
It had shown that nearly nobody, except a few who work for the marine or the navy or their wives, knew the NCIS. But since Tony was used to that it didn't effected him much. Zoe on the other hand was soon really annoyed by the question if NCIS is like CSI.
Since Zoe was there the women started to talk about other men than Tony.
"Oh, yeah, that man is yummy! He turned out to be 20."
One of the women said about the boyfriend of a class mate who was somewhere else.
"20? I thought you get into prison for that!"
Another joked.
"As Madonna said. Take a 20 year old, he doesn't know what he's doing but he does it all night."
Zoe was pretty annoyed by the talk but since she was a good actress even Tony, who managed to follow the conversation thought she thinks this guy is hot.
"That are men all women want!"
The first said.
"God, those women are crazy."
Zoe laughed as they entered their room again.
She immidiatly started to kiss Tony's neck but he pushed her softly away.
"It's late, I think we better sleep."
"C'mon, Honey! I'm not sleepy!"
"Yeah, but your drunk, you would fall asleep before we start."
"Is there someone in a bad mood?"
She had start to pick him in his stomach.
"Quit it!"
She sat down on the bed. Her good mood nearly gone.
"Why are you like that? Did I something wrong?"
"No."
"Did I drink too much?"
"No, you had fun, it's alright."
"Did I embarrass you?"
"Zoe, could you please quit it?"
"Tell me what's wrong."
"Nothing. I'm tired, that's all."
"That's not all!"
"We had sex three times today, do you really need it?"
Zoe looked shocked at him.
"Need it? I want it. No, wanted it. But now I just want to know why you are so bitchy."
"I'm not bitchy."
"Tony, you are like me when I have my period."
Tony sighed.
"Did you recognize that I was the oldest man in that room. Except that sixty year old millionaire Miranda had married."
Actually Zoe hadn't noticed that. She had noticed that he was the sexiest, the most intelligent, and most charming man.
Tony lay down flat on the bed. He already was down to his boxers.
He knew he was a bit older than Zoe. In fact he was 9 years older than Zoe, since she was 28 and he was 37. But he never had felt it that much.
Zoe silently undressed and put on one of his T-shirts she had brought to sleep (actually she hadn't thought she would wear it).
She sat on the bed again.
"I haven't noticed that."
After he hadn't said anything further she thought he was maybe still waiting for an answer.
He turned his head to look at her.
"Am I really the man you wish?"
Zoe looked confused.
"Course you are."
"I mean, if there would be anything on me you could change. What would it be?"
Zoe shrugged.
"Nothing."
"Nothing?"
Tony asked unbelievingly.
"What about my hair? I could let them grew and get one of those perfect stylings. With wax and everything."
"I like your hair. They aren't too long so they don't annoy you but the are long enough for me to stroke through. And besides the fact that I don't like those wax stylings they wouldn't be that soft and I couldn't strike them. But I love to strike your hair."
She did it while she was talking.
"What is it, Hon? Why are you trying to change yourself?"
"Cause I can't change my age."
Suddenly Zoe knew what he was talking about. She rested her head on his chest.
"I don't want a 20 year old, Tony. You know, you really are the oldest man I ever dated but you also are the only one I stayed with for more than two weeks. You know why?"
He slowly shook his head. That was it, he was old.
"You're a man, Tony. No matter how childish you are sometimes in fact you are a man, not a boy. You know, I had enough of those boys to know that a man is better."
Tony couldn't really tell why it was better for her to have a man than a boy. Especially since when it comes to relationships he was probably worst than most of those boys.
"You know, those guys are wierd. Either they don't have any hair on the chest or they shave it."
"You like my hair?"
"I didn't actually at first."
He sighed.
"You know they were tickling. But then I liked that tickle. And besides it's a lot better when we sleep to rest a hand on those hair than on a bare chest. I don't like your hair, Tony, I love them."
He smiled softly. Ok, maybe it was not all bad to be man, not a boy.
"What about what Madonna said? You laughed at that, too."
He asked slowly.
Zoe grinned.
"I prefer my way. Madonna doesn't know it, that's why she said that about 20 years olds."
"What is your way?"
He asked curiously.
"Take a Tony DiNozzo. He knows exactly what he's doing and he's doing it all night."
"Mhm, you think I should proof that one?"
Author's Chapter Notes:
Self confidence is the key
Chapter End Notes:
Please read "my place in life" before. When I finished it I felt this gap and just had to fill it...Thanks to Eve and Mel!