The next day brought what would be the first in a long line of milestones for the small DiNozzo family. Tony's two sons finally got their names. When he first got back to the hospital after going home for a few hours of sleep Tony was still no closer to figuring out what to call the boys than he had been when they were first born. Then, though some documents from Kat's attorney were delivered to the NICU by special messenger.

Tony read through the documents with a growing sense of shock and disbelief. He'd known for months that this was coming but he was shocked that it was happening so soon. The twins were barely three days old and Kat was already starting the process to effectively disown them.

Tony was quite angry at her, really. For his whole life family had been in extremely short supply for Tony and what little he did have were, for the most part, totally unsavoury. Now, though after almost 35 years he had a proper family and he couldn't imagine any circumstances that would cause him to walk away from the boys. Admittedly she'd hardly seen the babies but Tony couldn't fathom how Kat was just turning her back on them.

Reading through the documents reality set in for Tony. He'd known for months that this was going to happen but that morning it all became real. He was completely on his own in the world. There was nobody to protect and nurture these two little lives but him. He felt a few tendrils of his fear from the day the twins were first born begin to creep back in but he ruthlessly quelled it. Tony knew that the babies didn't have anybody but him. He had to be there for them and he couldn't afford to let any of his irrational insecurities get in the way.

Kat's attorney seemed to have been extremely thorough so all that was left for Tony to do was sign the papers and get them to his own attorney who would officially file them in court. Then he would officially be a single dad. The problem was that Tony's attorney would need to include a copy of the birth certificates when he filed the paperwork in court. For the birth certificates to be processed the babies needed names.

It seemed like a huge task to Tony. Whatever decision he made his sons would be saddled with the names for the rest of their lives. What if he made the wrong decision and caused them to be mocked mercilessly when they started school? Kids, after all, were cruel these days. Tony frowned. He was thrilled that his kids were boys; after all, what father didn't want a son? In some ways though he knew this may have been easier of the twins were girls.

"Oh god, what do I do, kiddos?" he mumbled, touching his children's tiny hands through the portals of their incubators, taking great care not to dislodge any of the numerous leads and wires they were both still attached to.

Once again Tony felt jealous of the three couples who were hovering over the other three infants in the NICU. Judging by the amount of machinery around each incubator his twins may actually be doing better than all those babies but at least the couples had each other. They could tackle each of the challenges of parenthood together. Tony, though had to face all those responsibilities on his own.

Finally, however he reached a decision and borrowed a pen from one of the nurses to fill all the paperwork. The smaller, slightly less developed twin would be called Thomas Jethro DiNozzo and his bigger brother would be called Theodore Donald DiNozzo.

Grandfather Paddington, basically the only relative Tony had ever liked, had been called Theodore 'Ted' Thomas Paddington and Tony had long since decided that his sons' middle names would be after Gibbs and Ducky. As pissed off as he still was with Gibbs Tony wasn't going to change his mind. Before the team had started falling apart Gibbs had been a very important figure in Tony's life and while the new father wasn't ready to deal with Abby, McGee or Ziva he did feel that Gibbs had made up a lot of ground by coming to the hospital yesterday and apologizing.

Coming to reclaim her pen the nurse squeezed Tony's shoulder and smiled when she saw that the little DiNozzo boys had finally been named. As a single father who had stepped up to the plate Tony, and by extension his sons, were great favourites with the NICU staff and the small family were really being looked after. "Great choices, honey," she praised Tony. "I'll get their name bands printed out."

"Thank you," Tony said gratefully, giving the paperwork to another nurse who would get it messengered over to his attorney's office.

Tony stroked Tommy and Theo's tiny cheeks or, at least, the small amount of skin he could touch around the C-PAP machines. He didn't know what he had considered them before but now that they had names it set in for Tony that his sons were real, live actual living, breathing human beings.

It occurred to him that he wasn't alone in the world anymore and, for once, he really felt as though everything was going to be okay.

Over at NCIS, though things were anything but okay. Tim and Ziva would never admit it out loud but they actually sort of missed Tony.

Arriving at work that morning the first thing they had been hit with was an announcement from the director that Tony would be out for at least the next six months doing another job. The fact that Tony's 'job' was caring for his family rather than something professional was something that both Vance and Gibbs had neglected to mention. Vance felt as though it wasn't his place to reveal his agents' personal business and Gibbs was sticking to his decision not to let McGee, Ziva or Abby near Tony or his sons unless they admitted that they'd done something wrong.

Abby had been hysterical when she heard Tony was going to be gone for so long, thinking that something was wrong, and the other two had been gleefully curious, thinking that Tony was being disciplined. Gibbs had evaded their questions, though and gotten them all to back off, leaving them all with the impression that the reason for Tony's absence was classified, all without having to lie to them.

Gibbs was fairly certain that they would all respect the chain of command but just in case they tried to track him down the next time he saw Tony he would suggest that the senior agent change his cell phone number.

The glee on the faces of the two junior agents when they heard Tony was gone for six months wasn't lost on Gibbs. He smirked inwardly feeling that, after all the shit they had given the senior agent, this was the perfect time for them to realise just how much more work Tony did than them. DiNozzo may goof off a lot but he was actually the hardest working one of them all. His personal mantra of 'work smarter not harder' wasn't just a joke.

Vance had promised that within a couple of days they would have a temporary agent but for now it was just the three of them. Gibbs divided Tony's normal team work between the three of them and dropped the senior field agent paperwork on McGee's desk.

Very soon, though Gibbs began to wonder if his plan was backfiring on him. With the number of questions McGee had already asked it was blatantly obvious that on the numerous occasions he had acted as senior field agent for Tony McGee had only done part of the paperwork with Tony picking up the slack himself. Tony would have had a bigger workload but it would have been easier than taking the time to explain everything to McGee. The younger agent was already getting overwhelmed and Gibbs couldn't imagine what McGee was going to be like when they had a case to investigate.

As the day wore on Gibbs became increasingly frustrated with both Ziva and McGee. Without Tony there to reduce the tension everyone else was having to cope with the brunt of his temper. He'd head slapped McGee a record 11 times. He'd forced Ziva to go diving through a dumpster they currently had in the evidence locker. He was withholding CAF-POWs from Abby and he had sent a mail clerk off in tears.

Gibbs would never begrudge Tony the time he had off to spend with his sons. The three week break he'd had after Kelly was born to this day remained the sweetest time of his life. Gibbs sure wished Tony would hurry up and come back, though.

It was going to be a really long six months without him.

There's another chapter done. Please tell me what you think. I would also be interested to know whether you would like this to remain solely a family story, focusing on the relationships between Tony and his sons and the three DiNozzos with the team or whether you would like a bit of romance as well, perhaps giving Tommy and Theo a mum and Tony someone he can depend on.