Chapter Text
10 Days Before
Driving home from the office, Tony DiNozzo wasn’t sure he had ever been happier. Work had calmed down in the month and a half he had been home from Chicago. He had been helping his team with their ongoing operations in the LA area, and even got to be part of a raid with Vinny at his side. It had been a while since he put on tactical gear, but everything went well, and truthfully, it was a lot of fun. His next undercover operation had been selected, and he was beginning his study of all the files too.
Even better than work was Charlie. They were both very busy, but neither were resentful about it. They saw each other nearly every day, grabbing lunch or dinner, or stopping by each other’s offices to spend a few minutes together if they were particularly busy that day. Alan had apologized again to Charlie, stating he was thinking about moving out, and generally trying to do whatever he could to be helpful. She had moved back into her house after Val’s wedding which was disappointing for Tony, but he had expected it. He couldn’t hold it against her. He wanted to live there too. In fact, he was working on a plan to make that happen.
Tony had continued his appointments with Dr. William Bradford, slowly extending the time between each visit. He had taken care of all the mandatory requirements the FBI had, but he figured he might as well get some of his commitment issues cleared up while he was already at it. He had been through counseling once after Wendy left him, which had no doubt helped him immensely, but now he had a real drive to fix it. He wanted Charlie to be his. Forever. The anniversaries of the day they met and their first date were coming up soon. He wanted to make it memorable.
—
7 Days Before
He couldn’t help noticing jewelry everywhere he went. That woman was wearing a white gold ring with a princess cut diamond. Charlie wears yellow gold. It looks better with her skin tone. That was a yellow gold necklace with a ruby in the pendant. Charlie might like a colored stone instead of a normal white diamond, but not a ruby. That woman had an engagement ring surrounded by a band on top and on bottom. It was big and gaudy and Charlie would never want something like that. She would want something smaller, something that wouldn’t bother her while she worked.
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5 Days Before
Tony stepped into the conference room and shut the door behind himself. As nosy as he coworkers could be - which was pretty nosy since they were all investigators - they usually respected this kind of privacy. He glanced out the glass wall at his team anyway and caught Vinny watching him. He made a shooing motion with his hand, and Vinny grinned, saluted, and went back to work.
Tony pulled out his phone, turning away from the glass so if his team decided to watch him they wouldn’t see the stupid grin he knew he had on his face. He found the number he wanted and dialed, pacing over to look out the window as it rang.
“Hello?”
“Amita! Hey, I have a surprise for Charlie I need help with.” He knew Charlie was in class right now, so Amita wouldn’t have to worry about trying to hide the conversation.
“Of course you do,” she laughed.
She didn’t ask what he was going to be doing, but she agreed to take Charlie out for a girls night that Friday, giving him the time he needed.
—
4 Days Before
They walked hand in hand through the park, and chatted about their day. Charlie laughed as she told Tony how her math for non-math majors class was finishing up. They were always her most reluctant students at the beginning of the semester, and were usually her most enthusiastic students by the end. She had turned the classroom into a game show for them that day to see how well they understood the probabilities she was trying to teach. Everyone had a great time trying to win the top prize of a free coffee at Charlie’s favorite coffee shop down the street from CalSci.
Tony smiled and laughed and did his very best to give her all his attention. With her hand in his though, his thoughts kept straying to guess at her ring size.
—
2 Days Before
Tony checked the clock. He had about ten more minutes before he was meeting Don for a beer at Matt’s bar. He had time to make a final list of jewelry stores to visit. He was going to leave work a little early on Friday, so hopefully he would have time to find what he was looking for at one of the places on the list. He put a small star next to the one he was going to visit first. It was just down the street from his house actually. He had met the owners on a jog once, and they were kind people.
—
1 Day Before
Heading upstairs, Tony glanced back to make sure Charlie and her family weren’t following him. He did have to use the bathroom, but this was also an excuse to snoop through Charlie’s stuff. He quickly, quietly, and methodically looked through all the jewelry he knew of in her room before actually heading for the bathroom. He looked through the drawers there too. Everything he found confirmed what he had already thought. Charlie likes yellow gold when she chooses to wear jewelry, and the most popular colored stone she owned was blue or teal sapphire.
He was ready. He knew exactly what he was going to get for her.