Roots

Summary – Nathaniel Anthony DiNozzo does not know who his parents are. Follow him as the search for the truth takes him from Italy to Israel and finally to America. Takes place 18 years post-Aliyah. TIVA.

Disclaimer – NCIS characters are CBS's not mine.

Chapter One – The Beginning

A tree is nothing without its roots, if you remove its roots you have removed its entire being.

It was the first thing that Sr Rosa taught him about gardening, you have to take care of the roots - having solid roots will make a tree stronger. He always thought that she wasn't just talking about the tree; she had a habit of using gardening to explain to him the way life works. They often ended up talking about families and love more than trees and weeds and he knew that she did it on purpose, to make him think, ask himself questions. Because after all, if a tree is not strong without its roots then he was damned from the beginning.

You see, he knew nothing about his roots. Being found at the door of the nuns' orphanage only a couple of days old did not really constitute having roots. Still Sr Rosa would tell him that every tree has roots, sometimes we just don't know where they lie and have to dig them up. That was what he was doing right now; he was digging up his roots.

It was harder than he thought. His first clue was his name, the only thing written on the note he was abandoned with. Il suo nome e` Nathaniel Anthony DiNozzo. Being in Italy he thought it would not be difficult to track down an Italian name but that did not end up anywhere. He did not find any DiNozzo family in Italy to whom he could have belonged.

The other clue was the necklace with a Star of David that was around his neck. The nuns took it as a sign that his parents were Jewish and took him to the Jewish community once a week where he learnt Hebrew. He did not find any other clues as to who he was in this community or any other Jewish community of the country. He accomplished all of this by the age of 10, with the help of the sisters and some older boys from the orphanage of course.

All in all he couldn't say he had had a bad childhood, everyone in the orphanage worked together to create a good atmosphere for all the kids to grow in. Of course there were normal teenagers' fights but nothing serious. He was grateful to the nuns for the upbringing they gave him. To never take anything for granted, to make the most of what you get and to take life in your hands and do what you can with the talents God gave him.

He had learnt how to cook from Martina, the old widow who practically lived at the orphanage. She was quite the character, she loved all the children and thought that the best way to show it was to cook the best food in the world, and she did just that. Fra Guido was the old deaf friar of the Franciscan convent close by who taught the boys how to make wooden Christmas cribs and Nathaniel had quite gotten the hand of carpentry. He got his movie trivia skills from Carlo who used to be one of them and when turning 18 stayed with the nuns to work with them instead of leaving like the rest. He had stated that they were getting old and needed help. He used to organise movie Wednesdays – Mercoledi al cinema – and had loads of posters in his room. Nathaniel was charmed by movies from the very first one he saw and was now an avid film-maniac.

Amidst all this, at the age of 10 that his other clue was delivered to him. It was an anonymous letter, the first letter he received in his life. It read: 'I am sorry for the pain I have caused you and your mother. The clues to your past are in Israel, Mossad.' He thought that maybe his father wrote it, maybe he was the one who abandoned him, maybe his mother didn't know. But why would the note be in English? With a surname like DiNozzo he thought his family would be Italian. Too many questions, so little answers. If the note was from his father he would forgive him someday because he had just given him the greatest clue of all - a place where to look.

He did not know anything about Mossad but he immersed himself in a search and asked Padre Marco to tell him history stories. Padre Marco of course was only too glad to oblige, he was after all known for inserting little history facts in his sermons and while he ate and while he watched TV and whilst playing football. So with his help he slowly learnt all that could be known about Israel, its government and Mossad. Of course Padre Marco left out a lot of things when regarding Mossad, he realised this now that it was to protect him, to keep him innocent for as long as possible.

That was where he was right now – Mossad. He left the orphanage at the age of 14 and joined Mossad the same year, sure he was still very young but a little lie about his age and great results at aptitude tests meant that the Mossad had gotten themselves a good and willing officer.

He was always quite bright, too smart for his own good according to Sr Maria. 'Sure knows how to use his tongue, smart mouth, talk-back, arrogant' were all words she'd use to describe him. But she never punished him for it, instead she just threw at him another language saying, 'if you're going to talk a lot might as well do it in different language.'

She was right, it was a good skill to have and it was now that he realised just how useful it could be. When he was asked to fill an application stating the skills he had, he was sure his superiors would be impressed with his answers. He stated he could speak seven languages fluently, that he could cook, had carpentry skills, do gardening, knew cinema inside out – yes very good for undercover work. And that was exactly what he wanted to do.

Why you ask? He wanted to be given an assignment in America, and again you ask why? He thought that he would find his father there. You see he joined Mossad following the clue that was sent to him, he endured the gruelling physical and emotional training to get to where he was now. He was regarded as the best young officer of the whole organisation and knew that he could join whichever unit he wanted. During his training he asked around and searched in old case files for an officer DiNozzo – his father's surname being the only thing he had to go on. It took him a long time and quite creative methods to find out about a case in which an Agent DiNozzo from NCIS was involved in.

Some more investigation showed that this Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo still worked with NCIS, so Nathaniel thought that being sent to America on some mission would be getting a step closer to the truth. Unfortunately he still knew nothing about his Mother, however he thought that if there was a common mission between Mossad and NCIS it could explain how his parents met. His father an NCIS agent, his mother Mossad – that would explain his surname and the Mossad link written in the letter he had received. It was a plausible explanation.

He still had no added information about his mother and did not know where to look. The case file concerning Agent DiNozzo held no information as to who he worked with during the case. It just mentioned a dead Mossad agent and an investigation into it headed by the then Director Eli David.

As said before he was known around Mossad, envied by some of his peers and respected by others, but it was still a surprise when his superior trainer told him that he was wanted in the Director's office. What could he have done to be asked there?

End of Chapter One. If you have any feedback feel free to review, I'd appreciate it a lot.

Thanks for reading.